OVERSEAS BRIEFING

Author: LISIE MEHLMAN AND KRISTIN NIELSON

This week's Overseas Briefing is brought to you by veteran Campus columnists Lisie Mehlman and Kristin "Claire" Nielson. Mehlman and Nielson co-authored "Beyond the Bubble" last year, a recurring column that documented their adventures beyond Middlebury College.



PRAGUE-Things haven't changed much. As we write this pet column of ours, we are sitting in Lisie's unmade, filthy bed feeling ill from the mass amounts of junk food we just consumed. After months of perfecting her Zulu clicking noises as well as her impersonations of various African desert creatures, Claire decided she couldn't stand another day apart from her Rory (a point of major contention this week was deciding which Gilmore girl each of us got to be). So, to the Praha she came.

There were worries that after five months apart (and a tear-filled, melodramatic goodbye on the corner of 14th and Third this summer) our reuniting might not be all we had ever hoped for and more. While many of our friends meticulously planned their first meetings with significant others, we had each spent a great deal of time fantasizing about what our reunion would be like. Would it occur in slow motion, in black and white, with Al Green playing in the background? The splendid reunion was less Al Green and more James Taylor, but equally melodramatic.

The honeymoon phase of the week never really ended. We spent hours strolling the lovely streets of Praha, sharing our own tales of personal growth. And boy stories, clearly. Arm in arm, we meandered the plentiful Christmas Markets and sipped hot wine and ate more than our fair share of warm dough goodness. The beautiful lights and decorations of the Christmas Market made for the perfect backdrop to our lover's paradise. And the gingerbread houses sold within the market made for the perfect treat for Claire. She may or may not have devoured an entire cottage within her first 10 minutes in Prague.

One morning, we decided to catch a bus to Plzen, wherein the Pilsner-Urquell Beer Factory would be ours to tour. When we arrived at our destination, we found Plzen, the fourth-biggest city in the Czech Republic, absolutely deserted. Lisie put her Czech skills to good use and eventually got us to the beer factory. Pivo - the Czech word for beer - is one she has thankfully mastered. Only, by the time we arrived, we had missed the last tour of the day. Lucky for us, a dodgy crew of Irish lads were celebrating a Birthday Beer Bash Weekend and had arranged for a private tour of the factory. Since Claire and Lisie are so lovely, the drunkards invited us along. We trudged through the snow to see the kettles where the beer is brewed and fermented. We learned that Pilsner is a 12-degree beer, but we have no idea what that means. We even got to taste some of the beers. Lightweight Lisie couldn't even finish her first cup - she poured its remains out when she thought nobody was looking. Claire saw her do it, though, and refuses to let the act go unmentioned.

Before heading back to the Praha, we ate at the famed Pilsner-Urquell restaurant. We purchased a poster of the factory which will grace the walls of our keep-your-fingers-crossed-two-room-double-in-Forest next semester. We have named our room The Hollow and have spent a lot of the last week making plans for it. We instituted a self-imposed curfew so that we will both have to be back in the Hollow at 10 on weeknights to ensure that we have enough playtime together. And by playtime we do mean time to sit in Lisie's unmade, filthy bed, eat junk food and watch "Gilmore Girls."