"Ale cert to vem" indeed.

Our washing machine plays the merriest little jingle when it's finished with a rinse cycle. Such a merry jingle that I can almost forgive it for making my clothes crunchy. Actually, that's a lie. I cannot forgive it. But really, it's not the washing machine's fault, it's the stupid lack of a dryer! I understand that it saves energy to line-dry your clothes, but I am honestly willing to make a bigger carbon footprint for soft, non-crispy clothing. Maybe I'm a selfish jerk, but I don't care. I would kill a tree for a dryer right now. Anyway, enough of that, onto more important happenings.

Ah, skola. This week we started regular classes instead of just the Czech Intensive course. I'm enrolled in 4 classes, but I went to 6 this week, to check (or Czech) them out. To be honest, the only classes I really cared about were Art and Architecture and the Czech Language course. I went to my Czech Film class, where we watched the craziest movie ever made, called "Conspirators in Pleasure" or something like that. I don't really know how to explain it, other than to say it was a silent film, and involved dead roosters, bread balls, carp, and rubber gloves. Among other things.

I also tried out my Czech Politics class, which was okay but really awkward, as there are only 3 students in it. The teacher was a big fan of drawing ridiculous circles on the board and then pointing to a spot and saying, "Now, this is Hungary. What do you know about Budapest?" Ridiculous.

Tuesday I went to Art and Architecture, taught by a tiny, precious woman who took us on a field trip and showed us "The Model of Prague", which is exactly what it sounds like - a to-scale model of greater Prague. It is freaking sweet. I want one. It lights up different areas of the city and tells you what they are, and it's just really cool to see the city you're living in all spread out in front of your very eyes. Then Nick and I talked about models and I remembered the sweet model of West Tulsa at Ollie's that I could stare at forever.

After that I was back in Vyšehrad by the school so I decided to stick around for Modern Czech History, which is a much cooler class than Politics. Petr Roubal is the teacher and he's a stinking Genius - the man has a PhD from both Central European University and Cambridge. He knows so much about Prague and especially the Czech involvement in WWII. He told us the story of how a Czech man and a Slovak man, who were paratroopers in the British army, took it upon themselves to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the top officers in Hitler's army. Afterward the Nazis retaliated and found the men by torturing one of their friends. They were hiding in a crypt of an Orthodox church in Prague with five other Czech men, and they had a huge standoff with the Nazis before they committed suicide rather than being captured and killed. Then Petr took us TO the crypt. It was awesome. That's yet another great thing about being here - you hear about something, then you go see it, just a tram stop and a short walk away from your school.

On Wednesday I picked MADISON! up from the airport at 9:00. We both bought phones and then came back to my apartment and crashed for awhile. I'm so excited to have her here.

Thursday she and I attempted to find an adapter for the computer, but we couldn't find a stupid hardware store anywhere. Apparently the hardware store we were looking for is actually inside a drogerie...how silly of us not to know? I'd decided to go to the "Alternative Cultures" class at 1:45, and I'm so glad I did, because it is possibly THE GREATEST CLASS ON EARTH. It's taught by Pavla Jonssonova, who is a former guitarist/vocalist for the Czech band Dybbuk. Here's a link for their single "Ale Cert To Vem": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQT3EPqAm8U (watch it, it's great, Pavla's the one with the short red/orange hair). I shouldn't say former, because apparently they still play every once in awhile, which is just beyond awesome. She told us how she grew up during the Communist era and how all the youth were really jealous of and into Western culture because they couldn't get any music or popular art stuff in Czechoslovakia. Apparently the Communist regime was a lot more strict here than in other countries (other than the former Yugoslavia) and a lot of Czechs and Slovaks weren't really allowed to retain their culture. So that class is going to freaking rock and I'm taking it instead of Czech Film. I don't really have enough words to express how amazing Pavla is.

So basically now I'm in class from 9 to 12 and 1:45 to 6:15 on Tuesdays, and 1:45 to 6:15 on Thursdays. I have a four day weekend with a day off in the middle, and I'm in four awesome classes that I'm stoked about. Prague is great. Studying abroad is great. Everyone should do it. It's such a nice break from all the drama that is the University of Tulsa theatre department. I miss my friends in Tulsa, but I really don't miss the school itself. Like, at all. Sor.

This entry is too long already, so I'll discuss our visits to Lidice and Terezín later. Nashledanou to you all (incidentally, is anyone actually reading this thing?)