September Summary

Hi all!

I am terribly sorry for the late post, but I have definitely been having some technological difficulties! You see, my computer has stopped working for unknown reasons... And so has my brand new camera... I just have terrible luck I guess, but I am making do. My gracious Slovakian roommate has been loaning me her camera and computer until I can get mine fixed/replaced. Here is a summary of the exciting things that I have been up to since my last post.

Trip to Kutna Hora:

We stopped at a small town on the way there (the name escapes me at the moment) to see a site where they dug up 40,000 bones and used them as decoration inside a church. Apparently they ran out of room in the graveyard so naturally the solution is to dig up the dead people... In any case it made a great site to see! At Kutna Hora we saw the church of St. Barbara which is the second largest gothic cathedral in the Czech Republic (after St. Vitus in Prague Castle). Absolutely beautiful! We also went on a tour of a medieval silver mine. Walking through the tunnels was way cool, but I am definitely glad that I'm not a miner...

Troja Wine Festival

This was a wine festival at the Troja Chateau here in Prague. It was a beautiful building with beautiful gardens and beautiful wine. There was also traditional Czech music and dancing, a really neat experience!

My first operas

We went to the State theater to see La Traviata. Very cool! Then four days later we went to see another opera at a different theater which was also really cool! I don't think that this will be my last mention of opera this semester, I will definitely need to see more!

Prague Zoo

This is definitely the best zoo I have ever been to! It was huge, and all of the animals were really active so it was exciting to see! Even the tapir was standing up, which is something I have never seen from the tapir at the Minnesota zoo. There were also a lot of baby animals, including Sumatran tiger cubs which I had been looking forward to seeing since August when I read an article about them back at home! It was great to finally see them in real life, and they were just as cute as one would expect baby tiger cubs to be! It rained while we were there, but it was so much fun that nothing could dampen our spirits!

Karlstejn Castle and Wine Festival

This is the second biggest castle in the Czech Republic. It took only 15 minutes to get there by train from Prague. It was awesome. There were lots of people in costume, and in the castle courtyard there was medieval dancing and song. Even Charles IV showed up with his entourage! This was especially exciting for me because I've never seen royalty in real life before... I don't mind that it was just people in costume, I was sold!

St. Wenceslas Day

Wednesday was St. Wenceslas Day! He is a huge deal here, a national icon who naturally deserves to have a national holiday named after him! It's the only day of the year that they have services in the church at Prague Castle, so my roommate and I took advantage of the opportunity and actually attended them (she's Lutheran, shhh...). We went to Vespers which was followed by mass. It was awesome to be a part of, to think that Charles IV and the Hapsburgs and countless other people went to mass at the same church, very powerful. But things got really mind blowing when they brought out the actual skull of St. Wenceslas. His cranium. The one that held his brains. What???? All of a sudden they were processing with his skull on a cushion to the front of the church. It was straight out of Indiana Jones. I still can't really believe it. After mass they took his skull back to his chapel and we were allowed to go and say a prayer in front of it, which everybody, including us, did. I have never prayed to a skull of any kind before, so that was new for me. All in all, it was fantastic experience! I am so lucky that I could be here for it!

Visitors

My aunt and uncle, Mary Jo and Tom Smith went on a tour of Eastern Europe and the last few days of their tour were in Prague. So on Thursday we met up for lunch, and later saw part of a free concert in the Senate Gardens. The gardens were beautiful, they have free range peacocks roaming around! Definitely a place that I want to visit again. It was really great to see them, and it was fun to hear about their adventures! It made me excited to go on more of my own adventures, stay tuned to here about those...

Paddle Boating

Yesterday I went paddle boating with friends on the Valdova river. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous, and it was a beautiful day!! The boat offered a great view of the city, but it was pretty hard to pedal... I may or may not have been steering a majority of the time...

Hopefully I will be able to get my camera and computer situation figured out soon, that way I can update on a regular basis and hopefully post some pictures! I hope everybody is doing well back home! What do I miss this week? Smoke-free facilities!

I'll post again soon!

Martha

I'm in Prague!!

Hello Everyone!!
Starting now, I am going to try and keep this blog updated (for real this time) so everyone can know about all of my adventures during my study abroad! Here is a summary of my trip so far, starting on Sunday, August 28th:

11:00 AM: I get on the smallest plane I've ever been on (I was in row 12 of 13), and flew to Toronto.
5:45 PM: I get on the biggest plane I've ever been on. It was a Boeing 777. 9 people in each row. It was absolutely huge!! The flight went well; I slept some, and watched Bringing Up Baby, which I highly recommend to anyone who has not seen it. I needed something familiar do keep me grounded while flying 33,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean.
6:55AM I arrived in Frankfurt. I met a few kids from my program, but they left on an earlier flight than me, so I waited in the terminal for a few hours alone, until I met another boy from the program. Ironically, our seats were next to each other on the plane, so we talked for the hour plane ride as we made our way to Prague.
11:45 AM I arrive in Prague, get my luggage, and find the program staff who are waiting for me. We take a bus to a hotel where we are given orientation packets and told to meet in the conference room for dinner. I didn't have a roommate, so it was kind of lonely for the afternoon, I was exhausted from the flights.
For dinner our "Czech buddies" took us to a Czech restaurant, where I had my first taste of Czech beer. It definitely lives up to it's reputation! The food was pretty good too. After that they took us to a bar where each table has it's own beer tap. However, I was so full and exhausted from dinner that I did not partake in further consumption.

Tuesday, August 30th: My first full day in Prague
I woke up, packed my luggage, got some breakfast and we had a brief orientation on apartment life. Then I meet my roommate and we go to our apartment. It's very cute, but wait! There's a problem! They gave me a single room. Apparently, I accidentally checked the box saying I would like a single for an extra 500 dollar fee. I definitely wasn't going to pay for that, so I go to bed worried.

Wednesday: I move apartments, my new apartment is much bigger and in a cooler location. There's a little square in front of it with a fountain. It's quintessential European apartment (at least in my mind), complete with Ikea furniture. I have two roommates from the program, Julie and Alyssa, and we also have a roommate from Slovakia named Maia. She is really fun, and we all get along very well.

Thursday and Friday we had orientation during the day. They took us on a few walks around the city, and we learned more about getting around town on the metro (subway) and the trams. I can't fully remember what we did during the evening, but I think it involved going out to dinner with my roommates! We have a bunch of restaurants really close to us, so it will be easy to find food when one doesn't want to cook...

Saturday: Maia took us to see the gardens around Prague castle. They were absolutely amazing! Everything was in bloom, and there was lots to see. There was even a little robot lawn mower, which was way cool. We got to see part of the outside of the castle, and we went into the church. I can't believe how beautiful it was. The light was coming through the stained glass windows, so it felt like the whole building was glowing. Pure beauty. I can't wait to go back!

Sunday: We travel to the edge of Prague to see a free opera in the park. My roommate Alyssa and I take the wrong way and end up going on a 3 or 4 mile hike through the wilderness in said park. We made it in time for the second and third act though, and it was way cool to see! It was a Czech opera by the name of Dalibar. There were tons of people there just sitting on the grass, listening. The opera was beautiful, I think I'm going to try to look up what the plot is though, because I was pretty lost!

Yesterday we began our intensive Czech language class, and so we continue that all day. It's pretty difficult to learn, but my teacher is really nice, and I think it will get easier once I can master the pronunciation.

Today I went to the farmers market after class. I purchased some pears (not as good as Grandpa Roly's), raspberries, and some sweet corn! I'm really excited for the corn, because I hope it will be a little taste of home from the other side of the world...

I'll try to update this blog once or twice a week! And I will definitely post some pictures too!

Bottom Line: So far, so good in the beautiful city of Prague!

Spring Spring Spring!

Oh the barnyard is busy in a regular tizzy, and the obvious reason is because of the season!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today! The sun was shining, the snow is almost all melted, the birds are chirping... Its's wonderful! I have been hesitant to put away my winter coat, because I know that as soon as I do, we're going to have a snowstorm. But not anymore! I have switched jackets, and I'm ready for spring!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to take a trip home. It was soooo nice to be back! Despite being frowned upon by the cribbage gods (I lost to Gary, but what can I say? I'm out of practice!), it was a really good trip! It was nice to just get away and relax. I was lucky enough to get to see some of my highschool friends who were back in town on their spring breaks (not fair!). We were lucky enough to make two trips to Perkins on Friday and Saturday night-delicious!! It was sad to leave, but Im excited to come home again in two weeks!

This past weekend I participated in a Harry Potter movie marathon! My Harry Potter roundtable class hosted it, and it was a ton of fun! We started at noon wit hthe first movie, and we finished the 6th movie at 2:45 in the morning! Whew!! It was exhausting, even though we just sat there. Most people came and went, but you know me- Im a trooper! I stayed for the whole thing... We had different kinds of food come at a few different times throughout the day. Frank's (the dining hall I go to) made their own delicious butterbeer. It was sooooo good! I might have to ask them for their recipe...

Yesterday I got to see my friend Caitlin from highschool. She goes to Michigan State (but don't judge her, she's a very nice person), and she was on her way back to school so she stopped by! We had so much fun, and what was supposed to be an hour long visit turned into two and a half hours. I showed her my dorm, and state street, and we got an enormous Ian's pizza. Im not sure what we were thinking, (though I will say, it was her idea), but we only got through half of it. I am only slightly ashamed of not being able to get through it, but if you could see it, you'd understand. I was absolutely delicious (half macaroni and cheese, half tomato pesto), but it was just two big. Then we got ice cream!

Oh, speaking of ice cream, its Lent! I gave up ice cream, popcorn, and using the elevator. I decided that I could have some frozen yogurt yesterday because a) it was a special occasion b) it was sunday, and c) it was frozen yogurt! Does that count? I think its probably okay...

School has been going pretty well. I had two tests today (yuck!), one in Spanish and one in Weather and Climate. Im not sure how well I did, but I think they went okay! Fingers crossed everybody! Now I have left before break is a Political Science midterm next Wednesday! I'll probably start studying for that soon, its worth 30% of my grade! (isn't that crazy??)

For right now though, I think Im just going to take it easy and enjoy the weather. I hope the weather by you guys is as nice as it is here! Enjoy it! Happy Spring Everybody!

So much to say!

Oh my goodness! There has been so much going on since my last post!

So, Valentines Day weekend: It was Soooo much fun! My lovely boyfriend Patrick came down to see me. We watched the Olympics of course, visited the geology museum on campus which was soooo cool (glowing rocks!), we went to my first ever hockey game (I couldn't make it to the outdoor one I mentioned before, but this one was super cool!! I did notice again, we arent very friendly!), and we took a trip to Mickey's Dairy Bar, which is a tiny little restaurant by Camp Randall-it was delicious!!! It was a great weekend, and lots of fun!

So last week I had my first round of midterms- yuck! I dont have my grades yet, but I think they went pretty well. It was just stressful because I had so many all at once (3 tests and a paper!). I also had an interview for a peer mentor job. Do you remember me telling you guys about them in the beginning of the year? They're sophmores who work here in Bradley, and they run events and help run the roundtable classes. I wasn't really sure how it went, but it turns out it went great! I got the position!!!!! I am reeeeeally excited about this. It's kind of one of those things where you don't realize how much you wanted it until you get it. I really lucked out, cause there were 43 applicants and only 16 spots! Theres been some tension around the dorm because some people didn't get it or did get, and whatever, but hopefully that will all blow over.

Classes are going really well so far, and I like all of them, which is good. I would have to say my favorite one is the Harry Potter roundtable, if you can call that a class. We just sit around and listen to the professor read the British version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book #7). She does different voices for the characters, and she uses accents. Amazing? Of course! Its really fun, and relaxing too because there's no homework. We're currently planning an all day marathon of all the Harry Potter movies that have come out so far, which should be really fun! The dining hall is even going to make us butterbeer! I can't wait to try it... Yum!

Hmmm... what else is going on? I will most likely be making a trip home next weekend, just to take a break and see the family before spring break (which starts in like a month). Hopefully I will be going on an adventure to Target this weekend! I've decided its time I learned how to use the Madison bus system and venture away from campus. Plus theres nothing like Target to make you feel safe and at home!

The Olympics are on!! Ans speaking of the Olympics, they have been extraordinarily detrimental to my studying habits! I can't seem to get anything done except during commercials, and times when it's not on tv. I don't have a tv in my room, so I am constantly in other peoples' room or in the den. I even set the olympics website as my homepage. It's pretty bad... But I just love the olympics so much! Oh well, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, which i do. Thankfully I won't have to struggle with this problem much longer, but until then...
GO USA!!!!

Sorry!

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long since my last post, so much has happened since then! Here's a recap:
Before Christmas, there was a campus wide snowball fight, and I was on TV!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exIVGERCL2c&feature=related
You can see me for a few seconds about a minute in. It shows me in action, when I duck down my friend behind me gets hit in the face... But you can see me! That was quite possibly the most terrifying time in my life... It was crazy! But Sooooooo cool!!

I took my finals, and all of those went really well. Then I went home and saw a lot of you guys over Christmas break, which was great! Break was really awesome, relaxing and fun. I saw a lot of my old friends, and my boyfriend Patrick, and lots of family too! I came back to the dorm on the 18th of January, and classes began the 19th. My schedule is a little bit smaller and easier than last semester, and I tried to tinker with it a little bit, but this is what I've ended up with:

Intro to International Relations - pretty interesting, Im mostly taking this because I heard really good things about the professor, and he really is a good teacher!
Cultural Anthropology - this is pretty interesting so far
Fifth Semester Spanish - a little trickier than last semester, but I guess thats to be expected
Weather and Climate - I only took this cause of the reviews of the professor (he is very good also) and because I needed to fulfill my physical sciences requirement, but I actually really like this class and I'm learning alot!

I am very satisfied with my grades from last semester, I think I did really well! My lowest grade was a B. Also, because I got a B or above in my Spanish class, I get what are called Retro credits, which means I get credit for the three semesters of Spanish that I skipped. So if you add these to the AP credits I had from highschool... I am technically a sophmore!! This will be handy when it comes time to register for classes next semester, because I will get to register just a little bit earlier than the other kids in my grade.

I also have a job now! It's not much, so I might get a second one, but we'll see how this one goes first. I work for housing food services, and basically my job is to eat regular meals, like I do anyways, and just make sure that everything tastes okay and the service is good. I get reimbursed for the food I review, and I get paid for essentially filling out a survey of the food! I think it will work out really well, cause it won't require a lot of time commitment.

Last weekend I actually got to go home, for my cousin Laura's wedding. Congratulations to Laura and her new husband Joe! It was a really nice wedding. Now I'm just working on getting back into a routine. I made raman for my first time EVER yesterday, I didn't realize it was supposed to be a soup, as in Raman Noodle Soup, who knew? Anyways, I am very proud of myself for that, because I feel like not only is my raman requirement fulfilled for college, my daily sodium intake was almost fulfilled too at 70%. Grossssss!!!! I'm not sure if its going to become a regular part of my diet, but we'll see...

Oh, I might join a club on campus called the Village Health Project. It's all about getting cleaner water in Uganda. I went to the first meeting, and it was a little bit intimidating because everyone else knew what was going on except me and the friend who I went with. But I'm going to go to at least one more meeting, and see how it goes from there.

This weekend there is an annual outdoor hockey game that the Badgers always play at Camp Randall stadium. I'm really excited! I think it will be a lot of fun. I also brought my ice skates back with me from home, so I hope I can get a lot of ice skating in before the ice on the lake all melts!

Speaking of ice melting, yesterday was Groundhog's Day! Happy Groundhog's Day to you and yours! Apparently a suburb of Madison, Sun Prairie, has its own groundhog named Jimmy, and he serves for the city of Madison too. So while Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow and proclaimed 6 more weeks of winter, Jimmy the groundhog did not see his shadow, and we are supposed to have a nearly spring! I wonder who will be right? Cast your votes now!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and a great week too! I'll try to update more regularly so that I don't have another one of these crazy recaps... Have a great week everyone!

Oops!

Wow! Im sorry it's been so long since my last post! I can't believe how crazy its been...

Well, as promised, I will tell you all about Halloween:

We went to state street, and it was incredible!! (no pun intended... I was dressed as an incredible... ) There were sooooo many people out! There were tons of different crazy and cool costumes... tetris blocks that ran around and then pieced themselves together, green army men (the kind little kids have), a giant skeleton, Frieda Kahlo... it was amazing!! I think my friends and I are going to have to get more creatice next year and do a cool group costume... we're thinking StarWars... There were also a bunch of cool concerts on State street that we went to, they were awesome! Actually, that was the first time I'd ever been to a concert... and it was crazy!! I can't believe how squished together people were... wow! But it was really fun! There were cops everywhere and drunk people everywhere, but still, it was great fun and really exciting!!

Hmmm.... so the next weekend Patrick came to visit, which was a lot of fun... and then last weekend was Parents Weekend, so my parents came here. That was a lot of fun too! We toured the state capitol, and saw Monona Terrace (which is on the Lake on the other side of Madison...it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright -neat!), went to Target, and had a couple of delicious dinners together! Sooo much better than dining hall food...

Lets see... I spent this weekend hanging out in the dorm, we had some movie nights and got a lot of studying done...

This Morning!!! This morning I went on a trip through my residence hall to the Deer Park Buddhist Center... it was SO cool!!!! You can see the temple as you're driving up towards it, its incredible! It looks like the ones you would find in Tibet (at least thats what they told us, and I believe them, it looked pretty real to me)We got there and got a mini tour of the grounds, and got to see a little shrine. The Dalai llama actually came to the Temple and performed the ceremony designating the area as sacred ground... Sooooo cool!! Going inside was like stepping into a movie. You had to take off your shoes and there were huge, absolutely gorgeous statues in the front, with paintings and cloth art around the walls. We sat on cushions on the floor, and we got to participate in the "Teachings". They did all sorts of chants that were all in Tibetan (luckily, we had translations)... it was SOooooooo neat!!!

Again, I apologize for taking so long to update you all! But I'm coming home today, via bus, and I will most likely see you in person over this weekend! Yay! I am so excited to come home and see everyone... But for those of you I don't see....
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Turkey Day!
Martha

Just another week

Wow, I can't believe its the end of another week!
I had my last midterm yesterday!! Yay! I'm so happy I'm done with those... at least for awhile... I took the test in my English class, and I think I did pretty well on it... lets hope so! When we get a few hours of sunshine, the campus is looking absolutely beautiful! It really gets you into the fall spirit... all you need is some apple cider and a pair of slippers and you're set! Its great!

Halloween officially began today. Im probably not going to do anything crazy tonight, but tomorow night I am going to the infamous Freakfest on State street. Im really excited for it because I have absolutely no idea what to expect! I'm going to be reusing my Incredibles costume this year, but Im excited about it anyways... Oooh, I did learn one thing a few days ago. I guess most people get two costumes for Halloween here, one for Friday and one for Saturday....oops! Oh well, something tells me that I'll be able to get by with just one costume...and I will be sure to post some pictures and report on the weekends festivities...

Anyways... what else is going on around here? Ooh! Barack Obama is coming here next week to speak about education!!! They haven't really givenout a lot of information about when and where, so I have no idea if I would even be able to get tickets... but if I could.... that would be so cool!!!! Oh! They have finished demolishing the building outside my dorm window!! Yay! Im not sure how much more work they're going to have to do to create the "green space" that's supposed to go in there, but hopefully not alot! Im just excited to have some peace and quiet in the mornings...

Well, that's all for now! I will most definitely fill you in on the legendary Madison Halloween weekend... Wish me luck with... well... with whatever this weekend brings...hopefully only good things... Im sure it will be great, and I know that it will make for some interesting stories!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!