Weeks 7, 8, & 9: Home is where the heart is!

My view from my balcony at Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary.

Ahoj!

My apologies for being absent the last couple of weeks. The weekend following my birthday, I didn't do anything exciting. The day of, I went out to dinner with some of my friends here on the program. We went to my favorite restaurant in all of Prague, Las Adelitas. They were lovely enough to pay for my meal, and even convinced this mariachi band to serenade me with Felíz Cumpleaños. The moment was captured on film, where I awkwardly alternated between smiling at the band and smiling at the camera whenever it was pointed at me.

That was a great night. The first weekend of November, we took our last group trip out of town. We traveled to Karlovy Vary, a spa town west of Prague. We stayed at Hotel Thermal, which was one of the nicer places (I think) that we've stayed in on an excursion, but there were some grievances. First, that hotel is ugly as sin. It is probably the ugliest building in all of Central Europe. That being said, because we lived there, it didn't obstruct our view of the town, and I was able to get some beautiful pictures like the one above and below.

View from Hotel Thermal

Also, they put a toilet in a room by itself, and put the bidet, shower, and sink a couple of feet away in another room. In what world does that make sense? The bidet and the toilet are usually put together (for good reason) in one room. I don't really understand how they thought people would use them effectively if they aren't right next to each other.

And there was the whole deal with eating breakfast at certain tables. The woman who was setting up the tables in the dining room told each of us when we trickled in that only the tables with yellow napkins were able to be sat at for breakfast. All the tables with red napkins were off limits because they were reserved for lunch. What I don't understand is why things weren't sectioned off a little better than they were. It seemed like the tables with the yellow napkins were scattered about unnecessarily. Also, lunch wasn't for like another 2 hours, so she was making a fuss about nothing.

The first day we were in Karlovy Vary, we stopped at a glass production factory. We got a look behind the scenes at glassblowing, which looked really cool.

The outside of the factory had beautiful glass pieces to admire.

That night, we went to a karaoke bar. It would have been a better time if more of us had gone, and if the other singers' song selections were better. Almost every other song that was sung was done so in Russian, with a sad tune to it, and the screen with the lyrics screened with spliced images from what seemed to be a cross between the History Channel and a Lifetime movie.

The next day, our professor took us on a light hike (what he called a "stroll through the woods") up and down the hills you can see in the background of the first picture I posted. He said it would be easy, but I knew better than that. The difficulty of the hike is always harder (and longer) than what he initially says it will be. And that, my friends, is how people end up with trust issues.

We walked to several sights along the hike and I got some really nice photos.

Statue of Karl Marx

It was really nice to be out in nature for a few hours (can't believe I'm saying that) because we don't get to see a lot of greenery in Prague. We live near the city center, so we are surrounded by buildings. Sometimes we would be led away from the path while going up the hill, and I'm pretty sure we were going almost vertically at one point because I kept slipping on wet leaves. I had to spider crawl up eventually because I was afraid of falling to my death down the side of the hill.

We came to a resting stop for tourists where there was a small petting zoo with goats, pigs, and ponies in the back of a restaurant. There were also these two peacocks, Frosty and Romulus. I had never seen a white peacock before.

After we left the petting zoo, we carried on with our hike, eventually coming to our final destination for a group photo before heading back down.

The Grandhotel Pupp, from Last Holiday  with Queen Latifah and Casino Royale with Daniel Craig.

We arrived back in Prague later that evening to prepare for our final week of classes before final exams. Wednesday, we threw a halloween party for a group of Czech disadvantaged youth. It was a lot of fun and I know they had a great time, even though I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying to us. They were supposed to be using us to practice their English, but I don't think any of them did their homework beforehand.

Friday, we went to see an opera at the National Theater and for the rest of the weekend, I worked on completing my final papers.

Tuesday, we had a little bit of a celebration in Czech class because we took our Czech final the day before. We played this game that we did with the kids at the halloween party. We strung up a donut for each person, and we had to race to finish the donut off of the string without using our hands. I finished first, mostly because I had a lot of time to develop a strategy when I ran it with the kids the week before. It was as much fun as it looked.

Wednesday, our professor invited us for a game of laser tag. I love laser tag. I get weirdly competitive with it though. I don't have the opportunity to play it a lot, but I think it's a lot of fun.

 We had our final program dinner that night, and it was kind of sad because it was the last night that most of us were together. All in all, this has been an amazing program and I would 10/10 recommend it for future prospective students.

That said, there are a number of things I'll miss, like:

• The feeling of living in another country
• Traveling to new places
• Waking up to know that everyday could be a new adventure
• The familiarity of a 2-month routine
• Kingswood Apple Cider
• Gyros from this amazing place a couple of blocks away
• Free transportation
• Cheap beer

There are also a few things I won't miss, like:

• 0 customer service
• Not having a library
• Not having a desk/Having to do homework at the dinner table
• The entire Czech language
• "Meat and potato" dishes
• French fries with tartar sauce (yuck!)
• Expensive water

I have so enjoyed getting to know the people on this program. I've had my share of ups and downs, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I'm so thankful for this opportunity, especially because I know that I wouldn't have been exposed to this part of the world any other way.

I feel like I've made so many new friends and I can't wait for our reunion on campus in the new year.

Thank you for following me on this journey! I really appreciate of the support that I have received along the way. I'm on my way home!

Čau!

-Brandon

Weeks 5 and 6: Homesickness too strong!(+Trip to Krakow, Poland)

Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Previous Concentration/Extermination Camp in Poland

Ahoj!

I'm back! Sorry for the wait. I needed to take last week off with everything thats been going on. We are past the halfway point in our program and I have never felt as homesick as I have in the past two weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a great time and I'm really grateful for this opportunity to travel around Central Europe. However, I've never been so far away from home for so long, without family and friends to talk to and embrace. This has definitely been one of the most difficult things I've ever done.

Clinic Visit II

Following up on my previous post, we had another clinic visit. This time, it was with patients who have been diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes people with this disorder as people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one that they identify with. Here we listened to a lecture by Dr. Petr Weiss, a well known sexual psychologist in the Czech Republic, and his colleague (whose name I cannot remember, sorry!) as they talked about sexual deviancy and transsexualism, respectably. Then, we met two of Dr. Weiss' patients, Veronica (a post-op male-to-female patient) and Mark (a post-op female-to-male patient), who talked to us about their transitions and what life was like for them when they were younger. It was very interesting to hear them talk about this aspect of their identities and to be so open about everything.

Afterwards, I kind of had the weekend for myself. It was the first weekend in a while where we didn't have anything scheduled, so a lot of my classmates did some independent traveling while I stayed in Prague. Nothing really interesting happened that weekend. I skyped home to my family and Carleton to whomever had time to talk.

Sunday, I got a haircut. Well actually, I cut it myself. Saved a lot of money too. Regretted it as soon as I started because I realized that I had never actually cut my hair before. I was pretty desperate though, and convinced that I wouldn't be able to find anyone in Prague who could handle my hair. I once went to GreatClips while I was in Evanston this summer and the stylist gave me such a hard time about it.

"Your hair is too thick!"

Then, she proceeded to take the clippers and abuse my head with them like a 3 year-old with a crayon and a coloring book. Terrible experience.

Welcome to Poland!

Before leaving for Poland on Tuesday night, we had movie night at our professor's apartment again, who showed Schindler's List because it was relevant. I hadn't seen that movie in a while, so I had forgotten how gruesome it was. You kind of have to mentally prepare yourself it. It's not like Quentin Tarantino gritty, but Spielberg definitely put in some work. We boarded the train later that night and arrived in Krakow the next morning.

The hotel was nice! Probably my favorite stay away from Prague.

The lights and the water were activated by putting your key card (or a random business card) in a slot outside of the bathroom.

After a quick shower and a hot breakfast, I was ready for the first of many tours we would be participating in while we were in Poland.

Off we go, exhausted (and grumpy)

Our tour guide hated the look of this theatre for some reason, but he sounded like a hater. I think it looks nice.

We arrived at the main square.

Church Of Our Lady Assumed Into Heaven
On the side of this church, adulterers were chained by their necks and publicly shamed for several hours.

There is a trumpet player who plays a tune every hour on the hour, 4 times (once in each direction of the world). When he is finished, you can wave at him and he'll wave back!

This knife was hung here outside of the shops to remind shoplifters that if you steal from them, they'll steal from you (perhaps an arm or a hand).

Couple of shops.

Wawel Castle (I think...)

A number of chapels that were built one after another. 

After this tour, we were free to do whatever until class a few hours later. The next day, we toured the Jewish Quarter of the city.

I was shoved by a Polish Woman!

Here we are in the Jewish Quarter.

Synagogue

I honestly can't say for sure what this is, but I think it's a memorial. A large rude tour group walked up behind ours and made it difficult for me to hear what our tour guide was trying to tell us.

Another synagogue. This one was built below street level because anti-Jewish laws prevented synagogues from being taller than churches.

Don't remember exactly why I took a picture of this building, but I think it had something to do with the windows. I think the windows were high to avoid having people see what was going on in there.

Polish side.

Former Jewish shops

 Okay, pause. I was shoved by a rude Polish woman right here in front of the Schindler's list stairs. Our group stopped to hear more about it from our guide when this woman came from out of nowhere. I had no idea that she was behind me, but I hear that she was back there for all of ten seconds before she got sick of waiting, pushed me into another girl in our group and walked off all rudely and speaking Polish. I was in such a state of shock, that I couldn't react fast enough. Had she spoken English, I would have given her several pieces of my mind!

Stairs from Schindler's List

More from that scene

Framed pictures from the scenes Spielberg shot in this location

Apparently, Spielberg also shot at this hotel.

Jewish cemetary

More shops

Another scene from the movie was shot here.

Actual Schindler's List factory turned museum

 The following pictures are from exhibits in the museum:

Nightlife

I feel like the nightlife in Poland was somewhat different than the nightlife here in Prague. There are people everywhere! I also think I was propositioned by an escort while I was walking to a gelato stand. There was this tall blond woman wearing dark clothing and holding a blue umbrella above her head (even though it wasn't raining and there was no sun). She came up to me.

Lady: *Asks me a question in Polish while motioning to her face and body*
Me: "Um...No."
Lady: "...Why not?"
Me: *Speedwalks away*

She had an accomplice, and they were doing the same thing to almost every guy who walking past, except those who were holding hands with their girlfriend.

Friday, we went to a KS Cracovia football match. In order to buy tickets though, we had to be registered as non-hooligans. So we went to the stadium with our passports the day before to make sure that none of us were soccer hooligans and to receive our ID cards of non-hooliganism, but the printer was broken. Luckily, the day of the game, we went back and we were able to get in with this facial recognition software.

Also, the food in Poland was really good. Granted, I ate at the same restaurant for dinner all five days, and even the same meal, but it was better than anything I had in the Czech Republic. It was relatively cheap and filling too.

Pork Shashlik (with pork, bacon, onions, and peppers), rice, and a fresh cabbage salad with an herb dressing. With a beer, this was enough to put me right to sleep after dinner.

And it was tempting because the restaurant so graciously provided their guests with pillows

I caught this old man staring at me several times while I was trying enjoy my dinner one night

He looked so displeased I couldn't help but to take a few pictures of him

And a free shot definitely ended the night right

To Auschwitz!

I want to let the pictures speak for themselves. The nice weather made it difficult to connect this place to its awful history. So now I present my journey to the largest former German Nazi concentration camp and Extermination camp.

Auschwitz I: The original camp

Auschwitz II: The death camp

Too much to go into detail about now, but if you have questions, feel free to shoot me an email (marksb@carleton.edu)

Green near the salt mine

On our final day in Poland, we went to the salt mine in Wieliczka, Poland. I couldn't take pictures there for whatever reason, but almost 300+ feet underground are structures carved out of rock salt. You could lick the walls, floors, and ceilings. It was pretty amazing.

I realized that I don't have many pictures taken at night, so I took a few in Poland before we left for the train to Prague.

 I'll work on getting more pictures of Prague at night for next time.

Clinic Visit III

 Tuesday, we went to visit the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital, which in all honesty looked more like a college campus.

Here we met with sex offenders and listened to them tell their stories. It was a little uneasy being in the room with criminals who were sitting right in front of us and admitting that they murdered someone or raped someone my younger sister's age. I appreciated their honesty though, because they could have opted not to answer any of our questions. They also seemed pretty interested in our being there. There was an incentive being offered for them to attend the session with us, but it wasn't exceptionally better than the alternatives. I felt like it was an incredibly humanizing experience for everyone in the room, and I can say without a doubt that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do something like this in the US.

Well, that's all I have for now. I can't immediately say what'll be next but my time here is quickly coming to an end. Also, I just turned 21 about an hour and a half ago, so that's cool. Unfortunately, it would be more exciting if I were in the states where it actually mattered. Can't wait to go back though!

Thanks for reading!

Čau!

-Brandon