Day 17: Morning

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 

A relatively uneventful day. In the fibers class, I starched my lace design, then pulled out roughly fifteen hundred thousand billion pins to release it from the pillow. (Yesterday's photo was taken after this, obviously. Why did I make a design with so many curves and intersections? Because I like the way it looks, that's why…) 

The starching went well, though, and we then started carving our designs for the upcoming blue-printing project. We don't have time to learn how to carve the forms out of wood, the traditional way, so we're using blocks of foam instead. It's certainly much easier to carve. 

Other than a long-awaited Skype call and a few hours of reading webcomics, I didn't really do much else today. Instead, I thought those of you who read this weblog might be interested to see the route I take every morning. 

I start at the Penzion. 

Our room is on the other side of the building, so you can't see the windows from here. The street it's on is just about wide enough for two cars to pass each other, as long as they're small. Like all of Prague, there are frequently people walking assorted dogs on the sidewalks. Watch where you step. 

From here, you turn right and walk toward the TV tower with the giant baby sculptures on it. It's about five times as tall as anything else in the city, so it makes a good landmark. 

There are some interesting murals on the left. 

Planning ahead for lunch, I often stop to get an inexpensive pastry of some kind at this bakery. 

The Metro is down here, at the bottom of what appears to be the third longest escalator in the world. People occasionally roll things down the dividers between the railings. 

In the confined spaces beneath the city, you can feel the wind rushing out of the tunnel before you can even hear the train itself. 

Like any urban public transportation, the train gets more and more crowded as it approaches downtown in the morning. There are rarely any empty seats. 

These handy charts are posted above every door. We get off at Můstek. 

There's one inactive escalator at nearly all the Metro stops; the middle one at the Můstek stop seems to have been completely ripped out. 

I assume it's for repairs. 

At the top of a much shorter escalator (the ground is lower here by the river), you come out into the Old Town. 

There's an open-air market that spans two or three blocks, with booths selling fruit and chocolates and cackling witch marionettes. They're usually still setting up when classes begin. 

Through Uhelny Trh, the little triangle at the end of the market… 

Down a narrower side street, past assorted restaurants… 

Through the archway between the jeweler and the violin shop… 

And you come out into the quiet yellow courtyard that the Institute overlooks. 

Most of the windows you can see here are part of the Institute. It shares the courtyard with a tea room (to the left) and an art gallery (to the right). The main Institute entrances are also to the right.  

The door on the left leads to a common room, a computer lab, one of the five miniature kitchens, and the non-design classrooms. The design studios are up the stairs and through the metal gate. The door under the chicken leads to the art gallery, which occupies a space somewhere beneath/behind/between the Institute. I'm not really sure how it all fits together. 

Through the gate, up some stairs, past a balcony, through another door, and you come out into the main hallway, which also functions as part of the Institute's library.

At the end is the chain of odd little trapezoid-shaped rooms occupied by the fibers studio. Here's the view from near my desk… 

And my desk itself, right by the door, looking uncharacteristically tidy this morning.