I was kidnapped!

Okay not really....but technically. Friday night Annie and I were minding our own business, watching movies on our laptops, and 8 men burst into our room. They kidnapped and took us first to the pub downstairs and made us drink beer! Ugh! Then they took us to the Metro and let us to Meca, a club and bar. Where we spent 4 hours drinking and dancing, it was terrible! Jk jk..it was fun...anyways, the bar cost 12 dollars just to get in and all the people were ridiculously good looking. Including us of course. Jk agian! But it was fun and Ben, Annie, and I took a cab back to Masarykova...our dorm...It was a late, but fun night!

Ummm What else...nothing too much is going on. I am in love.....with grilled cheese sandwiches. Better than the mystery meat in the menza. I am awaiting my moms package that should be here by the end of the week....Oh and I got to draw naked MEN in figure drawing class today. He would have been relatively good looking if he didnt have a RAT TAIL....geez! Anyways I will put one of my drawings up. It was actually a lot easier to draw the guy because of the muscle definition. It allowed for shade and shadow and more lifelike drawings. Thats what I thought anyways. Annie missed it. She was working on studio, I bet she comes next week!! Ha, anyways.

We went to another movie this weekend. Casanova. By far not as good as Pride and Prejudice, it is hard to explain. But I wouldnt recommend it. Predictable and modern humor with classic love story, which could have been okay, but it wasnt somehow. Anyways, my opninon was agreed upon by the viewers as well. Oh well.

Sorry this blog could be terrible boring, but I have sculpture morning, and I have been doing some actual school work so....Photography has kinda started finally and We are progressing in ornament. But once again I cant complain about my classes, I thoroughly enjoy them! We are going out this weekend for sure and Wednesday of course, so maybe some more exciting news then. Oh I went shopping this weekend and bought some fabulous shoes. They are black and high and I love them....sorry Dad! I only live once. Oh and yes speaking of only living once. Annie and I recently booked our plane to Greece, and our hostel, which has a view of the Acropolis. We will be going April 28th through May 2nd, and we are preparing ourselves for a trip to the nude beach. Seriously, we are going to be carefree and go for it, which should be interesting. Hopefully quite far from "Eurotrip." Okay well thats it for now! Hope you are having a fabulous time wherever you are! Ciao!

Mr. Darcy

Okay well this week hasn't been too terribly uneventful. First and formost everybody back home and here as well (the italians) are on Spring Break, mostly to destinations where there is a variety of sunshine. Also to see that my best friend is living in Australia where she runs around in her bathing suit daily. Anyways this is a slight hinder to my optimism in the cold weather that is so abundant in Prague. However, the warmer weather is coming, and I am the extremelt hopeful that I will soon be frolicking in my bathing suit as well. I might be waiting longer than i hope for, but better later than never.

Anyways, this week has been some actual studio work and getting some stuff done! My project in studio involves an open program building replacing a historical town hall that was destoyed in WWII that exists in Old Town Square, a very important location in the city. Anyways we have began with some obvious hiostorical and site analysis and disiphering what are professor means by his scales, which we learned the hard way are much different than ours. But anyways he will be gone on Monday so no class then, and so Monday I will only have Ornamentation with our Crazy fun Professor, and Photography, which we have yet to do work for.

So last nights party was a success, like normal, right. It was the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese presentation, which caused enormous amounts of hope for the food and drink samples. We had pina coladas, sangria, vino, and spanish omelets. A success then. Not to mention the hundreds of people and the alcohol, which makes any party a hit. We had fun, and of course took plenty of pictures which is always expected. I braved the cold weather and went with my black gauchos and black pumps. Not too bad, my legs were a bit cold, but my feet braved the cobblestone quite well. Anyways we made it home around 2ish which can be expected, and passed out.

Tonight, thursday, the girls decided to take a break and start of the relaxing weekend in Prague with a movie at the cinema. We saw Pride & Prejudice, which I have only read once, in school , and honeslty didnt remember much of. I loved it, as well as MacKenzie, Annie, and Laura whom i went with. I will be reading that book soon, after the DaVinci Code, which we saw the preview to and comes out in May, so after my current book, and the DaVinci Code, comes Pride & Prejudice. Ill be busy, and I have to fit in my new addiction Sudoku! Amazing little numbers game. I have to give props to ben for helping me figure out te strategy to it, but after that my plentiful practice should make me an expert in no time.

Anyways I have a tendecy to wander with my stories which most of you should know, if you know me in the least bit. But this weekend is going to consist of shoe, watch, and dress shopping, as well as shopping for more art supplies. Oh and scultpure this week was a hit. My professor (which has a remarkable resemblance to Professor Snape in Harry Potter) came and worked with my hand and said if I didnt work so much on the detail it would be a nice sculpture. Illwork on it. Next week we are doing some still life. I am constantly excited for this class which is weird to hear me say, but I am enjoying almost all of my classes here!

Okay for now, I will go, leave a comment, and I will talk to you all soon!
Ciao!

Krakow_Poland_Auschwitz& Salt Mines

Okay so here is the rest of my travels in Poland. We woke up super early on Saturday and boarded a train to go to Auswitz, which is a little erie seeing is that is how all the victims traveled there. We had a long tour of the first camp by an amazing tour guide. The weather was apporpriate for the occasion, dreary and cold. I got chills several times going through the displays of human hair, shoes, luggage, and artificial limbs. It was very humbling. We saw beds, and cells and execution courtyards. We also saw the gallows, and the crematoriums. It was all really strange to know that these humans had little clue to what they were going to, they would pack up everything including shoe polish not knowing that it wouldnt matter. They had mug shots of a lot of the victims inside one of the buildings and it was just bewildering to see the dates of tehir arrivals and deaths. I dont know it is definitely something that has to be done in alifetime and make sure that nothing like that is ever done agian.

Okay well anyways, I did enjoy it tremendously and i bought a few recommended books on it...so I will be reading those shortly and I will let you know how that goes! But we were there all day and headed back on the train around dinner. Basically everybody passed out and we got back to our "Stranger Hostel" just in time for pizza! Yum! The girls all hung around the hostel and read american magazines and our new books! It was relaxing after a mind numbing day.

The next day we got up around 10 and headed by 20 minute bus ride to the salt mines. Which surprisingly was quite entertaining I thought. It was a cave basically made completely out of salt. The walls, ceilings, and floors were all salt, and our tour guide was again quite entertaining. She told us it was perfectly fine to lick anything we saw and it would be salt.....i took her word for it. But there was a cathedral completley made of salt with carvings, statues, and altar all of salt. 400 some feet under the ground too! We all decided we could live down there, they had restaruants and restrooms too! Anyways that trip was shorter so we spent the rest of the day gift shopping and wandering around Krakow before our train left back to Prague at 1030 pm.

Oh train rides.....this time there was 7 of us in an 8 person cabin. Landon, Ben, MacKenzie, Annie, a korean american, and I. So my first all nighter in Europe and it wasnt to do school work, it was on a freaking train...uhhhh! I slept porbably a total of 45 minutes, mostly Ben taught me the tricks and trades of Sudoku. You know that new trend of number boxes thingy. I hope you know what I mean. Anyways I had bought a book of them, and I did a bunch of those to keep me preoccupied...OOOOh and I think we got our identities stolen. No Lie. We had already gotten our passports and tickets checked , and three guys came into our cabin, asked if we were american, and took our passports one by one..entered them into a machine and wrote our info down. (ps when they check passports, they dont need to write anything down.) They werent wearing uniforms and ben asked for an id and they did nothing. Umm so If i disappear off the face of the earth..look for me in Poland! Ill be with 6 other Americans. Thanks! Im coutning on you!

Anyways...this is a long blog, but we got back Monday morning around 7 and annie and i for sure passed out....we skipped our first classes...oops! But we caught up on our sleep, and took Larry Bowne, our professor from kstate to dinner.

Okay enough for now! I will blog tomorrow probably or later this week for sure! Tomorrow night is party time! Get excited! Leave a comment please...i have had a shortage of comments and it isnt making me happy! So feel free! Love you! Ciao!

Good Morning Krakow!

Okay well I am actually in Krakow still sitting downstiars on the free interenet in our hostel....The Stranger Hostel...not bad...kinda good...weird name. Anyways I will try to make this breif...if that is possible for me!! We started off Thursday night at the train station and it was my first train ride in Prague....so since Italy I guess. Annie and I were in an 8 person cab with Dan, Bryan, and Ben! So we had some room. Anyways the train left at 9-9:30ish and took about 9 hours to get to Krakow... we slept some and read some and talked some. I was really tired and we all ended up passing out at some point, and I ended up in the fetal position with my head on ben and my feet on Dan, it was as comfy as we were going to get. Anyways all 30 of us arrived at 5:30 in the morning and took a short 20 minutes hike to our hostel...I think we were all too tired to look around, but it was cold..colder than Prague...and snowy a bit. We were given our rooms and told to meet downstairs at 10 am...so we had time for a 1.5 hour nap.

The girls basically all grabbed a room to ourselves with 8 bunkbeds in it. There were already two austrailian girls there....yeah sarah...and hey turned out pretty fantastic! They are super fun and fit right in, and they are coming to Prague soon! Anyways we left around 10 for a day long tour of the city...And by day long I mean day long! We have all our food paid for so we all go to a restaurant and they serve on meal.. Which is nice because it is fast and taken care of, but i wish we had some of a choice. Anyways We finished the tour around 5 and headed to dinner and then back to the hostel where we had ummm like 2 hours to get ready to go out! For St Pattys day of course!!! We all headed to a pretty cool bar/lounge/club and hada few drinks, but we heaaded home pretty ealry because we were getting up at 7 this morning to go to Auschwitz...which is another story in itself...so sorry to leave you hanging, but I will write of that and teh remainder of my trip when I return on Monday! Ciao for now and I hope everyone is doing Fabulous! _alli!

Weekend Ski Trip!

Well lets see...we took off 10 am on Friday morning and made it to our little Czech ski town around 1 pm where we had to make a short hike up a very icey hill to our hostel. Annie and I managed to get a two person room..how romantic, I know! Annie and I watched some Czech TV, which is so fabulous by the way and passed out. We got up in time to head into town for some last night cruising. When I say head into town I mean ice skate a mile down hill into town trying your very hardest not to biff it on the ice....I managed for now. Anyways we heade to a bar.club/bowling alley and had a couple drinks and smoked some melon flavored tobacco from a hookah. A new experience for me and not too bad. I took pictures of course.

We ended that night semi early and tried to sleep..little did we know we wouldnt make it to bed until around 6 am due to some disorderly conduct from the german/czech boys across the hall. When I say boys what I really mean is 20 some year olds acting like they are in middle school. They were running up and down the halls, and after I stuck my head out to ask them to be quite they persisted on knocking down our door and keeping us up for literaly...no exaggereation, 4 more hours. I didnt get it, they wouldnt go into their room and they opened the fire hose and it started spraying...we were rather ticked off...as ticked off as Annie and I can get. Anyways needless to say we didnt get up early the next day and didnt make it to the slopes til later. We managed to walk through the little town and take pics of the massive amounts of snow that have accumulated over which seems to be years. It was very entertaining. By the end of the trip I had skied without falling...miraculously even though I had flown over some "mini mogals", that is what I like to call them..I am sure they were just small imperfections in the snow accumulations during the days. Who knows but they were almost the cause of several mishaps. I survived however.

We packed all of our stuff this morning and got ready to leave and had to skate again down the hill with our luggage in tow because the bus could not make it up our hill....so just to make the trip a bit more entertaining I thought I would walk hastily with my luggage down the oh so slippery hill side and bite it in front of all 50 of my international friends. I did it purely to entertain, i sware...well I will say what I said when it happened...it hurt my ego more that my ass! SO I didnt make it through the trip with out a "trip"...oh what a play on words...im a nerd!

Anyways sorry i had no exciting stories of a tree run in or a snow leopard spotting, but it was a fun weekend and I am glad to be back.....I missed my interent, is that possible? I had dreams about it? Is that normal. I am pretty sure it is...just trust me! Okay well it is off to class for 4 days before Krakow, Poland...yeah! Wihs me luck, more naked drawings, and I start scuplture, which should be interesting too!! Ciao for now!

Partytime and upcoming ski trip!

Hey ya'll! Okay well last nights party was a success! All the foreign students loved our powerpoint of photoshoped pictures...chris, annie and I did them...as well as our jungle juice and jello shots....and our food. Our food consisted of the following:
puppy chow (mmm)
grilled cheese
pb&j
smores (mmmmm)
and little smokies with bbq suace (those were a huge hit)
we figured out that there isnt a lot of food that is orginially american or is readily available in the Czech Republic. So thats what worked. They loved it just the same! Also the beer bong was a hit! It was passed around all night probably envoking a string of illnesses soon to hit Masarykova dorm! But I didnt do it, so I should be safe....Annie on the other hand..we'll find out! Anyways needless to say, Annie and I and the rest of us got very drunk, to show them how Americans do it! And we made it home in the snow on the tram...brrrr! I cant wait for warm weather! I will be walking around in my bathing suit I sware! And avoiding Czech smellies as I have been warned by Nicole! Thanks! Anyways, Annie and I have a balcony since we are on the third floor, so we may stand out there and get sun when at all possible...and I say stand cuz there isnt enough room to lay down! ehh...cant be too picky!

Anyways, I had the rest of my classes this week. Studio lasted all of 15 minutes today! Fabulous! Loved it! And tomorrow morning I will be leaving for my ski trip! Hopefully I will report back with no broken bones, injuries, or tree mishaps! But we will see. I may be attempting snowboarding, and Annie is going extreme sledding and trying to take out as many people as possible along the way, so I am excited to see what is in store! Next week is Annies bday so that should be a fabulous time as well, and then Poland, which may be a more solemn trip this the ski one, but we shall make the best of it! My dad is still in China and my grandparents are in Washington with my aunt and uncle! Hi Grandma & Grandpa! And I would liek to give a shout out to my Mom, Dad, and sisters! Because I know my mom is the first one to read my postings...she lives for them!!! And of course a shout out to Uncle D and Aunt K! and the kiddos! Hello!

Okay well Iam going to pakc now that it is 1 am and I leave at 10 am tomorrow morning. I am a bit of a procrastinator whether in the US or Europe! But I hope everybody is having a fabulous time wherever you are and leave a message! Miss you all!

Ciao! Alli!

Short, Mid-week Blog!

Okay this should be a brief blog. A few things...first of all my dad is currently in Bejing(sp?). China, I know. Why not Europe? Don't know. He did tell me he would pick me up some chopsticks. How cliche? dad...He's never been. Scotland, Norway, Venezuela, Alaska, but never China. We will see if it is a new trend.. So my mom and little sister are sitting at home in Houston with a daughter in Europe, a daughter in Hawaii, and a husband in China. My family is on three different continents, plus an island. How crazy is that!

Secondly, that was probably the most exciting part of this blog but..I went to figure drawing class tonight for the first time. It was supposed to be the meeting for it, but little did Annie and I know, it would be our first attempt at drawing. I am posting a drawing of mine but only if you promise not to judge. I have taken NO art since elementary school okay. Not even drawing classes in college, just studio....so keep that in mind. It was fun and Annie and I know we have a lot to learn...a couple of the engineering guys here said they may come stand in on that class...ha, we'll see!

And finally, presentation tomorrow. Preparing jungle juice and jello shots for tomorrow night. Highly anticipated event of this week. Hopefully it will be a success. I will write back regarding it. The hockey game was a success. Lots of fun, and there were plenty of penalties, which I continuously refered to as "fouls." Annie kept reminding me with little effect. It was fun even though we couldnt understand the chants. The music they played was all recognizable to us and we wanted to make a hockey game soundtrack, it would have been fabulous dance music for Wednesday night! Not to forget we saw an Australian team coming to watch and I took a pic for Sarah! They even smilied for the picture! Fun week so far, and my illness is failing do to my constant ingestion of vitamin C and calcium!

Have a fabulous week and Ill write soon! Leave a comment! Ciao!

Nothing TOOO Exciting!

Well, last time I left you, we had underwear hanging in our room, and we were expecting a debut at Wednesday nights Czech student presentation. Well, the panties dried, and I made it to the party Wed night alone without Annie, due to her overwhelming illness that lasted all of four days. She is currently recovering, and I have been so lucky as to retrieve the symptoms that she is getting over. So currently it is Saturday night, and Annie and I are both in our room watching movies. My movie, Ocean's Twelve, just ended and Annie is watching the rest of "Boondock Saints." Terribly entertaining, I know. My illness consists of a headache, one of those that makes you head feel 10x heavier than it is, and flulike symptoms. It is dreadful, but rather a slight nuisance. Annie is feeling bertter, and we hope that we are feeling better by tomorrow evening when 13 of us are headed to a real Czech Hockey game. These Czechs are crazy for their hockey. Annie's czech buddy helped us get the tickets.

Anyways Wednesday night's party was a success, even without Annie. The Czech students had their presentation and handed out shots of some sort at the door. Not my favorite due to the fact that the chaser was a piece of bread with salt on it...ummmm....! Anyways they had a few trivia games and asked students to come up on stage, and seeing as my Czeck buddy, Hanka was hosting it, I was destined to participate. But by the end of the presentation, I had won myself two free rum and cokes. That started off the night quite appropraitely. I decided after that, that I wanted a fancy drink, so I went to the flame spitting bartender and asked for a pina colada. He somehow got a Mojito out of that and so I was lucky enough to enjoy my first ever mojito which consists of some sort of leaves, lots of ice, lime juice, and of course some form of alcohol. I enjoyed it, but I really wanted my pina colada, so I went back and ordered it again. Got it this time only apparently they dont serve it froaen. Learned my lesson I guess...different cultures, different drinks. Oh well, so we spent the remainder of the night dancing. This all takes place at the PM club which we have parties at every Wednesday night. Next week it is the US and Costa Ricas turn to do presnetations. So we are handing out Jello shots at the door as well as teaching beer bong and beer pong. Plus giving some fabulous prizes away and teaching them some culture of the States. Should be quite entertaining. We shall see. I should have pictures.

Until then, I start taking my fine arts classes this week, which is what my schedule is consisting mostly of. I chose my studio professor, Plicka, and I will either be doing a urban design redevelopment in Prague or a Open Program building in Old Town Square...I have yet to decide for sure. But I have for sure picked, fine arts (color and composition), figure drawing (naked people), sculpture, photography, ornamentation, and computer graphics. So my schedule should be good to go. No class on Fridays which I am very happy about.

Okay well next time I write hopefully something fantastic will have happened, more so than this time, but I will have the hockey game to write about and the upcoming ski trip! So Ciao for now and leave a comment pppplease!!!