More Roma

Editing these is exhausting.

This ones for you, V...

In response to your email (I will write you back soon, I promise), yes, they were lovin' on me. And yes, I was lovin' on them. Screw being a "professional."

My day today...

... wasn't very exciting. Back to being a tourist.

We took a day trip to Kutna Hora to go see an ossuary with our Czech art professor, which was pretty cool, but not as cool as I expected it to be. Then we saw yet another gothic cathedral. Then we walked around and ate and sat at the train station and played with Dennis' kids.

Life with Gypsies

The Kandráč Family

I spent about three days with a Roma family of fifteen (seven of them are under 5) in Stará Červená Voda, a tiny area that hardly qualifies as a town and by bus is about five hours outside of Prague. More photos to come.

Berlin

Almost there

The multimedia I scrounged together for Maria Tecce is up on the Prague Post website.

Click to watch

Strangely, the headline says "headline here" instead of "Red, Hot and Tecce,"like its supposed to. It should be fixed by the end of the day, but in the meantime, watch it anyway.

Český Krumlov

The hills are alive

I didn't realize how long it had been since I had seen real nature (We haven't really left Prague) until I found myself lost in a National Park. Myself and two comrades went looking for a famed swimming pool fed by river water.

It took us about an hour and a half to find it, but really, we weren't even trying very hard because the rest of the park was so beautiful! First we found a giant mountainish rock (it looks small in this picture, but look hard at the tiny people standing on top), then roamed through bike trails in a dense forest. Then we were greeted by an expansive field so reminiscent of the opening scene of the Sound of Music that we had no choice but to spin around in the open and sing each song as we made our way to the pool.

We finally found the pool. We met 3 other friends there. It took them less than 8 minutes to find it. But we did not regret the excursion one bit.

Through the Jewish Quarter

We went to 6 different synagogues today. The director of our program, Kim (see above), gave us a tour because shes got a masters in Jewish studies and knows everything and is a real cool lady. We weren't allowed to take pictures in ANY of them. There were signs up at every doorway. I don't do rules very well, so here are a few of the photos I could sneak before one or more of the grouchy old ladies who volunteer as "guards" came toddling over yelling at me in Czech. I got yelled at by 3 different crickety old ladies and Kim had to come save me from one who was extra feisty. It was a fun game.

Besides hiding from said "guards," I also learned a lot. These synagogues were absolutely beautiful. The graveyard we went to today was even more moving/shocking (I cant think of an adequate word) than the one before- 100,000 Jews are buried there, stacked 12 rows deep, in an area no bigger than my backyard. Thats why the gravestones are shoved together and stacked on top of each other. I am continually reminded (of Communism, Holocaust, pretty much the entire history of the Czech lands) and continually find myself thinking, again, "Why? For what?" Big countries are bullies. Jeeze.

first attempt

at European consumerism.

Paddling on the Charles River

was fun...




...but I didn't paddle. I mostly relaxed.



... and took pictures of Dennis' kid...



... and took a picture of a bridge that's not as good as Callies :)

Around town

I heard my last post was depressing. It wasn't meant to be. I'm just not a big cemetery fan. What else do you think about at a cemetery except dead people? See.

I'm in a photographers funk. Its like writers block (I think I coined this term but trust me its real). I think its because I'm having too much fun. Back to work.

And click on the photos if you want to see them bigger.

A really old cemetary

Kafka was buried somewhere here but I couldn't find his grave. Life is short. Today reminded me that a lot of things don't really matter because one day we will all be buried or burned or dead somewhere and people will walk through the graveyards of our generation taking pictures of our tombstones and no matter how big or impressive (some of these were like houses) they may be, no matter what they stand to signify or what all we accomplished, we are still going to be dead, eventually.

enjoying the view

We spent all day yesterday attempting to squeeze our way into the castle to A.) find the protests and/or B.)find Bush. This is about as close as I ever got. They had the entire tram system re routed to prevent anyone from getting near the castle as a preemptive strike against the protesters. It worked. Confusion is a sneaky but effective tactic.

Radar Protest

A day in the life

My first assignment for the Prague Post was to follow Maria Tecce, an Italian singer/songwriter living Dublin, around for the day. Most of the following around didn't yield too great of photos, but her show and the prep beforehand was great. She is an incredible person. www.mariatecce.com