Sorry its been so long since I last posted, and apologies in advance for the length of the post, but it was a very busy week/ weekend.  Wednesday, we met some  people who are backpacking through europe at the hotel across the street.  Thank jewish geography for making sure they were not sketchy, and we hung out with them for the night. They took us to a pretty local czech spot.  What I learned... foreigners LOVE photo bombing american pictures.  They kept coming up to my friend and I and asking for pics together but with OUR cameras(weird). It was exciting and different to go to a non-typical abroad spot, but also a very different and even smokier atmosphere. They will be in berlin when we are there and know locals, which is apparently necessary if you want to experience night life in Berlin, so thats a plus. Also met people from australia who thought my accent made me sound like I was from alabama(the only southern state I knew...) very off. So I told them they sounded like they were from london. Note: australians dont like to be compared to british people.   

On Thursday night, a ton of people came to visit from Barcelona and Florence.  Thursday my roomates and I just hung out in our apt, caught up on work, prepped for our visitors, and did some homework.  We went to dinner at our fave spot globe (bucket-list item, try everything on the menu, I had falafel).  Emily and Jeff met us there!!! But Emily was a little hadicapped for the weekend so they didnt come out with us.  After we pre-gamed at our apt and went to radost FX, my fave club.  One of my best friends from school was visiting as well and his cab got there right before ours, was so excited that it was that easy to meet up... then I walked into the bar, and it felt like skeeps. Literally Michigan kids Left and Right. It was def a fun night filled with lots of Michigan friends. Having visitors is really fun and everyones friends are rooming with someone who knows someone somewhere else. 6 degrees of separation shrinks to about 2 abroad so it was fun to meet people especially since we are all still new in Prague.    

(Thanks Jeff/Em/Mizz)

mich reunion at radost Fx!

Friday:  Emily experienced czech healthcare, and then we met up and went to old town square for lunch.  We walked around a little bit, and tried to go to the Communist museum but when we saw it was in the Casino we decided against it.  So instead, we walked along the charles bridge and went to the Lennon wall. 

Em and I at the door our size at the clock tower

lennon wall

Em, jeff, and I before going out

Afterwards we headed to nap and rest before getting dinner in the jewish quarter.  It was not very good.  Then emily and Jeff came back to my apt to get ready to go out to Lucerna for 80's night.  I found a secret backdoor in which was very helpful because the line is always long. It was fun to see everyone.  After we went to James Dean, a cool diner and club in old town square.  Its about a 5 min walk from our house and Rachel and I were pretty proud to make it back on our own without using maps!!

Saturday: My favorite place rasost FX is also pretty famous for their brunch, so Emily, Jeff, my friend lesley from Michigan, and I went to try the brunch.  We got there about 30 minutes later than the rest of our roommates who confirmed how good it was. After I went to show Jeff and Emily the castle. While I dont have any pictures on my camera of this, here is a pic of my roomie Sam and I at the castle, its such a pretty view you can see the WHOLE city. We tried to take alot of panorama pics, but mine didnt turn out so well... really happy i found out the iphone 4 has that capability though

After, I took a nap and then met back up with Jeff and Emily.  We were going to try this restaurant I heard about and I looked up how to take the tram there, which I was really proud of. However the restaurant was closed so I took them to lemon leaf, the no-thai of prague where we saw half of our CEA program and 1/3 of Michigan.  We then went to the 5 story club which is famous in prague.  It is definitely an experience, with a different theme on every floor.  The disco music and R&B were where we spent the most time. 

Sunday: At 8 am we had a free field trip with CEA.  Rachel, Emma, Lauren and I were assigned to go to it that day. We took the tram the wrong direction to the meeting point, but figured out the metro and made it in time luckily!!! (hard enough as it is to figure these out, even harder on two hours of sleep).  We started off at the Pilsner Factory, very informative on how they make beer. Downsides: some of the rooms smelled really funky and the temperature fluctuated depending on the room.  Also i think i would prefer to not know how beer is made.  They gave us a glass straight from the barrel which was kind of cool... but it was also 11 AM so it was not exactly what I was craving.  We then went to see a famous church and the second biggest synagogue in europe (budapest has the biggest).  They were pretty ... and cool to see.. in every sense of the word.  These old stone buildings trapped in the cold.  I couldn't feel my feet for two hours after and Lauren and I stood under the hand warmers dryer things in the bathroom for about 15 minutes.  I've honestly never been so cold I dont know how people sit through services there... though the synagogue does have heat in a smaller room they dont turn it on that often, and especially not for us.  It was cool to see another part of the czech republic though.  There was also a statue thanking americans which i found interesting because in prague the people do not seem to love Americans.   After coming home in the freezing cold I put on all my socks and Marissa and I went to Globe, our neighborhood place (ya second time in a weekend, I know). Tried the spinach burger, it was delicious. Also, DAD I TALKED THE SHOP OWNER. Since we are becoming regulars THERE A LOCAL "friend". He was giving us our 10% cea discount and was talking about how its crazy that so many people study abroad here now. He showed us all the programs they know of and said it used to be just people at charles university, coming for med school because it is so cheap. Scary because my friend from london who went to the Dr here returned home and they told her the czech doctors are "bananas".  Overall outcome of the convo, unemployment is 9% which he thinks is great, (and that praha is better than spain which is 20%).  The main industries are auto and beer... not together though obviously he made a very big point that drinking and driving is not encouraged in prague.  (the absinthe bar also warns against drinking and trying to navigate the trams.. very responsible... prague)

barrels of beer

Factory where they prepare the bottles, apparently some are reused.. kind of questionable so I would maybe stick to canned pilsner

second biggest synagogue in Europa.. deff smaller than har shalom though 

beautiful inside. 

Monday: Slept. Changed my classes. Class was cancelled. Good day.  Went to tesco which i hate, but found peanut butter, honey nut cheerios, and some yummy pesto, which I made for dinner. (update- not so yummy).  Also all the vegetables and fruit are always moldy... kinda gross .. by kind of I mean really. Grocery shopping still weirds me out because I have no clue what I am getting.  Doing Hw and internship apps right now... EW. Tomorrow CEA takes us to a hockey game, but I have class during it. So mad. Tonight I am staying in to try and sleep, hopefully it works. Tomorrow my prague art and architecture class is cancelled because there is a longer field trip next week, but i still have czech in the AM and Photography at night. 

Ok I think this is all there is to report.  If you got to the end of this, congrats!!!