Apologies

Sorry guys, I've been so busy with school and trying to not die by slipping on the ice that I haven't been able to post about any trips in a while. I went to Vienna and Berlin last, but since it's been a while I may or may not write an indivudual post on them. I'm sorry! Maybe I'll do it once I get home, but for now I'm too busy! Finals are killing me. They don't call it "hell week" for nothing!

Hope to be back in the swing of things soon. Well, at least be able to think and sleep. That would be nice.

SNOW

Okay, this takes precedence over anything I've done the last 2 weekends (which I will get around to writing about soon hopefully).

It is SNOWING in Prague right now. My friend messaged me and said "It's SNOWING!!" so I obviously ran to the window and saw it and then said "let's go outside!!!" So we went and got 2 other girls from our floor and ran outside. It was snowing pretty good!! We made a snowman (my first!) and named her Marie Freida. We also had a snowball fight, got caught up in another group's snowball fight on accident, and just hung out in the snow. It was AMAZING. I need to live somewhere in the snow in my life. It's a must.

Change of plans

I've decided that I don't want my Auschwitz pictures on Facebook. If you want to see them, let me know and I'll get them to you. I don't think that Facebook is the correct medium for delivering that message. I'm in the process of deleting them now.

Krakow

So, here's the deal.

AIFS took us on an 8 hour bus ride to Krakow, Poland over the weekend. It was brutal ride, but I had my ipod, kindle, and friends to keep me company! We got into Krakow at about 6 pm, and then we went out to the town square, which was HUGE. Like, seriously gigantic. I didn't expect it to be that big and beautiful. That evening, some girls and I went out to a mexican place that was so aptly called, "The Mexican" for dinner and margaritas. However, there was a problem in the kitchen and our food took FOREVER getting out so that sucked. Oh, and the worst part was that the drinks were weak. Oh well. No biggie, I mean, we're still in Europe. Can't complain too much.

The next morning, we got up and went on a little walking tour of Krakow with our genius tour guide who on the first day told us "You won't be able to pronounce my name, so just call me Z". So, Z it is then. Anyway, this man knows everything about everything. So we went on a little tour or Krakow and it was really nice. The square is huge, the market is AWESOME, the streets are cool. It's basically the only city that I like as much as Prague, which was unexpected. After that tour, we went to lunch and got some Pierogi, which are traditional Polish food I guess. I got meat ones, and they were delicious. After lunch, we went on another tour of the Jewish section of town (I won't even try and spell the name because I'll butcher it). The Jewish section is supposed to be there all the artists and stuff life now. It was interesting to me, though, that the Jewish population in Krakow is at about 150 people total, and the feeling there is very anti-Semitic. I couldn't understand that or wrap my head around it. Anyway, that section of town was really cool and I would have loved to stay there longer or go back, but we only really had 1 day in Krakow and there just wasn't time. Damn. So after this, we went back to the hotel for a little rest, then went out and got some street food for dinner. Pizza! So cheap, so easy, and so delicious.

The following morning, we went where we all were dreading. Well, not dreading, but certainly not looking forward to. Auschwitz I and II- Birchenau. These places were incredibly powerful and moving. I thought long and hard about whether or not I wanted to take pictures there. On one hand, it's a place where a lot of horrible things have happened, and I'm not sure I want to be the one to share that with the world. On the other hand, I feel so strongly that everyone should have to see this in their life, and knowing that most people I know won't ever get the chance or the desire, I opted to take pictures. Also, I wanted to remember how it made me feel. This might seem like a very weird thing to say, but because it was so emotional and rough, it made me appreciate my life immensely more. We all run around and have our "bad days" and whine and moan about stupid things, and the struggles in our life aren't even remotely comparable to the things that happened to those people. I wanted to remember to be grateful for my opportunities, and to not take them for granted anymore. So, this is why I took them and posted them on Facebook. I know that not very many people read my blog, so I want people to be able to see them that want to feel the way I felt about it. You'll never understand it until you go there, but at least they're trying. I'm not going to post any pictures of it on here, however. I'm moving them to their own album on Facebook (just haven't done it yet, whoops) and they can be seen there if you want.

Vienna next weekend.

Latest Endeavors

Well, life in Prague is becoming increasingly commonplace for me, so I thought that I needed to add a few things in there to make it feel special again.

I took myself to lunch, all alone. I have never in my life done that before, ever. I went to the Globe to study for a while for some midterms because I was sick all weekend (still kind of am, bummer) and I stayed in my room all weekend. Needless to say, I needed to get the hell out of dodge before I went NUTS. So I went to the Globe to study instead of doing it in my dorm, and I got really hungry. So I just went in, ordered some food, and enjoyed life by myself. It was lovely.

I feel like ever since I got here I've been with people at all times. I know it's not true, but it still feels that way. And really, I'm the type of person who likes to do things alone. Like shopping, for instance. Sometimes I like to take a friend or whatever with me, but most of the time I enjoy going clothes or grocery shopping alone. No pressure to be on somebody else's schedule, no worries, don't have to talk to any one if I don't want to, etc. So, I did just that. I took myself shopping (shoe shopping, my favorite!) all alone. And guess what? I found boots, and I love them. They're a little non-conventional (meaning they're dark blue instead of black haha), but I love them just the same. They are by far the most comfortable pair of boots I own.

I tried to go up to Petrin Hill to take some pictures of the leaves before they all fell, however the funicular was closed and I'm not even ABOUT to climb up that monstrosity. No thanks, I'll just deal with the pictures I have.

I've been sick (as I said before), so I'm trying to fight that off with tons of water, tea, vitamins, emergen-c, and sleep. It seems to be working, and today is the first day in almost a week that I can kind of smell and taste things. KINDA. Hopefully the runny nose and what not will go away soon!

Midterms. I finished them all, and I'm pretty sure I did well on most of them! I had 2 tests and one 2 page paper. Nothing too bad. The first test for Czech and European History was so easy that I don't think I could have made it easier if I tried. 10 short answer questions on the most basic things in the book, and a 1-2 page essay on Charles 4th. If you don't know who Charles 4th is, he is one of the most influential Czech kings EVER. Oh, and he was also the Holy Roman Emperor for a while, so needless to say there was a LOT of things I could say about him. My second test was for globalization. I hate that class. I hate night classes, and I don't know why I punished myself with another this semester. I KNOW I hate them, and I kick myself every time I take them because they suck for me. Other than that, the teacher is monotonous and repeats herself multiple times. The test was easy though. 1-2 pages on how the US affects or is affected by globalization. Well, let's see. They don't call it "Americanization" for nothing!!! The paper I had to write was on this visit we did to a Czech elementary school. Basically I just had to observe them and write a paper on how I felt about the teaching style. Easy peasy.

This weekend, AIFS is taking us all over to Krakow, Poland. We are gonna check out the city, see the sights, go to Auschwitz and Auschwitz II Birchenau, and then head home. I'm really excited for this weekend, I think that Krakow (and Auschwitz specifically) is something you can't miss when you're in Europe. It's such an integral part of European history and it affected almost every country in Europe, how could you miss out?

I'm thinking about getting a tattoo while I'm here in Prague. It's meaningful, symbolic, beautiful, and from the heart. So, we'll see how the progresses. And getting it here just really reinforces one of the aspects of the tattoo, which is essentially saying to seize the day and do what you want, which is what I did with Prague. I'm hoping it works out. If not, I'll save up and get it at home!

CHLOE VISIT!! My friend Chloe will be here visiting me for about a week, the last week I'm here!! I cannot wait for her to be here!! I need a familiar face right about now, because I'm getting homesick. Ugh. But it's going to be SO much fun with her here, and just to be able to share this experience with her will be amazing! It's going to be FREEZING and her little California self will just about die, but that's okay! She'll survive! haha

Some notes on what's going to be going on in my life when I get home:
-Get home to SFO at 5:20 on Dec 18th.
-Move into new place with Chris on Dec 20th (hopefully)
-unpack, decorate, get a tree, etc etc by the 23rd
-Christmas (again, hopefully at my house!)
-Grandma Connie will be coming up for Christmas as well, so it'll be extremely nice to see her!
-Get a job
-Hug and kiss my Toby as often as I can because I miss him soooo much
-TRAIN FOR A 5K (this is in caps because I cannot believe I've committed to this... )

A little note on the 5k--
I haven't actually signed up for a 5k yet, HOWEVER! Me, my mom, my dad, Tiffany (sister-in-law), and hopefully Chris are all going to embark on a healthier lifestyle, including getting in shape, eating healthier (or in most of our cases, just less!), and doing it all together. Tiff will be corresponding via email with us on her progress, because she's still up in Fernley. But I'm so proud of everyone for making this commitment to do it with me, just because I wanted to do it!! The inspiration came for this when I realized that I've lost some weight in Prague. I don't know how much, because I dont' have a scale, but I've had to tighten my belt 2 notches, and all my of clothes (jeans especially), are baggy. I just want to keep this up and stick with it, for the first time in my life. It's going to be hard while at home because I LOVE to cook, and portion control really isn't my biggest strength in life, however I feel that with all this love and support, we can all overcome it! My mom is going to try and do the Wildflower Triathalon in May with Ken, so this is a good starting point for her, and my dad wants to be able to take his dog's running, so again... good starting point!! Stay tunes once I get home for some updates on the progress of that. We'll probably start the first of the year so I have time to settle into a place, have company, and get everything set up before we do it.

Home

I think it's time to be heading that direction, I'm missing it. My friends, my fam, my dog, a HOUSE. I miss it all. Especially with the holidays here now... It's a bummer. Being sick doesn't help much, but that's okay, it'll only make it all that much better for when I go home! A new house with Bear, Christmas at my house, and friends to top it all off!

Florence pictures (mostly)

Apparently my pictures come out moody from the train station...

Reallyyy moody...

Florence at dusk

Gelato cones!

Florence at dusk again

Florence street

Beautiful ivy below Piazza Michelangelo

View from Piazza Michelangelo (that's the Duomo!)

Random bench

Beautiful staircase

Completely smooth water fascinates me

Typical Florence street

St. Laurence's (I think)

Oh the rest of these were some on the fly pictures that I took with my point and shoot while I was up in Petrin Hill with my dad! I went up there today to take pictures of the lovely colors and what do you know... the wind storm last night blew all the leaves off. Just my luck!