DWC- Done with Czech Class and much more

Another week has gone by and in the glorious city of Prague. It has taken me a couple weeks to adapt the new environment, but with the help of a couple teachers and friends I am growing accustomed to the new culture of the Czech Republic. This week was week two of our Czech intensive language course, instructed by this 60 year old wild woman named zuzana. Her enthusiasm in the class room makes the 9 am kick off a delight. We were not restricted to the class room this week, where zuzana took us on a number of day trips around the city of Prague. The first day trip after class was to this contemporary art museum called DOX. The first couple hallways were very bland and under construction, but when we entered the main gallery I was dumbfounded. The layout of the main exhibit was one of sickness. Six TVs were stacked on top of each other showing some of the most disturbing images. I would not like to go in great detail about the , but one of the videos, played in black and white, showed a nurturing mother feeding her baby beer and smoke from her cigarette. I tried asking one of the tour guides why everything was so messed up, but was elicited with only a shrug of a response. Needless to say I grabbed a couple of my buddies and took the quickest tram ride out of Prague 7 far far away from the museum. The next day we took another trip to a church in Prague 6 which was a stone’s throw away from Masarykova kolej (my dorm). The Church of SS Cyril and Methodius had accommodated a number of British paratroopers that flew in during the 1942 assassination of SS leader Reinhardt Heydrich. Heydrich had been on his way from his estate to downtown prague when two English hired assassins, under command of Churchill, threw a bomb into his convertible, in sheer effort to kill the second highest ranking officer of the SS at that time. A week later Heydrich died in hospital due to an infection in his blood. The assassins were well under suit by German forces where Hitler ordered 5000 troops to search the city and kill any suspects in line. Three thousand innocent Czech civilians were killed, without even getting to the assassins. The English paratroopers stayed in the church, sleeping in the basement crypt. When we walked into the crypt, the spaces for sleep were smaller coffin sized racks with no lights or way out it was quite disturbing to see hundreds of bullet holes in the walls because of the following events. The Nazis got word of their location and ambushed the church in full force. They smoked and washed them out of crypt followed by a rain of fire on the paratroopers. The church is open to the public today and we were fortunate enough to get to see where they stayed in the crypts and the remnants of the barracks which in part destroyed by the Nazi troops.
On Wednesday, Feb the 17th our class prepared for our lone and final exam for the Czech intensive language class. We got a little off topic and talked about the history of the Czech Republic instead of learning the language. Our teacher Zuzana went off on a tangent of how her countries history has affected her life. When she was only 17 in 1968, Russian forces invaded prague. In a matter of weeks, the democratic state after WWII had become a communist’s regime. During this time, the culture was destroyed and living conditions crumbled. During the Russian occupation, thousands of innocent Czechoslovakians were murdered or sent to labor camps. Zuzana could barely fight back the tears as she relived her horrid experience. We also learned that day of how the country liberated themselves from the communist regime. A bunch of college students bound together in effort to preserve the culture of the Czech Republic took initiative by setting up a reform in the main square. It was so cool to see pictures and video clips of Wenceslas Square where close to 500,000 people stood in protest against the country. This square is one of the locations of my classes and to walk around and see what has happened in this exact location was amazing. 500 thousand in unity cried for freedom, while also jumping for warmth. Zuzana was in the square and told us that it might have been the coldest day of her life when she stood in the square in 1989. A little tid bit as well, in hockey games to cheer on your team here, you can only stand and jump if you are a true fan. This symbolic action pays tribute to all those in the square that froze their butts off in the rebellion. Another cool fact is Czechs own Jaromir Jagr wears the number 68, which he has worn through his entire career, in honor of the Prague Spring rebellion (Russian invasion) that occurred in Czechoslovakia in 1968, also the year in which his grandfather died while in prison. (kinda ironic now jagr plays in the Russian league and continues to wear number 68). The student’s reformation was a success and after a week of protests and marches, the communists party stepped down to elect a president, returning to a democratic society. It is hard to believe that this country where I study has only been liberated from censorship since 1989.
So to get back to my daily adventures, Wednesday night by far, has been my favorite night in prague thus far. I tried looking for a study lounge but failed miserably. I locked myself in my room and hit the books for a couple hours. Even though we only took a two week class I feel that I can speak the language fairly well. I rolled into class ready to conquer the exam and which I did. I finished the class with an A and was satisfied that I was able to study again. We start normal classes this week, where I look forward to being challenged by the new faculty members of Charles University.
This past weekend was great because not only did we go out to the clubs, dance it up and had a good time, Natalie Moran flew in from Rome to spend the weekend in Prague. I did not expect to see her at first but when were at Radust Club on Thursday night we ran into each other. The coolest part of this club was the atmosphere. The music was great the dance floor was bumping and the people all seemed like they were having a grand old time. I learned earlier that this same club was the location where rihanna shot her music video “Please don’t stop the Music”. If you watch the video, just picture me sitting in the corner where she was sitting, trying not to sweat. Pretty cool right. To end the night we exited the club in search for a bite to eat. Thomas Heidinger and I walked across the street and were amazed by another walk through KFC. We searched the menu and found a bucket of chicken for 4 usd. I tried ordering like 10 times but they would not accept my card. Instead we hit up the mcdonald dollar menu for a couple burgers. We were waitng on this tram stop waiting to go home when these two girls started talking about us because we were talking in Czech. We found out that they were from the states, both from Minnesota. We tried to convince them to buy us pizza but failed but they promised to give us a slice. When they got back from the pizza place they had to rush to their tram but not without us getting some slices. Thomas took a huge bite of the girls slice and flung it into the air. I wasn’t really paying attention when all of a sudden the slice fell into my hands. I felt like it was a quick golden crust garlic cheesy bread steal. The girls were yelling like crazy while Thomas and I enjoyed a slice of mushroom pie. It was a pleasure meeting the girls from Minnesota.

Anyways the next day I had my final class and at night we took Natalie to Lucerna for some 80s throw back jams. We all had a great time together dancing the night away and catching up on our adventures thus far. On Saturday, potter and I took Natalie and her friend abbie on a walking tour of prague. It was a beautiful day to be out and about so we took them to Wenceslas Square and up to the Prague Castle where the President lives. On our ascent up the hill we got lost in this courtyard and found a park filled with peacocks. Potter and I were too excited that we started climbing trees with them, taking pictures and even trying to pet one or two. After some goofing around we took some pictures and had a nice relaxing afternoon.
Today is Sunday, February 21, and tonight a bunch of us guys are going to Jaromir Jagr’s bar downtown to watch the Czech Republic play Russia in Olympic Hockey. It should be a great atmosphere, hopefull the Czechs will pull out a victory over their hated rivals. Class starts this week so I am mentally preparing myself for the work load ahead of me. I hope everyone reading this post has a wonderful week and hope to hear from you soon

Dobry Den