Well, friends, it's over. Caroline is no longer in Prague. My entries began to dwindle because I decided to fill my time with people instead of computers for my last week. Shoshana said she thinks she got a total of 10 hours of sleep for the week and first I laughed, but then I realized she's probably fairly accurate with that statement. Yesterday we were all so sleep deprived we could not function. Honestly.
We wandered the streets of Prague in search of crepes, row boated on the Vltava, ate at a beautiful and terribly expensive restaurant on the water, stayed up until 2, then had a massive sleep over in my room: Amanda, Shannon, Sho, Rich, Caroline. Except I was a punk and mostly slept in the lobby, too distracted to sleep when they did. I stayed up later, wandered around outside soaking in my last night.
We woke up at five to make it to the airport on time. I don't know who was crying when or how hard, but it happened. I felt very terrible the past two days in terms of health, so I took a Dramamine to help me sleep. When I woke up I was in the worst condition I've been in for years. I had an insane fever, even without a thermometer. My skin burning but I felt so horribly cold. I toughed it out through the flight and by the time we landed I was just aching like mad. When I got back home, three hours later, I ran a temperature of 100.4

Pish posh.

Now that I'm back in Michigan, it feels like Prague never happened. Which is why it's good I kept this, and many other, record of my stay there. I filled one Moleskine and began a second-- the second was about 12 pages in, 12 pages of glory including a huge reading list I accumulated from classes. And what did I do while sitting on our second plane from Amsterdam to Detroit? I realized I left my second Moleskine in the pocket of the seat ahead of me on the plane from Prague to Amsterdam. WTF. My fingers are crossed that someone finds it and emails me, asking how to get it back to me. It's so depressing to have lost that. There were words in it; they were mine.

Now I am sweating like crazy because it's hot in Michigan. So glad Shoshana's staying the night because I need some validation that the past month really happened. Tomorrow we'll already (hopefully) have a reunion to see Black Knight, because it hasn't come out in Europe yet and we're all pumpeddddddd.

Love.

So many things have happened! Today is already Tuesday! Or Wednesday! It's late.

This weekend was a trip to Cesky Krumlov, a castle town about three hours south of Prague. We saw an opera (La forza del destino) in the castle gardens. The theatre was a huge revolving circle of chairs, and the entire opera was outdoors. The actors had no microphone system, which was annoying for the first scene but then became so very impressive. I won't lie, I slept through a large portion of the scenes with few people, but the scenes I was awake for were absolutely fantastic.

We spent Sunday walking around Ceske Budejovice and Jindrchuv. There was a nicely priced and better tasting coffee shop that we got espresso and gin & tonic in, and the bus ride home was insane-- Shoshana, Richard and I were very sleep deprived and in desperate need of the bathroom. It was entertaining.

Friday a group of us went to see Don Giovanni as a marionette show near the university. It was insane. The music is beautiful in that show, but I was laughing the vast majority of the time. Everyone came out with smiles because the entire thing was ridiculous.

If I wasn't so sleep deprived I would write something entertaining, or useful, or insightful. But, alas, I am exhausted and in need of a shower. Priorities, who needs 'em?

Yesterday I bought an amazing pair of shoes for about five dollars. Tonight a group of us are going to see Don Giovanni as a marionette show-- my biggest investment in anything that didn't include traveling (630Kc, about $45) but marionettes are a big deal here, so it should be quality.

I'm anxious, want to go buy jeans. Might just venture on my own for a bit. Had incredible pink soup today-- no idea what was in it. Beets?

The past three days have been slow and unproductive. I've been skipping out on the walking tours and monuments for a bit, taking a few hours to just breathe, and separate myself from everything that's been going on. I've been reading, wandering, and writing (a little) with more of a purpose.

I pulled out Arnost Lustig's Lovely Green Eyes from the PSP library we have here. I read about 20 pages and it's already so heartbreaking. I love learning about the war from the Czech perspective-- I've never been one to enjoy history, but coming here has changed that.

This morning I slept very late, went to bed very late. I woke up to Tyler in my room checking up on me again, then Joshua and Ryan. I love how caring we've become. We've turned into a Prague Family and I am grateful.

I knew I was getting stuck in a rut, a self-perpetuating negative mood, so I flipped things around by going for a run in the rain. The endorphins are doing their magic now, so I'm feeling better. Very much looking forward to the reading tonight, then dinner with the girls at the Globe.

Everyone is in a downswing, here, it seems like. We've hit the point where we know our trip is past halfway; the thrill of drinking has worn off and sobering up has made everyone introspective and quiet.

I have two pages left in my Moleskine journal. I am writing constantly, but not really writing. I can't seem to handle the whole processing, structuring, detailing, writing for an audience thing. Instead I am recording small events in smaller writing and keeping it all bound up with elastic. I write on the tram, on the cobblestone pathways, in art museums and parks.

My eating habits are evening out, also. We've found our regular grocery stores, the best and least expensive ice cream places, and our favorite dishes (I've fallen hopelessly in love with potato & mushroom soup).

Socially, there is drama, of course. We're a mini society under a microscope on speed, pretty much. Relationships are intense. It's both entertaining and exhausting.

This afternoon our lectures were both on the Jewish Eastern-European perspective. The focus was around the Czech Republic (surprise), and both speakers were amazing: Tomas Kraus & Arnost Lustig. Arnost is a widely acclaimed author, has been on the shortlist for the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm excited to read his novels when I get back into the states. He's also coming to WMU in the fall (October) for a three-day long series of talks & presentations.

It's been rainy and colder here for the past five or so days, but today it's clearing up and warm enough for t-shirts and skirts again. I'm going to savor it and go read in the park.

This morning I woke up at 12:15 in the afternoon, to Tyler in my doorway asking if I wanted to go to eat with the gang. Josh, Tyler, Ryan, Shoshana and I ate at a fantastic bagel place.

From there Sho & Josh left, and the remainder went to the contemporary museum of art (not official name, can't remember...) it is HUGE and GORGEOUS and WONDERFUL and I have a lot of quotes & artists' names written in my Moleskine. Can't even tell you how in love I was with the art there.

Came home, read some more Kafka (he's growing on me, these crazy Czech authors...) and waited for Rich to get back from the photo trip they took. He arrived; Sho & Rich & I went to dinner and for a lengthy walk down to see the Charles Bridge at nighttime. Everyone was reflective and quiet-- thinking about how insanely difficult it's going to be to leave this city.

While we were at dinner (we later found out) Ryan was rushed to the hospital because he was throwing up blood. Once we all discovered this had happened, Shoshana, Rich, Shannon and I held vigil outside his door. We had blankets, iced tea, and a Jackie Chan movie to bide our time until he got back. Turns out it was a stomach infection or something similar, and cost him a ton of cash to get taken care of.

We're crossing our fingers that Ryan's better by morning, but overall it was a very good, relaxing day. I'm glad I slept in so late, but this is definitely the one and only night where I'll do it. :)

Madness in the bar, yesterday! We had a Prague Summer Program open mic night. It was wildly entertaining. Ryan and I performed Rilo Kiley, it was happy with people singing along.

Earlier in the day I had my last class with Robin. I will miss it very much. Two weeks, six classes, went way too fast. The halfway mark is a bit terrifying, I'll admit. Monday means Lee Gutkind. I'm starting to get adjusted to Prague, almost too adjusted. I like the confusion and chaos and open mindedness that comes with a new city. The longer I'm here, the more routine it is. The less I notice, the less I appreciate. The less daring I am.

I'll work on it.

After class Layla and I spent the day shopping. We found a mall and spent money we didn't have. It was satisfying. I spent the evening with her until about three. Promised to walk her to the tram then didn't wake up in time. This means Layla left and I never had the chance to say goodbye. It's depressing.

This morning I woke up early and headed out to Terezin with a group of people. It's an old concentration camp, not to be confused with extermination camp. It was a middle-ground, something used in passing throughout WWII. Afterwards, ironically, it was used to hold Czech Germans (German Czechs?). Also, the man who assassinated Ferdinand, the first even of WWI, was held there and eventually tortured to death. Needless to say, it's also depressing.

I am completely and totally exhausted.

Friends, it is nearing 4:30 in the morning, in fact it is 4:34. I had an interesting night, and my homework is still incomplete. Oh well. I got the exciting part of the work done, which was writing a short piece about witnessing my first dog, Sandy, get hit by a car and die. I know that is a crude way to put it. I am surprised with how it turned out.

This morning I went to the Museum Kampa with Layla. It was my favorite cultural building of Prague that I've been to so far. Everything was gorgeous. My camera's battery died in the first fifteen minutes, bohuzel, so now I have to go back. Which is a good thing.

After the museum was a Czech movie (subtitled), H&M shopping (cardigan, HK umbrella), Czech class, food (Nutella on toast), then two readings. Followed by pivo, pivo, and Peach liquor in a huge park overlooking the entire city. Richard, the Australian, was doing light painting. Thus, the pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Imagine: night landscape, Prague lights everywhere, best PSP friends overlooking the city. I guess I'm not good at describing. Take my word that they are fabulous.

Then back, and I stay up until 4:30 talking to Richard and working on school work. Now I am listening to an on-line stream of my ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend's violin recital. Is this weird?

It's getting light outside. Tomorrow is Friday. A Czech band invited me to go as a roadie to a Czech wedding. I very much want to go, but have no telephone and thus cannot make communication quickly enough to make it. I want to go. I will have to see if I can make arrangements tomorrow.

It's been an adventurous two days! Monday I woke up at 8:30 for a fantastic class with Hemley. We started with an exercise instead of analyzing an essay which helped me wake up and start my week off well. I've realized how much time I've wasted and took the initiative to make small talk with Robin, good guy that he is. I think he's more shy than I am, but there's no better resource to have for a creative non-fiction writer than him. Because I guess that might be who I am now. A CNF writer? Maybe.

Post-workshop, we went to the BABY TOWER. Shomit, Lela, Fernando, and I trumped around town and ended up there, finally. It was a life-changing experience. The entire walk there we couldn't stop shrieking BABIES and throwing our hands into the air. I took tons of pictures and thought of Nate the whole time. The baby tower is the one thing I actually looked at before coming here (via wikipedia) and I still don't know the real name of it. Google "baby tower Prague" and you'll probably get it. Walking back Lela says, "I bet you're at, like, one million now. On the baby scale," and I giggled uncontrollably.

I then ran home to type frantically on my laptop for two hours, in an attempt to prepare for the student reading at a local bar. I came up with zero material, and resorted to reading my poem Camille and a journal entry from two years ago. I had a great time reading my pieces, and afterwards got so many unexpected comments. My favorite was Ryan's, "I could just see you, entirely, in the piece."

Afterwards we stayed a bit later than we probably should have, prancing around drinking pivo and yelling at one another. I went to bed much later than I should have, around 3:30 or 4, and still made it to my Czech language class on time at 9. Unlike some other people.

After class was a lecture, then Lela and I froliced around the city a bit. I bought a scarf, bracelet, and earrings from a nearby market. We got invited by a nice man named Milek to go see a classical string quartet in a big fancy church for free. He even pointed at a paper saying the student price was 450Kc. We ended up sitting in a cafe for literally three hours, talking and writing and drinking tea, then made it to the show exactly two minutes after it began. Milek still lead us inside, telling the ticket man, "These are two of my American friends, they're ok."

Tomorrow I'm going on a walking tour all about modernism. The biggest things I have on my list to quickly complete are the Museum of Medieval Torture Devices, a Mucha Exhibition, and the Sex Machines Museum. I can feel your jealousy radiating through your computer screen. You wish you were a Praguer.

Ah, Sunday. I've had five hours or less of sleeptime in the past four days. Loves the Praha. I'm eating cherries; they are helping me stop shake from sleep deprivation. What's better is that in Prague, no one understands the concept of coffee. Coffee ain't no big thang here. I almost typed coffee as "coffie" because I'm a genuis.

Friday we went to a beer garden overlooking the entire city. It was absolutely stunningly beautiful. I met Eduardo, a Colombian from Arizona who's finishing up grad school. He's one of the genuinely interesting and interested types. I also drank quite a bit (sorry mom! It's a beer garden, after all). We then proceeded to a club whose name I cannot remember. It was insane, and I managed to stay for two point five hours with just one beer. I win!

Saturday I woke up at nine and headed to Kostnice Ossuary, which is known as "the Bone Church" because it is full of piles of piles of human bones, strings of skulls, words nailed to the wall in bone. It was, literally, breathtaking. It was also an hour long train ride away, on the good old fashioned trains with compartments and rickety rails. I felt like I was on the Darjeeling Unlimited and I fell in love with the feeling. Europe, I love you so much more than I thought I would! It was fantastic to see a new part of the Czech Republic, because the countryside is drastically different than Praha. I bought Rachel & Caitlin gifts. Rachel's broke before I left the city. Caitlin's is small enough to be nearly unbreakable. (Rachel, I'm going to repair it and give it to you anyway, and you will love it anyway. Promise.)

Rich, our Australian photographer friend, and Tyler from WMU tromped along with me for the day. There were ten of us total, but the experience was much better when we separated. We took tons of photos. My battery died halfway through, and Rich let me borrow one of his. I stepped in a plant called.. mettle? mettles? bettle? Something like that, and it ATTACKED my bare legs. They swelled a bit, some were scratched, but I was fully entertained by the experience.

Today I woke up at eight, on accident, and went for a long walk by myself. I found some impressive graffiti (www.flickr.com/photos/ca_roline), an abandoned stadium, a decent band singing songs in English in an abandoned building, and a huge dry fountain. I stopped to take photos, write, and do some homework. I also stumbled upon a fantastic view of the other side of Prague, without all the huge buildings. I was so surprised to find it I just looked for a solid five minutes. I then proceeded to record a bee eating a smaller insect. Perhaps it wasn't a bee, because I thought bees like pollen more than insects? Carnivorous. 

In all, it has been a glorious weekend, and week, here. I am already terrified to come back to the states. Leave me be! Give me money and let me stay here forever!

Dobrey den, we greet all the cashiers and some smile in surprise. Those Americans.

Today we went to an English bookstore near the Charles Bridge, stopped to read in a beautiful park, grocery shopping. I am making a list of all the museums and places I want to go, things I want to do. Before I left my mother said, "There aren't any screens in Europe!" And I wasn't aware. Now I am here and little white flying things are stuck to the windowsill, my soap, my laptop charger. I killed a moth the other day because it flew into my spilled wine and stuck there as the wine dried. Whoops.

Tonight we're going to go watch the sunset from a beer garden. Right now I'm reading Kafka's Metamorphosis and giggling all the while. I finally bought The Basic Kafka at the bookstore today, a collection. It's about time I read some of his words.

My legs are coated with mud, from the run Ryan, Sho and I went on through the steep, hugely steep, hills surrounding the Prague Castle. I thought I was going to die. It was dark, it rained today so trails were slick, and the hills were far more steep than they are in Kalamazoo.

Earlier I watched the documentary Fighter, which was heart-wrenching, besides the fact that the girl in front of me was snoring (insensitive!) Went to Czech class, went to a reading. Robin Hemley, my professor, is fantastic. I was so impressed when he read from his upcoming novel. When I'm back in the states I plan to buy his first memoir, about his schizophrenic sister.

We had a thunderstorm today, loud and pounding against the sides of the building. It was close and comforting. I had been waiting for rain here. 

Shomit let me read some of his poetry while we were sitting at the bar of the Ypsilon Theatre, waiting for the readings. He's 29, a poet whose heritage is in Bangladesh, raised in Arizona, curly mohawk, gorgeous. Last night we met Richard the Australian, who just graduated with a BFA in photography. I love talking with people that are older than me. I can soak in so much more. I feel like Dasha when she talks about Chicago.

I have work to do and a shower to take. Tomorrow is class and watching the sunset at a beer garden I've never been to.

Yesterday I had class number two. We discussed an essay before workshopping, and I didn't say a word. It made me nervous to not say anything, so when we got to the workshop part I decided I was going to force myself to speak but, wonderfully, I didn't need the forcing. I found my professor's questions engaging and my peers' work easy to talk about. I was surprisingly comfortable through the rest of the class.

After, Megan, Conor and I had some lunch and meandered. Eventually it dwindled to just Megan and I. We found H&M, GAP, the Adidas store, and many other American things. While walking around touristy Prague I tend to feel bad, like I'm cheating myself out of an honest cultural experience while I walk around these streets, talking in English. This weekend we're traveling to the bone church on a guided tour. I'm excited, although I'm already a bit tired of people talking at me for hours on end.

In order to receive credit for my class, I have to attend all the readings (four a week) and lectures (two a week). Two readings are tonight. On Tuesday I saw Cynthia Houge and Bob Butler. They were both fabulous, although I spent most of the reading grinding my teeth in irritation because the girl next to me was smacking, chomping, popping her gum the entire time. I wanted to explode it was so awful. Tonight I'll be sure, before the reading, to let those in my periphery that I cannot stand souths which originate in the mouth.

Ahahahaha. Today I spent a total of about 20 minutes searching for a brand new Prague moleskine I bought the day before I left. I was so upset to have misplaced it, though I knew it couldn't have gone far. I went the whole day using up my old moleskine and beginning a new notebook.

However.

Just now I was irritated because my laptop was propped-- I slid it closer to me, it dropped about half an inch and, ta da, I remembered that last night when it was about to overheat, I propped it on my moleskine. Smart.

Today I was downtown from 9am-10pm. I had a Czech Survival class from 9-10 (dobrey den! yak se mate?) followed by two mandatory lectures 10-12:45. Lunch. A walking tour primarily on the subject of Franz Kafka (which, terrible me, I've never read a page of). About an hour in a little tucked in bar near Charles square, where I abandoned my WMU-ers to do some beer drinking with the older students of the program. Met Shomit, who is a beautiful 30-year-old Brooklynite with a mohawk who was born in Japan. Then a mandatory reading from 7:30-9:30, followed by a late dinner downtown.

I also bought an alarm clock somewhere in there, because I have not woken up to my phone alarm even once yet. I sleep so heavy. If I was here on my own I wouldn't wake up ever.

Megan is already attempting sleep and I feel bad keeping her up with my clicking. I also have some reading & editing to do, so I'm off to the lobby to work.

Ahoj!