Some Pieces of Advice

It's 11:08pm on Thursday, December 17, 2009. This is last day I will spend in Prague...that is until I venture back at some other point in my life, which will happen at some point, but I'm unsure when.

I have turned in all of my finals, just about packed up all of my clothes and souvenirs and tomorrow morning, Kris and I will board a flight that leaves for the John F. Kennedy airport in New York. I'm having mixed emotions about leaving. I'm unsure if I really want to leave behind Prague, but I'm also very excited to see everyone back home. It's a conundrum.

The purpose of this post is to reflect on this past semester abroad. My apologies in advance as this blog is going to be more on the lengthy side. I'm going to try and be as honest as I can. I can't guarantee that it'll be all full of happy things, but I can say that it is honest.

The semester started with the eight of us all meeting at dinner. I'd say we were all pretty much in the same boat. We didn't really know each other and we didn't know how the semester was going to work.

I personally wasn't a fan of certain people due to impressions that I had gathered over the course of the first few days, but over time those feelings subsided and changed. I think everyone here has their ups and downs, their good qualities and bad and I've learned to accept them, just as we all did.

Flash forward a month and we were all traveling to Budapest. We became a tight knit group really fast. This was a bit troubling as no one knew how long we could keep this up before there were problems between us.

Well, there were problems between us, but they weren't anything major...you know the normal arguments people get into when they've been living with each other for so long. Problems with roommates for not cleaning like they were supposed to and problems with people saying things that hurt feelings. All problems that were part of human nature.

But, this didn't keep us apart. We still went out places together and worked together. And in the end, it turned out to be a great experience. I have wonderful memories and new friends too!

Now, before I go back to the good memories, I'm going to air some of my grievances with this semester.

One of my biggest peeves from this semester would have to be the lack of scheduling. We would be sitting at home, making lunch when you would get a phone call from Pavel Marek saying that you had class in 5 minutes. Ummm...I'm sorry, this wasn't on the schedule. How am I supposed to make it to class on time if I didn't know I had class?!?! There was also this problem with scheduling Pavel Jech's class. I understand that he is the Dean of FAMU and is absolutely amazing, but the fact that we kept changing the days of his class really made it hard to establish a schedule.

Another one of my peeves from this semester was the railroading that happened with our film. While yes, I did in fact make the film, I don't feel that it is totally mine. And this is not only because I collaborated with someone else on the project. I feel like Pavel Marek moved our projects forward with what he thought would make a good story and we didn't get much say in the matter. I also feel like I should have learned more in Pavel Marek's class. All we ever did was pitch our stories, but I never learned how to execute the directing of my story...which could have solved some problems when I later shot my film.

And while I'm on the subject of classes. I couldn't help but always feel so lost in my Camera Works class. I didn't really understand how a camera worked and Gahut assumed that we all did, and it wasn't until I did some research on my own that I sort of understood what he was talking about. I wish he had started at the basics,but you can't change what's already happened.

These were pretty much the only major problems I had with the semester. There were minor instances where I found myself pissed at one person or another, but they aren't anything worth really worrying about. Everything ended up fine. The good definitely outweighed the bad this semester and I wouldn't want it any other way. I took trips and made friends and learned so much more than I ever really dreamed of. It's going to be extremely sad to leave all of this behind. But, I know it has to be done. We are all sad and dreading those parting words...and some of us have even already left.

I feel that this blog has become a narrative of the lives of the FAMU kids. So, to commemorate the amazing semester we all had and to break up all of my storytelling, I asked everyone to share their favorite memory and give a piece of advice to those studying abroad in the future. Without further ado, here's what they had to say.

Steph~Favorite Memory: "The picnic in Vienna. Jacob and Dave had an intense search for food and the parcour(ers) in the park."
Piece of Advice: "Love the people you're with because you have a short time together and you can share this wonderful experience together for the rest of your lives."




Shayna~Favorite Memory: "Sitting on the dock on the island with everyone drinking beer and eating sausage by the river after class."
Piece of Advice: "Take advantage of every opportunity, even if it might not sound that cool at the time."

Dave~Favorite Memory: " Jacob sneaking onto the runway on fashion night at Club Mecca and struttin his tweed jacket. Also, chicken races and Drew balancing an apple around the courtyard in Budapest."
Piece of Advice: "When you know you got it, bust it out!"


Liza~Favorite Memory: "@Roxy - Drew has beef with manager, Drew and Jacob chill on that couch all night, David going to dance/throw up, water all over Tarek's face, boys yell charge! Dave fucks up his ankle, we stay up til 7 or 8 talking and laughing and see sunrise. Also, Kris' birthday at Friends."
Piece of Advice: "It's incredibly close, just take one more step in the right direction."

Drew~Favorite Memory: "Finding David passed out by the river at 5 in the morning."
Piece of Advice: "Always look forward, because there may be something gaining on you."




Kris~Favorite Memory: "My birthday! Dave figuring out how to say the types of alcohol on the shot glass in Czech so that I could have the 21 shot. Having girl singing sessions on stage. And everyone getting a visit from the "drunk fairy" because we were all extremely toasted and somehow miraculously had no ill effects. Plus, the stumbling home with Becky. Where I am sure I divulged numerous amounts of information that should never have been shared but were probably very entertaining to hear."
Piece of Advice: "Step outside your comfort zone and immerse yourself in a new culture. And try to speak as much Czech [or whatever language your host country speaks] as possible. "

Tarek~Favorite Memory: "Getting stuck in elevator with Pavel Marek. Cesky Krumlov debauchery. Navigation in Budapest. Michael Gahut during lighting exercise. FAMU PARTY! Dubbing Jorge's movie. Shooting "Love Machine". CHAPEAU ROUGE!"



Me~Favorite Memory: "Seeing most people show up in costume for the Halloween party."
Piece of Advice: "Don't be afraid to "jump in with both feet." Leave behind any fear you may have and just enjoy everything that comes your way."



I'm finding it difficult to end this post. Probably because I know that once I do, it will be the last one of substance written here in Prague and I don't think I want to face that reality just yet. I don't think I want to face that reality at all...and I probably won't until I'm on the plane at 9:30am heading into the clouds.

But, I know that this really isn't goodbye. You never actually say "goodbye" to friends, you say "see you later". I don't know how I would have made it through the semester without all of these amazing people. Steph, Shayna, Kris, Liza, Drew, Dave and Tarek, you have all been amazing people to get to know and have made blogging so very easy as you have provided so many wonderful stories. Kim, you've been amazing with taking care of all of us. Thank you all so much.

And I guess, that is that. I'm out of things to say...except "see you later."

It's Almost There, But...

As much as I hate to say it, the countdown until I leave this wonderful city of Prague has begun. It's already December 6th and I've been living here for a little over three months, but sadly the program will be coming to an end soon and I will then have to embark on a trip back across the Atlantic and return home.

I'm unsure as to how I feel about returning home. I mean, nothing against anyone at home, but I've been living here for three months and Prague has become my home...I just know it so well and I can't believe that in less than two weeks, I will be packing up all of my things and going home. But, just because I'm leaving in two weeks doesn't mean that things around here have gotten boring. It's far from boring.

To start, I just finished working with a friend, Jacob, on the costumes in his movie, I've been in the editing room with Kris for the last three days and we are working on finishing up our movie (everything is going ok here, but ...the editing room is a story for another time), and the Christmas market has finally come to Prague (in all seriousness, it looks like Prague went to sleep at the end of November and woke up on December 1st and Christmas had thrown up....decorations everywhere!)! (To right you can see a picture of the giant Christmas tree in the Old Town Square that I managed to get a picture of.) It's the Christmas season and I can definitely tell that I'm actually going to really enjoy the season this year. I just love wandering around the Christmas market....the only thing I really mind are the tourists, but they can't be helped really.

And then there is also the wonderful world of finals that we all are embarking on. Not that my finals are anything like the finals I had to take back in the United States, but the fact that my entire grade pretty much relies on that final kind of freaks me out a bit. I've got my History of Animation final tomorrow, Acting Theories sometime next week, the Script Analysis take home will be handed out Wednesday, and my History of the Czech Lands paper is due Wednesday with the oral exam on Thursday. Not to mention that my movie needs to be finished and ready to screen by the 15th of December. And all of this will be done within the next two weeks before I leave Prague. WOW!

But, I know everything will get done and it will be a great ending to a wonderful experience. I'm just starting to get a little bit nostalgic as I normally do around this time of year. I don't like seeing things come to an end...and the Christmas season means the end of the year is approaching and new things will begin.

So, that's all for now. I'll keep everyone posted as the countdown winds itself down. Keep watching!

Countdown: 12 Days Left in Prague

Rarely a Dull Moment

I've learned from living with the same seven FAMU kids for the last month or so that there is rarely a dull moment. And the last few nights have been no exception to this rule. Even on nights that are work nights or hang out nights, the possibility of something interesting happening is extremely high...and that is what I love about this group of friends.

When we last left the FAMU kids, we were headed out to Club Cross for a night of clubbing and fun. Now, as I wrote earlier I wasn't sure if I was going to stay long. Turns out that that night at Club Cross was an 80s-Calypso Remix night, which meant that I danced the night away with everyone. I even got the opportunity to do some partner dancing...you know the kind where they spin you and it is reminiscent of ballroom. I highly approve. I stayed until 3am...which is highly unusual for me, but it was for the best.

Sunday was a day of relaxation, I lounged and worked on memorizing lines for Acting Studio. I also made a trip to the store, but none of this is really interesting.

Monday rolled around and was full of classes. I got to watch The Apple Game, which starred our acting professor Dasha Blahova. The movie was awesome! I didn't know what I should be expecting, but it was really good and I highly recommend that should you get the chance, you watch it.

After class, I was hanging out with Steph and her friend, Gratia. We were playing a card game that I learned to play on Saturday night with the 32 deck of cards that I bought on Friday by accident and drinking some burcak that they had bought earlier in the day. We had just finished the card game when I decided that I should teach them 1000 blank white cards...even though the blank cards I bought weren't white.

I hadn't gotten that far into teaching the game when everyone else (Shayna, Liza, Drew, Dave and Tarek...even though he lives with us) showed up to play. The game ended up being a whole bunch of fun. At least I had fun. I can't speak for everyone, but it was a blast. We ended up with Liza speaking with a British accent for the game, Dave with a shoe on his head and pretending to be a cat, Drew always speaking into a walkie-talkie along with many other ridiculous rules. I would love to play again at some point. I'm also sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the ridiculousness that went on. It was awesome!

Oh, I also found out that just about all of them have been following this blog. I did not realize that everyone was reading. So, shout outs to all of the CET FAMU kids who read this blog!

Tuesday was another day of fun. It was Kris' birthday and she turned 21. Even though that is not a significant age to turn here in the Czech Republic, it is a very important age to turn in the United States. So, in true American fashion we decided to take Kris out to a bar...a gay, karaoke bar to be exact (Friends was the name). I have never had so much fun! And I know Kris had to be having a blast. Everyone was buying her drinks and she was dancing and singing karaoke. It was awesome!

As for me, I had an awesome time and got to sing two songs. I got to be one of the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail as we sang a rendition of The Cell Block Tango. Other merry murderesses included Kris, Rebecca, Lisa and one other girl that we met there. Later that night I also sang Meredith Brook's Bitch, which is a karaoke standard for me...mainly because I know the words really well and don't have to read much.

So, as I'm sure you can see. There is never a dull moment when us kids are involved. There is always some kind of fun taking place.

And on that note, I'm going to sign off and continue to work on my current sewing project. I'm making a dress out of a button down shirt for my roommate Steph and then I will be making one for myself. I'm finding that since I'm not really working on a Halloween costume or six this year that I need a crafty project right about now and this is working great. I'm glad I found the pattern posted on my friend Shannon's facebook wall by my other friend Janice.

One more thing though...I think we may be celebrating Halloween as a group though, which will make me one happy person.

"Stay tuned folks, you don't want to move folks. Cause there's more excitement coming!"

Where Does the Time Go?

I can't believe it. One month ago today, I had just arrived at my apartment in Prague and I had no idea of how my time in Prague was going to be spent. I was a bit nervous and a tad bit homesick, but still very excited. I don't believe that I've been here for an entire month. I've loved every minute of being here...well maybe not every minute, but just about. It has been a really wonderful experience thus far.

So, what have I been up to since I got back from Budapest. Well, classes took off this week and I didn't even realize how fast the week went by. Kris is my partner for the movie that we are shooting in November and we have finally come up with a really adorable idea about young love, which is something that I would normally not do. (For those who don't know, I usually write and make films within the horror/thriller/supernatural genre...) We went location scouting on Thursday when all of our classes pretty much were canceled/moved until Friday and we think we have figured out a pretty good spot to shoot. We're still looking, but I think we're not doing bad at all.

Last night (Friday), after all of our classes were finished, Kris and I went and bought some wine, cheese, bread and deserts for our get-together with Lisa and Rebecca (friends we have made from the other CET programs). It was a whole lot of fun. Just hanging out in the apartment and then we went out for pizza. It was a really relaxing Friday and I couldn't have enjoyed myself more.

This morning we had an off the beaten path tour with David from CET. He is definitely crazy...but I did get to see a whole lot of places that I never would have seen if it had not been for this tour. We started by crossing a train bridge and seeing a few trains pass us as we walked along the bridge was pretty awesome. (Too bad I wasn't quick enough to take a video or picture as the train passed.)(The picture on the right though is of the Prague castle taken through the train bridge.) We stopped to look at a brewery town across the bridge and then made our way to a more residential mall area where we got to see a synagogue...though I can't remember if David said that the synagogue was still in use or not.

After a small break for coffee, we continued our trip to the "concrete jungle" which was a bunch of flats that had been constructed in a village during the time of communism. It was a bit disturbing to be truthfully honest to look at. Everything looked identical with the exception of a few places that were being painted a few different colors. The right displays all of the flats in the village made by the communists.

We then took the metro to another part of the city and eventually made our way to see the TV tower.
Something that I have been looking forward to seeing since I got to Prague. It was really cool. Except for the fact that it had been built on top of a Jewish cemetery and you could see that a good chunk of graves had been moved. I should also point out that David Cerny has also placed babies crawling up the TV tower. He's such an odd artist, but I think he's become one of my favorites. The pictures are of the TV tower.

Once we left the TV tower, we got lunch at a pub around the corner where I had some pretty good goulash and tea.

That was pretty much the end of the tour and Kris and I decided that we wanted the cinnamon-sugar roasted almonds that we had found on Friday in Old Town Square (it is after all the cheese and spice festival until the 16th) because they were delicious! So, we wandered into Old Town Square through all of the tourists to find those delicious almonds! So worth it!

And now as I write this entry, I think I'm going to go and hang out with the others tonight when they go to Club Cross. I don't know how long I'll stay, but I feel like being social tonight. So, that's it! I'm going to finish getting ready and I'll update more as the month goes by. Don't move! More to come from Prague!

And It All Ends With Beer

I've got to hand it to myself. In under a week, I'm starting to be able to communicate with the locals in Czech. I know enough to get by...you know things like, hello, how are you?, my name is..., how much does this cost?, what time is it?, thank you, excuse me, etc.,etc. And it is all due to my Czech class. This picture is of my Czech book, by the way. It's a great book. One of the best I've ever used to learn a language.

Alright, so Tuesday we went on a walking tour of Prague that was supposed to last three hours. Yeah right! Three hours, I don't think so. This tour lasted at least five. But, I did take a whole bunch of pictures which I will now so graciously show you.

Starting from the top, these pictures are the religious memorial in the center of Old Town Square, the Powder Tower, Prague Castle from a distance, the Charles Bridge (which does not cross the Charles River contrary to popular belief), the John Lennon Wall, the men peeing statue by David Cerny, the Mission Impossible stairs (which we climbed to reach the castle), the Cathedral at the center of the palace complex, the giant metronome which replaced a statue of Stalin, and finally the beer garden where we ended the tour for dinner.

These are definitely not all of the photos I took on the tour. If I were to put them all up, it would take a very long time as I went a little camera happy while we were out. It was a really cool walking tour and I learned a lot about the history of Prague and the different stuff that has happened to the country.

On Wednesday, my friends and I took a stroll down to the Cubist Museum. Cubism was a very prominent style of art in Prague and there are still a lot of Cubist buildings left within the city. Like the museum building itself.

Then today, after our Czech class, we went to the exhibit by David Cerny of the EU entitled Entropa. This guy has become my new favorite artist. His stuff is rather hysterical and I just love looking at it. I'm only going to put up a few of my favorite pieces from this sculpture, but it was so funny. And I understand why the EU got mad at him for creating it.

For those who are a little confused, let me help. You see the Czech Republic holds the presidency of the EU at the moment, so they commissioned David Cerny, a famous Czech artist, to create a sculpture representing the EU. Well, this is what he did. He broke Europe up and made a complete satire of it. These are not all of the countries, but these are some good ones.

The first picture is the entire piece...mostly, it is rather large. Then we have the UK, which is sort of in the EU, but not...so Cerny chose to leave a blank spot. We then have France which is a nation on strike and Sweden which is an IKEA box. I'm sure you get the idea now.

Well, he caused a lot of controversy with this because a) its satirical and b) he said he was going to get artists from every country to do their own country, but instead he did them himself and then made up fake biographies about these people. Genius!

Ok, well...I'm sorry this is such a long and picture heavy post. More to come later. On the agenda for the weekend...row boating on the Charles River, football (soccer) game on Saturday night and Cesky Krumlov from Sunday to Monday. Keep watching! More updates soon!

House Keeping Items

Alrighty, so here are some of the house keeping items that I've been meaning to tell everyone. If you are looking to send me anything please send them to the following address:

(my name here)
C/O CET Academic Programs
Horska 2105/ 2A
D653
120 00 Praha 2
Czech Republic

Also, if you want my phone number send me an e-mail and I'll give it to you.

As for other things, there will be an actual update coming tomorrow that will encompass the last few days, but for now I'm just going to post pictures of my apartment.

Starting at the top these pictures are my living room, my dining room/kitchen, the entrance to my bedroom, my side of the bedroom and last but not least...the view from the balcony in living room.

There are more pictures, but these are pretty much the main highlights. Although, I do have to mention that I have dryer (which we thought we wouldn't have), a dish washer and a very large flat screen television (too bad it only gets Czech channels at the moment...we're going to try and fix that soon, along with the whole wireless internet problem at the moment).

Oh, yeah. One more thing. If you want me to send you a postcard or something and I don't already have your address, please send it to me. And feel free to skype me when I am on, my screen name is AsDirectedByBecky!

That's all for now. Look for a real update probably tomorrow evening or on Friday. There is just so much going on, I feel that if I don't update every so often you all will get slammed with a bunch of stuff in a long post, so I'm going to try and prevent from doing that.

Stay tuned!

First Official Post from the Czech Republic!

Dobry den! That's Czech for good morning and it is also the very first phrase I learned in Czech. I think I'm going to like learning this language.

I meant to update this as soon as I got here so that there wouldn't be so much to write, but then we haven't had any wi-fi and only one ethernet cord to share between four of us. This should be fixed soon. But, anyway...a lot has gone on since I first landed in the Czech Republic. So, I guess I should go back two days ago and start the story there, where it should have started.

On Wednesday, September 2, my friend Kris and I boarded a plane at JFK International Airport and took off on a 7 hour flight to Prague. Well, the flight itself wasn't that bad. I rather enjoyed the food on Czech Airlines that they had for dinner and I was able to sleep for a good 2 or 3 hours before the woke up the entire plane to serve breakfast, which was also pretty good. I only had one complaint about the entire flight. That would the fact that most of the plane consisted of a group of Jewish people that only spoke Hebrew and they all knew each other. Talk about feeling out of the loop. Kris and I had no idea of what was going on. People were everywhere talking to each other. It was a bit of madness.

The plane landed early at 5:45am (Czech time, that would be 11:45pm American time) and we got through customs rather quickly. We then proceeded to find some place in the airport that was open. Low and behold, we found ourselves at the McDonald's because it was the only place open. We made our home there until about 8:30am. During our stay there, we pretty much did nothing but plan out some of the stuff that we are going to do while in Prague this semester. Things like see the maze of mirrors and rent a row boat on the Charles River.

EDIT: This is Thursday morning now, by the way.

We started to get a bit worried around 9:45am when no one seemed to show up to retrieve us from the airport. Turns out though, that Kim (our RD) was just running late and she couldn't believe that CET didn't think to have someone come pick us up earlier. We caught a taxi with some other people which lead us on a tour of the entire city by taxi. I have come to the conclusion that I never, ever want to drive in Prague. It's worse than New York, but the city itself is gorgeous.

Once I reached my apartment, I met one of my roommates, Jorge, and I pretty much crashed for a nap until about 3:30pm. When I got up, one of my other roommates had arrived and I talked with her for a bit. Turns out she had been in Prague for a week prior to this, so she was pretty well adapted to the sleeping schedule.

We headed for the opening CET dinner around 5pm and made our way to this really nice Czech restaurant. I had chicken in a spicy cream sauce and it was delicious. While at the dinner, we got to meet one of our professors from FAMU and the dean of FAMU. (FAMU is the film school where I will be taking most of my classes.) After dinner, we headed out with our "local buddies" (these are people that actually live in the Czech Republic and are living with us to show us around), Petra, Marek, and Jorge to a pub which was close to our apartments. We were there until 11pm and it was so much fun. It was relaxing and I got to know many of the people in my program. We are a small group of 8, so we are pretty tight knit.

Friday morning came around earlier than I wanted it too. I started the morning with a jog with Kris around the local park and then a quick trip to the store for shower stuff, where I quickly learned that you needed to bring your own bag to the store. Luckily, I didn't get a whole lot of stuff.

After a shower, I headed with Steph (my roommate) to orientation at the CET center. This was a pretty quick overview of what we were going to be doing this semester. We watched some of the films from last semester, which were fabulous and amazing. I can't believe I'm going to get to make something that spectacular this semester. Also, I get to use real film. Not digital stuff like I use at home, real-honest to goodness film!

We took a break for lunch and then Kim took us on a mini-tour of Prague. We saw New town and Old town and it was just awesome! We crossed the Charles Bridge by foot and then Kim left us and the 7 of us traveled up to Prague Castle to have a look around. The view from up there was absolutely beautiful. The picture doesn't do it justice, you just have to see it for yourself.

We then moved our way back down to the tram and back to the apartments so we could get ready for dinner. For dinner, we went to this little place that was across the train tracks. I had duck and potato dumplings! It was so awesome!

After dinner we went back to the apartments to get ready to go out. Marrek took us out to a club that was under the Charles Bridge. Ladies got in for free! Can't beat that. It was a little weird though, being able to order from the bar. I first got a Mojito and I danced a little with everyone. But, I am so not a good dancer, so Kris and I decided to just go get another drink and find a table, which we did. The second drink was a Smirnoff. It was a pretty good time, though I don't think the clubbing scene is for me unless I have really close friends with me. I get pretty self-conscious about my horrible social dancing abilities.

Kris and I left the club at around 1:30am and ran to catch the night tram back home. The nice thing about Prague is that the entire city had transportation all night. It's pretty awesome.

Today's agenda consisted of mainly shopping for groceries, which were extremely inexpensive and working on getting my other abroad application filled out. And now, we're getting ready for dinner with the group. We are going to do the whole cooking thing tonight. Should be fun!

More to come! Stay tuned!