Na shledanou, Praha! Rad jsem vas poznal!

[[goodbye, prague! It was nice to meet you!]]

Well, tomorrow at this time I will be on the airplane flying back to America. It is really really bizarre. These four months have comprised both the slowest and fastest semester. I think about the day we got here when we were carrying our bags through the front door of Machova and how everything just seemed so confusing, so foreign (no pun intended). And now to think about how much we have done since we've been here, how comfortable we have become and how use to the city we have become. As sad as it is to be done with this experience, I think it is time for it to end. I need to go back to living a real life and I think most people on my program feel that way.

We have definitely been taking full advantage of our last few days here in Praha. My last final ws on Wednesday , but luckily work here isn't a priority so I have still been able to enjoy my last week. On Tuesday night, NYU rented out Radost, a club that we have gone to a bunch of times through out the semester. It was weird because it was only people on my program and I had never seen some of them before. In addition to us, students, our RA's were there as well. It was nice being able to spend time with them outside of the dorm.

Immeditely after my final on Wednesday, we bought some beers up to Petrin Hill for "Slope and Charter Day" and started to celebrate. It has officially become spring here. The flowers are bloomed, the sun is out and the temperature is about 17 degrees celsius. We found a nice patch of grass up on the hill and sat there from about 1 pm until 6:30 when we left to go to the NYU sponsored farewell dinner at Cafe Slavia. Now that everyone was done with work, it was awesome to have a bunch of people just hanging out and reminiscing about the past semester.


After dinner with our professors and other administrators at Slavia, we went home and took a nap to get ourselves ready for the big night ahead of us. Even though I hate the idea of going to Mecca, I knew that I had to go just one last time. We headed to Cross where about hundreds of other people obviously had the same idea as us (especially because today is a national holiday). Apparently the line to get into Mecca circa 2 am was infinite. People waited over an hour and still were no where near the door. So as a result we decided to just stay at Cross for the whole night. At 4:30 we left Cross and took the metro to the Charles Bridge where we watched the sunrise until about 6 am. I did my final walk across the bridge and tried to take in the view of the castle and Petrin Hill one last time. This city really is incredibly special and has treated us well. I'm sure when I return to visit in a few years, the city will have drastically changed and will most likely be on the Euro.


So right now I am in the process of packing and its kind of weird to look at my two duffel bags and one smaller carry on and think that for the past four months my life has been completely mobile. Everything that I really need I have been able to just move around with me. There's something surprisingly refreshing in that sentiment. Even though most of my stuff is packed, it still hasn't hit me that I won't be back here. I'm not sure when it will hit me, but I have a feeling it might be sometime soon in America as soon as I hear a great techno song.

Burning of Thy Witches

In Prague, April 30th marks the eve of "Burning of the Witches" [pálení čarodějnic] which is an old Czech tradition where people make bonfires and burn witches made out of straw. The point is to ward off all evil and winter and welcome in spring. Even though I love winter, I'm ready for y lst week and a half here to be nice. I felt obligated to contribute.

Obviously I became obssessed with the idea of us going to the celebration that is most authentic. Researching these bonfires was not the easiest thing since although it is tolerated because of its tradition, bonfires in the middle of the city are stil illegal. On the outskirts of the city, however, is where people really celebrate. So our first stop on this witch burning adventure was Ladronka Park which is about an hour from where we live. Once we got there we see a ton of people walking down a thin dirt path. For about half a mile we just followed the crowd only realizing we were heading in the right direction because of the smell of fire and the sight of smoke. Finally we get the festival and there is a huge bonfire in the middle of a field, venders selling Czech goods, sausages galore, live music, and parents helping their kids fly on brooms. There was even a Ms. Witch competition (everyone had really incredible witch outfits on- I felt a little out of place in my jeans and shirt). It was such a beautiful night to just be hanging outside observing this pagan-like ritual.

After Ladronka Park, we went to Kampa Island which is a little island right off of the Charles Bridge. This was more of an ex-pats scene, but still a good bonfire and tribal music. The views were also spectacular as you could sit on the water and look at the castle lit up at night. The funniest part about this scene was that police were selling hot dogs and sausages out of a police van for people to grill at the bonfire.

Oh, Prague and Czech folk traditions...