The Laws of Flying

Well, it has been one month and a day since I’ve been here in the lovely city of Prague and much has happened!

The eight and a half hour plane ride from Chicago to Frankfurt, the defining event of the trip at first, feels like a lifetime ago. Crossing the Atlantic started our trip off poorly and on that plane, our high spirits quickly dissipated. The plane ride would have been fabulous, I’m sure, if the unwritten sky rules… nay, laws, had been obeyed. The most important of these laws is the one that clearly states “Do not put your seat back!” I know, I know… I’m short, so why would this affect me? Short I may be, but my preferred way of sleeping on a plane is laying my head on the tray-table, and when the horrid man in front of me lies back, I don’t fit!

So, with the tray-table unavailable, Jonathon and I proceeded to try every other possible position to fall asleep: curled up, sprawled out, lying on each other, switching seats, throwing my legs over the arm rest, lying across the aisle… the list goes on… but, nothing worked. By the time Jonathon and I arrived in Frankfurt after the all night flight, we had accumulated about twenty minutes of sleep between the two of us.

After that came the ten hour layover at Frankfurt, the short plane ride to the Czech Republic and another ten hour wait until we were picked up. The nicest thing about our trip was that when we finally arrived at our flats, we were not allowed to take a nap, despite it being 10 in the morning. They were concerned about jetlag. I tried to explain that after not sleeping for 48 hours, jetlag wasn’t really a high concern of mine.

Since then, I’ve been able to catch up on my sleep so you need not be worried.

About a week after arriving in Prague, it was my 21st birthday! Yes, I am now 21… but sadly the drinking age here is 18, so really, the novelty of being legal hasn’t hit me. I think it will once I’m back in the States and get carded. Then I can whip out the ID and say “Boo-Ya! 21!”

What else? We’ve been dancing up a storm here in Europe, going to clubs and pubs galore; it’s true, the beer is cheaper than water, plus it’s delicious. Akropolis is a club that we frequent and many adventures involve that lovely little place. One specifically I’d like to share:

We started our night at the Rock Café, another club we attend often. Deciding that some dancing needed to happen, we left and walked to the tram stop to continue on to Akropolis.

But Christy doesn’t have her tram pass! Not to worry, I would walk back with her to the apartments and we would meet up with everyone at the club. Halfway back, Christy decided she would just call it a night. “Will you be okay? Should I go with you so you’re not alone?” “No,” I reply, “I have been there before.” And I have, but in my impatience, I jump on the wrong tram misreading the name of a stop (it looks a lot like the stop needed in my defense!)

Twenty minutes later, realizing this tram does not go to the correct stop, I get off. I wait for tram #55 in the not-so-nice looking neighborhood at 1:30 in the morning. Smart, I know.

Now, tram stops have trams going two ways; in opposite directions. The tram that was going in the correct direction wouldn't arrive for another twenty minutes, and it was cold. So I got on the one going the wrong direction thinking that after it got to the last stop, it would simply circle around to the first stop and the list would start over. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! At the last stop, the tram began to slow in a neighborhood without any lights and creepy, vacant, rapist trams sitting all around.

I am told I have to get off and I have no idea where I am!

I start walking, following the tram tracks back. I’ll simply wait at the next stop I come across. No problem… except the shady character that got off at the last stop as well starts to follow me. Now, I say ‘follow me’ in the sense of he’s walking behind me in the same direction I’m going… but come on… young girl… all alone, I assumed he was following me. I stuffed my wallet in my pants, incase he was after my purse, and I picked up my pace.

Luckily, tram #55, going the right direction, was the first stop I came to… I hopped the hell on. (It was about 2:30 at this point.) I rode the tram for about an hour to the stop needed. At one point, a friend called, wondering where I was. I told him about the mix up and said I’d be there in about fifteen minutes; I still had about 10 stops before mine.

It is probably important to note that I hadn’t bought credit for my phone, so I couldn’t call anyone; I could only receive calls. This will be important for later!

I get off at the stop I was told… which is, of course, the wrong stop! Not to panic, I will just continue to follow the tracks until I see the stop that I recognize from our other trips here. But, to make a long story… not so short at all, I ended up getting lost in this neighborhood trying to find the damn club! No phone, no map, freezing cold! And of course, the few people I came across on the dark, deserted streets at three in the morning didn’t speak English. “Kde Akropolis?” would be answered with general hand waves in ambiguous directions. I even stopped a taxi, and the man obviously knew where the club was, but wouldn’t take me there! To top things off, my friends, knowing I was safe from the phone call earlier, left and the person waiting for me ran out of credit on his phone, so he couldn’t call me either!

A short, drunk, but well-spoken Australian man came to my rescue with a map and was kind enough to help me find my way. At 4:30 in the morning, having left at 1:30, I made it to Akropolis!

That’s been the biggest adventure I’ve had thus far. Right now, our third week of film classes and our second week of electives is starting. The classes here are amazing. I’ve yet to see one teacher lecture from a book… wonderful!

We’ve also found out that we are not special. We were told that we were the first Americans accepted to this prestigious program, but this was false! Also, we are all pretty sure that we were the only people to apply… so really not special at all! However, I don’t think the group could be much better. The ten of us, now 11, (welcome Rachel) have a great group dynamic and everyone’s a blast to be around. I wait with high anticipation for the next three months!

Also… finally… here is my address:

ALLISON ECKERT C/O VERONIKA JANEČKOVÁ
V JIRCHÁŘÍCH 6
11000
PRAHA 1
ČZECH REPUBLIC

The Pregame

I bring you into my life as the first week of my Prague adventure comes to an end. For those of you who don’t know, I’m studying in the Czech Republic during this fall semester.

The details of the program are as follows: it’s an intensive semester where we study all aspects of production and make a 7 minute 16mm film. (We actually get a budget and everything!) We will also be taking some elective courses, but which ones exactly are still up in the air. What makes this more exciting is the program is shiny and new. I am one of the first 11, well I guess now 10, (bye Robert *sniffle) students participating in the program.

While here, I will also be compiling footage to create a small documentary. The generous people of the Gilman Foundation have provided me with some extra money, so I’ve purchased a sexy little camera and with my new baby I’ll show them what this school has to offer the average film student… or maybe slightly above average. Oh hell, who am I kidding; greatly above average… at least, that’s what Mom keeps telling me.

To catch everyone up, and I suppose a review for some of you, I’ll briefly tell you what I’ve been up to this glorious summer. To start off with, less than twenty four hours after my last final (which I aced and with it completed my third grueling year of higher education) I started working on an independent feature called April Showers. We worked more than twelve hours a day, six days a week, and it was splendid! My official title was Key Set Production Assistant; it sounds more important than it actually was.

After the movie wrapped, I started working for Mr. Steve Joy, abstract painter extraordinaire. Better than any retail job if I do say so myself. It was a job full of coffee and great meals out as well as a couple glamorous openings, and the array of people that I met through Steve was extraordinarily entertaining!

I said hello to Denver, CO with my sister and Ms. Josie Azzam. To understand Josie and my relationship, you need only to know one thing, we are avid Eddie Izzard fans. We purchased tickets for his stand-up show almost as soon as they went on sale. At one point, Eddie Izzard was a mere ten feet away from us! (He actually spoke to Josie which I’m still a little sour over.) A wonderful trip!

L.A. came next. What summer is complete without the beach? Some wonderful people I got to know during the film shoot just months earlier showed Nick, my roommate, and I around the city for a few days. During our short stay, Nick and I enjoyed DisneyLand, not DisneyWorld (apparently they are very different which Nick felt he needed to continually tell me) and Medieval Times, which might have been the most amazing dinner I have ever had. We also spent an afternoon at the beach, and I got a personal tour of the entirety of LA from a local.

I was home for about a week, and to be honest I wasn’t quite ready to go. Such an action-packed summer demands more than a week of relaxation at home, right?

But Prague came anyway and it’s been wonderful thus far. Details of my adventures here will soon follow, as well as my address for all you folks who want to send me stuff!