On Wednesday Vaida and I finally went to Vyšehrad, the location that - according to the legend - was the origin of the first settlement which later became Prague.
It is a castle which was probably built in the 10th century and is situated on a hill over the Vltava river which provides a great outlook over the city.
First we discovered the surroundings:







Then we went on to have a look at the cemetery which was established in 1869, it is the final resting place of many composers, artists, sculptors, writers as well as scientists and politicians.
The cemetery itself looked so peaceful with all the fresh snow and many tombs and headstones are simply work of art as you can see here:





Smetana's Grave:









Dvořák's Grave:









Even outside the cemetery there was some art to be found :) :



After that we walked back to the city centre where we stopped by at K4 to warm up a bit, it's one of my favourite bars here:



We finished the day by walking over Charles Bridge (you can see the castle in the background) and enjoying the view:





On the next day Vaida had to leave :(((, so I helped her to carry her luggage to the train station. This is the last photo I took of her and you can also see what the typical dorm room here looks like:





Saying goodbye to her was hard since we shared a lot of good memories, but I'm sure it was not a "goodbye", but a "see you" and I'm already looking forward to see her again :).


Regarding my future plans... As most of you know by now I prolonged my stay here, so now I will return to Germany at the end of June. There are many reasons for this change of plans including the fact that most of the friends I made here are staying for a year and I'm just having a really good time, but I also won't lose any time regarding my studies and there are plenty of interesting subjects offered in the summer semester.
I'm also looking forward to seeing Prague in spring (no more snow, yeah!) and strolling through all the parks...
Since I'll be moving to my flatmate's room next door in March I will have plenty of space, so feel free to come over and visit me! :)

Moreover, I also applied for a Clinical Internship abroad this summer (as mentioned in one of my latest entries) and I got a place in SWITZERLAND!
Yeah, not as exotic as Ghana, but there was only one (!) for the whole of Germany, so I'm rather proud and I'm sure I'll have a great time there.
I don't know yet where the internship will take place or which discipline will be offered to me, but I put Bern, Zürich and Basel as well as Paediatrics, Tropical Medicine, Intensive Care and Oncology (in this order) on my list - I will let you know as soon as I have any news :).

So what's happening in your lives? TELL ME! (I mean it... It would be nice if some of you would contact me and/or reply to my mails on a more regular basis... :/)

Last week I did quite a few cultural things here in Prague:

On Tuesday I went to the state opera with Joris and his flatmate to see "The Swan Lake", it was the second time for me to see a ballet performance (first was in Brno and as you can tell from the blog entry back then I thought "ballet was just not for me").
I have to admit that I loved every minute of it, not only was it a really high-quality performance with impressive costumes and props as well as a stage design that changed several times, but the dancers moved so simultaneously, I loved it!
Moreover, it's very affordable for students to go to the theatre, opera or ballet here as we get a 50%-discount, it's even true for the cinema! :)
Last but not least the opera has got a simply awe-inspiring interior as you can see here:





On Friday I joined Marie, one of my fellow students, her boyfriend and her flatmates to "Laterna Magika" which is a nonverbal theatre and a combination of dance, film and black theatre. It is considered key in the development of modern Czech theatre and is very well-known here in Prague.
I found it a very different approach and it was something I had never seen before, but I really enjoyed myself and would recommend everyone to go there at least once.
That's what the stage looked like (and you have no idea how many things you can do with these few props):



One day later I went to another ballet performance called "Don Quijote" with my Polish friend Marta - there were several acts and therefore intermissions which made the play last forever ;).
Nevertheless, it was again a high-quality performance with colourful Spanish dresses and a flawless (or so it seemed to me at least) orchestra.
Having said that I have to acknowledge that I liked "The Swan Lake" better as it was simply a more classical piece of ballet and I'm looking forward to see more of those.
Here you can see Marta and me during one of the intermissions, coincidentally we were both wearing the same colours :D :



On Sunday Marta, her tandem partner and I went to the closing ceremony of the Short Film Festival were all the awarded short films were shown - all in all we watched four films from Norway, Hungary, Germany and Great Britain.
My personal favourite was "Tuba Atlantica", a Norwegian film from 2010, unfortunately I was unable to find a version on Youtube, but you can read the synopsis here: http://www.nordicil.org/the-nowegian-film-school/2010/film_item.2011-02-02.2041389272 .

As you can see, I am enjoying my time here, I hope you do, too, let me know what's going on in your life, I'm looking forward to hearing from you! :)

Frohe Weihnachten, veselé vánoce, Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, 圣诞快乐, Весёлого Рождества, Häid jõule, Boldog Karácsonyt, Gledelig jul, Prettige kerstdagen, Buon Natale and Merry Christmas to all of you! :)

Today I left Praha to fly back to Germany to see my family and friends for christmas! :)
I was soooo excited and got up at 6 to make sure I didn't forget to pack anything (...and also because everything I do takes just so much longer with a broken arm).
My mum picked me up from the airport in Cologne-Bonn and took me home, sweet home...
It feels so good to be here again and I can't wait to see everyone again :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOpK1Euwu5U

On Thursday my friend Sarah from Bonn arrived here in Prague and we went on a trip to South Moravia organized by the International Club from Friday to Sunday.
Since I didn't have any internet access there, I couldn't continue the christmas calendar, but I promise to add some photos of the weekend once I get them from Sarah. :)

This is going to be a very short entry, typing really hurts :(

It has been getting colder over the course of the last couple of days, so I decided to do some shopping for gloves (since normal gloves don't fit over the cast, I had to go for mittens) and a bonnet.

Here's the result:





decoration at Palladium shopping centre

Today started off extremely nicely since I passed my exam in ORL with "very good".
However, things started to change a bit after that...

Last week I fell up (yes, not down..) the stairs in my flat here, I landed on my right side which ended up terribly bruised.
Somehow I must've broken my left radial bone while doing so, but it wasn't until a few days later that it started to really hurt.
So I went to the orthopaedic department of the hospital after my exam where the doctor told me that my arm would most likely be distorted, but not broken, but he wanted to do an X-ray nevertheless to make sure.

Unfortunately, he had some bad news for me: I have to wear a cast on my left arm (remember, I'm left-handed... and I've also got some written exams coming up :( ) for the next four (!) weeks.





Do you remember those photos we took during our surgery class a couple of weeks back when we practised doing casts?



Well, this is what the real one looks like...

Today wasn't too interesting, the day started with my new course of Urology, afterwards I went straight to the library to study for my exam in ORL (Otorhinolaryngology or ENT - Ear, Nose, Throat) where I stayed until the library closed.
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the outlook from the 5th floor of the urological department in the direction of the castle area during the seemingly never-ending 5 hours full of lectures (...and then it even started to snow for a bit! :) ):