THIS BLOG HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE ENDANGERED BLOG LIST

whew. i just finished a whirlwind week of work for classes.

this morning i had a critique for the master plan of our groupwork (we have been in 3person groups doing analysis/conceptual design/ideations/etc since we started the project). my group really has a strong idea, one which unites the entire site and merges all of our ideas into one big concept. we recieved very high praise for our ability to come together as a group and mesh all of our ideas into one theme/concept/idea. so the critique went realllly well, and im pumpedabout that.

right after the critique, i had a test in language class. we have actually learned all of the different tenses in the language, so now it's just us repeating and repeating and learning more vocabulary. i did really well on the test, the language is actually quite easy to learn. they dont go nuts with the extra-nice-southern-style stuff "may i please have one piece ofbread if its not too much trouble for you" rather its kind of cavemanlike. they would say "one bread please". very simple. so i am also really pumped about doing well in the language.

we are leaving for BERLIN tomorrow morning at 745, fernando gave us a"tease" of what we would be doing/seeing while we were there, and it looks incredible. it was going to be only the LAR students going, but they extended the offer to the fashion students as well (for a small fee), so now it will be much more exciting with everyone there. we are going from friday morning until monday afternoon. awesome!

went to a futbol game this past weekend, it was INCREDIBLE. besides a college football game, i have never seen fans that into it the WHOLE time(even at nc state the fans get quiet after a while). everyone was singing the chants for the whole game (we learned one - SLA-VI-A TO-TOHO, still working on the translation). everyone was wearing a jersey/scarf/hat/etc of the slavia praha team. the stadium was brand new, slavia praha is in first place in the standings, they have won 11 matches in a row, they wonthe league last year, and the won the game 1-0. we made sure to get a full day of tailgating in at the hotel, ha, so it was definantly a memorable time. ill never forget the feeling of walking into the stadium and seeing/hearing the passion and seeing the nice crisp green field and the players, everything was just awesome. we are going back for sure, the tickets were only $7!!!

we want to go to a hockey game too, its the playoffs now. theres not a definant schedule because of the playoffs, so their next home game is friday night, when we'll be in berlin. but hopefully they win/advance and we can go to a game next week! i bet the hockey fans are even crazier!

the opera on monday night was quite an experience. i was expecting fatladys in viking hats sitting around shattering glasses, but it wasnt like that at all. lots of movement, rythm, color, etc. it was quite entertaining, actually. they started the second act with a song about beer that started with the lyrics "beer is truly a gift from god." we really liked that part. a part of it was like cirq de sole, i videoed it because it was so cool. it was actually a humorous story, and i would consider going to another one, depending on the price of the ticket (it was 'free' for us this time!).

the weather has been getting kind of sort of i dont want to say it but its kind of been approaching light jacket weather for the past few days! it snowed yesterday, but that was just for a few minutes. but the sun has made an apperance for perhaps the last 4 days! its very exciting, we are certainly deprived of its rays. definantly not anywhere close to shorts or tshirt, but moving in the right direction. actually the other day i went running in pants and a tshirt, it was very nice and sunny.

I have been doing lots of 'urban running' lately, which consists of running to the metro station, running through the metrostation, jogging in place on the metro, taking it to a random stop that I've never been to before, and running around there for a while. its the best way to see everything, in my opinion. except I never bring my camera on these runs, so the memories become personal memories, but that's ok. we've discovered lots of cool places.

everything is really good right now, we've really been engrosing ourselvesin the culture and learning about how the history has shaped the attitudes/opinions of the people. the gov't situation is certainly interesting, it's not often that a government votes that it has noconfidence in itself! but the world isn't going to explode because of it, so all is well in my opinion. certainly interesting though.

so i am fine. the blog - well, i think its endangered. its just a big commitment to take the time to do it, but i know that everyone at home looks at it to find stuff out. so its tough. im about to go on a walk, i dont know where, but somewhere good. what i have beendoing is looking at the map, locating a place where there is a little scenic view marked, and figure out how to go there. its certainly not easy, but i love trusting myself to figure it out.

life is good! i will try to keep this blog from going extinct!

terry