All Animals Are Equal.

Week three has begun. In some ways, how the hell is it already week three, but mostly, how is it ONLY week three?!! I feel like I've been here for months. Not in a bad way. I think it's something that happens when everything in your life feels fresh and exciting. No complaints.

I am terrible at making myself go to sleep or do homework before the last minute here, so I guess some things never change no matter where you are. Things that have changed - I'm shy? Not with the Americans on my program or my professors, but with my host family. It's incredibly frustrating and kind of makes me feel perpetually like a jerk. Having to think of things to say but also concentrate on simplifying them and ALSO having to concentrate on speaking slowly (as I talk too quickly for a lot of native English speakers) sort of blocks up my usual tendency for word vomit. At first I was afraid that I was a subconscious xenophobe. Like, maybe I was shy because I had an inherent distrust of anyone not American. Than I decided that that isn't really my deal since this family is made up of the nicest people ever. I just think living in someone's house is a really specific, new experience, and it freaks me out a little. I want to be a good guest but I inherently kind of suck because I'm forcing them to speak English all the time. Anyways, today I decided to be done with the guilt. I also have sort of unofficially taken over the dishes as my job (which comes pretty naturally because, full disclosure, that was really the only chore I've ever had to do anyways. Sorry, Mom. You've been outed. Now everyone knows the root of my lack of work ethic). My host mom was ridiculous grateful and I just wanted to be like STOP. You have two very small children but you still do my laundry (yes. seriously. I didn't realize it was happening. I am spoiled. Guiltguiltguilt. Sidenote, line-dried clothes? Smell great.) and make me a lunch (again, I tell her she doesn't have to but she does!) so please just let me clean up your kitchen after you cook dinner and while you put your kids to sleep. Seriously. And just like every night putting the dishes away goes more smoothly as I am more and more comfortable knowing where things go, I think I will feel more comfortable knowing where I fit in this house with time. Truthfully, I've only been in their home about 9 days. I just like when things come easily to me and when they don't it makes me uneasy/want to run away. See: AP calculus (the class I dropped after two days).

Otherwise, things are still great. 14 people in a group is a strange number, and I've been trying to spend time with everyone because I would like for us not to settle into two set social groups, which I can sort of already see happening. Not in a bad way, just in a natural, human way.

I can't remember if I've already written this on here, but let me just reiterate: learning about WWII from a Czech perspective is SO FASCINATING. It just makes you realize how varied the whole concepts of "nationalism" and "patriotism" are; I think of those words in such an American context (I mean, duh, I'm American, but you know). The national discourse here has nothing to do with heroism or epic battles. That's just not written into their history like it is into ours. "The Good Soldier Svejk" (that has a funny canoe letter in it but I'm too lazy to copy and paste one at the moment) is one of their national figureheads and his whole deal was lying low and doing what it took to stay alive. That sort of character just does not have a place in a line-up of American icons, you know? Martyrdom is valued, but not violent triumphs. I don't know how much sense this is making, but I find it very interesting. There is also a lot less fudging of the facts in their textbooks. While I think Americans also have a lot more dirt to want to conceal in American History classes than Czechs do (in a much shorter timespan. Whoops. Our bad.) what dirt they have they seem to own up to. While there is some posturing and scapegoating ("yes, we did run out the jews that were left after World War II, but it's because of Germans, I swear") they still admit that it took place. There is no Czech equivalent of our portrayal of teaching children that the first Thanksgiving involved hugging Indians and sharing our cranberry sauce, as far as I'm aware.

Another interesting cultural thing: RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA ARE ALIVE AND WELL. In some ways, I occasionally find the lack of political correctness refreshing. I get really fed up with it, especially going to a private liberal arts college. But this also makes me have a new found appreciation for it, since I do think I'd rather live somewhere where it is not socially acceptable to make sweeping negative statements about black people, Russians, Romas, etc. I also think - to devil's advocate myself - there is something to be said for people being aware of their biases as opposed to crushing them beneath the social demand for not offending anyone. Though, is it really better to be aware of your biases if you think your biases are factual? I guess there's probably a middle ground somewhere. I bet it's in Canada. I heard it's great there.

Lastly, I discovered today that not only is there a Czech Art Therapy association (that part I knew)but that one village over from me is an art therapy studio in a school for disabled children. I'm DEFINITELY going to email them and see if I can do my independent study there. I think comparing my slightly minimal knowledge of American AT to the Czech version would be amazing, and since what I'd actually like to do is work with autistic children it would be good for my soul/my brain/my resume. And I figure it will all be easy after trying it with kids who don't speak the same language as me? Anyways, I figure places like that probably like volunteers, right? We'll see.

Other things: my host parents gave me apple wine. It was homemade. From their apple tree. In the garden. what.

"my art photography is pretty existential, but it's fairly pomo so it might be over your head"

[note: I started this the day I took the photos (thursday) but doing it sounded horribly unappealing until today (sunday) because the mountain of homework I have to do is now imminent. So it is slightly outdated in that it is now pouring. Do not be deceived by the sunshine.]

I was going to do some kind of "day in my life" situation, but, as you will see, it dies after 2 PM. Because we saw the most depressing movie ever about the Holocaust and betrayal and control and all sorts of fun themes and taking photos got less fun. HOWEVER, a (possibly uninteresting) photo essay of my day today (until 2):

Not very interesting; the view of my neighborhood from right in front of my house.

A house I am obsessed with because it clearly belongs to a fairy.

my neighbhorhood!

Creepy cavern underneath the train to get to my station!

The S1 Train!

One-stop train station shopping for kitten postcards and cartons of cigarettes!

TRAMS!

Not the best photo, but my tram shows me this view of the city EVERY DAY.

The street škola is on!

Joe & Aidan kicking it in our school's kitchen.

One of the classrooms.

Julia hurrying down the spiral staircase for Český class.

SIT library! All the Kafka and Kundera and Holocaust lit and Commie lit and brand new books about gender because gender studies didn't exist before like 15 years ago here YOU COULD WANT!

Our chill upstairs space, where we do things like eat lunches packed for us by our Czech mamas and abandon art projects on that table.

The view from our little roof terrace! Mmmmmmm.

Grace & team pretending to work on our photo project from the 2nd day in Prague...whoops. 

Lee & Aidan being artsy. Metaphoto. Ooooooh.

A ridiculously back-lit picture of some of the cohort watching Lee's slam poetry baddassary on youtube.

The crew rolls out to what we will soon learn is the most depressing Czech Holocaust film of our lives. Look at us...we were so innocent. (in case anyone likes names, from the left: Lee, Joe, Grace, Christie, Dani).

Waiting at Sparta (yes, that is the tram stop where we go to school. Insert many many jokes here.) for the tram.

Dani and Joe on tram.

The guy I always think is calling me a honky.

Metro. WOOO!

ok, so that might have been really boring. my bad. deal with it.

The Good Soldier Švejk.

This entry is going to be in bullet form.

• I am up late because I saw one of the most amazing theater pieces of my life tonight. It was called "Čekárna," and I will do my best to explain, which may be difficult (I could get out of bed and transpose the English part of the program but that sounds all kinds of difficult right now). Essentially, it was first conceived by some people in a railway station in Slovakia that trains full of jews on their ways to be interned went through. It was a very movement heavy piece, mostly in Slovakian nonsense that was supposed to replicate the emotions of being in that space now and knowing what it had been used for. It was incredibly violent dance with amazing music and some of the most committed performing I've ever seen. It really doesn't do it justice to talk about it, even to people who saw it, so I won't ramble. More than one audience member was brought to tears, though. Seriously incredible.
• It is really amazing being exposed to all of this culture on SITs dime (well, kind of. And kind of Redlands' dime. And a lot my dime. Well, my parents dime). I love art and theater and try to expose myself to a lot of it, but it's hard. It sort of feels like my brain is drinking some kind of ice cold water from a mountain creek after a long time of tepid flat seltzer, which is a nice way for one's brain to feel.
• I think I aced my first Czech test! Dobrou noc lekce jedna! Christ, Czech is essentially the most stressful form of gibberish known to man. Except for sometimes when it's not, and instead it's just the funniest. Occasionally on the tram I feel like I'm inside a Sims game, because the way those computerized people talk is soooort of a lot like Czech. Whoops, is that offensive? oh, another fun fact is that the Czech word for "juice" is "djuz" (so, essentially, "juice") and the Czech word for "ham and eggs" is "hemenex" (so, essentially, "ham and eggs" but on a spaceship). I think I have those ones down. As opposed to the ones like zmzrina (ice cream). Do you know how it's pronounced? Me either because it's mostly z's and r's. JOKES.
• My homestay family took me out to dinner and I accidentally ordered an entire duck. It was mostly the worst. Though it is always a nice bonding experience to laugh together, especially when laughing at the dumb American facing down food that still has arms on. 
• Lastly, I really like my homestay family, but staying in a homestay is just inherently really hard for me. It's hard for me to shake the feeling that EVERYTHING I'm doing is rude or unacceptable - even though these people are so chill and kind and warm, I'm just counter-productively neurotic. The kids are also RIDICULOUSLY cute. I have decided Czech should be mandatory for all children under five just because "Špatne" is a cute thing to listen to a toddler saying. HOWEVER, and many peoples' reactions to this will be "duh, Naomi," it is REALLY HARD COMMUNICATING WITH TODDLERS WHO DONT SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE AS YOU. I sort of thought my comfort with kids would translate and it just doesn't. I mean, we get along great, and Mojmir helped me during The Great Duck Fiaso of 2011, and Zora likes it when I help with her shoes, but it would be pretty nice if I could connect beyond that. Their parents want me to speak English with them, but I feel like a huge idiot. Though that is generally how I feel all the time right now. I have a feeling that will go away soon.

Okay, actually last: at a restaurant tonight, on the menu, under "Traditional Czech Cocktails," was featured Absinthe Redbull. And I think that's how you tell the tourist spots apart from the real thing. As much as I would like to think that my Czechoslovokian ancestors were the first to discover that bull testosterone gives you wings, or whatever those commercials used to say.

Dobrou Noc! 

P.S. Tonight, myself and two other girls on the program spent about half an hour sharing times we've had moments of 'WHAT THE FUCK HOW IS THIS MY LIFE' in the past 9 days. I am maybe the luckiest person on earth. Not to brag or anything.

[the view of the garden behind our apartment-turned-school from our little balcony. WHAT??! I just said that sentence. because my life is magical.]

Washchambers, Woostep, & Consonant Clusters.

I have come to realize that I have to stay up to date on this thing or it will die; it's only been about 6 days since the last time I updated and I am feeling a little intimidated. Updating feels daunting, but I will try my best to be succinct.

Let's start at the beginning. On Monday (which feels like months ago), we were split into groups and sent on a sort of scavenger hunt. Some of the groups were went to places like vineyards for wine tastings. My group was sent up a mountain. If you ever wanted to be the most conspicuous person ever, climb the hill (instead of taking the tram, whoops. didn't realize that was there) to the mini Eiffel tower in Prague when it's 85 degrees out with some other Americans. Not only will you be ungodly loud by nature (Czechs are SO QUIET IN PUBLIC. I am not) but you will also be sweaty, red, and complaining (loudly. did I mention Americans are loud?). A good bonding experience, but Lee, Natalie, Christie, and myself did not exactly endear ourselves to the locals. Another lesson learned during this outing: public transportation is not the place to make jokes, laugh loudly, or practice your very minimal Czech. Unless you enjoy elderly European women conspiring to murder you, in which case have fun!

[the mountain crew and I, the next day. Our mountain is in the background. We are still mad at it.]

My classes seem amazing. Somehow SIT is connected to all of the most amazing people in this city. My art teacher, besides being the most beautiful man I've ever been in the same room as, is pretty prominent (http://janpfeiffer.info). Our Czech teacher is the woman ambassadors, etc. hire to teach them Czech when they come here. We have about 50 million guest lecturers that I can't wait for. It's ridiculous.

[At school. From the left: me, Lenka (the homestay director), Hannah, Jenna, Zoe, and Lee].

Another highlight was that we got to attend an art show opening held in a psychiatric hospital. It was incredible, and we got to speak to the artist, who also happens to be a psychologist. We have an interview project later in the semester and I'm mostly planning to stalk her and make that happen.

Sidenote: to anyone who subtly (or not-so-subtly) warned me that studying abroad in Europe is a cop-out, or that it would be like staying in the US? WRONG. wrong. 1989 was awhile ago, but it is so interesting the impact socialism has had on everything here, still. There are a lot of contradictions (which is true of any culture, I think) that are interesting. Like, I want to say that in general people are much more private, but in other ways they aren't - Americans are more body-conscious, I think, and less open about the negative aspects. Many Czechs have told us that Americans are thought of as very fake. Why do we smile at people in the street we don't know? Why do we need to start conversations on public transportation? Why do we always say "fine!" when someone asks how we are? Also, being concerned about eating humanely-treated animal products? VERY foreign concept. I feel like these examples of cultural disparities are pretty superficial, but I could go on for days. Suffice it to say, this is not America, I am not in my comfort zone, everyone does not speak English, just because people are white does not mean that they are just like us.

To bring us to the present, I am writing this from my homestay room. I met my "parents" last night, and they are wonderful. They have two kids, Moijmir (he is 3) and Zora (she is almost 2) who I actually am not meeting until a few hours from now. They are smart and incredibly nice, and put me in a room full of books, a keyboard, and a guitar. And they bought flowers. And Moijmir painted me a picture. Things are (of course) awkward, but not as much as I was fearing. The feeling of absolute absurdity of living in a stranger's house comes and goes in waves, as does my awareness of how far I am from home.

Other things: absinthe is complicated, there is a Czech way of saying "tell me more" in conversation that sounds exactly like "fuck you" (creates confusion), Mexican food here is (shockingly!) not the same as Mexican food in So-Cal, one of the best things about Prague is that you can pretend it's the 1600s ALL THE TIME, and I have decided that I must learn to pack more lightly.

Ne schledenou! (which means goodbye, formally, in Czech. Say that ten times fast. You can't. Because you speak English and can't pronounce anything real).

"your landmarks are the castle and erotic city".

Wow. Where to start? I just finished day two in Prague and I feel as if I've been here for a WHILE already. This is probably due in part to the fact that I have slept approximately 5 hours since Thursday night (it just became Monday ten minutes ago). I feel shockingly okay, but this will definitely not be as coherent or lengthy as it deserves.

The send-off was rough; my bag cost a lot, the airport couldn't find my reservation, it was five AM, a lady in Germany yelled at me, I teared up publicly in 3 countries in one day (which I have to say is an achievement I'm slightly proud of)...but I got to Prague in one piece with all of my obscenely unnecessarily large luggage. I always try to make jokes about my need to have lots and lots (and lots...and lots) of clothing with me, but let me just say that after flying from Portland to Toronto to Dusseldorf to Prague and then lugging all of my shit through a foreign airport on NO SLEEP that NOTHING HAS EVER BEEN SO SUPREMELY UNFUNNY as my addiction to floral dresses and boots. I also could not for the life of me find the elevator in the hotel we are in for orientation (because it's in a closet. what? those are for coats, not transportation via cables, guys.). So, I tried to lug all of my things up 2 out of the 4 flights of stairs before a unassuming Czech guest at the hotel in which we're staying for orientation showed me to the lift. It was mostly the worst.

ANYWAYS, that all happened, more people showed up, we were all hilariously delirious, it was great. Not much else to say about day one. MOVING ON...

In short, I am so happy here that, frankly, it's a little unsettling. I am used to having a rough time with transitions, and this (very large) transition has been incredibly smooth. This group of people with whom I am traveling and studying are OUT OF THIS WORLD. Straight up some of the smartest, funniest, chillest people I've ever encountered. I am legitimately excited about getting to know every single one of them. It's not like I don't usually get excited about meeting people, but these people are just SO FUCKING EXCEPTIONALLY COOL. I do not have the presence of mind to elaborate in any kind of sensicle way at this point and time. But (for example) they like to do things like play America's Next Top Model while on a Prague scavanger hunt, but in the same outing can have non-pretentious conversation about Kant and the evolution of language (no, I swear, it's possible). WHAT??! Unreal.

An odd thing is that all of these people are from pretty prestigious schools, and while I can make a pretty firm argument for the Johnston Center at the U of Redlands being the most legitimate place to get an undergrad degree on earth, prestige is certainly not our strong suit. But despite being brilliant and hip as shit, none of these people are pretentious at all whatsoever, so it's not like it's an issue. Just interesting.

I JUST HAVE TO SAY THAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW S.I.T. FOUND 14 LIBERAL ARTS STUDENTS WHO WANTED TO STUDY ART AND POLITICS IN EASTERN EUROPE THAT AREN'T PRETENTIOUS. SERIOUSLY. THAT IS UNREAL. UN. REAL.

This is more rambly than I would ever like to be, so I think it might be time to crash before I get to wake up in 8 hours to Prague rain!!! (I am yet again the weird kid who gets pumped for rain. SORRY GUYS, I grew up in Portland and now live in Southern Cali). I am hoping things continue to be as wonderful as they feel right now. I can't shake the feeling that I am the luckiest person ever.

[And whoops, I guess the lengthiness was not an issue....apologies.]