I'm back!

So. I kinda dropped the ball on that whole Prague posting stuff huh? I started off okay, then I got homesick for all of you guys, my wonderful friends. I'm actually going to try to do this again, it won't be that often and probably not all that entertaining. This weekend I'll try to do a overview of my semester in Prague, but no guarantees.

Right now I'm just working all the time, just like last summer. I've only been doing it for four weeks now and I already hate the job again. On the bright side, only 4.5 more weeks... After that, I'm going back to CNU around July 16th I think.

Here's my summer schedule:

Location**********Date**********************Activity
Lynchburg*******Now-7/15******* Work/See friends when I have a chance
Newport News*7/16-rest of summer*Work a little, beach, gym, relax, repeat
Newport News******7/29***********K-elly's 21st b-day jazzabration
Baltimore**********8/4-7**Virgin Music Festival, Mariners-Orioles game
Baltimore***********8/5**Turn 21, hanging out with Ren for festivities
Lynchburg**couple days after MD*****see friends, family for b-day stuff

(I can't remember HTML code in case you can't tell, and I didn't feel like looking stuff up).

This job really does have me a bit taxed already though. I want to go to a Hillcats game pretty badly, and Tom wanted me to help get a group together last night to go. But I couldn't, of course, because I was working.

But for those who don't know or haven't seen it yet, I did get a new car back in January, which I love. It's also one of the main reasons I'm working this job. Consider this a supplement to the "gadgets" post from almost a year ago.

Old and Busted:


New hotness:

it was fun whilst it lasted

In case the news hasn't reached your ears quite yet, Barbara and I broke up. It happened in Paris. While the final decision was made at our hostel, the whole situation pretty much sums up my fucking life. Some people get engaged under the Eiffel Tower, I on the other hand, become single again.

In an entirely unrelated note, I'm not going to guarantee anymore posts here. I just really don't feel like keeping up with this thing at all. I was finding it a chore to post, so that's a sign that I really shouldn't be doing it anymore. Although, with all the free time I'll have on my hands because of my newly acquired singledom, I might continue. We'll see. Just don't expect a wrap of Rome and Paris anytime soon, especially seeing as I really didn't have much fun in either place because of the circumstances (don't get me wrong, I still loved being in both).

yeah so....

I'm leaving for the airport in like 4 and a half hours to go to Rome until Tuesday night. You kids back home have fun on your fall break in Virginia.

I'll update again once I get back, which will hopefully only be for a day before I head off to Paris with Barbara.

Berlin, Germany

First off, I would like to direct you all to either my Facebook photo album or my Webshots to see photos from my trip to Prague Castle last week with Jon and Nicole, as well as my Berlin pictures from this past weekend, which is the focus of this blog entry.

On Friday morning, I awoke at a very early 5:30am in order to shower, cook some food, and finish packing in time to get a 6:30 bus with the group to the train station. We arrived at the train station at 7:00 and our train departed at 7:20am. I was in a cabin with Barbara, Heather, Rebecca, Chelsea, and Jessica. About two hours into the 5 hour trip, I went to the dining car with Barbara, Nicole, Sheri, Matt and Belle. I had the smallest and most disgusting cappuccino I've ever had in my entire life and payed like $5 for it. Absolutely ridiculous.

We finally arrived in Berlin and after stumbling around for a bit, we finally found out how to get to our hostel and made our way there using the S-Bahn (above ground metro), the U-Bahn (typical metro), and one really crowded bus. After relaxing a bit in our hostel, which was fairly nice by the way, we went into the city for dinner and a little random site-seeing. We had dinner at an Italian place and I had a really good pizza. Most of us called it a night early Friday because of how tired we were, but a few stayed out.

Barbara and I in front of the Berlin Cathedral:


Saturday Dr. Kabat took us to the more important historical sites in Berlin, starting with Checkpoint Charlie, which was where you had to cross to get between the American and Soviet sectors. I bought my parents this little thing with a chunk of the Berlin wall at the Checkpoint Charlie museum shop. We then had a "family meal," which means the students didn't pay. I had pretty good veal schnitzel. After lunch we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate where, lucky us, a parade of socialists that had passed us while we were eating had stopped and had a rally. Hooray. After taking pictures there we headed to what I wanted to see most, second only to the wall, which was the Reichstag which is once again being used as the seat of Parliament (the Bundestag I think). We finished out the day by visiting the Holocaust memorial, which was interesting to say the least.

Me in front of the flags of Germany and the EU, taken in front of the Reichstag:


Some people went out afterwards, but myself, Barbara, Jon, Sheri, Matt, and Belle all went back to the hostel as we were again tired and did not feel like spending $5 on one beer. We had dinner at a small place down the street from our hostel at about 8:30 Saturday night. Barbara and I both had some pork schnitzel and it was delicious. Some of the people that went out had come back when we finished dinner, and then went back out. Here we lost Jon and Matt and added Cary. Barbara, Cary, Belle and I went back to the hostel and played table soccer and pool.

Sunday a few of us went back out to find pretty much the only large section of the Berlin Wall that was still standing and had no problem finding it. The only thing I wanted to see in Berlin that I didn't get to see was the Olympiastadion, which is where the World Cup final was held this year. No big deal though. While we were out Sunday I bought myself a German flag and a Germany shot glass. We all wanted to find a chocolate store to get some good German chocolate and we luckily found a place. I bought a plain chocolate bar which is so freaking good, and a Mocca-Rum chocolate bar, which is good, but not fantastic. A few people bought the eyebrow raising "Chili" chocolate. It's actually pretty decent, but is surprisingly very spicy, but not until you swallow it.

The Berlin Wall:

"I was waiting for the communist call,
I didn't ask for sunshine
And I got world war three.
I'm looking over the wall
And they're looking at me!

Oh now I got a reason
and I'm still waiting.
Now I got a reason to be waiting,
The Berlin Wall"
-- Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun

Our trip came to a close around 3:30 once we got back to the hostel and waited for everyone to get there. We then headed to Hauptbanhoff (sp), our train station. There was a little drama with our reserved seats, but once we got it straightened out, we had a nice train ride back through gorgeous countryside and got to see the city of Dresden at night, which was just amazing.

Once we got back Sunday night we received some bad news when Chelsea checked her e-mail. Because of some random EU Regulations, our flight to Paris got cancelled. So, fall break is only to Rome now, which is only 4 days out of the 11 days we get off. Really did not want to spend all that time here in Prague, but what are you going to do. We're planning on going to Paris for a weekend whenever we can. Right now we're looking at a 6:30am flight to Paris on 11/2 and then coming back on a flight leaving Paris at 8:20-ish PM on 11/4. Hopefully that'll work out. If not, we still have trips to Poland, Vienna, Brussels, and various other day trips.

Until next time kids. Hope you enjoyed it.

Prague has kept me so busy, I can't even update

To prevent your eyes from bleeding, this post is not going to be too in depth. From now on, I will try my hardest to keep this updated so that you, my faithful readers, are not overwhelmed with the awesomeness that is Prague and my blog.

First off, today marks my third week here in Prague. We didn't have classes at all the first week and we mainly just went out all the time. Classes are only on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Every morning from 10-12 (so far has been to about 11:45) we are with Octavius. We then break for lunch and come back at 1:00 and have class with Dr. Kabat until 2:45. Class so far doesn't seem to be too burdensome.

To sum it up for you all, I love this city. It's just gorgeous. I love being able to go out and interact with so many different people. Take for example, last Saturday night when I was out from 10:00pm until 7:00am Sunday morning, Cary (who is a friend of Octavius' that is 27 and from New York), myself, and Brian (another student) met some girls from Barcelona and they hung out with us for a bit. That night however, was not all that fun, as I am not accustomed to staying out all night like that, and I told myself I wasn't going to do that again for at least another month. However, last night, I did it again, staying out from 8:00 last night until 6:00 this morning. That wasn't my fault though, I was doing it because Barbara wanted me to.

I guess I should explain that a bit too. I am lucky enough to say that I have an awesome girlfriend now, in one Barbara Bonner. She's a senior and is totally cool. Well, sometimes.



So far, the most difficult thing has been dealing with food. I don't eat very well at all. Mainly because I hardly eat. We have to ride a bus and then get on the metro to get to the good grocery store and then lug it all back home to Jeneralka. Then there's that whole issue of having to cook it. I've mostly been going out to eat, which is kind of OK, as things are ridiculously cheap here. I have a few favorites already, but the number one would have to be Bohemia Bagel. There's a couple of them, but the one we go to most is in the Jewish Quarter. They have really good hamburgers and a bunch of other stuff. They also have American bacon and refillable soda, both are extremely rare here. In most restaurants you have to pay about $2 for a soda that is .33 liters, which isn't very much. Beer is typically much cheaper. The place I like to go for some chicken schnitzel and a quiet night in Prague has a .5L of Gambrinus for 24 koruna ($1=roughly 22 koruna). The only problem with it is getting hastled by drug dealers and people peddling the prostitutes and the cabarets in nearby Wenceslaus Square.

Barbara's parents have been here in Prague since last Thursday and are going back home tomorrow, but Thursday I went with them, Barbara, and a Rebecca to the small Czech town of Kutna Hora to see a church decorated in human bones. It was really cool. Really creepy too. It was nice to finally get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Riding the train is pretty fun too. Here's a picture I took when I first got into the church:


My next travel plans are as follows:
Berlin, Germany - 9/15 until 9/17
Rome, Italy - 9/30 until 10/3
Paris, France - 10/4 until 10/6

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed the post. That's all I can think of right now. Comments are welcomed and appreciated. Also, I have all my pictures up on Facebook. You can also go to http://community.webshots.com/user/brandoninprague which I would recommend because you can view the pictures larger if you'd like to. Comments on the pictures are welcome as well.

I'm still alive.

In case anyone cares. I made it, I'm in Prague. Got here yesterday around 3:00pm local (9:00am in Virginia). I am on a computer in the computer lab here, as our e-mail doesn't work. The place we're staying looks pretty cool, but the rooms really aren't that great. Also, as a guy that loves air conditioning and sleeps better when it's cold, Europe and their no A/C sucks. I will get some pictures up as soon as I get internet on my laptop.

Last night all of us went out to eat together. 11 students, Octavius (our professor), and Heather (our coordinator that went last semester and graduated). President Trible at CNU was going to be paying for the meal, so knowing this, we all splurged a bit. Afterwards like 5 of us went to a couple clubs, including Octavius. It ended up being a very fun first night, although I had been up for about 36 sraight hours (couldn't sleep on the plane). Stuff is fairly cheap here too. I bought about $35-40 worth of groceries for 350 crowns, or about $15. We're starting to kind of get our way around here on the public transportation.

I don't wanna use too much time, so I will make another post when I can.

This weekend was absolutely amazing. I had so much fun and even though I didn't get hardly any relaxation time (to recuperate from work), it was exactly what I needed. Now I just can't decide if I want it to be the 18th so I can go to Prague, or if I want to relive this weekend.

After getting off work Friday night at 11:50, I came home and screwed around doing whatever until 4:00-ish and got in the bed. I woke up at 10:00 Saturday morning and after a shower/birthday visit from my grandmother, I went out to the mall with my mom to get some clothes. In addition to the clothes that I got, I bought V For Vendetta and Schindler's List at Best Buy. I am going to order this jacket soon I think.

After my dad got home from work, I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with them. Got to see Katelyn, Bridget and Tanya, which was cool. I then went home and had cake while waiting for the arrival of Kelsey. Kelsey got to my house around 6:00-ish, and we headed for Charlottesville for the VCR concert.

We got to the "venue" around 7:30 and according to VCR's Myspace page, it was supposed to start at 8:00. After looking around a bit, it didn't seem like the right place, but we knew it had to be. We went inside and asked since we didn't see any vans or anything, and it turns out it wasn't starting until 10:00. So, Kelsey and I hung out and talked to random cool people, including the bands, until the show finally started at 10:30. The opener was this band called Triangle Forest from Providence, Rhode Island. After hearing them on myspace, I really had no desire to see them. Fortunately, they really surprised me and were really good live. VCR then came on and played and rocked a button off my shirt and almost made my head 'splode. We got out of there sometime after midnight and headed to Fredericksburg.

We pulled into Jon's driveway around 2:00AM and relaxed for a bit before we all finally headed to bed around 3:30 or 4:00. Kelsey got up bright and early at 7:00 to go to church with her awesome friend Rachel. After church, they came back to Jon's to get him and myself for lunch. They wanted mexican, me and Jon... not so much. So, the mexican place they wanted to go to actually had some "american" items on the menu. Jon and I both ordered the chicken fingers. 5 small-ish and not all that good chicken fingers with terrible fries for $8. I don't think I'm ever going to stop bugging Kelsey about that. Maybe eventually.

We finished out the day by suffering in the heat "playing" soccer. Jon had to leave us at 5:00 because he had a baseball game at 6:00. Kelsey, Rachel, their friend Ian, and myself then went bowling. Kelsey won. She distracted the rest of us, that's the only reason she won. We started the trip back home around 6:45.

We got back to my house around 9:30 Sunday night and that was the end of my great weekend. Today it was back to reality and work. I really didn't want the weekend to be over. Oh wells.

Only 10 days until Prague.