First day of class!

As the title of the entry suggests, today was the first day we got down to the business of the trip and I went to class!

First up was the workshop with Mark Jarman. He is absolutely kind and laid-back and we met up a little earlier than class at a local coffee place, Paneria... sound familiar?, and chatted about class. We also talked a little bit about Ken Smith, an ex-honorary-professor of mine who passed away not too long ago. I find, even when missing someone, it's nice to be able to remember them with someone-especially someone who knew them in a completely different way even.

Anyhow! Workshop was really good, I feel like I've already learned quite a bit just by observing Mark's teaching style in workshop.

Then, I went to my Jewish Literature class and I was just even more blown away. The teacher, Tomas, is a lawyer, Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Prague and, despite the fact that he felt the need to remind us often that he is not a professor, the teacher of this class. As is usual, we went around and introduced ourselves as the beginning of class and his introduction included the story of his parents- who are BOTH Holocaust survivors. Both of them were in Terezin in addition to other work camps and his father even escaped to Budapest! Needless to say, the story was fascinating.

After that, Daniel met up with me and we went to see the friend's apartment that John and Katie are staying at. It was really nice to see residential Prague. We went to dinner at a little pub down the street and I must say there was some prime people watching. The Czech people love dogs, beer, and a generally relaxed way of life. In other words, if I learned the language I could TOTALLY see loving it here.

Despite the hot weather we've been having and my pathetic ankles being sore from walking all day on cobblestones, this continues to be a great trip. Now, if only we could get the camera battery to charge, but that's another story that's not really worth telling.

xoxo