This isn't a travel-related entry, so unless you're interested in the minutiae of my life, feel free to skip it.

This week is my first week of classes. I'm taking Kafka and his Contexts, Post-War Eastern European Poetry, American Literature in a European Perspective, and Modern Dissent in Central Europe: The Art of Defeat. I like all of my professors. 

Jan Urban, the professor for Modern Dissent, was actually this big dissident who had a hand in the Velvet Revolution (the nonviolent overthrow of the Communist government in late 1989). He's a very intense, charismatic man.

I hear classes abroad are easier, because professors understand that in addition to class, students are trying to cope with living in a foreign country, as well as being tourists. I think judging from the syllabi my courses don't seem to be too bad. I do have a five-page paper to write every week for poetry, but I get the feeling from my professor that it's pretty relaxed, and more about having a dialogue with him than having academic busywork. 

I am glad to be taking a class on Kafka in his home city of Prague. Freshman year of college, I had this professor who was born in Petersburg, Russia. We read Crime and Punishment. It was an amazing experience for this man to not only be familiar with all the subtleties of Russian literature, but to explain to us the actual layout of the city and how it plays into the story. I had previously read this novel in high school, where I got only a fraction of understanding of it. It wasn't that our teacher was entirely inept, but the Brooklyn-raised public high school instructor was ill-equipped to teach Dostoevsky. That same teacher had us read Kafka's Metamorphosis. I expect to get more out of this Kafka class than I ever could have in high school.

I haven't gotten into the meat of my courses yet, but I am looking forward to working. All of this idleness is killing me.

In other news, I'm trying to get into some extra-curricular things. I hopped on the student run online newspaper here, The Prague Wanderer. I'm really interested in an editorial position, just to get some experience putting together a publication. I don't at the moment plan on contributing. 

I also spoke with and sent an email to a guy at Umělec Magazine, a sort of modern Central European visual culture magazine. I'm kind of looking for the same thing there, but since it's an actual company and not a school-run group, I'm hoping for some more interesting work, even gofer odd jobs. I explained that I'll basically work long hours for free, so I'm hopeful that he'll find a use for me.