A Crash Course in Prague
My First Class
Even though I had class at 6pm this evening, I still awoke at 9am to deliver my essay for my chance to to go Moscow. I’ll find out tomorrow if they liked it enough to give me a spot. For your reading pleasure, here it is:
Perhaps we should all be grateful that we are not fish. How often would our owners change the water? Would he add new plant life? For the first time in my life someone has changed my tank, and now I have the opportunity to add even more plant life to my ever-growing aquarium by visiting a city as historic as Moscow.
In addition to the incredible historic component of Moscow, there is a growing subculture of million and billionaires in Russia. This is compounded by the need for growth upward, and outward. New buildings seem to rise overnight. Former Russian President Vladimir Putin was often said to, “complain that he never knew what the skyline of Moscow would look like when he got out of bed in the morning1.”
Well I too wonder what Moscow actually looks like. It seems, as though their tank is constantly changing, and, if only for a moment, I want to witness this amazing city’s dynamic and elusive culture. A culture that has risen from the ashes, witnessed and survived communism, been ruled by the Czars, and now is the playground of the ultra-rich and absolute poor.
Simply put, I envy their aquarium.
1 Smith, Martin. “Moscow Never Sleeps.” National Geographic August 2008: 73-85.
We’ll see!
I then went to my French place and had breakfast again...
On my arrival home I did some more laundry... and have been drying it all over my room again. WHY they don’t just use REAL dryers confounds me.
I guess it solves the problem of shrinking your clothes.
Class tonight went well. It was American lit from a European perspective. It’s going to require crazy amounts of reading...
After class there was a welcome dinner. Fully catered. Flowers, high-top tables, candles and food everywhere, as well as an open bar (beer, wine, and other non-alcoholic drinks) made for quite the party atmosphere. In addition we were able to walk out onto any of the balcony’s around the room, some over-looking the square below.
Simply fantastic.
I missed a good portion of the food because I was having a great conversation with Alexis. What food I did eat was great.
After dessert, the folks from my dorm and I wandered back to the tram to go home. Somehow I managed to catch my heel on a cobble stone and wind up ass-over-tea-kettle.
The really funny part is that of the 10 of us, I was the 10% that was sober.
Damn cobblestones.
After collecting myself from the ground with the help of a few other students, I made it home.
Overall a pretty uneventful day, but with any luck I’ll be writing about my trip to Moscow tomorrow... or at least that I get to go.
Time will tell.
Class all day tomorrow... well not really 10-4. But it still the largest block of scheduled life thus far in Prague.
Finally a routine!