48,960 full minutes that I will not take for granted
It seems like mere days ago that I was sitting at Bread Winner’s café with my parents, grabbing a bite to eat before heading to the airport and getting on a plane that would take me to Prague. Wow. The past few days have been a time of reflection for me. With 5 weeks left in this city, I am both excited to return home to my friends and family (and shower, and bed, and the English language), and sad to leave behind a place I have fallen in love with and people who have quickly become some of my closest friends. We are all avoiding the subject of our inevitable departure and trying to really enjoy our final month here. Now, although 5 weeks seems short compared to an entire 4 months abroad, we still have 34 whole days to continue making memories and to finally make our films. 816 long hours. 48,960 full minutes that I will most certainly not take for granted.
Two weekends ago I travelled with a few of my friends to the Las Vegas of the European Union: Amsterdam. Connected by canals, teeming with bicyclists and echoing bike bells, and composed of dark-brick buildings with white trim, Amsterdam could definitely compete with Prague for a “most beautiful city to ever exist” award. While in Amsterdam we spent our days proudly being as touristy as possible. We visited the Anne Frank house – where the Frank family was in hiding until their location was betrayed and they were taken to concentration camps. We also took part in the Heineken Experience at the Heineken museum/brewery. Being the dorky film students that we are we spent a solid 30 minutes watching Heineken commercials. We watched them all, from the vintage Heineken originals to the more elaborate and comedic commercials that air today; the behind the scenes and the extras – which showed humorous interviews with all of the characters. I have to say, we were quite impressed and entertained. We also had the chance to try some of the freshly brewed beer while one of the expert Heineken employees explained how to get just the right amount of foam, what color the beer should be, and how to fully experience a crisp, cold glass of Heineken beer. To be honest, I actually can’t stand the taste of any beer, so this was all lost on me; but the Spaniards behind us seemed to be Heineken fans, based on their boisterous laughter and repeated bouts of “Cheers!”
On Sunday before we had to catch our overnight train back to Prague we took a trip to the Amsterdam Zoo. From lions to lemurs to overweight seals, the zoo was the best way to end our trip, and after a 15-hour train ride, a shower, and a bite to eat we were back in a classroom, tired but ready to get back to work. This past week we completed all of our core classes, so the majority of our time is being spent either in our elective courses or in group meetings, where we are finalizing our scripts, working on storyboards, talking with our production manager, and getting everything ready for our upcoming shoot. As the director of photography/cinematographer in my group my main responsibility right now is storyboarding and composing a shot list. We shoot in just 11 days so over the next 72 hours I will be spending a lot of quality time with the script, a pen, and blank sheets of paper. It is exciting and terrifying and daunting and awesome all at the same time. And although I could definitely happily stay here for another year, I know my parents, my friends, and my dog, Sparky, are ready to have me home. So I have about a month to continue pretending that I am, in fact, a Czech citizen, and to take in as much as I can from this invaluable experience!
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