construction problem

This is an email I sent to my friend sam about the construction problem in my neighborhood:

"First the construction wasn't too big a deal. The trams dont run normally which is a pain if I want to get to prague 6. When I want to cross the street to my local park, which I want to do frequently, there are no crosswalks anymore so I have to cross through cars and trams which usually is a little dangerous. All problems but managable. The next thing that happened was that wooden scaffolding went up around buildings in my nieghborhood. I'm still not concerned. Then someone tells me the scaffolding is to protect pedestrains on the sidewalk in case things fall of the buildings due to the construction. It seemed silly at the time.

Next you should know they are building a tunnel. From what I can tell they are now working on the part of the tunnel directly under my building. For me this means, that 3 to 4 times a day I experience a medium sized earthquake. Have you ever experience an earthquake? Being from california I am very familiar with earthquakes and they are terrifying. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=1989%20earthquake&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi). These construction earthquakes I am experiencing play to me deep seated fear of earthquakes from home.

You should also know I have zero confidence that my building is structurally sound. In addition to the wooden scaffolding that is around it, I once got trapped in the elevator. Basically, the trust between me and the building has been lost.

The shaking has gotten more and more as the construction has gotten closer. I am hoping soon it will start to pass us and my day to day life will get less and less scary.

Also, my grammar tenses got muddled in this email. Sorry if it is confusing / incorrect."

Recently the construction has gotten slightly less terrifying. Also I learned there is a petition going around the neighborhood about it.

Comps diversions

While I compsed I played a lot of games on sporcle.com. My favorite is the countries of the world game. You have to name all 195 countries of the world in 15 minutes. So far the best I've done is 194, but lately I've been missing two or three countries. Once I get the countries, I'm moving onto capitals. Woo hoo!

Anyways I was browsing on the site and I saw a Same but Different name game: http://www.sporcle.com/games/JayHankEdLyonJr/namegame

I haven't played it, but it looks fun. And also difficult.

more news

1. I have been taking a photo lesson and a ceramics class. Both have been very fun. I made my first print in the darkroom yesterday. At ceramics I have made: a butter dish, six small sheep, a dish that looks like a chicken, two cups and a sugar bowl.

2. We are having a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I have not seen pumpkin or sweet potatoes in the Czech Republic, but we will have turkey, cranberries and mashed potatoes.

3. I have recently been watching more popular czech movies. I saw Zelary which is very very sad, Kolya which is mostly funny but also sad, and Vrchní, prchni! which is very funny and about a fake waiter.

some news

1. I'm done with classes and am now working 100% of the time on an independent project. I am making a book of drawings of buildings. So far so good.

2. This morning a filling fell out, so this afternoon I will be experiencing the Czech health care system. The dentist is not for me: fear of needles + small mouth + bad noises.

3. My host mother made me a coat. It looks very snappy.

Lil update

My comps is due in 10 days, so I am a little bit stressed out. That is a total lie, because I am a lot stressed out.

The upshot is that on the last day of classes, I'll be done with it. Maybe. At last for this term.

recent news

1. So much snow in Slovakia

2. Sheep in Slovakia

3. This is the park on the other side of my house. It is great there right now. I felt so happy after a walk there.

4. They are building a tunnel (for a new metro?) near my house. They have put scaffolding up around the buildings so if things fall off due to the construction it wont hurt people.

5. One of my favorite things about Prague is finding new cobblestone designs. This is a pretty good one:

6. This is me in cafe in a scarf I bought in Poland

Embroidery

Lately I too have gotten really into embroidery. It started with an article from "Bust" magazine, and then I just went crazy from there. I embroidered my initials on my GSC jacket, and I am in the process of embroidering a whole bunch of other things (Elvis, a skeleton, peas, a bug-person playing a trumpet, etc.). Here is a scan of the first pillow case I made:

And here are some photos of the second pillow case I am making which will say "ten more minutes" in a font that looks way cooler than it does in thes photo:

Me and Megan were also just having a really fun time taking these. WA house forever!

Update: here are two pictures of the text I plan to embroider on two other pillow cases: