...with rum!

i guess my last blog post wasn't so coherent. sorry!

after some ambien-induced hallucinations (no mythical creatures but apparently i told my roommate that my shampoo was doing a dance on my cubby), and a solid night of sleeping off the time difference, i had a "real" day in the city. Suzana took us to Hradcany (like hrad ches-keny with the Slavic rolled R that I cant do), the Prague castle where the president and other government officials have offices. The castle and the buildings around it are amazing and show all types of design- Roman columns and arches, Gothic spires, Baroque embellishments and modern windows. We stopped at a cafe in one of the many national galleries and Suzana introduced us to too Czech traditions- hot mulled wine and "grock", which is hot tea.... with rum! this was at 10:30 am and it turned out the grock was much heavier on the rum side than the tea side. I guess this is how they deal with the cold all winter.

After the first drink of the day we walked through the castle and "old city" neighborhood. There are tons of galleries and some museums made up of the private collections of aristocratic Czech families. Suzana promised to get us tickets to the galleries for some of our "cultural fridays".

Suzana had to leave us, so we made our first tram adventure alone. Armed with explicit directions, we took the street car to Andel (meaning angel) to a shopping center to get cell phones and some groceries. I think my number is 420.776.738.323, but it's probably very expensive to call it without an international calling card. I can call a US land line though for only 10 CZK a minute, or 5 cents if the dollar is having a good day. After shopping we ate at another local pub and found out for sure that beer is cheaper than water here. We made it back even with a tram switch and now we're chilling until we eat dinner. We're going to try a Vietnamese restaurant close to the dorm that claims to be "nearly vegetarian".

so far i've only been doing things with the miami group (there are 7 girls and 4 guys) but tomorrow i'll have orientation with all 160 english speaking students at this faculty of the university. i did meet some canadians in the lobby today, one of whom reminded me of Tess from our israel trip. i'll keep an eye out for her...

i hope to continue being a "real" person tomorrow by taking the tram to Tesco (described as walmart like but with more raw meat) after orientation in the morning. oh and it's my birthday too.

peace and miss you all,
jo