So your names Kathleen? No Kaitlin. KAREN!?? No Kaitlin. Ohhh Katherine!! Forget it I'm Yaya.

Chocolate bars at the Chocolate Museum. 
Chocolate sculpture of a dog in the museum. 
Man sitting on the sidewalk playing his own Czech song on a weird instrument. He sounded like he was telling a scary tragic story I wish you could've heard his voice. 
Weird picture of me and Ruby but the background is pretty. 
Me imitating art.
Caitlin and Corey. 
Everyone on a giant baby...creepy baby. 
Caitlin Clarke under the creepy baby. (they're done by an artist I'm not sure what the idea behind them was). 
Caitlin Curtis and Meredith imitating art
Birds at the carnival. 
Walking to the carnival. 
In a random park. 
By the river there were all these swans being fed...they ran away when I came. 
Top of the Jindrisska clock tower. 
View of Prague from the tower. 
Another view. 
And yet another. 
And another. 
And another...
Last one I promise. 
Caitlin-Caitlin-Meredith-Me and Lauren in the dorms 
Carving in one of the churches we went to in Moravia. I know the story behind it but its rather long. 
Train to get up the mountain that has the amazing caves! 
Boat ride into the caves. 
Caitlin and I. 
Caitlin-Megan-Lauren-Me-Ruby-Claire-Corey 
Cave outside. 
Inside the caves. 
Corey-me-meredith-caitlin in the caves. 

Corey-Caitlin-me in the caves. 
Lauren and I at another winery. 
Another church. 
Gregory Mendel Museum. 
Mendel did the Punet squares. 
In front of a memorial for those who fought and died in the Napoleanic war. 
Lauren and I. 
Where Napolean first saw the troops from the other side coming. 

So it's been about a week of just being in Prague and not having to worry about side trips or meetings at 8am informing us that we're Americans and have no manners and that Czech is hard to learn, you know the important stuff that I would GLADLY wake up insanely early for. I started my Czech intensive class on Monday which is basically Czech 101, you know the supposedly easy half of the language courses (101 and 102)...WRONG. Apparently the Czech language has this sound that is only in the Czech language and sometimes even Czech people can't do it and they have to go to a speech place and learn. It's a mixture of a Spanish rolling R and Z so its like rrrzzzzrzzrzzzzrrrz. YA. REALLY? If the Czech people need classes to learn that sound how in God's name am I supposed to figure it out in this two week course? So basically I walked into this class thinking "Thank God I'll finally be able to speak some Czech instead of walking into a store or restaurant and trying to mime or point at what I want and wait for the person helping me to go try and find someone who speaks English because they're too frustrated with the fact that I don't know Czech." And FIVE hours later I walked out with a gigantic headache thinking "who in hell would decide to take Czech classes??" So I'm sorry to all the Czech people who are going to encounter me in the next 4 months because I'm either going to COMPLETELY butcher your language or I'm going to give up and speak English, so get ready. 

So how about some examples to show you what I'm talking about... Ctvrtek. Yes, that's a word. Take your time...Sound it out..You don't know even know where to start do you? haha. It's something like sshhtaverrrrrtek Btw. That means Thursday, ya I know that would've been my first guess too. Oh how about a number...ctrnact...sounds like sshhhhterrrnaughts. That's the number 14. Now imagine trying to put sentences together, and further try imagining ME trying to put sentences together. It's a lot of me beginning a word slowly "Znnnaa..?" and at the same time looking at the teacher to see if he has that "Wow, its been 3 hours and I've gotten no where with this girl" on his face. Or looking at the people around me to see if they at least know what I'm trying to get at when  I say the words. 

They also say things in an entirely different way here. For example: when we go to a restaurant or go out to eat we say "Can/may I have blah blah blah" Here their sentence goes "I will be having blah blah blah" There's others but that's just a little taste. But anyways so imagine my surprise when I walk out of the classroom the first day thinking..."Holy shit I feel like I just sat in a classroom and listened to one of the adults from the Charlie Brown movies talk for FIVE hours." (Waa waaa waa wa..) Because going into it I was excited, maybe even a little happy. But now, NOW I know why Rosetta Stone didn't have the Czech language....They gaurantee you to learn the language or your money back..a lot of people would be getting their money back...

Anyways besides that course that's been running my life I've had minimal adventures this week. Believe it or not a lot of people here don't know how to pronounce the name Kaitlin...sounds simple but they always think I say Kathleen or Karen or Katherine, its beyond frustrating at this point because they walk around with names like Jiri and Marketa and Yana and they can't get Kaitlin right? So from now on if a person asks me my name it's going to be Yaya like yoyo but yaya haha. One sound..two syllables. Should be easy enough. Oh and another thing, for every Czech or foreign person out there...saying a person's name LOUDER every time you get it wrong DOES NOT make it right...

I did have the opportunity this week to go to the movie theatre and see the movie Revolutionary Road, which was a completely depressing movie. Their theatres keep the movies in the original language that they are made in so I got to listen to English for 2 and half ish hours. It was a nice break =) They had Czech subtitles so every time I saw a word I recognized "Pocitac!" I'd yell it out. =) It was a nice refresher. Also a field trip for my language class was to go to the movies and see the movie ONCE which I had never heard of until now, it's in English so don't ask me why it had anything to do with my class, but it was actually a really great movie but also rather depressing. It's a love story between an Irish man and a Czech woman...so if you have an hour and a half on your hands (ya short.) I suggest taking a look at this movie. 

Besides classes I've pretty much figured out the public transportation around here so I can get to things rather easily. Although on days like today, when I did my laundry and had to take a tram and the metro along with walking and carrying my backpack and a bag full of clothes looking like a weird American....I miss my car. also on my way home from the laundrymat today too I also found an insanely smart way to make a hot dog. There's always this stand in front of the metro selling "Eurodogs" and I thought wow another hot dog stand. BUT NO. Not just any hot dog, I bought one today and its like a baguette with a hole in the center but not all the way through so its like a little sac and the guy asks what you want on it i said ketchup and he puts it in the hole and then puts the hot dog in....easy to eat...not messy at all...and overall VERY good. Amazing concept lol. 

Anyways a story about public transportation: So first of all trams stop for NO ONE here, so if you think just because your a pedestrian you have the right away...think again, because that tram will run your ass over while your standing there pondering the situation. But anyways I met myself a smelly man on the tram the other night. We were coming home from Tesco and I was exhausted and just wanted to sit down so when we got on I was relieved to see an open seat in the second row. As I sat down though a homeless man sits in the seat in front of me, and on trams the first two seats face each other. At this point I was fine with it because he seemed harmles...then the doors shut. About 10 seconds after the tram started I start to smell it..A mixture of an insanely dirty diaper, baby powder, maybe some rotten fruit, and B.O like no other B.O I had ever smelt in my life. I had the intense urge to throw up and the thought crossed my mind thinking it might smell better than this, but I didn't want to be THAT American that throws up on the tram. lol. I prayed for him to get off  the tram and I took advantage of all the fresh air or perfume that came by me everytime the doors opened. So your probably wondering why I didn't move. You know that point where an event happens and you have to say or do something but then you wait too long, so now if you say or do what you needed to do it would be awkward or rude. THAT IS WHERE I WAS AT. I felt bad that he was homeless, its not his fault he smells like the diaper of a baby with nasty diarrhea so I felt like if I moved down the tram he'd feel bad. Not to mention there were no seats left. So I was stuck. He eventually got off and that nauseous feeling eventually went away. 

Oh another interesting event that happened this week, so me Caitlin Clarke, Meredith, and Corey decide to go out to a bar after going to a concert thing in Praha 3 with the girls (which we missed because we got lost) and so we were all the metro but then me and caitlin and corey and meredith decided to get off somewhere around Praha 1 so we could go out. So we say goodbye to the girls and the second we get off the metro and over to escalators there's the public transportation police. Ya they exist. They flash their badge at you and you need to present them with your pass. WELLLLL turns out Caitlin Clarke had given hers to Caitlin Curtis to keep in her purse...Caitlin Curtis was on the metro back to the Kolej (Kolej=dorm). So I'm in the process of getting carded and "I'm like Caitlin just go around and run" (because one of our directors Yana told us that's an option lol)...and she just keeps saying "shit I don't have that..shit...shit.." Finally they get to her and she goes "My friend has it" they don't care. AT ALL. No sympathy. No transport pass = 700 crowns on the spot..OR ELSE. So Caitlin pulls out ALL the money she had for the night (700 crowns) and hands it to the men and says straight faced and pissed as hell "How do you even sleep at night??" Best moment of my life. All the man said was "this is what happens no tram pass you pay." They look for American looking people, because I've gotten carded 4 times and the first time on the tram he just came up to the four American girls on the tram, like we obviously didn't belong. And at first I thought he was kidding, because their badges literally look like a plastic badge from a police costume on halloween and they wear plain clothes, but he continued to stand there and talk in Czech to me...like I understand you, you moron...and finally someone pulled out their pass and I was like Ohhhh I have that! But I think if I ever get caught without it I might just run. They don't seem prepared for diversion tactics. 

Another story of the week is Caitlin Curtis' lost wallet filled with 250$ credit cards her debit card, her public transportation pass, and her school ID. I didn't go out on friday night I just decided to stay in because my brain hurt from Czech and apparently they came back in a cab off the street, which can be sketchy because sometimes they'll charge you more unless you negotiate first and you also don't know their company, and it dropped them off and she paid and the minute it left she realized she had left her wallet in the cab. So I'm awake at like 3am and decide to call the Caitlin's and see what they're doing and come to find Curtis is canceling all her cards and talking to the bank because she lost all her stuff. So now she is down 250$ and she can't get any more money because she has no debit or credit cards. So she's in a definite pickle. I called all the taxi companies I had a number for and tried to see if they found a wallet but I only was understood by one...every other company thought I wanted to order a taxi

"You order taxi?" 

"No I'm looking for a wallet" 

"Tomorrow, yes?" 

"No I'm missing a wallet." 

"In the morning?" 

"NO! Have you found a wallet in one of your cabs?" 

"Ok what time??" 

"Omg I don't want a taxi!" 

"No taxi?" 

"No, no taxi." 

"Ok bye!" 

...........Ridiculous. So we're all having money problems now, because I still need the rest of my loan check, Caitlin lost her wallet, and Caitlin Clarke put the wrong pin number in an ATM one too many times one drunken night so she got her card flagged. lol. So it's been a long week. 

Oh and just to throw it out there, my favorite drink is now a vodka tonic. Tastes like sprite with a vodka after taste...but after a while it just tastes like sprite =). Vodka tonics also have the effect of making me feel like I have rhythm and I'm super cool so it useful at dance clubs. Like the other night I was at this bar called M1 and these girls were on the dance floor and they were so good, and I thought I could compete. Pretty sure I was wrong. Thank god there are no pictures to prove it. I met one of the girls in the bathroom (where I seem to be meeting a lot of people lately) and I was like "you're a really great dancer" and she goes (with like a jamaican accent) "I don't exercise I just dance" and I'm like.."oh ya..me too." lol. thank god I'll never see her again. 

Valentine's Day was also pretty amazing. There was a carnival in Malastranke Namesti and they had roasted almonds and saurkraut pancakes, and sausage dogs and there was a live band singing American songs in Czech and there were stands selling things and painters and men on stilts and dressed up like gorillas. I'm not sure why it was there but it was fun. And we went to the Belgian Chocolate museum, which was fun only because we got free chocolate in the beginning other than that it was uninformative and boring. It was great chocolate though, and Caitlin Curtis gave us all flowers for Valentine's Day and I wrote them all funny poems, and we took pictures and it was overall a pretty great day. 

Other than all that everything has been pretty amazing here. I'm going to Switzerland with Caitlin Curtis and Corey next weekend and I'm gonna go skydiving. I think I'll be needing a few xanax before that one. And your probably thinking "Whose idea is this??" Its mine =) and some of the other girls are gonna join I think. And then the next weekend I'm going to Amsterdam and Brussels with Caitlin Curtis, Corey, Claire, Lauren, and Ruby. We just booked our hostels and they sound pretty interesting ("Co-ed dorm room with 14 beds and co-ed bathroom and showers") Ohhhhh Europe. So open and accepting. haha. We'll see how that one goes. I might not be showering for an entire weekend....=)

More soon!