"Up a steep and very narrow stairway"

There are a lot of stairs in Prague. I guess Czech people don't believe in elevators? Because neither of our two academic buildings has elevators that anyone uses, and my dorm has one, but its small and slow and no one really uses it. Plus, there are gigantic escalators leading to the Metro (the station near me that I use practically every day has the longest ones: it takes a good two minutes to ride up or down) so if you're going somewhere in a hurry you have to walk those, too. I feel like I am constantly climbing!

I can't believe that this past Saturday marked the five week anniversary of my arrival in Prague! It feels like I've been here forever, but at the same time I can't quite register that I've been living in a foreign country for over a month. In other important news, the temperature has finally been over freezing! (Thats 0 degrees Celsius, 32 degrees Fahrenheit). It's been in the mid-30's, and we are all very excited about that.

This was a pretty quiet but very good week. For starters, on Tuesday I found out that I got the part I wanted in the NYU in Prague play! Its a very cool opportunity- we will be performing Vaclav Havel's "The Memorandum" in April in Havel's old theater in Prague, which is apparently very prestigious. The cast is composed of NYU students, and students at the American School in Prague, who all speak English, and many are kids of dignitaries and other important people, who will all be attending the show, along with possibly Vaclav Havel himself! I was cast as Maria, a supporting but pivotal character in the play. Production has been slow to start because the director has been sick, but I am excited to meet the non-NYU part of the cast and start rehearsals!

Wednesday we went on a field trip with my Religion, Culture and Politics class. We went to a functioning monastery, the sanctuary of which is the most beautiful room I've ever been in. High ceilings, everything decorated, etc. It was just gorgeous. It is the second oldest monastery in Prague, and we got to walk around and see some different rooms and meet a Monk. Thursday my theater professor (who is also in charge of the production) took us to have class in a cafe, which was really cool. There are only 5 people in the class, and it is my favorite one. We discussed Samuel Beckett and Waiting for Godot over tea...I felt so European! Next time, we'll be going to a cafe that Kafka and his peers had intellectual discussions in. I love Prague.

Friday was an NYU day trip to Terezin. It was a very contemplative experience. Terezin was not an actual concentration camp- it actually started as a fortress built by the Austrians in the 1700's, then its status as fortress was removed when it wasn't really utilized in war. The Nazis first used it as a prison for war criminals and high-ranking enemy officials, but it might as well have been a concentration camp because of how poorly they treated its inmates. They started bringing Jews from surrounding areas there later, especially senior citizens. It was used as a labor camp, but most people either died there or were transported to Auschwitz. Someone who experienced the latter was brought in to talk to us about his experience. He was only 15 or so when he was brought there, and the only one from his immediate family to survive the Holocaust. His story was interesting and even miraculous: it was decreed that all children under 16 would be put to death, but a brave young boy approached Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and asked him to make a special selection of children, as many of them were strong and willing to work. The doctor actually agreed, and selected the man who talked to us to survive, saving his life, and making him one of very few children to make it through Terezin. The man then listed some other boys from the camp, telling us where they live and how many grandchildren they have, emphasizing that because they are all still alive, Hitler did not win. It was really powerful.

At Terezin, we saw a bunch of museum exhibits, and also walked around the courtyards, interrogation cells, housing areas, hospital, etc. My friends and I couldn't get over the fact that people could do such horrible things to one another.



Where prisoners were first brought when they arrived at the camp, and their clothes, belongings, etc were taken away



Even though it wasn't defined as a concentration camp, the slogan was still present.




100 people lived here. This is pretty much the size of the entire room, and there was one little "bathroom" near the door, which was just a hole. No wonder there was so much disease and infection in this place.



One of the 20 interrogation cells. The man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinard (which effectively started World War One) was actually put in one of these, and died in Terezin.



The place where the only escape (2 men and 1 woman) from Terezin happened. A ladder was stolen from one of the rooms, and the three of them climbed out and ran away. Since snow was falling, the guards didn't notice any footprints.

Another interesting thing about Terezin was because there were so many intellectuals there, lots of art was created. We saw lots of paintings that were made, read about musicians who composed music there, and even saw advertisements for plays that were put on there. It was fascinating.

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to sample Mexican food, or as I call it, "Czechican". According to multiple people, the place my friends and I tried has the best Mexican food in Prague. That might not be saying a whole lot, but it was pretty good!

This weekend my friends and I are going on an NYU-sponsored overnight trip to Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Republic. Its supposed to be really beautiful- I'll let you know about that next week!