The reason I'm here

Thanks for the travel suggestions everyone!

Last night was unbelievable. I said to Vaclav at one point during the evening that there was nothing he could have told me about it to prepare me, so I thought I'd try to illustrate this post with some photos (these won't show up on the Flickr)

The day was relatively uninteresting. I got a new phone, finally one that worked, and it was sold to me by a black guy. Black people are about as rare in Prague as they are in Northbrook, so I had to ask him where he was from. When he said Sudan, my heart kinda skipped a little.

The night was the fulfillment of an invitation from Jonas from a few weeks back. Every year here in Prague, the high schools (or Gymnasiums as they call them) hold what they call a "Maturity Ball" (translates horribly, doesn't it?). Kids here compare it to American prom. At 18, you're of full legal age for everything in CR, so the ball is a graduation celebration and a welcoming into adulthood. Everyone's invited - every student in the school, their parents and friends, alumni, and anyone else who's dressed well and can pay the 160Kc admission. I had been told that kids go really all-out for this - they dress up to the nines, and even take dancing lessons (waltz, tango, etc) in preparation.

So last night, Jonas had the good fortune of landing a role in a Coke commercial and wasn't going to make it (no big deal, his ball isn't till next year), so it was Vaclav and me. I put on my suit (black, but I only had brown shoes. oh well), grabbed my camera, and kept an open mind.

We took the tram into town and got off at Wenceslas Sq. After a quick bite at KFC (I knew I'd eat there once while I was here...), we entered the Lucerna little mall-thingy that's in a small nook just off the square and proceeded through it to the auditorium entrance on the other side.

"Auditorium? They can fit an auditorium in here?" I thought.

It was like something out of Harry Potter. Down a flight of stairs to a coat check, though a marble-floored foyer filled with people ages 15-80 dressed in evening gowns, suits, and tuxes, and the room suddenly opened up into a massive, three-tiered hall with a dance floor in the center. Nearly 1000 people, easily.

That was my first view. That's a full band on the stage - sax, trumpet, guitar, bass, piano, conductor, the whole shebang. On the dance floor, people were waltzing in big swirling circles, some of them clearly not as experienced as others. All around me were high school students, impeccably dressed, speaking Czech (for some reason this part was crazy to me, to hear so many people near my age speaking a foreign language, and hearing how much it sounded like American teenagers speaking English). We took a lap around the place, me refusing a drink for now, choosing instead to get drunk off the absurdity of the situation. Here's a view from the end of the room:



The rest of the evening was a series of worthwhile stories. Highlights include:

-My meeting one of Vaclav's old teachers, a man in his late 70s who had been teaching in the school since he was 20. He taught German and Phys Ed, and had taught himself how to speak English (since, during Communism, the only second language a person could learn in school was Russian). He spoke very well, spitting all over me with passion and excitement at the opportunity to show off his skills, and he asked what I would like to say to President Bush (who he then pretended to punch). "And how about Hillary?" he asked. Is she really that popular already? Let's go Barack!

-Seeing the many many customs associated with this ball. Remember (I didn't) that European schools are organized WAY differently than US schools: students stay in one classroom all day and teachers go from class to class. Once in a class, a student stays there for their entire school career. So the classes get to bond a whooooole lot with each other and their teachers, and graduation is a HUGE deal. At one point in the evening, they all get "sashed" (ie, get sashes put on them), then stand in a circle and each waltz with a teacher. Later, each class grabs a big sheet and walks around the dance floor as people throw money from the balconies onto the sheets (that's the picture over there). Crazy!

-Czech covers of American songs are hilarious. For anyone who cares to urinate on themselves from laughing, I will sing "Proud Mary" like this singer did.

-Vaclav and I found a table of girls sitting by themselves and decided to sit down with them. After we got over the initial language issues, they began drilling me with questions about myself, the US, and my time here in Prague. Vaclav bought them a bottle of wine (my first wine in Prague, a 160Kc Moravian white that was better than any I've ever had!) A girl asked how long I've lived here. "Two weeks," I said, charmingly adding, "how long have you lived here?" With a laugh that indicated an answer of my whole life, the girl responded "Sixteen years!" I took a VERY large gulp of wine and continued talking.

-It gets better. The very cute girl sitting next to me barely spoke English, but we managed to communicate at least a bit. She had been learning Spanish for the past 2 months, so we bonded over that for a moment. After the "sixteen years" comment, they asked how old I was and I told them the truth. Some more small talk, then a brief pause and the girl next to me asked, "Do you have any children?" I took several very large gulps of wine.

-At 11:30, the band left the stage and a DJ started to spin, and I swear, the place turned into a Bar Mitzvah: YMCA, Grease medley and all.

There was so much more, but this post is getting very long and you get the idea. An incredible evening that is just one more example of why I'm here.