Lisette F. Alor Pavon July 11-12, 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011
The day began with a rather intriguing lecture on the differing viewpoints on global climate change, as well as a general discussion on the theories themselves and the effects these changes could have environmentally and economically speaking. Following this, we began our course on Czech Literature with an overview of different crucial authors and poets. Our third lecture was a discussion of the development and regulation of organic farming in the Czech Republic, which was followed by lunch.
After lunch, we embarked on a journey to the center of Prague, beginning at the National Theater, and we toured some areas by the Old Town Square as we learned about the agricultural styles present in many buildings there, from Gothic to Baroque to modern.
























Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Today consisted of an off-site excursion, which began with a stop at a Baroque chateau and continued with a trip to the Veprek photovoltaic power plant, which we toured as we learned about its production capabilities (35 Megawatts) and its history.
Following our tour of the solar power plant, we arrived at the Zhile farm, where we spent some time learning about its history since the Communist times. After lunch, we had a chance to meet with a family farm and chateau owner, who discussed the history of his farm, particularly after communism, and allowed us to walk through his (quite run-down) chateau, which he is currently trying to sell.
We continued our tour with a visit to the hog “production” facility (although I hesitate to call anything involving living animals a “production,” as I feel this leads to objectification, but this is what they were calling it on-site), where different varieties of pigs were presented to us, including boars, pregnant sows, and piglets.
Next on our schedule was a tour of the dairy production facility, where we had a chance to observe the dairy cows in confinement, including a couple which were being milked.
Finally, we ended the tour with a return to a small meeting room, where refreshments were served as we had an opportunity for a final question-and-answer session.

Katy Ettinger- July 9-10

This weekend was designated for individual trips, so a group of 10 of us went to Budapest. We took an almost 8 hour bus ride and late Friday night we got into the city, found our hostel, and tried to get some sleep that night so we could hit the ground running Saturday morning. The woman that ran the hostel suggested (in barely any English) a free walking tour of the city. We ended up splitting the group, but the 5 of us from OSU made it to the tour just in time. Good thing we did! The tour guide (Adam) was great and really knowledgeable. We saw St. Stephen's Basilica, the Freedom Square, and the Parliament building. We decided to walk around after that and found a Hare Krishna festival happening in one of the town squares. Definitely a funny sight in the middle of a hoard of tourists, but it was interesting to see.

After an unexpectedly expensive lunch, we tried to find the National Museum. We thought was had found it, and bought tickets, only to quickly realize we were in the Applied Arts Museum. Not exactly what the guys (or I) was looking for. Chris continued on to the National Museum by himself after that - he said it was actually really cool - and we went out to grab some gyros for dinner afterwards. We ran in to an Irish guy that had just checked into our hostel and invited him to come out with us that night. We were excited to see the city at night, and it more than lived up to our expectations. We must have walked at least 3 miles that night, but we crossed the bridge into Buda and climbed to the top of an overlook for great views of the city. We somehow were able to find the Chain bridge and walked back over the Pest across that famous monument. It was a long walk back to the hostel, but our senses of direction were somewhat miraculous that night. Never used a map!

Sunday was much less exciting. We had another 8 hour us ride to look forward to in the morning. Through some confusion and a sold-out food stand, none of us were able to get any food all day. We grabbed (multiple) slices of pizza in Prague before heading back to the dorm to relax. It's surprising how much an all-day bus ride can take it out of you. We decided on a relaxing night in, maybe even to get a little homework done...

Justin Stiers- July 7-8, 2011

July 7:

Today we went on an expedition to Karlovy Vary, and city about 2 hours outside of Prague. Karlovy Vary is famous for several reasons; Moser glass, Becherovka Liquor factory, healing fountains and an International Film Festival. When we arrived we toured the Moser glass factory. Moser glass is extremely high quality and is world renowned, supplying palaces and the extremely rich with their glassware. Then we toured Becherovka and learned some of the history behind the herbal liquor, and ended with a taste test of a few of their products. After that we walked around the city and had the opportunity to see some of the film festival and taste their famous healing springs. We also toured the village of Lidice which as destroyed by the Nazis in retaliation of the assasination of the Nazi leader in the Czech Republic- Heydrich.


July 8:

Today we are back in class for the first time since Sunday. This morning we learned about various aspects of Czech agriculture, including grain production, meat and dairy, and the effect that collectivization and privatization has had on the development of Czech agriculture. Next Martin Hlavacek came back to continue to present to us about the European Union, today focusing on the agricultural aspects of the EU. This afternoon a good portion of us are heading to Budapest for the weekend. We are really excited to tour this historical city, see the sights, and the ladies that are going are excited to try out the famous spa's of Budapest.

Clip of crystal being made at Moser

Drinking the spa waters in Karlovy Lazne

Lidice Childrens' Memorial- 82 children killed

Eric Crawford July 4-5, 2011

Lisette, Viktor, and I departed Monday morning to travel from Prague to Liberec which is to the north. We took the bus and metro and finally arrived in his hometown. It reminded me of a miniature Prague except it was more serene. We visited the oldest zoo in the Czech Republic and saw some animals that I don't believe I have ever saw which was cool. We then headed to a local pub and afterwards had some late night kebabs, they were fantastic. The next day, we hiked through some of the mountainous terrain and it was absolutely beautiful. We visited a dam that looked medieval and awesome and the water had an almost purple hue to it. The lake itself reminded me of the lake in X-Men. After the long trek (9 or 12 kilometers, I don't remember) we headed back and made Viktor watch the Bourne Ultimatum. The next day, we headed up to a television station on top of an extremely high hill and the view was amazing. We saw three countries at once and I had some Klabosa, which was delicious. Then we headed back to Prague.

We climbed to the top of a mountain-like hill and arrived at a television broadcasting station. It was an amazing site because we were so high up that we could see the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany from our elevation which acted like a crossroads.










I arrived at Viktor's house and met his family. They were exceedingly hospitable and nice. His mother is an exceptional cook, especially when restricting everything to vegan approved materials. The dog, Annie, was also one energy filled, crazy dog.

Chris Hogan- July 2-3, 2011

July 2nd
For most of us, our day began in a peculiar fashion. We awoke early Saturday morning in order to head to our 8 a.m. Rural Sociology class. Though Saturday classes were a break from our normal routine, we went about them as usual. One of our classes featured a speaker who presented the various Czech classical music styles that unfolded following the 11th century. It was interesting to learn that one Czech composer, Josef Myslivecek, was admired by Mozart. Later in the day the Missouri students went for dinner with their associate dean, and many of us headed to a Spanish restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was situated near the center of Prague in an area we had yet to explore. Admittedly, the restaurant seemed more Mexican than Spanish, but it was a great experience nonetheless.

July 3rd
On Sunday we strayed even further from our routine. More specifically, it was because we had all headed to Sunday morning classes. However, we were fortunate enough to have a lecturer who was the representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union for agricultural affairs. Following class, we celebrated the 4th of July weekend. The night was complete with American football, sack races, tug of war, and a hog-roast. We even got a tour of the campus brewery. Also, we had the opportunity to meet some Portuguese students who had just arrived on campus. The night was a perfect celebration of the 4th of July. We enjoyed roasted pork as well as many other Czech dishes. And to top it off, we enjoyed fireworks at the end of the night. It was a fantastic way to celebrate the 4th of July while abroad. Our relaxing and celebratory night was perfect to prepare us for the homestays that lie ahead.

Epic Tug of War battle against the Portuguese students

The fireworks displayed for us by the Czechs

Jena Parker Days 13-14

Thursday June 30th- By now all of us students are used to the routine of having classes most everyday from 8-2:45. During our history class we learned about a town in the Czech Republic called Lidice. The city was completely destroyed by the Germans following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. All of the men were murdered and women and children were sent to concentration camps. After class some of the Czech students took us to see a movie, also called Lidice, that depicted these historic events. Hearing about genocide is always sad but watching the characters in a movie live through it knowing that it is based on reality is downright depressing. Even though it was a sad movie, it was really interesting to see a movie in Czech and compare it to the typical American movie experience. There was an awkward moment when the credits started to roll and all the Americans stood up to leave and everyone else stayed seated. Apparently people watch the credits here. Once we noticed everyone just sort of stretched and sat back down, I think we played it off pretty well.


Friday July 1st- The start of July brought a very important day.... our Czech language test. For the past two weeks we have been learning how to introduce ourselves and answer a variety of questions in Czech. Everyone enjoys the language classes because they are the most lively and active but I’d be lying if I said that all us students had been studying hard outside of class for this test. We won’t know our grades until next week so keep your fingers crossed for those results. After the test we were reminded that we have to finish up reading (or start reading in some cases) our books for literature class and write a paper on them. With all of our excursions and nights out in Prague it’s easy to forgot about the studying part of studying abroad.

Andrew Pilarcik- Days 11-12

Tuesday 28th- To be honest Wednesday started out a little rough. I was awoken to a loud banging at our door with Jenna yelling, "Do you know what time it is??" Clearly I did not. John and I accidentally slept through our alarm and had to frantically get ready for the day and run to the bus. Two alarms every night from now on! After the morning everything was smooth sailing. Our first stop of the day was to the Skoda car factory in Mlada Bolesav. The whole town seemed entirely centered on the car company and their massive manufacturing plant; the car plant had it's own store, school, gym, fire department, and health care system. The factory and the surrounding compound was very impressive and it was cool to see the logistics of car creation.

After a lunch of beef and noodles we set forth to "Czech Paradise" for a nice afternoon hike. The park is properly named because the landscape and surrounding nature is beautiful...national park like. The park is lined with steep hills, thick masses of trees and narrow jagged rocks that reach well over 200 feet. We climbed up many of them, it actually seemed the whole hike we were climbing uphill even when we were supposed to be going down hill. The path had winding turns and narrow gaps to get up the rocks. It is hard to describe the beauty of the place in words but the video gives you a glimpse of the park and Chris provides the poetic justice.

Wednesday 29th- Following a routine day of class, us Buckeyes got together for the OSU v. Mizzou v. Czech basketball tournament. We definitely entered as the underdogs but our cofidence made up for our lack of talent. We were also fuled by the trash talking of the Mizzou students who thought they were going to beat us handidly. Our first game was against those Mizzou Tigers and I started off the game by hitting a 3 point shot. The two teams battled back and forth, mostly with missed shots and turnovers. The game was neck and neck the whole time and turned out to be much more physical then I thought. I wouldn't say it got out of hand but there was some questionable fouls. Everyone on our team did their part with clutch shots coming from John and Justin. The game came down to the last shot where I unfortunately missed a game winning 3 pointer to win and we fell to the Tigers. However, we kept our heads up and beat the Czech team in our second game...we even scored over 20 points! The tournament ended in a three way tie and we became the champions based on total points from the two games. Buckeye pride was high as we all received a very large beer much from the Budweiser brewery as our trophy. I plan on putting the mug on my mantel someday to remind me of the tournament and the great times I am having here!