My mailing address

MY MAILING ADDRESS

Yisha Pang

Central and East European Studies Program

University of Economics, Prague

nam.W.Churchilla 4

130 67 Praha 3, Czech Republic

MY TELEPHONE NUMBER

00420775443958

International texting is I think the same price as local texting for me.

PLEASE SEND ME MAIL AND MAKE ME FEEL LOVED!

My adventures with the Czech langugage

Czech [chek] - noun - the language of Bohemia and Moravia, a Slavic language similar to Slovak.

What it should read is:

Czech [chek] - noun - the Slavic language that has too many consonants, impossible pronounciations, and sounds really angry when used by old Czech women

That being said, I love some of the words and REALLY want to stay in the Czech language course I'm registered in. So far here's the Czech words/phrases I've learned (sans accents cause I don't know how to do those on Blogspot).

Dobry den - Good day!

Ahoy - Hi

Djekuji - Thank you

Pristi zastavka - next stop (on the tram)

Potraviny - mini market

Jsem Yisha, Jsem Kanadanka - I'm Yisha, I'm Canadian

Mluvite anglicky? - Do you speak English?

Nevlumim Cezky - I don't speak Czech

Namesti - Square, as in large area, not the shape

Zmrzlina - ice cream

Cavu/cava - coffee

Chaj - tea

Husinecka - My tram stop for school

Here are also the Italian words I've learned from my flatmates:

Arrivederci - Goodbye (I love saying this word, it just sounds sooo pretty to me for some reason)

Buongiorno - Good day!

Buona sera - good evening

Mi chiamo Yisha - My name is Yisha

Prego - thank you

Stracciatella - the gelato flavour, but w/ the proper pronounciation

Funny story from taking the tram

So a really old lady got on the tram and I got up to offer her my seat not knowing there was an empty one behind me. So the old lady realizes this and this is the interaction that occured:

Old woman: Speaking in Crazy Czech I don't understand, blah blah, THANK YOU (I catch this phrase)

Me: Ahh...you're welcome (realizes she can't understand me), *Nod head* *wave hands as if to say no problem*

Old woman: more speaking in crazy czech

Me: uh...*point at myself* anglicky! (English!)

Old woman: ah *nod*

*Mutual staring and nodding for 2 minutes*

P.S. Just the Tran #9 here kicks the butt out of our entire C-Train system back home. It takes me like everywhere I need to go.

I NEED to go back to Ireland

So I really don't know where to start with my blog, so I'm just going to go through what's happened chronologically.

6 hour layover in Chicago

- Nothing eventful

- 4 hours into layover I realized I packed all my socks into

the suitcase I wrapped and couldn't really open until Prague

- an hour before takeoff Stephanie Mah (the good intelligent friend she is) reminds me on MSN that there is in fact a time difference between Calgary and Chicago and that my laptop time was incorrect and I pack up and hurry to my terminal

Dublin

DAY 1

-Take a quick catnap to recover from jetlag

- Hit up Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen's Green, and Grafton Street (to buy socks, they were even on sale!)

- It's raining non-stop all day so I prepare myself for a wet week only to be pleasantly surprised by 3 whole days of non-stop sunshine

DAY 2

-The National Museum, the National Library, the National Gallery, Trinity College

DAY 3

-take the train to the town of Howth which is north of Dublin along the coast

-do the 4 hour "easy" hike on the cliffs behind the town of Howth

DAY 4

- Guinness Brewery, Custom House

- So I tried to go to Kilmainham Gaol which is an infamous prison on the outskirts of Dublin. Now my guidebook called this part of town "salubrious" which I took to mean "colorful" or like "eccentric". Actual meaning = SUPER SKETCH. I walked about halfway there and got sufficiently sketched out enough to start walking back towards the non-sketchy part of town. I turned around after I got to a mental institution. No joke.

My favorite picture of the trip was my view from the top of the Cliff of Howth where I took an hour long break and had my "picnic" lunch.

View:

I will post more later about my adventures thus far in Praha.

I'm all packed...sort of

Packing ground zero, my mother kindly volunteered to help, probably speeding up the process by a good 1.5 hours

I'm done packing! My checked pieces of luggage anyways, it was a slight miracle I managed to fit my carry-on luggage into one of my checked pieces of luggage, but now I will have an almost empty piece of checked luggage that I can fill with stuff while I'm there.

I'm now printing/organizing all necessary docs and wrapping up life here so I feel somewhat ready to leave. T-minus 13 hours until I am at the airport!

I figured it out guys!

So it's 11:41 pm. I've just booked my hotel in Dublin: http://www.trinitycapitalhotel.com/

I'm supposed to be studying for my TOUR 309 block week final, but have opted to instead figure out blogspot instead. Saying bye to everyone today was a little bit emotional since I didn't realize how many people I know in Calgary and how they know all my idiosyncracies, and the rituals I've developed with everyone, and the inside jokes/stories they know about me. i don't think I'm going to miss Calgary, but I am going to miss each and every one of them.

I'm not going to make firm promises, but if you leave your mailing address I will do my very best to mail you all postcards semi-regularly.

P.S. I really hope I haven't effed up blogspot and thus you have all received the link to this blog and are reading this. Someone say something so I know my tussle w/ technology hasn't foiled me again!