kuřecí feny

So. Turns out independent study is AMAZING. This is possibly coming from a girl who has yet to do any real work on hers yet, but let me tell you, after a ridiculously academically rigorous semester, a week of playing in Praha and playing with homestay siblings has been AMAZING.

Tomorrow evening, I am leaving to stay with my mask-maker-mentor. I have literally no idea what to expect/pack, so that should be interesting. Luckily, I am totally laid back and love not knowing what the plan is...NOT AT ALL. 

Last night, some of us went to one night of this alternative music festival called Alternativa. The music scene in Prague is pretty cool, because even bigger-name bands tend to be really friendly and interactive with their fans, in a way that definitely isn't true with big indie bands in the US. My friend Jenna's host sister's band was playing - I forget their name...something that translates to both five bitches and five chickens? or something? Whatever I just said is definitely made up - and they were SO GOOD. I wish I could see as much music when I get home as I have been here, but SIT probably isn't going to keep buying me concert tickets when the shows I want to see start being in LA.

Fun fact: when it's below freezing, and you have a lip ring, HALF OF YOUR FACE FREEZES. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT A JOKE. Anytime I am outside for more than five minutes, there is a one-inch radius around my lip ring that is just FREEZING. It is endlessly fascinating, and also causes the Czech people waiting for my train with me to disassociate themselves even further from the very-clearly American girl in the purple headphones (in what way am I clearly American, you ask? I literally have no idea, but I am. We all are. They just know. I mean, sometimes it's because we are rolling thirteen deep, speaking incredibly loud English, and carrying Czech textbooks, but other times I just think people who live in Prague can smell a statesider from a mile away. We must radiate a desire for sandwiches without 3 gallons of mayonnaise and a coffee cup that holds more than 3 ounces) because I look like this:

this is not an exaggeration.

Anyways, not much else to say. Clearly, since this blog post is 99% photobooth pictures of me biting my own face. I'll be somewhere in the woods art-making until Wednesday night, and then hanging out with Americans all day Thursday, AKA Thanksgiving. Oh, funny story about that: my friend Lee and I decided we would like to head up cooking. Turns out this is a 30 person ordeal. Apparently every American in Central Europe spends Thanksgiving at my Academic Director's house. I'm fine with it, because this is my first Thanksgiving not with my parents and I would like to be as busy as possible. If I can be having an emotional breakdown because I set a turkey on fire, as opposed to because I'm approximately 83,000 miles from home (geographically factual), then I will consider the day a success.

až díkůvzdání!

jan svankmajer be CRAZY.

It's come the time where I become horrendously lazy about keeping up with the blog-age. It also happens to be the time when it is TWENTY FIVE DEGREES OUTSIDE. I know, I know, it's going to get worse, that isn't actually that cold, blah blah blah BLAH, I HAVE ONLY EVER LIVED IN PORTLAND AND REDLANDS CALIFORNIA, PEOPLE. Redlands, also known as the land where people think I'm chased if they see me out for a run and it's below 60 (what other reason could I possibly have for leaving my house??!) and I have friends who skip eating for a week because the five minute walk to the commons in the rain is too much to bear. And yes, a week, because it just doesn't usually rain for more than a week.

So. Yes. It is freezing. And so beautiful! Everywhere you look the ground is carpeted with yellows and reds, and in the early morning the fall leaves are under such a thick layer of frost that it all glitters. It really does nothing to harm my ability to pretend to be a fairy princess.

Would you like to know what else does nothing to harm that ability? The fact that my independent study adviser is awesome and told me that my fairy princess shadow puppet should also serve as an 'autoportrait' (which I think is not-quite-fluent-in-English for self-portrait).

I think I should back up now: before I talk about my independent study, I should probably mention a few of the things that have happened since November 1st. Namely, finals and a lot of punching myself in the face. Czech is a really hard language. The history final was actually sort of fun (I mean, that's a huge lie, it was a four hour essay-based test, not even I think that's fun) just because it made me realize HOW GODDAMN MUCH I HAVE LEARNED THIS SEMESTER. Czech history is so interesting. Communism is so interesting. Vaclav Havel is so interesting. We also had our exhibition of our artwork for my studio art elective, which was fun. Here's something I painted!

These are sort of wonky because I took them on my ipod, and I don't have a photo of my favorite one on my computer, but I wanted to put them up here. My artist's statement is too long to put up, but what I was (trying to) do was to use all I had read about in Czech literature/history about the concept of the "other" in Czech culture, but also have fun with it. So I basically just painted a bunch of mushrooms trying to fit in with the crowd. And then I felt guilty for making them feel lonely so I let them hang out with each other, which is the one I put up. (I think there is some sort of joke to be made here about cliches and studying abroad and liberal arts and painting about ostracism and painting mushrooms and alternative education, but when there are too many options I sometimes get overwhelmed, so feel free to go to town) ("Wow, Naomi, studying art in Central Europe during undergrad and painting some mushrooms? When's the lesbian phase!") (Ugh. that was sub-par. Seriously, too many options is the death of me).

It is really crazy to me how used to this city I am. I remember everything looking so foreign when I first got here, and now it looks like a city I live in. It doesn't necessarily feel like home, but it feels comfortable, and I know my way around, and that's a really nice feeling. I hope I can come back someday.

my independent study is, frankly, going to be the most baller shit at the baller parade in baller town. No joke. I am working with this AMAZING Czech woman, who is the landlord of the apartment building our school is in, runs a coffee business, teaches at Charles University, makes masks and puppets out of wood, clay, paper, bronze, everything ever, and just published a book she's been working on for ten years about masks in different cultures. WHAT. 

So, the rest of my time here is going to look something like this: 

I'm spending this week deciding what figures I want to use for shadow puppets (about 6) and which I want to use for masks (about 3). All of them will be inspired by Czech fairy tales. Monday, she's going to take me to the store and help me buy materials, and then that night we are leaving for her cottage ("all you need to bring is something for cold". yeah, man, I am like five steps ahead of you.) so that she can teach me her REALLY INTENSE CRAFT. I guess we are going to make one mask out of this very specific type of clay/linoleum/weird other materials she didn't know the English words for, which will probably take an entire day. While we're waiting for stuff to dry, apparently her cottage is in a village with ancient stone sculptures and a bunch of galleries, including one of primitive Central European art. WHAT THE HELL IS MY LIFE??!

Then, Wednesday night, I return to Prague, in time for Thanksgiving, which my friend Lee and I offered to do all the cooking for, and which I found out today is a 30 person shindig. So, I hope they like eating mushroom gravy like it's soup because I literally have never cooked an animal before. OOOOOPS. 

The rest of my month will be spent working on finishing my pieces, until I return to my adviser's house again (if anyone is wondering why I haven't mentioned her by name, our program specifically asks us not to mention any of the employees on our blogs or facebooks) and she is going to help me film a short using my shadow puppets. She really wants me to write some music for it too (because my Academic Director told her that that was a thing I do, but it's just not. I could totally cover some indie music for it, but I do not write songs) which would be great but I don't know how realistic it is. ANYWAYS, then I will most likely be spending the rest of my time in Prague finishing up any pieces that aren't done and writing my 15 page paper about it. Plus, I'm really hoping to use some of my time during independent study to do the tourist-y things I haven't gotten a chance to do yet.

AND THEN I COME HOME.

The passage of time is horrendously baffling.

oh also, don't worry. i found more cats.

this is not a real blog post because it is finals week and even i can only procrastinate so much, but here's a cool thing my friend made from our trip to slovakia!

http://daniellelashley.shutterfly.com/22

dobrý den, listopad

I can't remember if this has happened every semester, or it's just now, but suddenly time seems to be getting away from me and it's a little scary. I know by December 17th I will be happy to get home, but after next week we are into independent study, and after independent study it's December 17th. So. I'm hoping I can fill up my time with enough activities that that the perpetually obnoxious passage of time doesn't get away from me too fast. And I just don't know if I'm ready to be a second-semester junior...what. Though I will have the world's most baller schedule next semester, so that's good. I do have a lot to look forward to. JUST NOT YET PLEASE. I'm already getting nostalgic for my S1 train to český brod. 

I think I know what I am going to do for my independent study! Apparently, my Academic Director is close personal friends with some sort of really talented Czech mask maker (you know, normal) so I may go stay with her for a few days and learn her apparently very strict and amazing technique. Part two involves reading as many Czech fairy tales as possible. Part 3 involves talking to some Czech people about which characters they think are the most important. Part 4 involves making masks (using aforementioned terrifyingly specific technique) to CREATE MY OWN MASKS for some of these creatures. Part 5 involves the heinously long research paper that is the only really necessary part of all this, but I think it will be really interesting. I want to focus on what (if anything) makes these fairytales and the characters in them uniquely Czech. 

Otherwise, things are good. My paintings are all due a week from tomorrow, and hopefully I can get some photos of them up here if I don't hate them as much as I do right now.  The concept is sort of ridiculous - focusing on the concept of the "other" in Czech literature, but utilizing mushrooms for imagery. Because I didn't feel like studying art while going abroad to Europe during liberal arts college was cliche enough, so now I'm painting mushrooms. Whatever. I'm having a good time. We are actually having a real live art show in our own space next Wednesday, which is sort of terrifying but really cool.

This Thursday, I'm going to the symphony(!) and Friday, we're going to see Plastic People of the Universe, which is a really famous band here because they were really involved with the dissident movement before the Velvet Revolution. I guess this concert is a lot of dissident bands getting together, some of which haven't played in years. This article knows more than I do: Czech Underground Bring Legendary Bands Together

I want to throw some pictures up here that I took during the trip I mentioned last time to Krakow/Slovakia/Vienna, but unfortunately my camera is only letting me load about 100 at a time before killing my computer, so right now it's only Krakow and the first part of Vienna. Hopefully some more later. 

krakow.

communist buses we got to get a tour in in nowa huta.

 

communist bus from the front.

SLOVAKIA HOW DO YOU LOOK LIKE THIS?

mandatory tray of shots at 11 AM. and again at 11.30. Love you too, Slovakian hospitality.

in some traditional slovakian garb, no biggie.

morgan rolling down this hill, because what else are you supposed to do when you find a hill that looks like this?

this man is giving us a cheese-making demonstration...

and we are THRILLED.

One last thing: for our regional stay fifty years ago (or, like, a month), Joe, Claire, and myself wanted to write a song. Our teacher was really adamant we use some Czech, since we're clearly fluent by now. So we decided to use all the Czech we knew and wrote this ridiculous thing. Disclaimer, it has sounded better before, but this is the only recording we did and it seems like a shame to not share it with the world. Plus, you get to hear me immediately criticize it at the end!


jak se mas

p.s. I am thinking about it, and realizing that since this is a very unfortunate-sounding recording AND it is doubtful that anyone reading this understands Czech and will get the jokes that this is sort of a silly thing to share...but I will keep it here anyways.

oh hey central europe?

Wow. The last week and a half was so obscenely full that I'm not even sure how to start. Since the last time I updated, I've been to Krakow, two seperate Slovakian cities, and Vienna. I took more photos than I can fit on my computer or my hard drive (legitimate issue. hoping I can purchase a hard drive in Prague for less money than I could in the US). Therefore, any photos from the trip are only going to be stolen.

I need to do an EXTREMELY quick run down so that my incredibly amazing week and a half makes it in here, but i also have sort of an obscene amount of homework/Czech studying that I'm clearly not doing right now, so it's going to go like this:

POLAND: We went to Krakow. It was really cold. Everything was cheap. It was really pretty. It felt less...colorful than Prague? We got to take a tour of the Stalinist district in communist-era cars (which I can't wait to show a photo of, but it's not happening right now). A Polish student offered to show us around one day, so a few of us took a little mini tour with him. The Jewish quarter sort of reminded me of a really artsy, trendy street in Portland. A lot, actually. It was really cute. We went to a pub with over a hundred kinds of beer. Note to Portland, brew honey beer by December.

I feel you can sense the tropical breezes of Poland in October, even just from the photograph.

I also went to Auschwitz & Birkenau on one of our days in Poland, and honestly I don't really want to write about it in this blog. Not because it was too upsetting to talk about or anything (though, of course, it was incredibly upsetting) but this just seems like a weird medium on which to discuss it, and if I'm going to talk about it I don't think I want to do it when I don't know precisely who I'm talking to...not that I think masses of people are reading this blog. All I mean is that, I have a lot of thoughts on the experience, and I do want to discuss them, but I've even felt sort of weird talking about it on the phone to my parents. I want to wait until I'm with people in person to talk about it, I think. I'll just say - it was a very long day, I think going was the right choice (I was on the fence until the last minute, honestly), and I will never go again if I have the opportunity.

SLOVAKIA - pt. 1 - CIERNY BALOG: BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE. We stayed in a ski resort and mostly were hanging out with this non-profit. The landscape in Slovakia wasn't what I was expecting; it sort of reminded me of how I always imagined Scandanavia.

Like, what? Who goes on a hike that looks like this? Interspersed with all the trees? Only to return to a farm full of cuddly cats for a goat cheese making demonstration?

People like to make fun of Zoe and me, because we get excited every time we see a cat. BUT LOOK AT THAT CAT. You would snuggle that kocka, too.

We got to spend a lot of time outside. We played on a super old train, we went to a museum that was also a hike that was also on the most frigid day of my life but was still awesome. Also, fun fact: in Slovakia, the polite thing to do when greeting someone is to offer them food and shots of incredibly strong liquor. So if you don't like taking shots of Becherovka at 10 AM, do not go to Slovakia. Also, good call on eating red meat again, Naomi. Literally, like, every hour on the hour there is a new mysterious animal that has been prepared for you to eat. There was pre-dinner sausage and pre-sausage pasta and pre-pasta booze and pre-booze booze. Similar to the aforementioned host family dinner party, but the dinner party did not involve a log-throwing competition (the prize? shots of Becherovka. Don't worry) or any stilts.

Stilts, you ask? What stilts? Ah, these stilts. A normal post-lunch, pre-sausage activity. Of course.

Really, though, I loved Slovakia. Everyone was so warm and excited to share with us. And when I say share, I don't just mean an entire cow and 3 gallons of 90-proof liquor, but seriously, their culture, their homes, everything. We also got to learn some folk dances, which was both hilarious and a blast.

 

SLOVAKIA - round two - ZILINA: Most of what we did in Zilina (which is the second-biggest city, next to Bratislava) was visit this really amazing train station-turned-cultural center. It's really amazing. They have art classes for kids, a gallery, a coffee shop/pub, a film-screening theater, a blackbox theater, and tons of legal grafitti walls. I WISH I COULD SHOW YOU PICTURES BUT I CAN'T.

The other thing we got to do was go to this amazing book-maker and take a workshop with her. It REALLY made me want to take book arts at Redlands, which I should know I don't want to do unless I have a semester where I don't take any other classes (jokes) because my friends who took it sort of drowned in it, even though they made really cool things. They did a whole workshop with us, which was amazing! 

(Jenna, myself, Claire, Morgan).

Working hard.

One of my books!

VIENNA: I was only in Vienna for a day and a half, and it felt even more brief, so I will give you the quickest rundown of all: EXPENSIVE, beautiful, cultural, friendly, warm (people, not weather, jesus), falafel, EXPENSIVE, favorite art museum ever (Kunst Haus, google it), mozart's house, EXPENSIVE, expensive, where is all my money?, expensive, falafel.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY? I'm over halfway done with the program, and I feel like the second half is going to zip by. The academics are really overwhelming, which I guess is good, but right now feels a little scary (says Naomi as she updates her blog). We have only now gotten a studio space to do our art stuff in, and our exhibition is two weeks from today, so...we'll see about that? BUT, in other news WE HAVE A STUDIO. IN PRAGUE. THAT'S OURS. IN WHICH TO DO ART. WHAT. I'll take photos. And put them on my non-existent hard drive.

Other than that, I am still loving it here. The weather is turning, and this city wears gray really well. I'm excited for snow, which is supposed to start in less than 3 weeks, apparently. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing for my independent study project. 

Mir v dusi, punks.

prosím vas!

I FORGOT THE BEST THING I LEARNED ALL WEEK.

You know how in the US before movies, they show you an ad of some paper bags telling each other to go to Fandango.com, or maybe somebody talking on his cell phone with a funny little joke? Occasionally they remind you to go purchase your bucket-sized coke in the lobby? This is what they show before movies here:

So...yeah. If you find yourself at a movie theater in Prague, don't ask any old women where the concession stand is.

kapitola první: ten kluk žil.

I have many things to say, but the most important issue at hand is THIS:

I am not messing around. This is serious business.

GUESS WHOSE HOST MOM BOUGHT THEM HARRY POTTER IN CZECH? This guy. No joke. I can tell you all about pan a paní Dursleyoví. Things that are strange: they changed the name of the street from Privet Drive. Things that are embarrassing: how many of the words I can figure out just because I have read this book more times than most priests have read the bible. Things that make me laugh: J.K. Rowlingová.

In other (non-HP-related) news, I am about to, yet again, be out of commission for about a week and a half. Thursday morning, the crew is rolling out to Krakow, Slovakia, and then possibly Berlin? Or possibly Vienna? The last leg is yet to be determined. Slovakia includes an open air hiking museum. As in, a museum that takes place on a hike. WHAT??! I can't wait.

I am painfully exhausted, so a quick update in list form, so that I don't come back from traveling too overwhelmed with lack of updates to even come near this blog again:

1. My friend Jessica came to visit, and it was really nice seeing a person who I have known for longer than a month-ish! It also made me realize that hosting people while here is REALLY hard. It would have been really nice to have had more time to show her things and do some tourist-y stuff but it just wasn't possible.
2.  
3. Saturday, I went to this art workshop. I was supposed to go with people, but ended up being the only person I knew that showed up. It was weird to be somewhere like that alone at first, but ended up being sort of nice. I just like being able to say that I independently attended an art workshop in Prague. The man leading it is a Bulgarian artist whose work was like the winner of the conceptual contest at the conceptual parade in Conceptual City (just like, according to what I've seen, ALL OF THE MODERN ART east of New York). I am not kidding. I am glad to have been seeing so much art while I am here, and meeting so many artists, but sometimes they ask for questions and i just want to raise my hand and say "I'm sorry, WHAT??!" Some gems have included (and this is certainly not an extensive list):

• A braided wig on a ladder.
• A pile of dirt on the ground. That my friend Grace may have accidentally put her coat on.
• A glass of water. In a red cup. I'm sure the symbolism was abundant if you've read Hegel or something.
• A canvass with some hard candies spit onto it ("The candies were once inside of my mouth and now they are the art. From inside me to the page." For sure.)
• An "imaginary invisible piece that does not exist in our experience" (I mean, really? I just made one hundred of those. They're in this gallery as well. May I have a paycheck too?)
• "This is me, in front of tree. We are same width." Neat photo project.
• My personal favorite: an artist told us he made a film from "memories of his own childhood". The next fifteen minutes of my life involved me staring, in horror, with my mouth open, as some marionettes took their time wrapping a bloody dog's head in toilet paper. Background music? No, none of that, but plenty of sounds of creaking floor boards. SIR, WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD LIKE?

Anyways, clearly I am not nearly smart enough to understand modern European conceptual art. HOWEVER, the art workshop was cool, because it ended with this sweet found-object drum circle with Naomi and like ten Czech artists. I made a percussion instrument out of some tape with this girl who spoke no English. It was great/bizarre. I also met the weirdest man ever. He asked me if I was a member of the "coalition of lost souls," (the Czech chapter of which he is apparently the leader) and refused to let me tell him his name because he "HATES NAMES!". Everything normal.

3. I have been speaking/understanding some Czech with the host sibling babies! It was all fun and games until the 3 year old boy referred to me as "a mom". I also asked the 22 month old girl, "máš ráda ty dort?" which I'm fairly certain directly translates to "You like you cake?". Her response was unintelligible (to me), but I'm assuming it was something along the lines of either "YES!" or "learn some grammar or head back to America, idiot."


4. Cultural observation: Czech people sure do like to stare. Our Czech teacher told us that it was just a Czech thing, but I have to admit that it makes me incredibly self-conscious. A lot of girls like to do the once-over on the tram. It makes me think my clothes must look dumb here. Which makes me want to reply, seriously? Come to America and I will be your personal shopper. Czech clothes are less than attractive. Whoops, cultural insensitivity. But seriously. They don't have fashion WEEK. They have fashion weekEND. And here is one example from the website:

Just sayin', don't judge my lace up boots.

Lastly, some people reading this may remember how excited I was for winter and cold? That was silly. No, honestly, Prague is incredibly beautiful in the rain and does a lovely job in aiding my playing pretend that I am a princess all the time. I just probably should have brought more jeans and fewer sun dresses. Old habits die hard.