Peace and War.

I know October is still quite awhile away, but I've decided I will be spending my 12-day fall break traveling through Ireland, Scotland, and England. I found a flight through Ryan Air that will take me from Prague to Dublin for 239 czk- about 17 American bucks. How can I pass that up? Ryan Air can also take me to Edinburgh for about 40 bucks, and I can take a train to London, but getting back to Prague is going to be the challenge. It can be done, but as of now, not cheaply. Hmm, still more research is needed.

Yesterday I added another day to my already four-day weekends when I dropped Reporting I. The class was essentially what I had already taken at Clemson (Intro to Journalism), so instead they signed me up for an independent study. Each month, I will be writing a 500-600 word piece for The Prague Post, Prague's English language newspaper. I will meet with an advisor at school who will help in the editing process, but other than that I don't have class. I will be specifically covering non-profit organizations and events that they are hosting. Each month I will feature a different organization. I sort of feel lazy with now a five-day weekend, but what is a girl to do? The experience of writing for the paper will be great, and it will give me more travel time, so I can't complain.

A couple of nights ago our apartment decided to cook for some of the other CEA kids. I decided to make my dad's infamous pasta (sauteed spinach, zucchini, squash, tomato, garlic and then throw in feta cheese), however, the Tesco (wal-mart but way better and bigger) didn't help me out much. Vegetables are one of the most expensive items here because they are not a big part of a Czech's diet. Not only that, but it is not uncommon to go the store and find that they are sold out of vegetables. When trying to find things at the store, we were sad to discover that they were out of tomato, zucchini, and squash. So, we improvised and used peppers, onions, and a bag of other frozen vegetables instead. We also found some really cheap red wine for about 28 czk, which is under $2- kind of pathetic, I know. It was so cheap it later made our mouths turn blue.

The only other thing to really report on is what took place in my Media & Democracy class on Monday. We had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about freedom of the press, particularly in the United States, as well as its relationship with the current war situation. She is an American- a freelance journalist and author of some political books. To set the stage, we have a pretty international class: United States, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, France, and the Czech Republic. What first bothered me was her vagrant disrespect for some of the non American students. When she asked one girl her name, the speaker attempted to say it correctly once before she said "Uh, whatever, close enough-" as if to say getting the girl's name right wasn't important. Further, though I tend to have more liberal views myself, this speaker made her hard-core liberal views come across as 100% fact without even suggesting there was another side. Then, she pretty much deliberately put the class against each other, asking each of us if we thought there was a war going on in the world, how much independence should the media be given, and then asked our opinions on issues like Prague being the radar base for Poland's missals and the Russian/Georgian conflict. The Russian was mad at the Czechs, France didn't really say anything, nobody liked us Americans- it was sort of an uncomfortable mess. I guess what bothered me the most was her aggressiveness. I feel like there is a much more subtle way, if you want to engage an internationally-diverse class in a world issues debate, than putting everyone on the defense. Further, this was the first time I've really been surrounded by such an international crowd as ours, and while it was frustrating on Monday, I think I will come out of this class with a greater reassurance of the need to be culturally tolerant of others.

Anyway, that's all from Prague for now!