First week of Class and Sparta Soccer Game

First week of classes
This has been the week we have all been waiting for, the first week of Classes. I was not really sure what to expect from the 4 marathon classes but when the week was over, I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing that I did not expect was the amount of international students in my classes. My first class on Tuesday, Central European Film consists of students all around Eastern Europe. When the class began these two Hungarian kids had an open argument with this kid from Poland about the transformation of old and modern film projection pictures. I sat in the class having no input and quit honestly was very intimidated. I sit next to Thomas Bearce and Steve Thomas, where there were a number of instances that we peaked next to each with the same ‘what the heck is going on?’ look. The class is not bad we watch movies every week and have to write a 3 page paper in response. This first week we watched this film called A Shop on Main Street. It was a pretty good film but definitely put me to sleep at times. The next class that I am taking is recent economic development. Our teacher is this young Czech grad student that loves to travel and loves to let us out early if he can. The class runs from 4-7, but I rarely see us staying the full 3 hours. The other two classes which seem pretty cool are Alternative Literature, Music and Lifestyles, and Global Perspectives on Critical Pedagogy. The critical Pedagogy class on Thursday s might be my favorite class, the teacher is really cool and the subject matter seems to bring up a lot of controversial oppressions in the education system. I felt really bad for this one girl that sat through 2 hours of the class, and then raised her hand looking like she wanted to participate but instead asked if it was a literature class. Our teacher does not really understand English too well, so it was kind of funny seeing her reaction after the girl left the class abruptly.

Monday of last week, February 22nd, I once again packed my suitcase and headed for the Laundromat downtown. The most inconvenient part about being abroad is doing laundry. It takes us at least a half hour to get to the Laundromat and another 3 hours to complete your loads. Did I mention it costs a lot? In America you can usually insert a couple of quarters and be all set, but to do two loads of laundry one might spend up to 25$. This is so bizarre considering that everything else in this country is dirt cheap. Anyways I might be taking a bus trip to Budapest with a couple of friends this weekend so I must get back there to clean some shirts and pants.

It was also a somber week in the Czech Republic since the national hockey team was dismissed from the Olympic games. Last night a couple of our buddies went to this australain bar that played the Gold Medal game live. The bar was called Fat Guys, and what do you know the owner of the bar was this huge Canadian fat guy. The atmosphere was great, there were a number of Canadians and Americans screaming during the game and unfortunately the US lost in overtime to Sid the Kid. On the way back to the dorm a bunch of us got in this huge debate on USA Soccer and how they are supposedly going to win this year’s world cup. (Worst argument to have after a couple of drinks because it did not go anywhere.)

This past Saturday, a group of AIFS students were given the chance to go support Prague’s soccer team, Sparta. It was a beautiful day for a game and the crowd was in full force cheering on the team. The Spartans are notorious for hooligans but luckily we did not run into any fights. The game ended in a tie to the demise of all the fans. The chants were pretty cool hopefully we can learn a couple before the next game.

I’m looking forward to traveling in the upcoming weeks. In the month of March I will be going to Budapest, Krakow Poland, and Vienna Austria. I hope the Providence Crew is having a great time in Ireland, I wish they made the trip to Prague but I will forgive them eventually.

Dekuju
tomassii