Dobry den!

(that means "hello," or literally, "good day")

So Prague is pretty much the best city to study in. Not only is it cheap, but the language is amazing. Obviously it's not the easiest thing to learn, what with the limited vowel usage, but it's also really fun once you get the hang of it. This week we've been taking survival Czech language courses and I've got food ordering and basic conversational phrases pretty much down. Not to mention the million random words we've learned like: kamarad (friend) and parek (hotdog). One of my favorite things Czechs do is add -ka to the end of nouns when talking about a female item, like kamaradKA. It just sounds soooo.... I don't quite know, but basically I like it A LOT.

A couple nights ago we czech-ed out (haha, get it??) this bar/club called Cross Bar, that's right by our tram/subway stop. It's literally 5 minutes away and is ridiculous. I've never seen anything like it... at least 6 floors, lots of big rooms and even more small ones (like a foosball den), crazy lighting, car engines hanging above tables, and weird installation art at the front entrance. It was Tuesday and the place was definitely not empty. Even better, pretty much every kid in the program went to Mecca, this 3 floor club a block away from the dorm, last night. Now THAT was an experience. Completely packed and smokey (from cigarettes as well as a smoke machine). Czech kids tend to dance in lines kinda, like it's not one big mushed crowd of raving people. I don't know if they just respect personal space more than Americans, but I think it might have to do with needing enough space to pull out their crazy moves. Either way, it works for me. Amusingly, most of the kids who complained about having to go to a dance club beforehand ended up grooving and shaking the whole time. It's irresistible, especially when you see everyone letting loose... and no matter what, you can't be the worst dancer out there (you can thank crazy arm-waving kids for that).

Back to the smoke... it sucks. Smoking is a-ok everywhere, so it's hard not to come home from lunch or a club smelling like a dirty cig-toting mess. I guess that's just a concession you have to make when everything else is so good. Besides all this partying business, the food is fantastic. The hotdogs are out of this world. They serve them in a baguette, but they don't cut the side like regular old buns in the States. Ohhh nooo... they drill a hold down the middle of it and stuff the dog in there nice and cozy. And even better, if you get ketchup or mustard, they squirt that in first so there's an even coat of it in each bite. I've become somewhat of a parek (that's hotdog, remember?) snob, and refuse to eat at the stands I've deemed slacker-ish-- flimsy baguettes, measly hotdogs, etc. The best stand so far is by the federal building and a bunch of opera houses... a bit of walk from the class building, but well worth it.

Don't worry, I've been eating actual meals too. Potatoes (brambory) in most every dish, and of course lots of meat (maso). I tried some of my friend's goulash the other night and it was amazing. Too bad it has such an unappetizing name, otherwise I would've tried it earlier in life.

Enough about food and bars, I gotta go to an internship meeting and see if there's something I might wanna do. Na shledanou!