Czech-ing Out Prague and Other-Type Catch-Up Things

I've been pretty busy lately, and so I haven't had a lot of time to keep this up for a week or two. I apologize to my faithful readers, this was a long time coming, so now we have it. As I said in my previous post, I was going to Prague on one of my last trips. Well, we went, and Prague was Prague. We really didn't do all that much. Prague was only about an hour and 20 minutes away flying there with the wind with us, and then an hour and 40 minutes on the way back with the wind against us. We got there, and the exchange rate feels like you're getting rich, even though we really aren't. In their currency, 20 koruna are equal to about $1. So when you have 1000 koruna in your wallet you feel pretty loaded, but then you realize that it's really only $50, and you're brought back to reality. Prague is a very pretty city, where almost all of the buildings have some sort of decoration. The sights we saw were a museum of Communism in Prague, the castle, a church dedicated to baby Jesus, and the National Museum. The museum of Communism was interesting, but it was mostly reading plaques on the wall, and looking at a few items from the time periods. The castle was a bit misleading, because the actual castle was destroyed in the early 1900's, and so more modern structures have been built in it's place. Those buildings form a circle, and then on the inside there are some older buildings, one of them being an old cathedral which was very beautiful. The church dedicated to baby Jesus was interesting, and pretty funny. Ricky Bobby jokes were flying the entire time, describing what we liked to think of baby Jesus as. It turned out that baby Jesus was a doll that had quite an extensive wardrobe. Mary really knew how to dress our Lord and Savior. The National Museum was a fairly quick run-through. We got there an hour before it was going to close, because we didn't know the times. They didn't have all that much of interest though, so it was alright that we didn't have much time there. They had some neat anthropology stuff, but that was about it. We were going to see some sites in the Jewish-quarter of the city, but we didn't think about it and went on a Saturday. We got there, and to our surprise nothing was open. When we stopped to think about it, the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday. Duh. I suppose we were a bit religiously-ignorant. Lots of shopping went on, which I didn't take much part in. It was a good trip, not great, but I can say that I've been to an Eastern European country. A few new things have happened here around Harlaxton. First of all, I got my second British Studies Exam back, and it was a B, which is what I got on the first exam. I'll take it, although I felt like I had done better on this one. Friday was our Costume Ball/Date Auction. It was really fun, and I think everyone had a good time. I went as Walker Texas Ranger, I'm pretty proud of such a brilliant idea. I ended up being auctioned off (it was a silent auction, so no yelling and getting embarrassed) for 40 pounds, or about $80, to my roommate Chris, his girlfriend Kirsten, my neighbor Drew, and his girlfriend Katie. They all pooled their money, so now I have to take them out sometime. Luckily the rules are that I only have to pay for one of them, so I thought that I would just spread it out with something little for each of them. On Saturday a group of us went into town to see Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie. It was really good, and I would recommend seeing it. It's somewhat of a reboot of the series, showing Bond's first real mission. It wasn't just a good action movie, but a good all-around movie. Monday night was our Lord and Lady of the Manor competition. It ended up being really fun, even though I was in front of lots of people. First we had to sing a song with 5 mandatory words in it. I did mine to the tune of Afternoon Delight from Anchorman fame. I was nervous because I don't usually sing in front of people, but people laughed, so it was ok. We then had to dress up like a British character, and then be interviewed. I came out in my black suit with a white-shirt on under it, and a bow-tie. They asked me who I was, and in my best Sean Connerery accent I said "The name's Bond. James Bond." The audience erupted in cheers and applause, so that was fun. One of my questions ended up being an impromptu discussion of how would win in a fight between Chuck Norris and James Bond. I had to think fast, and after a drawn-out story I declared Chuck Norris to be the winner. We then had a short intermission, and then a dance number. The guys and girls were split, and the girls went first, then the guys. We had been taught this dance number in about 10 minutes, an hour before the event. Therefore it was a little sketchy. The girls did pretty well. Us guys got out there, did about one move, and then completely forgot the whole thing. So we just free-styled it, it was basically amazing. After that, two guys and two girls were eliminated. I was in the final 3 guys. We then had to do a mystery event, which was different for everyone. I got to play Pictionary, and tried to explain the concept of a nursing home to some members of the audience through the use of drawing. I thought I did a pretty good job, considering I did my best to draw a diagram of a bed-pan being used as one of the pictures. Someone said retirement home, but my time ran out before I could get them to actually say nursing home. That was the last event, and then we found out who had won. Sadly I did not, but my friend Josh won for the guys, so I was ok with that. Overall it was really fun, a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There are pictures of it all, so maybe you all will see them sometime. I've fallen horribly behind on my photo album, and I apologize for that. I've got all of the pictures on my computer, and so I could just upload them, but I want to have time to give them captions if they are needed. So eventually I will have my album up-to-date, but whether that happens before I come home, I don't know. Time is dwindling down here, and I'm just now realizing that I'm not going to see the people from other schools on a regular basis anymore. It's sad. But I will be glad to be home. It's hard to be away from my family and friends at home for so long. It'll be bittersweet. This weekend me and two friends, Shannon and Bethany, are going to Barcelona Spain. I'm pretty excited about it, because Spain is one of the places I really wanted to see while I was here. Well, there's your update, thanks for reading.

London: The Sequel

I've got a bit of catching up to do. There are a few noteworthy things that have happened in these past 2 weeks. We took our 2nd British Studies exam. After taking it I felt pretty good about it, even better than the last one, and I got B on the last one, so hopefully Exam 2 will be better. I've been getting A-'s and B+'s on the in-class quizzes, and I got an estimated B/B- on my rough draft for the first paper that's due , so I think I'm doing pretty well overall. I found out about the second thing that I was voted in for other than the Date Auction, called Lord and Lady of the Manor. Basically the best way I can describe it is a "creativity contest". We have a few categories: a make up a song that has to incorporate a certain few words related to out stay here, we have to partake in a group dance, there will be an interview, and we will get judged on wearing formal-wear, I think. Oh, and we have to dress up like a British historical character for the interview, but we don't have to answer as the character. It should be interesting. Last Friday we went to London as a British Studies field trip. In the morning we saw Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Then In the afternoon we saw St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's is the biggest Protestant cathedral in the world, built to rival St. Peter's in Rome which was built just a few decades before it (St. Peter's was built a few decades before St. Paul's, not Rome; Rome was built long before either of them, to clear up any confusion). It was pretty amazing to see. There were murals and frescoes decorating all areas of the church. We climbed up to the top of the dome using roughly 78 thousand flights of stairs (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration), and we got an amazing view of the city. After we were done at St. Paul's late in the afternoon we were free to go. Some people went back with the school but my friends and I stayed in London for the night and most of the next day. There were 6 of us, me, Ange, Dani, Brandon, Bethany, and Lisa. Lisa and Ange went to see Mary Poppins at a theater, and the rest of us went around town. We thought about seeing a movie, but prices were very expensive and most of the shows were sold out anyway. So we went back to our hostel and went to bed. Ange and Lisa came back sometime in the night. The next morning we split up. Bethany was just staying with us for the night, and then she went off and did her own thing; Dani went to visit her mom's college roommate who lives in London now; Ange went to see Buckingham palace and then go back to school; Brandon and Lisa went to Westminster and then the Imperial War museum; and last but not least our hero went on a trek by himself. First I went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was recommended to me by some Londoners whom I met while I was in Salisbury. I didn't really understand the layout, because it was under construction and everything was everywhere, so I didn't stay long, just about 10 minutes. I then went to see Westminster Abbey, though only the outside because you have to pay to see the inside. I also saw Big Ben and Parliament. I then grabbed some lunch and went to see the British Museum for the second time. At the museum I looked at some of the rooms that we hadn't looked at when we were there before. These included rooms about: the Enlightenment in England and it's Classical-era influence, this is where much of the interest in translating Classical works came from; Roman Britain; Central and South American history (Aztecs, Maya, etc.). I also looked around at some of the stuff we had already seen. I found out that downstairs there were rooms dedicated to Greek and Roman inscriptions, which I don't remember for sure but I don't think we saw that the first time. Unfortunately it was closed. I was so heart-broken that I almost cried. Or maybe not. I then met up with Brandon, Dani and Lisa in a comic book store across from the museum that Brandon and I had found on the first trip. We looked around for a bit and then went to the train station. We got back to the manner early in the evening, and I think we watched movies for the rest of the night. It was fun to go back to London, to see new things, but also to revisit former sites of interest (ie. British Museum where I could probably spend the rest of my life and still not study everything as much as I would like). Tomorrow we are going to Prague in the Czech Republic. The first (and only) eastern-European excursion. A full report on that trip later.