Pictures!

Click here for some of the better pictures I've taken since I've been in Europe...

Terezin/Hluboka (pictures included!)

Had quite the eventful weekend. On Friday, one of my three classes was canceled because of a little field trip most of the people in our program were going on. We took a 90 minute bus ride to Terezin. Terezin is known for the concentration camp and jewish ghetto. Most of the Czech Republic's heroes are buried in the cemetary right outside of the concentration camp. One important thing to make clear about Terezin is that it was not a death/extermination camp like Auschwitz. It was used more as a place to gather jews/gypsies/etc. before they were sent to Auschwitz. The prisoners at Terezin were still treated terribly and lived in horrible conditions, but there were no gash chambers or crematoriums.

I'll be honest, after Auschwitz, you really never need to see another concentration camp ever again. But it was part of our day trip and I felt like I should honor those that lost their lives during WWII in the Czech Republic. This camp was much smaller and had almost nobody visiting, so it had a much different feel that Auschwitz did. Also, we actually had a guide this time who told us many interesting things about the camp. We also got to see the Jewish ghetto and even a small hidden room which was used as a place for Jews to worship in secret. The room was never found and was kept hidden all throughout the war and through the communist era. Pretty cool stuff.

I've been thinking about how odd it is to walk through places where such profound events took place. Walking through concentration camps, Jewish ghetto's, enormous churches and castles really makes you think about what happened in the building or room you are standing in. It's amazing how much emotion a building can evoke. After all, it is just brick/stone/clay/rock/etc. I don't deny that big things happened in some of the places I visit, but sometimes its hard to imagine the things that really happened. All I have is a tour guide's word, a textbook's description or a film's portrayal. I absolutely love visiting historical places, but sometimes it's just hard to imagine that you are standing in a building that is five, six, nine-hundred years old. After visiting Auschwitz and Terezin its also horrifying to be in a place where thousands/millions of people died and/or suffered. Knowing that you are in a place where humans were at one of their lowest points in history is quite sobering.

Onto a cheerier note, we also got to visit a really cool glass factory. We got to watch some guys blow and shape glass into all kinds of different things. Cups, bowls, vases, you name it. It was fun to get to watch these random Czech guys, because they were sweating and working their butts off, and they were all clearly trying to impress us. Some people from our class even had the opportunity to shape, mold and blow their own glass figures. Most people's ended up looking like some demented orb, but that's okay! At the end of the little tour, we all got to purchase some fine, hand made glass artifacts. They were all extremely cheap, so I picked up a few things. I've never been so fascinated by glass in my whole life, I've got to say.


Here are the pictures from Terezin (with some random pictures from Prague thrown in)

and

Here are the pictures from Hluboka.

I'll update again soon...got a lot to write about!

God be with Uganda

www.ugandacan.org

The war is almost over! Pray! Pray!

P.S. I'll update soon and will put pictures up from my trips to Terazin and Hluboku...

Some things are bound to happen

I'm acquiring a taste for coffee. And beer. Slowly but surely. If this is where I'm at 3 weeks into the semester, I don't even want to know where I'm going to be in May.

On the way home from a club last night, my roommates went to KFC because they were, well, a little inebriated, and starving. Here is an exchange that happened inside:

Joe (my roommate): Hey man can I have one of your fries?
Some random Czech guy: Do you believe in Socialism or Capitalism?
Joe: Capitalism
SRCG: You can go buy your own damn fries.

I just thought that was hilarious.

Here's another fun story that happened to one of my roommates:

While dancing at a club, one of my roommates had his eye on an attractive lady for some time. Finally she noticed him, ditched her guy, and started to come his way. (This never happens to guys outside of cinema, so needless to say he was stunned.) She comes over and literally one second after they start dancing, my roommate accidentally (don't ask me how) headbutts the girl! She left immediately.

Sounds like something that should be in a Judd Apatow comedy...right?

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Can we talk about Lost for a second? The current season is freaking amazing. It's as if the writers took a syringe and just injected straight adrenaline into the story and characters. The direction the show is going is extremely creative and intriguing. To everyone that said "How is a show about people stranded on an island ever going to last more than one season?": Don't doubt writers. They know what they are doing.

Speaking of which, hooray for the writers strike finally being over! Boo that Jack Bauer doesn't come back until January. Boo that Lost only is airing 8 episodes this winter/spring. Hopefully the office will come back and Scrubs will get to finish on air. Okay those are my TV thoughts.

Two movies I've been itching to watch: Fight Club and Garden State. There are just some movies I have to watch at least once a year. Those are two of them.

Okay, I'm off to go get a new backpack and beanie and gloves. It's finally getting as cold as everyone had been expecting. I swear I saw some snow flurries yesterday. Let me tell you, walking home at around 2 in the morning when it is 20 degrees is not an entertaining experience. I've found at times it can get so cold that if you leave your mouth open to long, your tounge starts to get cold! Owcheemama that is cold!

One more thought: Obama better beat Hilary. Please. Please. Can you imagine if it was Hilary vs. Mccain? What a lose lose situation.

Slivers

Can anyone fed-ex me a double double from In-n-out? That'd be grrrrreat.
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Oh and you need to listen to these bands right now:

The Bird and The Bee
Ingrid Michaelson
The Epochs
Alexi Murdoch
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THE INDIANA JONES TRAILER IS ONLINE!

I'm a nerd I know. Watch this right now:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/02/14/the-indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull-trailer-is-here/

Looks pretty awesome right? Right?
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Here are the pictures from Poland:

Set I

Set II


Enjoy! I'll update again soon....

Send your carrier pigeons here:

My address where you can send me trinkets, fruit funs, pictures, wads of cash, fireworks, pet monkeys, and dragons whose tears turn into jellybeans.

Or letters.

Steven Ormsbee
USAC Office
Vratislavova 13
Praha 2
12000
Czech Republic

Is that a long enough address for you? If not, add some exclamation points and smiley faces...

John 1:5

Almost 24 hours after my backpack debacle I'm in a place that I thought would take many days to reach. Acceptance. I can let go.

I had no idea how much those journals meant to me until today. I never realized how much I put into my writing. How much my thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions really meant to me. I didn't just write about experiences that I was going through. I wrote about struggles, pains, hopes, joys. Things I had been working through. I may have many of these thoughts buried in my mind somewhere, but I can never get back the words I used to describe an experience that moment after I went through it.

I feel like there is supposed to be some kind of lesson to be learned here. People get "stuff" stolen all the time. Cars. Laptops. Phones. Ipods. Money. They learn how attached to "stuff" they are. Honestly, and I can't even believe I'm saying this, I think I would have rather had my camera stolen. I had insurance on that thing. Even my ipod. Would have been absolutely terrible, but it could have been replaced. I wouldn't have even minded if it were just my passport stolen. All of these things are annoying and frustrated to get stolen, but with some work, you can replace them.

I lost something that can't be replaced. I don't want to overdramatize (is that a word?) this or anything, but man this sucks.

I've realized that there are two ways to respond to this situation. I can be filled with anger and hate, and want revenge or I can decide to move on gracefully, understanding that there is nothing I can do about it. I made a mistake that I can't change. I choose to move forward. To let go. To let God teach me something through this. I was really struggling with this today, and then I went to my small group tonight, which changed everything. I told the group what happened, and I was prayed for. Tonight a burden was lifted. I stopped feeling the horrible gut punch feeling in my stomach. I was able to let go. Don't get me wrong, it is still hard to think about, but at least I can move on now. Life goes on. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Man, it's just a journal." Not to me.

If I could find the person that stole my backpack, you want to know what I would do? I'd offer to take them out for a beer. Talk it over with them. Ask them why they did it. Maybe they were desperate for money. Maybe they were drunk and had poor judgment. Who knows. I just wish I could know why and how people do these things.

And then I would forgive him. And maybe gain a new friend.

But this isn't hollywood. This is life.

__________________________________________________________

I realized how much I miss California and Chico and home today. I wouldn't say I'm extremely homesick or anything, but there are things that I'm having a hard time going without. I miss grass. I miss open fields, where I can throw a disc or football around on. I miss being able to drive places. I miss familiar faces. I miss being able to get any kind of food I want and to be able to know what I'm buying at the grocery store. I miss having my own room. I miss In-n-out and mexican food. (And this is only at the two week mark! Good lord I'm pathetic.)

I know this is what I signed up for. I'm completely aware. I know this is what I asked/prayed for. I wanted to be uncomfortable. I wanted different. I wanted new. Now I know why they say "be careful what you ask for, you just might get it." Well I certainly got it. It's not an easy process. Getting accustomed to what you're not used to.

I'll end this extremely long post with a quote from Fight Club:

"A guy who came to Fight Club for the first time, his a** was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, he was carved out of wood."

I feel like a wad of cookie dough.

Really?

Gone. Like yesterday. Like Al Pacino's mom. Like Keyser Soze. Gone. Like my backpack. Gone.

Here's the rundown: After school today, I went out to dinner with some friends and then went back to their apartment to hang out. After this, we went to this cool american bar called the Blind eye. Since I hadn't gone home yet, I still had my backpack with me. I hung up my coat in a lonely corner and made the mistake of leaving my backpack underneath it. It was 10 feet from this backpack all night, so I didn't think I would have a problem. After winning about 8 foosball games in a row (the highlight of the night) I went to get my stuff to go, grabbed my coat, leaned down to grab my backpa.... and just like that *poof* it's gone.

What really bothers me is that I came so close to going home like 3 different times that night. I can play the what if game all night, and I probably will, but why oh why couldn't I have just gone home. It's hard to see this turning into a blessing in disguise in any way or form right now.

Here's what I lost: The backpack itself, which kinda has sentimental meaning because I've used it for everything since 7th grade. Gloves, all my notes from my Czech class, all my pre-prague notes and ideas, my nalgene that I've been using for the past 4 years...and here is where it gets bad:

My two journals. The only things in the entire bag that I really cared about. They were priceless. I was just about to fill entire spiral notebook. Just about to be done with it and go and get a new one and leave the other one at home just to read in. I had been writing in that thing constantly since August. I wrote all about my USC experiences, and through all of last semester and into Prague. Just today on the train back from Poland I wrote three pages in reflection to my time in Prague so far.

The last thing I wrote about was about visiting Auschwitz. I'll write more about it later, but basically the feeling I came away with leaving Auschwitz was wonder at how people could be so evil. I wrote about how horrible it was that that many people died at Auschwitz for nothing more than the color of their skin and the kind of blood pumping through their veins. I hope whoever opens up that backpack tonight to examine their newly stolen treasure realizes what they've done. They gained no monetary value whatsoever. I had my wallet, my phone, and my keys on me. My ipod and camera were at home, thank God. I hope whoever stole my journals (worthless to them, priceless to me) sits down and reads them. I hope my extremely raw and private thoughts drill home in some criminal's brain. I hope they can change him. It wasn't just my thoughts, feelings and emotions that were poured into those journals, it was ideas. Story ideas. Film ideas. All gone. Just like that.

I was just entering the stage of having kind of a hard time being away from home, and friends, and familar faces and places. This pushed me over the edge. I haven't felt such righteous anger in a long time. Walking home for 15 minutes in the 30 degree cold at 2 in the morning gave me time to contemplate. I knew I had two options: To choose anger and to be filled with thoughts of revenge and hate, or I could choose to forgive, forget, let go and let God fill me with his grace. I chose the latter. But I've got to tell you, its not like I felt better all of a sudden. I understand the situation could have been worse, much worse. But it still stuck a pain in my gut that is hard for me to shake right now. I'm angry. I'm tired of always having to worry about stuff getting stolen. This is seriously going to put a dent in my confidence when it comes to bringing anything with me out into public, especially my video camera.

Please pray for me. I need it. I don't really have anyone around that I want to talk to about this. I've got friends here, but not the kind you lean on, the kind you vent with, the kind that just let you listen. I got plenty "Dude I'm sorry", "That sucks bro" and "Dude I'm sorry that sucks bro." Thanks. I know. I know, what else are they supposed to say? I'm just upset. Upset that I live in a place where I always have to watch my stuff. This wouldn't have happened back home.

I've had it. I'm going to sleep. I haven't slept for about 21 hours. I'm sleeping in, because tomorrow is the first day I'll have been able to sleep in for like 10 days.

Don't steal.

(And yeah, my passport is at home, safe and sound...)

More like the lame-bowl

Boy am I full. After eating all my words from my "Super Bowl Prediction" I am stuffed to the rafters!

Eli Manning did it. He won the big tamale. He outplayed Brett Favre and Tom Brady back to back on the road. What is happening to the world? I don't have a problem with Eli, except for the fact that he looks like he is going to cry/confused/lost/scared all the time. I just can't believe how bad the Patriots played. I mean, 14 points, in the biggest game of the (near) perfect season? Really?

That game was pretty foul too. I mean 7-3, almost all game? And this was the most watched Super Bowl ever? Ouch. I watched the game in this huge sports bar called the "Star Bar' (in english) which was about 90 degrees inside. It didn't help that my back was right next to the blazing hot heater either. And our lovely waitress wouldn't let us open the window to let in some of the 30 degree air, no matter how much we pleaded. Don't ask me why, but we tried about 3 times, and she was relentless in her quest to keeping that Sports Bar at the temperature of a Vietnam jungle. It also didn't help being that all of us were dead tired after a long day, and that the game started at 12:30 at night. But hey, I'm a true sports fan and I wouldn't miss the big game. Of course I wore my throwback orange crush Broncos shirt, while most of the other people in the place (almost all americans) were wearing Patriots gear. Needless to say, it was a rough night for them, as they got heckled by all the drunken New Yorkers.

All in all, I'm disappointed that the Pats didn't go perfect, but hey, not that big a deal, they have their 3 rings. It'll be fun to look back on "that one time when I watched the Superbowl in some random sports bar in Prague...ahhhh the good ole days."

Isn't it nice when you realize you are living in the "good ole days?"

Will update soon about the church and small group that I found. I'm heading off to Poland this weekend with some friends to see Krakow and Auschwitz, so that should be a good trip. Will put up pictures and info when I return! Now off to sleep, then to take my Czech final, and off to get a real Polish sausage!

Bustin' a move

You know you live in prime real estate when your washing machine drains into your bathtub.

So last night pretty much everyone from the program went to this club right by the Charles bridge called Karlovy Lazne (check it out: http://www.karlovylazne.cz/index2_en.php, I recommend taking the "virtual tour") which is this five story dance club. Each floor has a different music theme. The bottom floor (I kid you not) was dedicated to "Black music" (*tugs on collar*), and the next few floors pretty much are some kind of 70's and 80's discoteque or techno, leading to the top floor which is supposed to be relaxed and chill music. The top floor was pretty cool, because they had bean bags. Bean bags! When was the last time you and your friends hung out on bean bags in a public place?

After an extremely long night, we realized that we really didn't know how to get home, because all of the trams change after midnight. We took a random tram about halfway home, almost got lost, then walked the rest of the way. We probably got back after 4 in th morning. Finally I'm living up to the Chico State way!

Pictures! Here are the best of the trip so far!

The best of Praha

(If you're on facebook you can look for the new albums I just put up so see some others and to see what my apartment looks like...)

It's been a week since I've been here and I'm finally starting to settle in. Now that we know we aren't moving out of our place, we can unpack all of our bags, and try our best to make this one person apartment suitable for four.

Super Bowl Prediction:

Patriots: 35, Giants 24

I'm still a little nervous because we don't know where we are going to watch it. I haven't found a pub that I know for sure will be airing the game. It'll be strange watching the game at 12:30 am. I'm hoping the Patriots win, I want to see them complete their quest for the perfect season. Honestly, I don't think Eli Manning has it in him to overcome Brady and Moss in the biggest game of his life when millions of people will be watching. Brady and co. have too much experience over this cinderella Giants team. I think it's generous of me to give the Giant's as many as 24 points in this game, but hey, they're on a hot streak and it'll continue into the big game, but it still won't be enough to stop the Perfect Pats.