Weekend to Karlovy Vary

Thought I would update on what's been going on lately.

Classes started officially last week and they're all very interesting albeit a very different teaching style. Besides for Czech, I'm taking Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, taught by a former Jesuit Priest; History of the Jews in Bohemia, taught by Rabbi Ron Hoffberg, the only non-Orthodox rabbi in the Czech Republic and leader of the Prague Conservative community; Circulating with the Modern Cinematic Image, basically an intro to European film studies - it's being taught at FAMU, a very prestigious film school in Prague; and Contemporary Culture and Alternative Lifestyles in the Czech Republic, taught by Pavla Johannson, a scholar in sociology and former member of a very popular Czech new wave band in the 80's.

Last weekend I went with Leili, Mich, and Brendon to the small city of Karlovy Vary AKA Carlsbad. It's kind of a touristy spa town known for its hot springs and it's also the birthplace of the famous Czech drink that tastes like Christmas, Becherovka. Throughout the town there are all these water spouts that pump out steamy metallic water that is apparently very good for you. Everyone carries around these strange looking cups and sips on the water all day. We called it our "old person weekend" because we spent the whole time eating, drinking wine, hanging out in the sauna, getting a tour of the Becherovka factory in Czech surrounded by the elderly, relaxing, and getting very cheap massages.

Saturday night I got to see Islands in Prague. That was cool. It's not too often you get to see some indie shows in Europe and that is a band I would have definitely saw even if I was in America. It was a great show.

Yesterday I went with Brandon and Lauren to the last movie of the Shockproof Movie Festival. It was basically a slasher festival but they had some cool exceptions like Visitor Q by Takashi Miike (which I had already seen). We saw this ridiculous 70s exploitation film from Sweden called Thriller - They Call Her One Eye which was unbelievable. The plot didn't matter, the special effects were ridiculous, EVERY death was in slowmotion, all the sex was pornographic, and the main character saws off her own shotgun to go out and kill everyone that ruined her life. It was awesome. Apparently it was one of Quentin Tarantino's influences for Kill Bill.

Anyways, life is great here. It's been snowing pretty hardcore the past week. Tonight I'm going to see what Capoeira is like here so hopefully I won't get my ass kicked for not speaking Czech and for belonging to a different group. Wish me luck.