...Catching Up...

...so I know it’s been forever and a year since I wrote anything…so I guess you’ll have to get the very brief outline of what my life has been like. Well…we did our trip to Vienna, Austria, Bratislava, Slovakia, and Brno, the capital of Moravia in the Czech Republic. It was a great trip…but towards the end it got really tiring traveling around with 14 girls :D However, I definitely loved Vienna and it was so much fun just wandering around the city…we didn’t spend too much time in museums because it was so nice outside.

…and speaking of nice outside, Prague finally came out of winter and it is AMAZING. It is absolutely gorgeous here!! And I love it! And, of course, with spring came the hoards of tourists…which kind of make me laugh…A LOT! It’s just funny when I hear people speaking in English saying something ridiculously stupid…and I totally don’t want to be associated with that culture at all. And I don’t have to be…I can pass myself off as a Czech :D But really…sometimes Americans are just RIDICULOUS!

Over the past couple months I also had two other visitors…Rebecca, my sister, and Kerstin (a friend from WM) and her cousin, Rachel. It was great to see all of them. And we definitely had a great time! It was a bit rainy for all of their visits…but still fun!!!

Other than that…my life for the past month has been research research research!! I have been working on my independent study project, in which I did case studies of the marketing strategies of 6 individual arts organizations in Prague. I spoke with either the directors or marketing directors of each organization, as well as a few other people in the arts community. It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do…in terms of my academic life. It was just way way cool to be talking with these professionals in the field of what I want to be doing in the future. I got to talk with the marketing director of Laterna Magika (the theatre where the Velvet Revolution had its headquarters under Havel); with the marketing director of the Czech Philharmonic; and probably one of the best interviews, the director of Ponec Theatre. This woman basically cultivated an awareness and audience for contemporary (modern) dance in the Czech Republic. Contemporary dance didn’t exist here before the Revolution—only ballet and folk dancing. So she basically helped get the movement off the ground and its amazing to see her passion for it and continued persistence in its development. Definitely way awesome!! And the culmination of all of this research was a 35-page paper (…which ended up being 53 pages in my case!!…apparently maybe I’m dyslexic :D ). So…it was definitely cool…but I’m glad I’m done with it.

Other fun things include taking my host mom and sister to see Tony Ackerman, a famous American jazz musician here. He was here during the 80s, and my mom absolutely loves him! He’s friends with my academic director, Sarah, so she got us tickets to see him in a private club. So it was definitely fun to take her to that…she was so excited, it was way cute! And just spending time with my family is always awesome! They’ve definitely been a huge blessing in my time here…and they continue to amaze me every day.

The program officially ends on Sunday…so it’s weird to think of some of the girls leaving. I am here until June 14…doing a bit of traveling with Ivy, a girl from the program. So that should be exciting.

me and jill in vienna...the elephant in front of the natural history museum


royal palace in vienna

me and kerstin @ petrin hill in prague