I'm slowly but surely posting all of my pictures from prague on the following web address.
http://community.webshots.com/user/sosaidh

A few pictures

Pictures around Charles Bridge and looking out over the River towards Prague Castle.

the meaning of home

sitting on my couch, clutching snake (if you don't know who snake is then I don't know what to tell you. he is a very important pandemensional being sent to earth from my home planet to make me happy), labtop on lap, posting via wireless internet, sipping coffee bean "malibu dream" (again, if this reference escapes you then you must be either a non-californian or a very unenlightened one), making plans with my dad for him to bring me home an In-n-out burger animal style, feeling my lungs hurt with each breath...thank you valley smogness.

for me this is home

so much has gone on in the past 6 weeks. Fairly amazing to come home and sleep in my bed, wake up, etc... really go back to my summer routine (or lack there of), it's as if I dreamed the past 6 weeks... as if they were a ( ) in the middle of my life...that's how random it all was/seems to have been. Yet that metaphore doesn't entirely hold true because I definatley know that I'll never again see myself or my life in the same way. There are certain questions esp in light of interneational politics that I have to find answers to now... and this is a good thing. it is a very good thing. Also on a personal level I have learned a lot about myself... I think I have grown a lot as a person... so that too has definately changed me. It's all a bit scary now to tell the truth... especially when my mind succeeds going into "macro mode"-- placing these past 6 weeks into the general cosmos of life and trying to make sense of their long term impact, etc. -- I begin to see why moderate thinkers seem to stay away from the interenational scene-- futility seems to be the watch-word... sorry no clue if that last little bit made sense... did I mention that over the past like 4 days I've gotten very little sleep? I only got about 6 1/2 hours last night after traveling for 24 hours straight... stupid dogs next door had to go and wake me up ;( so yes point is tha

done done done... and this time it's permanent-- *tear!* :(

'ello!
So yes... in less than 24 hours I'll have said goodbye to pragueness :( growl/ sad! bleh.... so tired. But final is done done done! woohoooo!!! despite having to handwrite 6 pages in 1 1/2 hours complete with quotes :( but w/e it's over and done with! have no clue what my grade will be but hey that's ok! :-p learned a ton... so good and amazing. and really dont' feel like staying here to type more. So toodlooo to all :) and next post should come from the good ol usa.

--c'est zuska...

A train of thought begun on my notebook on July15th and elaborated on today... does that make sense?

(from July 15th) Saw film about Prague Spring--> made me tear up.
brought up more inner questioning-- how do I look at all of this?
Yesterday went to lecture by Barbara Day who knew my professor in the days when both of them worked for the clanistince underground universities and when both were "enemies of the state."-- these two 60-something adorable ladies... yeah... Barbara Day is actually British and choose to study at a university in prague during communism which meant that we could ask her a bit in regards to the Western perspective on communism and how it clashed or compared with her experiences. One of hte CIEE employees during the Q and A time offered the comparison of McCarthyism to the Stalinist show trials... my professor was actually rather apologetic today for that comment. she Explained that he was 3rd generation from an historically communist family and that in the schools currently, Marxist-Leninist's mainly teach history. To be honest, such a conspiracy-theroist sounding generalization makes me a bit skeptical... yet at the same time this belief is reccuring througout class--both readings and professor, and also througout different discussions and experiences I've had: that communists still very much control or at least greatly influence many aspects of society Lgoically this makes acutally absolute sense when oen looksa t the deep immersion socially that communism causes and the fact taht Czechoslovakai, like Yugoslavia has a "native" communist party that was v. strong post-WW2--> thus communism is not tied absollutely to "Soviet Oppression"-- yet it's a concept that my American-centered brain continues to label as paranoid and cold-war era...yet while the fossilized barriers and borders and terro has ended...ideologically how much has really changed? Whe one looksa t these countries...heck one just needs to look at Russia-- theings are still very much in transition and unstable-- and there's no real light at the end of this tunnel...The communist party in Czech also still has a large minority of control. So is this paranoia? or realism? I have a feeling from being here--that a major fear is being alone-- thus the belief that there is a need for internatioanl dialogue... Yalta and Munich, regardless of one's personal opinions, demonstrated to this area of the world... and especially czechoslovakia-- that they are of secondary importance to the "great Poers" Thsi is part of how they now view the worldd adn also Czechs historically seem to be smart when it comes to knwoing their own territorical weakness and need for coalition.

So how do I make sense of all of this?

McCarthyism was viewed by eastern europe as necessary though mismanaged... there was a real worry that Russians would infiltrate USA. My professor's answer to that comparison of McCarthyism to the show trials was that the former was protecting freedom while the later was taking it. Again...such a statement in teh states I would laugh off as rhetoric... I would reject it mbased on the undefinable nature of the word "freedom" but experiencing this here-- there is another side to that statement. Freedom may be undefinable but the absecnce of freedom is blatantly identifiable...espeically the absolute lack of freedom under an opressive Totalitarian regime. Thus--> Communism in theory may be just another "perspective" yet so far it seems impossible to separate Communism from Totalitarianism and (from today) therein lies the Evil part of the Empire. It has nothing to do with American notions of godless society, of the arms race, of industrialization, of power, control. Totalitarianism is brutal. Yesterday... (July 18th) we went to the Museaum of Communism off Wenceclas Square... the exhibits were good and interesting but what got me was the video footage. I recognized the places... and the brutality... the stifling of freedom... I later on had to go to Tesco for a hair claw (clip whatever) and one of the video clips had taken place at that tram stop... outside Tesco.... Narodni Trida... on the footage not 3 hours earlier I had seen two girls my age being yelled at and hit by police... and then a guy also my age yelled at them "Don't hit girls" --how elementry is that? how many times have I heard that growing up and felt frustrated by it actually b/c I always felt it was unfair that I could hit them and they couldn't hit me... ok end of tangent but the point still remains... such a comment was so basic.) and the police turned on him... about 6 of them if I'm remembering correctly. They beat him. He wasn't doing anything political to provoke them... he had just sought to remind them of soemthing which they wanted desprately to forget-- they're humanity. What their mothers had told them growing up... don't hit girls. He tried to run from them... but it was useless... the faces of those police were young. They too were about my age. Rationality can not really explain such things to satisfaction... thus we come to use the much scoffed at term "evil" ..yes it is a value judgement...yes it is making a definate statement against Communism... but someone has to do it...Communists aren't fundamentally evil... it's the degredation of humanity and loss of inidivudality...the loss of all notions of personal responsibility... the widespread validation of the existence of mediocrity... the flattening of society and the ruthless, inhumane, beating down of any who would dare to rise against it. This is wrong and has no business being swept under the carpet of PCness... and yet of course we live in a world made far too small by WMDs on teh negative side and information/trade technology on the positive to sit on our "high" horse and refuse conversation with such regimes... such isolationist perceptions are jsut as cruel... they assure the continuation of hopelessness to such localities devoid of freedom... yet having relationships of normality and "friendship" while such atrocities continue within that place seems equally inhumane and wrong... and crushing...

This amibiguity of right and wrong in such a situation is a place which humanity loaths... and this is reflected upon our democratically elected officials who then appoint/confirm our diplomats. Such a problem is too big for one country to unilaterally try to handle....


Watched a documentary yesterday about the fall of Communsim... one of the most heartbreaking things I've seen. Espeically in regards to the East Germans... For those who would criticize Gorbachev for his domestic hypocrasy I would offer the concept that one of his main functions was to provide a source of hope... The east germans chanted "gorby help us" "gorby help us" as they were being beaten up and rounded up by the police. I actually can't really write this right now...but it was quite an eye opener to see it through the eyes of eastern/central europe.

Just a quick jot

Upon reading through my blogness of the past 5.5 weeks I've noticed that they rather go from absolute geekdom of volunteering/studying 24-7/writing papers/quoting obscure philosophers/etc. to relating the lack of sleep/insanity/ etc. of hte past evening. No real clue why this is-- but just thought I'd mention it as it amuses me greatly to contrast them.

Speaking of which-- :-) last night we found the absolute coolest place-- bowling ally/ pool hall/internet ness/ bar called the "suicidle pin"(bowling pin..ha..ha...ha...yeah) anyway it was funness. and yeah no real clue what I'm saying here... feeling too pressured as class begins in a second... GROWL/GROAN/ it's actually still imensely fascinating.

ah gotta run!
--toodles...c'est moi.

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!) <3

g'day mate... and no...not suddenly in australia... just felt like typing that! horray for the presence of randomness!!!

anyway...:-p so first of all must admit nerdy satisfaction at finally typing from an internet cafe (!) esp. b/c it's at bohemian bagel in old town square-- my absolute favorite place dans le monde! I'm so tired right now. got to bed around 6:45 after having stayed up to see sunrise with Chris this morning. It was so worth it though! got amazing pics. but then of course my brain woke up at 11:30 and was like ok suzie time to get going and i was like nooooo killkillkilll! bleh. So I consoled myself by buying the new harry potter book... (and yes I do realize the following--that 1. I payed about 10 bucks more for it at the smallish non-discount bookstore [yet how cool was it to buy harry potter from a place called Big Ben???]2. I already have a copy waiting for me at home [yet this one is the british version complete with the spelling of "colour" and "fug"-- is that fog??? or a typo] and 3. I have my final this week and am hopelessly overwhelmed by reading --> BUT in light of all of that my reaction is... I HAVE HARRY POTTER AND AM READING IT IN PRAGUE!!! MUAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAA! ) once again horray for the randomness!

ok enough silliness-- down to business shall we?

So lets see... think I posted last on thursday after exhausting night of kareeokee... so ummm thursday... sooo looong ago... mind is dead! oh wow right- ok remembering now. Had amazing lecture by Barbara Day-- author of the Velvet Philosophers-- of course mainly about Havel I think... anyway so turns out that she and my professor for my totalitarian regime class were "enemies of the state" together during communism-- and worked together on the underground university--> such a cool/crazy thing demands an explanation-- during communism, education was very much held over one's head as a priviledge given to friends of the party...like I had already known that this was true in regards to admittance-- like for example one couldn't go to a good unviersity, such as Charles university in prague, if one wasn't a party member/ from a party family...but there were technical colleges one could go to...yet even these were subject to one being on good party terms-- dissenting views are not encouraged under communism so one can imagien what these colleges were like. Basically this brought up the need to establish an underground university-lectureres were brought in from other countries--including the west, and seminars were held at various locations. If these lectures were discovered it was quite common for the attending students to be arrested and held for 48 hours (by law they could hold you without trial for 48 hours) and then sometimes they would release them after 48 hours, let them walk down the street, and then arrest them again and hold them for anther 48 hours... if you attended and were currently enrolled in a legitimate state college/university you were immediately kicked out... Anyway so that's what my prof was involved in. Still trying to work my head around all of this...

Quite alot to think about.

Thursday night we went out to eat at an afghani restraunt with very watery mint tea :( but fairly good desert... and rugs all over the place. :-P

Friday in class was another stunner-- we watched a documentary about the velvet revolution in 1968-- and i think the main impact of that was the fact that I was seeing places in the movie that I walk past... also the faces of the students-- my age (!) are so hopeful... even through the grainy footage one can sense the excitement and exhuberance... and then there come the tanks... and the looks change to deadnedness... to defeat... how cruel. how totally and utterly cruel. I make it a point in my life to withold value judgements... to a rediculous extent at times... and i'm defiantely not convinced that american democracy or even democracy itself is the god-send to the world, and I cringe when I hear rhetoric stating that "we must fight in defense of freedom" because what is freedom within society... it is undefinable to a large extent. All this being said... I have discovered what it means to not be free. And that is bad. really bad. it's not a lifestyle issue or a cultural issue or ethnocentrism to state that communism as manifested so far in it's totalitarian form, is bad-- in fact I think I would even go so far as to say it's Evil. And I don't throw that word around alot...at all. But it's so degrading and calculating in the way it strips individuality away...it's so amazingly cruel. I can't even imagine living in such a society.

anyway

yeah

intense.

so realized that I'm paying for this internet time (yes but still stoked about using interenet cafe nonetheless). To wrap up summery of past few days...

Friday night was a blur :-P meghan and I went home and slept for awhile-much needed... then we met everyone for dinner at Radoost (coolest vegitarian place in the world!) , ended up at Wenceles Square and then Old town later on... got home around 4ish--meghan and cecilia went to see sunrise onthe bridge...

woke up on sat (yesterday) at noon... chris and I when to Furturia-- a museaum of contemporary art... totally totally amazingly awesomeness! :) It was really hot though so we went to Einstein's pizzaria for icecream and coca-cola light... and basically made it so we really can't go back there again... soemthing about tearing up their coasters and throwing them at each other and doodling pen tatooes on the back of each other's hands... yeah not really sure what the big deal was ;-) sigh...yeah... so much for being diplomatic representatives of American--and LA life... :-p we then met meghan and Brittany (one of the new girls this session) for the one of the worst and most expensive meals I've had in prague--yeah how fun is that??? (GROWL)... and then yeah... rest of night was figuring out ways to stay awake until sunrise :-p

I miss you all a lot! can't believe I'll be home a week from today! WOW! happy birthday eve to my mother btw. :-P

should get going... bleh... growl... :-p last day of tourism... I have a feeling the next 5 days are going to wizz by... :( sigh

but this has been one of the best summers of my life... have to state that... it's sooo amazing. like yeah...wow. :-P

ok going now..

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:-P

toodles... and hugs... and kisses (if applicable) :-P
--c'est zuska!

A hard day's night

So...yeah... I have class in 15 min and I've had about ummmm.... 41/2 hours of sleep...again :-p--> I think it's starting to barely sink in that the farewell dinner is a week from tonight... studying abroad has gone by really fast.

So briefly--kareoke was awesome last night... tons of drunk czechs and ciee people= v. good time :-p and afterwards meghan made us go to kfc and get twisters... yeah... just what I wanted at 2am in the morning... then rode the night tram back home.... I took us a short cut that turned into a long cut... and yes good times. :) bleh... feeling so tired/dead/ but pleasantly so... think I'm going to make myself some more coffee. :-D twill help immensely.

I'm really going to miss prague.... a lot.... like a lot a lot... :( but I guess that just means I'll have to make sure to return sometime really soon.

ok yes coffee is a must now... toodles!
--zuska

yes! finally posting!

dude this new schedlue is totally going to kill me... my totalitarianism class is really super demanding... we have class from 10-12 and then 2-3 and then m,w,f i have czech class from 3-4 and during the lunch break I'm either sleepig or doing the assigned afternoon reading same goes for before class-- although sleeping actually doesn't really happen that much whatsoever and then after class there's always soemthing going on it seems.

So going to give barest outline of weekend and past few days in hope that I'll be able to remember to write more later.

Friday wine tasting was hilarious-- the czech buddy was the server for some strange reason and it lasted 4 hours... yeah... ended up at radoost at like 11pm to eat dinner with meghan, cecilia, erin, and chris--ran into two other ciee peeps and hung out there for a bit--got home at 1:30....

Sat morning up nice and early to catch bus at 8:30--needed lots of coffeee!!! Took bus for 2hours and ended up at political prisoner camp complere with uranium tower of death--which is the actual name--sound funny but actually as I'm sure you can imagine it was quite atrocious to hear what happened there...ceclia's a chem major and she was like ??? it was crazy. A former prisoner from another camp talked to us... apparently they are having a really hard time getting the czech gov't to establish memorials/museaums for the former political prisoners--and the russian government doesn't really acknowledge the camps/prisons as a bad thing... creepiness is that they look identical to concentration camps!! v. conflicted thoughts about all of that. After that we went to a uranium mine-- actually the one where madame curie discovered all the wonderful things she discovered (I on the other hand am not a chem major--can ya tell??) o:-) anyway so uranium mine was also quite amazing and creepy--esp b/c it was slave labor and yet the town and hill side surrounding it was sooo beautiful... some how it would have been easier to take had it been like in the middle of the desert or a totally barren landscape.
From there we went to Karlovy Vary (totally masscured that spelling) home of the 12 natural springs-- 13 if you count the alcohol that was founded there...and most people do... ;-) Rather a strange place to be (a nice spa town) contrasted with the awfulness we had just seen...but yeah
Ate at a nice hotel called pupp but pronounced in rhype with "coop" yes we were rather immature about that :-0 :-P and during lunch suddenly guess who was there? Vaclav Klaus! the president of Czech Republic! muahhhh! he had absolutely no security detail--rather stark contrast to the 20 car motorcadeness of DC... We then walked around the city and were exceedingly loud and silly-- it's a tourist city though so comeon...they're used to it. Saw the spring that supposedly was a natural viagra of sorts... yes immaturity on the part of some was rather lacking at that point as well. Heard absolutely perfect string quintet--perfect b/c it was just hte right setting for it.
1 hour bus ride to town of Plzen-- checked into hotel... ate... dressed... WENT OUT! whoohooo! went to Club 21 and some other place i can't remember twice-- meaning we left both of them and then came back... plzen's a happening place :-P got home at 2:30--successfully tucked erin and meghan into bed-- and completed long to-do list on my arm "315, 315, 315, 315, erin ipod, chris ipod, wake meghan at 8:30" 315 was our room number and the rest was rather self-explanatory :-p everyone was worried they'd forget what to do and apparently I'm the to-do list person :-P yes great times...
Woke up to leave at 9:30-- extrememly blurry eyed.
Went to synagogue in Plzen-- amazingness! and v. sad-- 2/3rds of jews were deported-- jewish pop. now is 40.... just 40... yeah... can't really write about that right now-- I'm ashamed to say that I'm overloading-- some of these feeligns and events I've just had to file away to deal with when I get back... it's too strange to go to these places and then immediately trasnshition back into fun-mode. After synagogue we went to the museaum dedicated tot he american liberation-- fairly coolness...
Then went to Plzen brewery... what can i say-- it was cold... they make beer... have made beer for a long time... we had the beer... it was good... we ate... bought souveniers... and left. :-p yay!
Then went to garden of rememberece of victims of evil-- done by an ex-political prisoner... yeah another thing I really can't talk about...I have pics to show when I get home.

Got back to prague about 6ish... chris was like hooookkkkaaaaahhh so we were like...sure why not--> so. wandered around looking for hookah place...finally found it in jewish corner-- and it was CLOSED! whoohooo for predicatability of erin, suzie,meghan, and chris--went instead dube---or soemthing like that... another hookah place-- and it was great... food was amazing... best tofu ever! seriously! and tea was like...wooooooooooooow. got home at 11:30 :-P

Mon--went running-yay for me! had class... ummm.... oh right then we decided to have a dinner party at our apt--- and of course it was a riot... meghan and I got flavored salt instead of bread crumbs so our breaded chicken was v. v. V. salty... :-P then we spilled wine on the floor... I masscured the bread... fun times :-P we ended up going to kajatan-- the cool bar up the street at 10-- didn't get home until like 1:30 for some strange reason-- wow didn't realize how long we were there until this second-- but good times good times :-p

Tues-- went out to lunch then rushed home to change for evenign concert-- only chance i had to change....meghan was still there and we were like 30 min late to senate tour-- then we got lost for another 30 min... and yeah... of course the garden where we were supposed to meet was a maze garden... :-P
concert was awesome-- flute and piano duets... WOW.
ended up ditching rest of group in favor of going home to study... had midterm today and presentation...

Wed (today) threw flip flops at meghan to make her get up and study...went running--yay me again! woohooo!! studied like maniac for midterm... no clue how it went... presented... and now we're on our way out and about-- I'm being made to go out tonight... not a huge kareeokee fan but as long as no one makes me sing we'll be fine!

love you all!
--zuska

It's amazing how out of touch one can be with the rest of the world. I'm speaking of course about the London terrorist attacks... no clue how to look at them... very interesting as well b/c I don't have te 24-7 TV news coverage that I'm sure I would be getting if I was back home in the states...

best way to summarize feelings comes in quote from ma mere: "I am proud of you-just be safe, beloved. Run from all trains and metros and double decker busses-even on TV. Just run." :-D it's all rather surreal...

anyway in other news... reading for my totalitarian class is slowly eating away my life :( but it's an amazing class..just about 70-100 pages a night which is totally normal.. part of the problem and annoyance is that I care so much about this class I want to stop and analyze/memorize/ digest every little thing..and I can't :( but it's still quite fascinating. Esp to see that my prof doesn't at ALL trust Putin... so fascinating.

Last night Meghan and I watched Dr. Strange-love... meaning that this morning I was neuroticallly tryint to go through 40 pages of reading in 1 1/2 hours-- reading on which I had to get a presentation. But it was so worth it... kinda lightened the mood-- b/c as I'm sure one can imagine-- talking about totalitarian regimes for 3 hours a day is rather a lot...

so tonight should be good-- 12 bucks gets us into a Moravian wine tasting excursion and CIEE reemurses us ! (can't spell...sorry) So we shall chase away all thoughts of totalitarianism jsut for a few hours--

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

being chased out of computer lab thanks to yet another czech national holiday (two in a row????) not that like i had class off or anything...of course not! muahhah :(

gotta love the czechs...

will update throughly tomorrow :)

--> going home now to the most amazing "fort" in my living room... ;-) will have to share insane story of last night when i next blog....


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--c'est zuska!

5 minute update on the life of uzizu!!! woohooo!

So... it's apparently a huge czech holiday--nothing's open--no one's working... but guess what? WE STILL HAVE CLASS!
:(
annnnnd===>
it's cold and rainy here... or in the words of the most enlightened chem major cecelia-- "there must be a cold front with rain"...uh yeah...translation= it's cold and rainy... warning: classes on totalitarian regimes combined with a previous 3 week intensive course on philosophy and phemenonology will do this to your brain!

Celebrated last night by shocking one and all by actually going out ON A WEEKNIGHT! *gasp* all evening "suzie you're here! oh wow!" yes... I'm a nerd-- but I figured it was the 4th... and us americans gotta stick together... also we were trying to integrate everyone now that the first session 3wkers have left and the second session 3wkers are here... but it was a good time...went to Radoost... v.v. interesting... assorted couples and singles of all ages...someone even brought their kid in a stroller in...which i was like ??? about but w/e i guess it's a czechish thing and therefore tolerably random :)

Woke up this morning to aforementioned rain... and coldness... and being insane I went running... it was absolute awesomeness! but got home to 3 slovaks in my living room... apparently they are livia's friends visiting us but it was rather random that they turned upat like 8 am... but thinking though that they probably took train in...anyway wasn't expecting it though. Felt strangely shy... perhaps it was the fact that i was standing htere soaked to the skin in my running clothes... anyway w/e...

Oh...last night there was a random accordian player--like ancient old guy-- playing americana songs... apparently he was playing oh susanna (GROWL!) and ended it just as I walked up... thank goodness. :-p but it was funny...he wasn't really playing for anyone else in the restraunt it seemed so was thinking if CIEE was like hey it's the 4th lets get them an accordian rendition of random songs... including the battle hymn of hte republic... yes... not v. czechish.

ummmm.... ok it's been 9 min... bad zuska!

gotta dash and do work... oh but on def. positive note... my totalitarian regimes prof asked me what university I was from and I said GWU and she immeidately said well then you must be a very advanced student... so yes-- thanks parentals for giving me a semblance of credibility-- every bit helps esp if I keep looking like an absolute idiot everytime someone addresses me in czech. :-p always good to at least have people think you're smart before you open your mouth and ruin it.

bleh....

tiredness kinda... and missing viennease coffee...had coffee at restraunt last night...it was like really bad instant...the grounds were still there in it... just wrongnesss....

love to all! mooochesss smooochessssness!

toodles!
--bi

happy non-national holiday to me! :)

so yes tis the fourth...and tis just like any other day here...and I really don't care... :-p rather tired after this weekend. Meghan and Chris got back from Amsterdam at like 8:30 this morning after 13 hour train ride so actually i shouldn't complain.

had to quite volunteering b/c totalitarian regimes class is going to be insanely amazing yet also really a ton of work... leaving no time whatsoever to volunteer :( oh well...

have welcome dinner tonight for commencement of new session and actually i have to dash to that.

Missing you all! can't believe I'll be home in 3 weeks... this program has gone by really really fast.

Still doing rather stupid things though... I can't speak czech for beans... have had random notions of jsut pretending to be deaf...but have no clue how deafness is viewed here...and with my luck I would run into someon who spoke czech sign language... anyway such are my thoughts :-p

bleh... gotta dash... toodles...c'est zuska!

Vienna trip :-P

once again I basically handwrote blogness on the trip so yeah-->

July 1st (Friday)
afternoon
wow actually thought ti was june 29th-- that's like how out of touch i'm feeling--> yet i'm also feeling way more in touch at the same time...

Anyway here I am wizzing through Czech countryside en route to Vienna, Austria.
Have become even more addicted to gum which added to the face that my life basically revolves around my messnger bag which contains all manner of gum wrappers means that everything is rather sticky--I'm reduced actually to writing this with a granola bar wrapper around the stickiest part of my pen...lovely isn't it? Why did I get off on that???
SO... ;-) currently am in train which is wonderfully remenicent of "Hard Day's Nigh" movie :-D yay! have shared this wonderful revelation with traveling companions yet has not had desired affect-- turns out they've never seen it. :( you make me sad. *sigh* so I will have to constrain my gless to the blogness-- TRAIN CAR HAS A MIRROR, 6 SEATS, A LUGGGAGE RACK AND V. NARROW CORRIDERS!-- can imagine train scenes like wow... although think dining car is more in 1st class than coach...

Anyway sooo it's pretty cool to be writing from a european train. I plan seriously to do this as often as possible-- I love everything (at the moment of course) right down to the typical euro-BO of 3 other guys in compartment, foregn incomprehensivleness of loudspeaker, non-water tight windows--i.e. "raindros keep falling on my head" was def applicable as of 10 min ago-- yes it is rainy...but the countryside is so gorgeious...v. green of course with lots of trees...so beautiful...mountians in the distance....
"california dreaming" playing on my ipod and at the moment at least it's totally unapplicable. I know that traveling gets VERY old after awhile but for the moment I'm basking in the utter blissful state of wanderlust :) I love it. In fact have already begun to plan spring semester abroad.
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pardon my while I reflect on paper: how many movies have I seen depicting totalitarianism and involving trains? So So wierd to try and place all of this-- including no doubt the majority of my over 30ish fellow passengers-- in the Nazi-Communist setting...
In fact this border that I'm going to be nonchalantly rolling accross within the next 3 hours was an "East-West" border of pretty large significance I would think. Call me dramatic but it's pretty crazy to sit with that concept for a second. Interesting-- how many crazy things (bad word choice) have happened on these tracks and, judging from the look of these cars, on these very trains.... of course hollywoood definately loves to overdramatize everything...but I've read a few personal accounts about border crossing east-west that were fairly insane.


Eating yogurt covered rice cakes...
watching europe pass by
I feel so adventurous in a no doubt quite childily silly way.

"Sweet home Alabama" just came on ipod...and some how it's not nearly as inconguous as one might imagine... there's something very homelike about traveling by train....

Is there a way to bring this childlike awe into the world of politics? yet I'm also convinced that a systemcatic appraoch is necessary...

passing through a town... noticing conformity of apartment buildings...which for some reason tends to be the image I associat with communism in eastern europe.

Human Rights....

thinking


thinking


wow...just passed a truck emptying onto landfil...
a landfill int he middle of beauty...

what is the place of humanity? How does this all work?

what is the place of governemnt?

I'm not satisfied with how things are currently...yet what can I possibly do to make them better... what a scar totalititarianism must have been on this gorgeous tranquil place... not that nature was necessarily affected--anymore than other industrializing places... yet the humanity in a way reflects stuff onto nature...the oppression and lack of freedom makes the nature rather pathetic and sad looking... Just as the ocean reflects the sky could we say that to some extent nature can reflect at least our own emotions...v. itneresting. esp in light of the tumultious thoughts I've had....

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July 3rd--Sunday afternoon

In Vienna

Sitting in a park across from the train station writing with my wonderfully orange fountain pen (Squeel!) so much to write and not sure where to start. last 48 hours have been sooo much fun... and actually this is seriosuly the first time I've had to update my blogness since the train ride here...

WE arraived on friday at 4:30pm to rain and cold wind...of course...and oh so much fun to be trying to figure out a city in.

Ran back and forth from street to train station a few times tring to figure out how metro-tram system worked and of course there was a huge line a the tourist info office= we had no metro system map for the 1st 12 hours.

Got glares from really cute (really really) German guys for getting confused by metro tickets :( not fun...

Anyway FINALLY found plausible way to get to hostel (of course looking back on it we realized we took the most round a bout way possible... in the rain of course too...) ended up still looking like an idiot for punching my ticket like a kajillion times until I realized that their system simply inks it rather than stamping it--ARGH! yet more people in central europe who think I'm a nut-- :-p should start a club to get my commited--- yes yes I'm just exaggeratedly joking :-p--and digressing...SO... we finally found our stop-way out of the way as I already mentioned-- and of course by then drizzle had become rain and guess-just guess-- which of the 3 of us was too cool to bring a travel umbrella--yep the same as last weekend... C'EST MOI-- LE ZUSKANESS! wwweeeeeeeeeee.... for curly insane froness! So There we were--- quite a great picture... the 3 American girls from Prague :-p trudgin down the street knowing at some point we'll reach the hostel...emphasis on some point... block after block...so glad I didn't have a rolling bag...would've been hellish. My hair was dripping by the time we got to the hostel--which of course we walked right past the first time down the street--had to turn around..

Turns out thought that we were quite lucky...our hostel--the Alibi hostel :-P-- had just opened THAT DAY! yes i kid you not-- our sheets and pillows were still in plastic bags. :) yay! It was a great stay--- save for the front door of course that seemed to have issues with letting us leave..you had to push a buzzer to get either out or in and we actually never were entirely successful at figuring it out...the manager on durt tried the first night after one such fun pushing and buzzing and pulling etc fiasco to explicitely explane how it all worked... still no clue hwat she said.

So that night we walked around in the rain some more -- found really great little cafe called Le Monde-- with the absolute most steriotypical Viennese waiter one could want. I think we entertained him greatly-- :)

On walk back to hostel we discovered oh pot oh pot-- a cute tericotta tiled tabled little cafe place... complete with deadly mango bowl... had a great night.

Sat:

got coffee and pastry (For cecelia) at Aida cafe-- pink dineresque place.. and Bagel stop for bagels for laura and I and COFFEEE! again :) yay! coffee was sooo good! But was quite sad-- the starbucks near our hostel WAS CLOSED!!! :( for the entire wkend :(

But then we found one near the tourist information office which was great. actually had cecelia and laura take my pic outside of it :) .at the tourist office we collided with a ton of varous nationalities...amused myself by being able to pick out the british and americans...they rather stick out as I'm sure we did as well though... got concert tickets to hear strauss and mozart music that night.

Cecelia wanted to see the Vienna Music museam so we headed in that direction.

Detoured into St. Stepahens were for some insane reason my agnosticism seemed to fade a bit-- perhaps it was seeing that despite all the veils of history, this amazing cathedral was stills tanding-- maybe it was jsut becasue I was so tired/ hungry/etc. but I wnded up lighting a candel for Grandad...

Someow I thought that if he could know where I was and what I was experiencing... that he woudl love it... Anway for a moment I let myself think about all of it...with him and all... no doubt good I did... Think I'll try to take him a bunch of pictures when I get home... Hope he still knows who I am.

Anyway... after that we went to mcdonalds... how incongruous is that??? but laura and I got salads to go which were'nt too bad actually and THE HAD FREE W.C.-USAGE! quite an exciting thing...

took our salads to a park famous for its statues of famous musicians and for hte fact that on oen end it has a concerthall where straus frequently conducted... (love the way one rens into these random facts) While Cecelia got a sausage we saw them alll getting ready for gay pride festivities... and then from our spot on one of the lesssketchy park benches we at our lunch throughly entertained by the two rather ugly women across the way spray painting their hair green for no real apparent reason-- maybe they were part of the gay pride parade float...or maybe they wanted to camoflauge themselves in teh park and jump out at people...or... maybe they were just bored.

Wandered the stateus park post-lunchess... was still muching on my only slightly stale mcd's bag of croutons and a guy suddenly began to walk with us... not quite sure where he popped out from-- didn't have green hair-- of course began to ask us in german for money... we say no--blah blah blah... but then he asks me what I'm eating... I' mlike ummm croutons... and he's like can i have one (??????????????????) yeah and then looks shocked and put off when I' mlike uh noooo...

Ditched him by veering off park path to see ducks and scary duck-chasing crown (v. v. scary)-- gotta love strange concept sof crouton entitledment-- although the ducks also wanted my croutons so maybe he was just following their lead.

So we made our way throgh the park taking great funny pics and making sure to stay away from the congregation of crouton-demanding creeps.. park ended on one side with Danube river...rawther historical :-P Then went up to music museam which was fairly itneresting--esp the brain forest of musical creativity... yesh...v. interestingness :-P Somehow hadn't connected crazy amazing musical history of "vienna" with vienna that I was visiting for some space cadet bland/redhead reason... yeah... was fairly amaing to realize that htis waas the city of Strauss, Mozart, Betthoven, etc.

From there we decided we needed immediate coffee/chocolateness and went into amazingly perfect cafe which of course I've forgotten the name of.

--> somehow that remineded me of a most important earlier event which I've forgotten to mention-- the purchase of my wonderfully Viennese pen! I decided that Vienna was a place I neede to get a pen which for me is symbolic of inspiration -- my other pen came from London and yways so I got this amazing orange fountain tip which I'm in love with -- It's very very very very very very nice with sausages ;-)

Anyway back to semi-chronological order (is that ever possible with me) :-P GOT COFFEE! again but seriously that was the main objective of this trip. ... pastryness was also amazing... no wonder such artistic inspiration happened here.

wandered into H & M after that tto fulfil the obligations of our feminity... got a great top on sale (always fun) and... PANDA HOOP EARINGS! (whoohooo! won't attempt to describe them-- they are cool you can take it from me... cecelia and laura just laughted at me...always a good sign :)

WE then ended up heading to dinner to make sure we'd be ready by the time our concert started. --dinner at Rosenburg Market basket was uneventful save for extoritonary prices made partly up by amazingly wonderful frutt salad bar... so...eh...yeah.

wealked around aimlessly after dinner b/c of coruse we had given ourselves way too much tiem to eat. Seemed that everywhere we ent there were street perferomeers...stores downtowan appearte dto all close at 6 pm and then a new side to this touristy area visualized. From be-dreadlocked breakdancers (really good one) ot random techno-rap-street dancers, to a really awsome mandolin)-accordian duo (i made laura and cecelia stop so I could listen to them) to an Inidan group featuring a pan-pipes-ist playing an aamzing rendition of... unfortunatley... "my heart will go on" ...

yeah. Used WC at starbucks and took opportunity to snatch some of that wonderful cancerous causing sweetening substance--saccren (Sweet n'low-- the pink ones--for those of you not into getting cancer by way of too much sweetner) and yes I do love equal more but sadly no on seems to be that enlightened over here-- tear :( oh well... so I have to settle for w/e.

walked in circles for a bit before realizing concert hall was quite near to where we had originally been--typical of course.

Concert was amazing complete with insanly perfect percussionists and GREAT horn player :0 )

Was quite profound to hear STrauss in Vienna--esp "Blue Danube"

Walking down the street after the concert we were passed by by--yep! the two percussionists who in addition to be great we also quite quite cute! we had random notions of tuning into percussionist stalkers but such thoughts were dashed when they got into a car and drove away :( too quickly for anyone to jump on their car roof too... (just kidding... or am i) :-P anyway i digress again.

Enroute to metro stop we passed several random burss of music including the pre-parade gay pride concert. At tram stop saw, in addition to standard creepy drifters, an angle in a minish skirt and someone-- gender was no discernable-- in very short leather shorts, strange tight shirt and a short mowhawk. sooo after a few minutes we decided to just walk back... Ended up in oh pot oh pot at 11ish and called it a night a bit after that... a great but full day.

Sunday morning-- packed and checked out.

Got amazing coffee at corner cafe--finally foudn a place where I could just get plain coffee rather than cappicino/latte/machiotto/etc. JUST COFFEE! oh joy! had two cups :-p

headed into town to see Austian palace.. gardens were gorgous

exhibits were amazing. esp the one about Austria... I'll have to think more about that before I can write a lot about it...save that the one thing that really got me was a photo of 5 Austrian guys about my age in British Uniform during WW2... they had not only fled their homeland but then they had chosen to join the military... and I started to think of the ramifications of such a decision... wow. wowwowowowowow.

Austrian history is quite fascinating.

* at this point I was writing on the train and I fell asleep. so here my journal ends.*