My only goal of today was to be productive.
1) I woke up at 8am (naturally... looks like I was off to a good start). I woke up and made myself some eggs, bread with strawberry jam, strawberry yogurt, and a banana (see grandma. I am eating well).
2) While eating breakfast, I watched last night's episode of the Daily Show. Frustration of the day: Fox News spent a lot of time and frustration on the supposed 7.5 million dollars it took to clean up after protesters inside the Madison, WI capital... On Monday, they (very briefly) stated that they were wrong and that the actual cost will be closer to $325,000... Now that's a major fuck-up (and I don't usually swear).
3) I went for a 2.5 mile run with J-No (Jenna). It felt good, although Prague isn't a very run-friendly city.
4) I studied for today's Czech test for about an hour.
5) A bunch of us had lunch with two of the heads of the program for our monthly "Culture Discussions." The topic of this discussion was "Czech Holidays, Dining, and Differences." They allowed us each to spend 200 Crown (about 10 bucks) on lunch. And what does 10 bucks get you for lunch in the Czech Republic? A big Chicken-Curry Pizza, an appetizer of broccoli covered in 4 different types of cheese, and a very tall beer.
6)Czech Class/Test... It didn't go as well as I hoped, but I'm satisfied with my learning of the language.
7) Came back to my apartment. Made dinner (a salad with red cabbage, red peppers, other healthy veggies). Watched the extended interview with Jon Stewart and Republican Senator Rand Paul. Then I wrote an article about my disappoint with Augsburg Student Government, which I will e-mail to the Augsburg Newspaper tonight (and then get paid 20 bucks for writing it.... awesome).
8) I have class in 20 minutes: Visual Theory I. This class is awesome. Although my professor, Beth Lazroe, one of the most intimidating (at least, initially intimidating) women I have met, but she is an amazing professor.
9) Off to the pub. Andy, Jenna, and I have to discuss our movie. Scripts are due next Friday, so we have a lot of work to do.
10) Skype with my favorite Abbey Ehling tonight at 9:30.
11) Read, and then bedtime.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
More Berlin Pics
Yo folks. Michal and I are making Goulash for dinner (a soup with sausage, onion, potato, garlic, special goulash spices...), and while it simmers, I decided to post some more Berlin photos:
Berlin is famous for its Curry-Wurst. It combines really good German sausage with my absolute favorite spice (curry) into one of the best street foods I have EVER had. The curry-wurst comes with curry/spice/salsa sauce stuff on top of it, then they put fries on top of that, and then they put ketchup or mayo on top of that. And then you mix it all together and eat it with a baby fork. It was amazing.
I was feeling brave on this night and ordered an extremely authentic German meal: a "pork knuckle." The pork knuckle is one of the pigs joints in its legs. They served it with sauerkraut, cheesey potatoes, and some other kind of unidentifiable green mixture that had the texture of refried beans... Anyway, you pull back the very thick layers of fat from the top of the meat (some people eat the fat and the skin, but I tried and couldn't handle it). Underneath this layer is some of the best pork meat that you will ever eat. It was great.
Reichstag is the building where the German Parliament resides (like our capital building in Washington D.C.). It is a very cool combination of the old (the traditional architecture of the old building) and the new (the glass dome built on top of it). Usually, you can go up to the top part of the dome and see a 360 degree view of Berlin, but the building was closed at this time to the public.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was an amazing part of the trip. These stone structures were built to remind people of the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust so that they may never happen again. It is estimated that more than 6 MILLION jews were killed during the Holocaust.
We spent hours inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (the museum portion is underneath the stone monuments). One of the most haunting things I have ever seen were the many letters that were posted under glass plates in the floor of the museum. This letter is from a boy the about the age of my little brother (I think he was somewhere between 8 and 12 years old when he wrote this letter home to his father while he was stuck in a concentration camp... He died days later). It says, "Dear Father! I am saying goodbye to you before I die. We would so love to live, but they won't let us and we will die. I am so scared of this death, because the small children are thrown alive into the pit. Goodbye forever. I kiss you tenderly."
This is a portion that is left from the Berlin Wall. I also went to the East Gallery, which is one of the longest stretches of the Berlin Wall remaining, and it remains so that graffiti artists may paint on it.
Museum Island
Hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window:
While in Berlin, I discovered perhaps one of the most simple, pure, amazing pleasures in life... Drinking in public. In Berlin, every single metro stop has a shop where you can buy food (Chinese stands, sausage stands, and many other things), magazines (including Playboy, which was weird), and also beer. Lots of beer. The night life in Berlin doesn't start until midnight, so the metro systems operate 24 hours a day during the weekend and EVERYBODY is walking around with a beer in their hand... Even on metro. It was one of the craziest feelings in the world to see people drinking and singing songs on public transit.
And here is the hostel room that we stayed at. It was very nice and we met a few cool people. The main room had beds for 30 people to stay in, but all of us FAMU kids got put together into the 20 person room.
Berlin is famous for its Curry-Wurst. It combines really good German sausage with my absolute favorite spice (curry) into one of the best street foods I have EVER had. The curry-wurst comes with curry/spice/salsa sauce stuff on top of it, then they put fries on top of that, and then they put ketchup or mayo on top of that. And then you mix it all together and eat it with a baby fork. It was amazing.
I was feeling brave on this night and ordered an extremely authentic German meal: a "pork knuckle." The pork knuckle is one of the pigs joints in its legs. They served it with sauerkraut, cheesey potatoes, and some other kind of unidentifiable green mixture that had the texture of refried beans... Anyway, you pull back the very thick layers of fat from the top of the meat (some people eat the fat and the skin, but I tried and couldn't handle it). Underneath this layer is some of the best pork meat that you will ever eat. It was great.
Reichstag is the building where the German Parliament resides (like our capital building in Washington D.C.). It is a very cool combination of the old (the traditional architecture of the old building) and the new (the glass dome built on top of it). Usually, you can go up to the top part of the dome and see a 360 degree view of Berlin, but the building was closed at this time to the public.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was an amazing part of the trip. These stone structures were built to remind people of the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust so that they may never happen again. It is estimated that more than 6 MILLION jews were killed during the Holocaust.
We spent hours inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (the museum portion is underneath the stone monuments). One of the most haunting things I have ever seen were the many letters that were posted under glass plates in the floor of the museum. This letter is from a boy the about the age of my little brother (I think he was somewhere between 8 and 12 years old when he wrote this letter home to his father while he was stuck in a concentration camp... He died days later). It says, "Dear Father! I am saying goodbye to you before I die. We would so love to live, but they won't let us and we will die. I am so scared of this death, because the small children are thrown alive into the pit. Goodbye forever. I kiss you tenderly."
This is a portion that is left from the Berlin Wall. I also went to the East Gallery, which is one of the longest stretches of the Berlin Wall remaining, and it remains so that graffiti artists may paint on it.
Museum Island
Hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window:
While in Berlin, I discovered perhaps one of the most simple, pure, amazing pleasures in life... Drinking in public. In Berlin, every single metro stop has a shop where you can buy food (Chinese stands, sausage stands, and many other things), magazines (including Playboy, which was weird), and also beer. Lots of beer. The night life in Berlin doesn't start until midnight, so the metro systems operate 24 hours a day during the weekend and EVERYBODY is walking around with a beer in their hand... Even on metro. It was one of the craziest feelings in the world to see people drinking and singing songs on public transit.
And here is the hostel room that we stayed at. It was very nice and we met a few cool people. The main room had beds for 30 people to stay in, but all of us FAMU kids got put together into the 20 person room.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Berlin Film Fest
So two weeks ago, a bunch of us took a 4-hour train ride to Berlin, Germany.
It was great. Our hostel was amazing and we got to spend a few days exploring Germany's capital. Pictures are below.
It cost about 80 dollars to take a round-trip train to/from Berlin. The train trip lasted about 4 hours and was really nice. I have a very hard time falling asleep on trains/buses/planes, but my roommate John and I found an empty cabin and laid across all of the seats on the way there.
Picture of The Brandenburg Gate, one of Berlin's most famous landmarks. It used to be the main entrance into Berlin.
This is from inside the movie theater (I have never been in a theater so big). We saw "Coriolanus" a modern Shakespeare adaptation and the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes. It was a good (not great) film.
This is us posing on the red carpet.
The theater:
Buying tickets:
It was great. Our hostel was amazing and we got to spend a few days exploring Germany's capital. Pictures are below.
It cost about 80 dollars to take a round-trip train to/from Berlin. The train trip lasted about 4 hours and was really nice. I have a very hard time falling asleep on trains/buses/planes, but my roommate John and I found an empty cabin and laid across all of the seats on the way there.
Picture of The Brandenburg Gate, one of Berlin's most famous landmarks. It used to be the main entrance into Berlin.
This is from inside the movie theater (I have never been in a theater so big). We saw "Coriolanus" a modern Shakespeare adaptation and the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes. It was a good (not great) film.
This is us posing on the red carpet.
The theater:
Buying tickets:
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