Easter Sunday

I had an absolutely lovely Easter Sunday in Prague. I was a little bummed about not being able to be with my family for the holiday, but as they say, "If you can't be with the ones you love, then love the ones you're with."

One thing that I really wanted to do for Easter was go to to mass at one of the big cathedrals in Prague. St. Vitus cathedral up in the Prague Castle complex is the biggest and most well known church in Prague, so I was really excited to be able to find the times when they would have mass on Easter. I thought I was going to have to go by myself, but I ended up going with my roommate Lisa, my friend Jordan, and his roommate. The mass was all in Czech, but I really didn't mind. I've seen Catholic mass in a lot of different languages now, and it has actually become one of my favorite parts of traveling to see mass in other languages. The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous. I had been up there a few times, but this was the first time that it was sunny out when I was in the cathedral, and seeing the church with so much light coming through the stained glass was completely different. 

After church, we walked down from the castle, across Charles Bridge and through Old Town Square. It was a madhouse in Old Town with so many tourists in town for the holiday, but it was really fun to see the Easter markets so busy and bustling. We all went to Bohemian Bagel for lunch, then Lisa and I parted ways with the boys. We stopped into a bakery called the Bakeshop because Sammi had said that she and her sister were going there, but by the time we got there they had already left. We did happen to see some brightly colored cupcakes though, and we decided that they would be the perfect Easter treat.

We went back to the apartment for a bit, and after relaxing for a while, Jordan invited us to meet up with him and some friends at the beer garden. The boys were playing basketball and instead of trying to find them, Lisa and I wandered around the park for a while before meeting up at the actual beer garden. We hung out for a while with the boys, but headed out early to go home and make an Easter dinner. 

In the Czech Republic, they have a tradition on Easter Monday where the men whip women's legs with a switch to bestow on them health and fertility and in return the women give the men a painted egg or a shot of alcohol. Apparently it's bigger in the villages than in the big cities, but either way, Lisa and I decided to avoid the chaos on Monday by relaxing at home and being productive on our school work and work for home. 

Zoo Day!

Since I've been in Prague, one of the things that I have really wanted to do was to go to the Prague Zoo. Today, on this warm Saturday, I finally got the chance to go with my roommates Sammi and Lisa, our friends Stephanie, Wade, and Jordan, and their friend Maggie.

Before going to the zoo, Sammi, Lisa, and I decided that we would have Easter Brunch a day early. We got dressed up in sundresses and went to a restaurant called Radost FX that I had heard has good brunch. Radost is actually a club at night (Rihanna shot a music video there!), but it is a vegetarian restaurant during the day and has brunch on the weekend. The brunch definitely didn't disappoint. Sammi and I each got a huge plate of Belgian waffles covered in fresh fruit and Lisa got some really tasty eggs.

After brunch, we all met up with at the zoo. I had pretty low expectations for the zoo, but it turned out to be really great and very cheap. They had all kinds of animals, but the best part was the giraffes. The way that the giraffe enclosure was set up, the giraffes could come right up to where the people were standing. We held out leafy twigs and with a little patience and a couple of minor shocks from the electric fence we were able to get the giraffes to eat the twigs out of our hands. You could never get away with that at an American zoo between the liability of an electric fence and letting people get so close to the animals, but it was made possible today thanks to the lack of regulation in a central European zoo.

After the zoo, we were all really worn out from a day in the sun. Sammi's sister Amanda arrived in Prague today though, so Sammi, Lisa, Amanda and I all went out for dinner at Cafe Louvre, a notable Prague cafe. It was a nice end to one of my best days in Prague so far.

A Whole New City

Since I've come back from spring break, Prague has become a whole new city. The day before I left, I was still bundled in my coat and boots and I experienced sun, snow, sleet and rain all with in hours. Since I've come home, it has been warm and sunny every single day. The sundresses and shorts that I thought I would never get a chance to wear have now become necessities. Even the Czech people are friendlier now that they're getting a bit of sunshine. Of course, the change of seasons has brought tons more tourists, but I'm willing to have them if it means warm weather. Over spring break, people would ask me how I liked Prague and I had a hard time telling people that I loved it. But now that I'm back, my opinion has totally changed. It just took some better lighting to make me realize how much I love it here. The six weeks that I have left here definitely doesn't feel like enough.

Yesterday I went to a beer garden in a park with my roommate Sammi, some friends of ours, and some friends of friends. It was so much fun because the crowd there consisted much more of Czechs than of Americans or other tourists. It was the perfect kind of warm spring night to sit and talk with friends. 

I also made a breakthrough with my independent study project that I was supposed to be working on while I was here. I was supposed to be doing a project comparing the health care systems in the Czech Republic and the United States, but it turned out to be a lot harder to get motivated than I expected, I had no clear direction of what I wanted to do with the project, and the language barrier proved to be more of an obstacle than I had expected. I was getting really stressed out about having to spend the last weeks of my time here cramming to get the project done. Last night though, I got inspired to take my project in a totally different direction. I got the idea to do my project about why kids in my generation continue to smoke, even though they are well aware of the health consequences. I already have a clear picture of how to conduct the research and I will be able to do most of the research over the summer and throughout next semester, so I will be able to relax and enjoy the rest of my time here. 

I promise I'll work on my first set of Italy blogs tonight!!

I'm baaaaack!

Hey Everyone! 

I'm back safely in Prague and I had an amazing time in Italy! I haven't had a chance to unpack yet, but I'll try to update the blog asap so I can share my Italian adventures with you :)