You know.

You know that moment when you've FINALLY had a creative idea that you don't find intolerable just a few hours later. Yeah, it's nice.

Pictures of Others

Here are some photos I found in a box with an old Polaroid Swinger camera. I finally located one of the rolls of film I dug up last summer from Goodwill and I'll have it developed in a few hours (hopefully something is on it). If not, oh well, I think searching for old photos is one of my new favorite things :) I could stare at them for hours and think about their lives..

On The Move.

So in case no one has quite noticed yet...I can't stay in one place. If you hadn't, it's alright because I just now noticed it myself--as in, committed a full thought to it for more than a fleeting moment. I feel the need "to move", almost always. It's almost like I only like the process of traveling or moving because, without fail, my feelings of wanting to move recycle as soon as I land. Maybe I can travel in my job when I get older...I don't know, but for now I'm here for three years and it's my doing. That should yield an interesting result.

First Real Week of School

The buzz word is: Soil. Yeah, soil is my life now. Thanks UTK. I've been living the dream over on the Ag campus, and I have to say it's completely bizarre. Bizarre to the point that when I see girls more like me I end up practically stalking them--safety in numbers, you know. The other half of my time is spent hiking up the Hill which is equally lovely. Park>bus>Ag>bus>Hill>bus>Ag>bus...all day, every day. I have to say, at least the men on the Ag campus know they aren't cool; I think if I see another man wearing chino shorts, loafers and a pastel colored shirt when I'm on main campus I'm liable to throw soil at him.

Post Sunflower Field Excursion

I searched for hours for the sunflower field only to find that they had already bloomed and were gone. I was expecting that they had already bloomed but not that they would leave so quickly. I still got some satisfaction from at least finding the field because it was no easy task, at least not for me.

Sunflower Field

I have located it and I am going tomorrow :)

Photo Collections

Yesterday I decided it had been much too long since I had watched a French film. They are, after all, one of the main reasons I love cinema. Since I hadn't watched one in awhile, I was unsure where to turn to so I turned to Agnes Varda. In Prague, I met two French men that I ended up going for tea with and talking a little about the French New Wave since we didn't have much else in common. I mentioned the filmmakers that I liked and they mentioned theirs and I asked, "Well, what about Agnes Varda?" Blank stares. What a shame! I don't like to be a film snob but if you're going to say you like French New Wave then you very well must know who she is. She practically inspired the whole thing that led men like Godard and Truffaut to churn out films at the rate of Hollywood productions. She is also the only woman in the movement which solicits my respect for obvious reasons...Anyway, I watched her CinePhotoVarda yesterday.

The entire film is composed of photographs (with the exception of some moving images in the first and second vignette of the film). At first I thought, "what a drag" an hour and a half of still images being flashed before me, but it was much more than that. Varda makes us explore our relationship with the still images by arranging them in ways that give them life and meaning. If only I could be half as brilliant as her or give half as much thought to the objects I surround myself with.

The film reminded me that last Spring I spent quite a few days rummaging through photo bins at thrift stores in search for film that had been left undeveloped. My plan was to develop the unknown film (scary as that may be) and to see what shows up on them. I have 2 rolls of film sitting in my closet that I searched for like a mad person for 3 days. I think I'll make a point to develop them sometime this week, and if anything good shows up, post them on here. I wouldn't mind going out and looking for some more as well. Hopefully the second hand stores have been able to recover from me since last Spring.

Last Day in Prague

I had a really lovely day today. I revisited the Castle in the morning and then ate lunch on the Vltava river with Denise, a woman from the workshop that is still around. I walked around Charles' Bridge numerous times and ducked into some tacky souvenir shops (everything was deplorable). Afterwards, I saw my directing teacher and we ate cheap snacks in the park and got tea. I took some evening pictures over the river and of Old Town square before dipping into a small jazz cafe for dinner.

Jazz Cafe

I especially liked walking by the statue on my way back and seeing groups of people about my age sitting around it. The weather was perfect for it.

End of workshop party

Shaya and I laughing over our ice cream.

Roommates: a brit a german and an american

The depths of the bar we went to after the school party.

Shaya and I :)

Almost Home

The workshop is finished and most people left to go back home this morning. It's really odd to be here without them and I actually grew to really like and get to know everyone just this past week. That being said, I don't really know what to do with myself. I'm rather homesick, especially with nothing to distract me like school, and I didn't manage to do any sightseeing today because it was raining and I've lost my umbrella hah. I'm currently staying at one of the actresses apartment's in Old Town on her couch which is lovely of her but I'm starting to think I want some personal space so I may get a hotel for the remaining days. Some of the girls and I got the most lovely ice cream yesterday after our evaluations. I got the most amazing mint ice cream with a scoop of cookie ice cream and it was heaven. The mint ice cream had real mint leaves in it :)

Borders

I just got an email that all Borders stores are officially closing. I am so sad :( I can't even go enjoy it while it's still open because I am here :( ugh, so so sad.

Awkward conversations in Czech

I ran around all day looking for empty white pill bottles for my film. No one could understand why I would want such a thing and thought I was very strange. It turns out, that the pharmacies here are anti-bottles. They even sell generic pain killers in boxes and little white boxes are just not gonna do it for me. Anyway, I located a few clear ones and I bought some fizzle tabs that came in a white bottle and I'm going to try and print "labels" for them and glue them to the bottles tomorrow morning. I start filming tomorrow evening so wish me luck! *falls with exhaustion*

Happenings

I think my life has been looping for the past two days. I'll explain:

1. Yesterday, I saw some of my friends from the film school at a tram stop as they were walking home. I took the tram home, dropped some things off at my apartment and then went to get thai food in the neighborhood. As I'm walking to get food, I see them waiting for a tram to go to Old Town. Lucas looks at me from across the street and says, "no freaking way." Haha.

2. That same day I got off at the wrong tram stop when I was trying to find a photography store so I am waiting at some weird tram stop and a man walks by with his pitbull. Naturally, I notice that right away. I get on the tram and literally as I am stepping off of the tram, this man has walked the same root and we run right into each other.

3. The weirdest one of all (and I literally can't understand this one) happened this afternoon as I was heading towards the school. I got on the number 10 tram heading west. At the next stop, a man got on the tram and was standing across from me. I get off 3 stops later to transfer to a tram that heads northwest. I wait at the stop for about 5 minutes and then get on the number 22 tram. As I step onto the tram, there is the man I just left on the last tram. How on earth had he managed to head in the wrong direction on the number 10 tram and then SOMEHOW end up on the number 22 tram before me. 

Food Abuse

I can't eat anything here. Last week, I almost ate ham that came in my dish that I didn't know about. Yesterday, I think there was meat in my "vegetarian" black bean nacho dish and 30 minutes ago I dug into my vegetable risotto under the vegetarian options menu and found huge chunks of chicken in it. The restaurant also charged me for eating pistachios that were sitting in the middle of the table on a plate. My check even said vegetable risotto on it...F the service people here. They are the worst.

Photos

View from my bedroom window.

This is a couple streets away from my school. I ate lunch outside at a cafe and took this on my way back to school.

Yes, of course I found a dog. So pudgyyyy.

Kava

There is not nearly enough coffee in Prague to fulfill my needs this week. 

Hmm what to say about Prague. Well, I could tell you a lot about the school because that's where I spend all of my time. Yesterday we were all there from 9:30 am to 10:30 pm. I went grocery shopping a few days ago and a czech woman was actually really kind to me since my arm was in a cast. She scolded me for carrying a basket, unloaded and then bagged everything for me all the while I'm saying, "nerozumin" uhhh "dekuje" uhhhmmm, meaning I don't understand you, thank you, I don't understand, and on and on haha.

On Sidewalks

So long story short, I fell on the sidewalk in a really extreme way Friday evening and now my right arm is in a cast. I missed shooting a short film on Saturday to go to the doctor (which was highly terrifying as you can imagine..). The kicker is, my left elbow is also hurt so I am unable to move either of my arms to the point where I can't brush my hair, wash my face, take my contacts, or get dressed in less than 10 minutes. We'll see what happens with this film workshop :/ I'm so behind now and it takes me like 2 hours to "get ready" every morning.

On a side note, I've been trying to take a few more pictures recently so maybe a few will go up soon when I have sufficient internet. Ciao.

Dobry den, hello hello

I am safely in Prague. It's much different than I imagined. My flight went pretty well (although I can't say that having to be still on a plane for almost 10 hours is enjoyable in the least). There was a lot of turbulence and at one point the flight attendant woke me up in cesky (czech) yelling for me to move my feet so she could sit down haha. I was the only lucky person that had an open seat next to me, I couldn't believe my luck. I didn't sleep at all on the plane and I didn't sleep the night before, so if you do that math correctly I didn't sleep for more than an hour or two at a time for 78 hours. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of and I woke up this morning in Prague (monday) without even knowing where I was.

The flat they have given us is interesting--old building, really high ceilings, interesting little balconies, etc. I have two roommates, one from the UK and one from Germany. The one from the UK has nicknamed me "olive", so I suppose I'm olive now. I really like most of the people here! Getting around and having my basic needs met is still a challenge (i.e. eating, bathing, getting to the school). I left my plug adapters at home in another suitcase so blowdrying my hair and plugging things in is out of the question until I can locate someplace that has them.

I will try to update but it is not easy here. Once I get more comfortable with my surroundings I may bring my camera places with me. Until then, wish me luck.

It's almost time to say "Na shledanou".

This week brought about some unexpected and time consuming endeavors that have made packing very difficult! My birthday was nice (but hectic!). I think all of my friends looked cuter than me on my own birthday! (especially since they're all beautiful :) ). I got my big girl license in the morning and spent most of the day sweating it out at UTK scheduling classes before running home to go to the Melting Pot with my family and then rushing home for cake and a low-key evening out with some friends. Here are some photos, there wasn't time for many photos as is fairly obvious:

artichokes, tofu, mushrooms, and ravioli ready for dipping

making a wishhh

cutting the cake Annie made for me and Paige's cupcakes are on the right :) 

Count Down

My flight is officially a week away, and to prepare, I'm going to tackle 1 or more things on my "to-do" list everyday before take off.

This is the Vltava River viewed from Mala Strana. I want to film the swans here.