First Day of Classes | September 12th 2013

We got a late start to the day by waking up at 11:30, thank goodness josh did not have studio until 2:30.  We were encouraged by Dana to sit in a few czech language classes so we could learn the language while here and possibly use it in the future.  It started at 1pm so we rushed to get ready and headed to school.  Czech language is one of the most difficult languages, although you can speak any word after you learn the alphabet, it is really difficult.  There is a lot of tongue rolling sounds and some words use different pitches of your voice.  Even though I may be able to speak the language, i still don't think I will know what the person is saying back, they talk so fast!    I think we are going to sit in a few more classes, the professor is very nice and speaks English well so it is easy to understand her.   This class lasts a hour and a half and then at 2:30 josh had his studio class until 5:30.  I was going to stay at the institute and catch up on my blogs in the lobby area but 20 minutes into his studio, he told me that they were going to explore the "site" of their project and that I could come along, so i packed up my things and walked with the group.  The  professor, Henry, was not telling us where we were going but guided us on the tram and then walked a few blocks to get an idea of the surrounding area.  He then told us where we were, which was Holesovice, a neighborhood north of the center of prague and on the other side of the river ( where we are staying, everything else is on the other side).  Today's assignment was to take a hour and observe the site which was a few blocks and the surrounding areas to get a better feeling of the space.  This will be used for an assignment that will be completed next week.  The site was run-down, dirty, not much activity and non-developed.  This is because this section of town was majorly flooded by the river 10 years ago and it is slowly regrowing.  Being in this urban design studio, I'm sure josh will be working to develop an area but we are still unsure where this is leading.  After the hour was up, we met Henry at a park that had a restaurant and  we gathered inside where he bought everyone something to drink and we discussed the findings of the site.  As we were beginning to head out, it begins to downpour, ugh, but we had to head back to school to get Josh's computer before heading home.  So as a class we walked a mile in the rain trying to find some sort of transportation back.  It was miserable, cold and my feet were soaking wet from walking in all the puddles, thank goodness I brought my rain jacket cause some people didn't have any shelter from the rain.  We finally found the metro, figure out where we needed to get off and had to connect to another. Long story short, there were 2 different groups, one was going to school and the other back to the pension (where everyone else is staying).  So one of the guys said that he was going back to school and then changed his mind but never told us, so we followed the wrong group.  So we retraced our steps, went back down into the metro station and got off at the right stop to head to school.  Thank goodness for our city tour yesterday, it came in handy today!  We got what we needed at school and then proceeded home.  We get off the tram and walked to the convenient store and got a few more things to eat for dinner.  We got home and changed our clothes because they were soaking wet and i feel gross when riding public transportation (i need some lysol to spray my clothes) and Josh made cheese omelettes, and sweet tea for dinner.  What a day!  Now we have this weekend to explore more of Prague, maybe go the castle and explore different food places!  We shall see!