Land of Windmills, Tulips and Hookers

On March 6-8th I went to Amsterdam with my roomies Kelsey and Maren. We flew from Prague to Eindhoven and then took a train to Amsterdam. We started off by getting on the wrong train, but it still went into the city and so we just found our way to the hostel from there. Once in the city, we met up with friend from our program Nick and Quinn who had been there a couple of days already and they showed us around the Red Light District. (you're not allowed to take pictures there because of the right to privacy for the girls, they will either break your camera or throw a glass of piss at you, so take photos at your own risk). We ate dinner and then went back to our hostel.
The next morning I went to the Anne Frank House and toured it, it is an indescribable experience and a place I never thought I'd see in my life. The rest of the day was spent touring the city, buying hats that said Amsterdam on them and such. We took a free tour and here are some things I learned/

-it is a biking city due to how flat it is, bikers are vicious and they will run you over.
-20,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals every year, this is because Dutch teens have a drinking game where after they get drunk they throw bikes not locked down into the river to see how big it splashes.
-they have now stepped up this game by tipping smart cars into the canals.
-Amsterdam is actually located below sea level
-Weed is actually illegal, just not strictly enforced
-prostitution is legal but PIMPING is not
-the houses lean forward so merchants in the old days could pull cargo up from the canal, if it leans sideways the foundations are bad
-there is a giant squatting community in the city

So basically I had a great time, here are some pictures

Age of Aquarious

My day at an aquarium and carnival with Kelsey, Maren and Greg
here's a sharkie!

greg upside down

Roomies

Funhouse with Maren

Keeping warm inside

scariest ride ever, i screamed the whole time i was on it

Roman Holiday

Hello party people!
In early February I went to Rome with 7 other girls and had a great time.
The first day we were there we went to go see the Vatican city where along the way we were roped into taking a tour with a company, which was actually a great idea. Our tour guide was this guy from Canada, who reminded me a lot of my uncle wes actually, and had a very dry sense of humor, to the point when we all couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Little fact about the Vatican, although it is it's own country, you DON'T need your passport to enter. I had mine just in case.
So we wandered around the Vatican with our guide and saw an abundance of wonderful art, even got lectured about how they built the pyramids (I don't know why this had anything to do with the Vatican) and saw all the statues that one pope castrated. They have leaves instead of private parts now.

Another fact about the Vatican, Angel's and Demons was NOT filmed there, they wouldn't have anything to do with it. The movie was filmed on a green screen.
We wandered around the inside of St. Peter's basilica and paid 5 euros to climb to the top of it, which was my best workout of the last 3 years. It was intense, but the view of the city was worth it. Climbed back down with shaky legs, went and found some pizza and chilled the rest of the day.

The second day of Rome was the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, which was super cool. It was raining pretty hard that day so there were all these men that were trying to sell umbrellas to tourists on the street and my friend Yena was talking to a guy trying to sell her the umbrella and the cops came by and the guy took off like a shot, leaving Yena with the umbrella she never paid for. She didn't know what to do and asked the cops if she could keep it and they were like, "go ahead". All of the good stuff happens to Yena :)

So we spent a lot of time in the Colosseum just looking around and walking and taking jumping pictures in front of it. Then we went around the Roman Forum which is just a bunch of really well preserved ruins you could walk on and around. Very cool. After this we went and got more pizza, mine was spinach and tomato which was AMAZING. I want to go back to Italy if only for the pizza and that's all I will eat. Screw gelato, it's all about the melted cheese on bread.
The same day we went to the Trevi fountain as well which was my favorite part of the entire trip, it was really cool.

Ate gelato near there and then went to the Pantheon, which I wasn't terribly impressed by. It's just a big building that you walk into and there's a hole in the top of it.
Since it was terribly rainy we went back to the hostel and went out to dinner at a restaurant nearby. I had been there the night before with Yena and another girl named Anna, and the food there was great. It's too bad I already had the best pizza of my life before walking right in. When we walked in the next night with everyone the waiter was like "I missed you!" to which I jokingly replied "I missed you, too!" and he hugged me. He wasn't as creepy as I though Italian men would be.
In my hostel room there was an Austrian man who seemed nice and wound up going to dinner with me and my group and to our surprise, he was actually the biggest douche ever. My favorite quote about him was from Anna, "congratulations, he was douchier than an american fratboy".
We went and got drinks after that and the next morning, I woke up to see the Austrian guy standing in the middle of our room, wearing only a thong. Forever imprinted in my brain.
We went to the spanish steps the next day and walked around and then went home to Prague where it was too cold for my taste.
I want to go back to Italy.

All You Need is Love

Today I went to the John Lennon wall in Prague with one of my roomates, Kelsey, and three other girls I don't know as well, Anna, Yena and Fauna. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which I have been to but it's always nice and asked around until we found the wall nearby. It's beautiful and inspirational. The story I've heard and I don't know for sure or not if it's true, is during the communist times, those who rebelled would go to the wall and write John Lennon lyrics about peace and such during the night. The next day the communists would paint over this, but the rebels would return and decorate it all over again, this happening in a constant cycle until the fall of communism.
I'm really, really grateful I got to see something this powerful

New Kids on the Block

So, all of the new kids for the semester are here, they arrived on Saturday. They all seem very nice but I still don't have a definite opinion on whether or not they are awesome, I miss everyone from last semester A LOT.
There are only about 6 new boys, and they all look like each other, it's really weird. So far a majority of the girls seem really nice. Because I don't have the czech intensive course I haven't gotten to know the new kids very well but regular school starts in two weeks so I hope spend more time with them.
Other news, my roomate just got back from Germany today and we're so glad she's back. Hasn't been the same without her.
Miss you all back home!

Things to know about Prague

So, I've been in Prague, Czech Republic since August 2009, about 5 or so months now and here is a list of things I've learned about the country.

• There are no toilet seat covers in the bathroom
• some grocery stores, when you buy a fruit or a vegetable you are supposed to weigh it first on a machine and it pops out a sticker that you put on the produce, and then you buy it.
• most people only buy groceries for what they need that night, unlike Americans who stock up like it's the end of the world.
• when a man and a woman walk into a restaurant, he is supposed to go first as to protect the woman from the leering eyes of other men
• there are only sweet pickles in this country, I have only come across dill ones at McDonald's.
• McDonald's is better in the Czech Republic, all my buddies here from America agree with me.
• even if you speak a little Czech, all the people here who actually speak English would prefer for you to speak English because you are more likely to mess up the language than they are.
• tipping is optional, but it is growing into a more regular thing in this country.
• they love 80's and 90's music.
• Prague is 2 hours away from the German city of Dresden.
• the coldest month of the year is February.
• there really was a great King Wenceslaus (like in the Christmas song)
• Communism ended in 1989 but a small percentage of voters still vote for the communist party, most of those people didn't even live during it.
• 18 krowns = 1 us dollar.
• Gulas is actually a Hungarian dish, adopted by the Czechs, but it is a traditional Czech meal.
• Prague is the largest city in the Czech Republic, followed by Brno. When Slovakia was once a part of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava was the second largest city. The two countries split around 1991 or 1992.
• Charles University on Prague (the one I'm attending) is the oldest university in Europe.
• Czechs are very proud of their "culture".
• American hygiene is a joke to most Europeans.
• 59% of Czechs are agnostic or atheist.
• Czechs are the world's heaviest consumers of beer.
• I have yet to see a squirrel the entire time I've been here, but there are pigeons everywhere.

More to come later, this is just to start you off.