Hello All,
Well my time is winding down here in Prague and I think I am going to miss it. This past week has been sad but good. For those of you that don't know, Jack left Prague on the 3rd to go back home to Maine to spend time with his family. I was happy for him, but at the same time, sad that he was leaving. I was worried that I would have a hard time getting used to him not being here, but after talking to my friend Julia who also did exchange, I felt like I should enjoy this experience in self exploration, even though it was only for a week and a half. So the day after Jack left, it was a new day. I was previously hating my final project for class, so my execution was a bit sloppy and not personal. I was making a guide book for exchange students to Prague. I felt like certain things were a bit hard to figure out, so I decided to address those things in my book. Anyways, so a week before my project was due, I decided to scrap all of my previous ideas, and start again.... If you are a designer, you know that you are committing design suicide by doing this, but! it was totally worth it. I have been super busy at school this past week ( I worked more this week than the entire semester) and really enjoying it. My classmate/other exchange student sat and critiqued my work and he helped me a lot in finding a way to personalize my booklet. Anyways today was my last class. I brought in pancakes and everyone was very excited. I think this week and a half was good for me to get back into the groove of things for next semester at Emily Carr.
I have 3 days left and no time. It is going by so fast now, and I am sad and relieved to see it come to a close. The city was great and learning this language as been quite the challenge. The schooling part was not good in the sense that I dont feel like I learned anything concrete to take back with me so I feel like I will be behind. However I feel like I did learn that I am a hard worker and like to be pushed and enjoy to learn, so maybe school showed me what I am not, and I appreciate that. I feel like this trip also did great things for Jack and my relationship and I cant be more thankful for that. I have met some great people here and even a Vancouverite from ECU, Del, who has been super cool and supportive friend here that i can take back with me to Vancouver. But finally, in this past week and a half it is nice to feel useful and creative again.Overall my experience in Prague has been really good.
Next stop: Home.
Praha Oh Praha!
The city has been very warm recently, so it has made for an excellent excuse (or should I say excuses) to go outside and enjoy the beautiful autumn weather. The newly renovated Czech History Museum just re-opened and was free to the public for its first month. The man standing next to me in one of those photos is our friend Mike. He introduced us to the museum once he heard that it opened. The other photos are from a glorious walk that I had around the Vysehrad Church and then a nice lake on the outskirts of the city, beyond the furthest metro stop. It reminded me of the Lakes in Maine around this time of year with about fifty men perched on its banks fishing, but they did not seem to care whether or not they caught anything. They were simply there to enjoy the peace and quiet outside the busy bumbling and rumbling of the city streets. Something happened to me that has never happened to me before and this is merely a bit of comic relief from this very dry writing style that I have acquired over this trip. Any who, I was up late one night watching some Ted Talks online (For those of you who are not familiar with these, they are speeches about ideas currently being studied and researched that are noteworthy of being broadcasted for free online!). I had finally decided to call it a night. Normal procedure...get water...brush teeth...take out contacts...go to sleep. About five minutes after lying down I got very thirsty. I reach over, grab the water, take a sip, and then proceed to fall asleep with the water still in hand. Well I am sure that it did not take long to figure out that I woke up to a very cold puddle of very cold water rushing towards me."oh no, OH NO.. aahhhh" were the words that came out of my mouth as I leapt out of bed, waking Nico in the process and nearly giving her a heart attack because she thought at first I was hemorrhaging or something. Then, when she looked over and saw wet and clear she thought "oh no, he peed the bed" and we both stripped the sheets right away. She proceeded to look at my boxers and question why they werent wet if I wet the bed. I just laughed, and told her what happened. We cracked up at what had just happened. Smooth Move!!!!
Much Love
-Jack
Much Love
-Jack
Germany
Cousin Jeff arrived in Prague on Thursday morning. It was a beautiful day in Prague. It was a little overcast, but overall a good day to see the city. Jeff is currently an MP for the US Army stationed in Germany as a dog-handler and he needed to be back to work early Monday morning (We are talking 4am early), so we had to make the most with the time we had. We began the day with the daily routine…crepes and coffee. It was almost noon by the time we had finished, so we headed into the Malastrana via the Metro so that we could walk across the famous Charles Bridge and then see the rest of the Old Town. Luckily for us, Jeff had already visited Prague four times before, so our tour was a quick one. After saying our goodbyes to Nico, (who was being a very good student and going back to do some work) Jeff and I took off to find some authentic Czech food. We stumbled across a small hut in Old Town that served tradition Czech sausages fresh from a wooden fire. We headed for a local beer hall to enjoy a fresh glass of Czech pivo (beer). After getting caught up we headed back to the apartment to meet back up with Nico to go to dinner. We went to dinner at a small restaurant and ate a delicious meal. We dropped Nico off at home because she was tired. Jeff and I walked to a club near the Charles Bridge. We realized this club was for a younger crowd and we felt a little out of place, so we got a cab promptly. We told the cabbie who didn’t speak any English “Club appropriate for over 21”. He nodded showing us he understood and proceeded to take us to Vyserhrad (for those of you that don’t live here, that is quite far from the center and not necessarily somewhere you would go to a club for). We went into the “club” he took us to. We both got a sketchy vibe when we sat down and realized there was no one in there other than a few women. A woman came up to us quickly after we looked a little worried and she said “4000 czk for drink, striptease, and sex”… Jeff and I were stunned to say the least…Whawhawha? “NO!” we said and stood up to leave. “Ok… 2800 czk?” We couldn’ believe he was trying to bargain. “NO!” we repeated and left. What was the cabbie thinking bringing us here… we were not looking for this by any means and he knew it. That is why he was still outside when we came out 3 minutes later. We were so frustrated at this point that we told him to take us to the metro station near our house. When we arrived he charged us 150 czk. We only had a 20-euro bill, which is equivalent to 600 czk. He said he would only give us back 150 czk. We declined and he went over to talk to another cabbie. Another person came up behind him in a car and he was on a one-way road. He had to keep going and Jeff and I were not going to run after him since he had taken us to the wrong place in the first place. So we ran home, hoping he wasn’t going to come looking for us. Lets just say this night was very interesting and leave it at that.
The Next day we decided to start on a new adventure away from Prague. We heard that Germany was beautiful and we decided to head towards Munich. The drive through the Prague countryside was beautiful, but when we hit the German Autobahn…it was hard to see out the window because of how fast Jeff was driving. Lets just say we made great time after entering Germany. One of the important stops on this trip was to visit the first Nazi concentration camps of Dachau. I cannot express what it is like to walk through such a place where so many people have died. I had never really experienced anything like it before in my life. It is a very reflective place and the pictures almost certainly do not express its significance. It was also strange that the whole area around Dachau was developed.
That night we ate in Munich and had some traditional German cuisine. We could not find a hotel cheap enough, so we ended up driving the two hours North to Bamberg. One of Jeff’s co-worker’s lives off base and so it was possible to crash at his place. The next day we found out that the next stop on our journey, The Eagle’s Nest (aka Hitler’s Chateau at the base of the Alps) was closed for the season and would not be open until next April. So the next stop on our list was the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney based his Disney Castle design off of. We drove south of Munich and headed straight into the Alps. The pictures are very representative of the beauty. We climbed above the bridge that everyone normally takes their pictures from just to be a little adventurous. After all, we were with Cousin Jeff. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside, which was heavily decorated with gold and jewels. I got to snap a few shots out the windows to see their views. The ones with the mountains and the lake are the pictures I am talking about. After the tour, we went into the little town next to the Castles and ate another very authentic German restaurant. The potato fries in Germany are amazing!
We chilled in Bamberg on Sunday and had a glorious Thanksgiving Dinner and saw the Bamberg Base. We got our train tickets and bus tickets ready for the next day because all the busses were full on Sunday. We said our goodbyes to Jeff at 4:15am on Monday morning and hung out at the house until we had to leave around 2:00pm. We had all our stuff ready to go and we go to open the door. Push down on the handle and no click. Push down and again and no click. Pulling furiously at the door while pushing on the handle and nothing. We were locked in! We miss our bus that we were supposed to have caught and immediately call Jeff. Luckily, another co-worker had taken the day off from work and he was also given a spare set of keys. He offered to drive us to the Bahnhof (train station) so that we would catch our train to Munich and then our bus from Munich to Prague. All in all it was a great trip. We will certainly try to go back to Germany before we leave Europe.
Thanks for Reading! Stay Classy Ya’ll!
-Jack
The Next day we decided to start on a new adventure away from Prague. We heard that Germany was beautiful and we decided to head towards Munich. The drive through the Prague countryside was beautiful, but when we hit the German Autobahn…it was hard to see out the window because of how fast Jeff was driving. Lets just say we made great time after entering Germany. One of the important stops on this trip was to visit the first Nazi concentration camps of Dachau. I cannot express what it is like to walk through such a place where so many people have died. I had never really experienced anything like it before in my life. It is a very reflective place and the pictures almost certainly do not express its significance. It was also strange that the whole area around Dachau was developed.
That night we ate in Munich and had some traditional German cuisine. We could not find a hotel cheap enough, so we ended up driving the two hours North to Bamberg. One of Jeff’s co-worker’s lives off base and so it was possible to crash at his place. The next day we found out that the next stop on our journey, The Eagle’s Nest (aka Hitler’s Chateau at the base of the Alps) was closed for the season and would not be open until next April. So the next stop on our list was the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney based his Disney Castle design off of. We drove south of Munich and headed straight into the Alps. The pictures are very representative of the beauty. We climbed above the bridge that everyone normally takes their pictures from just to be a little adventurous. After all, we were with Cousin Jeff. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside, which was heavily decorated with gold and jewels. I got to snap a few shots out the windows to see their views. The ones with the mountains and the lake are the pictures I am talking about. After the tour, we went into the little town next to the Castles and ate another very authentic German restaurant. The potato fries in Germany are amazing!
We chilled in Bamberg on Sunday and had a glorious Thanksgiving Dinner and saw the Bamberg Base. We got our train tickets and bus tickets ready for the next day because all the busses were full on Sunday. We said our goodbyes to Jeff at 4:15am on Monday morning and hung out at the house until we had to leave around 2:00pm. We had all our stuff ready to go and we go to open the door. Push down on the handle and no click. Push down and again and no click. Pulling furiously at the door while pushing on the handle and nothing. We were locked in! We miss our bus that we were supposed to have caught and immediately call Jeff. Luckily, another co-worker had taken the day off from work and he was also given a spare set of keys. He offered to drive us to the Bahnhof (train station) so that we would catch our train to Munich and then our bus from Munich to Prague. All in all it was a great trip. We will certainly try to go back to Germany before we leave Europe.
Thanks for Reading! Stay Classy Ya’ll!
-Jack
Walk About
I took a very long walk in a new part of Prague that I had not got a chance to check out. It was very nice and I hope you all enjoy the pictures. More to come very soon!
-Jack
-Jack
Budapest!
So we departed on our trip to Budapest and the bus ride was 6 hours. During the trip we watched about four movies from the nineties which really take you back, by the way. We also got free hot chocolate, coffee or tea on the ride. We got to Budapest, and we decided that we are going to check out one of the two hostels that we looked up. It was called Mandala. So we get to the metro station and were looking at all the ticket booths and they only take coins. Jack and I have zero cash on us, so we started to look for a ATM. It probably took us a good 20 minutes to find one in this huge metro station. But when we took out money it only gave us the amount in one bill. So we bought some water and got change back. We ended up getting our tickets finally got on the metro. We quickly found the hostel after getting off at our stop on the pest side of budapest. We buzzed in and they told us to come to the second level. It was a really cute little place with about 17 beds. The owners were 21 years old and were amazingly responsible and great hosts. The hostel was beautifully kept and clean. We slept in a room they called the zen room. We settled in and decided we needed to grab some food because we were starving. We went to the owners and asked where good food was. “you in the mood for a good burger?” we said yes and he pointed us down the road to a pub that had American style burgers. ( The ground beef in Europe IS definitely different than the kind in the states and not in a good way). So we make our way there and order some drinks. We looked at the menu and there was no burgers… just pork knuckle and salads, true Hungarian food. So Jack decided to try the pork knuckle soup and I got the greek salad. To our surprise, the food was great. Then we walked down to the river that separates the buda side and the pest side. It was a beautiful view of the city. We made our way back to the hostel and got to know some of the people staying there. We actually met one girl who lives in Vancouver, goes to SFU, exchanging to Prague and she was visiting Budapest the same weekend! CRAZINESS!!! We also met Amaar, our buddy from England. We hung with them for awhile and then went to bed.
The next morning they served breakfast at the hostel so we had some toast and jam and hit the road. We decided to do everything on foot since the tram and metro were a bit expensive. The forecast said it was going to be heavy rain all day. We walked from the pest side to the buda side where most of the sights were. The fog was super thick and could hardly see the water from the bridge. It was beautiful though. So we went to Gellert hill, which was more like a mountain to me. It was a steep incline walk and long, but beautiful and cool which was a plus. We got to the top but you couldn’t see the view, which was the number one reason to check it out. Anyways, we started to walk down. Jack has been quite the amazing GPS however this time the GPS must have been out of batteries because he decided to take us down a different way. We kept going and looking for street names. We figured they were small streets and that they just weren’t on the map. Finally we got to a main road and looked really hard on the map. Instead of being on the Northeast side of Buda we were on the southwest side… needless to say this was a looonng detour. However on our 2 and a half hour detour we got to see the residential side of buda which was pretty cool.
Sidenote: This was a Friday and it was actually a holiday: 1956 Uprising Memorial Day which commemorate the people up rise against the soviet union. This day in the past couple of years has been kind of dangerous with riots and whatnot by the people versus their current parliamentary government.
So we finally get to the castle, which was our second destination. It was absolutely gorgeous up there. The weather had completely cleared up and it was almost a bluebird day by 2 pm. You could see across of the pest side and we heard these chants in the distance. We saw this huge parade of about 300 people marching towards the parliament…. It was nice that it was so far away. We checked out the fisherman’s bastion which is this sand castle looking thing. We also saw the castle, the history museum and church. We were both getting tired so we headed back to pest. We met up with Amaar for dinner and grabbed some gyros or donnair kebab as amaar liked to call them. I hung with amaar for the rest of the night while Jack went out to grab some drinks with another guy from the hostel. He said it was this crazy underground bar that had like 7 rooms and was fun. We all ended the night at a reasonable hour and went to bed.
On Saturday we had our bus leave at 415 pm so we decided to hit up the Turkish baths before we left ( especially after our 6 hour rendezvous in buda). It cost 3100 forints which is equivalent to 15 dollars. We went in and realized we had no towels and no extra money to rent them , so we went without (with bathing suits of course). There were outdoor baths and indoor. The outdoor baths were huge and so warm and nice. We went to the indoor baths and every bath had a different temperature and feature. There were about 40 baths in total. We even went into a sauna that was 60-80 degrees Celsius. Jack lasted about 13 second and I lasted about 50. It was ridiculous in there. Anyways, it was wonderfully relaxing. We went back to the hostel and hung until we had to catch our bus. About 10 minutes before we left, one of the neighbors in the building brought over a Hungarian soup for the owners. The owner, Nicholas said we should try some. It was amazing. It was a cauliflower soup with a vegetable base. It was so delicious, and it was a great way for us to end our journey. We said by to Amaar and our buddies and went back to Prague. It was a great trip.
The next morning they served breakfast at the hostel so we had some toast and jam and hit the road. We decided to do everything on foot since the tram and metro were a bit expensive. The forecast said it was going to be heavy rain all day. We walked from the pest side to the buda side where most of the sights were. The fog was super thick and could hardly see the water from the bridge. It was beautiful though. So we went to Gellert hill, which was more like a mountain to me. It was a steep incline walk and long, but beautiful and cool which was a plus. We got to the top but you couldn’t see the view, which was the number one reason to check it out. Anyways, we started to walk down. Jack has been quite the amazing GPS however this time the GPS must have been out of batteries because he decided to take us down a different way. We kept going and looking for street names. We figured they were small streets and that they just weren’t on the map. Finally we got to a main road and looked really hard on the map. Instead of being on the Northeast side of Buda we were on the southwest side… needless to say this was a looonng detour. However on our 2 and a half hour detour we got to see the residential side of buda which was pretty cool.
Sidenote: This was a Friday and it was actually a holiday: 1956 Uprising Memorial Day which commemorate the people up rise against the soviet union. This day in the past couple of years has been kind of dangerous with riots and whatnot by the people versus their current parliamentary government.
So we finally get to the castle, which was our second destination. It was absolutely gorgeous up there. The weather had completely cleared up and it was almost a bluebird day by 2 pm. You could see across of the pest side and we heard these chants in the distance. We saw this huge parade of about 300 people marching towards the parliament…. It was nice that it was so far away. We checked out the fisherman’s bastion which is this sand castle looking thing. We also saw the castle, the history museum and church. We were both getting tired so we headed back to pest. We met up with Amaar for dinner and grabbed some gyros or donnair kebab as amaar liked to call them. I hung with amaar for the rest of the night while Jack went out to grab some drinks with another guy from the hostel. He said it was this crazy underground bar that had like 7 rooms and was fun. We all ended the night at a reasonable hour and went to bed.
On Saturday we had our bus leave at 415 pm so we decided to hit up the Turkish baths before we left ( especially after our 6 hour rendezvous in buda). It cost 3100 forints which is equivalent to 15 dollars. We went in and realized we had no towels and no extra money to rent them , so we went without (with bathing suits of course). There were outdoor baths and indoor. The outdoor baths were huge and so warm and nice. We went to the indoor baths and every bath had a different temperature and feature. There were about 40 baths in total. We even went into a sauna that was 60-80 degrees Celsius. Jack lasted about 13 second and I lasted about 50. It was ridiculous in there. Anyways, it was wonderfully relaxing. We went back to the hostel and hung until we had to catch our bus. About 10 minutes before we left, one of the neighbors in the building brought over a Hungarian soup for the owners. The owner, Nicholas said we should try some. It was amazing. It was a cauliflower soup with a vegetable base. It was so delicious, and it was a great way for us to end our journey. We said by to Amaar and our buddies and went back to Prague. It was a great trip.
The Jazz Dock
October 17th- “Night at the Jazz Dock”
We were searching online for some local Jazz Bars to go and check out because it felt like forever since we saw some live music. We ended up stumbling across this band called Ondrej Pivec & Organic Quartet. They were playing three nights in a row at this place called the Jazz Dock. Nico and I met up with one of her cousin's friends (Who is a judge that disbars lawyers in California) and we all went to watch this group perform. The description of the band was simple... "A powerful jazz Hammond organ player with drums, guitar, and tenor sax." It ended up being a great night because we had reserved a table online the day before, which was a great call because the place was packed. There were only 30 tables in the whole place and people were tucked into the corners to see these guys play. We met this Czech woman who was 'over the top'. It is hard to explain how Eastern Europeans act in general, but if I had to sum them up it would be along the lines of "straightforward and bullish". I thought she was a riot, but Nico and Jodi were a little overwhelmed by her presence. She had great advice for what to do in Prague, but she seemed like she would be a handful to hang out with.
It was relieving to actually find out why people here in the Czech Republic act the way they do. It really comes down to the fact that they accept that every day will probably not be a great day. In fact, they look unhappy most of the time and do not hide how they are feeling when people look like they are having a good time.
Overall, I think we all had an amazing time at the concert. It was great to see this Czech woman crack a smile every once and a while when we started to get to know her a little better. The video below was taken very secretly (hence why the sound and picture did not come out amazingly well, but it gives a little glimpse of what they sounded like. We had no clue how cool this little venue was until we sat down, but it was right on the water overlooking the canal where all the boat tours came into dock. This place is certainly a “must-see” if you are ever in Prague!
-Jack
We were searching online for some local Jazz Bars to go and check out because it felt like forever since we saw some live music. We ended up stumbling across this band called Ondrej Pivec & Organic Quartet. They were playing three nights in a row at this place called the Jazz Dock. Nico and I met up with one of her cousin's friends (Who is a judge that disbars lawyers in California) and we all went to watch this group perform. The description of the band was simple... "A powerful jazz Hammond organ player with drums, guitar, and tenor sax." It ended up being a great night because we had reserved a table online the day before, which was a great call because the place was packed. There were only 30 tables in the whole place and people were tucked into the corners to see these guys play. We met this Czech woman who was 'over the top'. It is hard to explain how Eastern Europeans act in general, but if I had to sum them up it would be along the lines of "straightforward and bullish". I thought she was a riot, but Nico and Jodi were a little overwhelmed by her presence. She had great advice for what to do in Prague, but she seemed like she would be a handful to hang out with.
It was relieving to actually find out why people here in the Czech Republic act the way they do. It really comes down to the fact that they accept that every day will probably not be a great day. In fact, they look unhappy most of the time and do not hide how they are feeling when people look like they are having a good time.
Overall, I think we all had an amazing time at the concert. It was great to see this Czech woman crack a smile every once and a while when we started to get to know her a little better. The video below was taken very secretly (hence why the sound and picture did not come out amazingly well, but it gives a little glimpse of what they sounded like. We had no clue how cool this little venue was until we sat down, but it was right on the water overlooking the canal where all the boat tours came into dock. This place is certainly a “must-see” if you are ever in Prague!
-Jack
My first day of school
So Thursday was my first day of school. I was really anxious to get to class and get started. We, as exchange students, had to bring our portfolio to present our work from our native country. There is me from the States/Canada and Mario who is from Germany. Class is supposed to start at ten so I arrived a bit early to setup my thirteen-slide presentation. I get there, and Mario is smoking a cigarette outside our classroom. This is something I have to get used to because at VSUP you can smoke cigarettes throughout the building and bring your dog. I walk into our “studio”; this smallish room has purple walls, no desks, a few swivel chairs and couches. I am thinking, where do you come in and work? So we are waiting, 10:10 comes along, no teacher; 10:15, 10:25... no teacher. I am starting to get nervous, because with presentations if I am left in anticipation and think about them too much, I get a little nauseous. 10:45 the teacher finally shows up, and the class fills up with about twelve of us. Everyone is talking, in Czech of course, and about 15 minutes later, we start with Mario’s presentation. I see he has hand made a magazine type presentation with about 50-60 pieces of work. This guy Is talented, he has basically designed a new type of website through Java scripting and he works for the magazine at his school so he has done loads of really good graphic work. He is just flipping through his work explaining one piece here and one piece there.
I am really nervous now.
It’s my turn. The teacher tries to say something in English to me, but I have no idea what he has said. Quickly, Mario and I figure out he doesn’t speak English. I go up and don’t even say my name. I just start presenting. “ This is my work. Canada works in a very different fashion than Germany. We haven’t don’t much programming…” (I also haven’t done much “design” compared to this guy either!). Anyways, I get the presentation over with and in retrospect I think I did all right.
So our presentations are finished, and the teacher tells one of the girls in the class to be our semi translator. So for the next hour and half we sit there and listen to the teacher shoot the shit with his students and tell them about their new projects in Czech. During him talking, people are rolling cigarettes in class, leaving the class to smoke in the hallway and playing with the two dogs.
Our translator was awesome, but the only things there were to translate were stories about the kids in the class. She said we were not doing that same project as they were. Mario and I were handed a piece of paper. It read:
1st project: Redesign our studio website
2) Make your own project ( much more important than the first project) inspired by your stay in Prague.
Emails of students in class.
So I’m thinking cool, these are our first 2 projects of the semester, a little excited about making a website, but nervous because maybe they expect me to know how to do it already, because we have no idea what the kids in the classes work is like. So Mario and I are handed 6 DVDs and Tereza, our translator says “ these are for you, they are work from students in the past five years”.
So finally after an hour and a half, people start taking their bags and leaving. Seeing as we have not understood anything that was said, we go up to the assistant teacher and ask him to tell us what is up.
“ you have questions? Really?” he asked us in all sincerity as if we had understood the whole Czech conversation they had just had. He told us exactly what was on the paper.
“When are these due?”
“At the end of the semester”
“Do we have to know how to design a website?”
“No, no, just concept”
“No other specifications for our other project?
“No. Do whatever you want.”
“Are there any other due dates, like to check on progress?”
“No, You just have to bring what you did within the week to class on Thursday”
“Thursday? Do we have class any other day?
“No, just Thursday.”
“Is it a long day in class?”
“No, same as today.”
“ Do we work in this studio?”
“You can, or work from home.”
And that was it. Class was over in 2 hours. We have all semester to go all out on these two projects. Class once a week. Our main teacher doesn’t speak English and our studio is basically a lounge. This is going to be an interesting semester.
I was so baffled when I got home. I was almost speechless. Was I excited? Was I upset that I didn’t have direction? MY TEACHER DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH! I watched some of their work on DVD... Its different work than Canada for sure.
As un-engaging as this may sound, today I figured out that I am excited not to have so many guidelines and restrictions. Its literally you make it your own project. I think I am going to try to learn how to make a website, as well as doing the concept. I am also going to try to self teach some typography.
All in all, get ready for independence!
I am really nervous now.
It’s my turn. The teacher tries to say something in English to me, but I have no idea what he has said. Quickly, Mario and I figure out he doesn’t speak English. I go up and don’t even say my name. I just start presenting. “ This is my work. Canada works in a very different fashion than Germany. We haven’t don’t much programming…” (I also haven’t done much “design” compared to this guy either!). Anyways, I get the presentation over with and in retrospect I think I did all right.
So our presentations are finished, and the teacher tells one of the girls in the class to be our semi translator. So for the next hour and half we sit there and listen to the teacher shoot the shit with his students and tell them about their new projects in Czech. During him talking, people are rolling cigarettes in class, leaving the class to smoke in the hallway and playing with the two dogs.
Our translator was awesome, but the only things there were to translate were stories about the kids in the class. She said we were not doing that same project as they were. Mario and I were handed a piece of paper. It read:
1st project: Redesign our studio website
2) Make your own project ( much more important than the first project) inspired by your stay in Prague.
Emails of students in class.
So I’m thinking cool, these are our first 2 projects of the semester, a little excited about making a website, but nervous because maybe they expect me to know how to do it already, because we have no idea what the kids in the classes work is like. So Mario and I are handed 6 DVDs and Tereza, our translator says “ these are for you, they are work from students in the past five years”.
So finally after an hour and a half, people start taking their bags and leaving. Seeing as we have not understood anything that was said, we go up to the assistant teacher and ask him to tell us what is up.
“ you have questions? Really?” he asked us in all sincerity as if we had understood the whole Czech conversation they had just had. He told us exactly what was on the paper.
“When are these due?”
“At the end of the semester”
“Do we have to know how to design a website?”
“No, no, just concept”
“No other specifications for our other project?
“No. Do whatever you want.”
“Are there any other due dates, like to check on progress?”
“No, You just have to bring what you did within the week to class on Thursday”
“Thursday? Do we have class any other day?
“No, just Thursday.”
“Is it a long day in class?”
“No, same as today.”
“ Do we work in this studio?”
“You can, or work from home.”
And that was it. Class was over in 2 hours. We have all semester to go all out on these two projects. Class once a week. Our main teacher doesn’t speak English and our studio is basically a lounge. This is going to be an interesting semester.
I was so baffled when I got home. I was almost speechless. Was I excited? Was I upset that I didn’t have direction? MY TEACHER DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH! I watched some of their work on DVD... Its different work than Canada for sure.
As un-engaging as this may sound, today I figured out that I am excited not to have so many guidelines and restrictions. Its literally you make it your own project. I think I am going to try to learn how to make a website, as well as doing the concept. I am also going to try to self teach some typography.
All in all, get ready for independence!
Exploring our New Homeland!
Well I guess its time for a new posting given it has been nearly a week since we last gave you all some love. The new house is shaping up to be a blessing considering all the places we could have ended up. It is in a great neighborhood just outside the heart of the city and it is super easy to get practically everywhere in Prague. We have located some good grocery stores, but we have yet to figure out the best place to buy produce. Damn those little things! There are these little convenient store type places all over the city (called Potroviny) and some of them offer a good selection of fruits and vegetables, but we have not really had the time to get down to the nitty-gritty details and compare their prices. We trekked across town to the end of one of the Metro lines to seek out the infamous IKEA to buy sheets, pillows, and a cheap wok (the one that was left in the apartment by the former roommate was flaking off its toxic coating..."Out with that old shit!" I said, almost immediately after seeing it). The hardest thing to find in Prague, and we have been searching for an entire week, is a blanket. This may sound utterly ridiculous, but we are dumbfounded at how hard it has been. On another note, and this might just be my inexperience with traveling the world, but Prague is the only city that I have ever been where there are bars in the tanning salons! I walked by one with Nico yesterday and I had to stop to make sure my eyes did not deceive me.
Saturday was an extremely beautiful and sunny day! It was a great excuse to get outside and do some walking around the old block to explore our new home and the surrounding area. Nico and I strolled, literally around the block, and came across an amazing park with a beautiful vineyard that lay on the southern facing slope of this hill behind our apartment. I guess Vinohrady, which is the area that we now live, means vineyard! Who would have guessed? We walked around this vineyard and came across an open gate with a little sign in Czech (It is in the newest photo album…and no it was not the one directed at dog owners!). We obviously could not make out what it said, so we just claimed ignorance and went in. Expecting to be yelled at, we walked down a set of stone steps and built into the side of the hill, underneath the vines, was the winery itself. It was very small, but there was a kind man standing behind a counter giving samples of the new harvest’s Muller white wine. It was the first fermentation step so it was called their ‘soft’ white, which was roughly translated as he only spoke a little English. It was the most delicious, slightly alcoholic fruit juice I have ever had. Towering at a whopping 1% alc by volume, Nico had finally met her first alcoholic beverage that she could digest without feeling immediately nauseous. Yes, It was a glorious day in history. The rest of walk was spent throwing around the Frisbee above the vineyard enjoying the view facing south Prague.
We spent our Sunday, as most of our days normally begin, starting off with a fresh cup of instant café and some crepes. We had very big plans as far as the rest of our days are typically spent because Sunday is the day that we Americans love to sit back and take in the glorious gift pasted down to us by our ancestors. That’s right, you know what I’m taking about...The NFL Countdown immediately followed by the New England Patriots vs. the Baltimore Ravens. We were luckily enough to join our good friend David at his house for the festivities. As we watched the destructing New England defense barely hold on as the Ravens offense collapsed, we enjoyed some delicious pizza made for us by our generous host and took a moment to thank the Ravens for their great effort. Maybe next time!
Nico had her first Intro to Czech class and we both were practicing our simple Czech sentences. It is a very hard language, but we will get the hang of it. Difficult to master in 3 months, but we will try our best. Nico has her first real studio class tomorrow, so she is super stoked to start up again. I have been keeping busy with books and exploring the city. David introduced me to one of his co-worker’s partners, Shay, and we played tennis on the red clay court behind the Ambassador’s residence, which was incredible. Until next time…check out the new photos...Love to all!
-Jack
Saturday was an extremely beautiful and sunny day! It was a great excuse to get outside and do some walking around the old block to explore our new home and the surrounding area. Nico and I strolled, literally around the block, and came across an amazing park with a beautiful vineyard that lay on the southern facing slope of this hill behind our apartment. I guess Vinohrady, which is the area that we now live, means vineyard! Who would have guessed? We walked around this vineyard and came across an open gate with a little sign in Czech (It is in the newest photo album…and no it was not the one directed at dog owners!). We obviously could not make out what it said, so we just claimed ignorance and went in. Expecting to be yelled at, we walked down a set of stone steps and built into the side of the hill, underneath the vines, was the winery itself. It was very small, but there was a kind man standing behind a counter giving samples of the new harvest’s Muller white wine. It was the first fermentation step so it was called their ‘soft’ white, which was roughly translated as he only spoke a little English. It was the most delicious, slightly alcoholic fruit juice I have ever had. Towering at a whopping 1% alc by volume, Nico had finally met her first alcoholic beverage that she could digest without feeling immediately nauseous. Yes, It was a glorious day in history. The rest of walk was spent throwing around the Frisbee above the vineyard enjoying the view facing south Prague.
We spent our Sunday, as most of our days normally begin, starting off with a fresh cup of instant café and some crepes. We had very big plans as far as the rest of our days are typically spent because Sunday is the day that we Americans love to sit back and take in the glorious gift pasted down to us by our ancestors. That’s right, you know what I’m taking about...The NFL Countdown immediately followed by the New England Patriots vs. the Baltimore Ravens. We were luckily enough to join our good friend David at his house for the festivities. As we watched the destructing New England defense barely hold on as the Ravens offense collapsed, we enjoyed some delicious pizza made for us by our generous host and took a moment to thank the Ravens for their great effort. Maybe next time!
Nico had her first Intro to Czech class and we both were practicing our simple Czech sentences. It is a very hard language, but we will get the hang of it. Difficult to master in 3 months, but we will try our best. Nico has her first real studio class tomorrow, so she is super stoked to start up again. I have been keeping busy with books and exploring the city. David introduced me to one of his co-worker’s partners, Shay, and we played tennis on the red clay court behind the Ambassador’s residence, which was incredible. Until next time…check out the new photos...Love to all!
-Jack
We Finally found a Home!
Its October first and since our last blog on the 26th of September, loads has happened. When we got back on the 26th it was midnight and we took a bus to the metro, hoping that the metro was still running. We got there and it was closed. So we went upstairs to see if there was a bus that was going in our direction. We got on a bus that looked like it did. Jack has been an Amazing rand partner ( he has an AMAZING sense of where he is and where he is going at all times). This time, his sense was too strong because when the bus took a right instead of a left, he thought it was going in the opposite direction so we got off. It actually
just detoured for about 40 seconds and then went back our way. So we walked home, but it definitely was close enough where I wasn’t talking about him under my breath ☺. I had my first day of school, which was more of an orientation, and I found out that my classes actually start some time next week. Jack took a long walk across the Charles Bridge up into the Orchards behind St. Vitise Church and found himself at the back of the German Embassy where he stopped to document, as he loves doing, where he ended up.So once we returned we were back to the grind of finding a place. We must have emailed about 50 places, but this time of year is like September in Canada where it is just ridiculously hard to get a place because classes are starting. I was not expecting to be going through the same thing twice in two months ( in Canada and Prague). We saw some cute places and some really horrible places. We went to one where the building was about 200 years old and everything was deteriorated. We went into the rooms and they were charging between 8500 Korunas to 10500 Korunas(500-650 USD) for places that had a hotplate for a kitchen, unfurnished, no washer dryer and about the size of a really dirty kitchen table at home. It was a joke, right? No, it wasn’t. So finally we met Renee via email. Her current roommate had just up and left while she was at Octoberfest and also took all of her rent money. She need
ed someone to move in as soon as possible. When we responded she said that she might have to break her lease and go home to Wisconsin because she couldn’t afford another 650 that month. We were pretty bummed because the way she sounded and the way she described the apartment was great, so we sent our condolences and moved on. At this point we have stayed at David quite a long time, and we really wanted to find place. The next day Renee wrote us back and said she had figured out a way to pay for rent and that we could come by and see it. Jack and I were so excited. We tried not to get our hopes up, but we also were kind of desperate. So we got to Renee’s on the morning of the 30th of September. We met Renee and she was very cool. Then we went to the apartment and it was BY FAR the nicest, biggest and cleanest apartment. Us leaving in December was news to her and this might have been a problem, but she wanted to stay in the apartment bad enough, so once we got back to David’s, she emailed us with good news that we found a new home. So we hung out with David that afternoon and cooked dinner for him one last time. He really was awesome for putting us up this whole time. Thank you so much David!We moved in that night. We took the metro and tram at rush hour…. That was a nerve-wracking, but luckily it wasn’t horrible.
Our New Room! October 1st
We woke up in our king size bed ☺ and then went to work. We started cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. I must say we had a “Ruthie black out” moment. We would have made momma Ruthie proud. Then we set off to accomplish several errands. The first was to get our bus passes for the 90 days. The line was about 60 people deep ( which was better than 200 a couple days ago). So finally we got to the front and asked the attendant if she spoke English… she shook her head. We were really worried because all the document were in Czech, but luckily my school had given me all the information for my documents. So Jack memorized where he had to write what and filled out his portion. Finally after about 20 minutes of silent gesturing we got our bus passes. IT WAS SO EXCITING. Its funny how accomplished you feel when you do something so small in a country where you don’t speak the language.
Above is the super long escalators for the Metro
So then we went off to the Czech police immigration center where we walked up to the second floor. Oh my goodness I just about had a heart attack. There were about 300 people in disarray and all foreign nationals from who knows where in Europe. There was no line anywhere and there were instructions in Czech and Russian maybe. There were numbers at the stalls but we had no idea a. How to get a number and b. what area we should even go to. There was an information center, so we immediately went to it. Right when I met with the guy I said :”Hi!” and he immediately responded sarcastically “HI”. I asked he he spoke English and he responded with shrugged shoulders and “BYE”. The woman behind me spoke a little English so se translated for me. I asked where I could register with the police. The woman translating for him said that I had to have registered within 3 days of arrival, so I would be fined 5000 CZK (300 USD). My mouth dropped. She was smirking in her eyes and I took a second. “ You’re joking…” I said, and then I looked at him and said the same thing. They started to laugh. Then they said that I was going to have to come in on Monday morning at 4 am and stand in line to get a number and expect to be there all day. As I was about to leave discouraged, he asked me for my passport. He saw that I was American. “ Why didn’t you tell me you were American, you go up to the 3rd floor. I thanked them and we went up to the 3rd floor. I waited about 30 minutes and we met two nice Israeli guys there. Finally I went up to my stall. The woman also did not speak English and I had not caught her on a good day evidently as she shoved paperwork towards me and told me to come back when I was finished. I filled it out with the help of our new Israeli friend who spoke Czech and went back. As she was about to grant my registration, she saw my address and said NO! I was so confused, “what do you mean no?” “ NO NO NO NO” while she is harshly underlining my address, hands me a new piece of paper and says NO!!!!. I told her I didn’t understand, and she responded saying she wasn’t my interpreter. I had obviously pissed her off so I stood up and, completely baffled, walked out. I finally figured out that my address that I had submitted for my visa didn’t match up with the address I was now living in, so I needed to complete a new address form. I have never seen someone get so angry though. “This is typical of Czech people” we have heard from several others. They are a little cold. They don’t smile at you and they don’t say hello or how are you unless they have to (in a grocery store.) Anyways I have to get that figured out and go back. Hopefully I don’t have her again. Anyways, that’s all we have for now. We just have to buy some sheets and art supplies. Hey, At least we found housing!
The Tunnel that we took to get to the Police Station
The Tunnel that we took to get to the Police Station
A sweet stencil that we saw and documented for C-Dub!
The View from the Charles Bridge!
-Nico
After we did our looking around in Prague, we hung out with David and tried to go see an apartment. We showed up and no one was there. We were buzzed in, but no one opened their doors in the building as Jack and I climbed 10 floors of stairs. It was brutal. I am not sure why someone would stand us up, but we had a sour taste in our mouth.
We ended up renting a car in Thessaloniki and driving to Ioaninna. We thought the toll road would be too expensive so we took the smaller, more local roads across the country. This made our trip about two hours longer. Let’s just say if you get car sick, you
don’t even want to think about this drive. The amount of switchbacks’ 
would have had you dizzy from the beginning… for six hours. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful ride. We spent the night in Ioannina, which is a cute little town on a lake inland on the west coast of Greece. These was a castle, and deliciously cheap gyros (1,80 Euro). We stayed at another “luxury” hotel and the next day made our way to Igoumenitsa, which was where we 
would catch our ferry to Corfu. Before getting to the ferry we bought groceries at the LIDL and made ourselves lunch on the 11:30 am ferry. We ended up paying 33.50 Euro for four passengers AND a car… it was a really good deal considering the sign said 35 euro just for the car. I guess G and I just had the charm that day. The ferry was an hour and a half and Jack was taken by the view of everything and baffled by the beautiful blue color of the water, which is very special to the Mediterranean.
We reached the mi
ddle of Corfu Island. We hadn’t decided where we were going to stay yet, so we just randomly chose to go north on the island. We took the main road all the way to Paleokastritsa beach, and it was like a movie. The rocks jutting right out of the turquoise flat sea. In checking hotel prices at that beach we needed to use the internet to find some palatable prices. We found a hostel that was a bit more south that had an available room the day we got in. We followed their directions down a 60 degrees down slope of tight switchbacks. We finally got there. It was sunset and the place looked interesting. The way we walked in there were crates full of swarming bees, an empty pool and nobody in sight… we were a little worried. We walked out onto the patio and there it was; endless sea looking at us, with huge boulders sticking out, with a white strip of beach to our east. After seeing the rooms and them telling us that breakfast and dinner were included in the price, we were in. We stayed there for three days. There were 4 other people staying there while we were there. They were super friendly vacationers that we hung out with, beached with, played volleyball and scrabble with, and had some good conversations with. During our stay there Fernando got his flip flops stolen, Gulaya go stung by a wasp and learned a lot about Joburg. After 3 days we went back to Thessaloniki. Our ferry ride back cost 55 euro. I guess this tim
e they charged us more, because on an island the ferry is the only way off. In Thessaloniki we all had an amazing
dinner on the water. We ate some delicious fish and eggplant. The locals had a lot of patience with us seeing as we couldn’t speak Greek. It was a really nice vacation all in all. We parted ways with F +G and made our way back to Prague. Next step: find a home.
After seeing the apartment we went to the airport via public transport. Instead of paying 30 USD for a cab ride to the airport we spent 2 USD; needless to say it was gloriously cheap. Once we got into Thessaloniki at 10 pm, we took a cab to Hotel Avra. It was a cute little place right on the beach, on the opposite side of the bay to the city of Thessaloniki. It was a four-bed room with a kitchenette and a clean bathroom. According the Fernando + 
Gulaya it was luxury… I don’t know if I would go that far. We ate some homemade pasta that they made and chatted, it was very nice to be reunited with them.
Gulaya it was luxury… I don’t know if I would go that far. We ate some homemade pasta that they made and chatted, it was very nice to be reunited with them.We ended up renting a car in Thessaloniki and driving to Ioaninna. We thought the toll road would be too expensive so we took the smaller, more local roads across the country. This made our trip about two hours longer. Let’s just say if you get car sick, you
don’t even want to think about this drive. The amount of switchbacks’ 
would have had you dizzy from the beginning… for six hours. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful ride. We spent the night in Ioannina, which is a cute little town on a lake inland on the west coast of Greece. These was a castle, and deliciously cheap gyros (1,80 Euro). We stayed at another “luxury” hotel and the next day made our way to Igoumenitsa, which was where we 
would catch our ferry to Corfu. Before getting to the ferry we bought groceries at the LIDL and made ourselves lunch on the 11:30 am ferry. We ended up paying 33.50 Euro for four passengers AND a car… it was a really good deal considering the sign said 35 euro just for the car. I guess G and I just had the charm that day. The ferry was an hour and a half and Jack was taken by the view of everything and baffled by the beautiful blue color of the water, which is very special to the Mediterranean.We reached the mi
ddle of Corfu Island. We hadn’t decided where we were going to stay yet, so we just randomly chose to go north on the island. We took the main road all the way to Paleokastritsa beach, and it was like a movie. The rocks jutting right out of the turquoise flat sea. In checking hotel prices at that beach we needed to use the internet to find some palatable prices. We found a hostel that was a bit more south that had an available room the day we got in. We followed their directions down a 60 degrees down slope of tight switchbacks. We finally got there. It was sunset and the place looked interesting. The way we walked in there were crates full of swarming bees, an empty pool and nobody in sight… we were a little worried. We walked out onto the patio and there it was; endless sea looking at us, with huge boulders sticking out, with a white strip of beach to our east. After seeing the rooms and them telling us that breakfast and dinner were included in the price, we were in. We stayed there for three days. There were 4 other people staying there while we were there. They were super friendly vacationers that we hung out with, beached with, played volleyball and scrabble with, and had some good conversations with. During our stay there Fernando got his flip flops stolen, Gulaya go stung by a wasp and learned a lot about Joburg. After 3 days we went back to Thessaloniki. Our ferry ride back cost 55 euro. I guess this tim
e they charged us more, because on an island the ferry is the only way off. In Thessaloniki we all had an amazing
dinner on the water. We ate some delicious fish and eggplant. The locals had a lot of patience with us seeing as we couldn’t speak Greek. It was a really nice vacation all in all. We parted ways with F +G and made our way back to Prague. Next step: find a home.-Nico
Getting There
It's 8 am in Geneva and we have a five hour lay over until our next flight to Prague. Nico and I head out to find public transit so that we can begin our exploration of the city. After a confusing search for where the bus departs, we found the #10 bus and headed downtown. It was early so the business folk were just making their way into town. Once we saw the lake, we knew to get off and search for some cafe overlooking the water. We stumbled upon a boardwalk and found a quaint cottage. Coincidentally named the Cottage Cafe, we ordered some small espresso shots and honey toast. The cottage faced a small garden with a beautiful fountain statue that was silhouetted in the morning sun. Two stone lions guarded the entrance to the garden facing the lake. After our oooohs and aahhhhs over the mountain of crème brulees that they had set out to cool, we paid our bill and gave our waiter a warm thank you (in French of course).After walking around the downtown area while watching the store owner’s prep their storefronts we stopped for a moment to listen to a jazz drummer who was firing up some green eggs and ham and truly giving Geneva a morning wake up call. We immediately thought of Jimbo and strode on. Our next encounter with the locals came when we had no change for the bus to get back to the airport. We stumbled into a bakery and the woman sneered at us when we asked for change, especially because the request was in English. Nonetheless, we got the change and were able to get back to the airport in time. So overall we thought it was worth the trek and better than sitting at the airport for 5 hours.
Our flight from Geneva to Prague was delayed 45 minutes but we would wait until Prague to satisfy our hunger. After sleeping the entire flight to Prague we gathered our bags and exchanged money for the taxi. David as well as Roger suggested we take the AAA taxi as the other cabbies are known to take advantage of tourists. After giving the cabby our destination we were set and made it to the U Pisecke Brany Restaurant where we would meet with David around 5 30 pm. After a Pilsner Urquell, a coke, and some delicious potato pancakes, Prague’s first impression was certainly a good one. 
David strolled in after we finished and we sat for a while to get reacquainted. David was the first to tell us how hard the Czech language is to speak. He studied for eight months before starting his work at the embassy. He had been there for six weeks prior to our arrival so when it came to paying the bill we looked for some advice on the routine for restaurant manners. It turns out that the wait staff and bartenders do not expect a standard tip. Its more of a rounding up to the nearest hundred korun. We left and went across the street to his apartment and our new temporary home. We dropped our bags off and went in search for our first Czech meal. After taking the metro to the Malastrana we walked across the bridge towards old town and nico’s new school. We walked towards the Charles bridge but the crowds were heavy as the typically are and we walked instead towards the famous Old Town square Staromestska Namnesti. We arrived just a hair to late to see the astrological clock display its hourly beauty. The history behind this clock is that when the king saw it completed he thought it was so beautiful that he blinded the maker so that it could never be replicated. This square is also famous for its pickpockets and its beautiful churches.
We found ourselves in the Jewish quarter just north of the square at Café Kafka. We ordered a round a of waters and I had a Budvar ( yes the same company who claims that Budweiser stole its name), but it turned out the kitchen had closed. We took a few more steps past a pizzeria joint and ended up in Schweik’s. We all ordered types of dumplings (potato, bread and Bohemian style). David and Nico reminisced about El Salvador while I sat back to enjoy their stories. Turns out Nico loved to put on dance shows for everyone to see. She and her friends would practice to the top hits of the day and force everyone to watch their dance routines. “Good info to know” I thought to myself. We walked back across the river and took a tram back up the hill to David’s. Step one: journey to Prague complete.
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