Tuesday- The Adventures of Katelyn and Jess Continue

Monday was a normal day of classes...3 hours of animated film in two different languages that we couldn't understand, supposedly for inspiration for our Mid Summers Night Dream project. Not sure how much it helped, but thats besides the point.

Tuesday... The adventures continue. 

Lunch at OUT cafe, a yummy fresh chicken wrap with a salad. 

Next we headed towards the Charles Bridge. It was absolutely freezing cold and there weren't many vendors/ artists out. I saw one artist whose jewelry is sold at Beleza. It was pretty cool seeing it in Prague. I am going to go back when its warmer and there are more artists out and see if I can find new stuff for Beleza! 

After we trekked an hour up to the castle in the FREEZING cold we got to the ticket counter and were told everything was closing in less than an hour. The young ticket guy nicely sold me and Jess two voice guides for half of the children's price. So we just wandered around inside the castle walls which is more like a little town in again the FREEING cold and snow on the ground. It was great actually making it up to the castle but it was cold, cold, cold. We wouldn't have lasted more than an hour in the cold so our timing wasn't too bad.  

Of course when we left we wandered into a cute little cafe for some hot chocolate and the special dessert of the day which was AMAZING. Strawberries on top of heart shaped pancakes filled with sweet raspberry filling. It was a great way to thaw out and prepare ourselves for the cold journey home. 

We wandered through Mala Strana- Old Town, on the way home and walked past the cutest, quaintest shops and restaurants. We stopped in a quaint little grocery and got fresh veggies for dinner and picked out restaurants we wanted to go back to. 

We attempted to take the tram home because it was just too cold to keep walking. We got on the right tram but going to wrong way. We figured it out only 2 stops past where we got on which was good, so we back tracked but gave up on the tram and just made it to the closest Metro and found our way home from there. 

Just a little adventure to add to "The Adventures of Katelyn and Jess" 

3-day weekend..Oh wait I have one every weekend

Friday- Ski Trip # 2... Yes I know you are all jealous that I went skiing two weekends in a row. This trip we went with more people and it had been snowing that week so there was fresh snow which made it an awesome day. The group was Jess, Laurna, Ben, John, Jordan, Andrew, Lindsey, Tucker, David, Lauren, Jeremy, Bryan and myself. It was a big group but we could split up and still be with a enough people.

Since we were a bit more comfortable with the runs we decided to venture off into the woods which was the best part of the day. Vickers family, you would be so proud of my skiing ability!! No going down the mountain backwards butt in the air... Going through the woods led us to open areas that were not really marked or skied on much so we were skiing through at least a foot of powder. It was really fun. We all had dinner together when we got back at the "Orange Pizza Place" near where we live. 

Saturday- Happy Valentines Day! Jess and I made it to Bohemian Bagel by around 1:30 and decided on lunch instead of breakfast. Ran into half of our friends there. Bohemian Bagel is definitely the American kid hang out on the weekends. Its pretty hard to find a table on the weekends. After lunch we met Laura-Nelle and went to the top of the astronomical tower in the center of Old Town Square and got a great view of the city. It was partially sunny so the view was even better. We got to see all of the roof tops and spires. Next the three of us went to a Dali exhibit right in Old Town Square and saw a lot of interesting works. I didn't know he did had so many different styles. It was a pretty interesting exhibit. 

We all went out as a group, almost everyone was there. We are still trying to convince Doug and Tucker to come out with us. We all went to Chapeau Rouge which is off of Old Town Square and a bar/club. Its a crowded bar upstairs and there is a dance floor downstairs. They played strange techno no words music but we all had fun dancing to it. Laurna was especially entertaining that night. Its fun when we can all go out together, "Fashion Kids" and "Landscape Kids". 

Sunday- Jess, Keely and I "got up early" (10:30) and went to do laundry. The laundry mat isn't too far away but we did take a tram a few stops so it was funny with us carrying our laundry. It was also funny to see what people brought their laundry in. The guys that work there are really nice and speak English. They offered us tea and coffee and they have free Wi-Fi so you can relax while your laundry is going. Also there is this really cute sitting area with comfy red couches. I took a little nap after waking Michael up at 6am on a Sunday to chat for a bit... haha. The rest of the day was a typical Sunday. Going to studio, attempting to do work, catching up on Skype with everyone and maybe blogging.  

Something Educational...

Wednesday we went a branch of the National Museums at St. Agnes cloister. We went to see an exhibition on St. Wenceslas but also went to an exhibit on 14th century artwork. It was all religious works and very interesting. There were lots of Madonna and child pieces, many of which had blonde hair which I thought was interesting. My favorite works though were by Master Theodoric who was the court painter for Charles the IV. His painting were very interesting. They were portraits of important people and saints. There were interesting because the proportions were skewed and he painted outside of the frame and with 3-D texture. 

Thursday we designed a Valentines dress during studio. It could be in any style it just had to incorporate a heart. I 

designed something I would want to wear and 

feel good in. The heart was sort of an afterthought because I didn't know how to incorporate it after I had designed the dress, even though now I can pictures hearts on the belt. 

Just wanted to add those two details. 

back view

Week 3 in Prague

Monday we had class and then we all went bowling as a group. Not bowling like you would expect in the States, but it was a lot of fun once we got there. It was quite a trek to get there. We ventured out on our own because the adults who said they were coming weren’t there at the set time and headed to the unknown bowling alley. We took the Metro then walked through a strange neighborhood and had to cross what looked like a highway. After walking along side the highway we made it to the bowling alley, which was at the top of 5 flights of outside steps. It was in a sports resort type place and only had three lanes in a bar. It was very interesting and we all had a good time. After bowling and getting back to the neighborhood where our hotel is, we stopped in a few bars for a little bit then called it a night. Luckily I don’t have class on Tuesday as it ended up being a late night.

Tuesday, I did sit in on Czech class but then took it easy the rest of the afternoon. Laura-Nelle, Jessica and I did some exploring around Old Towne Square and then towards to river in the afternoon. We found a lot of old and interesting buildings but of course by the time we got there they were closed. We made note of places we wanted to go back to. The three  of us had Chinese take-out that night that we found during our adventure around town.

Tuesday night was Art Rice’s last night in Prague. He is a landscape professor and comes over to orient students and show them good places to eat and drink. We all already miss Art. So as a group we all went to a Jazz club call Agartha and listened to a really good jazz band for a few hours. It was really good music and a good night. Art said that listening to a jazz band for Czechs is like going to a good movie. We obviously stood out in the small crowd but I believe everyone enjoyed it. Afterwards some of us headed back with Art to his favorite bar called the “Shitting Cat” only to find it closed since it was past midnight and a Tuesday night. We ended up at a bar called Puerto Rico and had a few drinks. It was a good last night with Art and there were a few good toasts to the beginning of our journey and the end of his trip in Prague.

Wednesday and Thursday was more class and less going out. Jess and I cooked dinner both nights at the Institute. Some of us decided to participate in a “Secret Valentines” event and were making cards and such during the evening. It was a fun way to get everyone together and do something fun and relaxed. Everyone had a good time with it. 

Ski Trip #1

Jess, Tucker, David, Doug, Heather and I went skiing on Saturday for a day trip. Jess and I really wanted to go skiing so we did some research, planned at trip and invited whoever wanted to come. It ended up being an awesome day and very reasonably priced for everything we did, so… We’re going back next weekend!

After doing our research we were afraid that we needed to make a reservation for a group of 6 or 7 and kept trying but couldn’t get through. We tried calling on my Skype and Jess’ cell phone but still couldn’t get through. The internet here is always a little scratchy and difficult to hear so Jess and I called Michael in Raleigh and asked him to call the SkiBus place with my Skype but a better internet connection. Apparently we had him call at too late of an hour and he got yelled at by the Czech SkiBus lady and said it was a hysterical conversation. Even Michael got to be a part of our weekend and experience even in Raleigh.

We got up at 5 am to take the Metro all the way to some unknown bus stop. We blind fully searched for the signs saying SkiBus which we found after walking up some sketchy looking stairs in the pitch black across some type of deserted parking deck down some more stairs, still no lights to a row of buses labeled SkiBus. Apparently we have this amazing travel angel that eventually always leads us in the right direction. After being on the bus a lady came on and started speaking in Czech telling everyone what was going on and such. We all listened intently but understood nothing she said. After her whole speech she said are there any English speaking riders on the bus. All six of our hands shot straight up in the air. It was quite comical. She told us what we needed to know, especially what time to get back on the bus.

We made it to the ski resort and rented skis from a teeny tiny rental place. We didn’t know any measurements in the metric system so telling them our height and weight was comical as well. It was such a small place that everyone who rented just left their shoes under the benches no lockers or anything. After this was all said and done we were starving and had to have food. The first place we came to was what we got. Breakfast of Champions: Fried Cheese, like mozzarella sticks but one whole huge one like a hamburger patty, and French fries and a Fanta, and the boys got a hot dog and fries. It was only 10 am…

The next interesting occurrence was the T-bar lift that went behind you and against your legs as it pulled you up the mountain. For skiers it wasn’t too difficult but for those snowboarding, they seemed to have problems and Jess fell off the lift 5 times. J The runs were nice and wide though, pretty steep, but doable. There weren’t too many people there, which was really nice, and there were barely lines to get on the lifts.

We rode a chair lift to the top of the mountain and at the top we were completely in the clouds. As you were trying to ski, you could only see about 10 feet in front of you and the air/sky was white and so was the snow. It was very interesting and you never knew when it was going to be really steep or if you were following the correct run and not going the wrong way. It was really cool being that high in the clouds though. After some of the clouds broke and we went to a different part of the mountain we got a great view of the area. It was really beautiful.

Overall it was a successful day, we skied, and made it home and no one was injured too badly. Maybe a few bumps and bruises but that’s all. 

Back in Prague

Tuesday morning we all slept in late after getting back from our amazing but exhausting trip to Paris. I didn’t have class at all so I updated my blog and chatted away with everyone. Hoping to catch everyone up on my trip to Paris and the whole experience thus far. I stayed at the “Motor Café” where they have Free Wi-Fi, amazing hot chocolate, for 7 HOURS. It took quite some time writing those blogs and catching up. Pictures take awhile to post so I am working on that as I can.

I had class formally for the first time on Wednesday. I had studio in the morning, then history of fashion design and then Czech literature. The couple that teaches studio, history and drawing for fashion are really cute but sometimes hard to understand. It should be a good experience though. Pavla who teaches literature is so patient about Czech literature you just want to be in her class and learn from her. 

A bunch of us decided to stay at the Institute after class, work on our first project (a pin cushion J) skype, blog, and cook dinner. Eight of us pitched in different ingredients and made pasta, with meat sauce, salad and bread. It was fun and fun to sit with everyone and have dinner. It was a great comfort food meal and super easy. The kitchen at the Institute is pretty small but better than nothing. It can get expensive eating out every meal, especially since we haven’t found a bunch of cheap, quick places quite yet.

We’re trying to go skiing this weekend. I will let you know how that goes!! Also more pictures to come soon! 

Paris Day 4…the end of our visit

We woke up to snow on the tops of buildings. It wasn’t much but pretty cool it was snow in Paris. By the time we packed up, stored our luggage in the luggage room, more like a cave and made it outside all of the snow had turned into mush and was really dirty and gross. It kind of rained and misted the rest of the day. Luckily I had taken my “American jacket” as I like to call it, my “snow” coat. It was warm though and kept me dry.

Jess and I went back to the Pret-a-Porte fashion fair, which turned out to be a good decision. We were the only ones out of the group to go back. We saw lots of great pieces with very interesting details. We also saw a Barbie anniversary exhibit where different designers designed outfits for Barbie. There was also a section that was accessories where there were awesome bags, shoes and of course my favorite…jewelry. I decided that I must do big things with my life and goals and want to be at the Paris Pret-a-Porte in less than 10 years. I know I can do it, I just need an investor. Anyone interested 

After leaving the fashion fair we headed to Notre Dame, one of the few Paris sites we had missed. We got a little lost and walked around the Justice of Paris building which was a huge block with lots of cops. It kind of made me nervous. They have these vans that they transport cops in and they are all blue and intense looking and the cops just sit in there when they get to their location. It made me feel like I wasn’t supposed to be walking where I was. We eventually found Notre Dame and it was gorgeous. The architecture is amazing. We went inside to see the stained glass and inside architecture. It was a nice break from the rain and to sit down since my legs were super tired. I lit a candle and said a few prayers inside the gorgeous church. They had this really neat nativity scene on the wall that lit up with each scene of the nativity. It was very interesting how they mixed old with new.

 

Let me update you on the great French food of the day:

Breakfast: Spinach and goat cheese quiche from our favorite deli( which I ordered in French because they didn’t like it when I spoke English)

Snack: Crepe from a road stand with banana and nutella inside…yum

Lunch/Dinner: Chicken curry panini again from favorite deli.

It was delicious food for cheap which was great for the last day.

 

Journey to the airport: LONG, exhausting and of course drawn out because everyone was there. We got there super early, had to wait to even check in. Waited some more after getting our tickets. Our plane was delayed so we didn’t even have a gate. I took a great nap. We eventually got a gate, waited some more and our plane finally left 1 ½ hours late. We eventually made it home. Ragged but telling stories of a great weekend. Time for class…

Paris Day 3...The Adventures of Katelyn and Jessica Continue...

Whoo... I hope I haven't exhausted you from the last blog post. There was just so much crammed into 4 days and I want to tell you all about it! 

Sunday started a little slow due to the festivities the night before but the day ended up being just as jammed packed. As a group we went to another fashion fair type thing called Mess Around. It was free and kinda far out from the city in a strange venue. It was all shoes and majority of them were pretty earthy and lots of boots but it was still cool. It was a pretty trendy event and still inspiring. It was really neat to get to go to a fashion fair like that. One of the really cool parts was seeing how vendors set up their space to go with their collection. 

After Mess Around we wanted to see a few sights in Paris. Six of the girls headed off first to the Eiffel Tower. I've seen it before but this time was just as awe inspiring. It is so huge and you can get so close. Its really amazing. It was really cold so we chose not to walk up and see the view but took good pictures. We next wandered to the river and tried to find this boat tour that would take you to other sites along the Seine river. Conveniently is was closed until February 4th. We wandered back up towards the Eiffel Tower and decided to hop on a carousel we saw. We just jumped right on and didn't pay attention to anything. We then noticed this guy and girl on the carousel and thought it was odd that the girl was holding a teddy bear and then that we saw a lady holding make-up brushes... then looking to the right we saw a camera crew. They were filming a scene of some sort. They didn't say anything to us so we just took pictures sand rode the carousel around. Again, silly American girls. 

After lunch Jess and I separated from the group for of course the adventures of Katelyn and Jessica. We walked all over Paris. I mean all over. We walked to the Golden Dome church, which happened to have just closed. Next we headed to the Rodin Museum, which just closed as well. But we got to see " The Thinker" in the garden and tried to snap pictures through the bushes and gates. We wandered to the Grande Palace and Petit Palace across a large and beautiful bridge. Don't you worry they were both closed as well. We were not discouraged though, we took fun pictures and just enjoyed the sites. We were right at the Champs Elysees so decided to walk to the Arc de Triomphe. 

Of course we had to stop for a good French meal first. We ordered escargot and an amazing salad with goat cheese toast pieces. It was a huge piece of goat cheese on a piece of bread and toasted to melt the cheese some. It was amazing. But on to the escargot. I have had them before and thought I knew how to go about eating them but when they arrived it was a different story. The first two snails Jess and I each picked up were difficult to find the meat part so we got embarrassed and thought we were doing something wrong. So we ate our salad and made a game plan: 

• Plan A: Hold the shell with the chomp thingy and dig out the meat with the mini fork. 
• Plan B: Flip it over and try and shake it out. 
• Plan C: The best one of all. Try and slurp out all of the insides.

We only had to go to Plan A which was good but it was hysterical before we got to that point. It was a lovely meal and wonderful rest from the cold . We stayed for about 2 hours and also enjoyed some hot chocolate for dessert. Jess and I fully enjoyed the French food since so far in Prague we've had a lot of starch/potatoes and meat. 

We continued our adventure towards the Arc de Triomphe but not before stopping at Sephora, the Louis Vuitton Stor to take pics, Kenzo, Sonia Rykiel to take pics. But it was all window shopping except Sephora everything was closed. The Champs Elysees is forever long at least 2 miles past our restaurant to the Arc de Triomphe. Once we got to the Arc we took a few pictures but wanted to actually get to it. It is in the middle of a very busy traffic circle. The two American girls that we are didn't realize that there was an underground circle so of course we ran/sprinted across the street...at night... it was intense. hahahaha. And we still didn't realize it when we were actually at the arc so we ran back across the street. 

We decided to end our night off with the Eiffel Tower at night. So in our typical fashion we walked there at 9 pm at night.... It was an interesting journey. We didn't really know where we were going but ended up right across the river from the Eiffel Tower. We had a guardian angle with us for sure leading us in the all the right directions. The Eiffel Tower was gorgeous and romantic with my "honey" (Jessica) :). We even got to see it "sparkle" twice. It was FREEZING cold on the tip tip top of the Eiffel Tower. By 10:45 it was time to go and we hobbled home. It had been a busy two days and we were popped. Our feet were sooo tired and legs worn out. Bed that night, though small and crunchy was quite amazing! 

Paris Day 2...The beginning of the Adventures of Katelyn and Jessica

We first went to a museum to see an exhibit on fashion from the 1800's. The waist of women then were super small. Everything was very detailed and the fabrics were lovely. They used so many layers of fabric it was awesome. Also the jewelry from that period was awesome. Huge stones and lots of filigree details. It was a very neat exhibit and neat to compare it to the current fashion we saw the day before. On our way to our second museum we stopped at a market and a few of us bought cute wool hats since it is sooo cold. They were only 5 euros so it was a good deal. I wore mine most of the trip in Paris even though it made my hair look terrible when I took it off... ha ha. 

The second museum we went to was the Museum of Decorative Arts near the Lourve. There was an exhibit on Sonia Rykiel a famous desig

ner. It was her 40th anniversary. It was really awesome seeing the evolution of her work and then at the end of of the exhibit were pieces that other designers had made for her. They had their sketches their and the pieces. It was a really great exhibit. 

The museum gift shop was also really great and I have a funny story for that. I was wandering around looking at things and saw this amazing double strand pearl necklace. I picked it up and was about to try it on and told a friend, "this is great, this is coming home with me". Right as those words came out of my mouth a man who worked there came up to me and started rambling in French. I had no clue what he was saying but took from the motions and the situation that another lady had already picked up the same necklace and the clasps on hers was broken and since she saw it first I had to give her

 mine. I was devastated and since I didn't speak French I didn't know what to say or what was going on. Also, it was the last necklace. As I was standing there in shock I saw the necklace on a display, luckily I was able to take it and purchase it but it was just a ridiculous incident. 

After the museums we had lunch as a group and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. We were in a good shopping area, so of course Jessica and I went shopping. Jess bought awesome boots at a store called Januk Paris. We then went into an amazing fabric store. It was all super expensive and super beautiful fabric. We joked that once we planned out our final projects for this semester we would just fly back to Paris to purchase our fabric. Next we wandered to a shoe store call Repetto. I believe it actually started as a

 dance store and they had a whole wall of pointe shoes. It was really awesome. It was super expensive though. They had other shoes too, like flats and heels which were super cute but at least $150...We stopped into United Colors of Benetton which was having a great sale. Some things 70% off... Of course Jess and I were in shopping heaven :). 

We went to this crazy mall type place called Galleria Lafayette. Its huge, tons of people, huge labels. It was super intense. We went into the Prada store and dreamed of owning a real Prada bag. The Chanel store had a line you had to wait in to get in, the line was only Asians wanting to spend their millions I guess.

Next, Jess and I did some window shopping along the rows of top end jewelry stores.. It was super fun. We would hop up on the ledge and just pick out pieces we wanted in the future... Two young girls enjoying Paris to its fullest! 

In an attempt to get home by the metro we ended up at the Lourve and got completely distracted. So we decided to take pictures and wander around there a bit. It was late so we  took night pictures of the pyramid and things around the Lourve it was really pretty. By this point we were starving and that begins the second part of our Saturday adventure...

 

We came across as cafe called Cafe Saint Honore, which we were "escorted" into by our French waiter Raul. He seemed to take a liking to us two American girls, which he assumed as sisters ( a lot of people have asked if Jess and I are sisters). We had barely sat down and I knocked a wine glass out of the hostess' hand and it shattered all over the floor in the tiny restaurant. Of course I would make a scene. But after that we enjoyed a bottle of wine, Jess got duck I got a delicious salad, we had dessert and Raul was still in love with us. Saying he was going to marry me... He liked saying "Me Petit Cherie" which I believe means my little sweetheart... it was an amusing dinner until it took us four times of asking for the check before he would actually let us leave... Which we did finally manage around 10 pm. 

We headed back to the hostel and met up with everyone. We went to the corner bar and made friends with the bartender, cook/server, and the bartender's friend. They had a drink special 2 cocktails for 5 euros so it was a good deal. We stuck around there until it closed and then our new friends took us to a discoteca where we danced until it closed... It was quite a ending to the already eventful day Jess and I had. I would say we almost did Paris in one day. We missed major sites but don't worry that came on Sunday. 

Paris!!!

After only being in Prague for 4 days we head off to Paris to see the Pret-a-Porte fashion fair. Up at 4 am to catch a plane to Paris. We all made it to the airport and to Paris. It was funny seeing all the bags we brought because we could only bring a carry on but majority of us were not very prepared and  used backpacks. Day 1 we had to figure out the metro in Paris which is much much larger than in Prague. In Prague we have 3 lines, in Paris there are at least 14. By day 4 Jessica and I felt very comfortable with the metro. After grabbing a delicious quiche from an amazing Parisian deli we headed off to the Pret-a-Porte fair. It was so amazing. Its like the furniture market but with fashion. Lots of designers and you can see and place orders for their stuff. We got to see the Fall/Winter '09 collections. We got to see 2 fashion shows the first afternoon. The first being new up and coming designers which was really neat and then the second show was of the season's trends combining different designers pieces. It was odd because this one model carried around a HUGE hunk of dough and just let it fall all over her body and on her face and in her hair. We couldn't quite figure out what that was all about.  The trends were really neat though and then they had displays of the trends on mannequins which was great to see them up close. Day 1 proved to be successful.