today we went to the crystal factory! it was really cool. they reach into these big things with sicks and pull out blazing hot crystal. then they blow air into the tubes to stretch it out, squeeze it into molds, etc. the women can use the molds and carry it into the coolers but only men are allowed to do the blowing part and they all smoke and drink the whole time. supposedly beer keeps you hydrated, ha. also, its crazy hot in there so they were all shirtless! apparently in the summer it can be like 130 degrees in there, totally insane. next the crystal goes into a room where lines are drawn to set up the pattern. next the pieces go into this room where the designs are carved in. there were tons of peolpe in lines with crazy wheel things carving away. our tour guide said that the dust is 24% lead! no one was wearing gloves or even a mask... she said they werent required to and it was their choice. its so unsafe, just nuts.

after shopping in the crystal factory, we headed back to prague. i got lunch at Fridays. BAD CALL. i got a freaking burger and it was $20. oh well. then cara and i went shopping at this place called vera moda and i got really good deals. that pretty much made my day.

we had to rush back to get to a lecture at CERGE. it is some sort of universitz. the girl gave us a good lecture about the czech republic and their economic conditions. it was a good match with the lecture from the morning about investments in the czech republic. its crazy how much the history ties into business and the economy. the building was insane too- it looked like a classroom from harry potter. a lot of movies have been filmed there- one of the bourne movies i think.

that night some peolpe went to the black light theater but i passed and i heard that was a good call so that made me happy. we ended up going back to the pizza colloseum and i even got the same thing, so good.

that night i went back to the beer factory with some people. it was nice to just chill and relax.

very good day.