Trends: Week 2

# 10 ) Small furry dogs. Everyone has them. They are really well behaved and look like they are bathed every morning. They have better hair than mine.

# 9 ) Dog poop. Apparently the whole 'clean up after your pet' rule is not enforced here like it is in seattle. So, it's only a matter of time if you know what I mean...

# 8 ) John Lennon. People are obsessed with John Lennon here, mostly with his ideas about peace and freedom. During communism in the 80's, people created the 'Lennon' wall in tribute to Lennon's ideas. Beatle's lyrics and pictures continue to be painted on the walls.

# 7 ) Graffiti in general is everywhere. It's crazy to me that people would casually tag a building from the 1700's but then again, to them it is probably just a building. Seeing graffiti everywhere reminds me that Prague is a breathing city with people, not a historical monument in a museum. 

# 6 ) I guess it's called "Street Meat". Every few blocks, my nose detects an alarming smell. It's a mix of garbage and bacon. Sometimes I think something is rotting and then I remember, its just a street vendor. Abnormally long sausages hang in the windows, people walk away from it carrying glasses of mulled wine, and the familiar scent of smaziny syr (fried cheese) lingers in the air. This is the only thing I've actually tasted from a street vendor and I've got to say, not bad. Not bad at all. If anyone has seen Anthony Bourdain's episode on Prague, he's all about the smaziny syr.

# 5 ) Trip planning. Now that I'm settled in my dorm room and classes are about to begin, I am already planning to leave. The last weekend of February I will be taking a train to Budapest with a few friends. The weekend after that I am debating between Dublin and the alps. The weekend after that, my whole group is heading to Vienna for the weekend. 

# 4 ) Still trying to speak czech and still sucking. The immersion course, for those of you that don't know, is a 5 hour class devoted to learning the czech language. Each class has ten(ish) students in it. My final test is in a couple days so my classmates and I have been meeting downstairs at our dorm bar for some czech speaking and czech beer. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it) this usually just turns into an hour of crowding around the jukebox and paying 5 ckr to hear forgotten hits from the 80s and 90s. 

# 3 ) 80's and 90's playlists. I'm not sure what the deal with this is. Every restaurant, gift shop, \ and bar seems to have a 90's XM station constantly playing. It's totally normal here to listen to American music, even if you can't understand the words. You can go into the trendiest cafe and you will leave with a song by Madonna or Pink stuck in your head. Very weird, I have no explanation for this one. 

# 2 ) Getting lost, a little less often! This is an accomplishment for me. Anyone who knows me is aware that I was not born with that little gift of direction. But, I think, maybe, there might be hope for me. So what if it took me a week to learn that the castle was not on the other side of the river... 

# 1 ) Establishing some "spots". Now that I know how to use the metro (usually) and trams (once) I feel a little more confident exploring the city. Prague has some really crappy cafes and restaurants but lately, I've been finding the good ones. My new fave is called the Globe. It has red walls covered with weird picture frames and they show movies every sunday night.