The End is Near

The end is very near. At this point I've packed all of my things away into a suitcase, a backpack and a carry-on and I'm sitting in my living room waiting until 12pm. I will then relocate to the "Mancave" or Moose and Tyler's apartment until my flight tomorrow morning. Approximately 24 hours from the time of this post, I will be on my back to the States. It feels a little surreal. 

As I packed my things up yesterday evening I thought about it. The journey that I've been planning since my freshman year of college is finally coming to an end. It's another chapter of my life closing and tomorrow will begin a new one. 

Ok, I'm going to stop being sappy for the moment. That will definitely come later. Yesterday night was my last final, so I was completely relieved to be entirely done with the semester. It was a long and hard road to get to this point, but I learned a lot and had fun along the way. We also had our final dinner last night. We went to LaBodega and I got some shrimp curry, black lentil soup, and crème brulée. I also split an appetizer of duck with Moose. It was overall a pretty good night. But, as with all programs, our small group began to shatter and splinter. Rebecca left for Australia before the final dinner and not long after dinner finished, Ryan left to go and prepare for his flight home. 

After dinner we went to the bookstore that was down the street for a little bit of time, and once we had finished shopping, we split up into two groups and I came back to my apartment to try and pack up my things, which I had been dreading since I took my final. How does one pack up five months of a life into only two suitcase and a carry-on? I managed it somehow, but it was very sad to pack everything up. 


Prior to dinner though, we all met at Matthew's apartment for presentations. Matthew gave out the Qishta awards, which were pretty amusing. There was an award for all of us. I got "Future director of Will's History Channel Program" as I'm sure  you guessed Will got "Future Professor and Host on the History Channel". It was pretty nifty and he gave us Ancient Egyptian statues to commemorate the awards. Then Lindley made a slideshow that was set to the song "Save Tonight", which made me tear up a good bit. I realized that it was true once again. The group of friends I had made in this country was fragmenting apart. 


Backtracking now. Sadly Tuesday was not as spectacular as it was supposed to be. I spent the morning pretty much just hanging around the apartment working on things that needed to be finished. I did have dinner in the evening with Virgina, the girl I worked with at Past Preservers, at Felfela. It was pretty good and it was great catching up with her. She seems to be doing fine and she told me to look her up if I was ever in the UK. 


After dinner I went back to the apartment and then out on a felucca with everyone as our last gathering as a giant complete group. It was wonderful and lots of fun. I then went with Shruit, Ryan and Ann to Koshary Al-Tahrir to get some food (I only got water as I wasn't hungry). We had a nice conversation and then we headed home where I slept really well for the first time in a while. 


And well, that's about it. Things are wrapping up. I'm probably going to go and get the last minute things that I need for back home after I've moved my stuff to the Mancave and then I'm going to stop over to see Matthew to ask about my Senior Thesis next year. Wow....I don't believe it, I'm officially a Senior in college. Time is just flying. 


So, stay tuned. We not done just yet. One more post from Egypt to come!

Countdown: 1 day left in Cairo. 

Greetings from Spring Break Egypt

I feel like I haven't written anything in this blog in a long time, but it's not been that long at all. My last official entry was on the 28 of March and it's only the 7th of April. That's really not that long of a time to break between posts, but I guess when I haven't really written about the current stuff going on, it makes a difference. 

So, I need to back track then...a lot. Let's return to when Will and I made our way to the Egyptian Museum to find out artifacts for class. That's approximately two weeks ago. The following Wednesday held nothing really important except the lecture to the access program about American football, which I believe I already mentioned. I do like working with the access program, I just wish I had known the topic a little better.  And Thursday was nothing too spectacular, except going to work of course. I really feel like I'm getting a lot out of working with Past Preservers. I get to write press releases and put all of the skills that I learned in my silly Writing for Mass Communication class. Glad to know that they are actually applicable in internships that I get. 

This brings us to Friday, March 26. I woke up and figured it was going to be a lounge weekend while I worked on my presentation for Customs and Habits, but I was very mistaken. Instead, I ended up going with Garrett, Ann, Haley and their friend Kareem to his villa on the outskirts of Cairo where we proceeded to have a cookout and swim by the pool. His house was gorgeous and I'm pretty sure that this not the way normal Egyptians live...actually, I know that for a fact as I'm living the way a normal Egyptian would live...in an apartment, not a secluded villa away from the noise of the city. 

The swimming pool at the Villa. 

 Garrett being thrown into the pool still in her clothing.

Well, even though I didn't go swimming, I did sit and enjoy myself. We grilled steaks and vegetables, which were absolutely delicious. Sadly, we had to leave the party a little earlier than intended as I had a Skype interview with a possible internship over the summer (I'm still waiting to here back as to whether or not I got the job), but I thought it went rather well. 

 Haley grilling the steak and vegetables. Yum, eggplant!!!!!

The following week was close to an absolute nightmare. Midterms week normally is, but it is always made worse when you feel like you want to be out exploring the city as opposed to inside writing papers and preparing presentations. And then it becomes even worse when your program manager goes on vacation and one of the kids in your program has friends come to stay for the week. 

But, I survived. I presented my presentation on Sunday for Customs and Habits about magic in Ancient Egypt versus magic in the United States and then on Monday my International Relations class took a field trip to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where we met with the Deputy Ambassador and she discussed the current issues of the Middle East with us. It was really nice to be able to hear someone actually explain what I've been reading about for the last nine weeks. I understand why it is such a threat that Iran is working on a nuclear plan, beyond the Cold War mentality of things and I understand in greater detail Egypt's position on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. But, I won't bore you all by explaining it. Just know that this field was incredibly useful and if you want to know more, just send me an e-mail and I'm more than happy to go through all the notes I took during the meeting. 

 Ryan, Rebecca and Moose sit at the table waiting for our professor and speaker to arrive. 

 Sitting around in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The room was super fancy!

Tuesday was pretty normal, and then came Wednesday. The day before the big Spring Break and I had an Arabic mid-term and a museum catalog project due. Luckily, I was able to relax after I turned everything in. And I learned a lot about some of the lesser known queen of Ancient Egypt as my catalog contained two objects were from these queens, a statue and a canopic jar. 

After class, I taught the access program again. Sean and I decided to do it as a team and Will helped us out as Ryan went to meet some his friends who were in for Spring Break. This week we talked about movies, but sadly the conversation was not all that great. I still can't get them to talk. They just want me to do all the talking and I don't know what to talk about. Some of them are also really annoying as they have side conversations and continuously snap pictures of you while you're trying to teach. I just don't understand, this is a volunteer program and if they don't want to be there, they shouldn't come. 

After teaching, we met with our Egyptian friends and had a dialogue session about religion which was moderated by Dr. Riham. It was interesting, but a very uncomfortable topic to talk about because religion is involved with every aspect of life here.


As Wednesday approached a close, Spring Break began. I met up with some of the other kids in my program, Garrett, Shruti, Will, Tyler, Moose and some of our other friends. We were originally going to go salsa dancing, which made me super excited,but sadly we did not the chance to go. I'll get to go sometime, hopefully. Instead, we hung out at the "man-cave" for a bit and then tried to go to this dance club, but sadly it was too expensive. So, instead we went to a small bar and then headed home. 


Thursday began the weekend trip to Alexandria, which officially kicked off Spring Break. But, in order to not overwhelm this post with pictures and stories, I'll write a post tomorrow. I promise. So, keep reading and feel free to comment. I love comments!

A Snow Covered Prague!

It's my last full day in Prague...it seems so weird to say it. I mean I've been planning this trip since February of last spring and now it's over.

Our small little group of eight is breaking apart. Slowly, but surely. Drew left this morning to catch his plane home and tomorrow Shayna, Kris and I will leave as well. And not long after all of us have touched down in the States, everyone else will have left our little place in Prague. We'll leave with memories of all the good times we've shared and all the growing that we've done as people. It's been a wonderful experience and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

So...there will probably be a few entries today. I'm going to try and not be sappy right now and just recount the last few days for you. The more emotion stuff will come later, after I finish up my Script Analysis final that's due at midnight tomorrow.

Well, the second screening on Tuesday went very well. We had a big turnout of people to come and see our films, which was rather surprising, but a lot fun. Kris and I got the reaction we wanted from the crowd, so that's good at least.

Later that evening, I took my Acting Theory final. I did very well. Only missed one question and I finished it in 15 minutes, which meant that I still made it on time to the final dinner party we were having.

The final dinner was a lot of fun. All of our professors were there and there was lots and I mean lots of food and drinks had by all. I never thought I would be this comfortable with the people in my program to go out with all of them and our professors and just have fun. Prague is definitely a totally different world, but I love it.

Before the final dinner was through, the professor got up and gave a little presentation. We received diplomas for completing the program and a DVD with all of our movies on them as well as our lighting exercise. That was pretty cool.

Here are some of the pictures from dinner!




They are Kris and Shayna being themselves, Dave with the huge Hunter's plate he and Drew ordered, Marek and Petra enjoying themselves, Pavel Marek, Pavel Jech and Michal Gahut giving a presentation, and everyone minus our editing teacher, Bara, who worked with us throughout the entire semester.

After dinner, all of us went out Friends. I don't just mean all of the FAMU kids, I mean all of the CET kids. Everyone, including Jarka and Jiri, showed up for the final karaoke night at Friends. We packed the club! Everyone was singing and dancing and socializing. It was a good end to the longest day ever had.

And of course, here are the pictures from Friends! We are also probably pretty famous on their website as they took so many pictures of us...though I haven't looked myself just yet.


They are Petra, Dave, Liza and Lisa at the club, some of the other CET people hanging out, and CET kids doing karaoke. I wish I knew more names, but then again, I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them.

Wednesday, I woke up and took my Czech final (finally!) which was pretty easy. I really loved learning this language and I think out of all of the one's I've learned this one is my favorite.

After the final, I pretty much just did some cleaning around the apartment, worked on my Script Analysis final and packed some things up. Later on, I went to the girl's apartment and we made mulled wine (which was delicious) and french fries. We hung around the apartment and then made our last trip out to dinner as a group. It was sad, but fun all at the same time. And as we left the restaurant, it had snowed and the snow had set on the ground. The perfect ending to a great trip. We (well not me, but everyone else) had a small snowball fight which I took pictures of before we separated and lost Drew to the States.

Here are the pictures!



They are Drew and Dave coloring with Kris supervising, everyone hanging around the table, the snow fall after we left the restaurant and Drew and Liza after the snowball fight.

I'm looking out my window right now and I can't believe that a) it's snowing and b) tomorrow will be the last time I look out my window and see Vyšehrad. But, as Kris said last night, "This is the icing on the cake, we get to see snow covered Prague just before we leave."

The last few days have been a blast and I wouldn't want them any other way. But, as I said earlier in this post, I'm not going to be sappy here. I'll do that later today, when it's closer to me leaving. Right now, I have to finish a final, return some things to CET and get the pin I want from Prague. Still doing things, even as I'm preparing to leave.

Countdown: 1 day left in Prague. :-(

The Creation of All Things

It's over. After three long days of working in the studio at Studio FAMU last week, the FAMU kids finally reached...the weekend! And this weekend was an interesting one. As one of the few FAMU kids that stayed in Prague this weekend, I decided (along with Kris) to explore some parts of Prague that we have yet to see. (Or at least I have yet to see...) But, before I get into what we did, let me tell you about the last two days of the lighting exercise.

To start, it probably shouldn't be called a lighting exercise. It should probably be called a cinematography exercise as we did a lot with setting up shots and directing as well as lighting scenes.

Day 1, as I mentioned in the previous post, consisted of portraits and lighting of an early morning bedroom. Day 2 moved a little faster than Day 1 did as we had finally started to get the hang of how to read the light meter and set the scene. We shot a hallway scene that connected into the story of the early morning bedroom scene, a mirror scene, a television in the dark scene, and a poker game scene with candles. These scenes were rather fun to work with. I got to operate the camera for the mirror scene and I got to act in the television scene as well as the poker game scene. I really do enjoy being in front of the camera occasionally.

After we finished up the lighting exercise for the day, we headed over to the FAMU main building to have a class with Pavel Marek. Luckily, we didn't have to discuss our scripts again and instead we watched a few short films/clips of movies that may possibly inspire us in some way for our own movies.

Day 3 started with the continuation of the poker game scene. We did close ups and shots around the table which are pretty neat. After we moved ourselves out into the hallway, where we proceeded to take over and create different lighting scenarios on the stairs and in the hallway. We messed around with mixed lighting and trying to fix florescent light color. We also did some shooting outside, which is extremely useful for Kris and myself as we are only shooting outside.

Here are some of the pictures I took during the lighting exercise:






















































































































The pictures are, in no actual order, lighting the hallway in Studio FAMU, Drew and Shayna protecting the "yummies" Kim sent to us via Gahut, part of the set in the studio, Dave and Tarek passing out after a long day, Steph filming with the camera, Kris and Gahut looking at the light meter, a picture of Studio FAMU and Tarek and Dave adjusting the camera.

Upon completion of the lighting exercise for the day, the FAMU kids headed home for some relaxation. But, before completely leaving the area, we stopped at a little Italian shop where I bought some ricotta cheese to make dinner for the night. Dinner would be gnocchi with chicken. I was making the homemade gnocchi that I know and it turned out to be delicious.

Later on Friday night, Kris and I finally got around to seeing Surrogates. It was a pretty good movie. And the best part was that it was in English...with Czech subtitles. The movie going experience itself was rather interesting. The price for a ticket wasn't all that bad. 129 crowns. I think that's cheaper than back home in the states. And then food wasn't too expensive either. Overall, I say that seeing a movie after three long days was one of the best things to start the weekend.

Saturday rolled around earlier than expected. I didn't get to sleep until late on Friday due to my current addiction to Dexter...I just needed to know what happened...But, I was then woken up slightly when Steph's alarm went off around 4am. You see, five of the eight of us went to Vienna, Austria for the weekend. They were seeing the Vienna Film Festival. While the other three of us stayed in Prague and went about a rather normal weekend.

So, after falling back asleep from Steph's alarm, which really wasn't a big deal, I got up around 9:15am and went with Kris to get a Thai massage before our sound class. It was absolutely amazing. I didn't realize that I had so much tension in my back and in so many places. While it hurt a little during the massage, the after effects made the entire thing well worth it. We then headed to sound class with Drew, which was at least interesting. I now have another way to ruin movies for people. Soon, no one will want to watch movies with me unless my mouth is taped shut. Oh well...

After class, Kris and myself went home for quick lunch break and then set out to buy tickets for our adventure on Wednesday. We got extremely lucky and managed to reserve the last two seats on the train. Should be a fun trip. We then headed out to Petřin to see the lookout tower and mirror maze. (I'll post pictures of these places the next time I go...stupid me left her camera battery at home...). They were a lot of fun. The views of the city were phenomenal. I can't wait to go back when I actually have a camera, so that everyone can see the amazingness that is Prague. Especially right now. The weather has changed back to normal and the trees are gorgeous.

Around 6pm, we headed back to the apartment to get ready to hang out with Rebecca and Lisa. We had plans to play card games and find out how their ten day trip around Europe went. It was a lot of fun. And it was good to see them.

Sunday was a lazy day. We were originally going to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, however, we found out that with children's films they don't do Czech subtitles...they just dub the whole movie. Which means it would have been pretty hard for us to understand what they were saying. Oh well. I'll see it eventually. So, instead I wandered over to Novy Smíchov to see if I could find a new purse as mine is starting to bother me.

I searched the entire mall, but to no avail. However, I did discover that my need to go into bookstores hasn't left me. Whether there was an English section or not, I felt the need to go into the bookstore and look around. I guess somethings just never really chance. I then returned home to make some dinner, talk with my family and Geoff on Skype and then continue with my Dexter addiction until it was time to try and sleep.

And so, here we are on Monday. The start of a slow week. As many of our professors are in the States this week, we don't have the usual amount of classes. Today was History of Animation, Czech and then the guest lecture class. Tomorrow is going to be us at Barrandov Studios watching the telecine transfer of footage from our lighting exercise. I'll then have my Acting Theories class, which is always a lot of fun. Wednesday is Kris' and my adventure to....VIENNA. But only for the day. You see it's a National Holiday and thus we have no classes, so we're taking this as day trip. Should be fun! Thursday is Acting Studio, Film Language and then my history class. And then Friday is a trip to the Jewish Quarter followed by Friday Night Fright Night.

So, as you can see. It's a slow, but fun week. I can't wait to see how nice Vienna is and I can't wait for this upcoming weekend. It's Halloween and I want to have a party and do fun stuff. I hope everything works out.

And now that I have told you everything you probably ever wanted to know about the last few days and more, I'm going to return to my addiction and begin Season 3 of Dexter. I'm just so curious as to what's going to happen that I can't help but watch. More things to come! Čau!

The Most Amazing Movie...That We Never Saw...and Lighting Things Up!

So, while I'm still semi-conscious, I figured I should probably recount the last of my weekend and the events that have led me to this point in time...

I said that the weekend wasn't over on Friday and I was right....more excitement took place on Saturday.

Saturday morning came around a lot quicker than I wanted it to. More sleep would have been nice, but you do what you have to do. Kris and I met around 10am to work on our storyboard before our meeting with Pavel Marek.

The meeting itself went pretty well. Kris and I are in very good shape with our movie. We have a solid story, a location and a possible actor as well as the start of a storyboard. I'm quite excited that things are going so well. Of course, I know there will be a snag. There is always a snag...but, for now I'm not going to think about it and I'm going to say that everything is running very smoothly.

After the meeting, Kris and I went back to our apartments and then eventually made our way to "This and That". A store near the CET center that was rumored on the expats website to have a very good selection of fall decorations. Well...they do. But, only if you have a house...they don't have much for an apartment. It was a very neat store though.

On the way back to the apartments, we stopped so that Kris could get burcak as this last weekend was the last weekend of the season for it. Once back I made dinner of mango rice with chicken and sweet & sour sauce. It was pretty good. While I was cooking, Liza, Drew, Tarek, Dave and Marek wandered over and we watched Twelve Monkeys while I ate dinner. They eventually all left to go make their own dinner and I got ready to go to the movies with Kris to see The Surrogates.

Going to the movies was quite an adventure, let me tell you. The directions seemed simple enough. Take tram 7 to Anděl and then tram 9 to Krematorium Motol. Well, we followed the directions and took the 7. Once arrived, however, we could not find the 9. After a few moments of looking, we spotted it coming around the corner in the direction that we needed. So, in true action movie style, we darted after the tram and just made it as the doors closed. Everything seemed to be going well...until we ended up in the middle of the highway. We walked down the road a little, trying to find the mall...and eventually we came across what looked like the "concrete jungle". It was then we realized that Google maps had lied to Kris and we were actually nowhere near a mall. So, we got back on the tram and headed back to Anděl. I knew there was a movie theater in the area, so we attempted to find it.

My lovely sense of direction led us in a big circle with finding the theater, but we did eventually find it...along with the other theater we were looking for. Turns out, if we hadn't been in such a hurry to catch the 9, perhaps we would have realized where the theater was. (This movie has become a trip for this upcoming weekend...here's hoping we make it.) By this point, there was no point in seeing the movie, so Kris and I opted for desert and drinks at a nearby cafe. I myself got a Brandy Alexander (that one is for you Manya) and it was delicious. Kris got a B52, which they lit on fire. There was also chocolate cake and crepes involved.

Sunday was a day of laziness. We had plans to go to Kutna Hora, but they fell through as everyone was so tired from Saturday. I did productive things though...like updating my online portfolio and cleaning my computer.

Monday and Tuesday were fairly normal. But today started our three day lighting exercise with Michael Gahut. While I'm learning a lot, it has been an exhausting day. I have learned about how to use the light meter. How to properly direct when in a studio and on location. How to make a slate. And the ins and outs that I never really thought about. Oh and of course, I'm learning how to light just about any scenario you could possibly ever want to light. Today's lesson dealt with portraits and early morning bedroom scenes.

After 8.5 hours of lighting today, we also had script analysis and then a meeting with Pavel Marek about our scripts...totaling about 12 hours of class with not a whole lot of break. But, that's ok. That's how I expected this program to be and so, I shouldn't be complaining.

But, now that I have physically exhausted every inch of my being. I'm going to say goodnight and curl up in my bed and sleep until the morning...when I get to do it all again.

So, goodnight all! More excitement ensues in the next few days...I'm sure of it!

The Arrival of Fall

I really feel that this is an appropriate comic to post in my blog for now. Here in the Czech Republic, we've actually been experiencing fall or autumn...as opposed to Maryland where the weather goes from summer to winter in a total of about two weeks. This is of course excluding the last few days where it has been rather rainy. But, this is the same sort of feeling I get when I'm looking out the windows of my classroom at FAMU..."oh the leaves are gorgeous. The hillside is beautiful....wait, I should be paying attention...but, it's sooooo pretty..." You get the idea.

But enough talk of how much I love the fall here. The end of last week turned out to be another interesting week. Wednesday and Thursday were rather normal by all accounts. I did manage to get lost in Old Town on Thursday though. I went looking for the books I needed for my history class and I first tried the Globe Bookstore that my professor suggested, but they did not have the books, so I thought I would try the other English bookstore, Anagram.

I've heard it said that you can only get lost in Prague if you are actually looking for something and it's very true. Trying to find Anagram books took about 4 hours...and I never actually found the store. I wandered the same block, unintentionally, for at least an hour. I also managed to end up in the Jewish Quarter. Eventually, I did find my way back to Old Town Square, but I had given up on finding the bookstore at this point. There was a what looked to be a school band playing in the square outside of St. Nicholas' Church, which is what the picture to the left is of. They were pretty good and were playing the "Can-Can" song, so I enjoyed that.

Not long after this fiasco, I met Kris and we went for "horka čokoláda" aka hot chocolate at the Cubist cafe. It was really good. When we ordered, the waiter was extremely impressed as we proceeded to order in Czech. He was so amused that he went from having very little smile to be all smiles every time he came over to the table. It was a really relaxing time before I had to go class and Kris had to return to writing her paper. Well, as I was leaving I grabbed my jacket off my chair and the waiter insisted on holding it for me as I put it on. I take this as a sign that not many people come in with the intent to speak Czech there.

Class went well, as did Friday's class. Friday night I spent part of my night hanging out with Shayna and Steph. They were a lot of fun. I then met Lisa and Rebecca at Friends for American Pop Dance Party night. I really enjoyed dancing and just hanging out with them.

Saturday during the day Kris, Lisa and I went shopping around...or more like pricing around for souvenirs. I actually wandered into the Tesco's other floors, which were actually really neat. It reminded me very much of an American department store. We stopped in Old Town Square for roasted almonds and actually found Anagram books this time around. I wasn't looking for it this time obviously. (Especially since I had already taken the books out of the CET library...). We then wandered for Chinese food, which was only ok. I think the place could have been better, but you know...it was an experience. I really do need to find a sushi place though. If there is one food I really miss from home its the sushi.

When I got home later in the evening, I found that Steph, Shayna and Tarek were watching I Love You, Man. I watched the last bit of it and then we all proceeded to make chicken schnitzel. It was absolutely delicious! That's what the following pictures are from.

Later that evening, Kris, Lisa, Marek, one of Marek's friends and I attempted to go to a jazz club that we received an e-mail about, but we arrived half-way through the set and decided that the cover of 200 crowns was too much for only seeing half of the show. We wandered looking for another bar for a bit and eventually ended back at the same bar where I got a really good drink called a "Swimming Pool"...it was really good. Kris got a "Zombie", which is the picture to the left...it was cool to look at so I had to post a picture of it. After we finished drinks, we headed back home.

Sunday was a day of cleaning. I cleaned the entire apartment and it made me extremely happy once it was all done. I then wandered over to the boy's apartment for eggs and then out to coffee with Steph and Shayna. Sunday was rather relaxing and culminated in me making eggplant parmesan which was absolutely delicious.

And now it is Tuesday. Monday was a typical Monday complete with classes and rain. And today we saw snow...but beyond that...typical Tuesday with classes. I'll update later in the week as we have to pitch our ideas to production managers on Thursday. That will be fun. But, look for more excitement in the coming entries. The semester is becoming a film making semester. Cheers!