"My theory is that modern science is just a new form of religion" is something I just overheard in this café I'm sitting in. #blessed to be surrounded by English speakers so I can eavesdrop on their deep intellectual conversations. This place is called The Globe and it's a bookstore/café and it's really awesome and pretty and big and inviting and it has free wifi but unfortunately Internet hasn't been working on my computer anywhere I go - only my phone. So I'm posting this all via thumbs-on-touchscreen (I know TECHNOLOGY these days amirite). Anywho. I'm not sure if it's called The Globe because it attracts foreigners because really all I've heard here is English. And like American English, not even a British or Australian accent or something. It's interesting because I now have to put in headphones so I don't get distracted by people's conversations whereas usually I don't have to worry about distraction because it's all in Czech so I can't understand it enough to eavesdrop.
Tuesday (the 8th), we took a 9am train to Olomouc! It was a 2 hour ride, but the train was super comfy this time. I had the intention of reading a bunch of Foucault but I basically slept the entire time. Like the kind of sleep where all of your muscles go absolutely limp and when you wake up you're all shaky and disoriented. It was awesome. I had a dream that I was eating pizza. When we got there, we were greeted by Ondrej (pronounced Andre but like with a long O at the beginning kind of I guess - ugh it's so hard to explain this language to all you non-Czech mere mortals ugh ugh ugh), who is a student at Palacky (pronounced Palasky you wouldn't understand) University in Olomouc. He took us to a restaurant/cafeteria type place where we ate lunch. Super delicious and super cheap. After lunch we had a little bit of time to explore the city before we started our tour. It's a verrrrrrry pretty city. Like prettier than Prague I think (if you can imagine such a sight I KNOW it's hard here I'll help)
And also even more medieval looking than Prague which is also saying a lot. I felt like I should have had a gown/corset on or something. It's really really small, and it's covered in college kids and little kids. No parents just kids. Idk. I got some ice cream at a little joint in one of the squares and later found out that it's a place where Freud used to hang out/eat/chat/I hope he didn't eat ice cream there because it was not very good. I've only gotten ice cream in the CR twice so far and haven't been impressed with it either time. Probably better that way. After we ran around town a bit on our own, we all met up at the astronomical clock (apparently that's a thing here - astronomical clocks that display this big performance thing every hour on the hour. Like a cuckoo clock but cooler. I guess).
Then we started our tour of the town. SO much walking. We went into like 4 churches, which were all really beautiful, but one can only take so many churches in a day ya know? I thought about taking pictures of some of their interiors because they were so pretty and ornate and extravagant, but something about taking pictures in a church doesn't seem right to me, like disrespectful or something. Of course it's not, and there were plenty of people doing so which obviously is not a problem at all, there's just something about it that feels weird to me (which I think is also weird that it feels weird - I'm so weEeEeirRrd!!!*~). The first church that we went to was the home of the largest organ in Central Europe. It was absolutely enormous and absolutely beautiful. The organist even gave us a little history of the organ and then played us our own personal concert. SO so so awesome. I love that sound. We even got to walk through the organ itself.
After the church tour, we had a little lecture at Palacky University, which is where Iveta went to college (alma mater raise the roof whoo whoo whoo). Really pretty school. We walked through a courtyard with bushes like twice the size of us, which Iveta cutely reminisced when they were up to her knees (aw). The lecture was really short and apparently last-minute prepared, given by Ondrej and another student whose name I forgot but she had a funky black and white striped dress on with a cool retro pastel colorful striped sweater over it and mint green keds. Precious. They're both a part of OLLOVE which I think is supposed to be like a portmanteau for Ollomouc and love. They also were sort of translating it to ALLOVE for us English speakers. OLLOVE is a group at Palacky which "organizes cultural/social events for the dignity of all people regardless of gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, etc." and everyone's happy. Sounds like a sweet organization. After the lecture, we went back to the train station to go home and my pizza dream came true!! Got a slice of train station spinach and tomato pizza so basically the highest quality of food I've ever had honestly. Slept again on the train ride home <3. Once we got home, Allie and I went to Val and Lauren's flat to use their wifi/watch Scandal. Good (long) day.
Wednesday we had a lecture by Maria Strasokova (Faculty of Art at Charles University in Prague) about Vietnamese women in the Czech Republic. The Vietnamese are apparently the second largest ethnic minority group in the CR after the Roma. With first generation Vietnamese, there was an attitude of an "economic migration," because they planned on staying in the CR long enough to make some quick money, send remittance home to their families, and go back to die in Vietnam. Apparently "no Vietnamese ever intended to die in the Czech Republic." But many haven't been able to earn enough money to follow through with this plan, so they've stayed. Because of this attitude, however, many Vietnamese haven't felt the need to integrate into Czech culture (don't learn the language, don't adopt the culture, use intermediary services) because they see their stay as "transitory." Second generation Vietnamese call themselves "banana children" because they feel yellow on the outside but white on the inside.
After class, I went home and made vegan brownies with this box mix that I bought in Berlin but never made. The homestay of Bethany, Sharon, Ezra, and Kris invited everyone over to their place to have a little fall-themed dessert party, so I figured why not bring some gross boxed German vegan brownies? I used banana instead of an egg substitute because I read somewhere that you could do that BUT of course when I try to accommodate one type of diet (vegan) I poison another person who is allergic to bananas (Patricia - patty mayonnaise my gurl - hope she's doing alright actually now that I think about it she did go home sick from class today so there ya go I actually did poison patty GREAT JOB EILEEN ya blew it again). Ugh. Before we went to the dessert party, Valeria (host-sis) made us dinner! So Allie, Valeria, Valeria's bf Matthew, and I all sat and enjoyed Val pal's soup and pasta. Very delicious. Kind of awkward lack of conversation. Valeria def doesn't take after her mom's chattiness. But halfway through dinner Slavek (host-pop) came in and told us that he got Allie, Joy, and me free tickets to go see a play at the theatre for which he performs! SO excited for that and he even said he'd give us a little backstage tour so he rocks and has my heart 4ever. After dinner, Allie, Joy, vegan poison brownies, and I all went to the fall party (farty lolz) and had some delicious (minus my gross brownanies - g bless Patricia) desserts. There was gingerbread, homemade vegan baileys and coffee, apple cider, gingerbread cookies, mulled wine, bacon bourbon pancakes (fave), rice pudding stuff, and probably more that I can't remember but it was all out-of-this-world-slam-dunk-phenomenal and also a special sweet nice reminder that hi fall exists it doesn't just usually go from summer to winter for most of us. We all just sat and chatted and are and drank and played music/watched old 90s music videos (ended up being a Beyonce love-fest but that's kind of a given at any gathering of people/one person/every day of my life) and had a super cute fun photo booth with wigs and hats and Hannah Montana stickers put together by Kris and Kate. Just a really great night with really great folks (including Beyonce and Han Montan).
Thursday we had a film screening in the morning of a movie called Daisies by a Czech woman whose name I forgot, but apparently she and the film are really well known - Marketta was like yeah duh I've seen that movie. Really cool film. It was super strange because it was an "experimental" film from new age Czech cinema so there wasn't like an explicit plot line and it didn't make much sense but it was really interesting and had feminist tinges but apparently the director claims it's not feminist (she's wrong). It seems to be a recurring theme here in the CR that feminists don't identify as feminists. Ugh. After a movie I went on a run along the river and it was the greatest like half hour of my time in Prague I think.
It was just so great because I finally found a route that I like that isn't hilly and people don't stare at me/get in my way and it has beautiful riverside views and swans and an awesome old bridge/view of a fortress/castle thing and the sun was out and it was just everything perfect in one cardio-wrapped package. Put me in such a good mood. Then I went home, showered, ate lunch, went to the globe café and had some grogg, read some Foucault, and walked home in the rain.
Friday morning we had a lecture by Iva Smidova (Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, CR) about Czech masculinities. She talked about research she did with Czech men who take maternal leave after their child has been born, instead of the mother. It was interesting because she said that all of the fathers she researched presented themselves as heroes for changing the gender order. She said it seems that if a Czech man does something that feeds into or supports a gendered society, it is excused because of the symbolic gender order (as if their actions are brushed off as an outcome of societal conditioning - they can't help it), but if they do something that challenges the gender order, it is glorified as a heroic and valiant action.
In the afternoon, we had another Foucault seminar with Iveta about the 3rd assigned part of the book, The History of Sexuality. Again, took lots of notes. Ask me about them and I'll fill you in <3333 also read the book seriously. Seriously.
Friday after class, Allie and I went to a wifi cafe, my computer still wasn't wifi-ing, so I phoned it again. Then I went home and ate din with Marketta. So delicious yet again. Such long conversation yet again. This time we talked about like abortion, birth control, gender in the hospital, home-births/midwives, ya know casual light dinner table conversation. So fun. Friday night, Allie and I chose to stay in and drink wine and paint nails and watch Moulin Rouge (!) which really is my ideal Friday night if we're being honest. Joy came home about halfway through the rouge so yeah great roomie night in W/ muh gUrLzzz *~*,~~!!!
Saturday was chill out day and we all slept until like noon and totally vegged. I went running at some point and tried to go down to my new fave river route, but it was overtaken by farmers markets/flea markets/a giiiiiiant snow boarding festival???? They actually had real snow and a hill that people were ripping shreds on with their gnarly board trix. And just endless booths of snowboard merch and Jaegermeister and random cheese and wine booths. A lot of people to plow through so I just gave up on my run until it cleared up a bit further down the path. It was also really cold. So yeah not ideal running conditions but still. Love that river. Saturday night we are dinner at our beloved Cafe Afrika because they were having Ethiopian night so a lot of the students went. Yum yum yummy yay yum Ethiopian. Had an interesting conversation with an admittedly drunk African/Londonian man whose accent was super thick and made it really hard to understand his already rather nonsensical annecdotes. Then we all went back to The Globe for dessert and drinks and karaoke. SO FUN. It was very American (forgot I was abroad for like 2 seconds) but still really fun because we knew all of the songs listed. A lot of us sang both by ourselves and with each other so that was awesome. Ezra has the voice of an angel and showed everyone when they sang evanescence and helter skelter and summer love just ugh so beautiful. I sang Train In Vain but the Annie Lennox version which is a little slower than The Clash's original but I love Annie's version and it always reminds me of my childhood so it was another fave moment in Prague. Then I sang I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney with Kelsey which was a crowd pleaser. Everyone killed it at karaoke it was so fun.
Sunday morning Joy and I went with Kate, Kris, Bethany, Patricia, and Kelsey to a little town, Kutna Hora - Sedlec, which is like an hour away and which has an ossuary aka BONE CHURCH.
Human plague victim bones. Decorating this chapel. Whaaaaaaat so cool/creepy/creative!! Had a nice Camembert lunch, visited another mediocre church, and went home. Beeeeautiful weather/awesome day.
Sunday night, Allie, Joy and I ate marketta's delicious dinner and then just chatted at the dinner table for a long time (just the 3 of us this time - marketta and valeria and Matthew were playin cards in the other room which was also cute).
Monday, we didn't have class until 2, so I got up early and ran along the river, showered, and finished the reading for class. It was a seminar with Iveta about readings by Judith Butler who is THE queer theorist and apparently everyone who has ever studied even the slightest bit of queer theory in their life has heard the name of Judy B. proclaimed on high (sidenote: Joy's new alter ego is Judith Bieber but that's for another time). Judith Butler is the one who coined the term "gender performativity," which plays off of gender as a performance, but isn't the same because it's moreso explaining how acts of heteronormative gender expression are constantly repeated in society as an active attempt to keep homosexual gender expression as the Other gender expression or the "copy" of heterosexuality. Gahh I probably explained that totally and offensively incorrectly but that's what I think I got out of it. Obviously there's so much more to it. Ask me (or one of my cohorts) about it. Also read Judith butler.
Monday night I went to the homestay of Sharon, Bethany, Ezra, and Kris to make/eat some family dinner of what we thought was quinoa (turned out to be some sort of bird seed which we found out is still edible and actually really tasty) and chopped veggies yummmm. Michelle and Sharon and I also started to try to figure out how we're getting to Budapest after the program ends (they're going just to travel, I'm going to meet my mom, 3 aunts, and grandma which I absolutely can't wait for). Then we all decided to go pub hopping before we realized that everything closes early on Mondays oooops so we just hopped into one pub and went home.
This morning (Tuesday) we had a lecture by Zusanna Stefkova (Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague) about Gender and Art. She discussed with us whether the gender of the artist matters, whether the gender of the curator matters, and whether the gender of the art pedagogue matters. Answer: yes. Gender matters in all of those areas.
For lunch we went to a pub and I got delicious potato pancakes. In the afternoon, we had a documentary screening of a Czech documentary whose title I think translates to "Matchmaking Mayor." It was a very interesting documentary about a mayor in a small Slovakian town who is obsessed with the prolonging of "the world" (his town) and is afraid that it's dying out because so many of the town's inhabitants are 30-ish and single and not doing much about it. It was pretty comical because it was so absurd but also really incredible and sad and eugenics-y so that's messed up. Everyone should try to watch it somehow. Afterward, we got to talk to the documentary's director, Erika Hnikova, and ask her questions/hear about her experience with the film and after the film. Very cool and interesting. Then the unmentionable happened: Iveta invited me to go running with her and Bethany. Love them both but hate their speed/endurance/stamina. I think I run pretty regularly, but woof. They're fast. We went along the river again but this time we cut over to this little secret passage to these stairs up to this giant beautiful park/castle/fortress/cemetery UGH so pretty and awesome I wish I could have gotten pics of it all for you but I didn't take my phone SRY but I can't wait to take my mom there when she comes because it's seriously all so beautiful and apparently the oldest part of Prague. Such an awesome view too. Then we ran some more and some more and HA more. We went across the bridge and ran around that side for a bit and then crossed back over and I'm surprised I didn't keel over. Iveta and Beth were chatting it up and I again was gaspingly trying to add in agreeing "yeahs" every once in a while but I think they could tell I was dying. Like I wouldn't be surprised if we ran for 45 minutes. At like 75% speed. Brutal. But like omg I feel sooooo gewd after it all!!!! #exercise #endorphins right? Then I came home and showered and found out that we finally have access to wifi in our homestay! So I did some long overdue emailing and other communication/social networking/surfing. Downside: still all has to be on my phone because my computer wifi still doesn't work. Ew I sound so annoying who cares about the internet. Falling asleep love you all talk soon <3 ahoj!
xx
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