Prague has been invaded by Italian teenagers.

Not kidding. Yesterday I got caught in a mob and thought I was going to die from inhaling all of the hair products.

Anyway...

Spring has sprung!

Well, sort of. I have now graduated from my heavy wool coat bought for this trip to my heavy coat that I wear in the dead of winter in NC. Hooray! [Except that it got cold again today. But I refuse to wear the wool coat again. I will persevere!]

Final wrap up from London:
1) I have gotten spoiled by Prague prices. Everything here is cheaper, so when I got to London, it was a bit of a shock.
2) Black snot. Gross.
3) I felt so much more in my comfort zone than I have anywhere else in Europe. I mean, obviously the language makes a huge difference, but I really love the English culture as well. I still love Prague the best, but London is a very close second.
4) Amazing theatre. Amazing. How hard do you think it would be to audition for some shows there?
5) I want to move here after I graduate. Oops, did I say that out loud?


Last Friday, I went to Terezin, a small town north of Prague that served as a concentration camp during WWII. I studied this camp last year in my Music and Politics class. This camp was the "model camp" that the Nazis showed the Red Cross. They doctored up the town to look like the prisoners were treated fairly for one week, putting on jazz performances, hosting a soccer tournament, giving the prisoners lots of food...Unfortunately, their deception worked and the Red Cross was fooled, leaving the concentration camps unchecked.

This was the camp where the Nazis sent many musicians, actors, directors, and other artists, therefore, the arts flourished at Terezin. Several operas were written and performed, jazz music was played in secret and children were instructed in drawing. The museum showed many of the children's drawings depicting their life in Terezin. These broke my heart...below the pictures was their birth date, death date and the camp where they died.

On a slightly less somber note, I learned today in Czech language that Czech is the hardest language in Europe. Harder than Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, and even Russian. No wonder we aren't progressing very quickly. But now I can say things in the past tense! Yay! Improvement! I now have the language capabilities of a three year old!

Sorry for the jumbled mess that is this email. It has been written over several days on several different computers [mine is coming soon!!] so everything is running together. Talk to y'all soon!


PS: Do y'all have any requests about stuff that I talk about? Are you intrigued by Czech food? Wish to know more about the museums? Long for school details? Let me know.