Peace.Love.Prague

Hello!

Another week has come and gone on my time here in Prague. And things just keep getting better and better. I am settling into life here and getting use to the people and how things work. I do not feel like a tourist anymore. This week was our first official week of classes for school. I think it is going to be an easy semester. I go to school Monday to Wednesday and am taking four classes...4 day weekends rough i know : ) for class we talk and lecture for about an hour or so and then we walk around Prague and look at cool stuff. Makes sense though. why just talk about it when you can go experience it. This is going to be an extremely easy semester school wise but I am not complaining! A few things i saw this week...

The Prague Jewish Quarter - For my Jewish Studies class our teacher took us to the Jewish Quarter of town, including the cemetery. During WWII, Hitler kept the Jewish synagogue and cemetery so that he could eventually turn it into a museum for the extinct Jewish race in Prague. Makes you sick to your stomach. In one of the synagogue, they wrote the names of all 800,000 Czech Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. It was very moving. I am excited to learn more about Jewish cultural and history since I do not know much about it. For class we are going to a lot of great places this fall. This part of town is very beautiful and full of history and I would strongly recommend checking it out if your ever in Prague. Of course you can come visit me if you want!

For my other classes we also went and saw many cool things around Prague I haven't seen yet, including the Astronomical Clock, the beautiful Wallenstein Garden and the Lennon Wall. The Astronomical Clock is super old and tons of people flock to it each hour to watch it ring. There is usually at least 1000 people gathered around it every hour. The Wallenstein garden is a hidden gem I think. Its really quite and away from the hustle of the city. There is this crazy wall in it that i cannot even try to begin to explain. You walk along and there is a whole flock of peacocks just walking around. The Lennon Wall is one of my favorite places I've seen so far. In the 1980's right before the fall of Communism, young people would meet at the wall to protest and promote peace. Now of days it is just a wall but Beatles fan and alike come. It is constantly repainted and you can write your name on the wall! I can't believe I live here! The same day we went to the wall some Buddhist monks were dancing in the street, so we joined in! They were just so happy and we danced with them and their drums for a bit near the Charles Bridge! Groovy! Click on the links above to czech them out..ha get it?


This past weekend I ran in the Prague Grand Prix 5K (3.1 miles) there were 1170 people in my race alone! It was a lot of fun. I placed 543rd...you know no big deal lol (notice the medal haha) Jess and I had one fan! Thanks Dan! Last night I went out with a couple people and we ended up making friends with some very nice people from Australia. I love the nightlife here...clubs and bars are open till 5AM, a little different from back home. I stumbled home around 4AM after some very nice Czech people gave me a bunch of ballons on my way home! Love it here! Well off to pack, we leave in less than two hours for Oktoberfest in Germany!!! WOO!!

Nessie ; )