Day 10

This morning we woke up and got in busses at 9 to leave for Cesky Krumlov. We saw lots of Prague as we left. The old town is beautiful and well, old but as we got farther out it became more modern. It’s odd seeing skyscrapers and other modern buildings interspersed with buildings from the 12th century. There’s lots of KFC but I have not tried it yet. We’ve all been either eating lots of traditional Czech food or whatever is closest to our residence. Czech classes were pretty fun this week. We had classes everyday until 1 and then an activity after class three of those days. The activity was usually lunch somewhere but on Monday we did get to check out some spaces in the art school here. They were much nicer than our spaces and we were all very jealous. Our program is moving much more towards digital technology and getting rid of things like our printing press and weaving looms despite our supposed focus on art fundamentals. They also had a scrap room though so it was cool we both had that. We heard that they pay students to go to school after middle school too. So not only are their studios nicer but they don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to use them. They also allow dogs in their buildings so we ran into many well behaved puppies that we got to pet. Dogs are very much not allowed back home in NC State buildings.

We had open face sandwiches for lunch one day (a traditional Czech food). The day before we went to a cafe which had an art gallery attached to it we got to check out. Then on our day with no planned activity our Czech teacher brought us to a nice little restaurant and we all ordered in Czech and got beers. It was the closest I’ve gotten to finishing one yet. After that he took us on a walking tour for a couple hours. We have been on 5 or 6 different walking tours in the last week with no promise of them letting up. For the most part they are all different but it’s pretty exhausting. We also eat out a lot but the program doesn’t pay for it so we end up having to pay for our own meals. For example all our lunches we went out to this week we paid for ourselves. Then after all that ends everyday we go back (between 3-5 depending on the day) and either grocery shop, do laundry, unpack, or nap. Then after dinner everyone hangs out until like 2am. Then we get up 5 hours later to do it all again the next day. I’m not sure if I’ve slept more than 6 hours at a time since arriving here which is ok because it’s very fun but I am looking forward to sleeping in Monday when my first class is at 2:30.