a walking tour of the old town- long entry

i have so much to say, but no plan for how to say it. and it is very noisy and anxious where i am right now, so my mind is currently blank. okay okay. let me think. i could start with impressions.

they (the study abroad staff) say that the third week is when the homesickness starts kicking in. my homesickness is kicking in. this does not mean that i'm unhappy; i'm most certainly not unhappy. all it means is that i'm spending time thinking about what and who i miss in the states. here is a list of what i miss:

1. showers with hot water and shower curtains
2. delicious tofu on every corner
3. leafy greens leafy greens
4. my stereo
5. internet in my room
6. being warm outside
7. understanding what people are saying
8. people who respond positively to smiles
9. americana (yes, it's true)

here is a list of who i miss:
1. family and dog
2. amy, brazos, bob, and d'arcy mostly, because these are the people i saw the most. although i miss all my other friends too, of course.
3. kristen! (it was fun in birmingham for the first time in years because of how much time i got to spend with kristen)
4. guy.

here are the things i love about prague most right now:
1. my friends here, including rhys, who is also a friend from there
2. horka cokolada (hot chocolate)
3. learning a new, beautiful language
4. fried cheese (it is so good and so bad at the same time)
5. abc (a magazine from the 80's that they have for 5 kc in old bookstores (which is probably around 20 cents in american money) that has tons of crazy pictures inside.
6. walking in an unknown direction and almost always ending up in old town square
7. old town square, josefov, and czech history

the other day, rhys, kristen darling (the girl who was destined to be my best friend here, i think), and i went on a walking tour of the old town. we ended up in old town square (of course) after seeing about five different places that kafka lived. evidently, the kafka family enjoyed moving frequently. i'm glad we went on the tour, because even though i'd been to old town square before, i'd only thought of it as a touristy sort of place with overpriced hats and gloves and horka cokolada around every bend. turns out that it used to be a place where big things happened. well, first of all, kafka lived in almost every building around the square. mozart's lady friend was born in the building right in front of the tyn church. albert einstein also lived in old town square, and frequented a coffee shop that is now a bookstore.

in the center of the square is a large statue dedicated to jan hus, the first rector of charles university, who was executed for heresy in 1415. he was burnt at the stake in old town square. the statue shows him looking towards where he was executed. on one side of the statue (the side that faces towards the execution spot), there is a group of people who look like they are in agony. on the other side, facing the old church, are a group of people who look happy. zdenek, our tour guide/guru, said that if you walk around the statue, it reflects the history of the czech people, good bad good bad good bad. battles were fought in old town square. several people were executed. mozart and einstein walked on the same cobble stones that i do nearly every day. demostrations for communism (and probably against, although i've not studied these yet) were held. presidents spoke from the balconies of century old buildings. and this place is exactly 2.5 minutes walking from our apartment.

before we reached old town square, zdenek gave us a short lesson on architecture. he said the beauty of the architecture creates a harmony, like in music, which sings to you. he said the buildings sing to each other and also sing to you. and life is about finding harmony with yourself and with what is around you. he also taught us to remember rgrb, the four letters that indicate the order in which different architectural styles were popular. roman, gothic, renaissance, baroque.

on our tour, we crossed by the library, where we might be able to use the internet, which also has classical concerts, and then saw the old municipal building. there was a statue of the rabbi leow, which was designed by the same artist who made the statue in old town square. this particular statue was removed during the nazi occupation, because the rabbi was, of course, jewish, and this was unacceptable. the statue is black and sort of ugly. it looks like a gnarled old man who is melting into his robes.

rabbi loew was the chief rabbi of prague during outbreaks of the black plague. one night he walked into the jewish cemetery and saw a white shrouded figure (who was death) with the names of who was to die the next day written on a sheet of paper. rabbie loew saw the list, and saw his own name on the bottom of it, so he snatched it from the hands of death and ripped it to pieces. death told him that he'd escaped this time, but that they would meet again. the intelligent rabbi, very much afraid of meeting death again, constructed a device that would tinkle everytime death came near, and it was by this device that he was able to live for almost a century. one day the rabbi's family and young granddaughter came to visit him. he was so happy that he forgot to keep his device near him. his granddaughter handed him a rose, which he happily accepted, but death was hiding in a drop of dew on the rose. when he smelled the rose, he finally died. according to some religious people, the rabbi loew's spirit stays near his grave in the jewish cemetery, and if you go to it, you will see several pieces of white paper folded into the stone. zdenek says that if you are in need of help, you can write a wish on a piece of paper and rabbi loew may grant your wish for you.

zdenek says that there are several portals to upper world in prague, and if you are open to them, you can find them.

prague is almost too much. it is too hard to communicate, too hard to understand why the streets always take you back to old town square, too hard to understand how i fit into this city that has so many centuries of such intense history. i've spent so long writing this entry and i already realize what i've left out. there is just too much here. i love it. i'm also homesick. i love being homesick. i could really go for a nice steamy hot shower though. and some tofu.

here's a picture of me and kristen darling on a bus:



and here's me and zdenek in moravia: