All roads lead to Tesco

So I've discovered that it is nearly impossible to get lost in Prague. No matter where I wander off to, if I keep going, I eventually find myself back near the huge grocery & department store, Tesco, which is right near our academic center and our dorm.

Anyway, a few interesting updates for the week. On Wednesday we went to the Petrin hill to see beautiful rose gardens and climb up 350 or so steps to the top of their mini eiffel tower. The view from the top of the tower was awesome! Interestingly, although this tower is only 1/3 as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Czechs made sure to build it on a hill so that from an "alien's perspective" the Czech eiffel tower is actually 5 meters taller. We are learning that this is typical of the Czech attitude... why put in extra work when there is an easier way to beat out the competition?

On Thursday, our Czech teacher left us directions in Czech telling us to use the tram or metro to come find her in the Namesti Republiky (Republic Square). She then took us on a little walking tour back to the classroom and gave us some practical advice along the way. My group definitely got the best Czech teacher and the best schedule. For some reason, we are the only group that sometimes gets to have class at 11 am instead of 9 am. Also, our Czech teacher is super nice! I really hope that we still have her during the normal semester.

Friday afternoon we took a long walk through the Zizkov and Karlin neighborhoods of Prague. Our professor, Václav Cílek, is quite an interesting guy. He apparently is on tv in the Czech Republic doing some show about geology and caves. In fact, he got recognized on the street during the other group's walking tour with him. Also, he is a well-known graffiti artist, and he did some huge commissioned graffiti work in a tunnel somewhere (we still need to find it). He took us to one of his favorite graffiti/spray paint shops, and he stopped to ask some Czech 'punks' how long it takes to make their mohawks, just because we were wondering, haha.

During the tour of Zizkov, we walked by the TV tower, which has these huge black, faceless babies with alien-shaped heads crawling up and down the sides of the tower. This art project supposedly helped make the Czech people like the tower better... basically it is really strange and creepy, haha. The tower was built during the Communist era to demonstrate the new technology and provide an imposing reminder of the power of Communism. It kind of looks like a rocket, and the people have pretty much always hated the tower. For some reason though, creepy black babies crawling on the tower has helped its image.

Outside of class, we got to do some interesting things this week as well. On thursday night, we went to a tea house / hookah bar with our SAs (student assistants). There are 3 of them: Ivca, Anca, and Petr. They are all about our age (19/20) and they will be starting University this year. They are all super nice, and they have lots of fun activities planned for us throughout the semester (go-karts, bobsledding, etc.). We decided that in return, we should teach them how to play beer pong and flip cup. They seem pretty excited :)

Friday night was lots of fun because basically everyone in the program went out together to celebrate the September birthdays. There is a really interesting bar here called PUB (Pilsner Unique Bar) where you have individual beer taps right at your table. Each table also has a screen from which you can order food and add beer to individual bills. So, each person picks a number, clicks their number, and fills their beer from the tap. The screen keeps track of each person's individual bill as well as the "group drain". There is a large screen at the front of the bar that shows which tables have consumed the most beer, and the whole experience is basically one big competition. You even get to compete with tables at other locations of the bar in Brno and Plzen (other towns in the Czech Republic). I'm surprised American bars haven't adopted this ingenious concept... the bar does basically no work (they bring you a beer mug) and the setup encourages you to keep drinking and spending more money. Seems like a large profit potential to me.

On Saturday, I went paddle-boating with some friends from the program. We paddled up and down the Vltava river and got GREAT views of the Charles bridge and the surrounding buildings. We nearly ran over a few ducks, and narrowly avoided being attacked by some swans. All in all, it was a very nice and inexpensive way to spend the afternoon.

Well... I think that is a pretty good overview of all that has happened this week. I promise pictures are coming SOON. I finally took some, so now I just have to upload them.