Wait, why are you in Prague again??

I know, I KNOW, you’ve all been holding your breaths for another one of my totally awesome blog posts…and if you haven’t, well you should have been! Sorry I’ve been MIA (i fly like paper, get high like planes…sorry, couldn’t resist) from all this blog business, but i have been busy doing SCHOOLWORK.

Ding ding ding! That’s right, in case you forgot, i’m here in lovely Praha to get my masters degree! Yes, yes, i know what you’re thinking: but she hasn’t said even ONE WORD about school or classes or anything on this wonderful and entertaining blog! You’re right, and sometimes i forget the reason i’m here too…just tooooo busy exploring the city, drinking pivo, walking to try to work off the pivo, and staying out till 5 in the morning when the metro opens back up. But i digress…

Anywho, so this post is gonna be ALL ABOUT SCHOOL! Yay! It’s actually not as boring as it sounds, well, it probably is, but i’ll try to spice it up a little. First a rundown of my schedule:

MONDAY:

1000 Czech Class (blah blah blah)

1400 Security in Africa (security in africa??? fat chance…)

TUESDAY:

800 Theories of International Relations (……..)

930 West European Politics and Society (cool prof, she actually was on some advisory board about the Lisbon Treaty, Pres. Klaus did NOT take her advise…but in the end he had to sign it anyways)

1230 20th Century European Geography and Politics (Dr. Hnizdo, director of poli sci dept. and awesome czech guy with weird accent and cool stories)

1530 Security and Integration in Europe (pretty interesting, esp since we no longer have a final exam in this class!)

1700 Comparative Security Policies (aka counterterrorism, hardest, most demanding class by far)

1830 North America Since World War II (snooooooze, learned all this mess in the 6th grade)

THURSDAY

815 Czech Class (blah blah blah wah?)

WHEW. I know what you’re thinking: wow, Tuesday’s must be a DOOZIE! And they are. But i rather like having just about all my classes on one day, leaves more time for messing around and forgetting that i’m furthering my higher education. I had 2 papers due this week: term paper for Security in Africa was due Monday (Has the International Criminal Court helped or hindered peace in Uganda? erm, uh, it kinda helped justice, but kinda hurt peace…), and the term paper for Comparative Security Policies was due Tuesday (Russia’s counterterrorism policies towards the Caucasus: we will crush you with excessive force and whatever Putin says, goes!). And you know what? These were both ELECTIVES! All my hardest classes this semester have been ELECTIVES! What is wrong with me?? Next semester i’m going to somehow find out what the easier classes are and take those. I know what you’re thinking: but Katie, Security in Africa and Comparative Security Policies, those even SOUND hard. Yes, yes, i know, when we were picking classes I would say i was a little bit over ambitious as to my scholarly abilities (i.e. i forgot i’m lazy). Actually come to think of it, that comparative securities classes is really the only tough class i have. The rest are only hard bc i’m lazy or i go out and drink beer instead of doing my readings or writing my papers and not saving them for the few days before they are due. (Mom and Dad, yall can just erase those last few sentences from your brains! I am studying very VERY hard and i’m uber serious about school.)

I also know ANOTHER thing you are thinking: Katie Cozort, go to 8AM classes??!?! Yeah, I’ll believe that when you tell me she also secretly was in love with Glen Beck and plans to vote for Sarah Palin in 2012. Oh contraire, mon frere! I DID actually go to my 8AMs for like the first month or so. but don’t worry, i will NOT be voting for Sarah Palin in 2012 bc i stopped going to czech class bc its not required – therefore no credit, and have skipped last couple Theories of IR bc we got a new teach that is like taking an Ambien after a few glasses of wine: instant zonk-out.

i dunno who this joker is, but it is pretty hilarious.

Now on to some logistics about actually attending Charles University in Prague. It is perhaps the most unorganized institution i have ever encountered in my entire life. And i have frequented the US post office many times, interned at the NC General Assembly, and gone through numerous security checks in countless airports in several countries. SO, that should tell you a little about how most of time, i don’t know F is going on here. also the printing fee is OUTRAGEOUS! 1czk per page. PER PAGE! That is like $1 for 17 pages! needless to say, i don’t print out too much…even though it’s a pain to read journal articles all on the computer, it’s a lot cheaper! (that means more $$$ for cheap beer and cool euro outfits!)

BUT, they do love their national holidays here! I have had all tuesday classes cancelled due to holiday no less than twice since i’ve been here. And that’s like less than 3 months! on the last holiday the dean also cancelled classes on the monday before the struggle for freedom and democracy national holiday that occurred on a tuesday, bc what the hey?! why have class on monday when you could be out celebrating the eve of struggle for freedom and democracy day? It’s all good to me!

i don't know when or where this picture was taken, but i can tell you it is AWESOME.

Another plus: guess what they serve in the cafeteria, or bufet is i guess what they call it here. PIVO! that’s right BEER! (But Katie, they have an armadillo grill in the student union at Duke that serves beer, you’re not so special…oh yeah? well then i would have had to go to Duke, so shut your pie hole!) so anyways it’s pretty awesome. esp when Dr. Hnizdo (the director of the Political Science department, professor of 20th c. european geography and politics, and star of katie’s sneaky picture-taking at IEPS get together fame) has a beer in there every tuesday before our 1230 class! He is kind of like, the shit.

my sneaky pic of Dr. Hnizdo! Doesn't he look pretty badass?

Ok, that’s all for now. Because, at this moment i’m actually at school, i came here to start work on my next paper, but instead ended up writing this blog entry. (AAHHH! I shake my fist at you!!!) SO, a little more work, then it’s on to the Ukraine vs. Netherlands battle!

Na Zdravi!