This was such an interesting group of people. The most diverse scientific interests that I have been exposed to in a while, and everyone was respectful, fun, and intelligent. It was great!
The LeadersJustin
Justin was our herdsman for the week. The poor guy had to guide us around the city for hours on end. We loved him though.
Agi
Amazing. A very interesting woman who totally took care of us and made our stay wonderful.
The boysJay
Another Davisite. He's the one that I met because the travel agent set us up (she guessed my dates and destinations when I went in to buy my ticket, Jay had gotten to her first you see). We got to travel together on the way to Budapest, which was a relief to me. It is so much easier to navigate with a friend! He's a chemistry student who enamored with quirky sports (ie ultimate Frisbee and Roller derby).
Justin
A circler. While the rest of of herded together like a flock of sheep, Justin was always just within view on the edge of things. Fascinating guy though. He's a mathematician and it was hilarious to watch the rest of us try to relate to that. Also, a very surprising guy in many respects, and an asker of excellent questions, if sometimes disconcerting.
Dan
It turns out that Dan is friends with one of my school buddies in Davis. He has a very quirky sense of humor with deadpan timing and absolutely silly remarks. An evolutionary ecologist.
Greg
Ummm, what to say? I adored Greg. We were immediate buddies. Totally smart. Totally silly. What do you expect from a computer scientist? Outdoorsy too. He and Jay had a lot of fun together.
Chris
A southern boy who studies Organic Chemistry. He was one of the youngest fellows, though you wouldn't have guessed it by any immaturity.
Ray
Ah, Ray. Ray is fun. The poor boy flirted with some Hungarian girls early on in the week and we never really let him live it down (mostly because he stayed up so late with said girls that he overslept and we all got a chewing out for tardiness). This guy loves to take pictures and his camera was going off at the most random times! Biochemist.
Mike
Mike has a cool walk. I like a man who walks well. He's a computer science guy from Colorado.
Yann
On first impression, you might say that Yann is incredibly shy, but I have decided otherwise. He may not speak very much, but he has the best facial expressions! I don't know how many times he made me laugh with a raised eyebrow. He's a computer science student studying in Krakow.
Eric
A wonderfully surprising sort of guy. Eric is a republican frat boy who defied all the stereotypes (at least the ones imposed by the liberal democrats in Davis). He's another chemist stationed in Prague for the next 2 months.
The GirlsAbigail
Had an amazing natural spunk. She is only in her first year of grad school, that impressed me. She's another chemist.
Alison
Alison was very quiet at first, but don't let that fool you. I got the impression she is the type to keep up with anyone on anything. She's got guts. And, she is a zoologist of sorts, working with sex traits of lizards.
Caroline
My spunky roommate. I think they divided us up based on research interests, but you couldn't get much further than the two of us and still stay in biology. Caroline slices rat brains for a living. Ok, ok, to give her more credit, she studies multiple sclerosis. A prolific storyteller and avid armored swords lady.
Mary
Had cool scarves. Studies biomedical engineering and is headed to Berlin this summer.
Erin
An amazingly elegant, athletic, intelligent lady. Another biomedical engineer, from Stanford. We had some great conversations.
Danielle
Danielle was fun. She had the most amazing eyes I've ever seen too. Another biomedical engineer. Used to work on osteoporosis with bear bones brought in by hunters. She's a northern Michigan girl.
I couldn't go into work today because no one was going to be there, so Daša and I took advantage of this and played hooky. We went to visit what used to be one of the most important monasteries in the region, Vyšší Brod.
It was in pretty bad shape. It was looted extensively during the war, and the communists used it as a farm factory or something. Not an unusual story. Now, they are trying to repair it, but...
As you can see, it needs a lot of work.
It used to be its own little town of sorts, with all these buildings and gardens
We took a tour of the chapel. It smelled very old and very much ignored. Cold too. The impressive part was the library, an amazing collection of ancient books.
These pictures are all wonky because I was being a bit of a bad girl. They didn't allow pictures to be taken, so I turned off the flash and snuck them. Didn't look obviously, so they are all off kilter.
They also won't let you touch the books, and have a fancy alarm system to prevent you. When I took the above picture, the alarm went off, scaring the crap out of me. I thought for a sec that I had actually triggered it with the stupid camera.
This room was amazing, the shelf strait ahead had bibles in 40 or 50 different languages. and the painting on the ceiling was odd, but really beautiful.
After our tour, with the worlds most boring tour guide (especially for me since he spoke Czech! but I could tell he was boring even without understanding him), Daša and I took a little detour on the way back to town. Meant to go strait there, but...
The willows were fluffing (don't know if you can see it), it was fun.
I know this is out of focus, but it is one of the best pictures of Daša that I have.
Another chapel in town.
On the way home, we passed by this wonderful castle.
For my fishermen friends, wouldn't this be fun?
Daša and Hugo and I went on a little wander around Hluboká yesterday. It smells so wonderful here, everything is green and growing and the flowers beautiful!
It was pretty toasty, and humid!
Daša made me wait while she picked up every beetle like this off the road and moved them to a safe place. They are endemic and very rare, so...
We went to the park so Hugo could run around. 
I think Coca Cola should pay me for this picture, no?
