A genius of architecture, one professor makes guided tours awesome

One of the many churches that Marie knew everything aboutMarie Homerova is probably the smartest person I know. While I’m not a student in her class at NYU in Prague, I’ve taken a few field trips with her and her unbelievable knowledge on absolutely everything blows me away. Marie is the professor for Czech Architecture, and with that title apparently comes with the knowledge of every piece of architecture in several cities. On my second day in Prague, her hour long tour of Old Town opened my eyes to the wealth of art and architecture visible—and often hidden—on almost every surface in Prague. While I knew that Prague was a rich center of many different styles of architecture, the sheer breadth of it, and her knowledge on it, made Prague even more complex and layered than I could have ever imagined while flipping through my Lonely Plant Guide on the plane ride over.
When I say that Marie knows everything, I don’t think I am that far from exaggeration. On a trip to Olomouc one weekend early in the semester, she pointed out every fountain and church; she knew every detail of the histories and made them interesting. Her beautiful accent and quiet sense of humor made me interested in the crumbling alabaster facades. Her charming affirmations of her facts with an “Is it so?” made my friends and I smile and we’d find ourselves trying to imitate the genius of this wonderful woman.
Her genius was solidified in my mind when, after a trip to a silver mine in Kutna Hora, Marie interrupted the guide at the mine to interject more history and interesting facts. The woman at the mine makes her living on knowing everything about it, and yet Marie knew just a little more. Her quip after the tour of "That woman didn't really know what she was talking about," made all the students present aware that Marie was brilliant, and perhaps looking to show up the mine tour guide!
While I know that I will never be able to cultivate the knowledge that she has stored in her mind, it’s nice to have a small peek into the rich history of the Czech Republic. She is inspiring to me because she has allowed us to look at Prague with an artist and historian’s eye, and I feel fortunate to have such an insider’s view of the city I’m living in.