National Museum (II) and Christmas Market!

Tuesday, 11/23, I had what I could call a busy day - but what I should really just call a normal day. I might as well get used to it by now that my next three and a half weeks (yikes! Am I leaving that soon?!?!) is going to be absolutely jammed pack if I want to do everything I'd like to before saying good bye to Praha.

For my history class, instead of the usual in class lecture we went to the National Museum. Remember that place from an October blog post? I wasn't too impressed with the taxidermy there then, but we were going to see the new exhibit on St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech lands, and although I wasn't setting my expectations too high, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The information was interesting and informative, as were the displays of ancient manuscripts, paintings, and sets typical of the age.

 Part of the exhibit

After that and my sociology class, I headed off to do some errands around Old Town and then took the metro to Namesti Miru ("Peace Square"). The Christmas market had been set up here over the weekend, and although not as grandiose as the market that will be up in Old Town Square this weekend, it was still fun to walk around in and be mesmerized by the lights and decorated tree.

The Christmas market and tree!

Back to Machova and more mundane chores such as homework and laundry, I took a study break later with Brandy and Bonnie when we went to a local Czech eatery, U Draka, for a quick snack. I tried out the side dish of potato croquettes, and I think I have a new favorite Czech food (not like there is much competition on that list anyway...) Basically a deep fried version of a gnocchi ball, they were a good pick me up in the midst of catching up on readings, research, editing, oh and blog entries...

1st day of classes, part 2, 9/7/10

Tuesday was my first day of my other 2 classes. I had History of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe at 12:00 to 1:20 and Inequalities: Social Stratification in a Changing World from 1:30 to 2:50.

I've never taken a history class in college, only a political science class (that didn't impress me that much), and I wasn't a huge fan of the read and memorize tactics of high school history. So, I had never given history serious consideration for college classes. I think this particular class just worked well with my schedule, and I figured I'd give it a shot. The topic seems interesting enough, and is after all very appropriate given our physical location. In all honesty however, I'm already a little bored in this class. Hopefully my opinion changes, but as of now, I don't have huge expectations. I'm really just not a 'history' person. But, the professor seems very knowledgeable so that is one good thing.

I already know I'm going to really enjoy my sociology class. I find sociology (and anthropology) in general very interesting. I have previously taken a law related sociology course at Bucknell, which I enjoyed, and this class seemed like a good choice for a different taste of the same sphere.

Pretty much all of my classes (except Czech) are graded mainly on papers and midterms/finals. We'll see how all of that goes. I have a long track record of extreme procrastination so here's to that changing in Prague! On that note... I really need to buy a planner...

One thing I can say about all of my classes is that I didn't have to buy even one single book. All books are "readers" (instead of textbooks) and I rent them for the semester from the library. For free!