PRAGUE!

Ok so here we are two weeks later. lol

well in the last blog I failed to mention that I had also had an excursion with my program to an asparagus farm (here it's called spargel). We went an hour on the train outside the city and were treated to an amazing lunch with lots and lots of spargel. The farm was cool, and reminded me alot of a place you would take the family for a sunday outing. They had a petting zoo and bounce house, a few big buildings that looked like barns and some other activities you could also take part in, like zip lining in the woods (which i really wanted to do but we didn't have enough time, nor did i have the money to do so). They also had little booth like shops where you could buy all different varieties of spargel as well as other homemade keepsakes.

For lunch we had all you can eat spargel with potatoes and an optional schnitzel (which yes, I opted for). You had the choice of one of 3 sauces: butter, butter with bread crumbs or hollandaise. On the plate you got like 8 spears of spargel, that were quite big, and I didn't think there was a need for all the extra plates of spargel they kept bringing, because the amount we started with was quite enough. The spargel is different than what we think of asparagus in America, its not those tiny green stalks. these are big white stalks, all about 8-10 inches long with bases about the size of a quarter. They are also sweeter than the green asparagus. Anyways the meal was absolutely delicious, I definitely stuffed myself to the max.

Ok well then that takes us to

PRAGUE!!!!

So last Thursday was a holiday so my friends and I decided to go to Prague for a long weekend. After a 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Prague and headed over to our hostel. The hostel was really nice, and since there were 10 of us we got our own dorm to ourselves, which was great so we didn't have to worry about locking up our things. After dinner at a little pizza and pasta place on the corner, we headed to downtown prague for some drinks. Danny had heard about this place called "The PUB" which stands for Pilsner Unique Bar, so we found our way there. However we ended up at the wrong place first, a similar venue known as the Beer Factory. After some savvy iphone-ing we figured out where The PUB was and headed in that direction. However, my friend Ted was on crutches so we decided to try and get him a cab. i told the cabby's the address and no one seemed to know it, and then even with my iphone map they still didn't understand where it was. We finally found a guy but then he wanted to us 8 euro (200 krowns) to go around the block. So instead Ted hobbled along with us down to the bar. The place was pretty cool. It had big tables and at each table there was a tap with 3 heads, so all you had to do was get glasses and then you could drink however much you pleased. They had a little meter that kept count of your table. They also had this big screen wehre they showed what tables at each of the four places like this around prague had drank the most. It was pretty cool.

On friday we did walking tours of the city which were really great. We did a free tour (I highly recommend doing these, because the people are always enthusiastic because they were solely off tips) first of the actual city of prague. We went around the old square, new square and jewish quarters. Old and new town are relative terms because the old town dates to 13th century while the new town is 14th century. The guide we had was named Keith and he was american. he moved to prague to be with a woman he fell for while on vacation, and they now have a baby. Anyway he was really great and gave us alot of fun history that you don't always read in books. On the clock tower in old town square they have a dial with names and each day has 4 names. If you child is born in prague, they have to have one of the names on that dial, you're not allowed to name them anything else, but you don't have to name them with a name that is featured on their birthdate. Instead those names represent whose Name Day it is, which is celebrated like a birthday in Prague. There are also alot of astrological clocks and such around Prague, which I found really interesting. They had rulers during the middle ages that were far less concerned with religion and more so with astronomy and sciences, which was something i didn't expect.

On this tour we also visited st. James Church which houses a mummified thief's arm. Legend has it that they used to store lots of gold in the church and one day a thief came and hid in the church til the priests left and then began to gather lots of gold artifacts. He went up to the virgin mary and as he lifted her gold medallion over her head the statue came to life and grabbed him by the neck and then turned back to stone. The thief remained there until the priests returned in the morning. When they found him they decided to cut off his arm as punishment for his crime. When the saw had cut through the last bit of skin the statue released him and went back to her original form. It is said they mummified this thief's arm and hung it near the altar as a warning to all other criminals not to steal from the church.

After the tour of the city we decided to do a second tour of the castle with the same guide. The castle in prague is not your traditional idea of a castle. It was built for function and not grandeur. However it was very intersting tour. they have a monastery on the grounds that brews its own beer and the palace today is home to the czech government and president. When the czech flag flies above the castle that means the president is in the country, and if there is no flag then he is abroad. The church on the grounds was built over the years between 871 and 1927, and one of the steeples is in the baroque rather than gothic style, because by the time construction reached this point, gothic was out of style. Famous middle ages astronomer Tycho Brahe also lived on the grounds and apparently kept a pet dwarf (yes a little person) under his dining table as well as a pet elk, which died one night from a fatal fall down the stairs after having drunk too much beer. Brahe himself died of mercury poisoning which they believe could have entered his system in one of 3 ways: he ingested it himself as medicine; it entered his system slowly via his scientific work; or that he was murdered by his apprentice Kepler, who later claimed fame with his law of planetary motion, but the world will never know.

On these tours we met some really cool girls from Washington state that are here for 13 weeks just travelling throughout europe. They were both really cool and i really enjoyed talking to hilary about all her adventures in travelling as well as her experience with couch surfing.

Friday night we stayed near the hostel for dinner and drinks because ted was not very mobile. We ended the night at a bar just up the street from us called "As soon as possible". Danny fell in love with the waitress and we all danced the night away to euro oldies music. Best song of the night: Disco song with the lyrics "I'm crucified, crucified like my savior." Never thought i'd see the day that i would be getting down to jesus music. Enjoy the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYT2aWavXlc

Saturday we headed out to a town outside of prague called Kutna Hora, which has the Bone Church and Silver Mines as its claim to fame. The Bone Church featured bones of over 40,000 people, included in six large mountains of bones, two of which were used for the church's artwork. The bones were the remains of people who died in the plague in the 15th century and were made into the current church in the 1870s. The artist felt that the use of the bones was a good metaphor for the eternity of the sole that extends beyond this world.

Saturday night we went on a pub crawl throughout prague. it was pretty cool, but a normal pub crawl. the last bar we went to was a 5 story club, that had different music on every floor and was really cool. On Sunday morning we headed back to Berlin. Overall the weekend was a great success.

As for this week, classes are becoming a little more difficult as I have work that I need to turn in. I've been feeling a little under the weather this week, but after a trip to the doctor today, i'm hoping to recover quickly. On wednesday I went rollerblading with my roommates Juale and Celine. I can't remember the last time i was on rollerblades. it was fun and i got the hang of it after a little while and only fell once. Last night (thursday) I took the girls that we met in prague out to a favorite bar of mine, madam claud, cuz they are here visiting berlin for the week.

Well this weekend is another holiday and the cultural carnival in berlin, so i'm hoping it will be a good weekend. I think that's it for now. Until next time, Aufwiedersehen!

how time flies

So i think this blog will have to be a weekly thing, since I clearly cannot write for it more frequently than that. Well this week was kinda uneventful compared to the past weeks. But here goes:

Sunday I moved into my new place. I absolutely love it, and it definitely feels more like home. Everyone is super great and really nice.

Gary is working in some sort of public relations job. I'm not really sure, but he has already completed his studies. He studied at San Jose State, so he knows a bit more about California than everyone else, so its kinda like having someone from home which is nice.

Jens is a student studying economics. He's the oldest of the house (32 i think) but it doesn't really show. He likes to hang out with everyone just as much as the other roommates. He cracks me up cuz his english is the worst of the roommates, but he just has really great expressions and is always excited to talk to you.

Julien is from France. I haven't really gotten to know him much, because he has been in away in Paris this past week. He is the only other person in the house that is not fluent in German.

Juale is super nice. She is studying something with the environment and she just come back from a business trip where she was working with a team of people promoting new electric cars.

Elvira is from Switzerland and is studying in Berlin for the semester like me. She studies english and german literature I think. She's really sweet. She and I bonded a little bit on Wednesday when the house went out for drinks. We talked to each other the whole evening about a little bit of everything. She's very open and welcoming and I really enjoy being around her.

Celine is German and is here until the end of July. She is not a student and just works. She's also very cool. In August she will be going home to visit family for a month and then in september or october she is going to Australia for a year, that will most likely be followed by 6 months in New Zealand. I think its so cool that she's doing that. She is just going for the sake of going and seeing where she ends up. She has a carefree attitude and is a free spirit and its the type of person I think I would like to be.

and finally there is Eli. She is the youngest in the house, having just turned 19 earlier this year. She is actually still in Gymnasium (German high school) and will need to take an extra year to graduate because she switched schools. Shes really nice and kinda a goth/punk with her look, but we get along quite well.

I really love it here. Everyone is so nice and welcoming. They invite me out with them and include me in whatever there doing. It is a really great house.

Other big events of the week include my first real class in German. I had my grimm brother's class this week and its my only class that is with other german students. It is really hard. We had class for 4 hours and I pretty much didn't understand what anyone was saying. It worries me a little bit, but at the same time i think it will be ok, because all I have to do for a grade is a group presentation (in german) and a 3-5 page paper. And I really only need to just pass the class to get a decent grade back home so i think it will be ok.

Thursday night we had a british election party. It was good fun to hang out with everyone, but the actual election coverage was a bit boring.

Other than that its been a pretty quiet week in comparison to the previous weeks. Next week I will be going to Prague so I am quite excited for that.

Well I think thats about it. More to come in another week's time.

another week gone by

So i told myself I would write sooner, but once again another week has gone by without me writing.

Well, the night after Danny's birthday I just stayed in and watched Princess and the Frog, which was pretty good.

Saturday we went to a Beirgarten in Prenzlauerberg and it was pretty cool. The weather was gorgeous so it was a really nice day for a beirgarten. After a few hours we all left and got dinner. We went to this mediterranean place that had big portions for like 5 euro of schwarma and falafel. so good. it was also a shisha lounge (hookah tobacco) so we ordered one of those as well and all sat around talking and smoking. It was a nice time. Saturday night Danny, David, Jack, Ted and I went to friedrichshain to some more clubs. Primitiv was really cool. It was just a loungy like bar, and they had eighties music playing and an eighties john travolta jazzercising movie projected on one of the walls. Astro was also cool, they had a good mix of music and we got to enjoy the beatles and bob dylan whyle we were there. We ended the night at Lucia's in Kreuzberg. It was kinda dead when we got there, not too much going on, but the bartender was quite interesting. She had a very angry resting face, it was quite the scowl, and was only enhanced by her eyebrows which were thick, close set and had an angry arch. She reminded all of us of Frida Carlo, though Danny tried to convince us that she was a mix between Frida and Megan Fox. So that was definitely a success.

Sunday we went to Mauer Park for the Flea Market (Flohmarkt in german). The weather was gorgeous and they have this amplitheater type thing at the park where they do karaoke all day long. It was absolutely huge and jam packed with people. If you ever had a dream of performing infront of a stadium of people, here is your chance. Most of the people we saw were not that great, though this man Sketch was quite good, though I can't remember what he sang. We also got to enjoy a group of 14 year olds singing "girl i want to make you sweat, sweat til you can't sweat no more, and when you cry out, im gonna push it some more more more" a good song, but one that I really didn't need to hear a 14 year old sing. I now have the image of a young boy humping and slapping the air in front of a good few hundred people. however best performance of the day was a young kid who sang Michael Jackson's Billy Jean. he had quite the moves and then these two black guys came and joined him on stage as back up dancers. I have posted the video of this performance.

After enjoying karaoke for a while, we decided to venture into the flohmarkt. My friends and I had a competition to see who could find the best thing(s) in the flohmarkt for 3 euro or less. My friend jack bought at condom box that was in the shape of a bed with a little man chained on top and it said "CONDOMS" on the headboard. Very german. haha. My friend Ted bought a clockface made out of a round saw blade and with his additional 50 cents, a book about sexuality and communism, apparently the first documentation of sexuality behind the iron current. That sounds like a interesting time guaranteed for all. I bought a fish fossil of a Piranha from 1972. I left it at the Flohmarkt cuz i really didn't want to take it home with me.

During the week I went to class, but really only had 1 class this week, because one of my classes is every other week, so this was an off week and the other classes were cancelled because the professor was ill. I spent my time looking for a new apartment, and not doing any work. haha.

Thursday night was another night at our favorite bar Madame Claude. As it always seems to happen, we were having a good time and then suddenly it was 3 am, so we all went and got something to eat while we waited for the trains to start running at 4am. However our last 20 minutes or so in the club were spent making fun of this girl that was wearing a sailors cap. We were all thinking up nautical based pick up lines the best of which include "Can I go down on you like the Titanic?" "I'd like to dock my ship in your port!" and "I'd like to drop my anchor on that ship!" yes it was all good fun and then we called her over to our table and started talking to her. Ted spent the entire time dropping the previously mentioned lines on her, but to no avail. She either didn't hear him or was ignoring him. We did momentarily steal her hat and passed it around the group and everyone got a picture with it. good stuff good stuff. On the train home the Brits were all being super loud, and at first I was embarrassed because most of the time the loud drunks are the Americans I'm with, but then I realized, that ALL of them were British, and they were representing the queen and not America, so I was no longer embarrassed, haha.

Friday I saw two apartments, one in Neukoelln and one in Friedrichshain. The latter was really cool, an 8 person WG, and I really wanted it, so I made a point to talk to every roommate there. They were all super stoked to hear I was from Cali, cuz one guy studied at San Jose and they had also just had a roommate not just from CA, but get this, UC Davis. Yea definitely tried to play that up, and it must of helped, because 2 hours after I left, they called me and said I got the place. STOKED! So obviously I said yes and then went out with some friends to celebrate. I was pretty wiped but they were going to a club that promised Indie music, so I forced myself to stay awake. We went to this place called Magnet and it was Swedish night, ie lots of Brit pop from the 80s and 90s. FANTASTIC, definitely had a good night, but at 430 had to call it quits cuz i was just sooo exhausted. I actually fell asleep on the train ride home and woke up at each stop to see if it was mine. haha.

Saturday: the first of May is a big deal here in germany. I think its celebrated throughout the world as well as a worker's day. However, it has also become a protest day for political extremes, that include both anti-Nazi and neo-Nazi demonstrations. In Kreuzberg they have a huge block party during the day so my friends and I went to that for a couple hours. It was really cool, but you could tell just from the music (mostly rock, metal, and punk) as well as the atmosphere that there would definitely be riots later. We stayed until 6, but then decided to leave because last year thats when some of the riots started and they disrupted the Ubahn so we didn't want to get stuck there. After returning to schoeneberg we all went out to eat and had some delicious tibeten food. I had been craving curry so it definitely hit the spot. Next we went to this bar called Slumberland which has sand on the floor and maps on the tables, and a foozball table. I ordered a banana beer and Ted got a mango beer. They served them to us in "coconuts" which were essentially half spheres of wood. haha. both were good, but were definitely one drink only beers because they were so sweet, it was like drinking a cocktail. After sucking at foozball I decided to go home and get a full nights rest.

Sunday: MOVING DAY! today i moved to my new place. The trek on the ubahn across the city was a long on but I made it. My new place is in Friedrichshain, I live with 7 other people, 3 guys adn 4 girls. Everyone is really nice and welcoming. My room is the perfect size and has everything I need, bed, desk, chair, and closet. The living room is awesome. We have this huge couch, that is so deep its pretty much like sitting on a bed, plus a plasma screen tv with a sound system, a big table that everyone can eat at and a foozball table. I'm so excited to be living here, I think now I can finally relax and really begin to enjoy my time here in Berlin. WHAHOO!