Nobody panic!

Okay okay I'm still alive and well and hope you all are as well!

While you read... Please enjoy the work of Dvorak. I would actually advise you to click pause, read my blog and then hit play and just sit back and enjoy the amazing music... And even if you don't enjoy it perhaps just tolerate it. This is one of my very favorite composers and he was born where I was traveling this weekend. This is "the song to the moon" from the opera I saw this weekend that was composed by Dvorak. This is Rusalka, the main character, a water nymph who is in love with a human prince asking the moon to let the prince know of her love...


This week I've accomplished a lot! I've managed to get myself to and from the Czech Republic... without damaging myself or others!

I was a late comer in the plans of this trip because I originally wasn't going anywhere. But then Charles said "are you going to Prague" and I thought "why wouldn't I?!" So i went. We boarded the train at 2:00 p.m. and found our compartment (even more hogwartsesque than the first due the the private compartments lining the corridors...) and took our seats. We had about 6 hours and then we would be in Prague! We sat still for a while, and then discovered that the seats moved down to form a bed. We decided to make the compartment one gigantic bed so we all slid our chairs together and smashed our legs into a heap in the middle. It was SO HOT in that tiny compartment after smashing and moving and piling... but it was fun! So we all layed in a sleepy daze for pretty much the rest of the train ride untillll.... We heard a guitar in the corridor... and then a harmonica... and then a song! Vibha and I listened to this for a while but then when the guy started singing "barbara Ann" we knew we had to join in. We ran into the hall and sang along with the guy and his friends. The man was in his early 50s I'd say and him and his friends were just having a good time! It was awesome to see and hear! Just a bunch of people enjoying life and allowing us to enjoy it with them!! They started playing "Lollipop Lollipop" and I of course joined in in a very high soprano falsetto voice... it was fantastic! After the song was over I went and put my shoes on (a very important fact, it proves that i did not have them on when we were laying on the bed/seat... if i had, this would have been enough to get me arrested! Shoes on seats= no good) and wandered down the hall a little way. At the end of the hall, I saw a guy wearing a USC shirt! I stopped and asked him if he was from California but he said no, he was from Australia but just really liked American football! So we started to talk and I sat with them (he and another friend from Australia) for a while until I heard our stop coming.

We got off the train and walked around until we found our hostel. It was really nice as far as hostels go and since there were 9 of us we had a 10 person room all to ourselves. We found a pizza place for dinner in the middle of the city and since it was Kathy's birthday we waited until midnight and had a birthday toast to her. Then we found our way back to the hostel and crashed.

At 7:45 in the morning there was an explosion of noise. Apparently everyone had set their seperate alarms for the same time, they must have, because I heard at least 5 different ringtones. We got up, showered and dressed and walked to St. Charles' bridge. There were tons of street vendors and tourists and bands playing on the bridge. It was such a great atmosphere and I was really happy to just wander around on this bridge looking at everything and watching people and listening to the different bands play. After about an hour on the bridge we finally got to the other side and walked around the city. We went to an extremely old church and to a castle and explored and just took in the city. Then of course, the rain caught up to us so we walked back to the hostel and got ready for the opera that night.

THE OPERA WAS AMAZING. It was Dvorak's "Rusalka" which is essentially the Hans Christian Anderson take on The Little Mermaid. I ended up having to get a standing room ticket so I was bummed because standing for 3 hours is hard to do, especially when you don't have a great view in the first place and you've been walking around all day. But I was excited anyway. BUUUUT when I got up to the "gallery" which is the standing room, I discovered that they actually had seats and that mine wasn't bad at all! I could see the whole stage (rare even for an expensive ticket) and I could see the violas and hear everything and see the subtitles. All great things. The music was done SO well and the choreography was so organic... and I was in PRAGUE where Dvorak is from!! It was all just amazing!!

The next day we got up and had breakfast at a local cafe and then just walked around town. I figured out that when you're working with limited time while traveling it is better to let things simply happen while walking around the town rather than running around like crazy trying to cram in a lot of things which half of them you end up forgetting and the other half turn out to be closed when you get there. I like it much more to just walk around and experience the city like a local. With an ice cream in hand preferably...

On the train home I started off in the compartment but got bored again so I left and wandered through the train. I spotted Charles in a compartment all to himself (we tend to spread out in trains...) so i walked in. He was sticking his head out the window and when I did as well I was overwhelmed. The countryside here will never cease to amaze me! It is farmed clearings with beautiful little houses on them surrounded by some woods but in the distance you can see these clearings spotting along the hills. It is AMAZING. It was about to rain (surprise surprise) and it was also sunset so the landscape was glowing golden and misty. I have yet to see a more beautiful and inspiring sight than that one! Just riding on a train completely at peace and I look out and see such an amazing landscape.

I met some funny people on this ride too and ended up spending the rest of the time with Vibha, Charles and these two funny guys ....who I had actually seen the night before at the cafe we ate at for dinner, I pegged them at first glance as Americans and was going to say something but thought better of it! They must have been debating the same thing because they kept looking over at me. But then, when I was sticking my head out the train window with Charles the guys a few compartments down stuck there heads out too and they recognized me as the girl they had seen last night (as they told me later they had called me "the girl in the red jacket") and after we had started talking they said "did you by any chance eat in the square in Prague last night?" and I recognized them as the same guys! Small world!

One of the best things I have so far learned from this trip is how alike we all really are. I know this sounds so cliche, but more and more as I learn about different cultures and I meet different people here and in Germany and in Prague, I realize that all people no matter where we are, are all the same! The thought is quite comforting.


A little side story: Last night Chrissy asked me to get her a mug from the kitchen for her and my tea. I went to the kitchen to where our host mom was and asked her for a mug. She said "mug?" because she had never heard it. I, being the idiot I am, didn't understand she didn't know what it meant and thought she was just saying it so I decided to say it again "mug mug" I said... this really confused her but at this point I thought we were just playing a game and saying the word a lot so I just went off and said "mug mug mug mug" a lot... finally she got really confused and tried to get out of the kitchen in order to get an object to aid her question no doubt... but I thought she was just walking towards me really close so I just kept saying "Mug" a lot and standing still in the doorway, blocking her way out. Finally she pushed passed and went to the cabinet and pulled out a mug and said "mug?"... and I realized my terrible error....It literally was the most retarded thing I've ever done. I don't understand why my brain just froze and I kept saying mug a lot... Chrissy was dying laughing and then of course I had a laughing attack and the little sanity I had stored away was lost...


I love you all!

E