New Year's

Hey, so I got back yesterday from New Year's in Prague, and I have to say I had a great time. I left Brno at about 2 pm on the 30th and got to prague at about 4:30. I spent Saturday hanging out with everyone at various pubs (and McDonalds...they all like it a lot). McDonalds is a lot more expensive here than in the States. I have eaten it more here than I ever did in the US. Saturday we had about 12 people, mostly AFS students, but also one volunteer, two of her friends (another boy from the Czech Republic, and a girl from Serbia, both living in Vienna). The girl from Serbia was on exchange in Texas with the volunteer. She was really nice. There was also a girl from Portugal who was on exchange here last year. We stayed out until about 2:30 in the morning, and then walked back to our hostel. It was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostel. It was nice. We had 11 people in the hostel, in one dormitory room.

On the first, we took our stuff to Diego's host brother's apartment, and then split up until we would meet that night at another pub. I went with Mint (Thailand), Marta (Iceland), and Poom (Thailand). We went to a really cheap clothing store (I bought a jacket!), and then headed over to a Thai restaurant in Prague. On the way there we took a bunch of pictures along the river (In 2 days, I took about 300 pictures => that's what happens when you are with asians!). The Thai restaurant was really good (according to the Thais), even though the cook was Czech. We had a really good soup, pad thai, and a chicken dish. Whenever they give us Thai food, it is always found that I am the only one other than the Thais who like spicy food, so we commiserated about losing our tolerance for spicy food. Marta turned red, because she is not used to it. And we had lychee juice, which is really really good. That afternoon before we went to meet the others at the pub we had been at the night before, we went up to Prague castle. It had just turned dark, and it was really nice. You could see the whole city, with all the lights, and some of the fireworks. I have a bunch of pictures. We took various pictures through the whole castle. I have to say the time I have most ever felt like a tourist was when we took pictures with the guards in front of the castle. Just something about standing next to someone who doesn't move is a little weird.

After the castle, we went for dinner in the cheapest place we could find around Charle's Bridge, and then headed over to the pub after picking up two more Thais (one student and one guy who was here about 4 years ago, and is now interning in the main office) and the host brother of the girl. At the pub were about 25 or 30 people. There were a bunch of people I haven't seen since the first orientation and some I have never met before (they came late). Among the ones I haven't met before was a girl from New Zealand (Amelia) and another girl from Brazil (Julia). I ended up hanging out for awhile with Marta, Amelia and Tang (the guy from Thailand), talking really fast english (marta's english is really good, as is Tang's, who is majoring in English). At about 11 we headed into Vaclaske Namesti, with a million (I'm not sure how many...) of our closest friends. I didn't drink much all night (1 beer and 1 absinthe) and I'm glad. In our group there definitely were some people who were drunk. We spent about 3 hours in Namesti, acting relatively crazy, hugging each other and dancing to the music. There were a group of 4 germans who kind of attached themselves to our group, and I guess had a really good night with a german girl and the two other americans...

Anywho, that night ended at about 3, after trying to find a dance club, but concluding that they were all too expensive, heading back to the pub, and them closing on us. We tried to get home, but it turned out that one bus ran at 3:30, and the next at 7, because it was a holiday, but we finally made it home at about 5 after some walking and taxi's (hailed by girls...they got a cheaper fare).

Overall, it was probably the best new year's i've ever had, and definitely one to remember. It was weird when I got off the metro for the first time at the horse in vaclaske namesti, and there was a concert going on, and it hit me that I was in a major european city for new year's.