Pictures of Prague

Hello everyone,
So, I'm finally getting settled in Leiden. It's strange living in a dorm again but I'm getting used to it. It's name is the Kaarsenmaakersstraat, which I will never be able to spell right. The building is completely nonsensical; I'm pretty sure it was designed to be 19th century riot-proof. It took us like an hour to find the laundry room and common room. There are canals surrounding it and a cemetery behind us where Van Gogh's mom is buried. The city is really great- beautiful, walkable, vibrant and almost 1000 years old. The people are all so nice and helpful when I can't understand their Dutch. Leiden is really a student city since the university is spread out around the whole town, so it's nice to have a mix of students and then all kinds of people as opposed to Worcester which is so segregated. I don't have a bike yet, but I'm going to need one since all my classes are literally on the other side of town from my dorm. The city center is only a five minute walk though, and it's full of shopping streets, huge lit up canals, bars and restaurants and old landmarks. The huge outdoor market they have Wednesdays and Saturdays is right up the street on the Nieuwe Rijn, so I was able to run over yesterday and get some fruit and tzatziki sauce. The canal the market runs on has little barges in the water so when no one is looking you can run across to the other side of the street over the water. Not my best idea, but fun nonetheless. I've been eating some Dutch food, like the pannekoeken, which are incredible Dutch pancakes. They are a lot like Pamela's to you Pittsburgher's, but covered in chocolate or bacon or whatever you want. I've been meeting a lot of really cool people in my dorm and in the international meeting places and we've been exploring and going out together a lot. Not everyone is here yet but it is a lot of American's with a good mix of Europeans. Last night we all went out in the snow to this bar called Odessa and besides almost being trampled by tall Dutch people, I practiced some French and Spanish and spent all my money. Classes start next week, but I still don't know what I'm taking or anything. . . the school is a little lax about that stuff, but I'll figure it out soon.

As promised, here are some pictures from Prague! There is the Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square which was made in the medieval times unbelievably. The palace complex with St. Vitus' Cathedral which is said to rival Notre Dame. The other church (the baroque one) is St. Nicolaus'- my mom had to pull me out. There is a view from the top of the Klementinum tower (the old university) that I had to walk up a billion stairs without a railing to get to. A lot of pictures of the resort town Karlovy Vary which is beautiful. There are hot springs there that the hotels use in their spa treatments. Three or four out of about 70 are open to the public, and of course when I tried to taste the delicious iron-water I burned my hand in the geyser. There was so much Art Nouveau in Prague- the Municipal Building is the most intense one. Alfonse Mucha (look him up) made it big in Prague and his influence is all over the city. My mom and I went to a lot of other monuments and things, but they were so old and guarded that you couldn't take pictures. Definitely look up the Spanish Synagogue and the Charles Bridge.