Jazz Club

A bunch of us went to a jazz club called Jazz Centrum last night. A picture is worth a thousand words (I know I have taken so many since I've been here), so they will pretty much tell my story for me! Ahoj!

Jazz Centrum

Vino!

Jazz Band

James (Scottish), Iain (Scottish), and JR (Scottish)

JR (Scottish) and Will (Scottish)

Ben (Brittish) and Lois (American)

This guy was amazing...I never thought
of a flute as a jazz instrunment!

JR had to go get some cigars...oh boy!

Iain with the cigar!

James with the cigar!

Lois with the cigar!

No, Mom and Dad, I was not smoking it.
Just look at the way I was holding it!

James Bond? No, just our Iain!

Being cheesy afterwards :)

One Down, Two to Go

Ok so I officailly got done with my Photography class today. I turned in my final project and found out where our Photo Show will be next Monday night. There are two locations, so I'm not for sure where all the work will end up, but I'll probably go to both. I will get my grade next week, since I forgot my grade book thing with me (this is all very new to me, so I totally forgot about it, I haven't used it since February). He told me just to bring it next week and I'll get my grade then. Well I have lots to do this afternoon, especially if I am going to the Jazz Club tonight with the Scotts :) I've been wanting to go to one, so I'm glad they invited me. Well that's it for now! Ahoj!

Looking back...

Ok well I finally loaded pictures from the South Moravia Trip...so you'll have to back track a bit to see what I got to see! :)

Roses

Ok so I am actually working on homework, but I decided I would share a bit of interesting information that has put me in a working mood. I went to Church this morning as always (it happened to be Confirmation Sunday, so chuch was a bit long), but I found out that they were giving roses out at the end. I wasn't for sure why, and they ended up giving me two, and I got a little card with a saint on it. The saint is Saint Rita of Cascia, and they actually have an altar dedicated to her in the church, so that is why they celebrate it in this special way. It turns out that she had a long hard life, with a call to be a nun, but was betroved to an abusive man and lived with it for almost two decades. Near the end of her life, a visitor from her home town asked if she'd like anything. Rita's only request was a rose from her family's estate. The visitor went to her home, but being January, knew there was no hope of finding a rose, but there sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose blossom. Because of the events of her life she is the parton of desperate, seemigly impossible causes and situations.

Ok I don't know if I am really a lost cause, but I do know that I haven't done anything in almost one and a half weeks, I have deadlines approaching, I haven't really been enjoying Prague recently, and I have no motivation to really do anything. Now that the fact that I had been introduced to a Saint that is for lost causes (I am pretty much a lost cause since I just don't know what to do anymore) it was a real awakening for me. I can't let myself become a lost cause, I just can't. School is way to important for me to let that happen, and I definitely want to enjoy my last five weeks (yes I said five weeks) in Prague, and my final week in Berlin. So this is it, I am going to be working double time on trying to get my projects up to par and done. The sooner I get everything done, the sooner I can enjoy my last few weeks in Prague and Europe.

Also if I keep myself busy, I won't have time to dwell on all the jumbled mess in my head and maybe "Smiley Mandy" will be around a bit more. I can't do much about the jumbled mess in my head anyways, since it can't really be resolved until I come back home. And even though I don't like to regret things, and I try not to, I don't want to regret letting this jumbled mess do just that. Well back to CAD! Ahoj!

Week's End

Final Photography Project

Well after getting nothing done, well ok I got my photography project pratically done, I ended up treating myself to dinner and a movie, oh and icecream. I was thinking about going and seeing The Da Vinci Code, and low and behold I got a text from someone asking if I was interested. It was so weird! So after they got the tickets we decided to get some dinner before hand at Einstein's, which is an Italian Pizzeria resturant. It took forever for me to get my pasta! Come on, it so takes less time then anyone's pizza! So I ate about half of it in 10 or so minutes, it was hard to eat because it was piping hot! And we hurried off the Novy Smichov to the movie theatre. We arrived 15 min late, but as always there was still comercials going. So after finding our assigned seats, yes they have assigned seats here, we settled down to watch the movie. The movie overall was interesting. I have not had the pleasure of reading the book yet, but think I want to know, because I'm sure it will go more into depth. Books are always better then movies, although they did a great job with Lord of the Rings.

After the movie we talked about what we should do, well none of us had really ideas, so we headed to the tram stop. Then Alex said he wished there was a McD's by for icecream sundaes. I was like Alex, there is one right over there, we just pasted it. You've been here lots of times, you've never seen it? So we all decided to head over for an icecream, here comes the Czech Surprise of the day. The pictures looked like normal hot fudge sundae right, but when I got it, it came in a cone cup thingy. It has to be the biggest sugar cone I have ever seen! Well no waste there, I get my icecream and a cone :)

So after that, we decided to head to a pub along the 20 tram line for some drinks. I really didn't want a beer, but I ended up getting one in front of me and I drank a bit. So we all visited for a while and then got kicked out of it, it closed at midnight. We were lucky to catch the last 20 tram home, or it would have been a long trip home. When we got back, I noticed on the corner of the building this colored thing up on the ledge. I have no clue what it is or how it got there, but I was fairly amused by it. I just had to take a picture. So overall I have treated myself to a night out, but shouldn't, since I've done zilch. But maybe this weekend I can work and get stuff done. Well I should head to bed, I've been sleeping not too well and I think that has been a problem with my not doing anything productive as in school work. Ahoj!

PM Bar

So tonight was the last PM Bar Presentation. I can't believe it was the last one. I can't believe I'll be going home soon. I'm so going to miss Varie when she goes home next week for 10 days to present her project, I'll even miss her more when the semester is over. I'll miss everyone. Enough of that though, overall the night was good, one lil bad spell, but that is going to happen when alcohol (especially Long Island Ice Tea) is involved. Here's a recap of the night...

The Scotts...Iain, Varie, and James

Brit No. 1...Kate

Brit No. 2...Laura with Iain

Brit No. 3...Ben

Lenny (Dutch) and Lois (American)

During the UK Presentation

Scottish Presentation...

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Varie and Iain showing a Scottish traditional
dance called Gaygordons Dance

Everyone joins in...Lenny and Lois

Food! The scones, low and behold is sweet biscuits!

Me in the funny specs with Varie and James

What you see throught the specs!

Another view through the specs!

Dancing

Thanks Varie for cheering me up...
Me, Varie, and the British finger

Thanks James for cheering me up...
James and what James calls "Smiley Mandy,"
she hasn't been around too much.

Everyday Life

Koleji Sweet Koleji...
...the flat...

...the room...

...ok sometimes there is some sweet moments in the flat...

Varie (Scottish), Me, Paulina (Russian), Lenny (Dutch),
Nastia (Russian), and Paula (Spanish)

...and then some insane ones...

...foam parties...

Varie (Scottish)

Iain (Scottish)

Me

...tattoos (no they are not real)...

Kate (British)

Iain (Scottish)

James (Scottish)

...dogpiles...

Iain (Scottish), Laura (British), Varie (Scottish), and Me

Not for sure who is in this one...hmmm...

...dressing up like pirates...

Me

...and always dancing in the rain...

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

For Mom and Dad, who thinks they didn't teach me better :)

"Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness
has never danced in the rain."
~Unknown

"She hasn't got enough sense to come in out of the rain."
~Unknown

Happy 25th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Mom and Dad,

Congratulations your 25th Wedding Anniversary! I'm so happy for you two! I hope that one day I will get to celebrate my 25th Wedding Anniversary with the one I love. I hope you two are having a great trip in California! I hope you like your card I sent you (you said you were going to open it on your anniversary, it's the best Czech one I could find). I love you two so much! Congrats again!
Love Ya Lots~
Mandy

Married 25 years and still look like newly weds :)

This is for you guys!

Awakening

Well today I woke up really early, didn't want to, but the habbit of getting up early over the weekend did put me in the groove of it (I did have an early night I guess last night as well). I just didn't acheive much today, I don't know why. I had plans to do this or that, work on homework (which I am going to do after I do my blog for the weekend), but I just don't know. I felt a bit ill today, but then I might just be tired from traveling over the weekend. I went out to get a break from the room and walked around a bit for a while. It didn't help much, I came back and washed my clothes from the weekend (Lenny had a laundry key) and then thought about taking a nap. I laid down with Pirates of the Carribean on and just couldn't sleep.

I really can't believe that classes are almost done. My last photography class in next Monday. I have to turn in my drawings at the end of the month for my Figure Drawing class. I also have sculpture and Art in Architecture that is due sometime at the end of the month. On top of all of that I have studio, it's not too bad. I have my design pretty much approved with a few tweeks, but overall just have to put it in the computer (it's due June 12th). So much is going on, I should be doing my work. But I just can't get the energy to work, but maybe it's just I am still tired from the weekend and it will be better tomorrow. I don't know. I'm going to try to work on it some tonight, but we'll see. I want to go to the PM Bar on Wednesday night for sure, so I need to get stuff done before then. It's the last country presentation, including all my UK friends :) along with Poland and Slovenia. I can't wait for the farewell boat party next week to, it should be so much fun dressing up like pirates and cruising up and down the Vltava with all my friends.

With all the buzz of final this, and classes end this, I realize that I'm coming home so soon! I have missed home for so long, and I didn't handle it very well at all. Once I get home, I'm afraid so much is going to have change, including me. I'm still the same old Mandy who turns pink during certain discussions and who still can't feel her nose when she has had too much to drink, but I've grown a lot too, mostly for the better. I've learned that even though the world treats me like crap at times, sometimes I just can't do anything about it. I've learned that I can always make new friends, when I thought I would never do it again (I didn't think about when I was finished with school, but it has made me realize it's just a repeating cycle, and I always end up falling in the group that is just weird at heart, just like me). I've learned that there is so much more outside of the world then Kansas, the midwest, or the United States, I never knew how big the world really was. I didn't realize how much I would miss Kansas though, and I do. I miss everything about it. I'm sure I'll miss Prague for many reasons, but never as much as I do home and the ones I left behind. Well time to work on that blog from the weekend and then to do some homework. Ahoj!