Praha: The Saga Continues

This was our final week to attend and select our elective courses. I feel like I could have made more of an effort in completing this task, and whether or not I made the right decision about the class I chose remains to be seen. I decided on Practical Analysis: Directing, which is on Mondays. The teacher provides us with thought provoking insights into scenes from films. She accomplishes this by having us break down the scene and consider the possible reasons the director chose the camera angles and/or movement and how it impacts the film's message. We also consider how the audience reads a film and what the shots tell us. This week, we watched scenes from The Fugitive and Blow Up. I then decided to attend Introduction to Film History on Wednesday. While this course is fairly redundant at this point in my film education, I prefered it to Avant Garde because it's more engaging and facilitates discussion. It's also not a bad idea to have a refresher course when I'm trying to make an excellent film. Mise en scene is extremely important after all. We ended up watching an unfinished Renoir film, A Day in the Country. I can't help but love Renoirs work, so I really enjoyed it. I'm still unsure as to why it was unfinished. However, it's only about 40 minutes in length due to this fact. It felt complete, I'm not sure what else Renoir would have wanted to add. Lastly, I decided on Script Analysis with Pavel, because the class is enjoyable and Pavel is wonderful. I'm definitely going to miss him once this semester is over, Amy as well for that matter. This week we watched Stage Coach. Although, I actually did not stay for the screening since Pavel promised to bring it to class the next day. I had dinner with Alli and Drew instead at the diner around the corner from FAMU.

Thursday morning, AU Abroad only has two required core classes. First is Actor's Studio. This past Thursday, only 4 of us attended. Myself, Daniel, Drew and Zac were the only ones who actually showed up. Although our teacher was tiffed, we actually had more fun with just the four of us. We practiced our final scenes many different ways, in order to begin learning them. I can't wait to finish shooting it and just having it done. After that, Pavel showed up for a brief class with us. He had to leave early for some event he's participating in through next week. I had already pitched a few ideas to Pavel earlier, so pitching in front of everyone wasn't terribly difficult this class. Although it was interesting when Pavel specifically asked if I had anything to pitch and almost everyone turned to face me and gave me a sarcastically interested look. Oi. Either way, Abe and I are attempting to develope a story about two backpackers in Prague that have opposing personalities. We only have ideas right now, not many details are fully decided on.

After Pavel left, we all decided to watch Stagecoach right then. Due to the difference in DVD regions, we had to go back to Zac, Steve and Drew's apartment. I don't remember much of the movie because we were all talking and drinking through most of it. I really only got the gist...I think. What I do remember is drinking everytime John Wayne said something badass. Once again, I got more drunk than anyone else and was a tad sloppy. I almost fell down a few times. Once the movie was done, we all grabbed lunch at a tex mex place and went home to take naps before heading out for Steve's 21st Birthday (that would be official at midnight). After this wonderful nap, I returned to Steve's place and got some Chinese food. Once everyone was there, everyone was either drinking and hanging out or drinking and watching baseball. Around 11, we decided it was about time to head over to Cross Club. I regretably did not take any pictures at Cross Club. The place is quite the site to see, the decor is like nothing I've ever seen. The owner is an engineer or mechanic or sorts, and random pieces of engines and other machinery decorated the place. Lot's of the pieces are lit with neon green or red lights and many of the pieces are in motion. The club is separated into many floors and rooms, with several bars, DJ's and bands. I will try and get pictures next time. It was definitely a late night. We all ended up leaving around 3am and taking a late tram back to Andel. The tram took about 30 minutes, but at least it was free.


The next day (Friday), I don't remember when I woke up. I do remember getting a text from Naomi around 9am inquiring as to when we would be going to the Bone Church in Kutna Hora. After texting her back "not today" I passed out again. Sleep is so good. Anyhow, I realized once again my dislike for housemaids. Not only am I left in the dark as to when she comes to clean, but I continue to discover more reasons to dislike having a cleaning lady. This weekend, I discovered she does not knock before entering the apartment. Luckily, my bathroom door was open, so it blocked her entry. I basically shouted that I was home and I heard her leave. I later found out that she cleaned the two studios and the boys apartments from around one in the afternoon until about five. The reason for this being an aggravating fact is because when I got back, she hadn't made my bed or washed any dishes I had forgotten, and forgot to refill the trash bags in the trash cans. I mean, I'd prefer not to have a cleaning lady at all, but if you're going to do the job, do it!

Friday is our semi-mandatory meeting with Amy. We got our schedules for the week and more books for our classes. I think it's silly to have them on Friday's, but I haven't really bothered to ask why they're on Fridays. Aside from it being the end of the week and we're getting schedules for next week, I don't really see the point. The highlight of this meeting was that Steve recieved a little white mouse for his birthday. It was decided he would be named Franta (sometimes called Frantas) after the six year old kid who lives across the street from Studio FAMU and hustles us for crowns. After the meeting was over, our group went our separate ways.
I ended up going to a Beer Garden near Studio FAMU with Alli, Daniel, Steve, and Josh. Zac and Jason joined up with us later. We basically chilled there well into the sunset. The view was spectacular, once again, regretably, I did not have my camera. I'm trying to remedy that, but keep in mind I already keep it with me more than any other camera I've owned. Anyhow, once it started to get cold and close to dinner time, we wandered through the park back towards Steve and Zac's apartment. Along the way, we stumbled across two playgrounds. The first one was "Forbidden," but we played on it anyway. Josh nearly killed my shins on one of these weird see-saw like toys. The second playground was leagues better. Why? ZIP LINE! That's right, we were all transported back to childhood by the zip line. The only downside was the muscle pain in my arms for the next two days due to my lack of training in the past couple months.

After leaving the park, we hopped on an 8 tram and headed back towards the guys' apartment. When we got to our stop, it took a moment for everyone to realize to get off. Zac, for whatever, remained on the tram. As we tried to tell him to get off, the door shut as he said "But this is the 8." For whatever reason, I found that to be the best thing he could have said, because it didn't make any sense to say that at all. We beat him back to his place by a few minutes. After playing a game of Kings (a new drinking game to me) we all headed out to have Steve's birthday dinner. It took us a long while to find a decent restaurant. It took a while for our food to get to the table as well, at least when it got to me, it was delicious enough for me to forget how long I had waited. I had chicken with garlic butter and fries fresh from the fryer.

Once dinner was over, the guys decided it was high time we went to a strip club. Alli and Katie weren't as thrilled as the guys about this little adventure (Katie is from AU but in another program). We went towards main square (?) and found a place with free entry. Needless to say, the drinks cost an arm and a leg. I don't even want to know how much Steve's lapdances cost. He got several throughout the evening, along with a lot of attention from the strippers. I actually had a lot of fun, but probably for different reasons than the guys. I haven't been to a strip club before, so I didn't know what to expect once I got there (although, SLC did host a sex workers art show at one point, so I have seen strippers perform before). Our group sat around the main stage, I was next to Steve towards the front section of the stage, argueably the best seats in the house. I'm not really sure what to say about this experience, except it was fun to flirt with strippers. If only it was as easy to flirt with boys I'm interested in? The whole fun of flirting with the strippers is because you end up getting more attention than the guys, it's strangely fun.

The next day, I met up with Naomi to have "girl talk" as she put it. It was a welcome break from the AU peeps. I took the long tram ride out to Naomi's host family's apartment. Naomi and I then hit the local grocery store for snacks before heading back to her host family's apartment to hang out. Regretably, they were out on a hike, so I didn't get to meet them. Naomi and I were both tired from our Saturday nights, turns out, she had been out even later than me on a date with a Czech guy. Some girls have all the luck. It was definitely a good Saturday afternoon.

I spent the rest of my Saturday watching Shawshank Redemption with Abe and Daniel while doing my laundry. I can't believe it's taken me this long to see that movie. I also felt like I should have seen more of that plot coming...oi, I suck.

Praha LP.3