Hello Mother, Hello Father, This sure as Hell ain't Camp Granada

June  29th

Today was Day 1 of our first two day weekend history trip. Today's first stop was the Vojna Memorial, which was a former Soviet run labor camp, where people were imprisoned for both political and criminal reasons and made to mine uranium. This trip to Vojna was extremely uncomfortable for me. Being a person who basically lives by the motto "ignorance is bliss", this trip forced me to face the situation head on, and all I wanted to do was get out of there as fast as I could.

Seeing all the barracks/buildings and hearing the stories of what went on there, I tired my best to put up a front, a hard shell, pretend I wasn't fazed by any of it, and resort to my "ignorance is bliss" ways. I always get this way when the topic turns to the former Soviet Communist Regime since having 100% Russian roots makes the idea of Communism always hit extremely close to home. And forever I end up feeling torn between "siding" with the Communists or the "other side". It is impossible for me to claim that Lenin/Stalin/the Communist Regime in general was bad. Yet at the same time, I can't claim that they were angelic do-gooders either. Therefore, I attempt to push the issue under and avoid it at all costs. 

The Communist Regime was my family's reality. My grandparents lived through WWII and Stalin in the USSR. My parents grew up in the height of the Communist Regime. My brother was born in the USSR and my parents moved to the US for work, not due to political oppression. It is in my blood, in my veins, part of my history. But at the same time it is something that I feel is discussed in hushed tones in my family. My parents recall the hardships of the Communist era that they remember. Yet at the same time, my father's hometown boasts massive statues of both Lenin and Stalin and my maternal grandfather still votes for the Communist party in every election. Once again, I end up torn between what to think, what to believe, and once again, I choose to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist.

While at Vojna, I mentioned to someone that I personally could not judge something unless I experienced it first-hand; I could not judge it off other people's words. As I began to reflect upon why I said that, I realized that with this topic, I choose not to judge it because by saying that  the Soviet Communist Regime is bad, I feel that I am inherently saying that my roots, my foundation, my nationality, and me myself is/are bad. And that is something that terrifies me. No one wants to think that they are a bad person, so I avoid the topic, pretend it doesn't exist, and move on. 

Another part of Vojna that made me uncomfortable was how familiar the smells were. The outside smelled like my grandparents' dacha garden, and the wooden barracks/school buildings smelled exactly like the inside of their dacha house. In Vojna, I was remembering all the pleasant memories I had at their dacha, how I would examine the wood panels on the walls, taking in the texture and small, while approximately 60 years ago, people probably couldn't stand those wood panels that remind me of home. And at that moment, I once again felt like a bad person having a labor camp remind me of family and happy memories. 

"Cave Rave"

June 27th

Today, our history class took a trip to Kutná Hora. On the way there, we stopped at the Sedlec Ossuary, which is a church decorated inside with human skeleton remains. Starting in the 14th Century, there was an ongoing competition to attract Jesus to one's cemetery, since people believed that he would come and resurrect people, and everyone wanted to be resurrected first (maybe this is just me, but I think that one life is more than plenty of living time). Due to the combination of "Jesus appeal", being a highly populated town, and a number of epidemics, the cemetery in Sedlec became highly "populated". However, the church later needed to sell land to earn money, so they decided to sell the land of the cemetery. They dug up all the bones, dumped them in the church basement, and went on with their days. Later, the church became a private chapel, and the family hired an architect/designer/woodcarver/macabre enthusiast to redecorate the chapel, and thus the present day "masterpiece of a twisted church" was created.

Throughout listening to the spiel about all this dense and deathly, my face proceeded to get more and more convoluted, which CHPetr picked up on multiple times. And then it was time to enter the church. And to my surprise, it was not as horrifying as I expected. Was it disturbing? Yes. Was it unnerving? Yes. Did I have a nervous breakdown and run out of there screaming? Possibly. Did I hold my composure long enough to take some photos? As shown by the photos below, yes.

Who wouldn't want a skull chandelier in the middle of their room?  Obviously sane people!

I don't have a family crest, but if I did, it wouldn't be made of human bones

Moving on to the lovely town of Kutná Hora. First, we went to a museum of coin-making and learned how silver coins were made. Not going to lie, interesting process but nothing life changing. Still, the tour was nice and if I ever land myself on Jeopardy and need to know ancient coin making ways, I will be prepared. Afterwards we ate lunch at a quaint little Tex-Mex place. Perhaps a Tex-Mex restaurant an ocean across from both Mexico and Texas should have been our first warning sign. However, all but one of our syndicate made it through our lunch alive. A few days later, hapless Caroline had the following words of advice based on her Tex-Mex experiences: " No one get any Mexican cheese. I had some in Kutná Hora and that was a Kutná Horror story". Once again, we should have payed attention to the warning signs for Caroline's stomach's sake.

And then came the exciting part...going down into the silver mines!!! Yes kiddos, yours truly went underground into complete pitch darkness (those with knowledge of my irrational fears of darkness should be proud) and managed to come out of the experience with only positive memories. And once again, words of wisdom from the hapless nugget of a person, Caroline: "I'd rather be a prostitute than a miner". So there we have it: obviously Caroline would have been just fine in the Czech Republic during 15th-18th Centuries.

(Quote of the Day author- Ajay)

"Look at my Face"

June  25th

Fast forward a few days. Today we took a trip to Petřín Hill with one of our history teachers. One of the first things of interest that we saw was the monument to the victims of Communism which I found to be very interesting. Upon initially seeing it, I assumed it was a reference to how Communism destroys people and takes away one's individuality, therefore depriving one of one's "person-hood", which is one possible meaning of the monument if read front to back. In addition, the steep and demanding stairs that we had to climb to reach the monument were meant to symbolize the struggles of Communism. However, I learned that there could be another interpretation of the monument of read back to front: Communism strengthens and unites people, making one complete human and one complete nation. Therefore, this monument can be read in a number of different ways, depending on what one wishes to see in the structures. 

Monument to Victims of Communism

Upon climbing Petřín Hill, we sat and had an informational "lecture", more like a low-down, on Czech culture. Therefore, here are the highlights of what I learned:

• Beer Culture
• Czech people are very proud of their beer making and consumption
• on average, a Czech person consumes 1 liter of beer a day
• Czech pubs are meant to be like 2nd homes, therefore they are often stylish and induce "sameness" : one often sits at the same table, at the same time each day, and orders the same thing. Apparently this idea of "sameness" is a reoccurring theme in Czech culture/nature
• Religious Life
• 78% of the Czech population does not have any religious ties
• that said, they are not a country of atheists. Identifying oneself as atheist means actually taking time to ponder over the issue. In common, supposed lazy, Czech nature, they never took the time to think about the topic of religion
• Family Life
• 65% of marriages end in divorce because people choose to focus on their own interests and needs, therefore divorce instead of living in a "distant" marriage, and marriage is not considered a religious occurrence-merely a social one 
• 1/3 of kids are born into cohabitating couples, as opposed to married couples
• (I found this surprising because divorce is still seen as very taboo and as a failure in the US, and having a child out of wedlock is still looked down upon, even if the couple is cohabitating. Therefore, I was surprised that the Czech Republic would be more liberal on these concepts.)
• The Czech population is dying out due to the average birth rate being 1.7 children per family, therefore not being able to replace the dying out population
• there are more dogs in the Czech Republic than children, since dogs (and cars) are often used as status symbols to create individuality (This would explain the large amount of dogs that we see everywhere)
• Food
• Czech people are apparently one of the fattest people in Europe
• Czech food is often very bland, fatty, meant only to fill one's stomach, and consists of boiled meat, dumplings, potatoes, and boat loads of sauce
• Random
• Czech people are not fond of tourists, and since Prague is usually a 1-day tourist stop, Czech employees do not feel like they must be nice to tourists since they are not trying to establish regular customers
• 65% of visitors come for the "cheap beer", #3 reason for coming is to see the sights, and #2 is prostitution (still confused whether it is to become a prostitute or to hire one...)

(Quote of the Day author- Caroline)

“Czech baby, Czech baby!!!”

June 20th

Today started off with another crazy rushed morning. My alarm failed to go off therefore I woke up at 8:45 and had a class at 9am. Therefore my morning was beyond rushed. Class was Czech History, where we learned about different types of buildings (Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, etc) that are in Prague for about an hour and then went on a 3 hour walk to a former Castle. The walk was exhausting because it was mostly uphill and it was super hot outside. However, we also got to see the national cemetery where all the important Czech people are buried, including Karel Čapek (shoutout to Annie!), as well as czech out some beautiful views of the city.

Karel Čapek's grave

After lunch, I had Czech language class where I learned a number of interesting things. For example, Honza is a male name and is apparently a version of Jan. Pepa is also a male name and a version of Josef. I find this more amusing that it probably should be, but oh well. My Czech skills aren’t really improving much, but hopefully they will soon. At least I understand some of the stuff when I hear it/see it written out. 

After classes, I went to get my gym membership and then to Tesco to buy food. Then I made myself a sandwich for dinner and we went to a local beer garden to just chill out. I had this beer mixed with grapefruit juice sparkling drink that was surprisingly delicious. After some of us called it a night and went back home, we looked around for trip ideas that we will try to organize and book this weekend. Over all, a long and hectic day, but not a bad day.

(Quote of the day author - Lindsay)

"Soup can be mistaken for salad”

June 19^th

What a day! Didn’t sleep very well last night, but finally fell asleep at like 6:30am, only to have to wake up at 7:30am.  Ended up getting up at 8:10am. After a light breakfast, went over to CHP, where we got an introductory info meeting, got some basic tips, had a tour of the facility, and then went to lunch. At lunch, the menu was a janky Google translation, so "salad can be substituted for soup" turned into "soup can be mistaken for salad". Even though the translated menu was questionable, the moussaka that I had was phenomenal.

My Moussaka

 Afterwards, we just walked around the city and then had a 2 hr Czech language lesson. Stupid me for thinking Czech would be easy as a Russian speaker…It is hard. I get words confused with Russian and then I have everything all jumbled up and none of it making sense. Plus I don’t remember any words/phrases except “Na zdravi” and “Ano” and “Ne”. This is going to be a long 6 weeks of learning the language. After, I went and got a cheap unlocked phone and got some shopping done at Tesco, which is pretty much the heaven of stores. Later, we had a big group dinner, where I had the most delicious potatoes au gratin of my life! My favorite part was definitely the fact that we had an open bar with wine and beer, and it was totally no big deal! Plus we had duck, which is just awesome in general. 

Later, I was going to head to bed but got peer pressured into going out to a pub. Actually, a place called “The Pub”. Long story short, The Keg is an asswipe compared to The Pub. You sit down, and the table has a monitor, a chalice water cleaning spout as well as the tap right at the table. So you get a glass, wash it, and then on the monitor select your number for the night, and pour your own beer as the monitor measures how many liters you consume. At the end of the night, you just tell them your number and pay your bill for how much you drank. So my whole night of beer cost 22 crowns (about $1.20)- super awesome! And they have a main screen that had the Ukraine vs. England football game on, but also shows you how many liters the other tables have drank, so people have drinking competitions that way. On the walk back to J House, we got whistled at, so score. Once again, SO glad I ended up going out. Now I’m about to crash for a 9am class and then a full day of class and exploring an evening at a beer garden. So far, LOVING PRAGUE!

June 18th, 2012

Mood: Sleepy, and very Tired

What a long day! After getting off the plane in Frankfurt, had to sprint through passport control, through security, through the whole airport to make it to my Prague flight. So after practically running a marathon with my carry-on bag and purse, I finally got onto my second plane, huffing and puffing, only to be judged by condescending looks of beer-bellied German men.

Got to Prague, was greeted by Marcus, one of the student advisors, picked up some other people and we were off to Jerome House. The streets are so narrow and the people drive so close to each other that I was positive that we would die on the cab ride to our new home.

After checking in and unpacking a little, we went to grab some food at a neighborhood café we found as well as getting our European cell phones. Then unpacked more and 4 of us decided to just wander and grab dinner. After walking a good amount, and walking across the Charles Bridge, we found a little café/pub. I am sad to say that my first experience with Gulash was slightly underwhelming. But on the plus side, cheap Budweiser may have made up for that. Afterwards, we got home, got ready for bed, and went to sleep.

Now I am up at 4 am in the morning, unable to sleep but unsure of what else to do. So just faffing around, trying to take all of this in one day at a time.

Over all, very good impression of Prague so far. It feels so much more relaxed and chill. However, I feel like all the Czech people, at least the café/pub owners hate us- note to self, learn some Czech phrases asap.

June 17th, 2012

Mood: Excited, yet Anxious

Place: SFO, outside Gate 101

Time: 14:13

                About to board the plane that goes to Frankfurt, then Prague. Feeling super excited for my European adventure. A little nervous, a little anxious, but mostly excited. My plan is to stress less and enjoy life more. After all, this may be my one and only time exploring Europe, so I might as well make the most of it. Reminder to self, take a German language class for kicks and giggles. Hopefully I sit next to someone chill or who sleeps the whole time.