Na Shledanou, Praha!

It has certainly been a busy week or so, and I apologize for the glaring lack of updates. Midterms here at NYU in Prague have made me realize that - yes, indeed - I do still go to school, and unfortunately have work to do. Classes here are definitely a bit easier and less work-intensive than in New York, but come midterms, all bets are off. It was kind of strange seeing everyone in my dorm studying! But thankfully, I am all finished with my tests (they went fine, Mom and Dad) and am officially on my fall break!

Last weekend NYU organized a trip to Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp and prison during the holocaust. Terezin is interesting, as it was utilized as a transit camp (many prisoners eventually ended up in Auschwitz) and also heavily as a propaganda tool for the Nazis. As a result, the town is not full of gas chambers and barracks as you might expect; instead, much of Terezin eerily looks like a regular, small Czech town, which it actually does function as today, despite its history. Of course, there are still many remnants from the atrocities committed there, and although it was not a death camp, per se, hundreds of thousands of prisoners (Jews and others) still died there due to the deplorable conditions, illness, starvation, and Nazi cruelty. It certainly is one thing to study the holocaust in a book and another to be on the almost sacred ground in which it took place. Although the ghetto does not look as ominous as one might think, it was definitely a spiritual experience being there. Furthermore, some of you might remember that, back when I was in the boychoir, there was a song cycle we performed, entitled "I Never Saw Another another Butterfly." The work was based on children's poems and

drawings from the Terezin concentration camp - art that they were permitted to create, due to Terezin's propagandized nature. Being in the spot where many of these same poems were written and actually seeing many of the original manuscripts and drawings (including the butterfly drawing) in the museums on site was another experience, which really hit home and made it personal for me. To the right is a picture of a memorial they have on site. Terezin really can be a beautiful place, in spite of its history.

So now I'm gearing up for my fall break! I leave tomorrow a little after 8am, so i'll be waking up early, but today is going to be a long day of packing, getting things together, and planning! I'll be traveling all throughout Belgium and the Netherlands for 10 days, making stops in Bruges, Brussels, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. I'm sure I'll have many interesting stories to tell when I get back!