the down side of thanksgiving dinner in a restauratnt is that you don't have leftovers

Last week I spent a bit of time listening to Adam Sandler’s “Thanksgiving Song”. It has become somewhat traditional for me to listen to it at least once a day the week preceding Thanksgiving. In fact, I have long maintained that Thanksgiving is my favorite national holiday. (there was actually a pretty tough competition with Memorial Day for a while) Anyway, I went to Red, Hot, and Blues for dinner. The restaurant had been recommended by the assistant director of the program so I was pretty confident it would be good. I had reservations with Dan, who is arguably my best friend in Prague. So Dan and I show up and are shown to a circular table in the corner of the restaurant with a candle on it. We proceeded to order a bottle of wine, opting not to have beer because we wanted to have more room for seconds. Around that point it became clear to us that we seemed to be on a date. The food was good though. We had turkey, cranberry dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, two kinds of stuffing, carrots, corn, green beans and pie. And they did let us have seconds.

I had a pretty good weekend in Prague. Finals are getting closer so I spent a good portion of my weekend writing one of the three papers I have due before the end of the semester.
I was able to spend my afternoons on it, which allowed me to sleep in and go out at night.
On Friday night, I saw “The Incredibles” which was actually a great movie. The voice actors were excellent, especially Holly Hunter and Jason Lee, and the animation had a cool retro feel. After that we ended up Duplex, a club that’s best feature is that it is upstairs and provides a cool view of Wenceslas Square. Saturday night I went ice-skating at an old rink that may not be standing much longer. It has been a while since I have been skating but it turns out I haven’t lost my marginal skating abilities. Sunday night I went back to Jama for buffalo wings, a cheeseburger, and football. The good news was that the Giants-Eagles game was on. The bad news was that the Giants played pretty poorly and I had to watch the Eagles defeat them.

This is a short one, but there just isn’t as much to report. My time in Prague is really winding down now. Luckily I have almost reached a point where I am ready to come home.

In a Land where Wine is Better than Beer

Its finally fall break. Not that my semester in Prague has been overly stressful, clearly I have had the time for numerous trips and adventures. But nonetheless, everyone in the program sorely anticipated break. For me, the vast majority of my anticipation was due to the fact that I would be visiting Julia in Florence. But first – Rome.
Dave, Erin, Marco and I awoke at a ridiculous hour to get to the airport in Prague and catch our flight to Rome. (I don’t believe I have mentioned Erin yet. We went to Meadowbrook day camp together when we were in middle school and recognized each other as we were flying to Prague. Weird, huh?) Unbeknownst to us Rome Ciampino Airport is nowhere near anything. We found our way to our hostel after a bus ride and quite possibly the longest and most uncomfortable subway trip of my life. Luckily our trip got a lot better. We explored the Pantheon and the Coliseum on our first day. Both are beyond incredible. In the Pantheon I found a weird contradiction I have yet to find an answer for. The Renaissance was a rebirth of Greek and Roman culture thus I presumed that respect and reverence for Roman art would be a given. Yet there seemed to be no problem with melting and destroying Roman sculpture in order to create new artwork inspired by some of the very same Roman sculpture. Do you see what I am saying here? Regardless, it’s fascinating how the Pantheon was entirely rededicated so that Christians could utilize what had once been Roman. The next day, Saturday, we took a tour of the Vatican. As a group of two Jews, an Eastern Orthodox, and one Catholic (none of us art history majors) we thought it would be best. Daniel our tour guide turned out to be excellent. He is an American who decided he needed a change and founded a company in Rome that gives tours and leads Pub-crawls at night. Obviously, we took the pub-crawl that night. There really are no words that could describe the Sistine Chapel.
Another Rome highlight was the Italski Cinske (as they say in Czech) Seriously the Italians have a much better grasp on Chinese food than the Czechs do. On Sunday, I had lunch with the gang but then I was ready to head to Florence.

I have become increasingly skilled at navigating foreign train stations full of signs I can’t read. So it was with relative ease and much excitement that I left Rome heading to Florence and to Julia. I must say Eurostar trains are pretty nice compared to the Central and Eastern European one, I have become accustomed to. Anyway, Jules met me at the station and as we walked I discovered why suitcases on wheels are not popular in cites full of cobblestone. On our way back we stopped off to see Jenn Jordan. She is an Orientation chum and the other half of the incredible hosting team at this year’s talent show. Jenn is also the only other person that I knew was in Florence. Unsurprisingly I discovered I knew other kids there from dorms and class and such.
It had been decided weeks ago that I would stay in Florence in Julia’s apartment and then we would go to Paris on Thursday night. I should mention that Julia’s roommate, Di, and suitemates Larissa and Kaelyn (unsure of the spelling, sorry) were very nice to me and we all got along very well. We all traveled to Paris together as well, but that’s something I can discuss later. The apartment is awesome, by the way, it has three levels basically, a cool drawbridge connecting a walkway to a little alcove under a window, and a balcony.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Jules went to class and I explored Florence. I had been two years ago but there was certainly more to see. I went to see the sculptures in the Bargello which include Donatello’s David and some Michelangelo. I went to the Palazzo Vecchio which has served as both a town hall and palace for the Medici and I crossed the famous Ponte Vecchio quite a few times. I also went to quite a few churches and rectories. The rectories are most exciting because their walls are covered in frescoes of Biblical stories. I especially like Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Actually the Santa Maria Novella is close to where I stayed with Scholars two years ago, and I was able to find the hotel I stayed in then. It looks pretty much the same.
Having climbed to the top of the Duomo on my previous trip, I decided to climb the Campanile, the bell tower, this time. Not only did I get an excellent view but I somehow made it to the top exactly at noon and I could hear and see all the different bells throughout the city. The only bad news was that the beautiful Boboli Gardens were closed all week due to wind damage from a storm the previous weekend.
Now of course a few Florentine food highlights. On Monday I decided to make dinner because I knew that Jules wouldn’t be home until after 7. Florentine supermarkets have not discovered the beauty of boneless, skinless chicken so I attempted to just cut the chicken myself. Basically I ended up with a lot less lemon pepper chicken than I would have liked, but the mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach turned out well. Tuesday night we went to Zaza. I discovered it on my last visit and actually went there twice then and Jules had been recommended to take me there. It was better than I remember and we both had incredible steaks. I also tried a traditional Tuscan tomato and bread soup. It wouldn’t be Italy without pasta, which is what I had on Wednesday with Julia, her roomies, and Jenn.
On Thursday I decided I wanted to head to La Pietra, the NYU campus in Florence. It is an incredible site and clearly the reason that Florence is the flagship study abroad site. Also the cafeteria is not half bad either. They had some incredible fried vegetables (reminded me of the Harvest Festival – don’t worry if you don’t get the reference) although someone thought it would be a good idea to fry an artichoke heart. It is not a good idea. However the hot chocolate was outstanding, very creamy and rich. That night we took a long train (about 13 hours) to Paris. The Eurail pass is definitely a good idea. My train ticket from Florence to Paris cost about the same as my flight from Paris back to Prague.

It is hard for me to fairly evaluate Paris. If I had gone without my girlfriend it would have been a vastly different experience. As it happened, we both had a fantastic time in Paris. On Friday morning we checked into a hostel with all the roomies and we all walked around together just seeing the city that morning. We all had lunch together and saw Notre Dame. A little later in the afternoon Jules and I separated from the group to head to the Louvre. We discovered was free after 6 to those under 26 so we decided to push back our visit. We just continued walking around the city and we did a little shopping. (By which I mean she tried things on and neither of us bought anything) That evening, we had a great time at the Louvre. It is incredibly huge but we really saw a lot, including the Mona Lisa, a lot of Italian Renaissance art including more DaVinci, the Venus, and sculptures from antiquity, France, and Italy, as well as French painting. Fun Coincidence: we ran into Joe and Jess, from the Prague program, both on the street in Paris and in the Louvre. Actually we saw both Erin and Marco and then Dave and Nika randomly walking around in Florence, too. After nearly four hours in the Louvre, we met up with Amy Pivak. Amy is one of oldest friends at NYU having met one of our first nights in Weinstein, where we lived across the hall. It was awesome to see her and her excellent French and knowledge of the city (she is studying there) guaranteed us a very nice late dinner.
On Saturday morning we checked out of our hostel and went to the Picasso Museum. Both of us had forgotten that he lived for quite some time in Paris and it actually does make perfect sense for it to be there. It is one of those great museums with only direction to walk in which guarantees that you see everything. A little after lunch (the French serve hot dogs on baguettes with cheese on top and spicy mustard) we checked into our room at Hotel L’Ocean. I highly recommend it. I found it on hotels.com and we got a terrific room. It had a beautiful lobby and a very helpful front desk. Plus the room had BBC World, CNN, and MSNBC which at night showed some Conan O’Brien. A real highlight was our trip to the Eiffel Tower that evening. It was raining and bitterly cold. We got off a train and were walking without seeing it (you know how when you get really close to something very tall and you can no longer see it) well suddenly between buildings we see the Eiffel Tower with blinking lights to announce that we have arrived on the hour. Of course we went to the top. Considering that the tower was built in 1889 it really is incredible. It’s pretty cool being on something that high which isn’t actually solid. We had planned to walk the Champs Elysse that night, but it was way too cold. We ended up doing that in the early afternoon on Sunday. Suffice it to say that whoever gave Paris its reputation as a very romantic city is pretty smart.

SmartWings offers good prices and comfortable flights, but they only take off on time when they are leaving Prague. They were two hours late and I sat in Charles De Gaulle until 11:30. Luckily they had a small selection of English books. I have almost finished Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. And now break is over and my “normal” life resumes.

It was weird to see my family in Prague

It’s been a while since I’ve written we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. We will begin by jumping back to Thursday Oct. 28, which was a Czech National Holiday. As part of a gang of 7 people I flew to Amsterdam that morning. We decided to take a train to Utrecht. I had only known Utrecht from history class (the Peace of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession) It’s actually a really cool city with classic Dutch architecture, windmill and all. Of the two hostels in Utrecht we found the one that had instruments for us to play, tons of computers with free internet, and free food (apples, pears, bread, even cheese in the fridge) The cleanliness of the hostel however was not its strongpoint. On Friday we ventured to Rotterdam. Rotterdam is quite a switch, it’s incredibly modern and I actually felt like I was back in New York amidst all the skyscrapers. We also found an incredible restaurant called Bazaar. If ever you find yourself there I recommend the Bazaar Bazaar with fish, it was salmon, shrimp, calamari, and sardines over rice, more than enough for two. We found our way back to Amsterdam Saturday morning. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want any evidence should I go into politics or something, but I hit all the big stops – the Anne Frank House, the Heineken Experience, the Van Gogh museum, etc. The Heineken Experience is quite a tour which includes a ride that allows you to experience what a Heineken bottle does. It was a bit like “Body Wars” at Epcot but probably not for all ages. Suffice it to say the Netherlands are cool and everyone had a great time.

When I got back, my family had already arrived in Prague. Mom, Dad, sister, both Grandmas. My flight had been delayed and I had to keep them waiting for a bit. We had a good dinner that first night close to their hotel. I was delighted to learn that my sister, Sarah had decided to keep a journal of her trip (a paper blog, if you will) On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went about my normal day of class and internship and met up with the family for dinner. I took them to a Czech Mex place and a traditional Czech place that’s a local favorite of most of us who live in Machova. On Thursday I was able to meet up with the gang in the afternoon and Sarah and I got a chance to hang out. That night I brought my suitemates out to dinner with my family and everyone had a good time. I think my father enjoyed meeting some of his frat brothers. (my father as well as Dave and Barry are in A E Pi) Later I brought my sister back home to go out with us. She still has some time before she will be ready to party at an NYU in Prague in level. Anyway, on Friday we all went out to Prague Castle. The highlight of which was definitely the Toy Museum. They have an incredible collection of toys from the 19th and 20th Century including a collection of Barbies. The oddly translated plaques throughout the collection were worth the trip alone. Friday night was their last night in town and we went to Ambiente. It’s a little pricey and I usually stick to pastas, but since it was being picked up by Mom and Dad I went for the steak. I had an excellent time with my family and it was really cool that they were able to come to Prague. I know they had a great time too.

On the heels of my family’s trip my friend Alex Rivera came to Prague and I was able to go out with him last night. It was really good to see him and we had a great time all over Prague. So I’ve been a bit busy. I didn’t even mention that last week I had a midterms in Cultural History of the Central European City and in Czech. Plus there was the election, which I stayed up for hours to watch. I’m as disappointed as any young liberal, but I won’t be leaving the country (once I get back, I mean). The only way to hope for any change in the future will be if all those who feel disenfranchised by our current administration and congress work hard to make it happen.

Anyway, things are getting back to normal now that Monday has rolled around. Only excitement today was that I went to get a haircut. I had hoped for a simple trim to clean up the sides and the back; I hate it when hair gets in my ears. But as sometimes happens I got a bit more chopped off than I would have hoped. It was partly due my smattering of Czech and her limited English, but mostly I just never react when I’m sitting in that chair. Even when I don’t really like what’s happening I always just kind of sit there, and I’m not really sure why. Now I’m just counting down the days until fall break so I can go to Italy and finally see my girlfriend.