this is what i want

My goal in life... to be able to get a massage every single day of my life...

break?? not quite...

I got home tonight for Thanksgiving break and this is what I am doing...


yup, school work... this is my project for studio

mid-semester

So, I've made it through over half of the semester. Time has gone pretty fast here in Manhattan - the weeks seem to fly by lately. They need to start slowing down a little bit, so I can enjoy my last year here - which I have been doing. The beginning of the week is a little tough to get through because I have my night classes on Monday and Tuesday, so then by the time those are over I feel like half of the week is gone.
I have finished my Tuesday night class and now need to get motivated to figure out something for my studio project. This new project we have started is proving to be a bit challenging for me and I need to get myself motivated. Halloween is coming up and I don't want to sacrifice those nights of fun to be in studio! -- so that will be my motivation for the rest of the week.

I had a great weekend back home in Wichita. It was nice and relaxing and I felt like I hadn't been home in awhile. We have had so many home football games this year that I have to find the weekends we have away games to do anything. These football games are definitely all day affairs. We have another one this weekend -the homecoming game - it hardly even matters that it's homecoming now that I'm not in the sorority anymore, now that I'm "alum". The only thing "homecoming" means right now is "halloween".
Anyways, Jeff was home from Denver this weekend as well - shortly, because he went to the OU game with my dad while my mom and I hung out in Wichita. We had some good food and I ate way too many m&m's from our bottomeless candy dish...
I don't have too much else to "update" on right now, but life is good and I hope it is for everyone else!

I'll throw in a few pics


some tailgating action

and the roomies

update!

So, obviously I'm not doing so good at updating this, but every now and then I may get the urge to post something.. so I'm keeping the blog around. I need to change the name, because I am no longer in Prague -- sadly.
So I'm still working on getting into the swing of school. Basically, it's the studio stuff that is hard to dive into. I'm not ready to spend all my time in Seaton Hall again. I have had a very large amount of reading to do this semester and most of it is not easy reading. I have to whip out the dictionary every now and then to figure out what exactly these writers are talking about.

***actually, please look at Laura's blog - there's a link to the right. She has a nice quote off of one of the readings we had to read for our Project Programming class in her last post.

One of my classes is basically all reading. We have the class once a week and discuss the readings we were supposed to read throughout the week. We also have a paper over the readings - about 2 pages - due every class. So that keeps me pretty busy. That class is on Tuesday evening. I am in a drawing class on Monday evening, I have studio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as usual, golf class Thursday morning, and a Project Programming class Thursday afternoon. It really isn't too bad of a schedule, since all of them except for studio is only once a week. It also gives me plenty of time to work out in the morning.. besides golf at 9:30 on Thursday, my classes start at 1:30 pm at the earlies.

I'm really liking the golf class of course. I'm so glad I took it. There's probably 11 people in the class and I am the only girl. They have other classes and I think those have more girls, but I'm the only one in mine. We've gone out on the golf course one time so far and I'm guessing we will start doing that for now on. We can go out early before the class and play during class if we want to; we don't have to actually go to the lessons. I have been, because I need them, but a few people just go out and play. Right now the weather is really nice, so it would be awesome if this held out for a good month or so before it starts getting frigid outside.

The football game was glorious yesterday. It turned out to be a pretty hot day, but it was so nice out and we stayed the whole game- which is rare. It was a little difficult to get up after a night out on Friday. The game was at 11:30 so in order to get some tailgating in we had to get up early. Of course, we didn't get up as early as planned, but we got out there some time around 9:30 or 10. Our phi delt friends always have a tailgate going on and this game they had rep. for the energy drink Rock Star, so they were handing out free energy drinks, which I most definitely needed.

Anyways, the weekend went pretty well. It rained last night while we were in Aggieville, which wasn't too fun. The bars got really crowded since nobody was out on the patios. We ended up heading home a little early and called it a night. Now, I'm taking a little break from the reading I'm doing. Fun stuff. I will be busy with homework all day - and week. We have mid crits this week. I'm going on Wednesday. Half way through our projects we pin up our work and get critiqued on our progress so for. I also have to do a presentation with Laura on Thursday for our Programming class. We have been researching an architect and one of his specific buildings.. we have quite a bit to do for that before we will be ready to present. So it shall be a busy week.

Well, I better get going on this reading. I'll try not to wait so long to post next time!

back to the little apple

I have moved back to Manhattan now. My parents came with me on Sunday and helped me move all my Stuff in. This year I had to bring along a bed, a dresser and a desk for the first time. Last year, the one semester I was in Manhattan, I was lucky enough to get to use somebody else's stuff for the semester. Jessie, who subleased from me while I was in Prague, didn't need her bed, dresser, and desk for that semester. It made moving a lot easier! This time we had a lot to haul, but I also get to keep it here for a whole year - and that is a first. I have yet to be able to leave all my stuff in one spot for a whole school year. In the dorms we had to move most of our stuff home over christmas break and same with the sorority house.

My room is pretty tiny, but everything fits in there and so far I'm enjoying it. The set up is working nicely. My desk is at the end of my bed, so the end of the bed is working as a chair for the desk. haha. That is the most cramped part of the room. Good thing I never have to do a lot of homework in my room because the bed as my chair would be rather dangerous and I wouldn't foresee much work getting done there.

We have one more roommate moving in tomorrow and then we'll all be settled here. School starts next Monday and so far the only things I have been doing in Manhattan have been getting ready for the semester - paying for it and then signing up for which studios I would prefer to be in. I'm not sure when I find out about the studio assignment. I also picked up my transcript from my semester abroad-thank goodness those got to the school. They told us that last year they had issues getting them.

Other than those few things, I haven't been up to much more than I was all summer in Wichita. Amazingly, the weather has been beautiful the last two days, so I have been able to run and walk outside. My roommate has a dog - still a bit of a puppy! - so I look forward to taking her on some walks. I took her on a walk yesterday and tried to run with her, but it turned into a full-fledged sprint. So we sprinted up and down Vattier (my street) yesterday..

well that's about it. I will try to update this a little bit more frequently now!

home!

Well, I've been home now for little while. I've been meaning to write a little. The plane ride home went pretty smooth. The first flight was on time and the second flight from atlanta to wichita was about an hour late, but not too shabby. We left extremely early from our Madrid hostel to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time.
Since I have been home I haven't really been up to too much. I don't have a job, which is indeed nice, but I also would love to have some income. So that part isn't very fun. I don't like having to worry about money all of the time!
I have been spending some time at the pool and working out. There are a few friends in town and then some will come in for a weekend. I've been working on getting all the pictures developed and then I plan on scrapbooking a little and getting them into some order.
Friday I took a trip to K-state to see some friends. It was so nice being back there and visiting Aggieville again. Of course, it's summer, so the atmosphere wasn't quite the same, but it really wasn't too bad. I had a great time. I don't think the atmosphere will ever be quite the same as last year since so many people have graduated. Being a fifth year might be a little lonely. I'm living with four of my friends and I know a lot of people still here for a fifth year - whether undergrad or grad school, but we will still be the oldest group around here.
Well, all is going well. I am enjoying the summer and the free time - who knows when I'll be able to do nothing for a month again. Probably never. Next year I will be slaving away at a real job probably.
Hopefully, over winter break I can find somewhere to work and make some money.
Just thought I'd write a little update. I will try to keep this up, but as of right now there is nothing too interesting going on.

takin' it easy in Spain

Well, I am now almost to the last stop of my 5 month excursion in Europe! It is pretty crazy to think that I have been over here for that long. So now I´m in Barcelona, Spain. We have free internet at this hostel, but it runs pretty slow. We stay 4 nights here... 2 down, 2 to go. It´s pretty nice being able to relax and take our time in a city. Most of the time when we visit a city we spend 2 nights there, so that leaves one full day to fit everything into. This way, we get to take it reeeal easy, which was our plan. Our hostel is in a fitting area for the ´takin it easy´ outlook, although it was a pain in the arse to get to! It is way out.. like in a mountain outside of Barcelona-okay not a mountain, a large hill. On the metro, it doesn´t take too long to get here, but their whole transportation system is weird here, so we had difficulties coming from the airport. Once we got to our stop, we also had to hike up a large hill - we took about four turns on the hill and each turn brought on a steeper hill. When we walk it now without our bags we still get incredibly tired and don´t know how we did it with all our luggage earlier-especially my heavy backpack pulling me backwards as we climb up this hill.

We thought the metro stopped at midnight to get back here, so our first night we met up with our two friends, Chris and Laura, who had been here a couple nights already. We had dinner and hung out at their hostel, then Luke and I headed back to the metro-or the FGC - its not actually the metro.. anyways we see the gate is closed when we get there! This was our first night, so we had NO idea what to do, so after some cussing and everything we decided we had to get a taxi.. which was not cool at all because our place is OUT there. On the ´metro´, it cuts through the hills, but in a car you have to go up a hill, down the other side, and up another one... so that hit the money pretty hard. oh well, what can ya do. We got pack to our room and unsuccessfully tried to be quiet. We found out that night that there are 4 kinda old ladies staying in our 10 person dorm, so I´m sure they aren´t big fans of us. It was just a little strange, since usually hostels house people our age. The Youth Hostelling International ones have kid groups and older people, so it´s just not quite the same.

Anyhow, we did meet some guys about our age - 2 from England, 1 from Minnesota, 1 from Indiana and 1 from Sweden. We watched the game last night with them and continued talking and watching The Day After Tomorrow dubbed in Spanish with them. We all had a good time and before we knew it, it was about 2:30 am.

Well, that is a little update. Luke and I have been getting plenty of sleep, seeing a lot of Gaudi architecture, and working on our Spanish tans.

And I will be back in Wichita on July 6...

later

oh.. here's the project

Here's the boards I printed off for my project.. hanging up in the studio room still.... and I got an ´Excellent´.. which is an A. wahoo!

back in prague!

Well, I'm finally back after all the traveling! I just went to 5 different countries- kinda crazy! I had a lot of fun traveling around with everybody. After Vienna, I went to Budapest, which was a really cool city.. actually Budapest is 2 cities - Buda and Pest and different sides of the river. Together they have a huge Parliament building, a royal palace, and a castle - interesting that they have all 3- and of course other things to see. We trekked around both the cities in one day in the hot, humid weather. It reminded me of Kansas. The hostel we stayed in was super hippy. They had a huge drawing of Bob Marley on our yellow walls in our room.. I forgot to take a picture. It was a pretty cool set up, but definitely different than all the other hostels we stayed in throughout the trip.

Anyhow, now I have these last few days to try to get the room all cleaned up and packed, as well as trying to see some last things we haven't done yet in Prague. There's always more to see, but there's just a couple things I feel I should see/do before I leave! Hopefully, I will come back to Prague sometime though.

Today I got a few things done, though. I mailed two packages full of all kinds of stuff back home. I also picked up a package that has been hanging out in different locations around Prague for over a month. My mom had sent it forever ago. They post our names on a list in the lobby of the dorm if we have a package, then they give us a slip of paper, then we head to the post office to pick up our package. Well, over a month ago, I had my name on the list, I got a slip of paper and I went to the post office, except all they gave me was a letter and a copy of the paper my mom had filled out to send - telling the contents of the package. They checked a box on that paper that said "returned to sender" and then there was a letter written in Czech. I figured they sent it home since that was what it said and I figured the letter explained why. I figured as long as it was going back home, then that's okay. Well, they never got it back at home. So before I left on this last trip, I got together with my Czech buddy to have him read the letter and help me figure stuff out. So he told me it was at this place because they had to check it - something about customs and we could go pick it up, but by this point I didn't want to pick it up anymore cuz it's just more stuff to take home. So he wrote an email saying we just wanted sent back to the sender because they do that after a certain amount of time, anyhow. I went on my trip. I came back and my name was back on the package list in the lobby! and it was on there twice - one time it was incredibly misspelled, but it was me. So I got another slip saying I had soemthing at the post office and another letter I couldn't read. I talked to my Czech buddy again and he said there was miscommunication and they had sent it back to the post office! It'd been there for almost 10 days and I thought there was a charge usually when your package sits there for days... so I was scared to pick it up, but worried they would never send it back home. It has my running in mp3 player among a couple other things, so I wanted it back. So I went to the post office when I mailed stuff and decided I'd ask about the package and if it cost too much, I just wouldn't pick it up.. I tried to ask the lady - who of course didn't speak English - I had handed her the letter that I had no idea what it said.. A lady behind me spoke really good english and heard me ask so she asked the lady in Czech and then told me there was no charge! Which was awesome.. So I got my package- which was adding a little bit of unneeded stress! Sorry, long story. Now I have poptarts and granola bars as well as face wash! fun stuff.

But, incredibly enough, we dealt with two post office workers that did speak english when we dropped off our packages and laura picked up an empty box. Then I got some laundry done - which was needed SOOO bad.. I was starting to smell. ha.
Then, (fortunately and unfortunately for my money) I found out there was a big sale going on at this store called promod - which is so so cute. So I HAD to go out there and ended up buying a skirt- I couldn't resist and I've been wanting to buy a dress all semester - so I guess that will do. I also heard tonight that some other stores are having big sales too.. yikes.. so tempting.

Laura and Chris leave tomorrow for Spain - where they fly out of to go home on the 3rd! So, the remaining people all went out to dinner at a new place, but it had the traditional Czech food, so I kinda got a meal I get alot... oh well.

Well, that's about it I think. I need to figure out what I need to pack up for Spain and if there's more to send home before I leave on Thursday for Spain.

Here's some pics of the trip.. but I posted them all on my photos page..

vienna

hello. sorry I have not posted in so so long. I'm in Vienna, Austria right now. I traveled with the bros to Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne (germany) and munich. They parted in Munich to fly home and hopefully they remembered to pick up my bag that was waiting in a locker in the amsterdam airport. We had a fun time- we watched lots and lots of soccer since the boys are obsessed, but it's been pretty fun to be in Europe right now with all that going on. Too bad we lost today!!!
Anyhow, Austria has been really fun. We saw an awesome palace yesterday with the largest area of gardens I have ever seen.

Oh yea. and President Bush was in town yesterday, which was cool even though we definitely had no idea until the man checking tickets on the train told us that our 'captain is in town'.

Well I better go. I hope everyone is doing well! I'm heading to Budapest tomorrow and then I'll be back in Prague for a few days. Then it is spain (where we might hit up the running of the bulls if the time is right) and then home! July 6. I'm getting pretty excited for the comforts of home!

We met a homeless man in Amsterdam who has Bin Laden in his basement...
he's waiting for the reward price to go up.

a little something..

I love about Praha.
Walking to the grocery store. Riding the subway. Walking to restaurants. Having a corner store. Big City. Dumplings. Hardly doing homework. Bohemia Bagel. The restaurant on the corner. Cheap. Cheap Beer. Boat Parties. Drinking games. Club in the basement. Charles Bridge. I believe its a never ending city. Art homework. Drinking beer on the subway. Cute dogs. Barely using an alarm clock. Sleeping. Alot. Always having a designated driver - trams. Czech surprises (gotta love 'em). Cuba Libres (rum and coke and lime). Tourists. Cute little kids. Making toast on the stove top. Watercoloring. H&M. Getting packages. Visitors. Goulash. Cola Light. Zara. Kebab stands (a great thing about all of europe). Old Town Square. Feeling accomplished simply by communicating with a Czech person. Sandwiches in the architecture building. Sculpture teacher that looks like a Harry Potter character. Dance parties.

A little something everybody can enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

What I've been workin' on

These will be put into the comp and photoshopped into the site...hopefully.

not much

Hello. Well, there's not a whole lot to write about right now. I've been slaving away in my room working on my final project for my studio class. It is all I have left, so that's good. It's due on June 12 - Monday. I'm trying very, very hard to get it done by Friday, so I can have the weekend to pack up stuff and get some things done. So there probably won't be much sleep tonight or tomorrow night. I will be leaving on the 13th to meet my brothers in Amsterdam and then I will be traveling to Amsterdamn, Belgium, Germany, Vienna, and Budapest until the 25th. I will be back in Prague until the 29th and then I will fly to Spain and be around there until I leave from Madrid to go home. It sounds so close when I write it out like that. There's not much time left in Prague, so hopefully I will get this project out of the way and enjoy this weekend.

People are starting to leave Prague to go home, now, so we're starting to have to say some goodbyes. One of the guys from kstate is leaving later tonight, so we're going to have a last Prague dinner with him at our favorite Czech restaurant across the street - cheap and very good. He's the first from kstate to leave and the rest of us leave within a month!

Anyways, besides working on studio, last Saturday we organized a little Pub Crawl to take place here in Prague. Our campus and dorm sits at the end of the Green Line on the Metro, so we went to the way other side of the Green Line and started a pub crawl. At every stop on the line we got off the metro and found the nearest pub. There are 13 stops total and it took quite awhile to get through all the stops. I, of course (and the rest of the ladies), couldn't complete the whole pub crawl. I stayed and hung around til the end, but I definitely couldn't take 13 drinks - especially since the beers are 1/2 liters.
We had to stop at 2 gas stations at two stops because there wasn't a pub nearby. It was a pretty humorous afternoon/evening/night out.

Here's the metro map... we did the green line

The group..at the second stop..

the sun came out today

THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY! Wow... after a late night out last night, I woke up this morning to see the BLUE sky out the window and the sun shining in. I didn't get much sleep, but I couldn't stay in bed because I was so excited to see this and I didn't want to miss it in case it went away. It still wasn't hot and was a bit chilly when the sun was behind a cloud.

So I set out today to take some more pictures of my site for my project in Old Town Square - I need to use these to create some perspective drawings for my final project. I then continued to shop around a little - found some souvenirs for some people... which was kind of a pain in the butt, because I was practically being harrassed in one store. There wasn't too many people in the store and like 4 guys were working there. They just kept talking to me about everything in the store and trying to make jokes, but all I wanted to do was mind my own business and look for souvenirs! So, of course, they drove me away and I didn't buy anything from them... badgering people doesn't work - it just freaks them out! So I made my way to a different one, where they still wouldn't really leave me alone to look, but it wasn't nearly as bad. I was looking at some things and they're all in front of me, but they point out to me how "they have different pictures...see this one... and this one ..." blah blah.. I can see it! Thanks. So I pick one up to look and set it down and they say "you don't like?"... I'm just trying to look around! So, yea, that's my rant for now.

I also went in to a classical music store and purchased a cd of a Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana. One of our Czech Culture classes had the topic of Czech music and we listened to Czech classical music most of the period, so I wrote some names down that I liked.

Anyways, from there a I got a text message telling me some people were going to Bohemia Bagel. I don't think I've mentioned this wonderful place in Prague, yet. This place is usually full of backpackers - or Americans - or tourists of some sort. It serves breakfast all day, but also has hamburgers, sandwiches, and bagel sandwiches. You don't easily find bagels over here in Prague. So I'm addicted to the Turkey bagel sandwich. I can't help it. You order at the counter and take a seat. They have FOUNTAIN drinks - I miss pop from the fountain sooo bad. It also has FREE refills and ICE. Yes, it is great.

Bohemia Bagle - that's my Turkey Bagel sandwich in front

So we sat there for a good while enjoying ourselves. Then I had to head back to the dorm room. My studio project is due June 12 and that is coming up quickly. It's starting to come along, but as always, I can't help but be nervous about how its going to go. It is definitely difficult for me to pull really late nights here, but you gotta do what you gotta do and I'm sure I will have to do it this next week.

Well, that's about it for now. We went out last night - 2 of the engineering guys finished their last final, so they are done and wanted to go out. We ended up at a bar where we met a group of Syracuse students that are here for a couple weeks taking a film course - they're film majors. It was fun chatting with them.
Alright - it's my bed time.

Oh yea! There were fireworks out our window on the top of this hill tonight. It was pretty awesome.

My 5 Top Fives...I've been tagged by Allison

On my desk:

1. Pictures framed of my whole family that my mom put together for me
2. Cola Light (Europe's Diet Coke - different, but tasty)
3. Antique miniature bowl (bought at Greece flea market) holding my jewelry
4. Watercolor pallet - actually used pretty often in Prague
5. Kingston USB Data Traveler - how did we do it without these things?

In my closet:

1. Vagabond boots (to get my european look on)
2. All my jeans that have been through so much here
3. kstate hoodie sweatshirt
4. black fleece pants - so comfortable
5. empty boxes of past packages

On the wall:

1. My attempts at watercoloring
2. Pictures of friends back home
3. My handmade calendar drawn on graph paper- the only calendar I've used the whole time here
4. My schedule of classes that have all been completed except for one
5. Random drawings from studio hanging haphazardly

In my purse:

1. My Canon Powershot A80
2. Chapstick
3. Wallet w/ metro pass (too important to leave out)
4. Prague guide - just in case
5. gum

I miss at home:

1. The family of course
2. TV - not gonna lie
3. Baking - chocolate chip cookies especially
4. the sun and warm weather!
5. all the friends (and aggieville)

*I left out the 'why I love Prague list' for a reason.. you'll be seeing a list later

I tag Mandy Sullivan and Iain... I don't know if Iain knows this blog exists, so I'll have to tell him

Farewell boat party, Cesky Krumlov, and more pragueing

Well, last Wednesday we had our farewell boat party - pirate style. It was a lot of fun. All 200 of us dressed as pirates met in the lobby of the dorm at 6:30, then walked through Prague and onto the metro. We got some interesting looks as we rowdily made our way through the city and to the river where a boat with balloons was awaiting us. Some people got really dressed up, some didn't at all, and some tried to be creative with the "pirate theme". There was a "cyber pirate" (aka a hacker that messes up all of our computers) and he just put a computer mouse on a string and wore it around his neck. There was also a peter pan and some turkish guys dressed up as the mafia. Anyhow, it was a very fun night and gave us a chance to take some pictures with friends we have met over the semester. We danced and partied for about 4 hours while the boat cruised up and down the Vltava River. The party continued after the boat docked - there was indeed streaking across the Charle's bridge going on.. I was not apart of that - haha...although it would have been fun to say I did that.. I think only one brave k-stater accomplished the feat.

On Friday, Luke, Laura, Carl and I all took a short trip to Cesky Krumlov. It's a very small town in the Czech Republic in southern Bohemia. It is one of the places that people are told to go when they come to Prague. It's a very small town and an uncomfortable 3.5 hour bus ride to get there, but it was well worth it. We nearly missed our bus to the town, too, because of the lady who sold the bus tickets to us. Luke and I had gone and picked up the tickets earlier in the week. There are two main bus stations. When we bought the ticket I asked the lady if we left from this stop or the other stop which is at another metro station. She pointed out to the buses there and told us it was at platform 2. So....we show up at that station and go to platform 2. We started looking at the signs at the stop and not seeing anything about Cesky Krumlov, so I walk over to this information booth and after a few tries the man understands what I'm asking and looks at the ticket and confirms that we are supposed to be at the other metro stop. So we basically ran to the metro and caught one right as it arrived. Luckily, we made it to the other station in time, but it was a little stressful.

Anyhow, the city is very beautiful. It's main attraction is the castle that overlooks the city. The castle - and the city - are very unique because of the way the buildings are painted. The castle is very ornate the way they painted it to look as though there are individual stones that make up the building. It also gives it a very colorful and playful look. The castle also had a bear pit.. instead of a moat, there was a pit that a bridge went over that had 2 bears in it. They were very cute bears. We stayed at a cozy little hostel call the Krumlov house. They gave us a map with some highlated places to go - restaurants, bars, and sites. The whole first evening we were there it rained and wasn't too fun to walk around in, so we ended up going on a miniature pub crawl around Cesky Krumlov to the 6 pubs they have pointed out on the map. They had some interesting places - one was called the Horror Bar - and had skeletons and creepy, halloween looking decorations. The two girl bartenders were very goth looking - which we thought was an interesting type of bar to have in such a small town. The town reminded me a lot of a mountain town in Colorado - the atmosphere was about the same it seemed. There was rafting on the Vltava River that winds around the city. Unfortunately, it wasn't sunny and not very warm so the river didn't look too appealing. There is also horse back riding, but because of some kind of car rally thing we were unable to do that too, so that was a bit unfortunate. We decided to go to the torture museum. They also have this museum in Prague, that we see often, but have yet to go in. I was pretty impressed with the torture museum, because it really creeped us out. We were the only ones in there the whole time and we were going around in this cave area that was very dark with pieces of torture equipment and fake people (that sometimes looked like they could have been real and about to jump out and grab us). They had all these examples of the way people were tortured way back in the day. So, an interesting museum to say the least. We visited the castle gardens - which was pretty large and very beautifully done. We also went to a photography and art exhibit with some interesting work by czech photographer, Jan Saudek. They also had some unique souvenirs in the town that we have not seen in Prague, so we all did a little souvenir shopping.
So, we spent one night there and headed back to Prague the next afternoon - it was a nice break from the big city.

(a courtyard of the castle - all those "stones" are just painted on)

We are starting to realize how much little time we have left - some less than others. Of course, I have my whole project still to finish for studio, but that pretty much all of school I have left. So, Luke and I did some wandering around today in Prague. He had gotten up early and done some on his own, but then we decided we'd go to the park I had run to a little while ago and then make our way to the castle area, then hopefully find this hidden tunnel I've been wanting to find very badly! So we went around and took some pictures of Prague. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast once again, so the pictures weren't as great as they could be with a blue sky. We went to the park area, some gardens in the park which lead to the castle. Then we headed down this pathway/trail that goes around the side of the hill that the tunnel is on. We see it when we ride the tram, but had yet to do it and I always wondered if this tunnel was somewhere back there. So we hiked around and decided to go down this one path. We walked down it a ways and I recognized the entrance of the tunnel. I have a picture of it in a little pocket architecture/prague book. This was an exciting moment. The tunnel is an odd oval/egg shape that makes it very unique and it is made of brick. It has lights along one side of the tunnel. I'm not sure what the purpose of the tunnel is, other than connecting the two sides of this long pathway that continues on in this forested area.

(we thought the picture looked cool ... I know, I look kind of like an idiot)

(this garden area was so 'senior picture perfect' so I had to take a senior picture.)

Well, that's about it for now. I will be working very hard this week on getting some studio stuff done and over with! I also plan on doing some more exploring of Prague (what I just decided I want to call Pragueing) - although it is supposed to be rainy (go figure) the next two days. This city is so beautiful and I'm going to miss it a lot when I leave it!

Photography class

Here are the photos used in my final presentation for photography class.

It's 12:45 and I have already accomplished a lot today! I'm proud of myself. I went to 2 classes so far today, turned in my stuff, and got my grades! And I got A's in both... so far I am passing the semester. I have also finished 2 other classes. This morning, Luke and I went to get bus tickets for a short trip to a town in the Czech Republic, called Cesky Krumlov. It's supposed to be a very pretty and neat town, so I am looking forward to that - I've been meaning to do more traveling within the Czech Republic. There are still some other places I would like to go, but I'm not sure time will allow that. Luke, Laura, Carl and I will all be going next Friday, spending one night and coming back on Saturday.

I have also been trying to work out my trip with my brothers when they come over to Europe. They are flying into Amsterdam on June 12. I'm going to meet them there on June 13, because my final studio project is due June 12. Yesterday, I booked my flight and booked a hostel in Amsterdam. We will also be going to Brussels, Belgium and Germany - but we're not quite sure where in Germany just yet. I booked the Brussels hostel earlier in the week, so just Germany left!

Well, this last week was so rainy and a little depressing outside. Yesterday was nicer and today is really nice outside. Yesterday I went on a long run and discovered this huge, awesome park. I've seen it on maps, but have never been and didn't really realize it was close enough that I could run to it. It's a very large park with some beautiful views of Prague at certain spots. When we ride a certain tram in Prague, we go right by it, but we can't see the whole park from the tram, so I really had no idea what was back there. I plan on going back with the nice weather - hopefully it will stay nice for the whole week (but that's kind of doubtful).

On Wednesday we have a big party with ISC (the international student club). It's on a boat and it has a pirate theme. It's kind of a big, going away party for all the international students before we all start leaving to go home. It's pretty sad that the end is creeping up on us - it seems like I'm starting to get into the swing of things and feeling comfortable here and then it's going to end. Also, the weather is nicer now so there's more we want to fit in now that it's nice, but that's going to be difficult. Well, I'm not ready to say goodbye to this place, but I am starting to miss home, so I will be ready by the time it comes to get home and relax for the rest of the summer.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

I miss you and thanks for being a great mom even though I'm thousands of miles away!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the other moms, as well!