my first snow fall!

view of the entire sternberg castle

The past two days have been unbelievable. Yesterday, a group of us went to Kutna Hora, a small town in the Czech Republic, about 1 hour or so bus drive from Prague. We left at about 830am again, another early morning, and got to our first destination... the Sternberg castle (I felt so famous! They kept mentioning how Stern in czech means "star"!) The castle was absolutely stunning... and right when we arrived, it started to snow &

me and the roomies in front of st. barbaras cathedral

 I was the only one freaking out when I started to see it fall. The castle looked beautiful with its white blanket. After touring the castle, we headed into the central town of Kutna Hora and went on a brief walking tour. We saw a bunch of different cathedrals, structures, and buildings and learned which style they were designed as. The town wasn't THAT beautiful, but I'll admit the architecture was awesome (really got me excited for my architecture class in Prague). After the tour, we got a lunch break and my roommates and I went to a really cute pub and got some good czech food (I got grilled sausage and some potatoes). Hearty as always, wow. After lunch we went to St. Barbara's Cathedral in the center of the city. It was seriously so beautiful. Stained glass windows, intricate engravings and statues, and gold frames everywhere. I was shocked to hear that this church, as well as the synagogue from the day before, is rarely used for actual prayer--more so for concerts. Our final destination of the day was by far the coolest of them all-- The bone church. Inside of this ossuary contained the bones of 40,000 corpses! While it sounds crazy scary, it was actually awesome to see how well the bones were preserved and how many bones there are in one body. We got home at about 6, picked up some sandwiches for dinner in the dorm, and FINALLY GOT INTERNET!! Now we don't have to schlep to the lobby to get internet. We went out last night with some people from other programs which was nice and a good change of pace. The club was called Mecca and it was really fun and had great music and lights.  Overall, it was a great day, and needless to say, busy.

roomies at the Bones church

Today was another great day, but in a different, more relaxing way. After a whopping 5 hours of sleep, we went to the ECES (charles university, my school) office to receive our student ID cards. After that, Jenna and I wanted to sign up for a 3 month gym membership at this awesome gym near Wenceslas Square called World Fitness. We THOUGHT we knew how to get there from the office, but we were sorely mistaken. On our way to the incorrect tram route, it started to SNOW SOOOO HARD and I of course was loving it. After about an hour of walking in the complete opposite direction, we finally found the gym, and were so excited that we found our way. After all, our program director told us on the first day that getting lost is the best way to see the city! After the gym, we went on a hunt to find this place that I have been hearing about from all my friends who went to Prague. This place, Bohemia Bagel, was DEFINITELY worth the walk. Their menu is endless-- bagels, muffins, and scrambles, to chilli, soup, salads, and sandwiches, Jenna and I were struggling with our order choices but ended up both getting some chilli and a salad. It was very delicious and especially in the cold snow! Now we are all back in the dorm, trying to book our weekend trips to Rome, Belgium and Spain. It is a lot harder than we thought seeing as though we have a lot of weekend trips planned with AIFS including Poland, Moravia, Istanbul, and Vienna. Tough life, right? Anyway, tomorrow we are leaving for Moravia at 1030am and I am very excited because it is supposed to be super cool. Hope all is well in the states. Jealous of the weather, Dan.