Prahahaha

It's SPRING BREAK and as I wait for my laundry to finish (it takes forever here...) I finally have a chance to sit down and catch everybody up on the last few weeks. Hopefully I've remembered all of the days correctly, and hopefully you enjoy the pictures from Prague (Praha in Czech)!

Starting back at March 14
Saturday: Reading, homework, wait in line for hours for 3 Euro standing-room Opera tickets, McDonald's. The seats we ended up in were on the very side of the Staatsoper theater, so you couldn't see most of the stage (plus I didn't realize I had a subtitle screen, so although the music was enjoyable I understood nothing). We had gone without dinner to stand in the line, and since we were dying of hunger we left at intermission. I'd gladly go back as long as I made sure to eat something beforehand.
Sunday: Watch Manchester City vs. Chelsea game at the Chelsea Pub, pasta/pizza dinner at Strozzi. The Chelsea is only two stops/10 minutes walking away from my dorm at Strozzigasse, so that was convenient.
Monday: Go to new Italian restaurant and walk around Vienna with Isabella (language partner), who also helps me find a voice recorder on Mariahilferstrasse (a main shopping street). I've been recording my University of Vienna lectures and plan to go back and listen to them later to try to get more notes.
Tuesday (St. Patrick's Day): Wear green, class, more class, amazing Radio Symphony Orchestra concert with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Even though I'd been sick for a few days at this point, the orchestra music made me feel better! The violinist was amusing as well; she performed without shoes and got really into moving with the music.
Wednesday: Class, Mr. Lee's (Chinese) for lunch, class, homework. Some of us Americans in my Uni Wien history class have started the tradition of eating at Mr. Lee's every Wednesday between lecture and our meeting with Professor Murray.
Thursday: More school. Man City game at the Chelsea. I was happy because they discussed differentiation in my math class! Gotta love calculus.
Friday: This was the start of a homework weekend.
Saturday: Reading, probably and episode or two of House online.
Sunday: More homework, Roman Museum, Clock Museum, Gelato, have a heck of a time trying to get a live feed of the Man City game on my computer, see last 10-15 minutes. On Sundays a lot of the smaller museums around Vienna are free, so a small group of us took advantage of this and I got a new Facebook profile picture out of the day!
Monday: Meet up with Isabella for billiards, lots of reading, "choose homework over the love of my life." If you want further explanation on that last part, just ask me.
Tuesday: Class, dinner at Flanagans. At dinner I meet Jess's boyfriend, who is during U of I's spring break, and Mitch's friend, who is also spending his spring in Europe.
Wednesday: Class, Mr. Lee's, buy train tickets to Prague!
Thursday: Spend 9 hours in the university computer lab writing my literature paper, miss Maureen's birthday dinner, but meet up with her a few others for a short while at Charlie P's afterward. The "tutor" at the computer lab was very nice and read through my paper and helped me edit it. The lab closed before we were done, and she was so nice as to finish editing it at home and e-mailed it back to me within an hour! (When I got my graded paper it wasn't error free, but she still helped out a ton!)
Friday: Rush home from class, 20 minute shower/packing frenzy, get to train station in time to go to PRAGUE!, five-hour train (mostly spent reading and sleeping), find fabulous apartment-style hostel, wander around, find restaurant and enjoy tasty dinner with a very helpful waiter, chill in hostel, meet up with Kim's friend, Peterz, who is living in Prague, spin 'right round in Blind Eye Bar and watch an old drunk man dance his heard out, short stints in Acropolis Club and Sky Bar (which was directly under our hostel). The music in the Czech club was was impossible to dance to (unless you wanted to follow the Czechs' lead and look like you're having a seizure) and I came home smelling like pot. Even so, the night was very amusing and I would consider it a success.
Saturday: Enjoy live music courtesy of the marathon down the street, excellent brunch at Kava Kava Kava (a cafe recommended on our Prag brochures), see the sights in Prag (the castle, Golden Street with Kafka's house, Charles Bridge,...) with Peterz as our tour guide, dinner at at U Fleku, a restaurant with a Bavaria-esque Umpa band and a beer that is not available anywhere else, some new Czech bar with creepy paintings on all of the walls, sketchy but very cool-looking Cross Club, fried cheese sandwich on the way home. At cross club a Czech girl started talking to me and Mitch's friend (in broken but undertandable English), and I think it was pretty cool to to have had a random five-minute conversation with a native.
Sunday: Tony makes omlettes for breakfast (mmm), walk up mountain by the Hunger Wall, unsuccessfully search for the advertised Maze, find cafe that Tony's Czech friends had recommended, five-hour train home.
Monday: Homework, settle back into "normal life" after Prag (lol), buy train tickets to France. To save money I combined a fast train to Straßburg with slower regional trains once in France, so the trip is going to last basically 24 hours.
Tuesday: Class, watch "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" at an American movie theater. We'd actually intended to see Watchmen, but we had trouble finding the theater and were too late.
Wednesday: Class, Mr. Lee's, book Greece hostels and ferries.
Thursday: Class, read for literature.
Friday: Shopping on Mariahilferstrasse in absolutely gorgeous weather, Flanagan's.
Saturday: Go make some exchanges on Mariahilferstrasse, Man City at Sheebeen (literally across the street from my dorm), drop my key down elevator shaft, freak out and get yelled at in German by Hausmeister (head of the dorm), fortunately my roommate is around to let me in my room and gives me her key to use while she is on vacation, dinner and movie night at Strozzi, go back to Shebeen (Mitch knows someone who was supposed to be working).
Sunday: Jess makes me scrambled eggs for breakfast (since I lost my key I can't open up my fridge or food locker), work on finalizing which classes I want to register for, meet Isabella at Schönbrunn and walk around Ostermarkt (Easter Market), order pizza and watch "Transsiberian" at Haus Panorama.
Monday: Go down to the office and get a temporary key while they try to find mine/figure out how much to charge me, open up mailbox with new key and magically find old key sitting there!, quick Bipa (like Ulta/Walgreens) run, laundry, blog posting. Later I will register for classes, pack, and finally board a train for France!!

Posaunezahl: 10! I saw three more at both the Opera and the Orchestra concert. I also saw a really cute trombone-playing figurine in Prague, but that doesn't really count.

I know I'm in Europe because:
1) I learned some Czech. Tam means push/away and Sem means pull/towards.
2) bringing your own bag grocery shopping or having to pay for plastic bags is the norm.
3) I had to exchange currency to travel.
4) there is a candy called Hubba Bubba.
5) you can buy Absinthe. The "real" stuff.
6) losing your key is a huge deal. The hotel in Salzburg apparently didn't have extras, and in my dorm it was also a "very difficult situation" --they were going to call in a company to search the elevators and would've had to pay that bill. In Pano I saw that losing a key carries a 400 Euro fine.
7) Most stores don't give cash refunds; normally you can only exchange or get store credit (even with receipt).

8) of the unique, colorful buildings. (I know I've said it before, but it's one of my favorite things about Europe and is worth repeating).