Academic Adventuring

My classes here rock. I know that sounds simplistic, but it's the honest truth.

They rock because they are truely interdisciplinary and they make use of experiential learning. ie We get out of the classroom and into the city regularly. And I love it.

For example, consider the week that started October 3rd:

Monday started on campus with German class but then sent me jogging to Josefov, the Jewish town, for my Literature and Place class. Our tour-guide was excellent. I had wanted to visit some of the old synagogues but was hesitant because I don't know the proper ways to respect the space. With our guide, she explained etiquette as well as history and holiday rituals. She translated Hebrew script, explained the numerology considered in the architectural details, and pointed out which tombs to leave wishing stones on. The tickets we were using got us into the famous Old-New Synagogue as well as the Pinkas Synagogue (with its simple yet overwhelming holocaust memorial), the Jewish cemetery (with no flowers because Judaism insists that signs of life should not linger in places dedicated to death), the Spanish Synagogue, and a few others besides. We didn't get through all of them in our allocated class-time, but I didn't have a class immediately after so I finished the tour anyway. There was a tiny gallery tucked into the back of one of the buildings that was hosting an exhibit on the exile of Jews to Belarus. The exhibit discussed the invention of the mobile gas chamber build into a truck, and it had interviews with both survivors and ex-Nazis to discuss both these matters. It was a very well designed exhibit. Then I hurried off to Prague castle for my History of Czech Architecture class. We toured the presidential palace, with it's Spanish hall and Rudolf Gallery, which was designed to have the ideal natural lighting for art viewing. And then my professor, who wanted us to see the renaissance architecture of the Belvedere summer palace, talked his way through the guards who had the garden closed for the filming of the Mission Impossible movie. In we went, and I am continually in awe of these people.

Tuesday I went to the Troja Chateau to begin research for my History of Architecture midterm. Then I had IR class on campus.

Wednesday I went to the Chateau again and got tacked on to a tour group of German speaking students. The tour ran over so I missed my German class, but I got back to campus in time for our Central Eastern European food experience in Lit and Place. Medovnic honey cake. 'Nuff said. Yet not enough said because after that was a Mala Strana walking tour with History of Architecture, and then I jogged to pick up Grace at Malostranska so we could go to the concert at the Polish embassy. My Lit and Place professor got us tickets to go hear Wojciech Waleczek play...for free. It was really nice having Grace there because she's much more knowledgeable about the music world than I am and so was able to teach me a bit about music appreciation. Then we met up with friends and got beer because the next day...

Thursday was the start of my IR trip to Bratislava. Which I'll right about later because I'm too tired to do it justice at the moment. Can you handle the suspense?