So about that whole spring thing...

Didn't happen. It has snowed the past two days. I had to dig out my boots and long johns. I miss the sun.

Anyway, Harris reminded me that I didn't mention a brewery that I went to last week. It is called U Fleku and it's a bit of a tourist trap, but not in a bad way. The brewery has been open since 1499 but the restaurant is ONLY two hundred years old. They serve traditional Czech food in addition to their very dark beer. I got onion soup and split a chicken dish, which was MORE than enough. Czech do enjoy their big portion sizes. It was a fun environment: there are only tables of eight [so you might sit with people you don't know], there are musicians [accordion and tuba] who wander around the huge dining area, and [Daddy, you'll like this] you get served very quickly.

Today, we went on a random field trip to a little town outside of Prague to visit a museum that details life in Bohemia in the nineteenth century. The best way I can think to describe it is a really creepy Old Salem. Instead of real life people telling you about the museum, we got scary scary mannequins with signs we couldn't read in Czech. A little odd.

When we got back to Prague, I ran back to the Institute to stalk my computer shippage. Still not here. Boo.

As I mentioned last time, Czech is a ridiculous language. There are very few vowels, so sometimes consonants turn into vowels. For example: zmrzlina. This is a real word [it means ice cream]. You add an 'e' onto the 'm', so you pronounce it :zmerzlina...so much easier. There are also extraordinarily difficult  consonants.  What is this ř thing, you ask? Oh, simply roll an 'r' [like Spanish] while making a 'sh' sound. Try it. It's harder than it sounds. But don't get it confused with ž [pronounced like the 's' in treasure]! Then the words take  on a whole different meaning.  Funny/awkward story Czech mispronunciation story:  When we first got here, Art [the asst. dean] took us around Prague and gave us some vocab to get around. We quickly learned  'Nazdraži' [Cheers!]. Unfortunately, we were mispronouncing the  word ever so slightly. The word wasn't 'nazdraži', but rather 'nazdravi', a small but crucial difference. Instead of saying 'cheers!' while we were toasting, we were saying 'train station!'. Yeah. No wonder we got some odd looks.

Tomorrow, I am going to the Castle. It is the last big thing that I haven't seen in Prague. I am super excited to see St. Vitus' Cathedral which is situated within the Castle walls. It was founded by Charles IV [the most famous Czech king] on the place where St. Wenceslas [the patron saint of Prague] died. The Castle is the largest castle structure in the world and the seat of the current Czech government. I'll let y'all know how it is!!