Chilling

I viewed this weekend as sort of a breather, since I just finished the CERGE orientation, but haven’t yet had the Charles University orientation or started my internship at the Fulbright office. Friday, CERGE had an “end of orientation” lunch at Café Louvre downtown, and it was fantastic (http://www.cafelouvre.cz/en/). I had excellent espresso and a lot of wonderful food. 

Excellent espresso and wonderful food at Cafe Louvre

Afterward, I tried reading Atonement again, but I’ve decided that this is a book I’m just going to have to skim through for the time being if I ever want to finish. It’s just so depressing. Therefore, I read some of Freakonimics. That was interesting, but I think I need to get my hands on a real novel. Friday night, we went out to the Cave Bar, a bar whose real name I still can’t remember, even though I’ve been there twice.  I was exhausted, though, and left with some friends after about an hour. After getting some pizza and the best junk food ever, smažený sýr (fried cheese- it’s basically a mozzarella stick sandwich, but so much better..), I went to bed.

Saturday, I formally declared Chill Day, at least in my head. I got up late, made banana bread, then went running at the gym. This was my second trip to the gym, and I feel that I should say a few words here about going to the gym in Prague. I had heard before coming over that most people in Prague are not as fanatical about going to the gym as Americans. When I got here, I realized that this is definitely the case- at least sort of. There are plenty of gyms around; in fact, there’s one about a block from my apartment. However, you can’t walk into most of these gyms and just hop on a treadmill then go do some weights. Instead, you go take classes (which is usually an option at American gyms, but perhaps the exception rather than the rule?). While I totally respect this attitude toward working out, I don’t really subscribe to it, so I needed to find a gym where I could go work out on my own time. Enter: World Class Fitness Center in Wenceslas Square. As I pretty much expected (though it sort of surprised me anyway), World Class was not that much bigger or busier than Farmville’s YMCA, occupying a few large basement rooms. It is definitely smaller than Richmond’s fitness center, and the TVs by the cardio equipment are probably from the late 90s or early 2000s. It’s got a retro feel, and I love it. I also have already had a tard moment there. The treadmill I started using on the first day kept distance in kilometers instead of miles (obviously, they all do). That much I saw immediately, and I was pleased that I had noticed. However, I didn’t quite make the next step, which was that my speed wasn’t in miles per hour. I tried to start running, and after putting it all the way up to 8 "mph" without it getting noticeably faster than my normal pace I sort of shrugged and made a face at the machine and walked away to find one that wasn’t “broken”. This was witnessed by runners on both sides of my machine. It hit me on my way to the second machine that it was me, not the machine, that was the problem. I set my pace with kilometers per hour, and everything was smooth sailing from there. Almost manages to make running on a treadmill interesting. A couple more interesting points about the gym:
1. There are no water fountains. Like everywhere else in Prague, you must pay for a water bottle if you don't want to die by dehydration.
2. There is a free-for-all tanning bed in the locker room, which I think I will probably not take advantage of, owing to the skin tone that came with my red hair.

Anyway, after the gym, I went to the National Museum with Kyra. The museum is about 4 blocks from our apartment, and it’s beautiful. It must have originally been a palace. I’m not really sure why it’s called the National Museum, because it’s more of a natural history museum, but it’s great. There are tons of museums in Prague, though, so it’s quite possible that there’s other buildings with different subjects. In this museum, though, there’s an exhibit on volcanoes where you can walk though the volcano and stand on fake lava outside it. It was very exciting.  In retrospect, I probably got a little more excited than is acceptable for someone who is 20 years old. Whatever. If (when..) I go back, I'll probably like it just as much. There’s also an ocean exhibit, a prehistoric exhibit with a huge dinosaur skeleton, and about ten thousand rooms of STUFFED ANIMALS. Seriously. I think I have never seen so many stuffed animals in my entire life. A taxidermist’s dream-come-true. Really interesting, but a little morbid. Downstairs, we found posters advertising a bunch of other museums in and around Prague. A lot of them were located in breathtakingly beautiful old palaces and have gardens, so I am opting to see them once it’s a little warmer outside. I’m already starting my spring sightseeing list, and it’s February.

Volcano with fake lava you can walk on

Dinosaur skeleton

One view of the palace museum

A small, small taste of the taxidermy craziness

Michaela made her amazingly delicious potato soup for dinner again last night, and then my apartment mates went out to the 5-story dance club. I opted to stay in, simply because I was exhausted and wanted a night to do nothing. I borrowed Michaela’s copy of “9 to 5” and was totally content chilling on the couch and trying to figure out my travel schedule. Also, I hadn’t taken the time to listen to OneRepublic’s new album in full until last night. It was the perfect music for chilling.

Today, I got up late again, and the apartment went to Café Louvre for brunch, since it IS Valentine’s Day and all (not celebrated quite as much here, but, nevertheless, celebrated). Then I went to Tesco and shopped for makeup. I went straight for the Maybelline, simply because it was familiar. Also, I realized that I’ve gotten really good at using the metro and changed lines with no problems on the way back to the apartment. I’ve never actually had a problem with the metro system here (probably at least partially because it’s ludicrously easy as far as metro systems go: three lines, three intersections), but for a while I always felt like I was going to mess it up. No longer the case.

I got back to the apartment and Skyped with my family for a while before they went to church. Nitra is in the midst of college searching and visited Richmond yesterday to get the official tour! I had told her that she’d probably get one of my friends as a tour guide, and I was right. She got to take her tour with Jenn! Super exciting.

Tonight, the apartment may go out to see Valentine’s Day, the movie, even though the New York Times gave it one of the most scathing reviews I’ve ever seen (http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/movies/12valentine.html).