Christmas Eve babbles!

Jesus Christ, I've left the blog dead pretty much since I left for grad school.

Indeed it has been a crazy five months; journalism school is busy, stressful, nerve-wrecking, yet it's been a mostly enjoyable experience. I'm just glad I'm still here enjoying the ride and not regretting my decision.

That being said, I am also very glad to have come back home for the holidays. This was a much-needed break, and I missed Prague, I missed home, I missed home food, and I missed a whole lot of things.

Here's a few things that happened in the last five months, in lists (not a listicle!):

1) Arrived in New York in the most dramatic way possible. Never again. I also learned that going to the ER via ambulance costs a shit-ton, unless the airport calls 911, in which case it's free. Health care is... interesting in the US.

2) Learned how to use a DSLR (and take better photos) and make short audio clips. I feel like a more versatile person now. (That being said, my photos are still very average.)

3) Learned how to write articles better. Which was difficult at first because everyone kept saying I sounded too dry.

4) Nothing is more flattering(?) and simultaneously soul-crushing than hearing the words "You have the potential to do better" - on one hand, I guess people think highly of you, but on the other hand... "better"? How do you know if I can do better? What if this is all I've got and you're overestimating me? I worked really hard on this but it's sub-par? Is this a passive-aggressive way of saying I suck?

5) Found that New York is so much bigger and more diverse than I'd have imagined (and I love it.)

6) The amount of work you get assigned in the J-school seems to depend on the professors you're assigned to. Some people have already done so much, while others had it a bit more easily. I'd say I'm on the latter (even though I have also pulled all-nighters and cried and threw things on the wall in frustration.) I have mixed feelings about this: on one hand, I envy the ones who went through all sorts of hell because they'll emerge at the end as some sort of steroid-fueled super journalists who can handle any shit thrown at them. On the other hand, I appreciated having my sanity (relatively) intact.

Grad school: when having less work makes you just as nervous as having more work.

7) Partied a lot, more than I ever did in my life (in my standards. The amount I've partied is still laughably low for a 23-year-old person.)

8) Had my Halloween costume photographed on the New York Observer! http://observer.com/2013/11/oh-my-ghoul-witches-and-weirdos-flock-to-halloween-parade/#slide3 I'm not a person who gets the spotlight often, so it was fascinating to have people recognize me and shout "It's Princess Bubblegum!"

9) Got my driver's license. (though this happened last week.) I had a bit of trouble getting the hang of driving in the summer, but when i tried again after I came back I was pretty good at it. It might be because if I failed now, I pretty much don't have a good time to try again. Ah, desperation.

It's Christmas eve, and no snow in sight. Seems like it will be sunny today though, which is nice since Prague winters get cloudy and foggy a lot.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Upon starting Journalism school.

Today is my last day before I leave for New York tomorrow.

It's also the last day of my responsibility-free bum life I've had for seven months.

And given the circumstances, it's also probably the last time I live in Prague full-time. Of course I'll visit during holidays as long as my parents are here, but it'll probably never be longer than several weeks/months anymore.

I was expecting to feel wistful, but right now all I feel is vague anxiety.

Maybe I'm too distracted by immediate things to feel wistful - there was an INSANE heat wave today, and there's last-minute packing and weighing our gigantic luggage, wondering if they'll all fit in the New York taxicabs when I get there.

There's also the intense all-day orientation session for three whole days (seriously, why?) and mom and I have been brainstorming on how to use what little time left to get settled in.

Of course, it also means the beginning of new, exciting things - the start of graduate school, the start of a new campus life in a University that I was quite lucky to get in to, the start of new friends, and a serious training in a profession I plan to pursue.

The biggest emotion I feel out of this clusterfuck, though, is the anxiety of having to shoulder responsibility after largely being free of it for seven months, the end of "childhood".

Technically, I have not been a child in years so this sounds a bit silly, but I meant childhood in the sense of being responsibility-free.

After one year in grad school (which will teach me the basics of my future job so I don't feel like a "student" that much), I'll get a job; not an internship or a part-time job or anything, but a REAL job, one which I am expected to support myself with.

With the economy and everything, I can't help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the notion of beginning a fully adult life.

But I suppose when the time comes, I'll end up going through life okay.
Sorry if the post sounded like it was rambling. You know how 3AM blog posts are like.

Poland Day 7-10: Golf, Rain, and cray cray neighbors, etc

(btw, this is my 100th blog post! Hooray for not abandoning my blog yet!)

Day 7-8: Golf

In the weekend, the family went golfing.

To be quite honest, I didn't really want to play golf. I'm not a big sports person to begin with (the only sports I even like playing is Tennis and Kendo), and walking under the burning heat to follow around a tiny ball wasn't really my idea of fun.

But I was also aware that complaining about not wanting to play golf is a First World Problem. ESPECIALLY for Korean people, because only the uber-rich are able to play golf in a proper golf course in South Korea. (My family would not be able to afford going to a golf course if they lived in Korea):

Spoiled as fuuuuuuuck.

So I went and stayed quiet.

Because I never really played golf before, I took an hour-long lesson on Saturday. After that, I tagged along my parents and brother (who learned it last year and therefore can play) playing actual golf and acted as a caddie.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice! It was delicious.

OH HAI.

This part of the course looked pretty. The other parts... ehh.

I saw a cat in the golf course.

AND A FOX!

All in all, it was a very okay experience. It didn't rock, it didn't suck, it was OKAY.
Seems like this will be happening every weekend, so I might as well as get used to it.

Day 9-10: Rain

If last week was the week of hellish road-melting heat, this week seems to be the week of cold and rain. How can the weather be so drastically different this week?! One moment I was slathering sunscreen in T-shirts and shorts, next I'm wearing long pants and a raincoat!

Here's a video I took from dad's car, to show you how much it's raining:

More photos of rain:

Day 8-9: Cray cray neighbors

So... we live on the second floor of an apartment.
And the neighbors living on the first floor are a bit crazy.

Apparently it all started last year, my parents explained, when the cleaning lady accidentally broke the plumbing (exactly how, I'm not sure), resulting in water leaking downstairs.

Explanations were attempted, but failed due to language barrier. The downstairs neighbor (a father and daughter; the father owns this building) then proceeded to just cut off water in dad's apartment. The plumbing was fixed and the water restored, but apparently they held a grudge from that incident.

After golf, we came back to the house and was greeted by this taped on the door:

We have not left the front door of the apartment building open (it gets left open sometimes), but after the water leaking, apparently they thought we were responsible for any sort of mishaps in the apartment, because we were the only house with this sign taped on the door.

And yesterday, after the family came back from eating dinner out, we were greeted with this taped on the door.

Dude, what the fuck?!

May I emphasize that this year, we haven't done anything to the neighbors, even accidentally? The only thing we even say to other residents is a "hello" and nothing more.

(Also, if the water leakage happened a year ago, why put passive-aggressive signs on the door now? Doesn't make sense.)

We're just living our lives and not interacting with anyone else in the entire building, and we get stuff like this posted on our door?!

My brother was quite annoyed and tried to do something about it, but mom had advised him to not do anything - "It's best to leave crazy people alone and not provoke them," she said. "Who knows, they might even call the police if we try to argue with them."


Day 10: Shady cleaning lady, part 2

Today (Tuesday), I was supposed to have another golf lesson, but was cancelled due to the rain. Mom and I went to Starbucks again to read and chat.

Coffee and reading is nice.

We had lunch afterwards and made our way back home earlier than usual.

And when we got back home, the cleaning lady was still there.

With her boyfriend. Who was sitting on our chair and watching television.

The cleaning lady looked kind of flustered, muttered something under her breath, and the two of them left without cleaning dad's bedroom. Mom later found that some of her coffee mix was missing. And there were cigarette ashes in the toilet bowl, and bath towels were washed with the bathroom foot rugs. Again.

Shady as fuck, confirmed.

We did tell dad to find another hired help already, but he's not really that quick in handling matters sometimes. We shall see.

Day 10: Choco

Okay, here's trying to end this blog on a more cheerful note.

We went to the Korean store today, and guess who's back in the store?

The Korean store.

Choco!

PLZ LOOK AT CAMERA CHOCO.

The store owner didn't want to leave Choco alone at home, so she brought Choco and her puppies in the second floor of the store, away from the first floor area but still close to her. Granted, Choco didn't/couldn't come down from the stairs, but I was glad to see her again. We even heard the puppies squealing upstairs!

Sleepy dog.

I hope I can see the puppies too before I leave. The puppies would be okay with outside exposure after a month, I believe.

Poland: Day 3 - 6: The Heat, shady cleaners, bad luck, and good luck

Day 3-6 The Heat

So, for most of the week it was a long battle against the heat.

Just how hot was it? A dog got stuck into a melting road in Poland.

So yeah. And if the heat wasn't enough to drive people mad already, it was made worse by the burning sunlight shining from all directions of everywhere.

Highly relevant picture from Hyperbole and a Half.

It was so bad that the heat would suffocate us in the small apartment, starting from around 10 AM until sunset. We bought a fan to keep cool, but once the house got hot, the only way to stay cool was to sit right next to the fan for the rest of the day.

So mom and I went outside (into cooler buildings) often.

There is a gigantic mall/eateries area not too far away. (kind of like how many American neighborhoods are set up - a separate residential area and consumer area) Normally you'd need a car to go from A to B, but luckily there was a "short cut" we can go on foot, which takes about 15 minutes.

The shortcut to the malls. 

Corn fields on the side.

You can spot KFC!

The walk takes about 15 minutes. This is how 15 minutes of walking under the burning sun feels like.

Highly relevant picture from Hyperbole and a Half #2.

And then we go to a Starbucks and read a book or something while we take shelter from the heat.

There's a nice grocery store around the area!

Shady cleaning lady

Because my dad usually lives alone in Poland part-time and he's a sort of person who can't be bothered to do anything that isn't his money-making job, he has an old lady come clean the apartment every Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And she is kinda shady, to put it mildly.

Google image search result for "shady people".

I have not actually seen her face to face, as mom and I are out before she comes to clean the house. However, the evidence she leaves behind have indicates major shadiness.

When we came back to the apartment in the evening, there were: 

1) Cigarette ashes floating in the toilet bowl.

2) Signs suggesting that she and/or her boyfriend (who drives her around) used the shower.

3) A significant reduce in laundry detergent.

4) Foot rugs and bath towels put in the washing machine together.

5) Signs suggesting plates have been used to eat something.

6) And overall, not that spotlessly clean house.

I don't think any of you wanted photos of that anyway.

So yeah.

Bad luck

So nothing horrendous happened, but a series of very minor bad luck, especially when suffering from the heat and all that, just kind of wears you down.

First, Choco the dog gave birth on Tuesday. Talk about a wildly off expected date. And since she has to tend to her puppies, I may not be able to see her again during my stay in Poland this month. Aww. The Korean store lady showed us pictures of her three puppies.

Secondly, I dropped my watch and a part of it broke.

Third, my laptop charger also broke... somewhat. Fuck.

It's a paper-thin charger for a paper-thin laptop, and the fragile charger design leads to easy breakage. Damn you Samsung!

After frantic attempts to resuscitate the charger and not be left laptop-less, I found that the charger works if I bend a certain part of the charger at a certain angle. So far I've been able to re-charge my laptop several times, but I don't know how long it will last.

And Good luck

After months and months of broken promises and angry phone calls, my Czech visa is finally ready.

Christ. It was high time the freaking thing came out.

Which means 1) I am able to leave Czech Republic and go to the USA for grad school, and 2) If lucky, I can temporarily go back to Prague during this month-long stay to fetch my visa.

Woot!

Poland, Day 1 and 2

The family is going to Poland for a month!

My dad is going there because he works there (and has a small apartment which he currently lives part-time), my brother to do an internship, and my mom to take care of the family. 

And I'm just tagging along because my family can't just leave me in Czech Republic alone for a month. Hahahahaha lazy freeloader (I'll be helping out my mom a bit).

Initially, I was not looking forward to this trip at all - I've never been to dad's place while my mom and brother did last year, and they kept telling me that the stay there was "nothing much to do and it was kind of dull, but tolerable", and that we would be playing a lot of golf.

That was not really my idea of a fun trip, BUT this "trip" is mostly for my brother, and as a freeloading tagalong I have no right to complain. So follow along I did.

Day 1:

On Sunday morning we took a LOT of luggage, and hopped onto dad's car from Prague to Wrocław, Poland. (pronounced "vrots-waf"), a city located in southwest Poland.

Blue star: Prague, Orange star: Wrocław

The entire trip took somewhere around 4-5 hours.

Random shot of Czech Republic.

Random shot of Poland. There were nice buildings below but it didn't come out well.

In the middle of the trip, we stopped by a McDonalds that we often go when taking car trips to other European countries. Some people might think that a McDonalds is not the best place to stop and have a little something, but Czech McDonalds tastes a lot better than American McDonalds.  so don't judge okay aaaa

This McDonalds also has nice interior.

The "McCafe" section. Some of their pastries are decent.
We got hot chocolate and cheesecake.

After a few more hours of driving, we were near dad's place in Wrocław. Before arriving, we stopped at a Korean store nearby to buy some extra groceries for food.

The store owner had a Yorkshire terrier named Choco! Choco was pregnant and the store owner said she was expecting puppies in about two weeks. I think I'll enjoy going to the Korean store.

Sorry no photos of Choco (yet!)  Soon...

(Also, my dad was cooing over Choco the entire time. He's an old-fashioned dad who's too shy/doesn't bother to say anything affectionate to his children, but then he turns around and melts into a puddle of goo over a tiny dog. I've seen him like that before but it's still quite jarring when it happens.)

After unloading our bags, we grocery shopped some more, bought a fan (because it's hot here right now and dad doesn't have one), had dinner and unpacked.

Dad's place is a single-bedroom apartment and has a spacious living room. It's kinda cramped for 4 people, but would be an okay place for one or two.

After unpacking everything we watched some television, washed up, and went to bed.

Day 2:

Woke up with a swollen left eye. Blargh.

So I'm not sure why, but since a few years ago my eyes would inexplicably swell up and itch before dissipating. I have chalked up the possible causes as either stress or dusty environment. I'm still not sure which.

Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as when my eye swelled up in Korea. (Eyes swollen for weeks and had to put in two types of eye drops every day)

Dad left for work, Jin left for internship and mom and I slowly did some housework. She let me rest a bit because of my eye.

The apartment complex has a lot of swallow nests, including my dad's. 

Finally got a shot of the swallow!

It was hot out and since my eye itched I just kind of stayed here all day. Hopefully I'll actually do something in the future.

International School of Prague - Then and Now

When I visited ISP this year, I was surprised at how much the school changed. I knew ISP has gone through a major paint job over time, but now it had additional renovations done that changed some of the school structure.

When I visited the school again, I brought a camera with me and took photos. I also had several old photos of the school lying around, so I thought it would be fun to do a "Before and After" of ISP.

Dear ISP people who left/graduated before 2008, this is probably how you remember the school entrance:

And this is how you remember the school logo:

So imagine my surprise when I went back to the school and was greeted with this:

Wait... what is that colorful thing blocking the school building?

 And found the school logo looking like this:

What happened???
Here's the new front entrance of the school in closer view:

A gate on the right door?

And when you go inside, it's the same main entrance with security and such, except...

There's a new door on the right side of the photo! It used to be just windows before!

So when you peer through the newly-made door, you see this long corridor you've never seen before. If you wondered what the new colored block was at the front of the school, it's this!

Not pictured: various classrooms and offices along the new corridor.

Seriously, this was a long-ass hallway. It leads to the 1st floor hallway.

The 1st floor hallway now has a gigantic sign that shows where you need to go! You can also see that the stairways leading to the 2nd floor has been painted blue.

On the left of the hall is the "Landau Theater", before and after (The Landau Theater sign was put up shortly after I graduated from ISP):

A shot of the new theater from further away:

This was taken in 2009. There are no chairs anymore.

The school trophy cases are now colored (and have moved to the lounge area!), and the mini lounge area on the 1st floor has expanded:

The original lounge, now with new colorful sofas.

they made more room for a second lounge with more sofas!

This is the only photo I have of the old first floor lounge, back in 2006 (Hi Lianna, Hitomi, and Kasumi!).

We were hardworking students.

This is the Middle School Hallway, before and after:

So colorful.

This is further inside the Middle School Hallway (yeah, I know, it's not the exact same location):

Before: white walls and beige-y floor, After: lime green walls and lime/blue floor.

And we now go upstairs to the Upper School, where my friends and I attended/graduated.

The good old Upper School hallway! Remember when it was all pristine white? Well, not anymore!

The two photos are taken from opposite sides, but you get the idea.

More of the old and new hallways. (Hi Shuto, Tatsuya, and Ken!) What kind of bugs me about the new Upper School hallways is that the yellow and blue reflects less sunlight, so the hallways look significantly darker than they used to be.

The other end of the same hallway - they have now added actual benches and mini-tables. On one hand, this is practical because kids were dragging leftover desks and sitting on them all the time in this spot anyway. On the other hand... they look like bar tables.

Now we move onto the lounge area. Gone are the plain tiles, now it's a rainbow floor!

The new lounge has a red wall, as well as new sofas and tables. And a series of graduation photos from each year (starting from 2008)!

Class of 2008! Oh the memories!

I MISS ALL OF YOU.

BTW, the hallway to the teachers' area and nurse's office is like freaking Rainbow Road on Mario Kart:

The student mailboxes are now outside the mail room. And the Upper School Counselor's office went through renovations and is a lot bigger.

Spiffy new entrance of the Counselor's office. Remember when it was a dingy room?

This is the end of the Upper School hallway, where Mr. Crane's Psychology classroom is on the right. I don't have photos of it before the paintjob in 2009. Just imagine the whole thing being whitish :P

But the point is, remember how there were talks of connecting the hallways so that the end of the Psych classroom hallway will lead to the Science classrooms hallway? Well, they finally did it; the Upper School hallways are no longer crescent-shaped, but is now a fully connected circle.

Left: photocopying room. Right: No more photocopying room!

It felt so odd to continue walking across the hall in a full circle. At least it will be much easier for students with Psych and Sciences class to walk around now!

RIP, old photocopy room and old Biology classroom. You were sacrificed for easier student commute.

The Chemistry classroom is still there! (I know many took IB Chemistry, though I didn't.)

And last but not least, the Upper School senior lounge! Okay, so I took this photo after I graduated, but it looked pretty much the same minus a few posters.

Please ignore my silly long hair.

And this is the senior lounge, 2013 style:

Nothing much has changed except for the yellow walls.

This is the new staircase leading down to the gym, now colored in rainbow:

This used to be all... whitish before.

The ISP Falcons logo changed too!

The gym itself, however, looks pretty much the same other than the new Falcons logo.

Goddammit blurry Tae Yong, you blocked the old Falcons logo!

Now, the library. The library hallway is largely unchanged, save for the minor paint job, and the fact that they changed up part of the right side of the wall.

The inside of the library hasn't changed too much either overall. They painted the pillars in rainbow colors, changed the carpet, and rearranged the bookshelves, but it's essentially the same library. (The photos aren't so great at showing it though)

More photos of the new library. I'm glad they decided to keep the high ceiling and not divide the library into two floors like rumors said. The high ceiling is the main charm of this place IMO.

The school cafeteria has also gone through a major change. When I was attending school, this is how the cafeteria looked like - blue pillars and plain brown chairs:

Hi Fumiko, Mai, and Tomoyo! 

Me looking dorky at grade 12.

This is how the cafeteria looks like now - EXPLOSION OF RAINBOWS!

SO COLORFUL.

The lights also changed.

 The cafeteria itself has changed quite a bit (more snacks you can buy!) but all in all, it was the cafeteria that we remember.

Remember how there was a small table outdoors so you can have lunch just outside the cafeteria? I don't have older pictures of the old table, but I do have a photo from 2009 when they installed the new tables, and this is how it looks like in 2013:

Difference in school structure!

And this is the lovely pond that took away a third of the nice grassy hill. It's mostly unchanged.

The hill is such a nice place to run around in.

I also took some pictures of the art and music rooms on the first floor:

Upper School art room! So many memories! (The inside went through a paint job)

The music and drama room are largely the same.

Though I didn't, most of my friends took band in Middle School.  The old band room.

The new structures made room for extra band practice rooms on the side!

Lastly, here are more photos of the newly added structures in the school:

So that was it! Going around the school made me feel like a middle/high school student all over again. It was fun seeing what changed and what didn't!