I live in Europe, not America. You know how I know this? Because I'm invisible, or that's how some people would have it be.
I hadn't lifted in a while because the last time I was in there I went to lift a little and some Saudi Arabian boys got mad, stared me down, and left. This of course being because the thought of women trying to be stronger disgusts them. From then on if I saw a lot of boys in the gym I would just go back to my room and work out in the middle of the night when they were gone. Eventually I realized I'm just straight better then that. The German and American boys don't really seem to mind me and sometimes will try and help if they see I'm struggling. The middle eastern boys still stare like I'm an alien and I know when they are talking about me but I don't care.
In classes where I am the minority people will act like Americans are beneath them, especially the British, French, Middle Eastern, and Indian. If something we are studying has an ignorant context to it, someone always says that it probably mocking Americans. Or if something is poorly done, it is because it is American.
Apparently the execution of Saddam was mistake as well. Students here feel that Iraq needs a leader like him, and Americans are inconsiderate monsters because he was executed on a Muslim religious holiday. Also if I have something to say it doesn't matter, no one cares. I'm a woman, and I'm American.
The icon of a woman here is a quiet, depressed, weak individual. The icon of an American is the scape goat for the world's problems.
Its okay because American isn't the only hate country. Every country hates another county. Apparently France hates everyone. No one likes each other. No one says Hello. No one really respects on another.
The worst part is everyone just falls back in fear to fit the mold that these people project for them. People stick with who and what they know.
I went into the city by myself for the first time the other day. It was rush hour so I figured that there would be a lot of people out on the street and I'd be safer, but it was also starting to get dark. People, Places, and cars. That's all that existed. No one talks. I could hear the whispering pleas from the homeless from down the street, when I entered shops no one said anything, not even if I bought anything. I was so shocked at lack of commutation between people. I was standing in a crowd at crosswalk and the walking sign came on. Cars have a tendency to jump a yellow light (because it goes from red to yellow to green) and people are still crossing the street, people like me. A car was coming in the far lane and was not stopping because I guess the light turned yellow. Someone yelled, "Watch out" and everyone took off running to the island in the middle of the road. One guy behind me practically dived into the pavement in order to make it. No one even blinked. Eventually I asked if he was okay and he replied, "no worries, cheers" and a couple minutes later we all took off running across the rest of the street.
I went into Quiznos because the refactory was closed and when I sat down someone said something about stupid Americans voting for bush. Of course I turned around just to investigate who was making such a judgement. Then the two boys,from France maybe, asked why I voted for him. I said I didn't and they called me an apathetic American for not voting. I told them I wasn't even legal to vote at the last election, as if I had something to prove to these strangers. And they asked if I would have, and I said probably since I did not really agree with he other candidate.
Someone in class said Americans did no know anything about them because we didn't care about people from any other countries because we know nothing about geography or word history. Its funny because all I could thing was, you read the news from my country and study the history of my country and think you are able to make a judgement on the person I am. I care about you as a person regardless of what country you come from, or what language u speak, and I am willing to hear your opinions and beliefs... why can't you do the same?
Maybe I'll understand it all better by the time I leave, or at least understand some one.
A great person once said,
JOEY POTTER: I'd like to tell today's youth that uh -- no matter where life takes you -- big cities, small towns, you'll inevitably come across small minds. People who think that they're better than you are. I'd like to tell today's youth that these things matter, unless you have a strength of character, integrity, a sense of pride. And if you're lucky enough to have any of these things... don't ever sell them. Don't ever sell out. So when you meet a person for the first time, please don't judge them by their station in life, 'cause who knows... that person just might end up being your best friend.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
A Week in the Life of a City Doll
Hey guys,
I live off baker street... BAKER STREET! Do you know what that means people??? Sherlock Holmes lives on the same street as me!!! I think I'm gonna stop by and try and solve some mysteries with him one of these days. You think I would have figured this out sooner when all the Sherlock statues and pictures were around every time I got on the Underground.
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I saw and learned this week.
For starters, Happy Ash Wednesday.. or something. Well, you know how we have Fat Tuesday before Ash Wed. in the states? WELL here in London its Called Pancake day! In Germany the holiday translates into Women's day and for some reason its a tradition to cut the ties of the men when they get home from work ? I don't' know its weird. Also, there is not Easter Sunday, instead its Easter Monday. All the food tastes different here. I found out that is because there is now Hydro fructose Corn Syrup here. Also food doesn't last more then three days and must stay cold because there are absolutely no preservatives in anything. Oh yea and most of the nutrition labels (if any) are in foreign languages.
I was watching their MTV which is TMF and I realized the spice girls are still HUGE here in the UK. I mean not collectively, but almost all of them are in the Top 40 here. Not to mention I have a new heart throb. They are called Take That. They are this adorable British boy band that is a modern version of the Beatles. I love them. You should all check them out. Their new video "shine" is super cool.
This afternoon my class went to the Tate Modern Museum. We didn't have time to see much but the Andy Warhol room was so cool. I think the double Elvis was my favorite. There was also a HUGE oil canvas of Monet's Waterlilies. We got free passes to this really prestigious exhibit called George and Gilbert? I don't' know, but we are gonna go back sometime this week and see it. We also got pases to go on this five story high twisty tube slide. It was so fast. I was so scared but it was really awesome.
Tonight, I saw GUYS AND DOLLS in the WEST END (that's like on Broadway). It was really good. I couldn't believe that I got to go for free because I'm taking a British American Theatre Class! The best part? They sell ice cream at intermission!!!!!!! (too bad I'm on a diet)
Earlier this week we saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It was pretty interesting. The guards on horses escorted the band in and changed the guards behind the gate where they did the "changing of the guards" ceremony. Then they played a few songs and opened the front gates and paraded out. There were a lot of people so we stood at the top of the Victoria Monument. People kept smoking though and I was dying. One of my friend looked at another and was like... I don't get it... we are crammed in a crowd.. how can a person just light up a cigarette? And a man next to us said "because everyone in Europe smokes" and its true. I don't' get it, but its true.
Afterwords we went to Portabello Markets where there were lots of little shops of all sorts selling antics and things. I bought a super cozy sweatshirt that says "London". We didn't stay long though because the gym closes early on Sunday's and I'm going every day.
There was also a Chinese New Year Celebration here in London. The fireworks were at 5pm with threw us off and they only lasted 5 minutes. We were four minutes late, so we saw the last one go off... and was very confused when they stopped. I don't' think Europeans get the whole firework extravaganza thing.
This weekend me and Dana are going to go to Camden Markets and shopping in Oxford Circus. It should be an exciting weekend. If you are lucky, Dana will show me where the Post Office is and you will all get Post Cards =)
Love you,
Jenna Holmes ... That sounds like I'm married to Katie!!! hahah I mean Sherlock Jenna =)
I live off baker street... BAKER STREET! Do you know what that means people??? Sherlock Holmes lives on the same street as me!!! I think I'm gonna stop by and try and solve some mysteries with him one of these days. You think I would have figured this out sooner when all the Sherlock statues and pictures were around every time I got on the Underground.
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I saw and learned this week.
For starters, Happy Ash Wednesday.. or something. Well, you know how we have Fat Tuesday before Ash Wed. in the states? WELL here in London its Called Pancake day! In Germany the holiday translates into Women's day and for some reason its a tradition to cut the ties of the men when they get home from work ? I don't' know its weird. Also, there is not Easter Sunday, instead its Easter Monday. All the food tastes different here. I found out that is because there is now Hydro fructose Corn Syrup here. Also food doesn't last more then three days and must stay cold because there are absolutely no preservatives in anything. Oh yea and most of the nutrition labels (if any) are in foreign languages.
I was watching their MTV which is TMF and I realized the spice girls are still HUGE here in the UK. I mean not collectively, but almost all of them are in the Top 40 here. Not to mention I have a new heart throb. They are called Take That. They are this adorable British boy band that is a modern version of the Beatles. I love them. You should all check them out. Their new video "shine" is super cool.
This afternoon my class went to the Tate Modern Museum. We didn't have time to see much but the Andy Warhol room was so cool. I think the double Elvis was my favorite. There was also a HUGE oil canvas of Monet's Waterlilies. We got free passes to this really prestigious exhibit called George and Gilbert? I don't' know, but we are gonna go back sometime this week and see it. We also got pases to go on this five story high twisty tube slide. It was so fast. I was so scared but it was really awesome.
Tonight, I saw GUYS AND DOLLS in the WEST END (that's like on Broadway). It was really good. I couldn't believe that I got to go for free because I'm taking a British American Theatre Class! The best part? They sell ice cream at intermission!!!!!!! (too bad I'm on a diet)
Earlier this week we saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It was pretty interesting. The guards on horses escorted the band in and changed the guards behind the gate where they did the "changing of the guards" ceremony. Then they played a few songs and opened the front gates and paraded out. There were a lot of people so we stood at the top of the Victoria Monument. People kept smoking though and I was dying. One of my friend looked at another and was like... I don't get it... we are crammed in a crowd.. how can a person just light up a cigarette? And a man next to us said "because everyone in Europe smokes" and its true. I don't' get it, but its true.
Afterwords we went to Portabello Markets where there were lots of little shops of all sorts selling antics and things. I bought a super cozy sweatshirt that says "London". We didn't stay long though because the gym closes early on Sunday's and I'm going every day.
There was also a Chinese New Year Celebration here in London. The fireworks were at 5pm with threw us off and they only lasted 5 minutes. We were four minutes late, so we saw the last one go off... and was very confused when they stopped. I don't' think Europeans get the whole firework extravaganza thing.
This weekend me and Dana are going to go to Camden Markets and shopping in Oxford Circus. It should be an exciting weekend. If you are lucky, Dana will show me where the Post Office is and you will all get Post Cards =)
Love you,
Jenna Holmes ... That sounds like I'm married to Katie!!! hahah I mean Sherlock Jenna =)
Friday, February 16, 2007
Lions, Punk Rock, and Ice Blocks
Hey Everyone,
This was my first weekend since I got here that I didn't leave this country and we decided to enjoy good old London. On Tuesday night Lauren and I attended a Brand New concert at the Hammerstein Apollo (along with about a million British kids). Hammerstein (the town) was kinnda crazy, and in order to get to the Apollo we had to hop a few fences (in the pouring rain) and then run across maybe 6 or 7 lanes of traffic in a circular intersection patten. There no lights either, there are just little islands after ever two lanes or so .. so u just run and pray to God you live. The inside was the most beautiful theatre I've ever seen. We had nosebleed seats in the upper balcony, but we could still see great. It was weird being at a real punk rock show and everyone was sitting down in these red velvety seats in their punked out clothes... I was so confused... I mean even at the Backstreet Boys everyone was on their feet in America... whatever. Anyway, of course Jesse (the lead singer) opened the show with the song "Jude Law and the Semester Abroad" He sang it real soft and let the British kids sing it for them. Man was it funny to here the entire place singing "Tell all the English Boys you meet, about the American Boy back in the state, the American Boy you used to date..." in their British Accents. When the band announced that they were going back to the states tomorrow, me and Lauren cheered... and then realized we were the only ones from America and contemplated hiding under our seats for a while. All in all the concert was pretty awesome.
Valentine's day here was kind of depressing. A lot of the girls in the refectory were all dressed up and getting their dinner "to go" so they could bring it up to their room and have a dinner date via web cam with their boyfriends back home. John (the only boy from Monmouth) got all the girls Carnations which was nice of him. Danny sent me an awesome card he made and a really pretty bouquet of Carnations. Kyle sent me an E-card that was all in Spanish and said "Hope you're having fun in Spain!" He's such a jerk =)
Thursday night we went to this Ice Bar. It was expensive to get in, but I don't go out clubbing too much so I could hack it. At the door they give you these crazy Eskimo (the correct term now is Inuit.. I learned that in Anthro last semester) jackets with heavy gloves attached. Every thing was made of ice; the walls, the glasses, the chairs, the tables. It was so nuts. By the time our 45 min session was over I couldn't feel my body especially my feet in my cute little flats.
After that we went to a club called Strawberry Moon. As we walked up to in the bouncers said it was a five pound cover charge. Mourin walks right up to them and goes "Look at us... we are all Pretty girls! We don't pay to get in anywhere" I was shocked, but she turned around and said "Lets go girls we're off to O'Neil" and we all started to follow... and sure enough the two bouncers ran after us and said we could go in for free! Was even more shocked. I really liked it a lot. It was a fun classy place. Another bouncer in front of the stage came up and asked if we wanted to dance on stage. So of course somehow all ten of us American girls were up dancing on this stage in front of the DJ. The DJ said, "Here you go girls, I know you are from Jersey, but this is the best I can do ..." and then he played "Sweet Home Alabama". After that we left for O'Neil.
O'Neil wasn't as nice and as way too crowded for me. There was a live band and they were pretty cool. There was Jenga on the table we were sitting at so we played that for a while and then the "non clubbers" headed home because it was late and we just couldn't take much more.
Today we went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was so cool. There was this huge monument (kinnda like the Washington monument only not that big) in the middle and it was surrounded by four HUGE lions all on a pretty high stone platform, with fountains on either side. So of course I we threw in a pence and made a wish. There were tons of people, of all ages, climbing on this monument and taking pictures and stuff. So we climbed the first level of the platform (which was NOT easy) and got a gorgeous view of the city. Then he hopped down and tried to climb up the front of the lions. We had to help some of the other people off the platform and kinnda laughed. But then we realized climbing it was harder then we ever though it would be. We all go stuck on the ledge and almost died, but with a group effort we all managed to get up. Our friends saw us climbing up from a distance and joined us. We had people take a picture and then realized we were all stuck. So we had to have people help us down in tears. It was so funny seeing 6 college girls stuck on a platform. What losers!
Then we went in to the National Gallery. It was pretty big too. A lot of the earlier art was all religious stuff. Mostly of The Virgin and Christ, but some was of the Greek Gods. My favorite in that era was this painting of Venus and Cupid (her son) and he was holding a piece of honeycomb and had bees all over him and it symbolized her teaching him that brief pleasure may not always be worth the consequences. When we got to the more modern paintings, we came across "sunflowers" by Van Gogh. Now we JUST came from Amsterdam and saw the same exact painting (with a slightly different background) in the Van Gogh Museum, so of course Mourin's like.."well that has to be a fake!" pointing to the picture. So one of the watchers in the room came over to us and Mourin asked him "is this real, because we just saw the same one in Amsterdam!" The nice man explained to Mourin and us that artists usually do more then one form of the same painting and that "in places like this" they are all real. HAHA. I'm glad we are finally learning something about the real world, because we really are stupid.
Tomorrow we are going to see the Changing of the Guards and then Portobello Markets (I hope they don't sell mushrooms ... yuk). On Sunday, everyone's going to this day club called Church. Its a little to risque for my taste so I don't' know if I am attending, but we will see.
Hope everything's good in Jersey or California or wherever you are.
Love you ,
Jenna
This was my first weekend since I got here that I didn't leave this country and we decided to enjoy good old London. On Tuesday night Lauren and I attended a Brand New concert at the Hammerstein Apollo (along with about a million British kids). Hammerstein (the town) was kinnda crazy, and in order to get to the Apollo we had to hop a few fences (in the pouring rain) and then run across maybe 6 or 7 lanes of traffic in a circular intersection patten. There no lights either, there are just little islands after ever two lanes or so .. so u just run and pray to God you live. The inside was the most beautiful theatre I've ever seen. We had nosebleed seats in the upper balcony, but we could still see great. It was weird being at a real punk rock show and everyone was sitting down in these red velvety seats in their punked out clothes... I was so confused... I mean even at the Backstreet Boys everyone was on their feet in America... whatever. Anyway, of course Jesse (the lead singer) opened the show with the song "Jude Law and the Semester Abroad" He sang it real soft and let the British kids sing it for them. Man was it funny to here the entire place singing "Tell all the English Boys you meet, about the American Boy back in the state, the American Boy you used to date..." in their British Accents. When the band announced that they were going back to the states tomorrow, me and Lauren cheered... and then realized we were the only ones from America and contemplated hiding under our seats for a while. All in all the concert was pretty awesome.
Valentine's day here was kind of depressing. A lot of the girls in the refectory were all dressed up and getting their dinner "to go" so they could bring it up to their room and have a dinner date via web cam with their boyfriends back home. John (the only boy from Monmouth) got all the girls Carnations which was nice of him. Danny sent me an awesome card he made and a really pretty bouquet of Carnations. Kyle sent me an E-card that was all in Spanish and said "Hope you're having fun in Spain!" He's such a jerk =)
Thursday night we went to this Ice Bar. It was expensive to get in, but I don't go out clubbing too much so I could hack it. At the door they give you these crazy Eskimo (the correct term now is Inuit.. I learned that in Anthro last semester) jackets with heavy gloves attached. Every thing was made of ice; the walls, the glasses, the chairs, the tables. It was so nuts. By the time our 45 min session was over I couldn't feel my body especially my feet in my cute little flats.
After that we went to a club called Strawberry Moon. As we walked up to in the bouncers said it was a five pound cover charge. Mourin walks right up to them and goes "Look at us... we are all Pretty girls! We don't pay to get in anywhere" I was shocked, but she turned around and said "Lets go girls we're off to O'Neil" and we all started to follow... and sure enough the two bouncers ran after us and said we could go in for free! Was even more shocked. I really liked it a lot. It was a fun classy place. Another bouncer in front of the stage came up and asked if we wanted to dance on stage. So of course somehow all ten of us American girls were up dancing on this stage in front of the DJ. The DJ said, "Here you go girls, I know you are from Jersey, but this is the best I can do ..." and then he played "Sweet Home Alabama". After that we left for O'Neil.
O'Neil wasn't as nice and as way too crowded for me. There was a live band and they were pretty cool. There was Jenga on the table we were sitting at so we played that for a while and then the "non clubbers" headed home because it was late and we just couldn't take much more.
Today we went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was so cool. There was this huge monument (kinnda like the Washington monument only not that big) in the middle and it was surrounded by four HUGE lions all on a pretty high stone platform, with fountains on either side. So of course I we threw in a pence and made a wish. There were tons of people, of all ages, climbing on this monument and taking pictures and stuff. So we climbed the first level of the platform (which was NOT easy) and got a gorgeous view of the city. Then he hopped down and tried to climb up the front of the lions. We had to help some of the other people off the platform and kinnda laughed. But then we realized climbing it was harder then we ever though it would be. We all go stuck on the ledge and almost died, but with a group effort we all managed to get up. Our friends saw us climbing up from a distance and joined us. We had people take a picture and then realized we were all stuck. So we had to have people help us down in tears. It was so funny seeing 6 college girls stuck on a platform. What losers!
Then we went in to the National Gallery. It was pretty big too. A lot of the earlier art was all religious stuff. Mostly of The Virgin and Christ, but some was of the Greek Gods. My favorite in that era was this painting of Venus and Cupid (her son) and he was holding a piece of honeycomb and had bees all over him and it symbolized her teaching him that brief pleasure may not always be worth the consequences. When we got to the more modern paintings, we came across "sunflowers" by Van Gogh. Now we JUST came from Amsterdam and saw the same exact painting (with a slightly different background) in the Van Gogh Museum, so of course Mourin's like.."well that has to be a fake!" pointing to the picture. So one of the watchers in the room came over to us and Mourin asked him "is this real, because we just saw the same one in Amsterdam!" The nice man explained to Mourin and us that artists usually do more then one form of the same painting and that "in places like this" they are all real. HAHA. I'm glad we are finally learning something about the real world, because we really are stupid.
Tomorrow we are going to see the Changing of the Guards and then Portobello Markets (I hope they don't sell mushrooms ... yuk). On Sunday, everyone's going to this day club called Church. Its a little to risque for my taste so I don't' know if I am attending, but we will see.
Hope everything's good in Jersey or California or wherever you are.
Love you ,
Jenna
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Callin' from Holland
Out of all the places in the world, I never thought I'd find myself in Amsterdam, and at the way our trip started out that morning, it looked like I was never going to get there. Here in London, it never snows, but for some reason when we woke up that morning there was two inches already on the ground and more in the air. All flights were cancelled, until at least noon, and the city was on the edge of going into a state of emergency because of a few snowflakes. Out flight wasn't until 7:20 that night so we were fine because later that day it got a little warmer and began to rain.
We booked a bus to and from the airport that would pick us up a street away from the college, but for some reason we couldn't find the bus stop.. what a sup rise. We saw the bus we were supposed to take stopped in traffic so we ran with our luggage to catch it, but when we caught it at a red light, the driver said it was on the way home, not to the airport, and pointed us out to where we had to stand for the right bus. It was like a movie as the next thing I know one of the buses hit a ditch and splashed me head to toe with wet mud... I was not a happy camper. We stood for a while until we saw our bus pull up on the other side of the park. So of course we took off running, and of course we missed it. These buses only run every 20 minutes so we were pretty fricked. Finally, another one showed, but it drove right by us. That's when we learned we had to flag it down in order for it to stop, even though we were at the bus stop. By the time we got a bus it was a little past five. The bus driver said we prob wouldn't get there until seven so we were pretty worried, but we got there at 6:30 and made it to the gate by 7. It didn't' matter though because the flight was delayed.
So we were in Amsterdam fairly quickly, but since the flight was delayed we were pressed for time to take the train into town and take the tram (which stopped running at midnight) to our hotel. We barely made it, but we got there and found our hotel just fine. The hotel was a pretty nice, and everything you would expect a hotel to look like. The receptionist gave us our key and told us we had to go downstairs and outside to get to our room. Which we did, but when we started to look for our room number on the rooms connected to the hotel we couldn't find it. When we went back to ask exactly where it was, that's when we learned that our room was actually this one room shed about twety feet away from the entire hotel in the backyard. It was a little scary at night when we heard banging on the side of the room, but we survived.
We woke up early for breakfast and then headed to the Anne Frank House. It was the actual house that Anne and her family hid out in during World War II. It was very plain, but had such emotion projecting from every room. There were quotes from her diary printed on the walls, and all sorts of artifacts in each room. When we got to the bookcase and the hidden passage way I pretty much lost it. Crawling up these tiny vertical stairs into dark rooms just made it easy to feel the fear these people must have experienced. There were TV's in every other room that played interviews from many people Anne knew. Near the end, there was a room of every diary ever published about her, in every language, and in the center of the room was her actual diary in the original German in a glass case. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life and it was only a diary. Its just not a place I ever thought I'd be or things I'd ever see, but yet there I was. They also had American footage of the camp where Anne died when they invaded. It was too much for me to handle and we left shortly after.
We bought tickets for an all day canal ride and took it to the Van Gogh Museum. I've always been a fan, but only in a juvenile way, in the sense that .. "Yea starry night is really pretty but what's with the painting of his bed room?" Well starry night wasn't even in this gallery, and I'm glad because for the first time in a while I wasn't looking for something I already knew as beautiful. Instead I was looking at something that was right in front of me, and found the beauty in that. I had to laugh when I found Van Gogh's "Bedroom" painting in the center of the gallery. I'd seen it a million times reprinted and online and always thought it was silly and insignificant, but seeing in in person, close up, really made me feel like I had been looking at it all wrong. The picture itself was so intricately painted that it seemed almost not real. Next to it were a few things that Van Gogh had said about what he felt when painting it. From then on out, all his other painting made more sense and were much more lifelike to me. Each part of the gallery represented a different era of his life and told the story of his tortured soul. I can't really say I could relate, but it was quite experience seeing the world through someone else's eyes.
We got back on the Canal ride to go to the Red Light District. It was only supposed to be a 20 min ride, but it was our driver's first day and he kept getting lost in the canals or turning around and going back where we started, and two hours later we finally got there. We planned to only walk through in day light hours, but we couldn't find it, and by the time we did, it was dark. We made a turn down a dark alley and out of nowhere... there we were. There was a dim red glow as we continued down the extremal narrow passage. We turned our head toward the lights and there was quite possibly the scariest thing I've ever seen. It was just a row of windows with either a curtain drawn or a woman in Lingerie glaring down at me. It was pretty creepy. We weren't there for even three minutes before we ran to the nearest tram.
We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was so good to have edible food like chicken fingers, honey mustard, and Heinz Ketchup <3. class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">bicycle traffic lights then there are for cars. Its really kinnda creepy to see people of all ages pedaling to their destination.
The next day we went to the Heineken Experience, which was like Disneyworld for beer. They gave us free beer at every third way of the brewery tour, but I was the only jerk drinking soda pop in the bars. Whatever...I gave it a chance, but it was the most awful tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth... but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it. We got to go on this ride that showed us what it was like to be a beer bottle, and there was a room where we could sit and watch every Heineken commercial ever made. It was really neat and I learned about all the gross ingredients that makes that "crisp tasting party in your mouth"..or whatever. There was a history lesson involved as well, as we learned that Heineken was the first beer to be sold again after prohibition ended. Who knew?
After, we went to this big shopping center, and then to Aberax's which is one of Amsterdam's infamous "coffeehouses." The place was complete filled with smoke from the joints everyone was smoking, and the menu consisted of "space ... fill in the blank" Some of the girls got Space milkshakes... and Mourin and I waited in the souvenir shop. It wasn't exactly my idea of a good time babysitting girls that were now drunk and high and it started to rain so I suggested we get food and head toward the airport.
That wasn't exactly the smartest idea either because we ended up getting there much faster then expected and were stuck there for five hours after our flight was delayed. One of the girls brought UNO and I managed to lose every single game. We got home fine and too the bus home.
So another country, another crazy experience. I'm gonna take a break from traveling for a while, but we are in the process of planning spring break in Italy and Greece. Now that is going to be a crazy trip. We are going to see a lot of London this weekend so I'll have plenty of stories then too.
Hope everyone is doing well and missing me tons!
Love you!
Jenna (the girl who now survived sexy lady land, seen an original Van Gogh masterpiece, and walked in the footsteps of history)
We booked a bus to and from the airport that would pick us up a street away from the college, but for some reason we couldn't find the bus stop.. what a sup rise. We saw the bus we were supposed to take stopped in traffic so we ran with our luggage to catch it, but when we caught it at a red light, the driver said it was on the way home, not to the airport, and pointed us out to where we had to stand for the right bus. It was like a movie as the next thing I know one of the buses hit a ditch and splashed me head to toe with wet mud... I was not a happy camper. We stood for a while until we saw our bus pull up on the other side of the park. So of course we took off running, and of course we missed it. These buses only run every 20 minutes so we were pretty fricked. Finally, another one showed, but it drove right by us. That's when we learned we had to flag it down in order for it to stop, even though we were at the bus stop. By the time we got a bus it was a little past five. The bus driver said we prob wouldn't get there until seven so we were pretty worried, but we got there at 6:30 and made it to the gate by 7. It didn't' matter though because the flight was delayed.
So we were in Amsterdam fairly quickly, but since the flight was delayed we were pressed for time to take the train into town and take the tram (which stopped running at midnight) to our hotel. We barely made it, but we got there and found our hotel just fine. The hotel was a pretty nice, and everything you would expect a hotel to look like. The receptionist gave us our key and told us we had to go downstairs and outside to get to our room. Which we did, but when we started to look for our room number on the rooms connected to the hotel we couldn't find it. When we went back to ask exactly where it was, that's when we learned that our room was actually this one room shed about twety feet away from the entire hotel in the backyard. It was a little scary at night when we heard banging on the side of the room, but we survived.
We woke up early for breakfast and then headed to the Anne Frank House. It was the actual house that Anne and her family hid out in during World War II. It was very plain, but had such emotion projecting from every room. There were quotes from her diary printed on the walls, and all sorts of artifacts in each room. When we got to the bookcase and the hidden passage way I pretty much lost it. Crawling up these tiny vertical stairs into dark rooms just made it easy to feel the fear these people must have experienced. There were TV's in every other room that played interviews from many people Anne knew. Near the end, there was a room of every diary ever published about her, in every language, and in the center of the room was her actual diary in the original German in a glass case. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life and it was only a diary. Its just not a place I ever thought I'd be or things I'd ever see, but yet there I was. They also had American footage of the camp where Anne died when they invaded. It was too much for me to handle and we left shortly after.
We bought tickets for an all day canal ride and took it to the Van Gogh Museum. I've always been a fan, but only in a juvenile way, in the sense that .. "Yea starry night is really pretty but what's with the painting of his bed room?" Well starry night wasn't even in this gallery, and I'm glad because for the first time in a while I wasn't looking for something I already knew as beautiful. Instead I was looking at something that was right in front of me, and found the beauty in that. I had to laugh when I found Van Gogh's "Bedroom" painting in the center of the gallery. I'd seen it a million times reprinted and online and always thought it was silly and insignificant, but seeing in in person, close up, really made me feel like I had been looking at it all wrong. The picture itself was so intricately painted that it seemed almost not real. Next to it were a few things that Van Gogh had said about what he felt when painting it. From then on out, all his other painting made more sense and were much more lifelike to me. Each part of the gallery represented a different era of his life and told the story of his tortured soul. I can't really say I could relate, but it was quite experience seeing the world through someone else's eyes.
We got back on the Canal ride to go to the Red Light District. It was only supposed to be a 20 min ride, but it was our driver's first day and he kept getting lost in the canals or turning around and going back where we started, and two hours later we finally got there. We planned to only walk through in day light hours, but we couldn't find it, and by the time we did, it was dark. We made a turn down a dark alley and out of nowhere... there we were. There was a dim red glow as we continued down the extremal narrow passage. We turned our head toward the lights and there was quite possibly the scariest thing I've ever seen. It was just a row of windows with either a curtain drawn or a woman in Lingerie glaring down at me. It was pretty creepy. We weren't there for even three minutes before we ran to the nearest tram.
We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was so good to have edible food like chicken fingers, honey mustard, and Heinz Ketchup <3. class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">bicycle traffic lights then there are for cars. Its really kinnda creepy to see people of all ages pedaling to their destination.
The next day we went to the Heineken Experience, which was like Disneyworld for beer. They gave us free beer at every third way of the brewery tour, but I was the only jerk drinking soda pop in the bars. Whatever...I gave it a chance, but it was the most awful tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth... but everyone else seemed to be enjoying it. We got to go on this ride that showed us what it was like to be a beer bottle, and there was a room where we could sit and watch every Heineken commercial ever made. It was really neat and I learned about all the gross ingredients that makes that "crisp tasting party in your mouth"..or whatever. There was a history lesson involved as well, as we learned that Heineken was the first beer to be sold again after prohibition ended. Who knew?
After, we went to this big shopping center, and then to Aberax's which is one of Amsterdam's infamous "coffeehouses." The place was complete filled with smoke from the joints everyone was smoking, and the menu consisted of "space ... fill in the blank" Some of the girls got Space milkshakes... and Mourin and I waited in the souvenir shop. It wasn't exactly my idea of a good time babysitting girls that were now drunk and high and it started to rain so I suggested we get food and head toward the airport.
That wasn't exactly the smartest idea either because we ended up getting there much faster then expected and were stuck there for five hours after our flight was delayed. One of the girls brought UNO and I managed to lose every single game. We got home fine and too the bus home.
So another country, another crazy experience. I'm gonna take a break from traveling for a while, but we are in the process of planning spring break in Italy and Greece. Now that is going to be a crazy trip. We are going to see a lot of London this weekend so I'll have plenty of stories then too.
Hope everyone is doing well and missing me tons!
Love you!
Jenna (the girl who now survived sexy lady land, seen an original Van Gogh masterpiece, and walked in the footsteps of history)
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Spotted Dick and Other Horror Stories from London
I saw it for the first time today. There it was just sitting on the counter with a giant sign that said "Today's Dessert Selection: SPOTTED DICK." Like I've said before, that is not going anywhere near my mouth. It didn't look too awful. It looked like crispy cake with raisins and custard. No one from Monmouth was brave enough, but it seemed to be fairly popular with everyone else.
I'm trying to eat healthy, but the healthy stuff is really expensive, well its all expensive. Everything has some sort of weird element to it. Even the salad. We finally figured out why even the salads make us sick. There isn't really dressing here in Europe. Its bullshit. There no Italian, or French, or Russian, or even Cesar. They only use some liquidy type substance and add a spice. For instance Caesar is really Garlic Mayo... yum.. lettuce and mayo... yea its so gross. They don't even know what Ranch is.
My theatre teacher announced what plays we are going to see... the ones I remember are Avenue Q, Marry Poppins, Guys and Dolls, Porgy and Bess, and Billy Elliot. Those are free which is good, but we have to pay for the productions we attend for Media and Press, and they are really expensive so whatever.
I tried to do laundry but I didn't have dryer tokens, so my room looks like my closet exploded and a hail storm of soap. Oh well.
They just sent out a letter of several muggings in the park during broad day light by a young gang. A British GANG? Isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard? The Regent's Business school as also moved in so all hell has broke loose here. And now its hard to tell what men belong in the building and which don't. So yea... I just lock my door and sit in the dark so no one will bother me.
Today in Media ethics we talked about patriotism and how it should be reported and stuff. We got into the issue of flags and their sacristy. I started saying how the flag brought us together in times of nine eleven but it also created this gap of "you're either for us or against us" there was no other choices, and not having a flag on your car made you stand out and took tainted you're own patriotic beliefs on the matter. Also that the flag lost value when everyone has them everywhere as war propaganda and merchandise. That's when one of the older British boys said coldly... at least you have the right to own a flag. And that's when I learned my British fact of the day. The Brits are not allowed to have a flag for their own purposes. Which I'm not sure whether I agreed with that or if that made me value our right to own one. He didn't' sound happy about it. But I'm going to look more into it.
Well I have to go read Shakespeare and then pack for Amsterdam.
Love, Jenna <3
I'm trying to eat healthy, but the healthy stuff is really expensive, well its all expensive. Everything has some sort of weird element to it. Even the salad. We finally figured out why even the salads make us sick. There isn't really dressing here in Europe. Its bullshit. There no Italian, or French, or Russian, or even Cesar. They only use some liquidy type substance and add a spice. For instance Caesar is really Garlic Mayo... yum.. lettuce and mayo... yea its so gross. They don't even know what Ranch is.
My theatre teacher announced what plays we are going to see... the ones I remember are Avenue Q, Marry Poppins, Guys and Dolls, Porgy and Bess, and Billy Elliot. Those are free which is good, but we have to pay for the productions we attend for Media and Press, and they are really expensive so whatever.
I tried to do laundry but I didn't have dryer tokens, so my room looks like my closet exploded and a hail storm of soap. Oh well.
They just sent out a letter of several muggings in the park during broad day light by a young gang. A British GANG? Isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard? The Regent's Business school as also moved in so all hell has broke loose here. And now its hard to tell what men belong in the building and which don't. So yea... I just lock my door and sit in the dark so no one will bother me.
Today in Media ethics we talked about patriotism and how it should be reported and stuff. We got into the issue of flags and their sacristy. I started saying how the flag brought us together in times of nine eleven but it also created this gap of "you're either for us or against us" there was no other choices, and not having a flag on your car made you stand out and took tainted you're own patriotic beliefs on the matter. Also that the flag lost value when everyone has them everywhere as war propaganda and merchandise. That's when one of the older British boys said coldly... at least you have the right to own a flag. And that's when I learned my British fact of the day. The Brits are not allowed to have a flag for their own purposes. Which I'm not sure whether I agreed with that or if that made me value our right to own one. He didn't' sound happy about it. But I'm going to look more into it.
Well I have to go read Shakespeare and then pack for Amsterdam.
Love, Jenna <3
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Just Another Day in Europe
So I'm sitting in my British American Musical Theater class and we are talking about how the opening song makes the movie a hit or not. We watched a few, and then my professor announced that we were gonna watch a song from the musical NEWSIES! so of course I"m like "Professor I LOVED that movie when I was younger." and hes like..."Jenna its was Disney's biggest musical flop ever. It wasn't even released anywhere other then America." and then hes like "OK well we are going to watch the opening song from Newsies... "and I'm like "because it was the only thing that saved the musical? " and hes like "no, because it was responsible for the complete failure of the film.... " oh well. I mean I kinnda get it now. The movie was a bunch of boys singing about the misery of child labor in New York on a set that looked like Disneyworld instead of New York... ehh... He ended class by saying that because of people like me, that Disney just started making money off it again and they are working on a stage version.
Thanks to Amanda informing me about a new band that I ended up seeing on and AD int he tube and on CZECH MTV in Prague, I went to go see MIKA do an in store performance on Oxford street. He was really good. IDK if hes popular in the US yet but he will be. Hes brand new and once he gets a good manager and entourage hes gonna be huge.
Everyone here is sick. Its awful. They professors say that we are all coming in contact to the new germs, but I don't think they are very friendly. I really hope I get better soon... or at least have my voice back.
We leave for Amsterdam on Thursday so If I don't talk to you til then, have a good weekend, and I'll be home on Sunday.
Love you,
Jenna
Thanks to Amanda informing me about a new band that I ended up seeing on and AD int he tube and on CZECH MTV in Prague, I went to go see MIKA do an in store performance on Oxford street. He was really good. IDK if hes popular in the US yet but he will be. Hes brand new and once he gets a good manager and entourage hes gonna be huge.
Everyone here is sick. Its awful. They professors say that we are all coming in contact to the new germs, but I don't think they are very friendly. I really hope I get better soon... or at least have my voice back.
We leave for Amsterdam on Thursday so If I don't talk to you til then, have a good weekend, and I'll be home on Sunday.
Love you,
Jenna
Sunday, February 4, 2007
First Time in Prague? Ano! Ye Qui!
I was minding my own business, falling asleep in my three hour Shakespeare class when my teacher announced that any of the girls leaving for Prague today are now excused from class. That's when if finally sunk in that I was off for an adventure that I might not be fully prepared for. See, we hadn't planned to leave class early because all eight of us were supposed to print our boarding passes offline and skip check-in, but of course mine was the only one that wouldn't print. Therefore we had to get permission to leave early so I could do so.
We took the tube, to the train, to the airport, where the other seven girls waited for me to check in. Thats where I learned how strict the carry one luggage rules were and went back to tell the other. I had packed pretty light and safe, but the other girls ended up having to check their bags.
The flight was fine and we arrived to Prague without a problem. We went through Customs and had to answer a few questions. The officer in the booth next to me asked Lauren as he stamped her Passport, "First time in PRAGUE???"and she replied excitedly "yes yes thank you!" Unfortunately we had to go the baggage claim, where it was there that we realized that this trip was not going to be easy. When the conveyor belt stopped and Lauren's luggage had not come through, half of the girls went to go meet our shuttle driver, while the rest of us went to go file a missing luggage claim.
This crazy Czech man helped us into a nine person van and took off faster then lightning. It was 11pm. Teenage Dirtbag was playing on the radio, and I still could not comprehend that I was in the Czech Republic. It took a while to find the right hotel because our confirmation letter had the wrong address on it. The security guard handed us a key and we climbed five flights of winding stair to get to our two bedroom, two bath apartment with a kitchen and a living room in the middle of the Wenceslas Square which would be the equivalent of our Times Square in NYC.
We went out to seek food, but it was late and everything was closed so we stopped one of the many police officers that we dressed in all black carrying around several big machine guns where we could find something to eat, but they responded with the one thing we were already sick of hearing ... "No English."
We found a really nice place eventually and then went to bed to get ready for our next day in Prague. We decided to get a tour of Prague before we did anything. So we went to get Czech money (called Crowns). Dana and I were so thirsty so we went to buy a bottle of water. The sign said 35 crowns for a drink. Now its important to know the exchange rate for this story so pay attention. 20 Crowns =1 US dollars =0.50 GB Pounds, So the water should have been 1 US dollar and change, but she didn't give us enough change. Dana asked again "how much?" and she said 150 crowns. We thought we understood how the money worked, and she didn't speak any English so we decided to surrender to the scam seeing how it was a hopeless scam and we were already drinking the water. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I actually figured out that if the water was 150 crowns then it was 7 dollars and change for the drink. But live and learn right?
The tour was really amazing and it was so nice to talk to other tourists that spoke English (from the UK). We learned all about Wenceslas Square, and walked around to the new town, the old town , the Jewish square and the Charles Bridge. We saw several Synagogues and went into St Vitus's Cathedral. Prague Castle was awesome, and with the help of some funny British men on our tour we successfully made the guards laugh!!!. We learned all about the history and life of Prague and some key language phrases. Most of the girls could only remember "Di Mi Privi" (give me beer) while I thought learning "Ye qui" and "Prosium" (Thank You and Please) were probably going to be more helpful.
I had done my research on all the museums and clubs to see so we set out to find them. We saw the Kafka museum, and I dragged the girls right past the Medieval Torture Museum, but I lost the war against entering the Sex Machine Museum. I was so out of place there, I felt nauseous looking at the crazy things on display, but I felt much worse when I learned what they were actually used for. I was looking at the evolution of Chasity belts when several British boys were like what are nice girls like you doing in a place like this. They were pretty entertaining, but we really got our kicks when locked them in some cages and strapped them to tables and left them there for security! Haha!.
After that we took a nap and got ready for dinner and the club I had researched. We went to this beautiful Italian restaurant, but after we had finished we couldn't get our server to bring us our check. I remember the tour guide saying that you have to ask for it, but we didn't speak their language. I saw our server again and I just said, " unczech prosium." (bill please) and he said "ano?" (yes) and I said "ano, ye qui!" (yes thank you). We were all very excited that I had just had my first conversation in Czech!
We made our way to this five story club called Karlovy Lazne that I had looked up in my Europe book. We tried to get directions but that was useless so we just followed some dressed up locals to the club we were looking for! The club was pretty cool. Every floor was different, the first floor as American Pop, the second floor was 90's music, the third floor was the 80's, the fourth floor was techno/rave music, the fifth floor was low key hippie music, and there was a sixth floor lunge bar type thing. The 80's floor was my favorite because it had a little bit of an older crowd with a grungy smokey wedding feel as we sang YMCA and Pretty Woman with a bunch of more mature drunken crowd. We were on our way to our check in point to see how everyone was when we ran into some of the British boys that we met earlier. He was with three older very sweet British Men (that were really Scottish I learned later) that were his father, his uncle, and cousin. He introduced us as the girls he met int he sex museum which was mortifying. His father had flown 30 people from London for his brother's 21'st birthday. His father invited us up to the party room so we grabbed the girls and spent the rest of the night conversing with the most ridiculous British boys I've ever met.
They were very nice, but were Dad's stereotypical vision of what British men would be. They asked if their teeth were bad... and they weren't great that's for sure. They seemed like they were into us girls, but they enjoyed dancing, and sometimes even kissing each other a little too much. They said that American boys were just too uptight and not comfortable with their sexuality and they were the Gay ones... but none of us really bought it. They gave all of us different names, but by the end of the night we knew all of their fake names and their real names. They really liked to sing and got a kick of 8 American girls singing The Spice Girls for them, and they managed to choreograph their own British rendition of "Summer Loving." At three AM I decided we had to leave because we had no idea how we were getting home and we had to check out at 11am the next morning. They got our coats and called us a cab and we went right to bed.
We checked out at 11am and spend the next five hour walking around the city taking pictures and shopping. The city really is gorgeous. The architecture is like none I have ever seen. There are statues and paintings all over the place. Lauren called the airport for the millionth time that day, but this time they said that it had arrived and it had been signed for, but it definitely was not at our hotel. We couldn't really understand the receptionist, so we made her call the airport. That's when she wrote down an address and we realized that her bag had been send to Apt of the address that was on our confirmation letter. We joyfully retrieved it and at 5:30 the same guy came to shuttle us to the Airport.
We checked in, bought some snacks, went through security and waited in a room with everyone going on our plane. Ten minutes after we were supposed to board they made an announcement that the flight was delayed. It was in Czech so we didn't understand it. But some one told us that there was an hour delay. It was hot and I started to feel sick, but luckily I was smart got my drink wrapped by the lady in the snack shop so it was allowed through security. The girls stared at me like they had never seen water before as I took a sip, but I wouldn't let them risk the chance of us all getting mono. It didn't matter because half an hour later they made us go back out through security into the main lobby and delayed the flight three more hours because out pilot had fallen ill upon landing in Prague, so we had to wait for a new available replacement. We sat on the floor in a far corner because it was so crowded and were just a bunch of college girls lost in a Czech speaking airport. We played hang man and looked at our pictures, and then one of the girls folded one of those "fortune tellers" that we used to make in Jr High school. She let me write the fortunes in the folded gadget, and handed it back to them. They girls started to play. They went through the motions of choosing a series of number and letters to achieve their fortune. At this time we had attracted the attention of the mostly bored travelers waiting with us. As Dana unfolded the fortune the screamed and handed it to me. They all kept asking what it said but I just started to laugh and showed them as Lauren screamed " You will never ever get home!" Everyone looked in horror but then began to laugh. That's when a bunch of blonde British girls overheard us talking about our flight and said "Girls, Isn't that your flight?" Confused, I responded with "what are you talking about?" and the pointed to the boarding flight. I ran over and tried to gesture "is this the flight to Gatwick?"and then just showed security my ticket and they tried to pull me through, but I ran back to get the girls. I've never seen a bunch of girls scream so loud and run so fast to catch our flight. We got through security, when Dana realized she had left her Peanut M &M's in the lobby and ran back through security to get them!!!
We got on the plane and had to wait half an hour for them to defrost the wings because the plane had been sitting too long. We finally took off and it was miserable. my ears hurt the whole way; I was in so much pain. But we were so happy to finally land in London that it didn't matter. We went to baggage claim where there were three flights of people laying on the conveyor belts. I turned to the group, and I'm like... " I know I don't travel much, but this cannot be a good thing. That's when we hear the announcement that baggage was delayed due to a shortage of staff... and please to not let children sit on the conveyor belts. HAHA. So we sat down on the closest conveyor belt and waited for an hour. We were just happy that we actually got all our luggage.
From there we ran to catch the last train. Since our flight was delayed, the tube was closed and we didn't really know how to get home from the train. So we tried to find the correct bus, but we didn't. We took a bus half an hour in the wrong direction and got off at the end of the line in the WORST part of London. So now we were standing on a street corner waiting for the RIGHT bus to come take us home. We were supposed to be in bed at 11pm and it was now 3am and was miserable and sick standing on a street corner on the back streets of Cambridge something or other. The point is we didn't' have the slightest clue where we were. A taxi drove by and as a last resort Mourin flagged it down. Four of the girls jumped in, leaving only four of us standing on a street corner with a bunch of drunken homeless people. It was awful. I started to cry and Mourin managed to flag down another taxi. He was a very nice man and asked us what we were doing in such a bad part of town, and when we told him we got lost on the bus he just laughed. He drove us as close to the school as he could get (the park gates close at night) and watched us to makes sure we made it over the bridge into the park safely before driving away.
We woke up at 2pm today and I have no voice and I still can't hear from the plane ride home. We also booked a hotel for Amsterdam this weekend. We leave on Thursday. Pray for me.
Love always, Jenna the girl who survived Prague B-)
We took the tube, to the train, to the airport, where the other seven girls waited for me to check in. Thats where I learned how strict the carry one luggage rules were and went back to tell the other. I had packed pretty light and safe, but the other girls ended up having to check their bags.
The flight was fine and we arrived to Prague without a problem. We went through Customs and had to answer a few questions. The officer in the booth next to me asked Lauren as he stamped her Passport, "First time in PRAGUE???"and she replied excitedly "yes yes thank you!" Unfortunately we had to go the baggage claim, where it was there that we realized that this trip was not going to be easy. When the conveyor belt stopped and Lauren's luggage had not come through, half of the girls went to go meet our shuttle driver, while the rest of us went to go file a missing luggage claim.
This crazy Czech man helped us into a nine person van and took off faster then lightning. It was 11pm. Teenage Dirtbag was playing on the radio, and I still could not comprehend that I was in the Czech Republic. It took a while to find the right hotel because our confirmation letter had the wrong address on it. The security guard handed us a key and we climbed five flights of winding stair to get to our two bedroom, two bath apartment with a kitchen and a living room in the middle of the Wenceslas Square which would be the equivalent of our Times Square in NYC.
We went out to seek food, but it was late and everything was closed so we stopped one of the many police officers that we dressed in all black carrying around several big machine guns where we could find something to eat, but they responded with the one thing we were already sick of hearing ... "No English."
We found a really nice place eventually and then went to bed to get ready for our next day in Prague. We decided to get a tour of Prague before we did anything. So we went to get Czech money (called Crowns). Dana and I were so thirsty so we went to buy a bottle of water. The sign said 35 crowns for a drink. Now its important to know the exchange rate for this story so pay attention. 20 Crowns =1 US dollars =0.50 GB Pounds, So the water should have been 1 US dollar and change, but she didn't give us enough change. Dana asked again "how much?" and she said 150 crowns. We thought we understood how the money worked, and she didn't speak any English so we decided to surrender to the scam seeing how it was a hopeless scam and we were already drinking the water. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I actually figured out that if the water was 150 crowns then it was 7 dollars and change for the drink. But live and learn right?
The tour was really amazing and it was so nice to talk to other tourists that spoke English (from the UK). We learned all about Wenceslas Square, and walked around to the new town, the old town , the Jewish square and the Charles Bridge. We saw several Synagogues and went into St Vitus's Cathedral. Prague Castle was awesome, and with the help of some funny British men on our tour we successfully made the guards laugh!!!. We learned all about the history and life of Prague and some key language phrases. Most of the girls could only remember "Di Mi Privi" (give me beer) while I thought learning "Ye qui" and "Prosium" (Thank You and Please) were probably going to be more helpful.
I had done my research on all the museums and clubs to see so we set out to find them. We saw the Kafka museum, and I dragged the girls right past the Medieval Torture Museum, but I lost the war against entering the Sex Machine Museum. I was so out of place there, I felt nauseous looking at the crazy things on display, but I felt much worse when I learned what they were actually used for. I was looking at the evolution of Chasity belts when several British boys were like what are nice girls like you doing in a place like this. They were pretty entertaining, but we really got our kicks when locked them in some cages and strapped them to tables and left them there for security! Haha!.
After that we took a nap and got ready for dinner and the club I had researched. We went to this beautiful Italian restaurant, but after we had finished we couldn't get our server to bring us our check. I remember the tour guide saying that you have to ask for it, but we didn't speak their language. I saw our server again and I just said, " unczech prosium." (bill please) and he said "ano?" (yes) and I said "ano, ye qui!" (yes thank you). We were all very excited that I had just had my first conversation in Czech!
We made our way to this five story club called Karlovy Lazne that I had looked up in my Europe book. We tried to get directions but that was useless so we just followed some dressed up locals to the club we were looking for! The club was pretty cool. Every floor was different, the first floor as American Pop, the second floor was 90's music, the third floor was the 80's, the fourth floor was techno/rave music, the fifth floor was low key hippie music, and there was a sixth floor lunge bar type thing. The 80's floor was my favorite because it had a little bit of an older crowd with a grungy smokey wedding feel as we sang YMCA and Pretty Woman with a bunch of more mature drunken crowd. We were on our way to our check in point to see how everyone was when we ran into some of the British boys that we met earlier. He was with three older very sweet British Men (that were really Scottish I learned later) that were his father, his uncle, and cousin. He introduced us as the girls he met int he sex museum which was mortifying. His father had flown 30 people from London for his brother's 21'st birthday. His father invited us up to the party room so we grabbed the girls and spent the rest of the night conversing with the most ridiculous British boys I've ever met.
They were very nice, but were Dad's stereotypical vision of what British men would be. They asked if their teeth were bad... and they weren't great that's for sure. They seemed like they were into us girls, but they enjoyed dancing, and sometimes even kissing each other a little too much. They said that American boys were just too uptight and not comfortable with their sexuality and they were the Gay ones... but none of us really bought it. They gave all of us different names, but by the end of the night we knew all of their fake names and their real names. They really liked to sing and got a kick of 8 American girls singing The Spice Girls for them, and they managed to choreograph their own British rendition of "Summer Loving." At three AM I decided we had to leave because we had no idea how we were getting home and we had to check out at 11am the next morning. They got our coats and called us a cab and we went right to bed.
We checked out at 11am and spend the next five hour walking around the city taking pictures and shopping. The city really is gorgeous. The architecture is like none I have ever seen. There are statues and paintings all over the place. Lauren called the airport for the millionth time that day, but this time they said that it had arrived and it had been signed for, but it definitely was not at our hotel. We couldn't really understand the receptionist, so we made her call the airport. That's when she wrote down an address and we realized that her bag had been send to Apt of the address that was on our confirmation letter. We joyfully retrieved it and at 5:30 the same guy came to shuttle us to the Airport.
We checked in, bought some snacks, went through security and waited in a room with everyone going on our plane. Ten minutes after we were supposed to board they made an announcement that the flight was delayed. It was in Czech so we didn't understand it. But some one told us that there was an hour delay. It was hot and I started to feel sick, but luckily I was smart got my drink wrapped by the lady in the snack shop so it was allowed through security. The girls stared at me like they had never seen water before as I took a sip, but I wouldn't let them risk the chance of us all getting mono. It didn't matter because half an hour later they made us go back out through security into the main lobby and delayed the flight three more hours because out pilot had fallen ill upon landing in Prague, so we had to wait for a new available replacement. We sat on the floor in a far corner because it was so crowded and were just a bunch of college girls lost in a Czech speaking airport. We played hang man and looked at our pictures, and then one of the girls folded one of those "fortune tellers" that we used to make in Jr High school. She let me write the fortunes in the folded gadget, and handed it back to them. They girls started to play. They went through the motions of choosing a series of number and letters to achieve their fortune. At this time we had attracted the attention of the mostly bored travelers waiting with us. As Dana unfolded the fortune the screamed and handed it to me. They all kept asking what it said but I just started to laugh and showed them as Lauren screamed " You will never ever get home!" Everyone looked in horror but then began to laugh. That's when a bunch of blonde British girls overheard us talking about our flight and said "Girls, Isn't that your flight?" Confused, I responded with "what are you talking about?" and the pointed to the boarding flight. I ran over and tried to gesture "is this the flight to Gatwick?"and then just showed security my ticket and they tried to pull me through, but I ran back to get the girls. I've never seen a bunch of girls scream so loud and run so fast to catch our flight. We got through security, when Dana realized she had left her Peanut M &M's in the lobby and ran back through security to get them!!!
We got on the plane and had to wait half an hour for them to defrost the wings because the plane had been sitting too long. We finally took off and it was miserable. my ears hurt the whole way; I was in so much pain. But we were so happy to finally land in London that it didn't matter. We went to baggage claim where there were three flights of people laying on the conveyor belts. I turned to the group, and I'm like... " I know I don't travel much, but this cannot be a good thing. That's when we hear the announcement that baggage was delayed due to a shortage of staff... and please to not let children sit on the conveyor belts. HAHA. So we sat down on the closest conveyor belt and waited for an hour. We were just happy that we actually got all our luggage.
From there we ran to catch the last train. Since our flight was delayed, the tube was closed and we didn't really know how to get home from the train. So we tried to find the correct bus, but we didn't. We took a bus half an hour in the wrong direction and got off at the end of the line in the WORST part of London. So now we were standing on a street corner waiting for the RIGHT bus to come take us home. We were supposed to be in bed at 11pm and it was now 3am and was miserable and sick standing on a street corner on the back streets of Cambridge something or other. The point is we didn't' have the slightest clue where we were. A taxi drove by and as a last resort Mourin flagged it down. Four of the girls jumped in, leaving only four of us standing on a street corner with a bunch of drunken homeless people. It was awful. I started to cry and Mourin managed to flag down another taxi. He was a very nice man and asked us what we were doing in such a bad part of town, and when we told him we got lost on the bus he just laughed. He drove us as close to the school as he could get (the park gates close at night) and watched us to makes sure we made it over the bridge into the park safely before driving away.
We woke up at 2pm today and I have no voice and I still can't hear from the plane ride home. We also booked a hotel for Amsterdam this weekend. We leave on Thursday. Pray for me.
Love always, Jenna the girl who survived Prague B-)
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Here is Your Subscription to Travel Times Weekly.
Hey everyone!
I leave for Prague today right after class so I wont be home until Sunday (my time) or Saturday (your time). I'm still not feeling great and pretty nervous about Prague. I guess it doesn't help that Mourin and I overslept this morning and woke up ten minutes before we had to be in class. My teacher has a strict attendance and tardiness policy so I just went in my pajamas. It was my Film Noir class so it didn't matter because we were mostly in the dark the whole time.
Next week Me and Lauren are going to see Brand New In concert here in London! They are the ones that sing that song "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" ... you know the one that goes "Tell all the English boys you meet about the American boy back in the states" hahah so that's going to be really fun. Also, Amanda just emailed me with her new favorite song that make her think of me... I looked up THAT band called Mika, and they just happened to be playing a free concert on Monday in a store that's just down the road so I'm going to go to that too!
People are really dropping like flies over here. Two people from Monmouth already went home, and that's just our school, and Monmouth kids are the ones that are having fun... so I wonder how many really went home.
We are having trouble finding a hostel in Amsterdam, so it looks like we will be staying in a brothel. Haha just kidding (me and Mourin just learned what that was. She thought it was a rugged bar, and I thought it was a house for Priests and Nuns. I don't know)
Right now, I have to get packing because I'm the only one that hasn't and we leave in three hours and I'm still in my pajamas. Not to mention, I'm not checking any baggage and have no where to put liquids like soap face wash, stuff like that so I'm gonna have to just get it when I get there and get little container for less then3 oz for the future.
I'm off to the Czech Republic.... believe it or not.
Love You =)
Jenna the adventurer
P.S. its kinda pronounced ggeennnaugh ... yea its like the only name I haven't learned to respond to... which is kind of bad when my British professor is yelling it at me and I'm just staring at him blankly until I realize... geeeennnaaauuggg? OH that ME!
I leave for Prague today right after class so I wont be home until Sunday (my time) or Saturday (your time). I'm still not feeling great and pretty nervous about Prague. I guess it doesn't help that Mourin and I overslept this morning and woke up ten minutes before we had to be in class. My teacher has a strict attendance and tardiness policy so I just went in my pajamas. It was my Film Noir class so it didn't matter because we were mostly in the dark the whole time.
Next week Me and Lauren are going to see Brand New In concert here in London! They are the ones that sing that song "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" ... you know the one that goes "Tell all the English boys you meet about the American boy back in the states" hahah so that's going to be really fun. Also, Amanda just emailed me with her new favorite song that make her think of me... I looked up THAT band called Mika, and they just happened to be playing a free concert on Monday in a store that's just down the road so I'm going to go to that too!
People are really dropping like flies over here. Two people from Monmouth already went home, and that's just our school, and Monmouth kids are the ones that are having fun... so I wonder how many really went home.
We are having trouble finding a hostel in Amsterdam, so it looks like we will be staying in a brothel. Haha just kidding (me and Mourin just learned what that was. She thought it was a rugged bar, and I thought it was a house for Priests and Nuns. I don't know)
Right now, I have to get packing because I'm the only one that hasn't and we leave in three hours and I'm still in my pajamas. Not to mention, I'm not checking any baggage and have no where to put liquids like soap face wash, stuff like that so I'm gonna have to just get it when I get there and get little container for less then3 oz for the future.
I'm off to the Czech Republic.... believe it or not.
Love You =)
Jenna the adventurer
P.S. its kinda pronounced ggeennnaugh ... yea its like the only name I haven't learned to respond to... which is kind of bad when my British professor is yelling it at me and I'm just staring at him blankly until I realize... geeeennnaaauuggg? OH that ME!
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