Random Updates

1. We are in prague, which is actually quite an accomplishment, as we know neither Dutch nor German nor Czech, and we left amsterdam, went through germany, and arrived in the czech republic. of course there was that minor thing where we got off at the wrong Dresden station and had to wait two extra hours and speak to an actual German person (ash and I were scared out of our minds to do this...i find the german language scary), but hey, we got here. so the hostel turns out to be a 2/3 star hotel! easily the cheapest and teh nicest place we've stayed at yet, except internet is CRIMINALLY expensive and we can't find an i. cafe nearby. so this will have to be quick (for real, broberg)

2. went to a grocery store today. Embarrassed the hell out of myself. Learned one czech word so far, which i asked for: thank you is something like "zhe koo-ee". Anyway, naturally i bought bananas, and i was like, "you know, i feel like i should eat some more fruit" so i got some oranges, adn then i went to the chck out and the guy gets to my oranges, and he says something that sounsd a lot like "vanesh?" at me adn waves them at me. naturally ih ave no idea what he means, and "thank you" doesn't seem appropriate here, so i just smile really big and kind of shrug and shake my head and gestuer vaguely all at the same time, and go "Ummmmmm" and he goes "ok ok one minute" and hops outo f his chair and returns adn slaps a sticker on it. i'm like "I'm so sorry!" in English and he's like, "is ok is ok." So I breathe a sigh of relief and can't wait to get out of tehre. then he gets to my bananas and gives me this look (he's nice though). then ashely comes over because she's done checking out, and apparentlyhe is hoping SHE knows some czech, because he waves teh bananas at her and goes "vanesh??" and she looks at me and then at him and goes 'Ummmmmm" and the guy behind me starts cracking up, adn this guy gives this resigned smile adn goes 'is ok! is ok! one minute" and leaves again, adn cmoes back and slaps anotehr sticker on my bananas. appparently here, when you buy produce, you have to put stickers on it indicating price adn weight. I did not know this. then, when i was trying to leave (you have to pay extra for bags so i just carry it), ashley, in trying to help me, smacks me in the head with my bread and causes me to stumble into teh basket, creating more chaos.

THEN, when we actually came home to eat teh stuff we'd bought, we discovered a couple things: (a) Ashley bought sour cream instead of yogurt, so she had strawberries with sour cream tonight, (b) the milk Ashley bought was NOT milk, but some kind of sour milk. Unfortunately, I had seen her investigating the dairy situation in depth, decided to elt her do the work for me, adn gotten the same not-milk. So that was a failure. (c) The bread I got (it was on sale!) is not what I thought it was. It has like coffee in it or something? But still edible. All in all, it was a very strange dinner.


3. We went pedal boating in Amsterdam! I really can't be on the internet anymoer because it's costing me a fortuen, but suffice it to say that a pedal boat would be a GREAT Christmas present for me this year. I could use it to get from my house to Sloan at MIT via the river, so it would obviously be very practical.

In sum: Amsterdam was brilliant (though very expensive), would totally go back some day when I (ideally) have more money. Ash and I had a lot of fun, spent WAY too much money, but did not fall into any canals and I think this is enough of an accomplishment.

Oh yeah, adn we went to the Prague zoo todaywhich is AWESOME btw (Angeline Jolie and Brad Pitt apparently visited last year, there are pictures of them up). We saw elephant genitalia pretty close up and let me just say, boy, am I glad I'm not a female elephant.