All booked!

The theoretical plans have transitioned into a reality. Tomorrow we leave Prague 8-deep, over the Autobahn to Interlaken, Switzerland. We come back Sunday night and three days later I'll be tearing up Chamonix with Drew.

Six days in the Alps in the next 11 days. Brace yourself for some exciting upcoming posts, pictures and stories. Don't worry, I'm not missing too many classes. I promise.

1 quick difference

You'd think that finger-counting would be a universal procedure, right? Apparently not. In the US, if you want to motion "one," you put up your index finger. "Two" equals index and middle fingers.

Not here. "One" is your thumb, "two" is thumb and index, and so on.

Kind of stupid, but I find it funny.

BIG (tentative) plans

More has happened since my last post than the end of last week's NBA trade deadline. Hours after I hit Enter here, Bus2Alps canceled our trip to Interlaken because only four people (me, Chris and Max included) had signed up. Very annoying, especially for Chris and I, because Annie went out of her way -- and then some -- to get there from France in order to ski with us. Bus2Alps does have another trip going there next weekend, but that doesn't help us out. So...

We're taking the bull by the horns.

The plan: Seven of us (me, Henry, Chris, Dana, Dembling, Cohen and our friend Austen from Alabama) rent two cars and drive there ourselves Thursday. Henry and I went to Hertz today to figure it all out. No more messing around; it will happen.

But that's only the half of it. Drew has been dying to ski the Alps since he set foot in Europe also, so the two of us are planning a trip to Chamonix, France for the following weekend. Swiss Alps followed by the French Alps. Not a bad couple of weekends. Of course, nothing is set in stone yet, but I've been frantically on the computer for the past few days, so you better bet I'll be hitting the Alps at least once in the next 10 days. Worse comes to worst, I'll just go to Interlaken through Bus2Alps next weekend. But I'm confident we'll get those cars tomorrow. Of course, I'll keep you posted...

Today was a good day. Sandwiched between a couple of classes and flight/car/hotel searching, Henry, Tyler, Austen, Chris Lau and I played in a pickup soccer (futbol) game against a bunch of Czechs for two hours -- more exercise than we've had probably since high school. We had one Czech, James, on our 6v6 team and beat six natives by a goal or two; I don't think they were too happy about it, either, especially since Austen and Tyler had kicked a ball a combined 12 times prior to the match. Granted, they had a 60-year-old goalie whom we took full advantage of. But hey, they play on a regular basis and barely cracked a smile the entire time. What were we supposed to do?

Team Templova: 1-0

I can smell the Alps

It was another fun weekend in Prague. Not any real traveling, but I think we turned a corner in terms of our bearings on the city, trying to make it our home instead of acting like weekend tourists. Max and I are determined to do that by going into the nooks and crannies that make Prague so cool. I think the others will come along.

Last night I found a bar that plays American sports. Doug, Max, Tyler and I went there to try and watch the Badger game. I got us lost for about a half hour, then they couldn't get the game on when we got there. I failed miserably. So we watched Rajon Rondo tear up the Suns for a quarter before coming home to watch the Badgers blow it in East Lansing (sounds footbally familiar) on our computers. Uhh, at least we found a place that sells really cheap shoes.

(Aside: Wednesday a pigeon shit on Tyler's head in Old Town Square.)

The real fun starts in three days. Thursday a bunch of us are going to Interlaken, Switzerland for a weekend in the Swiss Alps. Everyone that's been there says it's unbelievable. I'll ski for at least two, if not three days; I'll really have to be pushed to go skydiving, but I won't rule it out just yet. Obviously I'm pumped. That will surely be the best blog yet; I should have some real good stories from across the border.

Staying put

Unfortunately I won't be leaving the Czech Republic this weekend; we decided to stay here and hang out with Julie, Emily and Erica while they're on their visit from Barcelona. Brady and I were contemplating taking a 5am train to Budapest this morning, but we decided against it. No one else wanted to travel.

I'm a little disappointed, but we decided to take more advantage of the CR this weekend. Doug and I want to go to Plzen tomorrow and tour the beer factory. We'll see if that actually happens.

Again, somewhat disappointing, but we do have some good trips already planned; Swiss Alps next weekend, Barcelona, Italy, Amsterdam. I think I'm just getting a little antsy. Sometimes I forget we're going to be here for another three-plus months.

I have an interview with NESN via Skype in two hours, talking about my summer internship. Hopefully the Internet won't fail me...

HC Sparta for life!

Well maybe not, but after witnessing a 3-2 third-period Sparta victory, I’ll consider myself a temporary fan, as the team heads into the postseason. The level of play wasn’t great – Wisconsin would definitely handle both club teams on the ice – but it was still good hockey, nonetheless…

The true fans were certainly into it. The real diehards stand behind the net and four of them beat drums and lead cheers, creating real home ice advantage. Teslo Arena fits about 4,000 (my estimation), about 2/3 of which was filled last night. Not exactly an NHL game, but unlike at American professional games, all the fans – including the 70-plus-year-old woman behind me, who was wearing a Sparta jersey – were passionate about their team, cheering with the goons to my right…

They have cheerleaders behind the opposite goal on a stage, dressed like NFL cheerleaders. Pretty ridiculous.

A couple of times per period, 90% of the lights go off in the building, four teenaged girls dressed like the cheerleaders skate out to both nets and sweep around the creases. More ridiculous.

Apparently they don’t value objective reporting, as the cameramen were all wearing Sparta jerseys and hats.

The referees – all four of them – had their names on their zebra jerseys.

Every time Sparta scored, after the cheering subsided, everyone held up their team scarves over their heads, as if to praise their players for finding the back of the net.

Ticket: 120 crowns

Beer: 30 crowns

Hot dog: 20 crowns

Being at my first HC Sparta game…I don’t know about priceless, but I am glad I went.

My West Coast media debut?

Well, I was on that LA talk radio guy’s show before the Penn State game, but I’m talking about TV this time. Max’s dad is Sam The Cooking Guy. He has a cooking TV show that airs locally in San Diego and nationally. All six of us were in the introduction via Skype for a future show (further details to be determined later).

It snowed today. I’m ready for some warm weather. Still haven’t booked a trip for the weekend. Got to get on that…

2 more quick differences:

1. There are tons of McDonalds in Prague, but instead of having trash cans, you just put your tray on a rack. I found that out after wandering around, looking for a place to toss my strawberry McFlurry.

2. You can't find cases, even 6-packs of beer. You just by beer in the grocery store, or even the liquor store, by the individual bottles. And you have your options, too; there's certainly no beer shortage in Czech land.

Shh, don't scare it away

CEA was in our apartment this morning and the Internet is back. So of course, all six of us are sitting here frantically surfing the long, lost web, praying that we don’t lose our beloved connection. It sounds pathetic – and maybe it is – but you don’t really realized how dependent you are on the Internet until it’s stripped away from you. Browsing, travel plans, staying in touch; it’s become almost a necessity.

We stayed in Prague this weekend, going to local clubs and bars, trying to completely familiarize ourselves with the city. I do know my way around much better. Anna and Margaret came to visit Doug, Henry and Brady, so we hung out with them a bunch. Sarah, Dana and Chris went to Budapest. I’m a little jealous, so I think we’re going to go somewhere this weekend, one week before the ski trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. We’ll probably go to either Vienna or Germany, who knows? At least we can book stuff from our own rooms now.

OK, got to go do some homework and perhaps some laundry. I think I’m running out of boxers. Ciao (they say that here; stole it from the Italians).

I spoke too soon

Yeah, about that Internet; it's nonexistent at this point in all of Templova. Once again I find myself in Top Secret Cafe stealing its free Internet this afternoon.

The fourth floor saga didn't last long; we moved into 4B last night to avoid further mayhem. 4B is different than 4A; I can't decide if I like it better or worse. It's only two bedrooms, so Max, Tyler and I now share a room. Not a big deal. There's still a kitchen, 2 1/2 bathrooms, and now we have a living room area that we didn't have before, with a big TV that has CNN, which is nice. There isn't quite as much space as in 4A, but I'm not going to complain. We'll be fine.

Not much else to report on. No Internet, but no more run-ins with the Czech law. Going to try and book a trip to Munich for next weekend...

The Internet reached 4A!

Finally I can be connected to the world once more.

We’ve been in a feud with the kids across the hall for the past few days. See, we have the biggest apartment on Templova, but last week, for some reason, the six guys across the hall got an extra roommate, making them seven. Now they’ve been complaining to us and CEA that their living situation is “unlivable” and we should either switch apartments or take the extra roommate. CEA told us we had to make a decision soon. Before today, it was an easy decision because our Internet sucked. Now, I don’t know. We’ll see how this saga shapes up this weekend.

I have one more class before my first week is over. I like my classes; it’s refreshing to have class sizes of 15 instead of what seem like 1,500. The classes are comprised of mostly American students, but some international student, too, which is pretty cool. I’m interested to see what their perspective is on the United States.

Two nights ago we went to a bar called The Beer Factory. Each table has a keg below it and four spouts from which you pour your own beer. There’s a counter at the top that computes the amount of beer and the cost, then you pay on your way out – don’t try to skip out on the tab; it doesn’t work. It was all good until Henry fell of a statue he climbed from about 10 feet, then got ridiculed by the Czech police. After about a 10-minute dispute, he and Tyler avoided a 1,000 crown ($50) fine (bribe) and we got the hell out of there. Last night Max got pepper sprayed by an angry Czech taxi driver for hitting his cab as it drove by. I thought they said Prague was supposed to be safe. They also said not to be idiots in a foreign country. I guess being the latter doesn’t guarantee the former.

4 quick US-Czech differences

1. There are no leash laws here. Dogs roam about the streets, often meters (not yards) away from their masters, but they're always well-behaved. Another marvel of the European culture.

2. Light switches are really wide, probably four times as wide as the switches in the States.

3. Tipping waiters isn't customary. I always feel badly for them, but apparently they get paid normal wages that aren't based on tips.

4. Soda bottles come in weird shapes. Coke bottles are long and shaped sort of like an hour glass. I wonder what the marketing scheme behind that is?

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head. My first day of classes was fine; not much to report on. Should be an interesting semester, not too challenging.

(In case you haven't figured it out yet, these pictures posted are ones from my camera.

I saw the sun!

Ace of Base style; I almost didn’t recognize what it was. Tuesday I left Boston in a snowstorm and it’s been either cloudy or dark here ever since. In honor of the sun’s rare appearance, we went on a picture-taking adventure around Prague 1 (Prague is sectioned into different numbers; we live in Prague 1) this afternoon. We toured a giant cathedral and castle at the top of the hill overlooking the city. One of the cooler views I’ve ever seen, which reminds me…

While trying to fall asleep last night for about three hours (finally at a reasonable hour, which I’m sure is why it took so long) I realized that I haven’t really given much information about Prague at all. Aside from walking or driving, there are three main ways to navigate Prague: the metro (subway), tram (like the T in Boston) or bus; taxis become too expensive, especially for touring, ignorant, un-Czech-speaking Americans, so I’ve been told.

Our apartment is a couple blocks from Old Town Square, the most touristy area in Prague. The building in the picture at the top of this blog is a stone’s throw or two away from Templova, our street. The only downfall about living in an area with so many shops, bars, photographers and foreigners is that it is more expensive than other residential areas in the city. But I still think that the pros of living here outweigh the cons.

Our school is about a 20-minute walk from home, just over the Charles Bridge, the most famous bridge in Prague. It’s an easy walk, through marionette shops and cobblestone streets over the river. At night and when it’s sunny, it’s quite nice-looking. When it’s gloomy, well nothing is quote as uplifting without the sun or any other form of light.

Most people at shops, bars, pubs and restaurants speak enough English to understand us. We haven’t run into any complete language barriers yet; many Czechs speak very good English, including these two girls Tyler and I met the other night, who made fun of us for being “foreign exchange students.” I guess we never thought about it like that.

The music here is either techno or American pop, like Akon and Britney Spears. At first, I thought they only played that when we went places, but then I realized it was everywhere.

Still no Internet in 4A, meaning no pictures here. Henry, Brady and I went to the KFC a few blocks away because it said it had WiFi. Again we were denied. We’ve decided we’ve got the Czech Internet Curse.

Don't blame me, blame the Czech Internet

OK so I finally took some pictures yesterday to post on here, but our Internet doesn't work in our apartment, so we're forced to use the kids' connection downstairs, or the Internet Cafe, as we now call it. But seven of us are currently using the Cafe, so uploading the pictures will take too long. But I promise I'll post some as soon as we regain connection in Templova 7, Temple 4A, Praha 1. Not that they're any good anyway. I've never had a digital camera before, so needless to say, I probably don't have much of a future in photography. Plus, the smog here -- Prague Smog (PS), they (or just me) call it -- doesn't exactly conducive for exciting photography.

So yeah, I have yet to see the sun in my four full days here, partly because of the PS, but partly because of our late sleeping habits that call for 4:30 breakfast. Seeing as it was my birthday Friday and Henry's birthday Saturday, we've become great at Czech nightlife, but have officially become nocturnal. Yeah, that needs to change, starting tonight. We're not going out tonight, celebrating our first school night in about two full months; except I actually don't start school until Tuesday, but still it's time to become the American tourists that we were destined to be during the hours of 12-6, p.m., not just a.m.

So instead of going out hard tonight, we had dinner with some girls we met that live a few metro (Prague's subway) stops away from us. A nice little pasta dinner for 13. Chef Dougie and Co. did well...

So pray for Internet in 4A and you can see some of my pictures and more consistent blogology. Until then...

Enjoying my first-ever beer

That's right, it's my 21st birthday, so I can finally try alcohol for the first time. This beer thing is good, but not all it's cracked up to be...

Actually, the Bohemian beer is really good. Puts Bud Light to shame, although Budweiser actually comes from the Czech Republic, as do NHL stars Jaromir Jagr and Nikolai Khabibulin.

Not much else to report from here. It was a mild 43 degrees today, but we didn't get to enjoy it because we stayed out too late last night (we were going home on the tram when people were going to work) and therefore slept to late today. That, plus some jet lag and the six-hour time difference has made for an interesting adjustment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining by any means, I'm just saying.

Still trying to figure out this city. We did notice that it's very clean. I think all European cities are like that. We Americans are pigs, I guess.

Thanks for the birthday wishes via facebook and in the case of my mom and sister, via Skype. Sorry about the lack of pictures, I need to start bringing my camera out of my room. Still need to get used to that...

Oh, found out yesterday at school orientation that I don't have classes Mondays or Fridays, so that will really help my traveling opportunities. Tyler and I are about to book flights to Dublin for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day. That shouldn't be too fun or anything...

Until next time, ahoj! (hello/goodbye in Czech)

Finding my new home

I can’t fly to Madison in June without having delays, so I’m not sure why I thought things would be any different flying through London 24 hours after it got the biggest snowstorm it’s seen in 18 years, but I did. Little did I know I would have gotten to the UK faster doing the elementary back stroke across the Atlantic. Michael Phelps certainly could have – pre-bong rip, that is.

Tuesday it was snowing in Boston and London and my departure was delayed until 9:30. If only it ended there. Henry, my roommate, and I boarded the plane at 10:00, we sat on the runway until 1, then switched planes because our original one had some sort of technical difficulty. We took off at 1:55 a.m. The good news? I got to watch “A Righteous Kill” – a movie that’s been sitting at the bottom of my Netflix queue for weeks – in its entirety pre-takeoff.

We landed at Heathrow Airport at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, went through security – which is even more strict than in the states, by the way – and met Chris and Sarah at the gate before finally making it to Prague – which I now realize was well worth the wait.

I still haven’t unpacked all my stuff because this is really the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down. We immediately went out to dinner last night with Tyler, Dougie, Brady and Max. We went to some authentic place near our apartment, drank Pilsner beer and ordered Czech food from English menus (we switched them for the ones we couldn’t read). I had roasted duck and dumplings for about $13. Affordable and really good.

Our apartment is the nicest of anyone’s in the program, according to them. We have three bathrooms, three bedrooms and a kitchen for the six of us. I room with Max, who’s from San Diego and goes to Arizona. Doug rooms with Tyler and Henry with Brady. No complaints so far, except that our Internet is spotty, so I wonder when I’ll be able to post this…

Last night we went to this club called Mecca. Apparently it’s the place to go on Wednesday nights. We took cabs because the metro closes at midnight and we didn’t leave until just after 12. The top floor of Mecca is mostly Czechs with blasting techno music and dancing girls on mini stages in mini-er skirts. Downstairs was Little USA, as they played “YMCA,” “Respect,” and “Mambo No. 5.” I ran into Josh Dembling and Eric Cohen there. Haven’t seen that kid since we were 15. Dembling is the same clown he was when we were 10. Beers are about a dollar at the club – as is the case with most pubs and restaurants around town. Tough deal for a bunch of college kids…

Today we had orientation for school. It’s small, but it should be good. I don’t have class Mondays or Fridays, so traveling will be super easy...

Prague is beautiful and awesome. The architecture and buildings are amazing and the views from the Charles Bridge are incredible. The streets are all cobblestone and most things seem within walking distance, including school, which we walked to today. The people from CEA are really nice. It should be an unbelievable semester. Staying in Madison, covering Bo Ryan and the struggling Badgers (which is what I wanted to do seven months ago) just wouldn’t compare. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was a great decision to come here. (Thanks, Mom).

P.S. I’ll try and put some pictures up for the next post, but I haven’t unpacked my camera yet.

26 hours 'til departure

Tomorrow at 6 p.m. I board a plane headed for London, my stopping point for Prague, my new home for the next four months. I’ve been home in Framingham for over six weeks now and finally it’s time for me to go. Wow.

I figured I’d write a blog so I won’t forget all of my times overseas, many of which I’m sure I would, should I not write it down. If you want to follow along – which I’m sure my family, at least, religiously will – be my guest. It should be a wild ride.

I’ve never been to Europe and I don’t really know what to expect. I know no Czech; I plan on learning some essentials on the plane and the rest in my Czech class at the Anglo-American University in Prague. I’m looking forward to learning not only a new language, but an entirely new culture. I’m curious to see how Americans are viewed in Europe, especially now that Obama has taken over the Oval Office.

Am I nervous? Nah, I’m with too many Wisconsinites to be nervous. If I screw something up, most likely I won’t be alone. Excited, however? An understatement.

Tomorrow my life – for better or worse (hopefully the former) – is going to change. Wednesday morning I will no longer be able to read the signs that surround me. It’s something I still can’t really fathom.

Until then, see you in Prague, and the subsequent travels to come!