Experiential Blog #6 Listen to what is around you

I have observed that in different locations people talk in different ways. For example in Vienna Prague and London everyone is much quieter especially if there is a larger group of people or just having a personal conversation. I will talk primarily about London because I speak the language. I noticed that when you are saying goodbye to someone here it is common to say something along the lines of "cheers". I also noticed that apologies are very common and quite frequent about things we don't normally consider worth apologizing for. In our native language we mostly ignore small interruptions and just ask the other person to carry on while here it would be grounds for an apology. I come to the conclusion that it is only slightly more formal than our language and much more polite and clear. communication here in London is very easy to understand and also easy to pick up on.

Experiential Blog #5 Emotions

My emotions are primarily stable and don't require much expression but when I am happy I typically express that by smiling or laughing. When I am in a place of work or study I try to take things rather seriously and avoid having any inappropriate emotions for the given time. I noticed on this trip others have caused and or have contributed to a lot of drama with there emotions and need to tell everyone everything and personally I think it is just a bit annoying I prefer to keep personal things of myself and others to myself. Everyone deals with emotions a bit differently and the conclusion I've come to is that it is best to keep things that are normally kept private private, and some people don't deal with this the right way because for some reason they feel the need to tell everyone else. My personal and cultural insights I have come to as a result of attending to my emotions this way is that drama and violence is easily avoided by just being passive when you feel the need to say or do something that is inappropriate for the situation.

Experiential Blog #4 Prague

Prague is probably the opposite of what I expected. I was anticipating a run down corrupt city filled with poverty, drugs and alcohol. Prague is one of the cleanest cities I have every been to. The building are all different from totally classic Gothic to modern hybrid styled buildings no cookie cutters here. I learned that the culture of Prague is hardly what I expected, even being the party city it is a highly functional city with lots going on and lots to do. Prague is open for business. Prague has a ton of greenery and tons of public places to hangout which is also not what I expected I thought the city would be very crowded with buildings and industry, but not at all. For entertainment the list goes on and on, we went to tour Konopiste, Prague Castle, the bone church and also the Kafka museum. I had a lot of fun just walking around and exploring the different things to do around the city.

Experiential Blog #3 Vienna

I expected the buildings in Vienna to be very classical, older and smaller. I expected a very quiet city with a limited amount of quiet people. I got something totally different, what I saw were very narrow connected building that were very tall and lots of them block after block. There were tones of people and from my experience it was not the quietest city. I was disappointed that most of the interactions I had with the locals in Vienna were very short and rude, I believe this to have been caused by the language barrier but it is hard to tell. The landscapes were not exactly what I expected either. I expected much more greenery and small relaxing areas with public seating. It's possible we were simply in the wrong part of the city but there was very little decoration with greenery and very little public seating if at all. Although this posting sounds negative I had an excellent time in Vienna because of all the things to do for entertainment such as st. Stephens spire view, many places to shop and buy souvenirs, and best of all the food is fantastic every where you go.

Explain how Kafka's writing contributes to your understanding of the Gothic

Kafka had a very dark mind that was disarray and confused, he had many characteristics that a typical Gothic character would have. this was represented really well in the Kafka museum  by the dark lighting and confusing pathways through the museum Kafka contributes to my understand of the Gothic because he created the idea of Kafkaesque in his writing, this is where there is no avail and no ending, solution or climax but the reader feels as though he is getting toward the solution but is almost always let down. This help my understanding because the idea of Kafkaesque is used in many other pieces also. Kafka helped to influence other writing such as Madness of Angles where the character wonders the streets of London endlessly.

Describe the Ossuary of Kutna Hora Explain why it is creepy or sublime

The Ossuary is a church where in the 1800's all the bones that were buried outside the church in a mass grave were removed and moved to the inside of the church and used as decoration. The bones were stacked from the floor to the ceiling and covering the walls. This was because the people that tend to the grounds ran out of room for burials. I found this very creepy because of all the unknown death all the people whose names will never be known. I also found it creepy to find all the bones where you could actually tell how the person died.

Describe Konopisre as a classic Gothic location Explain why it is important

Konopisre is not Gothic architecture but at the same time is a very Gothic location, when I walked into Konopisre the first thing I saw was death in the form of thousands of animals mounted on the walls. The interior was very dark and depressing. This is important because it shows that you don't have to have a Gothic structure to have a Gothic feeling arise. On another note the rest of the house was almost normal aside from the causal pelt here and there. Although the feeling from the hallway is just so overwhelming it makes the rest of the house creepy also.