I'm going to start chronologically with this entry, beginning with Tuesday, and I will try and be concise, although a lot has happened the past few days. I promise, there is a great ending and you won't be disappointed. On Tuesday, we began the day by getting up early. The previous night we had sat around talking and drinking Turkish coffee and Jenny had to break the news to the girls that with one more leader arriving the next day (Tuesday), her apartment (although spacious) would be unable to accommodate all the people. So, Tuesday, Brasilian Ana and Chinese Lin had to pack their bags and move to a new apartment. The train and subway to their apartment was an unpleasant one, solely in the fact that it was depressing knowing that these people I had just met and got to know are now living on the opposite side of town from the rest of us. It was almost like burning a newly built bridge. Although it's clearly not the end of the world, I really enjoyed their company because Ana and I can make the best of any situation and Lin and I talk about China and speak in Chinese.
When we arrived at the apartment I felt even worse. It looked like a shabby, dingy place, with plaster crumbling from the sides and laundry hanging and fluttering like rags from the balconies of the upper level apartments. The apartment wasn't too terrible on the inside, but it was definitely not as plush as our country house. We left from there back to Prague to get Ayesgül her monthly bus pass and to exchange money. Since Jenny had previous engagements, I was once again leading the girls around the city. Running errands was pretty easy and we finished in the early afternoon and headed to Prague Castle.
Prague Castle was amazing. The ancient complex is huge. The main dining hall was used for multiple royal events. The inauguration of the king was celebrated by a huge feast where high officials and prominent city members were invite to pay homage to their new ruler. Afterwards they would move to the cathedral to finish the coronation. The huge main hall, called Vladislav Hall, was also used as a jousting arena, where horses were brought in and the performers jousted for royal entertainment. I thought that was awesome. It was also used as a marketplace where vendors from all over the world would sell luxury items like spices, jewels, fur, and gold.
The royal hapel inside holds bones of many saints and as our audio tour guide told us. You'd be surprised to find that one of the patron saints of Czech Republic is buried in the royal chapel, All Saints Chapel. After a fire in which most of its Romanesque details were destroyed in 1541, the church was rebuilt in Baroque style. Prague Castle has much history of law, politics and religion and is a fascinating place. After touring the royal quarters, we made our way to Saint George's Basilica which was old and plain but held tombs of the royal family and the remains of St. Agnes, the Benedictine abess who started the first nunnery in Prague. She was actually a daughter of royalty and gave it up for a life of God. From St. George's we went to St. Vitus Cathedral, which was just as beautiful the second time around.The audio tour was an excellent choice while touring the many chapels within the cathedral. Come to find out they have a chapel for St. John Baptiste, the Virgin Mary, and the remains of St. Wenceslas are held here. The cathedral dates back to the 1300s.
By this time, we were all history and castle'd out so we made our way down to the Charles Bridge to cross and find something to eat. We were in a rush by now because we were supposed to meet Jenny and our newest trainee, Olessya from Kazakhstan, for the start of our official training as program leaders. We made it barely on time and continued to go over the agenda for the week and our upcoming plans. Rather then heading home after a long day of sightseeing and working, we decided to head to Old Town Square to watch the Brazil v North Korea soccer game.
Last time I was in Europe, it was FIFA World Cup 2006 in Munich, Germany. What an experience that was! I'm so glad to be back for another world cup where the people are so involved and so enthusiastic about the sport. We enjoyed a few beers and sat right next to a group of Brazilians (with Ana of course sporting her Brazilian shirt). Throughout the game, Portuguese cheers and curses were flowing from Ana and another Brazilian, Gil. During the commercial breaks, the other Brazilian group next to us got their drums out and played music to energize the crowd and get some dancing. I have a video to upload that is just fantastic. The Brazilian girls are dancing, their drums are shaking my legs with each beat, and the crowd is going wild. When Brazil scored (twice in fact), the uproar got even more uncontrollable. The best part was the fact that we were standing in one of the oldest and most historic parts of Prague.
The next day, Wednesday, we had a full day of education. We began with a Cultural Preparation session, which gave an overview of Czech culture and helped us understand cultural differences. We also prepared ourselves as ambassadors of our country and how to be conscience of the fact that some of the students have never met foreigners like ourselves and we must do our best to represent our countries. It is kind of funny to think that people that meet me will draw the conclusion that all Americans are just like me, but they will and they do.
For lunch, I actually met up with one of my really good friends from Fordham, Alexandra. Alexandra and I have been friends since freshman year, when she lived in the dorm building right across from mine. She is very good friends with Devon, one of the students I went to China with. She and her mother are doing a European tour, where they began in Budapest, Hungary, stopped in Prague from Tuesday night--Friday morning, and they'll continue on to Paris for a week or so before going back to the states (I think?). It was so nice to meet up with her and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch in Old Town Square, overlooking the Astronomical Clock and Tyn Church. Although I was a half-hour late for the next meeting, it was worth it to see my college friend (and fellow graduate)!
The second half of the day was spent on giving and receiving feedback and we ended the night early to arrive home at 10 PM. The rest of the night was spent working. We had to prepare for the next morning when we had to do a workshop with high school students on "How to give a presentation." Not to mention I had to stay up even later doing things for the camp agenda. We're still missing two group leaders who will both arrive on Sunday. This means that every session they miss, I need to update them on what they missed. Work work work...
Waking up this morning, I was completely unprepared for the Presentation Skills Workshop that we had to deliver. Luckily, there were only 5 students in each group, and Ana and I gave a great presentation. It was really a lot of fun and since this is a long post, I'll go into detail later on about Czech youth and culture. After the workshop, we had a meeting with our first university partner for My Better Myself. We met with the University of Northern Virginia and discussed what they expect from the student presentations and what the project will be like. They're thinking of making the students design a website called "iSanta.com", with restrictions on budgeting, planning, and design. It was informative, especially for me since I have to plan the projects and how they will be structured.
After that meeting, we moved to another session where we learned how to facilitate groups and debrief. The facilitating and debriefing session was really good. I got put in the hot seat without even knowing it and had to facilitate our group leaders through a task, but little did I know they had been told beforehand to act a certain way (i.e. one person asks tons of questions, one is very quiet, one is very talkative/enthusiastic, etc). I didn't even realize why everyone was acting so weird until after the exercise was over, but I learned a lot about how I reacted to the situation and it will definitely help me with the students during the camp.
After the session, it was already 9:20 PM and we were exhausted. We'd been thinking all day, with no time to relax, and only eating while we moved from one session to the next. The good news is that between sessions we had the chance to stop at a grocery store and pick up 30 eggs and some breakfast foods for the next few days. We've been scraping for food in the mornings and only had one bag of cornflakes left. After the last session, when it was finally time to go, we were all pretty excited that we were going to catch a 9:41 train home and have a few hours to relax before bed. When we had finished cleaning up, I locked the inner office door and we made our way into the hallway, where I locked the hallway door as well. We made our way down the stairs and out of the building. When the door closed behind me and the fresh evening air was finally refreshing my face, Aysegul (from Turkey) asked where was our Indian leader, Ekta...well, that was a good question. She didn't leave with us...and we just left the building...
It took me about half a second to realize that I had probably locked her in the office upstairs. When we left the inner office room, I locked the door. In the mini-lobby area of the AIESEC offices, there is a break room and restrooms. She must has snuck away to the bathroom without anyone noticing because we left the lobby, where I then locked the second office door. OK, so she's in the office. Bad, but not too bad.
It then took me about another half second to realize that we were outside the building. I only had keys to the offices, which are inside the building. Now, we were standing on the street, with no key card to enter the building. Etka is still in the office. Our train leaves in 10 minutes. Great. Luckily, we had Jaro (the person who led the facilitating and debriefing session), who speaks Czech. He tried buzzing security, but no one answered. He calls Jenny, she has the key card to the building. No answer...by now we're in shock because poor Etka is probably up in the office, wondering why the hell we left without her. She can't even get into the offices to yell out the window or sit on the couches. She's trapped in the mini-lobby, with the bathroom and break room. Poor Etka. By now we've pretty much decided we're going to miss our train home, but I figured we'd ring security one more time. He picked up, Jaro told him the situation, and he let us in. I immediately gave my backpack to Aysegul and sprinted up the 4 flights of stairs. I unlocked the door to Etka, patiently waiting on the other side. All I could say was--"LET'S GO! We're going to miss our train!" We sprinted down the stairs as fast as we could. She was wearing high heels because of our presentation this morning, so it wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world.
When we got to the bottom, it was a whirlwind of bags flying and feet running. We said bye to Jaro as we sprinted to the train station, which is only one block away from the offices. Of course, I would be running to a train station in a foreign country because this is what I do best. I missed my train in Paris because we went to the wrong train station, I've sprinted to the airport terminal because the bus passed my stop, I've sprinted to Grand Central to catch the last train to Fordham...the list goes on, and now I have Prague.
The four of us sprinted to the train station and ran to the lobby, just to see the red lights of the train pulling away from us. Heaving, panting, and completely out of breath, we gave it our best, but it wasn't enough. And then we laughed. "How did you guys forget me!?"--Etka asked. We were cracking up. She's the one that went to the bathroom without telling anyone! Etka said when she got out of the restroom, her stuff was by the door where she had left it. She could hear us in the hallway and she banged and yelled at the door, just to hear our voices fade away as we descended. She called Ana, who was already on her way to the subway, and Ana assured her that we were on our way back to get her. What Ekta didn't know was that we were locked out of the building...so she was ready for the worst--a long night. When we finally got Ekta, running to the train station, we must have looked like the oddest bunch of people. An Indian, an American, a Turk and a Kazakh, all with bags and backpacks, and one of them carrying a package of 30 eggs. I joked that now we don't have to scramble our eggs tomorrow for breakfast because the sprint was just enough.
So now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is another day full of stuff, but then we get to enjoy a weekend break. I have absolutely nothing to do on Saturday except for sleeping in and partying all night--yea! I'll be up to date as much as possible. I have tons more to tell everyone but no time to write it. Also, my pictures are still on my computer--ready to go, but I need to figure out a new way to upload them since my Picasa web albums are not working properly. Until next time...
Showing posts with label Old Town Square. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old Town Square. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Melting Pot Grows Bigger
Today was a good day. We began the day by getting up and going into the city with Michelle, Jenny's friend. She helped the girls and I get monthly unlimited metro passes (the correct one this time) and from there we went to exchange money. I'm glad I was there to help the girls exchange money because I made sure they got a good rate at the exchange kiosk (24 EUR to CZK, which is pretty decent considering the current rate is 26 EUR to CZK) not to mention my awesome sense of direction allowed us to get around a little better. It's weird to think that I've only been here for 6 days and I already can take the train alone, get around the city, and even have a sense of direction without any help.
When we finished running errands, we met up with Jenny and had lunch. I went to Mcdonald's because we were near Wenscelas Square and I had already tried the bratwurst. McDonald's in Czech Republic was kind of a let down. It tastes very American, but it gets bonus points for several reasons. First, they have the Big Tasty, which they no longer serve in the US. This is what I got and it was in fact, big and tasty with the special Big Tasty sauce of course. Second, they get bonus points for a special promotion they are doing right now for the world cup. You can check it out by clicking here, and I don't know what it is but it looks delicious. I'm definitely going back to try it. It comes with waffle fries--enough said.
After lunch we continued on to Old Town Square, where we were able to take group pictures of ourselves in front of the Astronomical Clock and Tyn Church. We made our way over towards the Prague Castle, but soon realize we wouldn't have enough time to actually go inside, so instead we went to the Torture Museum, which was a total tourist trap for USD$7. It was alright, interesting at parts, but I could tell it was a trap by the amount of foreigners in there. We were right by the Charles Bridge, but by this time it was time to head back to Roztoky to eat and prepare for the evening. Jenny had to go to pick up Aysegul, our Turkish intern, from the airport, so I led the girls back to Masarykovo train station and yes, this time we made it back to the town in one piece and on time.
On the way home we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some things to cook for dinner, but each of us obviously have different tastes and different ideas for dinner. Ekta is completely vegetarian, she's never had any meat in her life, so obviously vegetables were the first place they started. I love meat, so I went straight to the meat section and got pork cuts. We got a bag of pasta, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, a bell pepper, potatoes, and a few random things. It only cost us 65CZK each, which is like $3.
When we got home, Jenny was still not back from the airport. We were tired, but Ana Luisa (from Brazil) and I began chopping vegetables right away. Ekta joined in the cooking and we figured out that we're just going to have to use every spice in the kitchen to make something good that we all can eat. I knew that we had to steam the cauliflower, but Ana suggested we put onions and garlic to sautee the mushrooms. Ana Luisa and I have a funny relationship. She speaks to me in Spanish, I respond in English, and she yells at me. She also realizes that I don't take her crap and so when she gives me a hard time, I can give it right back at her. She kind of reminds me of my sister in a way. When Ayşegül and Jenny arrived, the kitchen was cookin' with some pork meat (sauteed in garlic and spices), cauliflower (with salt, pepper and butter--steamed), pasta (mixed with mushrooms sauteed in grilled onions and garlic--cooked slightly over butter and salt and pepper). It was probably the most random meal I've ever had because we didn't really know what we were doing and we were trying to take a little bit of Brazilian, American, and Indian cooking techniques. Although Ekta brought spices from New Delhi, we ended up not using them because we didn't really know which one to put in what dish! The end result was a fantastic mix of everything and it really wasn't that bad.
After dinner, we sat around and talked. I'm really enjoying spending time with so many people of different cultures. I speak Chinese with Lin and Spanish with Ana Luisa, but beyond that, it's fun to see how our cultures relate and absolutely differ. Differences in food, customs, and senses of humor all make it one big learning experience.
On a random note, I'm the only one that brought a plug adapter, so Lin Zhou, Ana Luisa and I are all sharing my one plug for now. I feel bad that I'm blogging while Ana's iPod and laptop are completely dead and Lin needs to recharge her camera battery...but, oh well.
Tomorrow we have a lot planned for the day. We begin by going to Prague Castle. This time, I will actually go inside and I can't wait. Afterward, we need to be ready for an evening session, where Jenny and I will explain the agenda/schedule for next week and the week after. I'm kind of nervous because I only have so much to explain about the schedule. A lot of it still needs to be filled in with creative games and time-filling activities that do not consist of working on the special skill-developing projects. I'm sure I'll manage. More to come.
When we finished running errands, we met up with Jenny and had lunch. I went to Mcdonald's because we were near Wenscelas Square and I had already tried the bratwurst. McDonald's in Czech Republic was kind of a let down. It tastes very American, but it gets bonus points for several reasons. First, they have the Big Tasty, which they no longer serve in the US. This is what I got and it was in fact, big and tasty with the special Big Tasty sauce of course. Second, they get bonus points for a special promotion they are doing right now for the world cup. You can check it out by clicking here, and I don't know what it is but it looks delicious. I'm definitely going back to try it. It comes with waffle fries--enough said.
After lunch we continued on to Old Town Square, where we were able to take group pictures of ourselves in front of the Astronomical Clock and Tyn Church. We made our way over towards the Prague Castle, but soon realize we wouldn't have enough time to actually go inside, so instead we went to the Torture Museum, which was a total tourist trap for USD$7. It was alright, interesting at parts, but I could tell it was a trap by the amount of foreigners in there. We were right by the Charles Bridge, but by this time it was time to head back to Roztoky to eat and prepare for the evening. Jenny had to go to pick up Aysegul, our Turkish intern, from the airport, so I led the girls back to Masarykovo train station and yes, this time we made it back to the town in one piece and on time.
On the way home we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some things to cook for dinner, but each of us obviously have different tastes and different ideas for dinner. Ekta is completely vegetarian, she's never had any meat in her life, so obviously vegetables were the first place they started. I love meat, so I went straight to the meat section and got pork cuts. We got a bag of pasta, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, a bell pepper, potatoes, and a few random things. It only cost us 65CZK each, which is like $3.
When we got home, Jenny was still not back from the airport. We were tired, but Ana Luisa (from Brazil) and I began chopping vegetables right away. Ekta joined in the cooking and we figured out that we're just going to have to use every spice in the kitchen to make something good that we all can eat. I knew that we had to steam the cauliflower, but Ana suggested we put onions and garlic to sautee the mushrooms. Ana Luisa and I have a funny relationship. She speaks to me in Spanish, I respond in English, and she yells at me. She also realizes that I don't take her crap and so when she gives me a hard time, I can give it right back at her. She kind of reminds me of my sister in a way. When Ayşegül and Jenny arrived, the kitchen was cookin' with some pork meat (sauteed in garlic and spices), cauliflower (with salt, pepper and butter--steamed), pasta (mixed with mushrooms sauteed in grilled onions and garlic--cooked slightly over butter and salt and pepper). It was probably the most random meal I've ever had because we didn't really know what we were doing and we were trying to take a little bit of Brazilian, American, and Indian cooking techniques. Although Ekta brought spices from New Delhi, we ended up not using them because we didn't really know which one to put in what dish! The end result was a fantastic mix of everything and it really wasn't that bad.
After dinner, we sat around and talked. I'm really enjoying spending time with so many people of different cultures. I speak Chinese with Lin and Spanish with Ana Luisa, but beyond that, it's fun to see how our cultures relate and absolutely differ. Differences in food, customs, and senses of humor all make it one big learning experience.
On a random note, I'm the only one that brought a plug adapter, so Lin Zhou, Ana Luisa and I are all sharing my one plug for now. I feel bad that I'm blogging while Ana's iPod and laptop are completely dead and Lin needs to recharge her camera battery...but, oh well.
Another random note: Aysegul just made Turkish coffee, which was delicious. It is made by putting hot water and finely ground coffee together, with only a little bit of sugar. Surprisingly, it wasn't strong, but quite enjoyable. Let's see if I can go to bed now, being as it is 11:00 PM.
Tomorrow we have a lot planned for the day. We begin by going to Prague Castle. This time, I will actually go inside and I can't wait. Afterward, we need to be ready for an evening session, where Jenny and I will explain the agenda/schedule for next week and the week after. I'm kind of nervous because I only have so much to explain about the schedule. A lot of it still needs to be filled in with creative games and time-filling activities that do not consist of working on the special skill-developing projects. I'm sure I'll manage. More to come.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
I'm in for a Treat
Well, I just finished my first full day in Prague and it's 1:13AM. I woke up this morning around 4AM, with my body telling me to get up because I've been sleeping all "day" (in US time at least). When I finally fell back asleep, I had a few hours before my alarm clock went off. I took a shower and ate a little bit of babufka (coconut/chocolate breakfast cake/pastry) and Jenny (Jana) and I went off to catch the train to Prague. The train to Prague's city center is only 15 minutes from station to station, so it's not much different than a Metro North ticket to Grand Central from Fordham. Jenny had work to do all day, so I started off the day by walking to the Old Town Square. I was pleasantly surprised that at 10:30 in the morning, the summer sun was already warming the streets, but for that early, it was already way too hot. When I finally arrived I was greeted by Prague's famous Our Lady before Tyn Church, which still stands after six centuries (it was built in 1365 with it's towering spires completed in 1620. For more history: click here). Of course, they're doing reconstruction on the entire face of the main entrance. Through the scaffolding, there was one English sign that said "Please use side entrance". I walked to the side and the sign said "No Entry"...well, typical luck. I guess I'll have to see the inside later.
I moved on to other sights in the square and spent about 20 minutes looking inside another nearby church. This was St. Nicholas Church, a Baroque church built in 1735. It was great to look inside and it was a shelter from the heat, but it was smaller than I expected so I just took pictures and left. I then made my way down to the famous Prague Astronomical Clock. This medieval clock can tell time quite a number of ways. Built in 1490, the clock still functions today, although it is rather complicated and best explained if you're looking at the picture below:
It shows zodiac time (represented by the smaller black/middle circle), which has all the zodiac symbols. You'll notice that the summer month zodiacs take up more space than the winter zodiacs due to the longer days of the summer months. The large outer black circle is numbed 1-24, which symbolizes the ancient Czech calendar. It is the inside Roman Numerals that represent the current hours and minutes (which are indicated by the black indicators--pointing to the XI numeral above). The background is painted various colors to indicate the viewers perception of the sky. The blue indicates that it is daylight, the orange indicates sunset or sunrise, and the black indicates night time. The gilded sun has several meaningful movements. First, it moves with the position of the actual sun, with the outward pointing lines indicating the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, etc. Also, the gilded sun moves with the sunlight and sits in the black area during the night time. There are a lot more features to the clock which I can't quite remember, but I'm sure you get the point: it's really cool.
After this I made my way around and found a place to rest and eat. I had a traditional Czech lunch of meat dumplings with cabbage and onions. The cabbage was more like sauerkraut, but the onions and dumplings were delicious. I couldn't even finish my plate it was so much food. After lunch, I made my way down to Wenceslas Square and the National Museum. I didn't want to go into the museum because I was meeting Martin at 3:30pm to buy my metro pass, so instead I found a seat and people watched.
I am so glad to be back in Europe!! I'm thinking I need to get myself a pair of capris, because those are the in thing to be wearing apparently. I thought of my sister today as I saw three pregnant ladies walking around. Each one was looking like she was ready to have a baby (which makes me think today may be the day), but the one that surprised me the most was the lady smoking a cigarette... Yup, she was smoking. I realized i missed the random street toilets that you have to pay to use, but I also realized that this time in Europe is a lot harder when you can't speak the language. I got approached by someone asking a question in Czech and all I could do was shrug and nod my head...
After people watching, I met up with Martin to buy my ticket. Here's the short version. I was supposed to get an unlimited monthly for the train only, but instead I got a 5-day unlimited subway/bus/train for the same price ($25). This may not sound bad, but what also happened was the ticket I bought was only unlimited within the city of Prague. I live in Roztoky. One stop outside of Prague. This meant I had two options. I could use the 5-day pass (which only gets me to the last stop in Prague) and buy an additional unlimited pass from the last Prague station to my station (Roztoky u Praha)--that would be an additional $4. OR I could buy an unlimited monthly for 550 CZK, and try and sell my unlimited 5-day pass. Well, there was no way the ticket officer was going to refund my money and I know (from NYC experience) that there's no way I'm going to sell a 5-day unlimited to a stranger...so I'm going to have to use the 5-day, buy the additional unlimited for the last train stop, and then buy another monthly pass when the 5-days are up. The good news is, however, is that my program is paying for all of the leader's unlimited monthly passes (so I get $25 back), the bad news is is that I bought a week-long pass for no reason. Martin nor I don't know where the confusion came from, but regardless, I'll be forced to buy a monthly next week rather than let my 5-day pass go to waste.
When I got home this evening (I met Jenny at the train), my legs were so tired from walking countless miles, I didn't want to do anything. Jenny and I made dinner "a la Jenny" as she called it, by throwing together random ingredients found in the cabinet. Some sausage sauteed in onion and garlic, with elbow macaroni and soy sauce for flavoring (and a spice that could've been rosemary or thyme--I have no clue). It was served with a side of mystery vegetable (which is round like an onion but tastes almost like a cucumber?) and some radishes (which I did not eat). To tell you how good it was, Jenny and I each had our first plate...and then I continued to finish the entire serving that was left in the pot. I felt like a typical American, eating everything in sight like a glutton, but it was delicious and I was hungry!
We finished the night by discussing my role as agenda manager for MBM. I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO! We went over our schedule for this week and tomorrow I begin. At noon, we're meeting at Jenny's university (University of Economics in Prague) to discuss and plan a "Presentation Skills Workshop" we will be conducting next week with high school students. This is unrelated to our program My Better Myself, but we are going to try and recruit some students to join our summer program (it's not full yet). Then immediately after that, Jenny and I are going to start working on a detailed day-by-day breakdown of the camps in July. After that, we are going to meet AIESEC Praha for a night of socializing (of course my favorite thing to do). Over the weekend, I'm preparing a schedule for what the other group leaders are going to do when training ends (June 22-28), which I have dubbed (Camp Prep Week). During CP Week the other leaders and myself are going to have to finalize the projects the students will work on during the camps as well as choose who will lead what programs and who will manage what sessions. Work work work work work...that's all I'm saying...it's now 2:18 AM, I need to go to bed, but I'm just going to say...I forgot for a day that I was here to work and not to just be a tourist. I'm in for a real treat--but really, it's going to be great!
I moved on to other sights in the square and spent about 20 minutes looking inside another nearby church. This was St. Nicholas Church, a Baroque church built in 1735. It was great to look inside and it was a shelter from the heat, but it was smaller than I expected so I just took pictures and left. I then made my way down to the famous Prague Astronomical Clock. This medieval clock can tell time quite a number of ways. Built in 1490, the clock still functions today, although it is rather complicated and best explained if you're looking at the picture below:
It shows zodiac time (represented by the smaller black/middle circle), which has all the zodiac symbols. You'll notice that the summer month zodiacs take up more space than the winter zodiacs due to the longer days of the summer months. The large outer black circle is numbed 1-24, which symbolizes the ancient Czech calendar. It is the inside Roman Numerals that represent the current hours and minutes (which are indicated by the black indicators--pointing to the XI numeral above). The background is painted various colors to indicate the viewers perception of the sky. The blue indicates that it is daylight, the orange indicates sunset or sunrise, and the black indicates night time. The gilded sun has several meaningful movements. First, it moves with the position of the actual sun, with the outward pointing lines indicating the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, etc. Also, the gilded sun moves with the sunlight and sits in the black area during the night time. There are a lot more features to the clock which I can't quite remember, but I'm sure you get the point: it's really cool.
After this I made my way around and found a place to rest and eat. I had a traditional Czech lunch of meat dumplings with cabbage and onions. The cabbage was more like sauerkraut, but the onions and dumplings were delicious. I couldn't even finish my plate it was so much food. After lunch, I made my way down to Wenceslas Square and the National Museum. I didn't want to go into the museum because I was meeting Martin at 3:30pm to buy my metro pass, so instead I found a seat and people watched.
I am so glad to be back in Europe!! I'm thinking I need to get myself a pair of capris, because those are the in thing to be wearing apparently. I thought of my sister today as I saw three pregnant ladies walking around. Each one was looking like she was ready to have a baby (which makes me think today may be the day), but the one that surprised me the most was the lady smoking a cigarette... Yup, she was smoking. I realized i missed the random street toilets that you have to pay to use, but I also realized that this time in Europe is a lot harder when you can't speak the language. I got approached by someone asking a question in Czech and all I could do was shrug and nod my head...
After people watching, I met up with Martin to buy my ticket. Here's the short version. I was supposed to get an unlimited monthly for the train only, but instead I got a 5-day unlimited subway/bus/train for the same price ($25). This may not sound bad, but what also happened was the ticket I bought was only unlimited within the city of Prague. I live in Roztoky. One stop outside of Prague. This meant I had two options. I could use the 5-day pass (which only gets me to the last stop in Prague) and buy an additional unlimited pass from the last Prague station to my station (Roztoky u Praha)--that would be an additional $4. OR I could buy an unlimited monthly for 550 CZK, and try and sell my unlimited 5-day pass. Well, there was no way the ticket officer was going to refund my money and I know (from NYC experience) that there's no way I'm going to sell a 5-day unlimited to a stranger...so I'm going to have to use the 5-day, buy the additional unlimited for the last train stop, and then buy another monthly pass when the 5-days are up. The good news is, however, is that my program is paying for all of the leader's unlimited monthly passes (so I get $25 back), the bad news is is that I bought a week-long pass for no reason. Martin nor I don't know where the confusion came from, but regardless, I'll be forced to buy a monthly next week rather than let my 5-day pass go to waste.
When I got home this evening (I met Jenny at the train), my legs were so tired from walking countless miles, I didn't want to do anything. Jenny and I made dinner "a la Jenny" as she called it, by throwing together random ingredients found in the cabinet. Some sausage sauteed in onion and garlic, with elbow macaroni and soy sauce for flavoring (and a spice that could've been rosemary or thyme--I have no clue). It was served with a side of mystery vegetable (which is round like an onion but tastes almost like a cucumber?) and some radishes (which I did not eat). To tell you how good it was, Jenny and I each had our first plate...and then I continued to finish the entire serving that was left in the pot. I felt like a typical American, eating everything in sight like a glutton, but it was delicious and I was hungry!
We finished the night by discussing my role as agenda manager for MBM. I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO! We went over our schedule for this week and tomorrow I begin. At noon, we're meeting at Jenny's university (University of Economics in Prague) to discuss and plan a "Presentation Skills Workshop" we will be conducting next week with high school students. This is unrelated to our program My Better Myself, but we are going to try and recruit some students to join our summer program (it's not full yet). Then immediately after that, Jenny and I are going to start working on a detailed day-by-day breakdown of the camps in July. After that, we are going to meet AIESEC Praha for a night of socializing (of course my favorite thing to do). Over the weekend, I'm preparing a schedule for what the other group leaders are going to do when training ends (June 22-28), which I have dubbed (Camp Prep Week). During CP Week the other leaders and myself are going to have to finalize the projects the students will work on during the camps as well as choose who will lead what programs and who will manage what sessions. Work work work work work...that's all I'm saying...it's now 2:18 AM, I need to go to bed, but I'm just going to say...I forgot for a day that I was here to work and not to just be a tourist. I'm in for a real treat--but really, it's going to be great!
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