Hello to everyone from the heart of Prague. I am settled in my flat (as they call them here), getting to know my fellow film classmates. There are three of us American students in each flat and one Czech student who also attends the film school, FAMU. They are all older and taking courses in what seems to be a masters program.

For the past few days, they have been showing us American students around the city with little assignments to remind us that we are in fact STUDYING abroad but I could care less because, lets get real, its Prague! We visited Vyshrad, a beautiful setting with an old castle, a small park to walk around and a huge hill that I practically keeled over and died while climbing. After that we trekked along to Wenceslas square which is the area that contains the infamous astronomical clock. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t as large or tall as I had imagined in the photos I’d seen. More castles were to be seen in our walk to Wenceslas square at night which was an incredible sight because of all the city lights. Let me pause to say that for the past few days, we have been walking all over, which I don’t mind but my feet and ankles are screaming at me because Prague is covered with cobble stone which are not for the flat footed or faint hearted.

So moving on, besides the sightseeing which I could bore you with details that would not do them justice, we have been eating out at authentic Czech restaurants which I can tell you is not good for your stomach, especially to those who are used to eating rice, kimchi and chicken. The Czechs like their food heavy, hearty and fattening which I love but not for two days straight. I think the eating out is just for our introduction to Czech cuisine but from now on we’ll be cooking our own light, healthy meals (which the Czechs do most of the week; they don’t eat this artery clogging food every day). Another thing that I noticed is that the beverage of choice at most meals is, can anyone guess? Yes, beer. Beer galore. Dark beers, light beers, beers in big mugs, beers in slim glasses, beers of all shapes and sizes and colors and tastes. I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to Bud Light when I return home. It’s a wonder that not all Czechs don’t have the American beer belly but then again, the ones I see are in the city and walk every where, so they get their fair share of exercise.

Our Czech flat buddies, as we call them (there are four of them in the four flats), have been slowly trying to nudge the Czech language in to our heads and that is no easy feat. The sound of the words is strange because they put together sounds that are not put together in English.

Regarding pictures, internet is hard to come by here as of now but supposedly we will be getting internet in our flats so if that happens then i will be able to put up pictures more often but now we have to pay for internet so i'll be holding off on that at the moment.

So Na shledano for now (good bye) but I will try to write as often as I can. Hope everyone is doing well in the States.

xoxox Jennifer

Hello world. Being my first blog since Xanga or OpenDiary (which I suppose aren't real blogs but more online diary keeping) I thought I would open up by saying its been a long time since I've written freestyle and I apologize for any confusing statements I may make however this is pretty informal so I expect not too many people will see this. So here we go.

This past semester has been a hectic one to say the least. I decided to study abroad in Prague this upcoming semester which in order to do so is a class unto itself in paperwork and decisions and preparations. On top of that, the classes I have been taking have pretty much consumed my free time. Being enrolled in two production classes is a lot of work and outside of class work (which is the most time consuming kind). On top of that, I began working as a production assistant at Goddard Space Flight Center (very exciting I might add). All of these things however are not the most exhausting things I've ever done. I can deal with school, paperwork, regular work and anything else that requires exorbitant amounts of energy.

So that being said, this is not what I want to rant or rave about. What I want to rant or rave about is one of my classes in particular in which the content really affected the way that I look at things now. This class is documentary production. Now ordinarily, the class would be taught in a way that teaches you the basics and principles of documentary making, no big deal. The professor that taught it didn't see it that way. This man is a super leftist liberal (bless his heart) and decided to teach the class with an activist edge to it. So he began showing us documentaries of heavy content and readings that supplemented what we were seeing. Still doesn't seem too bad right? I didn't think so either. When he went through our syllabus and discussed the structure of class and some of the content we would be learning about, I thought, "Hmm, perhaps we'll talk about how George Bush is the worst president to ever see inside the Oval Office". No, that was not the case. Although my professor did have his biases against the president, he did not vocalize them. Instead he subverted his views of George Bush's style through material that would truthfully show us the bad in what goes on in the heart of our corrupt society. We were eased into all of this with a few short videos like "The Story of Stuff" and Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondent's dinner. He then hit us with other liberal sided docs like Sicko, The Corporation, End of Suburbia and What a Way to Go. Being brought up in a highly conservative house and closing my mind to politics yet attending a liberal arts college did not prepare me for all these one sided view points. Most of the opinions in the films we watched maintained that everything it talked about was in fact the truth. Well who knows what the truth is? Its better to keep an open mind and let everything wash over you so you can have a more informed opinion. Me, personally, I like to stay in the middle and try to avoid our bipartisan country's conflicting ideals. I don't usually like discussing the latest controversial issues that I do have opinions about (unless its with my conservative father who I then just take the other side for the sake of pushing his buttons).

Keeping that in mind, I am glad that I took this class before my departure to another country. Before the class, I think I was pretty open minded but my mind was pretty vacant in terms of knowledge of issues. However, now after a semester of learning and gathering opinions (granted they are a little one-sided) I feel a little more prepared for my trip than before this semester. Now I feel motivated to learn and search for all the information I can to broaden my perspective on local, national and worldly views. My anticipation for my trip this fall is that I can add experience to my perspective as opposed to just news print. As much as we rely on news print to retrieve our information on what's going on in the world, I think its just as important to experience these things so we have more passion and conviction in the things we talk about. It is a shame and unfortunate that not everyone is able to travel the world and see different sights and talk to different people and experience a different culture. It is with this idea in my mind that I appreciate this opportunity I've been given and really take full advantage of it as I embark on this adventure this fall.