Catching Up: Birthday Madness

BIRTHDAY MADNESS:

Two weeks ago I turned 21. I'm not really sure where I should begin, maybe to best describe my birthday I should start at the end...

The day after my birthday, was the most beautiful day and I spent it under my covers hating life. I didn't really get out of bed until 7pm and even then I was struggling. You probably are wondering, how hard did I party for my 21st birthday?

It was epic, or at least I remember it being epic. Recovering from my birthday took an entire weekend. I slept all day Thursday and Friday. Saturday I ventured out of the kolej (dorm) and went to breakfast, two American bookstores, and then to the Soccer game where Sparta (the Czech team) tied 1-1 against Pribram. It was a beautiful day in Prague, a perfect day for a sporting event. While the sun was out I was able to take off my jacket and really enjoy the sun.

After the game was over it was time for me to crawl back in my bed and take a much needed nap...


My weekend starts at 4:30pm on Wednesday, so I have 4 day weekends. I slept the long weekend away...

(At the Soccer game)

Now that I am fully recovered I can tell you a little about my birthday.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 was not just an ordinary day, it was mine and Sarah's 21st birthday. Before midnight, a group of us went to the pub in our dorm. At 12am on 2/24/2010 I had my first legal beer (US standards) and then somehow, Alex thought it would be a great idea if I punched him in the stomach... so around 12:15am... I also punched my friend in the rib because I accidentally missed his stomach. Whoopsies...

(Birthday Punch #1)

During the day I had class and in between my two classes I went out to lunch with my friends Celia, Sarah, Sara, and Kacy. We went to a cute little cafe called Au Gourment. After my afternoon class, it was officially my weekend.

(Celia & I at the Ballet)

That evening I went to the ballet with Celia and Alex. The ballet was of Romeo & Juliet, so I obviously LOVED it! After the ballet, we returned back to the kolej and had a few drinks in Alex & Walt's room. During our pregame session I was presented with a birthday cake & 21 candles!! The cake was dark chocolate espresso... enough said. And again, somehow Alex convinced me to punch him in the stomach, after a little peer pressure I successfully punched my friend in the stomach for the second time. (I swear I don't have anger issues...) After viewing these photos, I will never punch a friend again... even if they peer pressure me... not cool.

(Punch #2)

(This is Walt, I forgot to mention him in my previous blog, but basically he is a riot. He plays the accordion and he wore his "birthday shirt" for my birthday. As you can see from the picture, it is very flashy)

For my birthday, we decided to try a new club called Roxy. It was Ms. Erasmus night and free cover for students before midnight. So around 11:15pm, after taking some shots in our dorms pub, we headed to the metro. On our way to the metro, Alex decided he would do a flip between two signs... so of course I wanted to do a flip too. That wasn't such a wonderful idea... I landed it, but since I have short arms, it could have ended badly. :)

(Yager Shot in the Kolej's Pub)

Well anyways... we got to Roxy at 11:55pm and I of course didn't have my student ID, but with a little convincing I was allowed in with no charge. We immediately went to the bar and had some vodka shots, one of which I chased with beer... I do not recommend this to anyone. The music that they played at Roxy were actual hits. For once... no 80s or 90s music. We danced a lot, had a lot of fun, and then the Ms. Erasmus contest started... which at that point I was feeling pretty good. Somehow I entered myself in this contest, so I was on stage, people were wishing me happy birthday and then... fuzziness ... and the next thing I know it is 8am on Thursday morning.

(Celia & I at Roxy)

During the day Thursday, my friends recapped the night for me and from all the stories that I have heard and the things that I remember, my birthday was very successful. Unfortunately, I had to take a taxi home on my birthday so I wasn't able to get fried cheese while waiting for the Tram, but luckily Celia and Walt had some for me!

From everyone that I have talked to, your 21st birthday is the last one that really counts or the last one that is really "fun". If this is true, I am proud to say that I went out with a bang and I won't mind if all the other birthdays are mediocre! I'm so thankful for all the friends that I have made because if it weren't for them I don't know how my birthday would have ended up. To all my friends, thank you so much! To all my family, thanks for all the birthday wishes!

I guess this is enough for now, but later this weekend I will be blogging about my adventures in Amsterdam. Enjoy!

Until next time...

☮

Happy 21st Birthday Sarah!

Happy 21st Birthday,
Sarah!

Enjoy your day and drink at least 2 shots for me!!

Love,
Your Favorite Twin

First Day of Class & New Friends

Classes started yesterday and they don't seem too awful, but I am not familiar with the subject matter of any of my classes. I am curious to see how I will adapt... I am taking 4 courses: Czech and European History, Globalization, Central and European Films: Search for Identity, and Art and Architecture. I have had all of my classes except for Art; so far I can tell history is going to bore me and my film class is going to be a little more intensive than I had anticipated. My film class is 3.5hrs on Tuesday mornings and we basically watch old foreign movies (with English subtitles) and write papers, but I am not familiar with anything, so I am a little nervous about that class. While sitting in class today, I realized that I would rather be sitting in my regular comm. or art classes at Salisbury. I know what to expect from those classes... BUT this whole experience is suppose to teach me how to live out of my comfort zone, so I guess I will need to suck it up, not drop anything, and try my hardest.

Culture Shock. Before I left home, I believed that this theory was fabricated to help those who suffered from the home sickness blues. Now I know that it does exist. Hard to admit this, but I am definitely experiencing some type of culture shock. I have made a lot of amazing friends here and if I hadn't met them, I know that I would be miserable. Things always seem to work out for a reason and I am so glad that I have met these great people. I would like to take a moment to introduce my friends:

Celia

Celia and I met before we even landed in London, in the Dullis Airport. By luck we were roommates in London and ever since than we have been partners in crime!! Sarah, you could say that I found my Anna and oddly the same way you met Anna... in the airport. This past Tuesday, Celia celebrated her 21st birthday, the night ended with fried cheese from a corner grease vendor -yum- at 3am. It was an epic 21st.

Sara & Sarah

(Left- Sara, Right- Sarah)

The Sara(h)'s are roommates and both go to Puget Sound in Washington State. They are my first west coast friends and I love them! They are both hysterical in their own ways. For example, Sara Sloyer (Left) resembles Topanga from Boy Meets World, but don't tell her that or you might get a very serious evil glare in response. haha. Sarah Paulos (Right) shares her secret stash of Oreo cookies with me, which is a BIG deal because Oreo Cookies do NOT exist in the Czech Republic... and I miss them terribly.

Sara Sloyer?! Yes, I think so. :)

Kacy

Aka: My Roommate or the greatest roommate of all times! She also goes to Puget Sound in Washington State. She is hysterical and can cook a mean meal! :)

Alex

Alex goes to Texas A&M and has introduced me to Jägermeister!! Even though it tastes like lickerish, which I hate, I surprisingly love Jager. Alex keeps the creepers at bay while we are at, which is definitely appreciated!

Becca

(On the Left)

Becca is from Texas, but attends the University of Maryland, College Park. She tells the best stories and is always making me laugh. Alex and Becca are childhood friends and together they are riots! They have taught us a drinking game called "Nelson", which can entertain us for hours at bars.


Turning 21 in Prague

Tomorrow is my 21st birthday and instead of being back in Salisbury, I am in Prague. Before I left everyone asked me how I felt about turning 21 abroad. To be honest I was nervous about my 21st birthday because everyone I know party's hard for the big day and I was afraid that I would be missing out. It doesn't help that Prague's drinking age is 18... since I have been here I haven't even been IDed once... I know I don't look 18, but in the UK, which has the same 18yr drinking age, I was carded several times. Drinking in the Czech Republic isn't a big deal; pivo (beer), vino (wine), and liker (liquor) are extremely cheap here... beer is around 38cz ($2). So basically everyone drinks here and turning 21 here means absolutely nothing. But that doesn't mean that you can't have a great birthday!!! Right?!

Last week my entire mind-set changed...

Celia celebrated her 21st birthday last Tuesday and after experiencing it with her, I have realized that it doesn't matter how grand your birthday is. The only thing that does matter is that you surround yourself with great friends and enjoy the day because being 21 means that you have officially become an adult-- meaning that you shouldn't get upset or mad if something doesn't go your way... just go with the flow and you will enjoy yourself more.

A month has gone by since I left home and I can already tell that I am changing, I am doing things for me and I cannot wait to see what the next 3 months have in store for me.

To everyone, have a fabulous day and enjoy yourself because life is too short to not have a little fun!! Love ya!

Until next time...

☮

Ps- Check out my blog tomorrow... it is dedicated to my twin sister... who is also celebrating her 21st birthday.

If something smells bad...

TUESDAY:

If something smells bad, don't just check under your bed, or even just in and around your drawers. Make sure you check under your mattress because you may be lucky enough to find a 3 month old ROTTING banana. Yes, a banana. Well that is at least what I found today under my mattress. You may be wondering, why didn't I rip my room apart looking for the source of the bad smell. To answer your questioning thoughts, I did, but I was very unsuccessful until this morning.

Today I decided that I would change my sheets, which is a process in itself because here at the dorms you can only change them Tuesday's 7:30-8:30am or Thursday's 1:30-2:30pm. Both random times, but that is how the Czech Republic works. So I went to the Lobby of my building to switch out my sheets and I came back up to make my bed before I headed out to my czech class. When I lifted up my mattress to tuck in the sheets, I smelled that mysterious smell, but way more intense. At this very moment I thought, ...Oh god, I have finally found where that smell was hiding... good thing it is under my mattress that I SLEEP on!... I lifted the mattress and the smell started to escape like a stink bomb. There, under my mattress at the foot of the bed, was a brown pile of disgusting-ness. I'm thinking OMG someone pooped under my mattress before I moved it... The pile of disgusting-ness looked and smelled like human waste. I showed my roommate and we were both purely disgusted. It smelled so awful that within seconds our room smelled like an outhouse on a boiling hot summer day; we had to open the window.

I was lost for thoughts and fuming. I decided that I should probably go attempt to tell the front desk about my findings. I let my anger take hold of me, leaving me lost in translation. It was 8:15am and I didn't need to be at class until 9am, but I just left. I walked to school by myself listening to my ipod. For the first time since I arrived, I didn't care who was looking at me or if I looked like an American... I just looked pissed. Thinking back, it was probably the first time that I actually fit in around here since Czechs look pissed all the time.

......

I wasn't able to finish my post from Tuesday so I am going to complete it now.

Long story short, I took care of the issue. I now have new bedding and my mattress is "sterilized." I don't believe this though because I was informed that my room was "sterilized" before I moved in, obviously not.


Tuesday was Celia's 21st Birthday, it was pretty epic. We ended up going to a new bar called "The Dubliner", it was an Irish bar that was pretty laid back. After a few rounds we decided to go to Chapeau Rouge, a bar and club combined. Celia had a great time, which meant that we all had a great time!

Wednesday I was struggling in Czech class, Red Bull helped out a lot. Wednesday night the Sara(h)s made Celia and I dinner, Chicken and Veggies... very yummy! After dinner we all had to study for our Czech final, which was on Thursday.

Studying here is going to be VERY challenging because I cannot find note cards anywhere!!! Plus I usually just pull allnighters for everything, but now that I have a roommate again, who I love, I wouldn't really be able to stay up all night. But I am sure I will figure something out.

My Czech final was interesting... It wasn't actually too terrible, but I still didn't know all of it. Once the test was finished a group of us went to a pub called George & Dragon. Last Friday, after our Midterm, we went there for the first time and had drinks to celebrate our halfway mark. We obviously had to return and celebrate the end of Czech class! So around noon we arrive, we were the first ones in the pub so the bartender greeted us with shots! After my 3rd round of drinks, I decided it was wise to leave while I was ahead.

The final day of Czech class was this past Friday. During the day I traveled with my class to the Jewish Quarters, where I saw the famous Jewish Cemetery. Later that night we went back to Lucerna, it was 80s/90s night! Round dva was just as epic as the first.

Yesterday was another sunny day in Prague so we decided to go exploring. We traveled to the Prague Castle, which is SO pretty. You can see the best views of Prague in the Castle. In the spring I definitely will be making many return trips just to gaze out at Prague, the city that I have come to love.

I guess that is it for now, but expect another post within a few days because my BIRTHDAY... and I guess Sarah's too... is this Wednesday!

Oh I forgot to mention, classes start tomorrow. BLAH! I guess you now know that I didn't come abroad to take the classes. :)

Until next time...

☮

Czech it out!!

Another week has gone by and I cannot believe, or keep track, of all the things that we are doing! I will try my best to explain everything I have done since last week.

Last Tuesday, I traveled to the city of Plsen, which is over an hour away from Praha. There we got a tour of all the Jewish cemeteries. We also were able to climb the Plsen City Tower, which was 298 steps up. It doesn't sound like a lot of steps, but I was STRUGGLING. Once up the tower, we were able to see the best view of the city. Around lunch time we explored and found a small Italian restaurant not too far from the town square. I got broccoli and corn pizza, it sounds gross but it was actually really good. Until it made me throw up 6hrs later... :/ haha... but thats another story entirely. After lunch we went to the Plsner Brewing Factory, they produce Pilsner Beer, more familiar to us as Miller.
The city of Plsen is very pretty, however outside of the main square it was a little depressing. The buildings aren't kept in good condition both on the inside and outside.

On Wednesday I traveled to Kutna Hora UNESCO site and Cesky Sternberk Castle, it was about an hour outside of the city. Kutna Hora is a smaller city, but absolutely breathtaking! During the spring I am sure it would have been even more beautiful. While there we saw some churches, which I forgot to mention nothing is heated in the Czech Republic so all the churches, museums...etc. are absolutely freezing!!! To make a better comparison, picture a Steelers game but way colder and no alcohol to trick the brain. In Kutna Hora there was this awesome church called the Bone Church. The bone church depicts over 40,000 full skeletons. It is a little twisted thinking about how all the bones were once people, but once you get past the creepy part it is quite cool.


This past weekend we all traveled to Moravia, which is a state within the Czech Republic. We stayed in the city of Brno, yes Brno. We went to a restaurant/wine cellar for dinner. This restaurant was so unique because the where you eat is in the actual cellar.
After dinner we got a tour of the cellars and were given what we thought was free bottles of wine. SO of course we all take one and drink the entire thing... ugh. But once we were all saucy they announce that we can go purchase wine, almost all buy at least 2 bottles because "they didn't have change" so therefore we had to buy as much as our bills were. Luckily I had change! But anyways once we are done buying the bottles of wine we are informed that our "Free" bottle of wine wasn't really free. Needless to say the restaurant owners really knew how to work us Americans because we all fell for their scam. haha Oh, and did I mention that the wine was disgusting?! After spending days and days on buses, going through multiple cities, that evenings bus ride definitely topped them all!

During the day on Saturday we toured the city of Brno, which was sketchy, and we toured the countryside, which was snowy and cold. The city of Brno is the 2nd largest city in the Czech Republic, but the conditions of the city are way behind the city of Praha. The city was very depressing, with buildings that were crumbing and most of the paint chipping off. Ironically, our hotel was one of the nicest hotels we stayed at thus far. Our rooms were larger than our dorm rooms and had private balconies.

Sunday was the best day of the trip, we went to a cave in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the huge caves there is a stream, which we all got on boats and floated down through the caves. Reminded me of something straight out of Harry Potter, and those that know me, know that I am obsessed with Harry Potter.

This week was our very first week of the Czech language course. I'm not a big fan of this class, it's extremely difficult. My class we focus on everything, I wish we would just learn basic sayings that will help us get around. Unfortunately, we learn a lot of grammar, vocabulary, and how to conjugate verbs. The class is 5hours each day for two weeks straight. Week one is done... one more week to go.

This weekend has been my first weekend in Prague and it has been extremely successful! Before I left, I had heard that the nightlife in Prague is amazing, so far it is living up to its reputation. Friday night we went to a club called Lucerna. It was 80s and 90s music all night and we all had a fabulous time! Last night we wanted to go somewhere a little more relaxed so we decided to go to a wine bar called U Sudu. It is an underground cellar/bar comprised of multiple rooms. It's basically a labyrinth of different cellars, which is the actual bar.



For the first time in weeks, the sun was out for the entire day. I took advantage and I went exploring with Celia. We walked along the Charles Bridge, where I took my first fall on the ice, almost taking Celia down with me. We found the John Lennon wall, which is unbelievable. We also found the coolest fence, there were hundreds of locks with engravings on them. After taking a closer look, I realized that there were names on the locks with hearts. This fence was "you hold the key to my heart!!" This is very appropriate being that it's Valentine's Day!!!!!!!

Right now I am sitting in a cafe called Choco Cafe; it's a cute little cafe hidden amongst the busy streets in Prague. It can be difficult to find, but today I had no problem finding it. I am starting to feel not like a tourist, but like a resident in the city of Prague.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!!

Until next time...

☮

Do you speak English?

It has been less than a week since I left for Prague and I have already experienced so much. London, Munich, and now finally Prague. London was an amazing city, but while I was there I was thankful I wasn't studying abroad there. Don't get me wrong, it is so beautiful and has a lot of things to do, but I want my study abroad experience to change the way I see the world, and London won't do that for me.

When we first arrived in London at 6:30am on Wednesday morning we went straight to the hotel, however we weren't able to check in to the hotel until 1:30pm. So I felt absolutely disgusting from traveling. I was unable to shower or get anything out of my bags so I walked around the city with only a sweatshirt while wearing sweatpants. A horrible way to begin, but after we checked in everything got better. We had opening drinks later that night and we got to meet a lot of people in our program. There are 72 people in the AIFS program and everyone is from different parts of the United States. After two days in London we left for Munich. We had to wake up at 4:30am to leave for the airport. We were all exhausted and really jet-lagged, some were still drunk from the night before.

Munich, Germany was an awesome place!! It was snowing the day we got there and really cold, but we ventured out into the city. A group of us ended up going to a beer hall to eat and drink. There we all got the largest beers we had have ever seen! We ate sausage and pretzels and had a great time! Definitely my favorite night so far! On our way home from the beer hall we decided to have a snow ball fight because it was snowing so bad. I was dominated by a huge snow ball.

On Friday morning we took a bus to Prague, it was much shorter than I thought it would be. The first night in Prague a few of us went exploring and we ended up finding some local pubs near our dorms. As soon as we walked into the pubs everyone turned and looked at us and just stared. I wasn't really sure how they knew we were foreigners right away, but apparently within seconds a Czech person can tell if you are American or not.

Prague is beautiful and yet SO confusing. Nothing is in English! I knew that this was going to happen, but it didn't hit me until we actually started exploring. Before I left I heard that most people speak English, this is not entirely true... most of the people I encounter don't. So far getting around isn't too bad because there is only 3 metro lines, but I am still really unfamiliar with the Tram lines and the Bus stops. I am sure after a few weeks I will become more comfortable with everything and attempt to start taking the buses.

While in Prague we are staying at dorms a massive dorm a little outside of Old Town Prague. The dorm is a maze, twice I have gotten lost and was unable to find my room. My room is much bigger than I thought, good thing I brought tons of stuff to fill it!! My roommate is Kacy and she is from Tuscon, Arizona. She is really cool and we get along great!! :o) There is a common room next to our room with a bathroom and small kitchen that we share with our suite mates.

The next few weeks are packed with many events! For example, tomorrow I am going to the city of Plsen, which is about an hour outside of Prague. And on Wednesday I am going on a tour of the Kutna Hora UNESCO site and Cesky Sternberk Castle. And this weekend I am traveling to Moravia, which is supposedly wine country! Although I am really exhausted, I was reminded today that we only have 115 days to experience the Czech culture so I guess I can just sleep in June! From only being here 2 days, I can already tell that this experience is going to be very challenging because I lack the most fundamental key - communication! The only thing that I can do is adapt, so next week when I start my Czech Language class I am actually going to pay attention!

Until next time...

☮