Chicken in a Jacket

Dear faithful readers (mom, dad, Grace, Zach and the one and only Scott Safron). I am back and have not abandoned my blog! I will attempt to catch you up on all of the happenings of last week.

Czech Class:
Czech class continues on as it has since it began. I get to class at 2:00 PM everyday and by 2:02 or so I am confused. We had a practice test last week and I managed to do well on it in spite of the fever I was battling. I am just that committed to excellence. After the test our teacher thought it would be fun to teach us some more Czech for the last half hour or so. She may have taught us the secret to life, but I have no idea what happened I was so out of it at that point. Also in Czech class we go on Czech culture tours. We went to a photo exhibit, a Czech culture museum, and the famous Prague Castle. I have now completed 40 hours of Czech in the past week and a half and am very close to fluent. I am ready for the Czech class to be over and for my political science and history courses to begin.

Weekend:
After class on Friday Becca, Celia, Sarah, Sara and I had dinner. After dinner I went home and crashed with my bottle of Czech banana flavored cough syrup. I missed the first Friday night out in Prague and was pretty bummed about it. However I am very glad I did not push myself and I got some much needed rest. Saturday I spent the day at the dorm hanging out with some people hoping to be well enough to do something on Saturday night. By Saturday night I was feeling great and went with a group of people to a five story club/bar. It was pretty fun.

Jewish Quarter:
Sunday morning I woke up nice and early and ventured off to the Jewish quarter with Becca, Adrian, Kate and Stef. All of the buildings that were once the home of Prague’s vibrant Jewish life have been converted to museums. In one afternoon we went to four synagogues, a cemetery, and a funeral home museum. The museums were very nice and interesting. One synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue was breathtaking. The museums taught a lot about everyday Jewish life, which I already know a lot about. But just being in the old Jewish buildings and looking at the amazing old photographs was all well worth the price of admission.

The Spanish Synagogue

Valentines Day:
To explain valentines day I need to rewind all the way back to my night in Munich. While attempting to find our hotel my friend Sarah was lamenting the fact that she may be alone on valentines day in Prague. Not wanting to let Sarah down I quickly offered my services. Well at this point Sarah’s roommate Sara became intensely jealous. So Walt swooped in became Sara’s valentine. Now, some things to make clear. 1. Sarah won the valentines lottery. 2. I won the valentines lottery. So in the weeks leading up to valentines day there was some intense battling over which “couple” were the better valentines. It is obvious that it was Sarah and I. While in Brno I created a poem that would leave any woman swooning. The poem was heartfelt and unique. Much more so than the crappy poem/ song that Walt created a week after mine. Valentines dinner was a lot of fun. Sarah and Sara made Walt and I chicken, potatoes, and vegetables. While Walt and I brought the wine, the roses, the dessert and of course the charm. The evening was capped off when Sarah gave me a Czech valentines card that I will treasure forever.



Celia’s birthday:
Last night was Celia’s 21st birthday. This is the point where mom and dad might want to stop reading. The festivities started in Czech class when during our first break Celia and I went to grab a beer. While czeching out (get it…?) at the corner store Celia had a change of heart and grabbed a can of coffee (gross). During our second break my friend Ben wanted to grab another beer to celebrate Celia’s birthday. Again Celia refused, but I didn’t. Before I continue I must say that yesterday was by far my most successful day in Czech class. A little beer on the brain makes Czech 1000x easier. Well after class Celia and I met up with Sarah and we headed back to the dorm for birthday dinner. Another aside. Last week Ben, Steve, Walt and myself ate in the dorm’s sit down restaurant where I discovered a dish known as Chicken in a Jacket. Chicken in a Jacket is a breast of chicken coated in full cornflakes and fried to a crisp. I convinced everyone that this would be an awesome choice for Celia’s birthday dinner and once again I pulled through. Some more drinks were enjoyed at dinner and after dinner we headed downstairs for the bar and had some more birthday drinks. After this we ventured off to find a venue suitable for a 21st birthday celebration. On the way to finding a venue I ended up slipping on some black ice. Both of my feet ended up above my head and I ended up on the ground. Walt says that I vastly understated the tremendousness of my wipeout. If he chooses to write about it I will link it. Thankfully I have a high threshold for embarrassment because this happened in front of 25 of my friends. The only person who didn’t see it was my valentine, which has allowed me to maintain an image of studdlyness (no jokes please mom). We went to the Dubliner which played Sweet Caroline and Karma Chameleon (awesome). We then went to Chapau Rouge where I ran into my cousin’s cousin Lindsay. (This is the point where I would write about the rest of the night but am electing not to). We definitely celebrated Celia’s 21st properly. I officially pronounced Celia’s birthday festivities over after we dined at McDonalds before Czech class today.

Chicken in a Jacket

Until next time.

Alex