It's my Prague-ative

               The weekend after we returned from Paris, we found ourselves heading to Prague.

                     Is this my life?
                Czechoslovakia?
          Don't know how to
      Format this...
   Sorry

I LOVED Prague, the city was really cool and energetic--I walked more in two days than I did all week in Paris. Lots of hills. Lots of fun. Lots of incredible views...

Nicole up by the metronome 

From our walk up to the castle

View of famous Charles bridge--it was stunning

Sunset

SO MANY CHUCKS up by the metronome

My FAVORITE part about Prague, though, was the John Lennon wall

Us

Every year the wall is repainted. Really cool.

My second favorite part of Prague was either the baby statues/modern art exhibit we saw, or this AWESOME memorial to the victims of communism in Czechoslovakia.

Every few steps the statue becomes less and less, so powerful-equally terrifying. 

The four of us (FEARSOME FOURSOME!) went on two bar crawls, one each night we were in Prague. We stayed in Hostel Elf, and met SO many people. The second night I felt like homecoming queen at some dumb football game because so many people knew my name and were so excited to see me. Now I'm back to anime-nerd status, but I had my moment of popularity. 

WHY do people jump in our picture? Ahh well...

"The best night you will never remember"...perhaps too fitting

ALRIGHT. How to explain the night life? Our first bar crawl was the Clock Tower Bar Crawl. I didn't have the best night. But that's ok. Here are some pictures from Friday night with ambiguous captions so my mom doesn't overreact.

Absinthe. A Czech staple, ja?

I LOVE LAURA

I LVOE CASSIE

This guy was from Georgia, and I felt compelled to get a picture with him because Scarlett and Mammy and Oh! Ashley...

Things are getting a little odd

Stairs are hard

Meditating on the texture of lentil vomit

Oh boy

As you can see, the first night was neither here nor there. What? That made no sense.

The second night was much more fun. We ended our bar crawl at the largest dance club in central Europe--five floors:
1. Oldies
2. R&B
3. Don't Remember, if we're being honest
4. ?
5. Chill Out

Ok, ok, ok. Laura remembers the floors accurately (maybe because she's weird and favors dancing to the Beach Boys in between Li'l Wayne tracks and sitting in an igloo?)

1. Ice Bar
2. Dance music
3. Oldies
4. Hip hop
5. Chill out

Nicole was on the oldies floor 99% of the time, and the name of the floor not only describes the kind of music that was played, but by and large the people who were breakin' it down...or rather breakin' down. They were old.

Crawlin'

Fun

Need to remember that I NEVER look cool when I dance. Ever.

So I mentioned how many people i met the second night--of those people tons were from the states and studied in Salzburg! We're meeting up with them on Thursday at O'Malley's. SMALL WORLD.

AND NOW...

The Bar crawls as told from Megan's thumb:

Weeeee! We're havin' a great time--What's up guys? Glad to be here, nice to see ya! I love poppin' up for a carefree thumbs-up. Tonight's gonne be great

Hehe! Still goin' strong. I'm not even cold, despite Megan not dressing me in mittens. Heeheeheee!

Now I'm pressed up against yet another shot glass--wish Megan would stop grabbin' these, though they are freeeee!!!

It's hard to hold onto the railing when Megan's being an idiot--Hahahhaahhehehehhe!!!

Now I'm holding Nicole's hand as she runs me to the toilet! Weeee! and I'm clutching a toilet--Weeee! hope Megan remembers to wash me...

Nope. Come on, Megan! I don't ask for much. Weeee!

THE NEXT MORNING

The flash makes it difficult to see the bruise blemishing me. Owww! 

Annnndd I'm back, with the index finger--weeeee!

Sorry my thumbs are so annoying, but they're in cahoots with my fingers and are typing for me...

WHAT WAS THAT?

STOP MEGAN. Stop DOING THINGS LIKE THIS.

ok.

Swans are terrifying. Here, eat my tortillia. Oh! and yes, I know I look like a Finnish schoolboy/I only brought one sweater on accident/don't be mean!

Old pic. Me at Fountianblau with the Fountainblau cat! Missin' Kit.

Well. This post did not go at all how I thought it would.
Wrote some blog material on the train ride home. may post it later, but you'll judge me even more than you already are for that whole thumb-thing.

Pre-Prague-Post

Over 1500 blog views-HOLLAAAAA

Christmas-

 To go home, or to stay in Salzburg...I NEED to see friends or family or SOMEONE during the Holidays. But I LOVE it here--mom offered to get me home, and maybe I will head to Spokompton for a couple weeks. I don't know. I DON'T KNOW! It's Christmas. Not ashamed that I would rather be home than anywhere else in the world during Christmas. I DON'T KNOW. Do you think Christmas markets compare to our hardwood floors? Do you think famous pubs have anything on hot chocolate with my brother? Can Baroque architecture contend with my mom's curves...whoa, what?

Ok, Prague post to come.

Now I'm leaning toward a holiday homecoming. It sounds so wonderful! My parents and Zach--the cats and Mariya! (Just coupled Mariya with my cats...sorry dude) Caylee and Zoey and Su and not sure if Becca is gonna be in Spokane but...AHHH methinks I'll go home--Amy!? Lauren!? Abbie and my house!? (Just coupled Abbie with a building, sorry...) MY CAR AND MY BED AND OUR TREE...

Get ready Spokane, I'm coming home

L.A.M.E

I'm going to try to be funny in this post. Bear with me...and bare with me if it would make you more comfortable. Really? My jokes are already off to an atrocious start.

Kelsey cut mah hair!! I want to look like Megan Rapinoe, clearly:

On my Paris tour, I may or may not have tried to bite Laura's hair in every major building without her noticing...Nicole captured my successes:

Well, here we are back from Paris and back to the books...would you like to hear about my classes? TOO BAD! I'mma tell you 'n' yer gonna read allz duh blog 'cuz I'mma make it humorous

Theology: The mildest lamb bleats feebly as she struggles to find the english equivalent of some biblical word, "...a-a-anointed, yes, anointed, yes." I feel my throat muscles flex and convulse as I refrain from laughing/supplying her with a better word/explaining that 'yes' is an unnecessary addition to her explanation. She is the gentlest of all the souls, though. I marvel at how she has survived this cruel world--how she hasn't disintegrated yet, her submissive bits of self floating on to a benevolent pasture. Anyway, she's nice.

Philosophy: Alexander is dynamic--he's here and there and talking loud and eye contact and morality ethics? Kurze Pause, fünf minuten pause, I have to pee! been drinking a lot of water. This class would be engaging if I cared for morality outside of vegetarianism and feminism. Schade. Schade schade schade. But what can you do?

Musik: As Bach plays through the speakers, a near human voice breaks into operatic singing, joining the music nonchalantly and ceasing after a few more notes...is this real life? Gundi is a delightful pillow. A soft, grandmotherly cloud floating at the front of the class in between seated self-concerts. Her hair is a small, thin white afro--as if a transparent cotton ball rested upon her cranium. Often she dons a winter skirt, delightful. Her eyes, one of them lazy (or is it two? can one have two lazy eyes?) scan the room, and I am never sure whether she is addressing me or someone on the other side of the room. I love Gundi, sweet like a chocolate turtle, a soft nougat emerging once a week on a ray of musical light.

Fine Arts: Frau Loos is revered by all. She is more qualified in her field than a deer is in its field. She identifies, curates and teaches more effortlessly than a doe leaps, grazes and stares into headlights. incredible. As I said earlier, she said she likes me, and thinks I should have a television show. Now I feel uncomfortable around her. Schade schade schade. It is odd that she, the most idolized professor I have hitherto met, does not initiate my faculties of veneration (perfected from, years of worship and adoration). Art is not my thing, unfortunately. Le sigh.

German: It is hard because last semester I learned so much--my professor's teaching style was so conducive to my absorption of Deutsch...comparing classes is, in this case, painfully upsetting.

CLEANSING: Laura, Gwen and I like not eating and weighing ourselves compulsively on my scale. yayyy American culture and patriarchy and do the guys here ever say, "I ran today. I EARNED this." No. No they don't. Even though they're getting beer bellies and cankles. not exactly accurate. am I bitter? NO I have energy and ran yesterday and my potato was so good this morning. SO good. Potato with a little fire roasted tomato oil and corn. Ohmahgawd.
Day 1-fruit
Day 2-veggies and one potato
Day 3-Fruit&Veggies
Day 4-bananas and 3 glasses of (soy) milk
Day 5-Brown rice, tofu and tomatoes
Day 6-...umm Prague...uh-oh

I'm on Day 2.

ELECTION. OBAMA-RAMA!!! If Romney wins I'm not going home, one cannot return from autonomy!! I'm exaggerating eee! But on a serious note, I wouldn't want to meet Paul Ryan in a dark Alley. Shut it down.

Wee Nicole and I in Paris

Cassie and I in the Versailles Gardens--rowers on the giant pond were hysterical. You have some very capable young athletes...then, oh no. NO NO NO old women in a 5-person boat haphazardly rowing in an unsynchronized, rhythmless series of splashes--one, wearing magenta in the center of her vessel doesn't even lift her oar all the way out of the water-it drags miserably slowing the craft immensely. Our laughter knows no end

Feats of athleticism on a bus break during the journey home from Paris.

Versailles--the girl on the far right is Alex. aka Jack-in-the-box because she'll surprise you. She'll getcha. You think, ah a simple nerd, tame and mild, perhaps she'll be like my theology professor one day...BAM! yeah she'll go streaking with you and run to Germany and back and sell you heroin (K, I made that last one up)

Let's turn the Paris metro into a jungle gym AEEOUGH00!

As part of my cleanse I'm drinking approximately 20,000 liters of water a day. I need to pee. All.the.time. I fear laughter, jumping and being tickled--all will result in a DEPENDS-level situation.

This blog wasn't funny. I was envisioning something legitimately humours. Well, you get what you pay for. What? That made zero sense.

Laura, Blobe and I--these birds came out of NOWERE and starting circling my head. Blobe is a plush, pink blob that 'Chelle won me at that carnival in Strassburg. I love Blobe. He ALWAYS has a smile on his face--such a good attitude 

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-smartest-colleges-in-america-2012-11
This website says I'm smart.

End of Fall Tour

So...

Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame a million times and Shakespeare and Company (Favorite) and Parisian confidence maybe I will become a wildly successful book lady I don't know

I think all of these photos are courtesy of Hanna.
Halloween in Paris was Michelle and I, a bottle of wine and Hocus Pocus until my room was invaded by a sea of drunk men.
Found free books outside of Paris apartment. one was just postcards of impressionist paintings. shweet
Paris-the best and worst smells of my life

Lil' 'Chelle gettin' strangled

I AM SO CUTE

3/4 of le group. Yes, I am smoking Thomas' cigarette in an effort to look Parisian

Billions of museums

Frau Loos, our 78 year old Fine Arts prof was the curator for the Salzburg modern Art Museum and she has some connections to art families which I don't quite understand and she has a flat by the Eiffel tower...anyway she showed us Impressionists, Aegean art, Etruscan and Roman...just like everything...anyway (said that twice, ugh) she said she likes me.

After a little champagne

Strassburg--FAVORITE
French town
So cute
amazing shops and bakeries
cool church (motif of every euro blog?)

Outside museum park Rodin

I'm home now!

How to explain my time in Paris? ...erm, WrItINg HaRd.

PICTURES in no particular order because, let's face it, this blog has the most horrendous layout of all the blogs. Let the trend continue!

Blue hat club--cold but SUN

Illustrious blobs in the claw machine. Carnival in Strassburg

Photo on my copy of War and Peace wut, wut..wut, wut wut

Buttz in front of Le tower

Michelle and I at le carnival

Why do I look like a hobbit? Rodin museum

Full moon. Eiffel Tower. Band playing Simon & Garfunkel on wind pipes. eeee!

Bella Swan lip bite at the Manet exhibit

NEW SHOES!!! Outside of Louis XIV's crib: CONVERSAILLES--see what I did there? WHAAA!!!

still kewt

Erin and I in Champagne

Brennan and I on Louvre-roof

STUFF:

Listening to Mackelmore's new album thanks to Michelle. SO good

Writing my Ethics paper on veganism

Chloe turns 1 in 6 days!! c.r.a.z.y.

Prague next weekend, then Amsterdam at the end of November

Austrian football match tonight

99% sure Laura, Nicole, Alex and I have our house for next year...WUT

Writing a blog post for the English major blog about living abroad. may post that. might not. kbye

France, so far

Bus ride-Cassie and I are ultimate bus buddies

First night in Metz.
Stunning cathedrals (Just like Salzburg!)
Walked from hotel with Hanna

Food: We each got 130 euro for meals in France. I'm trying to spend 20 to make up for my hair costs. I bought a scale the day before we left so I have some concrete and crazy-achievable (worst hyphenated adjective ever?) health goals, plus I'm vegan so what am I going to eat here? Answer: canned corn and fruit.

We'll see how this goes. Methinks well, methinks well.



Champagne, France.
Champagne tour? ok.
Champagne in champagne.
Champagne science
Champagne history
Hanna let's pick grapes during harvest,
or let's just WOOFF for a month after the program is over.
Champagne prophecy?

These champagne cellars are worth more than my life. Each bottle is over 100 euro. Big numbers and math would tell you that if it was me or the champagne, you'd have to kill me. and no, it's not like the pet-in-a-house-fire we can get a new dog scenario. Some of these bottles are vintage, meaning it was a unique growing season and the champagne is completely individual.

Paris. 8 euro of groceries. Eiffel tower. corn. Sleep.

Fearsome Foursome IPICACACAC!!

Paris.
Notre Dame for mass.
I was like, yo dogg I be jaded tuff cuz I already seen this here church n it dont phaze me none...PSYCH. Unlike many cool Parisians, I will never grow accustomed to such incredible, beautiful, historical architecture. Even in Portland, the event center blows my mind.















Saint Chappelle for gawking. Stained Glass. an entire room. The first time I almost fell down the stairs after losing my footing after being so struck by the most beautiful room in the world. Can't do it justice...THE ENTRIE ROOM. every wall. stained glass. with the sun and the reflections.
GUHHHHHHHHH









Lunch ate corn out of a can with my fingers and found a box of free books *in french :( * and took one book, full of postcards with French impressionist paintings decorating the front. score. This picture is huge and it is probably my dumbest one. C'est la Megan's Vie

Me before bed with Impressionists 30 postcard book thing LOVE the impressionist...that's why I'm cutting off my ear

Museé Rodin for art and sunshine
(all of these French things are spelled incorrectly, fyi)

Well HEY George Bernard Shaw.
 Saw Arms and the Man last year
....LOVED it

Napoleon's tomb (see below-right) HUGE and wow and I can't and mortality and pinning a moment in history to cheat death but wow Just. massive. I'll put up a pic of his actual tomb lata, not just le building in which he/son/some bros are buried. The building was EPIC, as you can see...
Beautiful weather--so cold, but so sunny

Michelle Cassie Nicole Hanna and I (disregard commas for a moment, will you? Oh! I just used one...) walked to The Arc de Triumph to soak in Paris and enjoy weather and burn off that canned corn I ate. I look STUPID in this picture below, but everyone else looks good and it was SUCH a lovely sight--6 women were taking wedding pics in their dresses. I'm wearing Cassie's hat because my ROBYN hair doesn't really protect my ears from the cold...LOOK AT THAT VIEW

Took the PACKED metro home-grabbed some walnuts and a mini can of corn for dinner before getting on the bus for a bus tour.

Me, eating corn before tour

Ok, I haven't really been eating THAT much corn. It's just (apparently) very humorous to everyone that I eat it out of a can.

I DID buy walnuts, corn, pears, applesauce, and an orange for 8 euro, though. Between those rations and the complimentary hotel breakfast (of which applesauce, pineapple and tea is vegan) I'm confident I can stay within a 20 euro budget. I feel like one of those extreme coupon people except without the diabetes...or two shopping carts of Charmin ultra...ok I guess I feel nothing like an extreme couponer.

It is SO cool being here after spending a day in Paris 3 years ago. Some awesome memories arose/I remembered so many little landmarks it blew.my.mind.

 Bus tour--Peter, a native Austrian who has been living in France for over 30 years is our coordinator here. We went through the red light district, past The Moulin Rouge and heard all his insightful.intelligent.hilarious commentary.


The greatest thing you will ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

*I'm a green fairy

Midtermz

I'M DONE

Theology: I think went well...Genesis creation compared to Babylonian creation myths and all that jazz

Philosophy: B-. Ethics hard.

Fine Arts: I'm anticipating a B/B+. I knew every question but it's SO hard to remember all the pieces and all the artists and all the time periods. We'll see

Political Science: It went WAY better than I thought it would, in fact I feel confident I rocked it...still,
knowing Stan any grade is possible *stops talking because you still don't want to hear me rant. I wrote about how WWII was in many ways an extension of WWI, and identified terms/people like a boss

German: Rockstar status, but I'm not learning as much as last semester. Highest test scores. Not loving it like I did at UP. Whatevs.

Now all I have to do is prep my ipod for a week in France...

Paris tomorrow :O

Yes, I see my spelling errors, my sentence fragments and syntactical goofs but i dun' giva spit! Editing hard. Also, the format of my pics and stuff is atrocious--but I'mma let it be, let it be, whisper words of wisdom...

I guess I should say everything I can think of before my memories are eclipsed by ze voyage to le France!

Last two midterms in 9 hours. Fine Arts and Political Science...I've been doing alright in my classes but I am REALLY nervous about poli sci. I won't rant here, though. Nobody wants to hear that..

ONWARD

 We celebrated Nicole's 20th birthday last weekend-she wore the infamous Lion shirt, of course. Dancing, having fun, the night ended a little meh but we got some fun pictures!

 Cassie has been pulling pranks whenever I leave my door unlocked...get rid of the evidence...









Kelsey, Hanna and I took a 'family photoshoot' in the park outside the AG (building where we have lunch) Fall is stunning, family photos are delightfully cheesy:

 



Leaving for Paris in 30 hours. WUT?

Classes here are really awful.

My German and English have gotten worse.

LOVE my friends here

Excited for midterms to be over

Vegan for 6 months in 10 days

Need to buy boots for colder weather
...too bad I look like a total poser in boots

Need a haircut. Miss my friends and parents and Zach

Might have my house/housemates for junior year all set up

Life's been moving oh so fast I think we should take it slow
rest our heads upon the grass and listen to it grow