Czech It! The Prague Blague

Epilogue: Heading West

2007-05-23T09:13:00.000+02:00

Four months ago, I began writing to you, a voice full of energy, excitement and, as much as I didn't want to admit it, anxiety for what was to come. I tried to keep an open mind, leaving my entire self open to any adventures and misadventures that might await me in that great European abyss.

What a difference a semester makes, huh?

Who am I today? I learned more about myself in the past four months than I did in the previous twenty one years. I traveled to seven different countries, learned a completely new and, let's face it, unpractical language (ale to mám rad, a ty?), and raised my alcohol tolerance about sevenfold (finally!). I learned patience, because when someone doesn't speak English very well, it takes a while for them to tell fantastic jokes ("you may, when you can"). I discovered what Hannibal Lecter always talked about as the maze of the mind, and I spent a lot of time exploring mine and becoming comfortable doing that. I passed all my classes, even when the mornings were tough sometimes (...a lot of times...). In other words, I finally started to understand what my dad always told me: life is too short to take too seriously.

And another thing - I learned what friendship is all about (again). These past months, without someone in my life like Dan, I honestly don't know what I would have done (which is probably why I panicked so much when I thought I had killed him). Our last Tuesday night together, Dan yelled over the din of Nebe 80s night to ask me for some cash to buy a drink. Without hesitating, I immediately pulled out my wallet and gave it to him, and when I looked up, he was looking at me with loving eyes and said "you know Evan, you're such a good friend." I said, "we're not doing this right now" and went back to the girls I had been talking to. So, thanks Dan. You're the best friend a guy could ever have, and you have been for as long as I've known you. My life is better with you in it.

My plane ride home was long (and eventful - my day began with finding out my flight from Prague to London had been canceled), but the hours sitting next to my new Welsh friend Pete served as a fantastic transition back into life at home. I don't feel sad leaving Prague. I've been looking forward to this summer and this last year of college for ages, and I'm still excited to make it happen. What's more, in a way, I never left. And Prague never left me, and never will (and I'm not just talking about the jet lag).

Now, I'm flying high over a landscape I haven't seen in a while: the infinite, beautifully desolate desert of the American West. You know, I live in a vast, great country, and I'm proud to say I do. I love being able to talk about my country, my language, my culture to people who've never seen or experienced it. But if there's one thing traveling teaches you it's that right now, all over the world, things are happening. In a Croatian communist housing project, my friend Tonči is waking up, turning on his Queen music videos for the thousandth time, and wondering how to tell his girlfriend he quit his job. Tomaš is sitting in his armchair, marking the timecodes where there's narration in the latest documentary he's producing, while Zuzana whips up another babovka and Jonaš edits his website. My Austrian friend Andrea is finishing her internship in Prague and getting ready to move back to Austria. And someone, somewhere, is almost definitely putting his or her pants on, one leg at a time. Think about that - really think about it!

The whole time, this blog was a safe haven for me, a place where I could always go at the end of the day and know I could say something and people would listen (all four of you). In times of need, times when I really needed to just gush about something to people who knew me (or just knew how to speak English), it kept me sane. And if you've been reading this whole time (or if you spent five hours over the past two days reading every post, like Mike Kane), you've probably learned more about me than you ever wanted to know. So, I owe you a big thanks for participating in this massive interactive media project of mine, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, tell me with a comment or an email. If you didn't, you might like this better.

The song is over, the moment is passed and forgotten about, and I am the better for it. Now I have to figure out how to reassemble my bed in LA. Na shledanou, my friends.

Overwhelming Adventures!

2007-05-19T00:43:00.000+02:00

There are just no words to sum up my trip to Croatia, so I won't try (there are, however, over 250 pictures that might do the trick at least partly). I was alone for so long, I met so many people, I saw my second bar brawl in the past week, and I had countless adventures involving random Croatians, Queen music videos, and bottles of whiskey. And I kept track of it all in my little brown book.

I'm not really sure how to go about this...do you want to hear details of every day? Send me your feedback, friends.

Generally though, I can say a few things. Firstly, reading On the Road was a good, but dangerous choice. It gave me inspiration to break some boundaries and just talk to people, which is good, but it also made me crave those epic adventures worthy of writing in an entire novel, which can be illegal if the atmosphere is right. Everyone I met became a character in my modern version of that book. And that's what it could have been, too. I wish I had had the time to be able to just kind of float around - there were two instances when people offered for me to just go along with them on their travels, and I would have loved to have done it, but knew I couldn't. Instead, I just made the most of what I had.

A lot of fantastic things happened. I felt freedom, real freedom, for the first time. I learned why backpackers and travelers become smarter, better people. I suddenly realized I understood my sister, a world traveler for years, a lot better. I chased the experiences that might make me feel worthy of getting older.

Now I'm just trying to grapple with the headache I'm getting thinking about this being my last night in this little nook of a library, writing to all of you on this blog. My trip back from the airport took me past the best sights in the city, and all that nostalgia I was hinting at last week became less of a hint and more of a smack in the face from a guy with a ring on. I am overwhelmed with the amount of familiarity I have with a place I had never dreamed of seeing only a year or so ago.

Tonight, I've also had to systematically say goodbye to everyone in the Jančařík family, which has brought tears to my eyes (and will likely bring many more once I get home tomorrow). It was hugs for Vaclav (after we set off the fireworks he bought to honor the occasion) and for Jonas (who skipped a day of a class field trip to be here and see me again. Then a final "dobrou noc" to Zuzana, who reminded me to take some cake if I got hungry. And then another handshake from Tomas. Hugging is an American thing I think. But everyone deserved them.

I have never, ever, met any people so giving, so friendly, so welcoming, so selfless, and so wonderful as the four members of this family. For the past four months, I've done nothing but eat their food, use their electricity and water, and not clean my room well enough. In return, I've been given fantastic conversation, wonderful trips all around this beautiful country, and my own true family across the ocean from the one I grew up with. I owe most everything I've done, learned, and experienced to them.

For a while now, I've been planning some final posts that might serve as a good way to sum up the whole trip, but I think I'll do those from Northbrook tomorrow night, when I'm sure I'll be in a terribly Czech-sick mood and will want to write about such things and drink copious Czech beer.

Sunrise

2007-05-12T19:24:00.000+02:00

What better way to end our time here than to go to 80s and 90s night at Lucerna? There was a different feeling in the air this time. In a way, it's the first night we've hung out together by choice and not because we're studying here together. After our graduation, all of us are just some people who know each other in Prague.

I was getting cabin fever staying at the house so long, so I decided to head towards our first bar a bit early and just wander around the city at night a bit. I walked back up to Vyšehrad for the last time and looked out over the city, lit up in all different shades of orange and yellow. I really can't get enough of it.

About thirty of us packed into this neighborhood bar near the dorms, claustrophobically clutching drinks and attempting to have conversations with our friends while standing less than six inches from their faces. With the night trams already functioning, we knew we had to get to our final destination soon enough.

We made a fantastic choice. Lucerna was as sketchy as it's ever been, and we did nothing but bask in it. Which do you like better: the fat guy on the stage drenched in sweat lip-syncing to every song while rubbing himself suggestively, or the old guy with white hair trying to dance with all the girls in our program? I like the fat guy myself. Oh, and don't worry, the tears that I said didn't happen earlier in the day? Yeah, they started, in full force. You just can't stop girls from turning on the waterworks.

The place closes down at 3:30, and as the music turned off and the lights came on, someone had a brilliant idea: let's sing the national anthem! Picture this: a hundred Americans singing the Star-Spangled Banner as people from what seemed like nearly every other country on Earth yelled obscenities at them and gave them the finger. It rained beer, we were all drenched in it.

I'm not really sure when the brawl started.

Behind me, one particularly vocal guy started tussling physically with a girl. And just as I heard "and the hoooooome ooooooff theeeeee braaaaaaavvvveee!" I see the blur of Dave Turner's body leap off the stage and deck some guy. By the time he had made contact, the pile had already formed, punches were being thrown, and in general, America was defending her pride. (Don't worry mom, I kept my distance. America doesn't need me to defend her.)

In typical fashion, the US prevailed. Outside, cooling off in the night air, our sole casualty, a huge guy from Madison named Jason who had a bloody lip ("you should've seen the other guy"), broke out the victory cigars. We loitered there for a few minutes, in the middle of Wenceslas Square, when somebody noticed it was getting light out toward the East. There was only one place we all wanted to be.

The walk began. North, through Wenceslas Sqaure, past the street where we found club Meloun, and into Old Town square, where the dawn gave an incredible backdrop to the Tyn church. There, we hung a left and trekked West, down the coronation path where new kings walked centuries ago, until we finally reached the Charles Bridge.

I couldn't help but say it. For seven hundred years, people have been standing on that bridge and watching sunrises. And you can see why (well, no you can't since I didn't have my damn camera).

Woke up this afternoon and joined some folks at Radost F/X for brunch, then followed them back to Wenceslas for some shopping. I didn't need anything, I just needed to be out in this city again. When my exhaustion overtook me, I retired back to the house and finished preparations for my trip.

Tomorrow morning I'm gone for my last five days of RnR. But it's not over yet, so I won't even pretend this is the last post. If I find internet anywhere, I can assure you you'll hear from me next week. If not, I'll be writing in the journal Sally gave me four months ago, and I'll post some thoughts in retrospect. I'll miss you all.

It hit me

2007-05-11T19:53:00.000+02:00

That sinking feeling in your stomach when suddenly you realize the general feeling you have about the things that happen around you is about to change. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but for some reason, no matter how hard I try not to feel it, this always happens to me. And I don't think it's the change that bothers me so much, but rather the lack of routine that comes in the transition periods (I am a massive creature of habit). So when I woke up from my nap with my heart pounding (as I've been doing the past few days for some reason) and thought about the fact that I don't have to go to class any more...it just hit me. I'm gone.

It was that feeling combined with this sudden longing for people around me to keep me sane, not thinking about ridiculous things like that. Dan leaves today for Budapest, so I feel like I've sort of finally lost that safety net I've taken advantage of this entire semester. Which is why it was nice to leave my room and start talking to Zuzana and Tomaš again. In an unfortunate twist of fate, Jonaš left this afternoon for a trip with his school, and might not be back here next week when I spend my last night in Prague. So I may never see him again.

But let's face it, I probably will. More on that in a bit.

Today goes down in history as one of the more interesting days of my life. I slept very little last night (it was as big a night as expected), but managed to get up, shower, and dress well (if I may say so) for our graduation ceremony. The debate was relatively interesting, and I got to give a speech at the end announcing the winner, which was pretty well-received. Of course the amazing part of this was looking out at all my new friends and realizing that all of them were having ridiculously foggy mornings themselves...

We progressed to another hall for the distribution of diplomas (a painful process. They called everyone's names. It took an hour. We were starving). Then it was time for the highlight of the day, a lunch cruise down the Vltava for two hours. It really was a perfect way to end this whole thing, forcing all of us to just be in one place for two hours, and to make it a place that lends itself to reflection and all that mushy stuff.

No one cried. We were all smiles. The boat took us under the Charles bridge, past the castle, through a lock, past Vyšehrad, and back again, and the whole time we all just munched on free food, talked, and took pictures. The one up there might prove to be one of my favorites of all time - Jon managed to wrangle up our entire Czech class (minus a few) and get us to pose with Dana and Bara, our teacher from the intensive course. We all just look so happy.

Afterwards, against my better judgment because I was exhausted, I went with a small group up to Letna Park, a place I haven't visited yet, to find a beer garden. It was a nice walk, and we whiled away an hour, just chatting in the soft breeze with the entire city we've all come to call home gazing back at us from over the river. It's so fun to get onto a hill here, because the entire city center is so flat that you can see it like it's a map. There's Florenc, where I missed the bus. And Old Town square. Beyond that, Charles Square, where Dan lives. Of course you can't miss the TV Tower, and its companion, the Žižka monument. And off in the distance, the center of it all for us, the two towers of Vyšehrad looking back with, believe it or not, seemingly proud eyes.

When I came here, I never thought it would be this way. I didn't expect this kind of a connection to this place. But this old crone has claws.

Tomorrow I'm packing up everything and enjoying the city one last time. Stephanie's still here, so I'll be hanging out with her too probably. For the first time I'm starting to see how much I'll miss this place.

Cookin' Česky style #4: Bramborák

2007-05-11T18:08:00.000+02:00

At every fast-food stand in the city of Prague, you can almost definitely get three things: a big sausage, smaženy syr (fried cheese), and bramborák (Czech potato pancakes). What's great about cooking these at home is that it's a ridiculously easy recipe (all the ingredients are to taste) that's good for parties, because A) it goes great with any alcohol, especially Czech beer, and B) everyone can help tweak the recipe to make it suit their tastes. Here's the basic way we've made it this semester.

2kg potatoes (grated)
1 head garlic, pressed
1 egg
1 Tbsp Salt
Pepper to taste
A bunch of marjoram
1 cup middle grade flour
Sunflower oil (enough to cover the pancakes you’re making)
OPTIONAL: breadcrumbs, or anything else you want

Put everything in a bowl and mix it up. If resulting mixture is too watery, add more flour (potatoes start to sweat when you add salt).

Take big scoops of the mixture and put it in the oil, spreading it out into a pancake. Let it fry until the sides turn brown, then flip. Remember: your first piece is a test, so try it and adjust the ingredients. Serve it hot, and eat it with your hands.

DABDA

2007-05-10T20:36:00.000+02:00

In the phases of coping with loss, everyone in my program is entrenched in the first: denial. Stories of the previous night's exploits have turned into simple accounts of the number of times people have had to say "we're not talking about that right now." Any reflection between people is done in a jovial spirit, laughing about how tough a day tomorrow should be for some people.

I'm not one to normally cry at these things, and if there's one thing you know from reading this blog, it's that I never really developed those true inseparable friendships we all love so much (with a few exceptions of course, but I'll see those select few again soon enough). Tomorrow's graduation ceremony, which includes a debate that I was chosen to judge, should be fun.

Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. Today was my last day of classes, and I of course went to the final meeting of my Contemporary Culture class because it's great and I love the professor. After class, she and I were talking about the subject of my paper and she (a Fulbright scholar) encouraged me to apply for a Fulbright to study here in Prague. It sounded strangely enticing. Get paid to come back here and go to school?

Afterwards, Steph and I had what could be the last of our infamous lunches together. I'll miss the conversations. For dessert, we shared sweet knedliky (they wrap the dough around fruit). Mmmmm.

Tonight should be fun; it's our last night at one of our favorite clubs, Radost FX, and everyone from my program and Dan's will be there. With no class for anyone to think about tomorrow, I can only assume it will be a night to remember.

Cookin' Česky style #3: Tomaš's College-boy pasta sauce

2007-05-10T18:05:00.000+02:00

Our recipe today comes from the cabinets of apparently every Czech college student. Before, I think I talked about how a lot of Czech cuisine is food from other countries, just "Czech-ified," and here's your perfect example. I wanted to know how to make this because unlike the pasta I make (using sauce from a jar), this stuff tastes great reheated (we made enough for an army last night, or as Tomaš said, enough for his lunch for the next five days).

For about 700g of pasta:
1 big yellow Onion (diced)
Sunflower oil (or olive oil)
5 cloves garlic (diced, but chunky)
Sweet paprika
Sharp paprika
Salt/pepper
280g tomato paste
Lots and lots of eidam cheese (or parm) (grated)
OPTIONAL: rosemary, oregano, basil, or any other spices you want

Dice up the onions and garlic and sauté them in the oil until the onion is transparent (or “pink” as they say here). Add about 5 knife-fuls of sweet paprika, a pinch of sharp paprika, and a little pepper. Sauté it a bit longer, but not too hot (so you don’t burn the paprika). Add the tomato paste and an equal serving of water and leave the whole thing to boil, covered, stirring every so often.

Pour it over hot pasta, and serve it with a lot of cheese on top.

A senior in college?

2007-05-09T18:09:00.000+02:00

That's what I am now. Scary, huh? Seems like only yesterday I was just moving into school and thinking about studying abroad somewhere, who knows where. Well here I am.

Yesterday was a day for studying. Went to class in the morning and presented my paper, then had lunch and came home and had lunch again (mmm lunch) and sat down with Zuzana to gather up those recipes.
I spent the rest of the day studying for the Art and Architecture test today, which I really didn't need to do, but oh well. I also downloaded the pilot for Heroes which, as expected, is a good show but is certainly no Lost.

Last night Dan and I had an experience that I think does justice to the kind of attitude I've developed here. He was playing in another poker tourney (he didn't win, I didn't play), and on our way back from the casino we couldn't help but hear a group of girls speking English to each other, trying to navigate their way through Prague. With a smile, we turned and nearly in unison said "where are you trying to go?" "You speak English!!"

After we got over that initial shock, it turned out it didn't matter where they were going because they decided to go with us. And that's how Dan and I found ourselves in the hotel room of a girl we had just met waiting as she grabbed her coat so we and the rest of them could head over to a bar down the street. As it turns out, this was a great group of girls of all ages (all in college, don't worry), and we had a great time dancing the night away with them.

Didn't do much today except take those two tests. When I was finished I sent an SMS to my mom saying "yay! I'm done!" and immediately wasn't sure if I meant it. I just can't get over how interesting this feeling is. I was talking to my dad just a few minutes ago (it's his birthday!) and explained what's going on: I'm so excited to get back to the US (and I am) because I have an amazing year ahead of me. And here, in Prague, I've developed a lifestyle that's so different from any I've had before, one where I ::GASP:: don't have to be doing something every second of every day (I've become a master at just disappearing into my own mind in a crowd of people speaking Czech). In a way, I'm leading two lives right now.

And on top of that there's the whole "it's possibly my last year of schooling" issue. You know, there are so many things in our lives that we're so excited to end, so many points in the future that we're so excited to get to, and when we get there we truly are elated. It makes you (or maybe just me) think differently about endings, about changes, and about the context where we create and live our identities.

I haven't mentioned yet, I'm almost finished with Brave New World Revisited and I started to think about what I should read in my last week in Europe, while I hike around Croatia (I booked all my hostels and hotels the other night, by the way). I was going to open it up to all of you to suggest it to me, but then I realized there was really only one book that was appropriate for the time.

So next week I'll be alone for five days reading On the Road. My mind will be clear, my eyes will be filled with beautiful sites, and my skin will be warm in the sun.

But first I've got two more days in the best city in Europe.

Cookin' Česky style #2: Zuzana's Knedliky

2007-05-09T18:01:00.000+02:00

What on earth would svíčková be without knedliky? These are just about as typical Czech cuisine as you can get, often considered the defining aspect of all the food here. They come in lots of varieties (salty: bread and potato, sweet: any fruit in the middle and a lot of sugar), so you never really get bored. With the svíčková I posted before, you use these delicious bundles of joy to sop up the extra sauce once you've finished the meat. Dobrou chuť!

1/3 L rough flour (look for Vondra flour in the US)
10-15g yeast
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
200mL warm or hot water
1 old rohlik (really white bread)

Put flour in a big bowl, creating a reservoir in the center. Sprinkle yeast on the edges of the hole. Add egg yolk and salt to the middle of the hole, making sure not to touch the salt to the yeast. Pour in water and stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dough (it’s finished when the surface is smooth and it doesn’t stick to the edges of the bowl, and you see small holes when you stir (ie, yeast is working)…you can add flour while you’re mixing if you’re worried). Leave bowl in a warm place covered with a clean blanket for 45-60min (it’s done when you can push it and it makes a dent that immediately disappears).

Cut rohlik into cubes and mix it into the now risen dough. Leave in a warm place for another 45-60min.

Cut it into two long loaves. Start water boiling with a little salt, leaving the dough covered by a blanket until the water boils. Once water boils, carefully sink the loaves into it, making sure they don’t touch the sides and burn. When water returns to a boil, cover the pot. Boil them for a total of 20 minutes, turning halfway. Then, remove from water and cut one in the middle to check if it’s done (if not, boil it some more). Poke the now-cut loaf to deflate it a little, cut into pieces and serve immediately.

Cookin' Česky style #1: Zuzana's Svíčková na smetaně

2007-05-09T17:47:00.000+02:00

With my days dwindling here, I thought it might be the right time to finally reveal some of my favorite Czech recipes. Yesterday, Zuzana and I sat down and worked out my favorite (and JC's), known here just as svíčková (sirloin). So if you're in the mood for some česky kuchyne, here's all you need. Just a warning, these are the kinds of recipes that get passed down through the generations in families, and everyone's is different. So feel free to experiment.

For 5 people…
1kg-1.5kg sirloin beef (or other cut)
2 cans – Special canned pickled vegetables (with carrots, parsley, and celery, green paprika, onion, leeks…NOT tomato or red paprika)
whipping cream – can be 13% (use 250mL) or 30% (use 200mL)
2 Tblsp middle grade flour
Spices – Juniper, allspice, laurel, salt/pepper
OPTIONAL: bacon

PREPARE THE MEAT
OPTIONAL: Broil bacon in baking pan, then put the meat on top and bake it until the surface is gray.

Put meat into big baking pan, pour two bottles of canned veggies (spiced with juniper, allspice/pimento, laurel, salt/pepper) and some water so meat is half submerged. Bake with a lid on at highest temperature for 4 hours or until beef is soft, covering with the sauce around it every so often. Don’t burn the vegetables or they’ll be bitter.

SAUCE
When meat is finished, remove from sauce. Mix remaining veggie/water in the pot with an electric mixer until veggies are a paste. In a separate bowl, mix cream with flour. Over a flame, add cream/flour mixture to the vegetables and stir with electric mixer until boiling, being careful not to burn the cream. If mixture gets too thick, add milk. Increase thickness until you think it’s done.

OPTIONAL: pour the sauce all over your body and rub it on yourself while quietly chanting "I'm a knedlik...."

SERVE
Like in the picture up there, make two small cuts of the beef and cover it with sauce. Serve it with wild berry jam on the side, and maybe some whipped cream. Garnish with lemon if you want.

Finals, tables, final tables

2007-05-07T18:54:00.000+02:00

Pictures are finally up from Berlin!!

Saturday night ended up being a quiet one, which was fine with me - I watched Super Size Me.

Sunday we visited the ruins of the castle Landštejn, a HUGE Romanesque castle that used to look over the border into Austria (the border isn't there any more). We finished our trip with a breeze through another town with another awesome, huge castle, the name of which escapes me now because it was really long. Jonaš and I had a smaženy syr for lunch, and we were on our way back to Praha.

Last night was fun too. Dan had gotten wind of a poker tournament happening at a casino in the middle of town, so to celebrate my almost-doneness I decided to accompany him to what could very well be a fantastic tourney. I'm trying to spend as much time with Dan as I can in my last week here, making every moment of our long-wished-for time to live in the same city after high school.

Three tables filled with Americans, Czechs, Swedes, and others competed for a prize pool that ended up being 50,000CZK! That means third place out of this pool of about 28 people got 10,000CZK ($500). Dan and I were in this for the long haul.

And we both played the best games we think we ever have. My personal favorite moments were when we got to go head-to-head with our self-declared arch nemesis, a huge Czech guy sitting across the table from us who we could tell was the type who liked to bully people around with his huge chip stack. Dan and he had a big hand, which Dan cleaned him out on. The first time he and I met, I flopped a flush and called his huge bet for the win and he threw his cards down in disgust!

That win gave me a really nice chip stack going into the final table, which Dan and I were elated to find we had qualified for. Third place suddenly didn't seem so far off, and that's all we were aiming for in this crowd of gambling addicts (many of them were playing online with their laptops while they played the real-life game at the same time...). I won another huge hand against Fatty McCzech (pocket queens against his ace worked out for me even after he paired the ace on the flop. I yelled at the queen on the river, and he laughed it off, mocking me to his friends and saying to me "you're very happy!"). With the group down to seven, things got more dramatic as the blinds increased. Dan was eliminated in seventh place. I held on, dodging a few bullets...and picked up fifth.

So my 1000CZK entrance fee didn't win me anything, but I did play poker for four hours and came away with some great stories. My head hurt.

Today I had my final Czech language oral exam, where I talked to my teacher for twenty minutes in Czech. Yes, twenty minutes. I rule. Which leaves me with only the end of one paper and two tests before I'm completely done for the semester.

I'm excited to be done with the work, but what a bittersweet feeling it is to know that as soon as the work is done, I have only two more full days in Prague. I was eating lunch today with Stephanie at the American expat coffeehouse The Globe, when I looked out the window and suddenly actually iterated what I've been thinking for so long. "I have to come back here," I said. And there's no way I can't. Leaving now is like leaving right in the middle of developing something. Going home will honestly feel, at first, like a vacation before I just come back here. Is that how it's supposed to be?

Reverse culture shock

2007-05-05T19:07:00.000+02:00

It's a real thing. You get so used to living abroad that coming home ends up being a shock to you, sometimes even more so than going abroad in the first place. And it starts earlier - before you even get home.

There are two ways to view my going home, but I've had this image in my mind that seems pessimistic, which doesn't really reflect how I feel about the whole transition. I have this image in my head that everything I do now could be the last time I do it, like I'm pushing a big line of events off the end of a cliff (I get that way a lot during the last show of a play I'm in, like the lines I say are leaving my brain or something. Weird, I know). So I actually made myself kind of anxious about spending this weekend with the family. My mind is already focused, at least somewhat, on home. I'm getting ready to reenter. I'm thinking more and more about waking up in my bed in Chicago and LA, and I'm starting to feel some of those same feelings I get when I'm at home. This seemed like an unwelcome interruption into all that.

Yeah, so that was a fairly ridiculous state of mind to be in. The weekend thus far (it's Saturday evening) has been nothing short of fantastic.

We spent Friday making the relatively short drive down south, passing through the small town of Tabor (where I stopped on my epic journey to Česky Krumlov long enough to get off a train and get on a bus). We walked around a bit there, admiring the oldest manmade lake in Europe. Then we were off again, speeding along winding forested two-lane highways at about 100 km/h with the occasional slam on the brakes for a passing animal, oncoming car, or interesting/creepy abandoned chateau on the side of the road.

Our arrival in the small town of Slavonice was marked by my getting to meet an old friend of the family's, a man who showed up at the house about a month ago. I had no clue who he was then, nor did I have any idea that we were going to stay with him here (you may remember I keep my information about these trips to a minimum, and only partly by choice). This affable, forty-something year old divorcee with a thick beard, easy smile, and incessant bandanna around his head, is named Ivan.

Ivan's house is awesome. A large hundred-year-old farm house in the middle of the countryside about 500m from Austria, he's filled it with artwork from his two kids, hundreds of books, maps, and colorful paintings. He works as a translator - that's how he and Tomas met a bunch of years ago and became good friends (and also how he speaks really good English). After settling in and having some hot dinner, we were off into town for a night of drinking and debauchery.

It was as epic as you'd imagine. Highlights:

-I've decided that in my remaining time here I should teach Jonas some American slang, so last night I taught him the perennial favorite, "I'm not gonna lie to you," making sure to tell him the exact situations in which it's useful to help you emphasize a point. Well, several hours and drinks later, he turns to me and says, "Evan, I'm not going to tell you lies, but..." I just about died laughing.

-We all started trading stories and games we play while drunk. I learned the incredibly fun game of flipping coasters (whoever can flip and catch the most at one time wins). Then I taught Jonas about drunk dialing, and almost got him to make his first drunk dial to my friend Liz.

- Of course, it wouldn't be a night of drinking if it didn't involve being accosted by a Czech homeless man who hates President Bush. I found out as we were leaving though, the guy wasn't homeless. Jonas knows his nephews. He owns a building downtown here.

-At the end of the evening (beginning of the morning), after I had eaten an entire 98Kc quattro formaggi pizza that might be comparable to the finest night of endless lovemaking (I'll have another tonight...), we were walking back to the car when Ivan suddenly stopped. "Do you smell that?" I'm still getting over my cold, so no. We followed him up a small set of stairs to a wooden door and a doorbell. He rang it, but the door was open, so we just walked in. The smell was suddenly overwhelming. We had just walked into the town bakery, buzzing with the work of baking the following day's bread and pastries. Heaven? No, that would be later, when I had a bite of the still-warm doughnut we had just bought. So much lepši [better] when it's warm.

What a night. Today has been fun too - lots of sightseeing around this place, including a trip to the neighboring town of Telč (a UNESCO site, though not as cool as Slavonice in my opinion) and a tour of the castle there. Then lunch of some fried meat (probably pork, let's face it) and a walk around Slavonice in the (sober) daylight. It's a beautiful town - really reminds me of Disneyland with its pastel colors and strangely new-seeming facades constructed in old styles.

Tonight, who knows. More debauchery? A quiet movie night? Finishing my book? We'll find out soon enough.

A quick goodbye

2007-05-04T00:56:00.000+02:00

It's late and I'm going to bed, but the next time I'll be able to post will be Sunday, and I just can't leave you waiting that long. I've found myself with much less free time lately, what with my finishing up my final papers, tests, presentations, and the like. Which would also explain why I still haven't posted those damn pictures from Berlin. I'm sorry.

Last night was fun for a lot of reasons. Dan and I discovered a Herna bar near his apartment that's already becoming a new watering hole for us and his apartment-mates. It's a small dive bar with a Roma bartender and two prostitutes sitting at the middle table. The bartender loves us, probably because me and Dan love singing to her and she knows all the words to the American songs that come on the radio. A place with some real character to it.

Today started with our last real Contemporary Culture class, and I must say I'll miss that one - we've had some fun conversations. Then I had to present my project to my producing teacher, who seemed like he liked what I was talking about (he asked me for suggestions on which WebTV sites he should be interested in, like ManiaTV). I spent the rest of the day studying for tomorrow's Czech test, seeing Spider-Man 3 (it's a really fun movie, a good follow up to the first two), and downloading Lost.

So this weekend should be pretty awesome. I'm bringing my computer so I can finish up these essays in the car. And I'm going to try to speak Czech as much as I can, this being the last chance I'll get (um...ever) to really be fully immersed in the language (plus it'll be good review for my oral final on Monday).

Next time I talk to you, it'll be two weeks before I go home.

Did I just cheat on a test?

2007-05-02T21:26:00.000+02:00

After two days of relaxation, I suppose I had a hectic day coming to me. My cold is wearing off, thankfully, so my usual busy Wednesday was a bit easier to bear than it might have been. Unfortunately, I realized at about midnight last night that I had a final today in that cinematography class that's kinda a joke. It might be a joke, but I do have to at least get a C on this test, since it will determine my entire grade.

So this morning I went to the usual Art & Architecture tour (our last one...Homerova, I already miss you), but left about 15 minutes early and went back to the study center to look over my notes. It was a bit difficult to decipher, considering I was reading notes I had written while paying half-attention to a half-drunk man who makes sense less than half the time.

Good thing, then, that my boring class, the one that I'm actually learning things in, covers a lot of the same material. So when I had some questions, I brought them up to my other professor, and he explained them to me like I was actually a smart person (imagine that).

But an hour later when the test was handed out, it dawned on me that I hadn't really studied as much as I probably could have. I knew some of it well, but some of it not at all, and I had no clue how this guy was going to grade us.

Then, something incredible happened. This professor, who had babbled for a minute at the beginning of the class, just left the room, leaving all of us Americans in the back row to conference with each other and look at each others papers. I would've felt guilty, were it not for the British girl in front of us who started by inconspicuously looking into her bag and then just gave in and took her notes out, copying the answers. And just about everyone in the room was doing the same thing.

He came back in the room, and we didn't really stop. And he just didn't care. So as it turns out, while FAMU classes might seem like big wastes of time, the teachers at least don't take themselves particularly seriously. They only want to make sure we know the material; they don't want us to just vomit up information onto a piece of paper. I think I did well on the test. And I suddenly liked the class at least a little more (though I didn't learn much).

Had some dinner with Evan W (who I haven't seen in a while, it was nice to catch up). As president of the USC Comic Book Club, he's taken it upon himself to organize a group trip to see Spider-Man 3 tomorrow night. We're all pretty damn excited.

After my last class of the day, I had one of those 'small world' moments. I walked up to the tram and was waiting for a moment looking up the river at the Castle when the guy next to me asked "did you go to high school in Illinois?" I turned around and said, "Did you do competitive speech?" He was an extemper from Buffalo Grove! He and his friends are here till Friday, and I'm going to try to see them some more.

Tomorrow should be fun. No early class anymore (WOOHOO!), but I'm making a presentation later in the day as my final for my producing class. I had to create a movie/TV show/something to produce, and I really like what I did - alas, here on the Internet where anyone could take my ideas, I'd rather not talk about it (though, if you hadn't noticed, this site is protected by a Creative Commons license. Email me if you're interested.

I'm also looking forward to the weekend. I had agreed last week to go with the family to a small town in the southern part of the country, but did not realize what I was getting myself into. We're leaving on Friday afternoon and won't be back till Sunday. My last full weekend in Prague will be a true weekend of adventures with the Jančařík family - could I ask for anything better?

TROJAN MEN, TONIGHT AT 10PM AT VKC

2007-05-01T22:33:00.000+02:00

you know you want to go.

The reason I'm here, part 9723012938

2007-05-01T20:52:00.000+02:00

Surprise surprise, I woke up sick yesterday. Just a standard cold again, but I'm really impressed with how much I've managed to be sick this semester!

I decided that since I had yet to take any sick days, I might as well take one yesterday, since almost no one would be in class (May 1st is a national holiday, so most people took long trips this weekend and came back today). I called in and told them I wouldn't be there, then went back to sleep for the rest of the morning.

Once I woke up, I spent my day actually being productive. I started and finished my final project for my producing class, and wrote the one-page trip report I had to do to get out of going on two trips with school. But before I could do more, it was time for me to accompany the family to a Czech traditional witch burning.

On the last day of April every year, Czechs burn the symbols of winter and welcome spring. I'm not sure how, but I was told that it was a witch burning, which leads me to believe that there was at least one point in history when they really did burn witches. Don't worry, they don't anymore. Now it's turned into more of a block-party type of thing, with villages raising money from their residents and breaking out the grills and the bonfires.

We began the evening with a walk through the "Czech Grand Canyon," a 5km valley on the opposite side of the river from our house that was carved out by a small river. It's a really nice place to walk (or, as Tomas pointed out, a nice place to go with a girl when you're 14. Yes, he said 14). Then we walked through the village over there and ended up at a big soccer field, where the bonfire was already burning.

About a hundred villagers (or village people, as Jonas called them with a smile) were milling about at picnic tables, playing soccer (we had apparently just missed the big match against their rival town), or warming themselves by the fire (it's been chilly here the past few days), all to the tune of a real, live, authentic, cowboy hat and boot wearing, beard sporting, guitar playing, Czech singing country western band. Bad Moon Rising never sounded so good (and the whole "there's a bathroom on the right" thing apparently doesn't work in Czech).

Tomaš and Zuzana have friends in this village, and they were there with their daughter. We all treated ourselves to a sausage and a beer and settled down on a bench near the fire (two fast-food style culinary delights I will miss: sausages and gyros/doner kebabs. How will I live without them?). Jonaš and I got to have some really nice conversations about movies and other stuff, and he was doing a prodigious job switching between speaking to me in English and to the other couple's daughter, who only spoke Czech.

The man of the couple spoke English very well (he's a businessman for an American company's branch in Prague), and he was a really great guy, so we got to talking quickly. He was really interested in what I thought of Prague, if I liked the food, what I thought of living with the Jančářiks, and about me in general.

And of course, with a little alcohol, the conversation quickly got very interesting. Things I learned last night:

-When asked what my favorite part of living in the house was, I quickly answered that it was my morning breakfasts with Tomaš, where we try to talk to each other about important things like politics, but have so much trouble understanding each other that we end up just resorting to "I think it's stupid!" "I agree!" Tomas, however, then told everyone that he always thinks we understand each other perfectly, until he finds out later in the day that he hasn't understood a word.

-On just about a nightly basis, I tell Tomas and Zuzana as I'm leaving the house, "I'm going to Dan's." Well, for the past three months they've apparently thought I was saying "I'm going to dance."

Which got me wondering...what on Earth did they think of me all these months...

The night wore on, the fire began to turn into embers, and I of coursed felt it the appropriate time to ask Jonaš where the marshmallows were. "Oh, we don't really do that here." WHAAAAAA???? Yes, that is correct folks, they don't roast marshmallows by the fire outside of the US and Canada. With the fire at the perfect temperature, I was dying for a s'more, and I said so to Jonas. "What's a s'more?"

It feels like I've been waiting a lifetime for the proper time to actually use this quote in context. "YOU'RE KILLING ME, SMALLS!"

The evening ended with a delightfully enjoyable, though slightly awkward for both of us, dance with Zuzana. Apparently I'm a good dancer. They certainly think so, with all the practice I've apparently had.

As midnight approached, we headed back to the tram...but there's still time for another drink right? (Jesu Maria! Zuzana cried) Two bars later, we resorted to a Herna bar (the ones open nonstop with casino games in them) down the block. When even that was closed, it was time to head home. We had a family snack, and all went to bed.

May 1st is a holiday in a lot of places, and here it was started as Labor Day during communism. Since 89, it's not called Labor Day, but they still get the day off. Everything closes, and people just kinda chill all day. I took the cue, woke up late, and then had yet another productive day. With only two papers between me and the end of my semester, I decided today was the day to just crank out one of them. So I did. Unfortunately that also meant I didn't post any pictures...

By the way, the Prague Post tells me

The Czech Republic and other East European countries serve the world’s unhealthiest fast food, according to a Danish study. Nutritionist Steen Stender said that fast food here contains some of the highest levels of trans fat, which he called a “silent killer.” (Don't believe me?)

Hope you didn't blink, I'm already back from Berlin

2007-04-29T22:38:00.000+02:00

Well, the trips just keep getting better. Berlin, as many post-communist cities and countries are, is a city of lots of contradictions. The difference, though, is the way Berlin has absorbed a lot of those contradictions, making them an integral part of the city (and I guess that comes with the territory in a city that was literally a living contradiction for the majority of the past 100 years). It's such a cool, cosmopolitan city (Jonas said that for the past 20 years it's been called 'the construction site of Europe.' You can see why). And I realized after I got there, I felt this interesting sort of connection with the city, an excitement to explore it and get more familiar with it, knowing that my grandfather had spent a bunch of time here at war's end.

Our hostel was located in East Berlin, in an area that's become notable as of late because of an influx of artists moving there to take advantage of the low-cost housing in dilapidated Socialist housing projects. So we were in the area with a lot of nightlife and community, which was really neat.

We arrived around midnight on Friday evening after leaving a traffic-clogged (clagued?) Prague at about 5pm, and I just had to take a least a short walk and grab a drink somewhere or I'd have felt like I wasted the night. So me and a few others headed to an area recommended by the receptionist, where we found some sweet bars with outdoor seating (Europe in warm weather is a completely different place, by the way! Everything's outside, it's wonderful). I was amazed, as we were walking - in Prague, the night streets are crowded with people speaking Italian. But here, everyone was speaking German!

Saturday, we took a morning city tour with a guide from Michigan doing his grad work in Berlin, studying post-communist cities. And what a city it is! We headed first to Checkpoint Charlie, one of three places in divided Germany to cross from East to West, and got to see one of the many remaining fragments of the wall (of course I was humming Pink Floyd, did you have to ask?). It's unbelievable. I've heard so much about the terrors of the communist regime, but to see the physical remains of something so irrational (but so rational), and in the middle of a city that has emerged as a rival to New York, Paris, and London...it just re-contextualizes this whole utopian experiment. The best streets in the city are bisected by cobblestones marking where the wall stood.

Lest we forget, however, that Berlin was also the capital during WWII (damn, this place had a rough century, huh?). We walked through the Berlin Holocaust memorial, and I think it's one of the most effective I've seen (pictures coming soon). The afternoon was spent in a museum, after which I headed down to the Technical Museum for an exhibit on the history of technology and games (not as cool as it sounds, but I got to figure out the metro all by myself!).

And then, of course, the evening. We began at the Reichstag, the seat of German parliament, where we watched the sun set from the huge glass dome on top (does anyone else find it incredible/slightly concerning that it's so easy to gain access to important governmental buildings in Europe? Maybe it's just my American fear talking...).

Then, I went with a bunch of other people on a Berlin pub crawl (oh, I really am in college). On the way (and it was a LONG way. This city is bigger than Paris!), me and my friend Caitlin found ourselves a doner kebab that just might have been the culinary highlight of my trip (I ate terribly this weekend, but for cheap). The crawl brought us to pubs of all shapes and sizes, including one that made us all feel like we were on The OC, complete with sand, and one playing really loud drum 'n' bass music complemented by a badly played trumpet.

And may I take a moment to say, yes JC, it's official - I only really like Czech beer.

Stephanie put me in charge of making sure she got home, which I was reluctant to do, but we managed it. We spent over an hour taking public transportation (for 2.10Euro) and walking back to our hostel, after consulting multiple drunken Berliners who all gave us different directions in different languages (honestly, I'm getting really good at deciphering bad directions). All this, only to return to the hostel and discover all of our friends already sleeping in their beds after having taken a cab for a whopping 4Euro. She was a little mad at me. But I got her home!

Sunday (which is today. Wow that seems strange) I slowly regained consciousness for our 9:30am check out time, tried to ignore the overflowing backed up drain in our shower and toilet, and we headed out to the Pergamon Museum, home to some of the most incredible relics from antiquity I've ever seen (I took a million pictures). Then it was back on the bus to head towards home, with a two hour stop in Dresden during which we all took pictures of buildings that may or may not have had some sort of significance. Dresden is a really interesting city if only by nature of it looking so old, but being SO new (remember? It was leveled in WWII). We all felt like we were in Disneyland a little bit.

Arriving in Prague, as always was like a breath of fresh air. And that, my friends, is the whirlwind tour through my nearly instantaneous visit to Berlin. However short that time was, though, Berlin joins the very short list of European cities (with Prague and Amsterdam) where I could honestly see myself living at some point. I love cities with a kind of 'edge,' if you can't tell (my dad pointed that out to me) and Berlin has so much edge, in fact, that I think it might have hurt me - I think I'm getting sick, AGAIN. I guess that's what comes with little to no sleep every night...

Note: Tuesday, I'll post pictures if it's the last thing I do.

I dislike FedEx

2007-04-27T14:44:00.000+02:00

What if Run Lola Run and Cast Away had an illegitimate love child?

It would be my day yesterday.

Back up. So my license expires on May 10th, nine days before I get home. I'll only be in Chicago for one day, a Sunday, so I can't renew my license. I can't get a license in LA until I'm a legal resident of CA, which happens after 30 days of residence. I need to drive. So mom discovered that the IL Sec of State will issue temporary licenses for situations like this, they just have to mail me some papers to fill out and send back, and then they'll send me the license, but they have to send it here, to the Czech Republic, because the whole point is I'm not in Illinois to renew it.

So these papers are in Prague, at the FedEx office, and for the past two days a delivery guy has come here and left without leaving the package, claiming there was no one home, when Tomas has been here both times (and I've been here one of them). It became clear that this package was just not going to get delivered. So last night, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the FedEx office, halfway to the airport, and get the damn thing myself. I had one hour before they closed to get to the outskirts of Prague, figure out how to get to FedEx, and get the package.

When I got to the metro stop, I had about 20 minutes to find the place. Plenty of time right? Needless to say (let's remember one of the ongoing themes of the past few months) I got slightly turned around and was afforded the opportunity to use my Czech skills with just about anyone on the street who looked nice. I wound my way around an intricate Soviet housing project, asked random people walking for directions, stopped in a bar for some more, and every time I was told something completely different. After I walked in a complete circle, I called up the place, and they told me to go back to the metro station (a 5 minute walk) and then take a bus to get to them, and they assured me that someone would be waiting for me despite their closing in two minutes.

So I got back to the metro station and went to the bus stop she had said. Unfortunately, there were about five buses that came to this stop, and I had no clue which one to get on. I tried to call the office again. Their automated phone system automatically routes calls to a recording after closing hours. I had a feeling for one bus -- but the last one had left literally one minute earlier.

Time to give up. Or is it? The greatest thing about the times I've been lost previously is how they all seem to turn out well for me, somehow. I was all the way out here, I might as well just try something to make this work too. So I asked these two guys if they knew where to go. They had an idea. But were unsure. And one of them was kinda swaying back and forth while he tried to talk to me.

I started to laugh while he was talking to me. Yep, I got directions from a drunk guy.

As the bus they told me to take turned back onto the street I had just walked while retracing my steps back from the housing project to the metro station, I knew I had tried hard enough. I came back home for some dinner.

Epilogue: I decided to skip my Czech class this morning to wait for the package to be delivered. I woke up at 9 to sit outside and wait for the truck, but figured it would probably be a good idea to check out the tracking info online first. Oh, not to worry, it wasn't coming! After I had tried to pick it up at their offices they left it there and didn't put it on the truck this morning! So I guess it's going to be delivered tonight, when I'm on a bus to Berlin.

Czech this morning was as glorious as always (really, this class is worth getting up for even though I went to bed at 5am last night). More bingo, more memorable quotes, more laughs. And in an hour, I leave for a fantastic weekend in Berlin (from Na Florenci street - don't worry, I'm leaving in about five minutes to get there this time). As the days wind down here, I'm reminded of just how much of an adventure it is to just be.

Feeling even more at home

2007-04-26T00:08:00.000+02:00

I find it amazing how quickly I can switch "modes" back into the way I am and always have been back in LA. I mentioned how in the next two weeks, I have a moderately large amount of work to get done, and the pile just keeps getting bigger. With that comes me feeling myself beginning to time-manage my days again, planning out exactly what I need to get done and how I'm going to do it.

To that extent, I knew I had a lot of class today (I always do, but my last class was a double today, so we weren't going to finish until 10pm), so after waking up at 9am for my Art and Architecture tour, I decided that twelve hours of class just didn't seem right and I went back to sleep until Czech class.

I think I should take a moment to write a bit of an ode to my Czech class, probably my most enjoyable class here. There's just such a fantastically colorful combination of people in the class that every day is nothing but a fantastic time. If someone's not saying something hilarious ("statistics don't exist") or doing something ridiculous (like falling out of a chair...and taking the table with), then at least I always have Stephanie right next to me to make delightfully malicious fun of other people ("ohhhhh, MO!" but seriously she's going to get a shoe thrown at her one day).

Take today, for example. We're all putting together these presentations to help the class review for our final next week, so each of us is in pairs and we're leading the class in a game to review our grammar and vocab. Today, my friend Steve, a quiet but goofy guy from Colorado with a soft side I discovered one day as we sat by a lake and talked about fishing, and Katherine, an incredibly friendly and cultured art major who's a chain smoker and always looks well dressed even in pajamas, led the class in Czech Fear Factor. Get a question wrong, and eat some funky Czech spreadable meat. We laughed so much, I really don't even remember what part of the language we were supposed to be reviewing.

Rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Watched a Hungarian film in my last class called The Red and the White, and I actually stayed awake...because I had taken a half hour nap while he was talking about something else.

I'm hoping that when I go home I can retain at least some of the carefree spirit I've had here. My life needs more trips to the park with a book (and MacArthur park is right up the road from us, too). That said, tomorrow I have class, followed by FedEx drama, then project finishing, perhaps paper beginning, and then certainly Brave New World finishing, and packing. I'm going to Berlin this weekend!

Don't have a heart attack now...

2007-04-24T21:37:00.000+02:00

...but today I realized that I actually have some work to do by the end of the semester. It was a sad realization, one of those times when I woke up thinking "Dammit. I know I'm going to have to write a seven page paper, even though I thought I had gotten out of it by telling my professor I would do a presentation." Yes, I do often have thoughts like that right when I wake up in the morning.

The concert last night was fun, but definitely not quite my style. Dan and I walked in together, and I started singing "one of these things is not like the other..." and began to bask in the glory of all of my white suburban boyishness and its massive contrast with the vast majority of safety-pin wearing, cigarette smoking, studded belt sporting, moshing people (there was a guy there selling those small round pins, and to mark the occasion, I searched through all of the ones with punk bands on them and managed to find one with a Star Wars logo. Hells yeah). Dan and I hung out in the back of the place, a safe distance from the mosh pit where I would have undoubtedly been seriously injured by an errant elbow or seventeen.

If there's one thing you all probably know about me, it's that when I feel some pressure, I get productive. Today has even been reminiscent of some days at home (there are still differences. I managed to find an hour to have lunch at a cafe and read). Class, lunch, then a trip to Tesco to try to find some materials for the project I have to turn in this Friday (a poster with an interview and an essay on it). I didn't find the poster board, but I did find a temporary, though inferior replacement for my weaning supply of chap stick (I started shaking today from withdrawal).

Came home, started writing, and I don't think I've stopped. First, I wrote questions for that interview, then interviewed Tomaš about Czech TV...which was hilarious. As we began, I told him to talk to me like I was five years old. And then I learned that I speak about as much Czech as a fetus. Between that, and his answers (Q: Who's the head of Czech TV? Have you met him? --- A: Mr. Janeček, and thankfully I haven't), I had a great time, and so will my Czech teacher when she reads it.

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on a 200 word essay about Czech TV. About three hours of work for 200 words. And then, Jonaš took a look at it and showed me the meaning of 'all that work for nothing.' For all I know, a lot of what I wrote might have been Esperanto.

...you know, my mother insists she didn't pay anything extra for me to live here, but between the fantastic food, weekend trips, and guaranteed good grades in Czech classes, I'm starting to wonder if they shouldn't charge more.

So let's see. Today I almost finished my book, wrote an essay and conducted an interview in Czech, went to class, and went to Tesco. Honestly, that's the most I've accomplished in a single day this entire semester, and I'm quite impressed with myself.

Weekend, revisited

2007-04-23T18:40:00.000+02:00

Today's been a standard Monday, so I thought I'd take a moment to elaborate on the weekend a bit before I head off to the concert.

So an old friend of Dan's, who I know too, was coming to visit this weekend, and one of her good friends, who we know too (Nicole, her blog is a link on the right), decided to surprise her with a visit (confused yet?). So Friday we all went to dinner and hung out at a bar, and I managed to see some old friends from the play too, which was fun.

Saturday I told you about, with its castles and monasteries, and the evening was a series of good decisions for me. Had dinner with Dan and our friend Nicole and Dan's friend Eric (who I just met, it's a long story), then watched the Bulls game at Dan's and then a bar. Afterwards, we were debating where to go - with Katie (from USC) in town, I wanted to find her at a club across town, but they wanted to go around the corner to Lucerna. I was set on finding Katie, until I realized something. This was the last weekend I'd have in Prague with Dan! In fact, it was the last weekend we'd spend together for an indefinite period. With that nostalgia weighing heavily on me, I went to Lucerna and had an unexpectedly fantastic time chatting with some Austrian girls who I'm going to see again this weekend in Berlin.

The tram ride home that night was quite eventful too. First, I had to sprint about half a Km to catch it (that's the second time this week. I'm hoping not to make it a habit...). Then, once I got on with my smaženy syr (fried cheese sandwich), a drunken Czech man started to speak to me in Czech, and I actually understood enough of what he was saying to realize that he was absolutely hilarious (especially when he started to hit on a girl from my program).

That settled down once he lost interest, and as I finally found room to sit down, a couple stumbled onto the train, and the girl literally fell over. My incredibly charming self couldn't help but ask her if she was ok, and she laughed and said she was fine. Then the guy next to her who she hadn't come on with, a man in his late forties wearing slacks, a sweater, a collared shirt, and...earplugs..., asked (in perfect English) if I was American. I am, are you? No, I'm Czech, but I'd like to practice my English, if that's alright (ok, so he had a Czech accent). Of course it's alright. So what do you think (he took out his earplugs now) of the US radar base in the Czech Republic? Yep, I discussed politics with an entire Czech tram all the way home. (The base is crap, by the way)

So I slept well on Saturday night. Sunday you pretty much know about, and it was so nice to spend some time with Katie, who very kindly told me that seeing me made her trip for her. What an awesome lady, with great friends too.

This weekend was the first time in over a month that I've had the chance to really just be in Prague, without any kind of rehearsals to attend or trips to think about. And it made me realize something (I might start an entire new blog called "Evan's realizations" because I think I already have enough content for it. But that was not the realization). I am in love with this city. It's not like a "I loved studying here" or "I had a great semester here" or "This place is so pretty" or "I want to visit again" (all of those are true, but after a while you kinda become desensitized to how awesome the place is in those senses). It's more of a "this city owns a part of me" kind of thing. I want to live here again, not just in a college-student-studying-abroad-wishes-he-could-just-party-constantly way. And I could live here, really live and work. I don't feel like that about anywhere but Chicago.

Which is why I'm not going to Munich this weekend. I don't need Munich, and I can always go back. In my last few weeks here, I just want to be here as much as I can. So I will!

Weekend in brief

2007-04-23T00:23:00.000+02:00

It's time for bed. But normally, a lot of people read this blog on Sundays, so I figure I should at least give you something. This weekend has been filled with some great visits from some outstanding people and some outstanding new stories.

Saturday was a great day. Tomas, Zuzana, Jonas, and I went to visit two incredible sites near Prague: a small castle, still in use as a residence by its owner, and a monastery connected to a church that was only half there (cathedrals have three aisles and an altar normally. Two of the aisles on this one were demolished, leaving only this eerie third aisle, and then the remaining altar was turned into a new church in itself, still connected to the remaining aisle. Hard to explain, but I took some pictures). Later, had a great night watching the Bulls win and partying at Lucerna (once my definite least favorite place in Prague, now slowly growing on me) with some new friends from Austria.

Today has been unexpectedly busy. Woke up late, had breakfast/lunch with the family (Tomas insisted I have beer with the meal. Turns out beer for breakfast is actually great), then took a nap (I know, I live a rough life) before heading into the city to work on a project with Stephanie (which actually entailed much more time just sipping on cappuccinos and eating more food than it did project preparing). Tonight, Jonas was having a bit of a party at a small bar in Zizkov to celebrate his (and a friend's) birthday, so I stopped over there before heading all the way back across town to meet my friend from USC, Katie, who's visiting this weekend from Florence (she's blogging too, but I can't find the damn address). We had a great dinner with her two friends, then walked around a bit.

Phew! So that's the weekend in events. New thoughts: I don't think I'm going to Munich next weekend after all (still going to Berlin though, don't worry). And in less than one month, I'll be back in LA. I don't think I've ever had such mixed feelings about an event.

Tomorrow, it's class followed by a concert, back at Lucerna, by the American punk band Rise Against. Never been to a punk show, so that should be fun. I promise I'll elaborate on all this soon!

Snow in Barrandov?

2007-04-20T19:25:00.000+02:00

I forgot to mention - one of the coolest things about this house is we're located right across the river from the famed Barrandov Studios (sometimes called "Czech Hollywood" though it's increasingly just Hollywood itself, considering how many US films are shot there. There have been no fewer than 3 at a time the entire time I've been here).

We've been witness, for the past few weeks, to them shooting the second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia, and yesterday, as the sun went down, I couldn't help but notice the HUGE cranes they had set up over there. Once it was dark, the bright key lights illuminated a massive cloud of snow falling over the studio. Cool!

Sophomoric stories

2007-04-20T15:01:00.000+02:00

It looks like Dan and I will not be going to Karlovy Vary this weekend. Completely out of the blue, he and I have a few visitors this weekend, so we're staying in town to hang out with them. Alas, Dan and I will have to travel together again at some other point in the future...

Thursday was a great day that ended up being kinda 'busy' (I say 'busy' because I was really busy finding new ways to relax all day). Class early, then a trip to an art exhibit with another class, then a few of us stuck around the train station (where the art exhibit was. It was neat) to browse the second hand store there. I bought a belt. Then I decided it was time for me to find a new park to read in. I had heard that the Royal Gardens, at Prague Castle are really nice, and a great place to camp out for a few hours.

So I made my way up the castle hill and into the gardens (and I did it without any sort of directions! It's nice to know a city well enough to be able to do that). The rumors were true - it's a beautiful garden, with lots of colors and paths to get lost in. The only problem was I found myself in grave need of a urinal.

You might not want to hear about this, but I think it's a good story. It's not so much that I had to pee so badly, but it was enough to be annoying. And the place was so beautiful, and so far from any real bathroom, that a thought occurred to me...what if I peed in the royal gardens? What if I did it? What a story! What was at first a small inkling of necessity quickly blossomed into an all-out passionate desire, the desire to take this challenge and run with it. So, without going into the details, I search for a suitable place, and accomplished my mission. I peed on a royal bush (HA!).

Read for an hour before wandering around the area some more, eventually stumbling upon the old moat, which has been converted in an incredible park (the president lives near there, so there was a Czech military man wandering around who, I was convinced, was going to yell at me for something). Then met up with Dan for an afternoon of...eating...before going home, studying for my Czech exam, watching Lost, taking a nap, and going back to Dan's apartment for the evening (we had a great time, despite some interesting moments. A bunch of people from my program showed up, which was an interesting collision of worlds for me). Like I said, a 'busy' day!

Today, however, not so busy. Class and lunch has been about it. Tonight Dan and I are going to dinner with our friends in town, and then who knows. The weekend should be fun, capped off by Jonas's birthday party on Sunday night. But what I'm looking forward to the most is getting hours and hours of wonderful sleep.

My thoughts are with VA Tech

2007-04-18T21:30:00.000+02:00

After I finished my last post, I went to Dan's and walked into an apartment of guys crouched over a computer screen, using the SlingBox to watch coverage of the VA Tech massacre. It didn't really hit me at first how far reaching this is. Along with all those people gone, something else came to a screeching halt on Monday - going to college in the US will most likely never be as free, just like how going to high school changed after Columbine. I won't say much more here, since I'm sure you're tired of reading about it and I don't want to talk politics on this blog (if you're not tired of it, check out my sister's thoughts from Australia and I've found Xeni Jardin's ongoing analysis on boingboing.net really interesting. And the wikipedia article on this thing is really astounding). I think it'd be accurate to say it's the end of the age of innocence for the American college experience.

On to sunnier topics...

Yesterday, as predicted, was spent roaming around town with Mom and Dad, making some last purchases, and then finally taking a nap. I got a phone call at around 5pm from someone involved with the Prague Playhouse (the group that produced my play). They want me to play a role in a staged reading they're putting on in a few weeks. The part seems really fun, full of improv; I hope I'll be in town to do it! Had a great dinner last night with Mom, Dad, and Dan, then said goodbye till May, and went out on the town with Dan and some other folks.

Which made today, my classically busiest day of the week, quite the experience to get through. It certainly had its highlights, though - my Cinematographer's Influence class, while being a large waste of time for all students involved, has established a kind of irresistible charm to it. There's something so cute about how drunk our professor always seems, the way he'll ask a question, and then in the process of explaining the question will suddenly ask another question (completely unrelated), and then expect the class to know which one we're supposed to answer. And when we do answer, as I did a few times today, if we get it wrong, we get one of a few classic responses (today, I said something was the index of reflection and he responded by looking me straight in the eye and saying "I go to kill myself now." I'm still not sure if I was wrong or right). And then my last class was canceled.

At home for the evening, I read some more news articles and took a nap before dinner. With Zuzana gone, I'm being introduced to a whole new side of Czech cooking, what Tomas says are all the dishes college students all make for themselves. So we began the week with that Slovak dish, and tonight we had another new delicacy: fried bread. Bread, soaked in garlic oil and fried like French toast, served with beer of course. The great thing about Czech food is it's all comfort food!

Tomorrow I'll relax some more, and probably Friday too. This weekend, Dan and I are thinking of spending a day at the spa town of Karlovy Vary. Assuming we go, it will be our last weekend trip together...I know I'm upset, and I'm sure the thought of no more stories of Dan seriously injuring himself is upsetting to you too.

Settling back in

2007-04-16T21:12:00.000+02:00

After a whirlwind few weeks, today I finally started to settle back into things back in Prague, knowing I'm not traveling this weekend. Phew!

So I relaxed a bunch all day. Went to a lecture in the afternoon by a renowned Czech folk singer named Jaroslav Hutka who, surprise surprise, was another figure in the Underground (yep, that's him over there. I love that picture because he was so mild mannered in person). He released two records before 1977, and the guy's lyrics were so influential that they deported him (real folky stuff like "Powerful is the weapon, more powerful is the truth. What's the most powerful? The truthful word"). He spent 10 years in Holland, traveling the world with his music, before moving back to Prague after 1989. Now, he's still got no record label, but he publishes essays all the time, and sells his music at his concerts on home-made CDs (if you search for his image on Google, you find one of him making the CDs...of course I bought one).

I love talking to incredibly intelligent people like that. And it was a perfect compliment to the book I started this weekend, Brave New World (Man, I'm gettin into this utopian community stuff...). I read for a few hours today, all outside thanks to the absolutely unbelievable weather, then headed home for dinner.

Zuzana's at a conference kind of thing all week, so Tomas treated me and himself to a typical slovak dish - small chunks of boiled dough in a sauce of sheep's cheese and pieces of salty pork. As I started to open a bottle of water to have with it, I heard "ne! ne! ne!" ("ok fine, I'll have beer with it," I thought). "With this, you must have milk!"

Needless to say, it caught this little Jew off guard. But judging by his pouring milk into a glass for me, I knew he was serious (realize that milk here is not actual milk. The Czech value of fresh foods means no preservatives in their milk, so the real stuff goes bad in a day or two. Everyone uses a kind of artificial, 'plastic' milk. I think it's soy...but it might not be). And you know what? Just like every other meal I've had here, it was delicious.

Tonight I'm heading to Dan's place, since I haven't seen him in a week. Tomorrow Mom and Dad are back in town for one last day, and I'm sure it'll be as busy as they all were last week.

Catalyst

2007-04-15T21:59:00.000+02:00

I have been terrible to you, and I am sorry. No posts for a week?? I know, but there's a good reason I think...this blog has always been a kind of safety net for me, a way to bring my head back to home and have something comfortable. With my parents here, I guess I don't need it as much.

Spending time with my parents for the past week has been really great. They don't want me to go into detail about anything having to do with them (guess everyone's scared of the media these days), so I'll keep it pretty vague...but I told you last time about how great it's been to use their visit as a tool to reflect on my time here, and that has proven itself very true.

So what did I come up with? A bunch of things. Tuesday night, they came here and I had my second incredible experience of someone from home meeting the Jančařik family. Mom and Dad did their best to talk slow enough for everyone to understand, and once we got a few drinks in us (and then a few more. And a few more. And oh what the hell how bout a few more) things loosened up quite nicely. Mom said something that's stuck with me: she told Tomas and Zuzana that I had really learned patience since I've been here. I wouldn't say I've learned it so much as it kind of found me. There hasn't been a time this entire semester where I've felt impatient about anything, but then, there hasn't been anything to feel impatient about - no rushing, no appointments, nothing to make me wish things were going faster. Plus, when you have to speak slower to make sure you're understood (and when you talk as much as I do), you don't have much of a choice. All the same, I hope that's something I can take back with me.

Wednesday night Mom and Dad took everyone out to dinner, and it was another really nice night. But I'd like to talk a bit about Thursday, a great night with my dad. I think I spoke a bit about a famous Czech band called the Plastic People of the Universe, leaders of the Czech Underground culture during the Communist era. One of my classes had a field trip to see them play on Thursday night, and I invited my parents to come with me, not expecting them to come along. Mom wasn't too interested...but Dad was all about it!

So we went! I introduced him to all the usual suspects, including my teacher ("I can't believe you'd be interested in seeing the Plastic People!!" she screamed. What can I say, Dad's kinda cool). We walked into the venue, drinks in hand, and headed towards the seats in the back of the place, away from the rest of my friends. The band was really outstanding, especially once they got going (Dad wore earplugs. What can I say, he's really cool). The whole night was a tribute to their Underground colleague and frequent source of inspiration, Egon Bondy, who died last Monday.

Friday was the big drive to Budapest, followed by an excellent weekend of fantastic walks around a really nice city (not quite as nice as Prague or Amsterdam, but worth a visit all the same) in summer weather. Dad and I won some cash at the casino next to our hotel, we saw every Jewish-related site there was in the city, and we ate one of the greatest meals I've ever had (contemporary Hungarian food - I had fois gras (I know they're mean to the geese when they make it, but I had to try it. And DAMN that shit's good), Goose breast in a gingerbread sauce, 2 glasses of Hungarian wine, and a shot of Hungarian Peach liquor). Pictures soon (from Amsterdam too).

You know, maybe it's the seemingly constant words of encouragement that I get form my parents, but the whole visit was just really reassuring. They actually like my hair (WHAA??), and they really like spending time with me and seeing what I've been learning and living for these past three months. It gave me a sense of peace and confidence I don't think I've ever felt before, like it justified everything somehow. Of course I don't need that kind of justification for things, but you gotta admit it's damn nice when you can get it.

Especially when you've only got one more month left in a place you've grown to love so much. I feel like I've started something here, a kind of new life, and it's going to get cut off right when it's about to find its stride. Then it's back to the land of impatience, to-do lists, less reading for pleasure, and more bike riding to class. They say the culture shock going back home is worse than the culture shock getting abroad. I can see why, and I'm not looking forward to it. (Though I am excited to see everyone at home again).

Time to wrap this up...this week is not nearly as eventful, so you'll probably hear from me more often. I've been posting really vaguely for a while, which makes this really uninteresting, so I'll do better this week! (though this blog had a record number of hits last week, 115 on Wednesday alone! If you're reading on Facebook, you really should just take a peek at what these posts look like on evaninprague.blogspot.com) It's scary, but I can actually visualize the end now: next weekend I'll be here in Prague again (I need the rest...badly) followed by a weekend in Berlin and Munich (Vaclav is trying to get 2 free nights at his hotel's branch in Munich so we can go together...two free nights in a 5-star hotel? Eh, ok). Then it's back in Prague, finals, Croatia, and LA for the summer already.

Where does the time go?

Best trip yet?

2007-04-09T21:54:00.000+02:00

What do you title a post about the weekend you spent in your new favorite location? Amsterdam is an absolutely incredible place, the first I've visited outside of Prague that has the same kind of unique soul to it. That rubs onto everything about it; the narrow streets, the canals, the intense value of freedom, the intelligence of the whole place...it's just really great. The first place I've been to outside of Prague where I said "you know what...I could live here."

As per the hostel situation, I must say I kinda lied to you. It's true we were going without a hostel booked, but one of the girls we were traveling with had been too nervous to go without anything booked and had gotten an (expensive) hotel. So when we found out on Thursday morning that the hostel we were banking on wasn't going to have any rooms, we weren't being left out to dry, and we didn't panic. We just dished out some extra cash.

It was a fantastic weekend, full of what seems like millions of stories. I loved hanging out with Josh and Marty, two great guys who always make sure it's a great time. Highlights:

-In the airport, trying to figure out how to get a train ticket to the city center, we encountered one American who was having trouble and asked us a question. When Dan started talking to him, the guy just started saying "yeah, BEEN THERE. BEEN THERE. BEEN THERE." over and over again. It was hilarious, trust me.

-The Van Gogh museum was incredible. I spent what seemed like hours looking at the paintings I recognized, and got a whole new appreciation of them, seeing them in their original forms with their original textures.

-No one hired a prostitute, or even saw a sex show. But we almost had Dan convinced. I mean, who could resist a massive black woman in a bikini? Who???

-On Sunday morning, my phone rang at 9:30am (while we were still asleep). It was Mike Breen (another friend from high school) - apparently a friend of his had lost his backpack in Amsterdam and needed some cash to get him bailed out. Two phone calls later, we were meeting this friend (who, according to Breen, was wearing purple and "answers to the name Paul.") at another hotel, and Dan, Josh, and Marty were not happy about it. Turns out thought, it was all a lie - Paul was Mike!! He had taken an overnight bus just to meet all of us!

-Mike and I found a hostel to stay in for Sunday night, after the other three had left us, and we checked in and headed up to our beds for a quick nap. As we looked out our window at the town, we had wordless conversations about the scary Japanese guy sleeping in the bed next to mine, who had clearly not left the hostel the entire day, and had clearly not showered in several. The only thing that could make that better: Breen noticed something moving in his bed...in between the sheet and the mattress. To make that better...it was a mouse. I screamed like a schoolgirl. And to make it all worthwhile...I got it all on video. (on YT soon)

Ohhhh, there's so much more, but I'm sure it will all come out in stories I tell later.

Rushed home form the airport this morning and managed to eat lunch before meeting my parents in the city. As expected, seeing them has already been a really awesome relief for me. It's serving as a kind of barrier for my time here - how much have I done? How much have I experienced and learned? Am I doing this right? And the answers thus far are all positive. I love showing them around like this is my city.

Now, it's an early bedtime for me I think. I'm starting to finally come down with the spring cold everyone else had before me, and I'd love if it was gone before I went to Budapest this weekend with mom and dad.

Pet sounds, and an intense few weeks coming up

2007-04-04T21:54:00.000+02:00

The opera was really great, and I only fell asleep once. It was Tajemstvi (The Secret), by Czech composer Smetana. Apparently some people in this country consider him an even better composer than Dvořák. But only some.

This morning, I commuted for over an hour to get to the really beautiful Troja Castle for my weekly Art & Architecture tour. There was a brief, slightly terrifying moment when I thought I might be the only person who would make the intense journey, thereby giving me a lot of alone time with Marie Homerova (a woman so beloved by her classes, past and present, that I had to create a Facebook group to extol her virtues...For some, it's her accent; for others, her catchphrases like "is it so?"; but for me, it's her smell that does it). Fortunately, others arrived.

Rushed to Czech class, where we had a fantastic conversation about Czech interpretations of animal noises (this, after our teacher, a beautiful woman with a hard-nosed tone in her voice who still manages to crack us up on a daily basis, entertained us with the sounds deer make while mating. Can't make this stuff up). Apparently cows go "boo," cats say "neow," dogs say "vuff," and rooters crow "rikidikidat" or something crazy like that.

I realized last night at 1:00am that I had a midterm in my first of three FAMU classes today. So I breezed through that real quick, then found out my second class was canceled (...again). I hung out for a while before my final class of the day. Zuzana was telling me over dinner tonight, about how her university classes were spread apart at inconvenient intervals (too short to go home, too long to focus on something else), so everyone just spent their free time heading to pubs for a bit. Some things never change.

A lot of my time lately has been dedicated to preparations for my parents' visit next week, something I've been looking forward to since about my first week here. It should be an intense next two weeks, beginning with my cab ride at 4:15am Friday morning to the airport (with Steph) to catch my 6:30am flight to Amsterdam. I should mention, because I think you should know and because it's too late for my mother to care about it, that we're going to Amsterdam with nowhere to sleep. No hostel. No bed. We're just kinda hoping for the best. And bringing enough cash to spend the night at a prostitute's place.

Happy Pesach!

2007-04-03T16:21:00.000+02:00

Last night, Dan, Stephanie, and I all sat together at one of the largest seders I've ever attended, and most certainly the longest. Then again, I've never been to a tri-lingual seder before! It was the standard evening, complete with gefilte fish, matzah (or, in Czech spelling, "macah"...a 'c' is pronounced like 'ts'), afikomen search through Old Town square (kidding, but wouldn't that be cool??), and lots and lots of terrible wine.

I'm used to having seders away from my family by now (not to say I enjoy it, but I'm at least experienced at it), but Dan and Steph were both having their first seders away from home. The evening turned into one long story-swapping session that made us all wish we could be listening to our respective fathers or grandfathers rush through the service as quickly as possible. Instead, we got Rabbi Hoffberg (The Hoff, as I like to call him).

Once again, I was amazed by the number of English-speaking people who saw the play. Dan and I were recognized twice last night (though they all seem to see me first. Guess a guy with 5 feet of body height and 2 feet of hair height is memorable for some reason). We met a few more Americans-turned-English-teachers-trying-to-put-off-entry-into-the-real-world, and some other study abroad kids too. Despite starting at 7pm and ending at 11pm (and we didn't even stay for the post-meal prayers), it was a really nice night.

Today after class I took a walk into Old Town square, where they've set up a huge market as an Easter celebration. Besides the difficulty in dodging Italian tourists, the place is really neat - lots of shops, and TONS of great food, including everyone's new favorite treat, Trdlo (sounds gross right? But it's literally dough wrapped around a rolling-pin sized steel bar, rolled in cinnamon, sugar and nuts, and cooked over a flame. Not gross at all, I promise). I especially loved the pork stand, which had on display the entire body of a cooked pig (legs, head, hooves, ears, everything) with its insides gutted and filled with a salami-like mixture, and the cooks were cutting slices of it (HUGE SLICES of this pig's belly) and cooking them to put in sandwiches. (Also not gross, if you don't think about it while eating it) Mom and Dad - this will all still be going on next week, while you're here!

Then I walked down the river to find a place to read, and by the time I had, I was so tired that I fell asleep reading and listening to the swans softly gurgle water. Guess that meant it was time to go home. So here I am. I'm going to another opera tonight (this one with English supertitles!), and I'm looking forward to another eventful Wednesday. Hopefully the Cubs will even get their first win.

The moral of the story

2007-04-01T21:33:00.000+02:00

NOTE: This is part 2 of my adventures this weekend. It won't make sense unless you read this first.

I can travel alone. In fact, in some ways I prefer it. Those several hours by myself were really great, and I had no problem finding things to do and places to explore. Albeit, it was really nice to see a familiar face when I spotted my friend Kara, and I was happy once everyone got there. But unlike them, I really had something to hang my hat on about the day. This is a good thing to realize, considering I'm more than likely going to be spending five days wandering Croatia alone.

It reminds me of something Kristen (the girl me and Dan stayed with in Switzerland) told us about traveling alone (which she's currently doing for two months). I asked her what it was like and she responded with, "it's actually hard to be alone sometimes." Which I took to mean she got lonely. But she really meant it was hard to find herself physically alone. Wherever she went, she started talking to people and made new friends (like me and Dan) and as a result, she hadn't really had any time to herself the entire time she'd been traveling "alone."

It was really great to spend time with some people from my program, something I feel like I haven't done enough in these past two months of rehearsals and performances. It's just so easy to call up Dan. But it's good to know I have other options - it reminds me that it's not as if I've failed in making friends while I've been here. When I was in a bind, I got help. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is.

Enough with the sentimentals. This week should be fun - Josh and Marty (Dan's friends from Michigan and mine from high school and other places...it's complicated) arrive on Wednesday, and on Friday morning (eeaaaarrrly) we all leave for Amsterdam. And tomorrow is a HUGE day for sports - sure, the NCAA basketball championship, but the opening day of baseball! Cmon, what's more important?

PS - Happy (belated) birthday, Jason!

I'm an idiot (or: why I hate Na Florenci street)

2007-04-01T20:47:00.000+02:00

So I missed the friggin bus to česky Krumlov.

It wasn't completely my fault (yes it was). I am completely at the mercy of public trans here, so when the tram decides to stop running to my house's tram stop for the week, as it did on Friday night at 8pm, I have to figure out new ways to get places. Now, I was aware of this. I knew I would have to take the metro to get to where the bus was (Na Florenci street...you may remember my previous experience with lateness at this very same place). I just haven't taken the metro from the house in so long that I forgot how long it takes to get there.

So when I went to bed on Friday night, I set my alarm for 7am, giving myself plenty of time to get to the bus by 8:15am. I didn't go out on Friday (rather than spending another minute at Lucerna, I watched a movie on my new favorite website, peekvid.com). But when I went to bed, I looked at my alarm clock once more and thought "you know...I deserve 20 more minutes."

It was one of those annoying situations where you run up to the bus stop, just as the bus is pulling away. And running is damn tough when you have a big backpack on.

Now, some people in this situation, they give up. Having another weekend in Prague wouldn't be that bad, after all, and I didn't really need to see the place. But not me.

I was instantly on the phone, sending text messages to everyone I knew to ask if they were going on this trip. My first positive response was from my friend Huntley (from USC) - perfect! I have a contact! The main bus station in Prague is right next to where I had just watched our bus pull away, so I went down there and asked the lady at the desk for a ticket to Cesky Krumlov. "Busses aren't running there today."

Well shit.

A metro stop away (after I accidentally got on going the wrong direction once and turned around), I found myself at Hlavni Nadraži, the main strain station. The guy at the info desk spoke English very well and informed me that not only was there a train to Cesky Krumlov, but it was leaving in 12 minutes and would arrive in four hours. Yes! My goal was only three trains and a bus ride away! With a sigh, a smile to myself, and a moment of self-reassurance ("I'm gonna do this"), I bought a ticket.

Once I got on the train, I called Huntley and explained my situation. As it turned out, I would be arriving in Krumlov 4 hours before the rest of the group (they made a stop in another town on the way). He gave me the address of the hostel we would be checking into later, I asked him to tell our trip supervisor that I'd meet them there, and I settled into my chair for the long ride.

So, despite the drama, it actually turned out quite well. I got the chance to travel alone for the first time (I don't know why people would think it's difficult. You just have to read signs), and I arrived in Krumlov with four hours to kill on the kind of sunny day when you pray for four hours to kill so you can just walk around. And on the way I made some great new friends - on the first train, there was the Czech guy who was studying to work for Skoda (the Czech car company), and who was nice enough to explain to me why I had to take a bus for only 20 minutes (they were doing construction on the rail line). On the second train, I shared a cabin with a couple who were speaking to each other in Spanish, but the woman addressed me in Czech at first. I asked where they were from - she's Czech, he's English. Interesting.

Cesky Krumlov is a really beautiful place, filled with colorful architecture and lots of fun nooks and crannies to explore. It was a 20 minute walk to town from the train station, and after dropping my stuff at the hostel (and explaining to the woman on duty what my situation was), I immediately treated myself to a huge lunch (see picture above). Then, I set about exploring, walking about every street in town and taking tons of photos. I even stumbled upon a friend from my program, who was in town with her family. When everyone else arrived, I made sure to be sitting in the hostel, having a coffee. The town they had visited on the way hadn't been all too interesting, it turns out. And how the hell did I get there? they all wanted to know.

The hostel itself was outstanding. I shared a room with Huntley (my savior. I bought him a drink) and one other guy, and it was a huge room with a really nice shower. We had some dinner (I knew where all the good places were, having passed them more than a few times in my four hour expedition) and then spent the evening at a local bar playing rock-a-billy music (which we only found because, armed only with the instructions "it's above a water wheel," I knew exactly where to go...because I had passed it before. See? It was all worth it!)

Today was also a lovely day. We were shown around the castle, and given admittance into the incredible Baroque theatre (a building only normally opened three times a year for performances, and one of only three in the world that's been preserved, not reconstructed, since it was finished in the 18th century. LOTS of pictures to come on Flickr). Then we had some free time to roam about the city (like I needed any more), and I visited the Egon Schiele museum and bought a framed poster of one of his incredible paintings.

Then, it was a bus ride back to Prague. I didn't miss this one. But maybe I should have.

So what did I learn from all this? I'll start a new post and talk about it.

Update: Pictures are up on Flickr and Facebook (like before, the Facebook album should work for everyone).

Velmi, not vemly

2007-03-29T20:38:00.000+02:00

Without the play, I find myself, again, with a wealth of free time to fill. Let's remember who's talking here -- did you honestly think I'd just spend my free time sitting on the internet all day, or reading books in coffee shops? Cmon folks.

So Tuesday night my friend Liz and I decided to check out a DJ playing as part of FebioFest (a film/music festival, this one coincidentally organized by the guy who teaches my producing class). I couldn't get a hold of her before the show, but decided to go anyway and see if I could find her. No reason to waste a night just because technology sucks. And entry was free, so why the hell not?

Turns out they had rescheduled the group we wanted to see, and playing instead was a Cuban jazz group, direct from Havana. I jammed out to some sweet marimba/cha cha/salsa for a while, attempting to understand the Spanish (Cuban Spanish is like Liverpool English). It was fun, but I never found Liz, so I got bored after a bit and called Dan.

Yesterday was my standard Wednesday, or at least what has become my standard Wednesday with these slightly-meaningless classes at FAMU (I understand now why credits don't transfer back to USC). My first film class, the science one that's really boring, consisted of the prof reading every question from our midterm and telling us the answers so we get them right when we take it next week (admittedly, after this class I finally understand what's going on and find it interesting). That went a bit late, and when I went to my next class down the hall, the door was locked and no one was there. So I went and had dinner instead, and came back for my last class of the day, where we watched Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror. Well, they watched. I fell asleep for a lot of it. And then I left early to go play poker. Sometimes it's just tough to sit through movies with no plot, you know?

The highlight of my week came today, though, as I did some homework for my Czech class. We have to write an essay about our spring break, and I'm resourceful, so I of course asked Tomas to take a look at mine and check it over. What followed was 20 minutes of some hilarious interaction, consisting mostly of Tomas mumbling to himself and me in Czech while alternately correcting and laughing at my terrible butchering of his mother tongue and getting frustrated as he tried to figure out how to use the keyboard on my computer. One thing he and Zuzana got a real kick out of was my misspelling of the word "velmi" (which means very...I write in exaggerations, even in Czech!) as "vemly." I don't think I'm ever going to live that one down.

The two of them are gone now, though, off to a Maturity Ball for a friend ("go somewhere with girls!" they told me). And with the cat away, Vaclav is hanging around the house more tonight, chatting with me about his favorite YouTube video (please watch it, it'll make your day), his newest love affairs with women from Boston, ambitions for working at Mandarin Oriental hotels around the world, and a Method Man concert on Saturday.

Praha nights, you will never grow old.

It's still light outside

2007-03-26T19:34:00.000+02:00

Spring has most certainly sprung now, since the clocks changed. I'm completely thrown off by how late the sun is out! It makes me feel guilty for being at home, inside. I'm going to start carrying a book around with me so I can always stop in a park and do some reading whenever I find myself with nothing to do (I'm trying to read more books. I feel like I don't have time to read for pleasure at home).

Which is exactly what happened today. Class ended at five and the sun was still bright in the sky, so I took a walk around the Vysehrad area and found myself gazing, once again, over this fantastic city. I love how familiar the skyline looks now - between my Art and Architecture of Prague class and my own sightseeing, I've managed to get at least a little background on almost all of the most prominent buildings. That familiarity that was missing at the beginning of this trip? Well, when I got off the plane yesterday and took the bus back into the city, I suddenly felt at home, relieved to be not understanding Czech again (as opposed to not understanding French and German). Guess I'm familiar now.

Another sign of this: Zuzana's cooking dinner right now, and told me we'd make garlic mashed potatoes again, like last time. I said "but Tomas didn't like them!" And she replied "he'll have the plain ones, we'll have the garlic" and smiled in that sneaky way mothers do that seems to say ain't he boring?? Familiarity and family. And I'm thousands of miles from home. (Or am I? Oh now I'm going back to a very old argument of mine...)

The warmer weather reminds me even more of home, as in Northbrook home. I'm remembering how much I always loved that first day of warm weather in high school, the first day when you could take off your jacket on your way to your car and leave the windows open while you drove home, music loud, drumming on the steering wheel. And around Vysehrad today, there was a smell of a grill coming from a restaurant that to me could only mean Memorial Day or July 4th.

I love this time of year, if you can't tell, and I'm excited to spend it here. This weekend I'm traveling with my program to southern Bohemia, a town (and UNESCO World Heritage site) called česky Krumlov. The next weekend, Dan and I hit Amsterdam. And then, before I know it, my parents are visiting and we're driving to Budapest. With less than two months remaining here, I'm just excited to let it all happen!

Switzerland by the numbers

2007-03-25T18:50:00.000+02:00

Pictures are up on Flickr, and also make sure to check out the two videos I posted on YouTube (especially the one of Dan falling off a sled). Rather than tell you every detail of what happened over the weekend, I thought I'd keep it to the essential facts.

60 - amount, in Swiss Francs, I won playing blackjack at the casino in Interlaken on Thursday night.
130 - amount Dan won
2 - number of minutes we stayed there after we realized we had won money (we were very proud of our self-control).

10 - number of feet we could see in front of ourselves while sledding (yes! Sledding in the Swiss Alps!) on Friday. We went with Kristen, the girl who was staying in our room as she travels Europe alone for 2 months.

3 - number of new friends we have from Liverpool
about 12 - number of words I actually understood when they spoke to us (in English...I think).

3 - number of falls Dan had while skiing on Saturday, out of more than 15, that were so dramatic, traumatic, and terrifying that we had specific names by which to call them:

....The One Where Dan Fell off a Cliff
Dan has trouble stopping on skis. So, when I told him I thought he'd be fine doing some harder runs, he agreed to try them. We both quickly learned we were wrong. On this occasion, early in the day, he sped off in front of me so far that I couldn't see him any more. I got to a convenient stopping point where I figured he had probably purposely fallen to stop...but didn't find him. So I went on to the bottom of the slope, thinking he might be waiting there. No sign of him. I started panicking. We hadn't set a meeting point in case we got separated, and it was quite clear to me that he wouldn't have made it to a meeting point anyways because he had obviously fallen off a cliff and was dead and it was my fault. I took a chair lift back toward the top of the mountain so I could get a birds-eye view of the slope. For five minutes, no sign of him. Then, a lump of clothing lying on the side of a trail suddenly looked familiar! "DAN!!!" I shouted, with relief! "Yeah..." He responded, in pain. Turns out he had spun off the course into a ditch, and his skis and poles were 25 feet behind him.

....The One Where He Hit the Fence
Right after I finally caught up to him, we continued down the slope, headed for easier trails. But alas, Dan could still not stop and started speeding down again, only to fall at a convenient point - he flipped through the air a few times, finally crashing his thigh into a fence post and landing in a ditch. When he got up, he said he was having trouble seeing.

....The One Where He Almost Died
He gained some confidence. We realized his boots had been unstrapped the entire time, giving him almost no control over his skis. So, I thought, let's try another tougher one. We went up this terrible kind of lift thing where you have to stand the entire time, only to find ourselves at the top of another peak, in a dense fog. Dan was terrified. But there was really no other way down (if it was a real chairlift, he could have taken that back down). So we started, slowly, making our way down the slope, when it took a sudden drop (which surprised me so much that I fell too). Dan, unable to slow himself down but committed to staying standing, sped down the hill at what had to be 45mph, finally beginning to fall at the top of another drop. He slipped out of my sight. When I found him again, he was lying on the ground at the bottom of this steep part, his equipment scattered on the hill above him: first a ski, then a hat and goggles, a pole, another ski, a pole. He had done three front handsprings before finally coming to a halt, his shirt bunched up in his jacket and his body covered with snow.

1:00am - time at which we thought check-in closed for our hostel in Geneva, which we had to get to on Saturday night so we could catch our early flight
3 - number of minutes it took for us to rush to the other side of Interlaken, only to find out that the train we had to catch in order for us to make it on time was actually a bus and had left without us. We caught a later train and had some peace, thanks to Mom, who found out the place was actually open 24hrs.

10 - minutes I spent talking to Gonzalo, a random Portuguese guy with whom I struck up a conversation at the end of the train ride (he was VERY inebriated). When he heard we were American, he started naming American DJs...none of which I've heard of. So our conversation essentially consisted of "You know Carl Cox?" "No, sorry man" "Oh he's..." etc etc etc. He asked for my phone number, and instead of giving it to him, I got his.

8 - amount of time, in hours, we spent at the Geneva Youth Hostel on Saturday night.
9 - amount of time, in hours, that actually elapsed during that period as a result of Europe's change to "summer time." We didn't miss our flight, don't worry.

5 - number of days, including today, we were in Switzerland
2 - number of showers I took. There was no way I was showering at the Geneva hostel, and we didn't have a room where I could shower after we skied. So I was just gross until this afternoon. Pleasant, ain't it?

Der bloggen!

2007-03-22T16:02:00.000+01:00

Ya! Dan and I are taking a break from the day, relaxing in the hostel, so I thought I'd take advantge of he free internet and tell you all about it.

I'm writing this from the Funny Farm hostel in Interlaken, a fantastic place for me and Dan to spend a few nights. The hostel is in a refurbished old hotel, so the rooms are outstanding, and just like in Krakow, the lobby is a lively place filled with music and constant activity. We even got a free upgrade to a 4-person! Our only roomate is from Colorado. And she's a girl.

Interlaken itself ranks amongst the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It sits between two lakes (inter...laken) and is surrounded by the towering Swiss alps, over 2000m high. Everything is covered in a fresh snow from earlier this week

This is in quite stark contrast to our experience in Geneva. Also a beautiful place, don't get me wrong. But really, all that's there are watch stores (hundreds) and banks (THOUSANDS). Our hostel also wasn't the best place. It was much bigger than any I've stayed in, and much more industrial...no way to really get to know anyone. It was billed as a youth hostel, but there were still many awkwardly old people staying there...including one about 50 year old in our room who might be considering a career in competitive snoring. Dad, this guy is your idol - seeming to find the resonant frequency of the room, he literally shook the whole thing.

But all was not lost in this land of middle aged business men and empty restaurants at 6pm. Dan and I struck up a conversation with an Aussie named Chris, and the three of us went up the street to an Irish pub where, it seemed, the entire population of the city was spending their evening. Chris, as it turned out, was staying in our room too, and his personality was the amicable one Lisa always talks about Aussies having. We had a great time.

After my sleepless night, our train left for Interlaken at 9am. At 1230, we were at our hostel. At 2:00, we ate lunch. At 3:00, Dan and I were about 2100 feet off the ground, attached to parachutes and guides. Paragliding is awesome. As I landed, my pilot (a fifteen year professional) had a first --- our parachute got caught in a tree! Many many pictures to come on Flickr, and a video of Dan's takeoff too.

I need a nap.

It's snowing again

2007-03-20T18:26:00.000+01:00

Just like in Chicago, I guess Prague gets one or two days of snow toward the beginning of spring. At least I'm not having my Bar Mitzvah this weekend.

It's been a fun filled last 24 hours! The show went very well again last night, with a sizable crowd in attendance. They announced the contest winners after the show (an audience award and the main writing contest)...and we didn't win anything. Oh well.

The real fun came after the show, when The Prague Post hosted a gala in the bar area of the theater, complete with open bar(!), fresh boar with horseradish and mustard, and a massive set-up of ridiculous desserts. Dan and I were having a field day, and not just with the food - I've spoken before about how awesome it's been to get to know the English-speaking expat community here, and that's only gotten better. Last night became one massive exercise in networking. We began with an introduction to Mirka, one of the three top casting agents in Prague, who hadn't seen our play but was incredibly enthusiastic about having us come to her office so she could take our photos. She was sure we could "work together." Then, there was the lovely woman we struck up a conversation with who, it turns out, is the director of operations for the Prague Post. Everyone we meet tells me and Dan two things - we have a fantastic on-stage chemistry, and we should definitely use that somehow. We've been told the first part before, but this is the first time people have told us that we could find success exploiting our relationship.

All this is a long way of saying that Dan is almost definitely going to be staying here through the summer. To be honest, if I didn't have anything to come home to, I'd stay here too. Hell, the two of us might still come back here after college and just write and act. Who knows?

For a while last night it didn't look like I was going to be able to get up this morning for my scheduled tour with Tomas of Czech Television. (Sidenote: I had a dream that I got a hair cut, and in the dream I was SO happy. A sign?) But I managed it, and I'm incredibly happy I did. Czech media was developed under communism, of course, and so there are now only three networks here: Nova, Prima, and the state-owned Czech TV (it works like the BBC, with two public access channels and a few cable/satellite channels). The complex that houses all of its production is not very far from our house, and it is HUGE (apparently they employ 3000 people). Tomas took me through all the most interesting sites of the place, including their big studios (looks just like the US), multiple cafeterias (seriously I was struck by how many there were), and lines of offices.

What was new to me was the area they call "dubbing street," which is an entire building wing dedicated to all the different processes for dubbing media into Czech. Lots of ADR studios, of course. One friend of Tomas's, upon hearing that I study in Los Angeles, quipped "so this is like a museum to you!" Not quite. But admittedly, it was really impressive to see Tomas sit down to start work on a dub for a BBC documentary in front of a Tesla mixer from probably the late 70s, and with no ProTools set up in sight. Tomas's job during production is a really cool one - as producer, he coaches the actors and makes sure the timing for their announcing complements the images. Neat.

Rest of the day has been relaxing and prepping to leave tomorrow. It's gonna be one helluva week, I'm sure. There will be lots of photos to peruse, and I'm gonna try to do some blogging from there as well to avoid one huge post when I get back. Who wants chocolate???

More photos now on Facebook

2007-03-19T11:54:00.000+01:00

Today I found out that Facebook released a free plug-in for iPhoto that lets you export to a Facebook album (I've been using the plug-in for Flickr since I've been here). So since it's now really easy, I'm going to start uploading pictures of people to Facebook, and pictures of sites and other things to Flickr. Here's my first album (it should be visible even if you're not on Facebook. You're not on Facebook?)

Nothing to do today, and it's not nice outside...so I'm just gonna hang out. Last show tonight, with a party to follow. Then it's off to eat chocolate for five days.

Spring break begins

2007-03-18T15:29:00.000+01:00

Midterms are over, the temperatures are still balmy (for now), and I am officially on spring break. Not a moment too soon - it's high time I did some traveling around Europe, don't you agree? My trip to Switzerland is going to be awesome.

There's nothing truly like waking up in the morning (afternoon) in a foreign country, where you've been living for only two months (as of Friday), and opening up the newspaper to see your own face staring back at you. No, I wasn't arrested (yet), but there's an ad for the play in this week's Prague Post, and my picture is in it. This whole experience just keeps getting more surreal.

Yesterday, I went with Tomas and Zuzana to a family gathering of sorts, celebrating a cousin's birthday (and, we found out, to announce her pregnancy). I always find it really fun to be in a room full of people speaking Czech. I've become a master of people watching and pantomiming as a result. The food at this little lunch affair was absolutely incredible (pork, cous cous, ridiculous cakes, including JC's favorite babovka, beer, espresso), and it's always interesting to see how people react to me, the first student this family has ever hosted. Highlight of the afternoon, though, was when the five-year-old son of Tomas's cousin (the one who directs the wonderful Baroque music group) tested out his English skills by calling me "small." I said "you're small!" He pointed at me and said "Taky [also] small!"

I rushed from there to the theater, and had to take a nap in the dressing room. The show went very well again last night, and the audience was our biggest yet. Afterwards, Dan and I met some people from his program (they had come to the show...everyone from my program is on vacation already, remember) and along the way, we were recognized by a few people who had seen the show. Now, admittedly, we're a pretty physically memorable pair of guys. But I'm still kinda floored.

Last night was a great night. I love hanging out with Dan's friends (I can and do call them my own friends at this point, but it's easier to refer to them as "Dan's friends" so you don't get confused), probably more than I've enjoyed people from CIEE. We hopped from bar to bar to club last night, dancing and talking the whole way.

My hair is really long. Not like really long like it was when I left LA, really long like when it's wet it easily blocks my vision. When it's dry, it's the same length, only sticking straight up, and there's nothing I can do to make it do anything else. On the sides, it sticks out like a pair of wings, but no matter how fast I run I haven't been able to take off yet. Rob made a great comment about it on my Facebook wall: "i was perusing your photos, and noticed that your izro (israeli fro) paired with your new glasses makes you look more jewish than jesus."

Today will be a day of recovery, filled with basketball and doing as little as possible. If USC beats Texas, I might be able to recall my hitmen from their "murder Vince Young" mission. But only maybe.

A fantastic dinner conversation

2007-03-16T19:12:00.000+01:00

Dinner tonight was awesome. Food was great, of course, but conversation!

First, Vaclav talked about his night last night, where two female friends of his got very drunk and started making out, then asked Vaclav to be their...um...he asks, "How do you call a man who owns bitches?"

Then, we talked about my parents' visit (in a month). Mom and dad want to take the Jančařikovi out to a nice dinner to thank them for hosting me, of course, so I suggested we go to Kampa Park, a very nice restaurant, expensive for Prague but normal for its status. This seemed fine, but I became aware of Tomaš not really approving. He gets uncomfortable in restaurants like that, Vaclav and Zuzana explained. They spent a few minutes trying to explain why, but Tomas was getting more and more frustrated, feeling like they weren't representing his views fairly.

So he got up and tried himself, and I finally understood. In his words, he can't go to a place like that and pay that much for a meal without thinking of all the meals it could have bought someone more deserving. He grabbed a dictionary and looked up the word he was trying to use, then asked me if I thought he was stingy with his family, with his house, and of course I said no, because he certainly isn't. A place like that seems really wasteful to him, he explained with lots of hand gestures (for a minute I thought he might accidentally hit Zuzana) and a raised tone of voice. Vaclav explained that for a special occasion, it's ok to go somewhere like that. But still, Tomas stuck by his opinion of being economical, environmental (we never waste water or electricity here), and generally conscious of using too much of anything.

Well, there you have it. Tonight, I pinpointed the major difference in culture between Americans and Czechs, the one to which all other differences can be related. For my family, going to a nice (read: expensive) restaurant for a special occasion is second nature -- we celebrate by consuming more than normal. But this is not a very consumerist-oriented society (yet). They've only started to get that kind of Western influence since 1989. So, as Tomas explained, go somewhere with a nice view, have a beer or a coffee, and that is more valuable than going to a nice restaurant.

I've been trying to find a way to best explain to all you readers how the effects of Communism and totalitarianism are still very visible here, and I think this is a perfect example. Of course! We can't go to Kampa Park, that's the restaurant for Westerners visiting Prague; the average Czech probably wouldn't set foot in it unless he or she was working there. So instead, we'll go to a nice restaurant on Petřin hill, where you can eat outside in nice weather and get the unarguably best views of Prague. That will be a celebration.

Don't read this one

2007-03-14T22:04:00.000+01:00

Not much has happened in the past few days --- I just hate leaving a lot of time in between posts when the last one was so ominous/prophetic!

Midterms are the same as always. I'm trying not to study very much, and I'm being successful at that. Watched The Man Who Wasn't There last night and enjoyed it much more than studying for a midterm in Art and Architecture of Prague.

Yesterday might have been the best day in the history of my existence for one reason, and one reason only. I had svičkova. Twice. In one day.

Like I said, not much going on.

Prague Spring Fever

2007-03-12T21:31:00.000+01:00

Show went well again last night, save for a hilarious moment when Dan and I almost cracked up on stage. Jonas was in attendance, as were another few people from my program, and they all enjoyed themselves thoroughly. I'm having a lot of fun performing again! Maybe I should be an actor...

Anyhow, today has been a fine day, punctuated by a dinner courtesy of the University of Southern California. The adviser from the USC abroad office is here until Wednesday, and he took all the USC kids out for dinner. He's a great guy - getting a masters in PoliSci, and in the meantime gets to take all-expenses-paid trips to Prague (and Poland). I knew I liked him the minute I met him. While advisers from other schools were all in their suits, ties, and dark colors, this guy is wearing khakis and a powder blue button down, looking like LA incarnate (plus he's Filipino...and everyone in Prague is white). He could have gone to dinner with his colleagues but, in his words, "I was like, I'm....gonna go out with my kids!" Drinking on USC's tab is always fine with me! (and we got a FIVE seed??? Fight on!)

It made me realize something (oh, here he goes again. yeah, eat me.) that I've learned by being abroad, and by turning 21. I suddenly feel much more experienced. Where I've always felt a sort of gap between myself and anyone I spoke with who was older than me (like I should be almost reverent), I now feel a bit more qualified to identify with them. I don't feel so young. It's nice. And scary.

Today I should finish the book I've been reading since I got here, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It's a new favorite of mine, and as with all books I like, I find myself wishing it was longer because I feel like it's come to sort of define this moment. My voice in this blog has certainly been influenced by it (if you can't tell, click the link above and read the first page. You'll get what I mean). So I almost feel like there's going to be a change in my general feeling soon.

And I'm not the only one feeling that way. I think it's the weather - in the 60s for the rest of the week. It's springtime in Prague, and it's almost the halfway point of our little journey here. I see those couples who've been together since the beginning (in secret, of course, never officially together because that would close off options and being in your 20s is all about keeping options open. Which is why no one can ever decide what club to go to), they suddenly start to look all too familiar with each other, like it might turn into a "real" relationship. And friends are beginning to settle even more, people moving into a new phase of confidence in their Prague identities. I certainly am.

Change is always good.

Time to study for my midterm.

you can still read this in China

2007-03-11T15:00:00.000+01:00

In case you were wondering, greatfirewallofchina.org is a cool site that tests whether your site can be seen in China. I'm still goin strong! It'd be fun to test the limits...

One of the best nights yet

2007-03-11T14:19:00.000+01:00

So the show went up last night, and was a rousing success. I discovered some pictures of us on the Prague Post website - just in case you didn't believe me, here's the proof that Dan and I are honestly appearing on stage together in the Czech Republic. Dan's comment: "if you'd have told me three years ago that you and I were going to be in a play in the Czech Republic, I probably would have said...'don't you mean Czechoslovakia?'"

The theatre was about half-full (maybe 100 people), and they were all laughing at us (even the little kid in the back row. Our director's comment: "if we can make a kid laugh, you know that shit is honest"). My personal highlight was when, at the end of the show as my shirt comes unbuttoned and my gloriously toned abs, luscious pecs, and hair-free chest are out there for all to see, that little kid yelled "EEEEWWW!"

Afterwards, I went to the lobby with little in the way of hope or expectation at seeing anyone I knew. But I was wrong. About seven people from my program showed up and stayed through the whole thing to give me a hug and tell me they enjoyed it. Definitely made my night, day, week, month, you name it.

So, a successful opening night under our belts, Dan and I set out to a) put some more money on my phone, and b) get Dan some food. Our director, Tyler, had a table reserved at a super-trendy club called M1, so we decided to meet him there for a few drinks.

The best part of being in this play was something I did not expect when I was first cast. There is a very, very closely-knit American expat community here in Prague, and this show has essentially been my pass into that elite club. I've met tons of people, all of whom are business owners or performers here in Prague, and all of whom know each other (there's seriously only about 1 degree of separation between anyone who speaks English and lives here). It's really enriched things.

And its also starting to give me the hook-up. Tyler introduced me to his friend Jonathan, a magician who's headlined in Vegas and has used Prague as a base for the past few years as he's toured Europe doing stage magic (I've never had more of a desire to be with Magic Mike than when I found that out. I definitely would have set up a magic-off, right there, in the middle of the club). He showed us some cool tricks. Oh, and by the way, he owns the club we were at.

Three bottles of complimentary champagne later (Jonathan wanted to make sure we celebrated our successful show), my inner Hollywood boy suddenly turned on and I realized that I had connections to exploit in this situation. My host brother, Vaclav, is a concierge at one of the nicest hotels in Prague, and the owner of this club would surely want to meet him and make sure Vaclav talks up his club to all the rich tourists. I mentioned it to Jonathan and was told that'd be a "huge favor, thanks man." So I called up Vaclav and Jonathan hooked him up with a VIP pass, and in the meantime I assured myself free entry into this club whenever I want it.

On the way back, on the tram, Dan and I were minding our own business when a Czech man reminded us that we weren't supposed to eat on the tram. I knew that. Dan knew that. We weren't planning on eating the food till we got off. But I guess Dan was a little sassy in his response to the guy, so the American behind him got involved and things kinda escalated. Dan wants to get in a fight ("honestly, I'm a six foot five frat star"). To be honest, I'd have had his back. But we just turned around and complained about it instead.

Ahhh, what a successful evening! The only thing that could make this better would be...waking up to svičkova. Oh wow, is there really anything else in life that matters? Honestly.

Tonight, we do it all again (minus the club probably. Well actually who knows). And there are supposed to be some more folks from my program in attendance.

let's go trojan...basketball???

2007-03-09T21:04:00.000+01:00

Apparently UCLA lost in the first round of the Pac-10 tourney. HERE WE GO TROJANS.

I got lost again

2007-03-09T19:58:00.000+01:00

But this time it was purposeful!

Back up - yesterday was a very lazy day (well deserved in my opinion after three days of rehearsals, classes, and general running-around. Plus it was raining). After dinner, I headed into the city and spent some more time with Dan and the folks from his program. Honestly, I see them more than people from my own program - is that an issue?

So today I woke up -- actually I don't think it should be called that. We need to invent a word that implies what happens when you wake up but you're still sleeping and staggering around everywhere. Let's say...began to re-enter consciousness.

So today I began to re-enter consciousness and went to class, where I inadvertently discovered how to tell someone, in Czech, that I want to have sex this weekend.

After class (and a heated self-debate over whether I was more hungry then tired or the other way around. I have those more and more frequently), Steph and I headed to Bohemia Bagel for lunch (I was craving some lox). When about five other people showed up, none of whom had a point of conversation with me, I decided it best to call it a day and either head back home for a nap, or head to a park for some reading (another beautiful day today). I found my body compelling me toward the funicular (that's like a tram, only...funicul-er?) up to Petrin hill.

When I reached the top, I started walking. I don't really know why, but I just kept going and going. Maybe it was the weather - it reminded me of those fall days when my dad and I always used to take walks around the block and call it exercise. Whatever the reason, I just walked through the labyrinthine trails around the hill, happening to stumble upon some of the best views of Prague Castle, an observatory, and meandering around a big, old wall. It was a great walk.

Came home, took a nap, and then helped Zuzana with a new recipe - last night, we had mashed potatoes with a big kielbasa, and when asked if we had mashed potatoes in the US, I replied that it was a personal favorite, especially with garlic. Garlic?? In mashed potatoes?? It seemed so strange to them! So we made some tonight, just like they are at home - nice and fluffy with butter, cream, and sauteed garlic. They were really delicious, and it was nice to expose the fam to a new piece of American culture. But I think Tomas will stick to the Czech kind.

It dawned on me today that my play opens tomorrow. Crazy! Makes me feel like I've been here for so long.

More trips, more lazy days

2007-03-08T14:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a great day. Class was fine, but the best idea I've ever had was ditching most of them - I had to miss my last two for rehearsal anyhow, and I needed a nap. Rehearsals have been frustrating, mostly because we're still stopping every two seconds and the whole thing feels so slow and not funny. Thankfully, that finally changed last night, when we had a great run.

I really wanted to go nuts last night, but I unfortunately have this love/hate relationship with my producing class (my other class today was canceled). I love the class, but I hate waking up at 7am to go to it. So I left Dan and his friends to get home early enough to wake up and go to this class. Dan had a great night.

Today I booked my last trip. From May 13-18, I'll be spending five days alone on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast (Split, then Dubrovnik, with maybe an island in between), before flying back to Prague for one last (I'm sure fun-filled) night before my whirlwind trip back to Chicago and then LA (Prague-London-Chicago on 5/19, Chicago-LA in time for class on 5/21). I'm having trouble booking a hostel in both places, but I'm figuring it'll be warm enough for me to sleep on the street anyways....I'm sure the highlight of the trip (besides walking down beaches, laying in the sun, and swimming in what's supposed to be the best water in the Mediterranean) will be my planned visit to the Plitvice Lakes National Park - supposedly one of the most beautiful places on earth. Not to mention, it'll be nice to have a bunch of time to myself before I start what could be the most intense summer to date.

In news from the home front, I feel obliged to mention the USC Free Culture group's successful protest of USC's Free Speech Zone. Not only did their peaceful protest get some heads turning, but they even got fined by the University for their placement of fliers in "non-designated" areas. Read their response to the fine here.

That's all for now. Lost is almost finished downloading.

Tech rehearsals suck

2007-03-06T00:55:00.000+01:00

...in any language, in any country. Especially when the tech crew has to take cues in a language they don't understand.

Saturday I really didn't do much except sleep and go to dress rehearsal. I stopped by a party some of the folks in my program were throwing, an "Američanka Party." For the little bit I was there, I had an awesome time. And I think the fact that a few of the people in my program couldn't help but throw an American-style frat party out of their apartment in the middle of Prague probably tells you something...that said, they really are very nice people.

Sunday was similarly lazy - went to The Globe cafe in the city to read Tom Stoppard's new play Rock 'n' Roll which is playing now at the National Theatre, and is about the underground rock scene in Prague during communism. Tom Stoppard is Czech - that was news to me!

I'm beginning to finalize my plans to return home for the summer. And I'm starting to submit my resume for internships and the like. Looks like I'll have five days to travel once I'm done here, and my sights are set on Croatia - said to be the most beautiful place in Europe, but a place I probably wouldn't go otherwise. I've been realizing lately that I really wish I could study here for longer. It's nice to be here for four months, but I'm still so focused on getting back home and setting things up for myself there. If I had been here a year, I could have really detached myself from home.

That's not to say I'm not completely exuberantly overjoyed with my experience here thus far. As I was saying to JC in a recent Facebook message, it's incredible how clear my mind is from being here and having some time to just kinda...do anything...and nothing. It's allowed me to kinda re-look at a lot of the things I've done and a lot of the things I'm trying to do. And something awesome happened - I was really happy with what I saw.

Ah, I got really sentimental there for a moment!

Anyhow, the show goes up this weekend and I'm excited to perform, AND to get it out of the way (though rehearsals have gotten much better thanks to my and Dan's ability to hang out with our incredibly attractive costume designer). I hope people see it.

Tomorrow is class and rehearsal. Sounds like high school all over again...

An interesting Friday that I'll never forget.

2007-03-03T13:13:00.000+01:00

So the concert on Thursday turned out to be absolutely awesome. It was Tomas's cousin, not his nephew, and he plays this incredible Baroque organ that's powered by two levers that the musician has to push up every so often to keep air running through the instrument. Add to that this sweet Baroque-era cello-looking-thing (which had like 4 extra strings on it to give it a higher range), an early relative of the viola that looked like a mandolin with a six foot neck, and a wonderful singer, and you had a recipe for success.

Friday I had a test in my Czech class, which I of course studied for...afterwards, I headed to Cafe Louvre for lunch and some Prague Post reading, which was the best decision I've ever made. That night I was planning to catch some films that are playing here as part of the One World Documentary Festival. There were too many things that sounded interesting, and all of them were playing yesterday!

So I ended up catching two movies. Out of Balance is about ExxonMobil's contribution to the global warming crisis (they're the only major oil company not to acknowledge there's a problem, and they're the largest private company in the history of mankind). And then at night, Dan, Jonas, and I (and just about every other English-speaking person in Prague) witnessed the heartbreaking, nauseating, wonderful film Jesus Camp. If you haven't seen it, please do. It was fantastic to be a Jew watching this film in a theatre filled with atheists (the Czech Republic is the most atheist country in the world, remember). I understand now, more than ever, how the most common stereotype of Americans is true. People here perceive us as a country of religious zealots. And, to varying degrees, we are.

After the movie Dan and I hung out a bit with a Four Card poker dealer (who robbed us), and then I had the most unnerving experience I've had to date. I come home late nearly every night, which of course means I often run into interesting people in my walk from the tram back up to the house. Last night, I emerged from the underground passage as I always do, and as I was about to cross the street, I heard a voice from the other side. It was a woman, in her mid-30s, very thin but mostly healthy looking in the dark, standing at the bus stop. She was wearing a pink button-down sweater, a long skirt with a slit in the middle, and a pair of boots. She was talking to herself.

A strange sight to be sure. No buses come to that stop late at night. I crossed the street, aware of her staring at me, and silently hoped she wouldn't follow me. So when I heard footsteps start up behind me, the cold clank of boots on cobblestones, I knew I might be in trouble. I kept walking, giving the benefit of the doubt, but figured it might be a good idea to test my theory by crossing the street and seeing if she followed. As I did that she got very close to me. I turned around to see her face, like a deer in headlights.

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm following you."
Heart pounding.
"It's ok."

Brief silence, we stand there, me about to cross the street and her waiting for me to speak. She was helpless.

"Do you need anything?
"Oh I dunno. Just a beer. And a friend."
"Okay"

Okay...I cross the street, her now next to me, and she tried to hook her arm in mine. When I recoiled a bit, she was visibly embarrassed, still trying to feel out the boundaries of our relationship.

She repeated, "it's ok, it's ok. We don't have to do that."
"I mean you no harm."
She laughs at this, relieved. "And I to you as well."

"Where do you live?" I asked, trying to keep her talking and take her mind off of killing me.
"Nowhere now. I am an exile, from Israel"
Heart pounding.
"Jewish?"
"Yes, I am Jewish"

I believe her, and her Israeli accent. We walk on and talk more (I honestly can't remember most of what was said; my mind was racing, and it was nearly 4am). I apologize to her,

"I can't give you the beer."
"Oh that's alright. I'm just trying to live, you know? That's not wrong is it? That's not illegal is it?"
"It's not illegal"
"No!" An unsettling laugh. "It's not illegal!"
"You know, there are places in the city center where you could stay for the night, shelters."
"No, they are too dangerous." She looks at me, right in the eye. "I know everything."

She talks about living in Jerusalem, spitting out her address like it's involuntary, telling me her brother's name and the name of her friend. She's trying to get back to Israel, she says. It's good to have friends, she says.

"Are you an agent of Mossad?" She says.
I don't know what to say at first, and she quickly answers for me with a nervous laugh, "Of course you are not!"
"No, I am American."
Silence.
"How did you end up in Prague?
"Oh...that is a very long story."
"You don't have to tell it then, it's alright."

We walk on, up the hill, and I know I can't let her see where I live, no matter how harmless she seems. So at the turn onto my street I tell her I'm sorry, but this is where I have to leave her. Thankfully, she takes to this well.

"But let me give you some money for a place to stay."
"Oh, thank you so much. That is so wonderful."

I fish the coins out of my pocket, knowing it's not much, but it's better than her stealing my wallet. When I hand it to her, I remember what Elizabeth always said about homeless people and touch - their lack of physical contact with people is often what drives them insane. So I make sure to take her hand as I give her the coins, softly dropping them. She is beaming. She kisses me on both cheeks.

We say goodbye, and she walks back down the hill, calling to me with a rambling monologue about it not being wrong to want to save your friends, and that's not illegal is it? No, it's not. I hear her voice fade away and the clank of her boots with it. I am breathing very heavily. Immediately, I call Dan. He asks if she was hot. We agreed that she must have committed some kind of crime and fled Israel.

So whats the moral of this story? What do I gain from this latest adventure? To be honest, I'm not sure. But I think I did something good last night. And I doubt I'll soon forget it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!

2007-03-01T16:58:00.000+01:00

miss you!

How did this week go by so fast?

2007-03-01T16:24:00.000+01:00

Honestly, where does the time go?

Somehow in the course of my insane weekend, I forgot that Taryn was coming to visit on Monday! So Monday was fun - class, rehearsal (where Dan and I finally spoke up and kinda really took over directing for a while...), and then a glorious reunion at night! We went to a wine bar near Karlovo Namesti (...that means nothing to you, I just realized) that was really awesome. Except I had forgotten my keys at home. So I went home early and woke up Jonas, who was nice enough to let me in. That guy rules.

Tuesday was so far my favorite day of the week, though. I've been stressing a bit lately about where I'm going to go for my spring break (in two weeks). My attempts to join onto other groups of people have thus far been unsuccessful...and to be honest, there was always at least one person in any group I asked about that I didn't really want to spend that much time with. It finally occurred to me, though, that I couldn't leave until after the play is done...and Dan has 5 days off every week.

So Dan and I began searching our asses off for somewhere to go. Croatia was our first choice, but that proved way too expensive for a 5 day trip (though it's cheaper if you fly out of Bratislava, Slovakia. But get this - that would mean a 5hr train ride to Bratislava to catch a flight, then a short flight with a layover IN PRAGUE. Annoying!). So, we started to look at what was cheap. The result: Dan and I are spending five days in beautiful Switzerland (the flight was less than $100!). Geneva first, followed by two nights in Interlaken, where we'll do a bunch of outdoors-y stuff that my sister would be proud of me for - canyoning, bungee jumping, skydiving...

Tuesday was a day of walking around Prague with Taryn (in the rain...weather here has been really gross lately, cold and rainy), booking that trip, and dinner/walking around Prague more with Taryn. In the process, we found Bakeshop Praha, and my life has not been the same since....It was amazing seeing Taryn; I think I'm going to try to get to Aix (southern France) before I leave.

Wednesday was busy busy busy as ever, though it included a fantastic lunch grabbed from one of my new favorite restaurants, Paneria (a chain of baguetteries around here). And last night, I was informed of the success of IEC's first concert, which has had me flying high ever since.

Today has been uneventful. Early class this morning was tough to get up for, though my breakfasting included a memorable conversation with Jonas.

J:...and they have a big wan.
E: A big what?
J: Wan. A car.
E: Oh, a vvvvvvvaaaaaannnnnn.
J (laughs): Yes, a wan.
E: I think it's really interesting how even Czechs who speak English really well have trouble saying "vvvvvv."
J: I'm saying it wrong?

Tonight, I'm going with the family to see Tomas's nephew (I think...) and his wife play in a band at a gallery opening. Sounds fun!

A sidenote: I signed up for a Google Analytics account for this page, so I can track how many visitors I get and where they're coming from. The results have been really interesting - 50% of the people visiting this blog in the past week are new! I can see dots on the world map from Boca Raton (Hi Poppy!) and random places all over SoCal. Craziness - I even have a reader in Beijing! Which might call for an experiment - if I bash Communism and US-China relations, do you think Chinese people will still be able to read this? Just a thought...

Cell Phones, Spelunking, and SPERMs

2007-02-25T21:37:00.000+01:00

It's incredible how quickly feelings can change, how easily I can have a mediocre night followed by a stomp-your-feet-clap-your-hands-damn-this-world-rocks-and-my-life-is-changed night.

Friday was one of those annoying nights. After I posted (and let's face it, I was getting kinda mushy at the end. Whats up with that?), I decided I should try to find this pillow fight thing on Myspace to make sure it was actually going on. Mission accomplished (which is really incredible considering how difficult it is to find anything on that crappy site) - unfortunately, it wasn't happening till Saturday. Soooooooo what to do with my time?

Hung out around the house for hours, had dinner with Zuzana, tried to get a hold of people and did with varying success. No one knows how to pick up a phone. It's true - Dan agrees. I could go into a long explanation of the evening (which included me, frustrated, writing a really elaborate blog post in my head, and watching a man with a mullet dance like Michael Jackson. And watching two Eurotrash girls "dance" by hooking their fingers in their belt loops and swaying back and forth.), but I'll spare you the details.

The real point of this post is Saturday, an outstanding day in the life. Woke up around noon (yay!) for another incomparable lunch courtesy of Zuzana. Then, me, Tomas, and Zuzana drove about 30min outside of Prague, where the scenery completely changes into something resembling Pennsylvania. We visited a really great little village, thousands of years old, that was home to a monastery and a great hike to the top of a high cliff. And I didn't bring my damn camera!

Got home just in time to showoer, change the clothes, and head out to the pillow fight. I thought I was going to be late, but managed to get to the Astro Clock about 3 minutes before it all began, only to find...nothing...wait a minute...there are people, gathering, holding pillows! Sure enough, at 6:06, a whistle blew and the pillows began flying. It only lasted about a minute, but it was still awesome to witness something from nothing but a Myspace page! And the mountain of feathers that remained was blown into the sky by the wind, making it seem like it was snowing. (Flickr pics and a YouTube video to come). Met up with Paige and Maggie, and followed them back to the hostel they were staying at for the night (it's a long story), where we prepared dinner and had some deliciously cheap wine.

At about 10, we began the trek over to Abaton, where the infamous second-annual Sperm Festival was being held. The place was not easy to find - about a 15 minute walk from a Metro stop in Prague 8 (basically about as far from my house as a place could be). When we thought we might be lost, we asked for directions from a random guy who seemed like he was going our way - turns out John (that's him) works at an Internet cafe while finishing his studies at Charles University and was going to the same place.

It will be difficult for me to describe the scene at this festival. It was a cavernous warehouse, each room filled with smoke, well-placed beams of light, images projected on walls (on the wall near the entrance, just the word "Fertility"), and thumping techno-ish music. Surprisingly, there wasn't a suffocating number of people there, which is nice for a person who spends most weekends at clubs looking at and smelling peoples' armpits. Of course, one of the reasons for this was the large number of rooms - there were four stages, including a "cinema stage", on three different levels. Not to mention, bars in every corner. I took a bunch of pictures, which will be on Flickr soon.

By far the highlight of the evening was the festival headliners, a duo called Mouse on Mars who've been DJing together for about 15 years. I've never been to a concert like this, but I hope I can get to more. A floor completely packed with people, all dancing in place, but not with each other - such was the effect of that awesome kind of music that just envelopes you and forces your body to bounce up and down. (And most of them were probably on drugs, which could also explain it.) As a backdrop to their cooperative beatmaking, they projected a sketch of a skull with text running through the eyes saying things that essentially amounted to an indictment of America and all other governments for...well, existing (Anarchy, woo!). A multi-media experience of glitch-y, bass-y, fun-filled music and video.

After that, we hung out at another stage and listened to another headliner - Deadelus. Another sweet DJ, this one with a more mellow sound, and from the US (though he too had some anti-American stuff projected behind him. Made me realize - alternative culture means going against the mainstream, and the US is it now...). After his set, we took a short rest, then back upstairs to catch Czech rapper/beatmaker WWW, who raps like you'd expect Al Pacino to - eating the walls. As an added plus, I ran into Daedelus during this show, and we chatted for a moment. Turns out he's a USC grad!

So by the end of the evening (beginning of the morning? middle of the morning?) I had seen some fantastic performers, hung out with some great people (Prague is a very small place - my friends from FAMU were all at this festival, of course, but one of them apparently hangs out with Milo, the DJ from that great 80s night at Nebe. Not to mention, I met the guy who organized the pillow fight - he wants my pictures), danced enough to make my knees ache a bit, and stolen a poster for the event off of a wall (not like they need it any more). Rather than finding my way home on public trans (which would have been difficult for a few reasons), I took a too-expensive cab ride home. Eh, I don't pay for meals, I can afford it.

Today has been recovery day, for the most part. Another four hours of rehearsal went by like slow death, especially considering the headache I had forgotten to take Tylenol for. But to cap it off, Dan and I grabbed dinner at Radost F/X, a club/bookstore/music shop/lounge/printing press/veggie restaurant known as one of the best in Prague, and watched Lost.

Good thing I've got such an uneventful life. I'm gonna go pass out and start next week's adventures.

Self-meditation, all the time

2007-02-23T15:51:00.000+01:00

Thursday was yet another beautiful day here. It's beginning to feel like spring already, complete with some girls venturing to wear flip-flops again. That's probably sounds insane to those of you in the Midwest right now.

So my producing class was, as always, ridiculously awesome, and the Contemporary Culture class that followed was just as good. Afterwards, I bought my ticket to Sperm Festival, which I'll be attending with Paige and Maggie, and maybe even all those people from dinner the other night. It should be a ridiculous evening.

Spent some time at the Museum of Communism, too, which I was supposed to do with my friend Mona, but couldn't get a hold of her. The place is pretty interesting, famously located above a McDonald's and next to a casino and started by an American business man who thought he could make a buck off the idea. They have some neat artifacts there, and I learned some interesting things. Like, for instance, since groceries were hard to find (to say the least), when stores got shipments the workers would save some items for people who they knew would pay them more. Butchers started to trade their meat, which they received once a month, for other goods, so a kind of barter economy was born. On top of that, something I thought was really strange was the Czech system for foreign currency during communism. Foreign money couldn't be exchanged for Korunas (Czech currency), only for a new currency (the name escapes me now...). This new currency was actually worth EIGHT TIMES as much as normal currency - so women would whore themselves out to Germans or Americans, take their foreign money and exchange it, then sell their exchanged money on the black market at an 8x profit.

On my way out, I bought a postcard and a red candle in the shape of Lenin's head. Such kitsch!

Speaking of things that are more valuable because they're tough to find, I got this email from my mother yesterday:

"So-Dad doesn't want me to tell you this-but- I got a Wii !!!!!!...as we speak, Dad is connecting it up downstairs. Will let you know how it goes!"

Jealousy ensues!

I also had the chance this week to start looking at classes for summer school, and was slightly enraged to find out that one class I have to take starts May 16, only four days after this program ends. So it looks like I'll be coming home much earlier than expected, and won't get the chance to travel much, if at all, after the program ends. It's kinda made me feel foolish for being in this play, since I probably won't get the chance to see everything I wanted to, but at the same time I think I've managed to organize all my remaining free weekends well enough that I'll get to see a bunch. I think things are really going to change once I can travel more; right now, after the play I've scheduled trips four weekends in a row, and I don't plan on leaving it at that.

Today has been relaxing, as all days have been lately. Czech class, followed by lunch at a place I've been meaning to find for a month - an American-owned, Chipotle-style burrito restaurant. Wow. I didn't realize how much I missed Mexican food. I took my time, savoring the burrito, spanish rice, and refried beans while reading this week's Prague Post (really, a great, intellectually written newspaper).

I think this week has been a time for me to really see why I'm in Europe for a semester. Of course I'm experiencing another culture, and that's one huge part of this whole deal. But in talking to some of those people at dinner on Wednesday, I was realizing how nice it would be to be able to spend a year here - long enough to not have to worry about what happens when you get home, to really disconnect. (I'm doing fairly well in that respect, I think, but all the same...)

Anyhow, I had intended to make this semester my time to try to relax for once in my life and see what happens. I kinda talked about this already this week, so I'll suffice it to say for now that my nights out with people from my program (which are fun-filled and more frequent lately, at Scott's shrewd suggestion) and my large amount of free time for reading, thinking, listening to music, looking at Centuries-old sites, museum browsing, and talking to my constantly interesting host family...they've all combined to start giving me a much better sense of...stuff, to be exact. So there you have it.

I'm gonna try to find a decent torrent of this week's LOST episode. Then I have a pillow fight to attend to.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sigh of relaxation.

2007-02-21T23:45:00.000+01:00

You know those times when it seems like you just do everything right? Case in point: the last few days.

I haven't really talked much about what's going on back at home, but I have to mention that me and Andrew made the Indiana Daily Student for the event we're (he's) promoting at IU next week. Very cool, I'm really excited to see what happens!

My shopping excursion yesterday was surprisingly successful. I forgot that European people like their clothes smaller, so every store had stuff that fit me!

Last night was also a great time. I went with Dan and some people from his program to a Mardi Gras party on a boat that had been advertised by cheaply-made fliers written in English. Sketchy? You bet. But we had an amazing time. (see my late night Facebook wall posting for evidence)

Which made getting up this morning a bit of an issue. I managed it, though the incredibly foggy weather was strangely mirroring my internal state. The weather got a lot better as the day went on, however, and for some reason all my classes had a really nice, careless vibe to them. had a nice tour this morning for my architecture class, and managed to get a good lunch afterwards. We laughed our way through Czech class, then my boring film class was actually interesting (we played with color temperature meters). The prof then didn't show up for my Cinematography class, so I grabbed a coffee with Evan, Sari, and Alana.

The highlight, of course, was my European Film Analysis class which, as boring as it sounds, it amazing. Last week we watched a Godard film, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her. Today, we spent an hour and a half just...talking about it. Awesome.

Awesome-er: after class, I struck up a conversation with another American student, who subsequently invited me to dinner with some other FAMU International ladies. Recognizing the wonder in the impulsiveness of the whole situation, and relishing in the fact that I had found some people who really loved to talk about the paradox in Godard's distancing his audiences while preaching to them, I quickly accepted the invitation. What followed was a mass of fantastic conversation, great food and drink, and general excellence. One girl was from Sweden, one from San Fran by way of Taiwan, one from Oregon, a guy from Germany, and the original girl I had talked to was from NYC. New friends all over the globe!

And I now have some plans for the weekend. Apparently Friday, at 6:06pm, there will be an official pillow fight in Old Town Square, the "Prague Pillow Fight." I will be there. There's also a big music/cinema festival going on in Prague right now called Spermfest, the main show of which is this Saturday. Prolly be there too. All night. Better get to sleep now so I can save up for it...

Goodnight

2007-02-20T00:08:00.000+01:00

Just thought I should say hello before I check out for the evening. It was a nice day, despite the newly foggy weather, the end of which was filled with some interesting introspection.

JC and I have been talking for the past day or so about the wonders of svičkova (the lunch I had yesterday...and today). Don't worry, I've already been promised a recipe (there is no definitive version), so it will be made at home! The first step of Zuzana's version involves wrapping the meat in bacon and cooking it for a bit, then cooking the meat with vinegar and vegetables for about 5 hours....mouth is watering currently...

Had class this morning, followed by homework I had forgotten, more class, then four hours of rehearsal that actually went by quite quickly, for once. I'm starting to mess around with new bits and stuff, and it's always fun to make people laugh.

The highlight of my day has been the evening though. For those who don't know, I love public transportation, and taking it home was yet another chance for me to spend some time with myself, something I really don't get the time to do when I'm in LA. It's nice to have that kind of self-reflection.

Got home and was happy I had made the decision not to go out again tonight (just seemed kinda worthless to go pretend I'm better friends with these people than I actually am...I feel like I barely spend time with anyone on my program now, with Dan being here and us being in the play. Oh well). Instead, I ate leftover svičkova and had a nice long conversation with Tomas and Zuzana while we polished off about a bottle of wine (they were proud to point out that it's even legal in the US for me now...yes I will talk about that in every post from now on, thank you very much).

Also booked the return flight from Budapest for the weekend my parents are here (I'll be driving there with them). I love booking trips...can't wait to nail down spring break. It's strange - I find myself constantly waiting for the next thing to happen here, anticipating my next adventure and hoping it comes soon. This blog has certainly been fueling that to some extent (seriously, I narrate my life in my head now. I'm narrating this to myself right now (WHOA!)), and I don't mind it. It keeps me making the most of my time here, I think.

Tomorrow I have one class and then I have to do some shopping, since I'm getting tired of my limited wardrobe (I underpacked, as suggested, which was good, but it's time to mix it up a bit). Who knows what adventures the day might hold. I'll tell you all about it.

A beautiful, relaxing, lazy Sunday

2007-02-18T18:22:00.000+01:00

Finally posted new pics on Flickr! Including Krakow stuff. So check it out!

Woke up late, had some coffee, hung out for a while, then enjoyed a feast for the ages prepared by Zuzana to celebrate Dan's and Vaclav's birthdays (both today). An awesome meal of one of my favorite Czech dishes (I forget what it's called now, but it's beef in a sweet cream sauce, served with jam and bread dumplings....oh wow...), followed by a compulsory nap (seriously, nothing could keep any of us awake). Rest of the day has been emails, posting pictures, and reading the news...glorious.

Tomorrow is more class, then rehearsal. I've been trying to get some shopping done, maybe I'll do that too...

A few busy days

2007-02-17T19:26:00.000+01:00

Phew! I just got back from nearly eight hours of rehearsal, and they were some of the slowest hours of my life. When Dan and I are on stage together, all's well and everything goes quickly, but our very particular director stops often and makes sure every line (EVERY line) is said exactly as he wants it. Not too enthralling a rehearsal process.

In other news, as of yesterday, I have been living in Prague for one month. My first month here was filled with lots of fun, occasional anxiety, and several trips around the city with absolutely no clue where I was or where I was going. I've seen almost all the sites here that I wanted to see (minus the museums, which I've really got to get to), and many sites I haven't meant to see but feel privileged to have seen them (was that English?). I also don't think I've gained any (or very much) weight, which impresses the hell out of me. My next stop on the Prague tour will probably be restaurants...but it's tough to convince myself to try to get people together for a meal, when I get free homecooked awesome meals right here, every day...

The past few days have pretty much been defined by the visit of a good friend from home and two of her good friends, all of whom are studying in Barcelona right now. Carrie, Sarah Z, and Sarah S spent Thursday and Friday touring Prague, with me and Dan as their tour guides. That meant another visit to a lot of the sites I had already seen (which I don't mind. Stuff's pretty damn nice around here), and a LOT of walking (seriously legs hurt again). They are three wonderful girls and we had a lot of fun together. Also, I've been getting over my sickness (after the sinus infection, the cold kicked in...ew stuffy nose. Apparently it's rude in Czech culture if you sniffle...but I doubt they started that custom knowing how loudly I blow my nose). I truly hate being sick, if for no other reason than because it's taking a toll on my (newly legal!!) tolerance-building.

For the past few days, Dan has been acting a bit strangely, and last night he opened up a bit as to why. Turns out he's feeling like he's in the same kind of "funk" that I felt when I had been here for about the same amount of time he's been here for. Good to know I'm not alone in these things! It's also kinda annoying for us to be here while everyone on our programs is off traveling (I had to sell my ticket to our program-sponsored trip to Vienna this weekend). We're kind of assuming that these rehearsals will pay off when there's a crowd laughing in front of us. It's his 21st birthday tomorrow, so that should perk him up.

Yesterday, I booked my trip to Amsterdam, for Easter weekend. I'll be going with Dan, Josh Kaplan, Mike Breen, and their UM Pike-mate Marty. I don't think I've ever been more excited for anything than I am for that weekend...ohhh the stories that will unfold.

In a related story, I don't think I'll be getting to Greece after all (at least for now). The guys I went to Krakow with are all going to Italy/Croatia for spring break and, while I've been to Italy, my late spring break departure (I have to be here for the play) should mean minimal time seeing things I already have and maximal Croatia-ness (a place I probably wouldn't go otherwise, and Phil Eastman has honestly been telling me to go there for a year). So that should be fun as well (though nothing's booked quite yet). Maybe I'll witness some more hanky-panky. Or another roundhouse kick to the face.

Tomorrow, I have the whole day to myself and I am determined to get pictures on the Flickr if it's the last thing I do!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T21:53:00.000+01:00

Kiss 'em if ya got 'em!

I should start with Monday night, when we had our first rehearsal for this play. As expected, it was a completely surreal experience being in a rehearsal with Dan and not being at GBN or in his basement or in my living room. The director is a nice guy; he's originally from North Carolina (and still has that fantastic accent, one of my favorites in the US), and he's been living in Prague for the past year working on assorted films (some major, in the SFX dept), but he'd like to get out of here soon. He's taking this whole thing more seriously than I (or Dan) had expected, which might get annoying since I certainly am not.

The script is pretty good (I might have mentioned that before), and it was fun getting it on its feet. Dan and I both have to make out with women significantly older than us, though my nearly-forty-year-old British woman definitely takes the cake. Dan's "wife" reminds us a lot of Natalie Boccumini.

I started running a fever during rehearsal, came home and slept, and you know all about yesterday (except that I watched Lost last night! A great episode!).

Which brings us to today. This holiday is very different in Prague, and not just for the expected reasons. Of course, everything people say about this holiday in the US is true: it's not even a big deal holiday, but gift/greeting card/candy companies have managed to make us believe it is (but is it so bad to have a holiday about love?). But there's more to it.

My study center (where my non-film classes are held) sits on the site of the magnificent Vyšehrad castle, site of several former Prague Kings and of course, home to a magnificent cathedral (which they light up at night like the Empire State Building). Apparently, every cathedral in CR (or maybe the world? not sure...) holds the remains of a particular saint (not necessarily the saint to whom the place is consecrated), and those remains are taken out and put on display one day every year.

So today, about 20 feet east of my classes, the remains of St. Valentine himself were on display all day. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to check it out, but it's definitely put a new spin on this holiday!

Today was the usual busy, lunch-less Wednesday, including my least favorite class, but ending with a great surprise. The one class that was canceled last week seems like it's going to be awesome. The prof told us all we were going to do was watch and talk about "non-Hollywood" European films. We started today with a Godard film, which I really loved and would never have watched otherwise, so I was very happy.

All of my classes were canceled tomorrow (love it), so I'll probably spend the whole day sleeping or walking around while it's still nice out (the weather here has been really strange lately...sunny and amazing until about 6pm, then rain all night). Or maybe I'll do homework. Meh, maybe not.

Krakow: Day 2-3

2007-02-13T17:42:00.000+01:00

NOTE: This is part 2 of 2. You should read them in order! The first one is the post before this.

We woke up at 10. And went back to bed. We woke up at 11. I checked my mail to see how the Trojan Men had fared at Absolut, and took some Tylenol for my RAGING headache (damn you, vodka...). I went back to bed. At noon, we finally did get up and started to execute our plan for the day: check out the city, then a tour of the legendary salt mine.

We began where every day should begin, with a bagel at Bagelmama, a restaurant that allegedly sits on the site of the birth place of the bagel (literally 10 feet from a massive synagogue). Awesome bagels, and for cheap! From there, it was a short walk (as everything is in Krakow, seriously the place is tiny) to the magnificent Wawa Castle. The place is such a cool mixture of different types of architectures, and it's all open to the public, just like Prague Castle. We toured the armory...cuz you know, we're guys and all.

The city itself, as we found on our walk back, is magnificent, but you can check out more of that on flickr. And the salt mines are salty and really neat as well, but that'll be on the flickr as well. Suffice it to say we had a big day.

Which of course, could only be matched by a bigger night (after all, it was my birthday). And oh, what a night it was...first, dinner at an outstanding restaurant (Martin's recommendation again. That guy rocks), which included two 5L towers of beer (awesome beer). It was then time to hit the club, along with the other CIEE people who had visited Krakow this weekend (we didn't really see anyone we knew for the majority of the time we were there. Which, for the most part, was actually really nice). I'll spare you the details of the evening and give the highlights:

-Towards the end of the evening, I found Dave in a corner of the club near the exit, asleep and almost completely unresponsive. As I was sitting there, Evan walked up and joined him, in a similar state. I walked away for a moment, trying to see if anyone else was left to hang out with, and when I returned they had mysteriously disappeared....I found out later: Dave had vomited...everywhere...and had been kicked out, and Evan went with him. On the way home, in a drunken stupor, they passed some Brits, to whom Dave said something (he can't remember what it was, but it was probably something about the US bailing them out of WWII. He's a history major.) The Brit passed Dave, turned around and ran at him at full speed. With a huge leap into the air, the guy performed a Bruce Lee-style roundhouse kick and jacked my 6'4" friend in the face. Dave, slightly shocked (mostly at the fact that the guy just kicked him IN THE FACE, as opposed to something, anything lower), paused a moment, but Evan charged at the guy. Dave held him back, realizing there were eight of them and fighting would be a very lost cause. They returned home.

-!!HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP ALERT!! So, not finding anyone to go home with, I decided to walk back to the hostel on my own (in the freezing cold). I found Evan and Dave in the lobby of the hostel on the internet, where I heard the aforementioned roundhouse-kick-to-the-face story. I checked my email again, and retired to the room, where Evan and Dave had already passed out. On the bed next to me, I discovered Danny G under his blanket. Oh wait. There are 4 legs there...I walked out to brush my teeth, came back in for a towel, and saw the same lump, but with Danny's ass sticking out of one end. I left. Came back. Danny is sitting up at the head of his bed, but still there's this lump in the middle under the covers and now it's pulsing. I stare at him a moment in disbelief, wondering if he can see me. He gives a small wave.

The next morning we had a very unwelcome wake up call at 9am. At 10, we had to catch a bus to tour Auschwitz. Not many words to describe this one...everyone should get a chance to see it. The weather was exactly what you'd expect to tour a place like that: freezing and foggy. It looked like there were ghosts hanging in the air everywhere. After our tour, we were given some time to walk around on our own, and me, Dave, and Jon set out to find the pond in the north side of the camp that, to this day, is gray with ashes. Quite dramatic. Unfortunately, Auschwitz is a very big place, and we were 20 minutes late getting back to the bus, which had almost left without us. So I almost got stuck in Auschwitz...

We lounged the rest of the day (it was a 6 hour tour, and we had to recover), then had a fantastic dinner of authentic Polish food - tons upon tons of pierogi (AMAZING) and of course, some beer to help us sleep on the train.

Which would have helped, had the train not been so small that we got stuck in a smoking car with two Polish guys who were hilarious. After asking if Evan W was in al-Qaeda, one of them tried to bargain with Dave (in Polish, remember...we think he was bargaining) to get rid of some zlutys (Polish currency) and exchange it for Korunas. At least we think that's what he was trying to say...

So I didn't sleep much, and woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose that has since matured into a full-on sinus infection. Oh well. At this point, I'm done writing, so you'll have to hear about the first day of rehearsal some other time!

It's been so long!

2007-02-13T16:32:00.000+01:00

NOTE: This is part 1 of 2. Read this one first!

WOW there's so much to talk about! I'm sick (sinus infection, always happens around this time...), so I'm taking the rest of the day off (easy when I don't have any classes). I'm gonna post now about the incredible adventures I had in Krakow (of which there are many), but I'm afraid the Flickr photos might take longer (I have about 200 pictures waiting to go up there).

Allow me to begin with a description of our key characters:

Evan W: My good friend with a fantastic first name, and a fellow Trojan. He's tall and lanky with a huge head of curly hair and a beard (that will be important later). Always dressed well, Evan is the kind of guy who takes great pride in his individuality.

Dave: 6'4" and probably about 250lbs, Dave plays O-line for Williams. Everything about him is huge. Speaks in a low, throaty voice and snores incessantly (even while he's awake). He loves women.

Jon: Also a football player (at Amherst), but not as gigantic as Dave, John kinda declared himself the leader of our rag tag bunch of misfits. He had done some research on the place, had booked our hostel, and generally was in front whenever we were walking.

Danny G: Born and bread New Yorker going to school at Tulane. The kind of person who never ceases to surprise you, he seems really frat-cool when you first meet him, before you find out that A) he's a literature major and LOVES it and B) he can quote Dragonball Z.

Danny: Remember the guy I talked about a while ago who I really didn't like? Yeah, him. The guy's actually really nice, just didn't make the best first impression. But partying is his deal.

And thus, the trip began. We managed to snag an entire compartment to ourselves on the way there, which was really nice to have when we all started to try to sleep. I had some great conversations with Evan and Danny G, about assorted topics, and Dave, all 6'4" of him, slid onto the floor and passed out with all of our legs on top of him.

Not taking the night train on Friday was the best idea anyone has ever had. We arrived in Poland at about 10pm, plenty of time to find our hostel and still hit up the night life. Of course, we got lost on the way there (well not lost, just off our maps), but we finally arrived at the dilapidated parking lot where, in one corner, the back door of our hostel was located. The Stranger (we pronounced 'stranger' like Busta Rhymes pronounces the word 'danger"), our home away from home, was a really nice palce that was basically empty, aside from the group of 20 English guys (more on them later). We got an entire room to ourselves.

That night was still Evan's birthday, and at midnight it would be mine, so we took a recommendation from Martin, the guy working our front desk, and set out with nothing but a name and a list of drinks and shots we should order (Poland, after all, is the land of sweet vodkas...like the 100 proof honey vodka that tastes like candy). The place we ended up at was a tall building with a different club on every level, and was a lot of fun. Especially when, after introducing myself to a nice Polish girl, she informed me it was a gay club.

Despite that, three members of our party managed to do just fine, and I ended the night walking home with Dave, Jon, and Danny (not G. that's gonna get confusing). It was a glorious ending to an evening, complete with me laying down a beat for a professional break dancer in the middle of Krakow's Old Town square. We found some Polish girls who spoke English and they led us to some late night food (but not before Jon managed to kiss one of them. It was impressive), and we headed back to the hostel for the evening.

I'll continue in a new post....we'll be right back after this short break.

holy crap!!

2007-02-08T15:42:00.000+01:00

What a night! We begin on the tram, when I got a phone call from the director of the play I auditioned for, who informed me that me AND Dan had both made it! So we'll be appearing on stage together again. It's so surreal...

Then, there was the crazy karaoke that followed. I haven't been writing much about my evenings on this blog, but this was awesome. The bar we went to was great, with cheap drinks and a good DJ. And the karaoke, while it required a long wait, was fantastic. each person got an entire stage to him or herself, with the lyrics projected behind them. People were singing American songs in Czech, which was as hilarious as it was at the Maturity Ball, and everyone was dancing and singing along to everything.

I looked for a great song to sing, and found Queen's Somebody to Love. Such a long wait later, I grabbed the mic. And proceeded to rock out. Air guitar. Yelling the high notes. Going nuts. It's been a long time since I've sung in front of an audience, so I had a lot of energy to release. It's also been an even longer time since I could just sing loud without caring about losing my voice. So I did. And at the end, when someone told me to crowd surf...I couldn't resist. Damn, that was fun.

So I went home happy and woke up early (7:20am, with some difficulty...) to get to the class I've been looking forward to, Producer's Craft. It was worth the early wake up. The prof is fantastic, he teaches the class like it's something he's produced himself, which means organized and informational. And the stuff we're learning about is exactly what I've always wanted to know: film business, law, and marketing. I never thought I'd say this...but I guess I should take some classes that have math...

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be able to switch out of that class I don't like (at least not without a lot of drama and having to take another class I won't like). Oh well. One uninteresting class out of six won't kill me.

Fortunately, it is starting to look like I'll be able to get to Greece for spring break. I've found some folks who are going, and I'm going to try to meet them at some point (the play performs during the first weekend).

This will probably be my last post until Monday, since I leave for Krakow at 2pm tomorrow. I'm looking forward to an awesome weekend (with about a million of my new closest friends...a bunch of Americans are going this weekend, from our program and others), and a memorable 21st birthday.

Changing more classes...

2007-02-07T20:29:00.000+01:00

So no callback after all last night; the director couldn't get everyone together for it. Haven't heard from him since. Oh well - I would have turned down the role if Dan didn't get in with me anyway! (Kinda a jerky thing to do. But I never really thought I'd actually be up for a role). Instead, Jonas had me come along with him and two friends to see a movie, Trsitram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (it was in the US a while ago), which was fun. Hung out at Dan's apartment afterwards. It is wonderful having him here.

More of my first week of classes today, and so far I've only had one disappointment. The day started late(r) again, with a tour through Old Town, including seeing the interior of the Town Hall (and the inside of the Astronomical Clock, which was sweeeet). It was really interesting, but we went 40 minutes past our end time, leaving me zero time to get lunch, which was a problem (as anyone who has seen me hungry can attest).

Czech class was its normal self, and afterwards I headed to FAMU for my first film classes. Turns out, Principles and Technology of Photography isn't as great as I had thought it might be...the prof gave us permission to get up and leave if we ever thought we were uninterested...I gave the class a decent chance. He talked for about 45 min about the physics of light, complete with slides of graphs showing things like the Stephan-Boltzman law. Interesting stuff, but I don't know about a whole semester of it. Plus there was this guy behind me who kept asking the most ridiculous questions in a Greek accent..."The sun makes UV rays?"..."So if we can't see infrared, how do they make films that can?"...and the prof kept answering with these long detailed answers that didn't apply to the lecture at all.

So, me and Jenn (who goes to UW Madison) left together (with the prof's blessing) and went next door to the awesome cafe across from the National Theater. I have no clue how my schedule is going to change now...

Tonight is karaoke night. Needless to say, I will be making an appearance.

a big few days

2007-02-06T14:33:00.000+01:00

Where did I leave you? Ah yes, the Super Bowl.

A fun night. I had dinner with Dan and his friend Max (who's studying here on another program), then we went to a bar for the game. Dan was a bigger fan of the place where Max's program was watching (across the street from where all 2834723 people in my program were), so I just hung out with them. Interestingly enough, I ran into a girl who was on my Birthright trip to Israel! Small world...

At half time, I was ready to go home and watch the rest of the carnage on my computer, so Dan and I left to head to the tram. He had to pee, so we went down into the metro station looking for the WC. Now, allow me to describe the creepiness of a metro station when the metro is closed. What is normally a bustling area, filled with Czechs going about their days, is an eerily quiet hall of marble, lit by oppressive fluorescent lights. It's like every horror film you've ever seen. We found the WC in one corner of the place, and found two guys sitting in front of it, one of whom had a paper towel pressed to his eye and looked like he was seriously injured. Sketchy. Dan attempted to go around him and the guy looked up and asked him something, I think in Czech.

The guy had no eyes. He was offering Dan cocaine. We decided to turn around. (I'll hear from Mom about that one!)

So yesterday, audition day and the first day of classes, was as eventful as it sounds. It was the kinda day I like having, where there's always something to do. I had Czech language in the morning (only for an hour), then went home for lunch, a nap, a shower, and some photo editing before I came back to class.

I should go back a bit. This audition does seem like it was some sort of providence. They asked for a headshot and resume, if you had one, so I printed my resume but needed a photo. Lightbulb! At the Museum of Cubism on Sunday, my friend Elena had snapped some pictures of me (using her outstanding Canon DSLR camera) that had looked really good! I had her email them to me.

So after my classes, I met Dan and we went to a photo place near Wenceslas Sq (damn I spend a lot of time near there) and had our photos printed. He went to dinner with his program, and I decided to walk around for a bit rather than go alllllll the way home, only to come alllllll the way back. I dined in a too-expensive restaurant showing MTV Europe (I watched Pimp My Ride!). I'll make a long story short: what Dan had said would be an hour-long dinner with his program turned into a two-hour-extravaganza. My legs still hurt this morning from all the walking I did waiting for him.

The audition went surprisingly well. There was only one part I was really good for, in a play called Stewie the Stoic, where the main character, Stewie, was described as a "shorter than average 25-35 year old" who was preferably thin and WASPy. Well, 1.5 out of 3 ain't bad. It's a comedy, and Dan auditioned for the role opposite me, so we had a damn good time acting together again.

Today has been great, I woke up late(r), since my only class is 10:30-12, and have since been doing homework, having lunch, and blogging. The class this morning was Contemporary Czech Culture: Alternative Music, Film, etc, and it's as cool as it sounds. An interesting sidenote: we all introduced ourselves, saying what our focus was in school, and I found it interesting how much more well-spoken and self-assured all the USC kids were. Where others said "Finance. Banking. Sociology." each USC kid had a specific area s/he was focusing on: interrelationships of art and finance, African-American poetry and society, interactive media (me). Interesting...

Got an email today from Jared about The Trojan Men, who are busily preparing for their big weekend of competitions. I am very jealous - I miss singing with them a lot.

Went to lunch and got a call from the director we auditioned for, who wants me and Dan to come for a call back tonight. Score! This could be like high school all over again!

happy birthday Lisa!

2007-02-04T19:02:00.000+01:00

eh, might as well

2007-02-04T18:49:00.000+01:00

A nice day so far. Woke up late, returned the skis, and browsed the museum of cubism with some nice people from my program. Cubism here is really cool, mostly because Prague was the center of bringing the movement from canvas into three dimensions. So there's a lot of sculpture, and a bunch of architecture too.

Had lunch and coffee at the museum, the browsed some souvenir shops with two of the ladies I had been with. I was killing time, waiting for Dan, who arrived this morning and was taking a ridiculous boat tour of the Vltava (only for tourists). Once found, Dan and I came back to the house and hung out for a while. It was great to talk to him again. He's not looking forward to adjusting to a roommate he doesn't know (he's never lived with someone he hasn't known previously), nor to having to introduce himself to a million people again (sound familiar?). We're going to dinner in a bit, then SUPER BOWL time!

I picked up a copy of the Prague Post today, just for a kick (that's a link to their website back there. I'll add it to the side bar too). There were some interesting articles, but most interesting was an ad I found while I flipped through. Turns out they've been having a contest for new plays (in English), which they'll be putting on in March. They've picked the plays, and they're holding auditions tomorrow. So I think I'm gonna go, and convince Dan to come with me. Now THAT would be an adventure.

the opera and the slopes

2007-02-03T21:02:00.000+01:00

What a sweet two days! Our Czech language instruction ended with a scavenger hunt written by our teacher (the wonderful Bara). The hunt took us up Petrin hill (an area I had yet to explore, and was planning on it) to the 1/5 replica of the Eiffel Tower and a sweet mirror maze, ending at the world famous Bohemia Bagel for lunch and declaration of winners (I had a bagel, lox, cream cheese, capers, and onions, and it was amazing. My dad is proud, I'm sure). You have to love a country where your teacher can give a bottle of alcohol as a prize.

In the remainder of the afternoon, I went to the train station and bought my ticket to Krakow for next weekend. As it turns out, I'm going on what seems to be the "in" trip to take next weekend, which I have mixed feelings about. I bought my ticket with 6 other guys (including Evan W), most of whom I wouldn't exactly be best friends with. But, as Mom said, we don't have to be best pals; it'll still be nice to take my first trip with other people. It will be interesting to tour Auschwitz (on my birthday) with all million people who are going. It will be a story.

That night, the program treated us to some very cheap seats at the State Opera House, where we saw Verdi's Nabucco. The building is ridiculous (pics soon...I actually think that's the building in The Living Daylights, not Municipal House). Of course, the opera was sung entirely in Italian, but there were supertitles. In Czech. I still managed to stay awake the whole time, probably because the orchestra was awesome (and so were most of the singers), and because I bought a 47Kc English summary.

Afterwards, Steph Beren (Taryn B's friend and future roomie at IU) and I grabbed some dinner around the corner. Steph is awesome. I drank my beer and half of hers and was feeling toasty (seriously, I've been here for almost 3 weeks, drank nearly a liter of beer a day, and still have no tolerance).

I went home early, because this morning I woke up at 6:10am to catch the bus (with Zuzana and Jonas) to a ski slope near the border with Poland. Zuzana called today a "demanding day" and I would have to agree, especially coming from the guy who hasn't skied in a very long time (...and who's not athletic. There, I said it. Happy?). When Jonas and I got off the bus, I didn't really get what was going on - the bus was stopped in the middle of the street, and it didn't seem like everyone was getting off, so I sort of hung out there with most of my gear, and watched as the bus drive away with my poles...a looooong walk in ski boots later (wow painful. At one point, BOTH feet fell asleep in the boots), and I had a new Czech friend, and a new Israeli friend (from near Haifa) who studies at Charles University and speaks nearly perfect Czech.

The mountain we went to was really nice (though I've been horribly spoiled by my trips to Colorado/Utah/Tahoe), but unfortunately the weather this morning was not. At the peak, the snow was falling in big pellets, like small pieces of hail, which would have made a nice powder had it not been for the wind howling like a hurricane. I would have been afraid of falling down the hill, but the wind honestly could have pushed me back the other way.

After two trips down the slope in this weather, I was already ready for a break (it made me feel ridiculous saying that to Jonas and his friends). My legs are still adjusting to the amount of walking I'm doing here, and the hike before the skiing wasn't helping either. (Yeah, I'm making excuses. I can hear my mother and sister calling me a wimp already. Let's face it folks, Evan has had a storied history with skiing...). A quick recharge and I was back in action, though. The weather cleared up, and the skiing was, as Jonas would say, "quite nice."

I also got the chance today to get a good sample of Czech chocolate and Czech cookies, which I have been eating the entire day. Hells yes. I'd have to say, though, my favorite part of the day was the trip back home, which we did on public trans, carrying all our gear from the tram, up Baneofmyexistence Hill. Czechs make you have to deserve their cookies.

happy birthday zuzana!

2007-02-01T21:39:00.000+01:00

Kicked out

2007-02-01T20:28:00.000+01:00

Not a particularly interesting day, I suppose. Tomas is sick, which is not fun (he's coughing right now...I think there's a Prague bug going around, a lot of people in the program are sick too).

After our last day of language class (yay! just a test tomorrow), we took a trip to the National Library for a tour. It was about as interesting as it sounds. Afterwards, I took the very short walk from the library to the Jewish quarter to make good on my plans.

I got there at 4, paid my admission (not cheap, but I got a student discount), and first walked through the Holocaust memorial - a nice synagogue, walls covered with the names of Czech Jews murdered. I like those. Upstairs was the really neat part, though - an exhibit of artwork made my children in concentration camps. I've never seen anything quite like it, and it was really interesting to see their interpretations of all of the terrible things happening around them.

But the real impressive stuff came after this. There are a lot of fantastic sites in Prague, but so far, the Old Jewish Cemetery is the only one to take my breath away. It's a tiny space in the middle of the old Jewish ghetto that, according to gravestone ages, has been around since at least the early 1400s(!). They didn't have much room to bury people after a while (they could only expand it so much, and they weren't given any more space to live), and in Jewish custom, you can't touch the bodies of the deceased (which would be why there are no bone synagogues in Kutna Hora). So, they began stacking coffins on top of each other, eventually piling more dirt into the cemetery to raise the level of the earth and make room for more people. Over 12,000 people, all in about an acre of land, all with their own gravestones. Quite the dramatic site (Flickr soon).

So you could imagine my state of mind when the security guard yelled "excuse me," making me think I had stepped somewhere I wasn't supposed to. He turned away, I started another way for a bit, and then I heard "EXCUSE ME...WE'RE DONE" loud and angry. The whole cemetery? I asked. "GET OUT!" Damn. Ok. They closed at 4:30, turns out (that exchange happened at exactly 4:30, not a minute after), but they guy was still a jerk.

This weekend, I'm going skiing with the fam on Saturday (though we might not, since it might be raining in the mountains), then museuming/Brian Urlacher worshiping/welcoming Dan on Sunday. Next weekend, it really does look like I'll be going to Krakow, which will be amazing I'm sure. It also really does look like I'll be turning 21 next weekend...

get me OUT of these Czech classes!

2007-01-31T22:38:00.000+01:00

UGH when will they end? (this Friday!!!)

I'll admit it, I've been kinda down and out of late (ever since Friday's cell phone debacle), and I really haven't known why. It's that annoying tired feeling, where you don't feel like anything is particularly exciting, and that fact really frustrates you because hey, you're in Prague, things should be exciting! This Czech course, while I'm definitely learning something new, moves at a snail's pace because the language is so complicated. So I only have so many more things I can allow my mind to focus on while our teacher describes all 14 cases of a certain group of adjectives.

Today, though, I think I figured out the source of my problem. During a short break, our Czech language teacher told us she was studying for her PhD at Charles University, and she was studying Fairy Tales. SO COOL! I immediately went into "Evan-is-a-major-nerd" mode and asked her if she had looked into fairy tale motifs in film (something I talked about a bunch in a class). While the whole class laughed at me, I got really excited about something for the first time in a long time, and we talked briefly about what she studies (interpretations of fairy tales across cultures. neat!) and how those motifs go into so many media forms.

An intellectual conversation! An exchange of words that didn't have to do with finding out what school someone goes to, what their major is, what sorority they're in, and whether they like Lost or Grey's. It was really refreshing, and it made me realize how much I miss going to school. Wow, I can't believe I said that, and it's true. I'm incredibly excited for our classes to start on Monday (the syllabus for one of my classes looks SWEET!).

My awkward mood was only exacerbated by my on-again-off-again relationship with other people in this program. It has been very comforting to hear from both JC (my Prague expert) and Lisa (my all-things-travel expert) that they too had issues with people on their programs. Everyone here is really nice, don't get me wrong...but it just doesn't seem worth the huge effort to try to become "in" with the crowd. So I'm attempting to become comfortable with the fact that I'll probably do a lot of my traveling alone (some of it with Dan, hopefully).

But it got better today. I wanted to go to Munich for my birthday weekend (in two weeks) and couldn't find anyone to go with me. So I was going to go alone (JC promises I wouldn't be celebrating alone if I went. But it still wasn't ideal). I was really happy today when I lamented about it, only to find a friend was going to Krakow that weekend with a group, and would I like to come along? Of course. So I may be doing that, which would be great.

I've also decided to take some other advice to heart. JC told me not to spend more than an hour at a time at home, and since he said it, I've been feeling guilty every time I find myself looking for something to do around the house. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to find somewhere new in Prague every day I have some time. Tomorrow, it's the old Jewish ghetto. Sunday, some museum. From there, I haven't made plans.

The reason I'm here

2007-01-30T17:05:00.000+01:00

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.

he thought I was dead

2007-01-28T23:12:00.000+01:00

For those wondering what Evan W thought had happened to me when I never showed up at his place: he also couldn't find me at first on our trip to Kutna Hora, so he honestly thought I had been murdered. And really, a part of me was murdered that night...

Another weekend in Prague

2007-01-28T22:42:00.000+01:00

Spent my second weekend here in Prague again, for the most part, save for a short day trip yesterday (though CIEE) to the historic mining town of Kutna Hora. Lots of cool pics on the flickr, including plenty from inside the incredible Bone Church - a church decorated with the bones of over 40,000 people. Creepy.

Last night, after the trip, I hung out at the house, waiting to see if anything was going on with the rest of the folks in town. While I was waiting, Vaclav came home, and we spent some time together - he showed me this awesome movie he had seen at the youth film festival held yearly in Karlovy Vary, an Israeli film called "Blue White Collar Criminal." If you can find it, it's work a watch, only 45 min long. Then, spoke for about an hour with Mike back in LA, which was awesome.

When I finally heard from someone (Paige), it was about 10:00, and for some reason a 45 minute trip to go to a club for hours, only to take a night tram back and have to walk up the hill again...didn't seem too interesting. So I was really relieved when Vaclav asked if I wanted to go with him and a friend to a bar near the house, where they were meeting another friend of theirs. It was a great time - good drinks (of course) and very nice company.

It was awesome to hear from my sister in Sydney, where she's of course having a ridiculous time and doesn't want to come home. Makes me excited to come back here in the future!

Today was a very relaxing day. Woke up late and, as always, was immediately handed a cup of coffee and some coffee cake (seriously, the homestay was the best idea I've ever had). I spent the morning researching a bunch of trips I want to take (looks like I might not get to Russia after all. But Amsterdam by plane is really cheap...and Athens isn't but it's so necessary).

The afternoon meant a short trip cross-country skiing with Zuzana and Tomas. Now...this seems normal enough, of course, but let's remember who we're talking about here. I've cross-country skied a total of one time. But hey, I figured, it's just walking with skis on!

Ah, but it's definitely not. It's more like hiking with annoying shoes on. Or downhill skiing with skis that aren't wide enough to make good turns...let's just say I entertained Zuzana and Tomas for a while, including a particularly memorable moment when I was stopped, talking to Zuzana, and then suddenly fell directly on my ass without even having moved.

The highlight of the afternoon was our brief stop in a "mini Zoo" that was along the trail. Lots of birds, some cool Lynxes and Ram-like things, and this one particular Raven with whom Tomas struck up a friendship:

That continued for a good 10 minutes.

This whole waiting-for-classes-to-start thing is becoming quite tedious. I am definitely ready to be out of my daily Czech lessons and into actual college courses again, and I am very anxious to start traveling around Europe! Any suggestions where I should go? Here's the list as of now (in no order):

-Munich
-Amsterdam
-Berlin
-Vienna
-Budapest
-assorted places in CR
-Athens, and other parts of Greece
-Scandinavia - Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm open for 'em. But now I'm going to bed.

worst. night. ever.

2007-01-26T23:32:00.000+01:00

I exaggerate a lot. I admit it. But truly, honestly, from the bottom of my heart. This was the worst night ever.

I must start at the beginning. Today was a fine day - more Czech class, and afterwards I went and had my cell phone from home unlocked (the used phone I had bought was great...I just couldn't hear anyone when they called me). With my phone unlocked, I began the trek back home and ran into Evan W in the metro. He turned me around, and we went to a thrift shop in the center of town that he had heard was the best in Prague.

He had heard right, the place was awesome. I'm not much for thrifting because nothing fits me, but I still like seeing places like this. I bought a few ties (so sweet) and a scarf (best buy of the day), and Evan spent 480Kc ($24) on several shirts, 5 ties, a vest, a cardigan, and a plaid suit. Definitely legit place.

Tomorrow, we meet at 8:30am for our day trip, so I wasn't exactly looking to go nuts tonight. But hey, I'm social. I don't need sleep! I'll go out for a bit, catch a few hours, and be a little tired tomorrow, no prob. Everyone else was going out anyways.

So I had dinner at home (goulash, followed by pancakes with jam. heaven) and waited till about 8 before trying to get ahold of anyone. For a change, no one was committing to anything, and finally I just decided to head to Evan's apartment and figure out what was up from there. This was at 9:30.

It's tough to tell when I started to get the feeling that tonight wasn't going to be the best. Maybe it was the realization that this phone, too, has issues (I can receive calls but can't make them, and it loses signal for absolutely no reason). Maybe it was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was tired and shouldn't go anywhere for the night. But I really really wanted to wear one of those ties. And hey, I'm a sociable guy, I'll wake up once I see some people.

I made the trek down to the tram, all the while attempting to text Evan that I was on my way. "Sending..." the phone said...and then it failed to deliver the message. I sent again. Five minutes rolls by. It sends. I board the tram, no problem. As I'm getting off again, it's about 10pm, and I text Evan again for directions to his apartment...I waited for it to send...it failed...I sent again and waited...success! (this seems tedious, but it's important) His reply: "go south 2 blocks and turn right on Lozarka. and by right I mean left."

I walked. It snowed. The wind blew. My face froze. Knowing how long it took to send a text message, and that it would probably fail on the first attempt, I quickly texted back "Which building"and waited. Failed. Try again. Failed. Again. Failed. By this time I had walked almost to the previous tram stop. I started to walk back to where I began, looking for the street and trying to send this damn text all the while. This was great; I had a phone that could neither make calls nor receive nor send text messages. Wind. Snow. Cold.

As comedic irony slowly turned into bullshit, and 10:30 turned to 10:45, I began to entertain the thought of just going back home to a cup of tea and a warm bed. And here, my friendly readers, here is where my phone started to mock me. Because when all hope was lost, when I had returned to my starting point and tried walking the other way for a block, I turned the phone off and back on, and found signal again! A quick text message (it worked!), and a short wait for a reply meant another trip the way I had come (howling wind. really literally howling, I've never heard anything like it)...and I found the street! Surely this was it, the payoff for all my hard work! The building would be obvious, or else he would have told me which one it was.

There were two apartment buildings on the street. Neither had a recognizable name on its outside buzzer. I pulled out the phone to tell him I was outside, and was astonished to find...there was no signal. I tried texting. Failed. Again. Failed. I turned the phone off. on. off. on. off. on. off.

...back at the tram stop, as I waited for the tram to come and take me home, I took off the cell phone's back cover, removed the battery, took out the SIM card. Then I turned around and, in a magnificent heaving motion, chucked the phone into the Vltava river.

Ok, no, but I seriously considered it and it sounded super dramatic. It's interesting how much my life depends on technology. Not neccesarliy a good thing (look what just happened to me), but something I have to deal with all the same. I'm getting a new (brand new, not used) phone on Monday, because this is truly ridiculous.

A true adventure

2007-01-25T23:26:00.000+01:00

First: happy birthday mom!

I say this blog is for my daily adventures, and let's face it, not every day is an adventure (I can only get lost so many times). But today, Sheldon and Dan stormed back into town from Poland on their way to Israel. Cue adventure music.

I met them in Old Town at about 430, just as it got dark enough for the street lights to come on (it was absolutely incredible weather today - not a cloud in the sky, and all the snow made everything bright and beautiful). We started walking toward a pub, any pub, but were stopped by the Western Union currency exchange...where Dan and Sheldon proceeded to spend 15 minutes trying to figure out whether or not they would be getting ripped off by changing their Polish money to American dollars (to do this in CR, you have to go via Korunas). After grabbing the calculator from the man behind the counter (who was really trying with his English), and yelling for a bit, we were finally on our way again, no money having been exchanged.

Ah, but how could we pass the Swarovski crystal store without going in? Admittedly, Lorraine (Dan's mom) has a fantastic collection of Swarovski crystals. But the timing. Dan and I left Sheldon (who had taken yet another calculator from another clerk in his quest to figure out whether it would be less expensive to buy the piece here) and retired to a nice little bar. Two beers later, no Sheldon.

Realize what the plan had been: they had been under the impression that Czech Airlines allows more luggage than they actually did. To solve their problem (remember how much luggage they brought?), they wanted to leave one of Dan's bags here, with me. Which meant Dan and I were going to take a cab down to Branik (my neighborhood, south of the city) with the bag, and then come back to meet Shelly for dinner.

Well, after lots of attempted conversations with Lorraine (in the USA), one lost pair of gloves (Dan took them off in the crystal store he thinks. Or the exchange place. Point is, they're gone), a recharged cell phone battery (we happened to be sitting next to the store where they had unlocked their cell phones. Of course they were tight with the guy who worked there, who was nice enough to let them charge their phones), and me finishing my homework for tomorrow (score!), the plan had been altered. We would get the bag to my place, grab dinner around here, and they'd go off to the airport.

But first they had to reconfigure their bags. We spent a good half hour in the luggage storage room of the Intercontinental Hotel as Dan, calm and orderly, took out what he needed, and Sheldon, frantically, took vodka shots.

Cab ride home was uneventful (comparably...remember we're talking about two hugely tall men in a small cab filled with hundreds of pounds of luggage, a driver, and another small human being). I awaited, with bated breath, the final meeting of Sheldon and the Jančářik family. Tomas and Sheldon in the same room just seemed way to good to be true.

Oh but it was so true and it was so glorious. I introduced them (and immediately felt horrible for not giving the family proper warning), and after a few frantic moments (Zuzana in her pajamas, the bag they were storing here covered with snow, no one knowing what was going on), we finally settled down, Dan in the library checking their flight status, Sheldon and Tomas polishing off a whiskey bottle (Tomas: "It's not very good", Sheldon (upon tasting it): "This is real shit!").

There are so many things I could say, but I think my personal favorite part of the evening was Sheldon's realization that Tomas spoke German. From then on, Sheldon spoke nearly exclusively in Yiddish, admittedly a related language...but not that related. Zuzana (now changed from her PJs) Tomas, and Jonas (occasionally translating) listened intently as Sheldon told (mostly in Yiddish) jokes and travel stories, described his restaurants, gave Zuzana a recipe for pickles, and generally was his outlandish, strangely charming self. (Dinner, by this time, was pretty out of the question. Oh yeah and the cab was waiting outside this whole time. But don't worry, Shelly had invited the driver to dinner with us. They were tite.)

Anyhow, time did pass and they did leave with a huge laugh from the family here. Phew! As I told Tomas and Zuzana, any other host family would NOT have had the same reaction to the HurriKane (ah! more puns!), so I was very happy.

An insane afternoon/evening. I've been hanging out the rest of the night, trying to memorize the Czech numbers and days of the week. To end it all, another fantastic quote from Tomas, upon my talking about a bar that had closed at midnight even though it was full of people drinking (spoken in Czech, translated by Vaclav):

"Evan, if all of them drank like you, the bar wouldn't do very much business."

Things I am thankful for

2007-01-24T18:40:00.000+01:00

1. My shoes - it has not stopped snowing since last night, and it's not supposed to stop until sometime tomorrow night. As Evan W (amongst others) and his Converse shoes became ice cubes, my tootsies were warm, dry, and happy all day today as I trudged through what must be over a foot of snow. These shoes also keep my feet connected to the ground, which is fantastic, since very few places are shoveled here and salt (or some equivalent) on ice is nonexistent. And they look cool too.

2. My jacket - the snow wouldn't be all bad, in fact the cold wouldn't be all bad, if it weren't for the wind, which somehow finds a way to infiltrate even the warmest of jackets. I might as well give some props to my scarf here too.

3. My mother - for making me buy/bring above items.

4. My camera - we toured Prague Castle today (incredible...pics on flickr soon), and despite the cold, I managed to snap about 40 pictures. And they all look great, even in cloudy, snowy conditions. I'll have to go back with mom and dad and get more when it's nicer outside.

5. My iPod - with me staying farther from the center of town that the other people in the program, I spend a lot of time walking or on public trans. My iPod has become my best friend (and it's the hardest thing to steal, since I'd probably notice...). I think one of the reasons studying abroad is such a growing experience for most people is the amount of alone time you have abroad.

My Czech classes are going very well, and I'm having surprisingly few problems learning the basics of this language (though it gets MUCH more complicated...every noun and adjective has 14 different forms, depending on the way it's used in a sentence. Those forms depend on the gender of the word, as well as whether or not it's an animate object. gawhaaaa????). I'm beginning to miss things about home/LA, mostly just the familiarity associated with it. All this meeting people and trying to establish relationships is really tiring, and I'd really like to just sit down and have a conversation with someone who knows me well again. I'm excited to start finding find a feeling of familiarity here, which is sure to happen soon.

Tonight, Zuzan and Tomas and I are heading to a pub down the street for some New Orleans-style jazz. Hells yes.

it's snowing!

2007-01-23T15:43:00.000+01:00

One week here, and finally some snow! It's supposed to do this for the next two days - I can't wait to see what this city looks like with a foot of powder over it! Though the freezing cold winds do make it much more difficult to walk around.

Last night I stayed home, and Zuzan and I had a long conversation about assorted things. Most interesting, however, was her reaction to the fact that Lisa and I both have our own cars. That's unthinkable here, and understandably so. I guess you could compare it to having a car in New York City - who needs one?

I took a new route to class today that bypassed Baneofmyexistnece Hill. I know this probably comes as a shock, but I got lost again, and ended up right against the towering wall of Vysehrad basilica, about 100m directly below where I needed to be. As usual, after backtracking my entire route, I managed to find the obvious sign I had missed, and got to class 5 minutes late. But hey, here's what mom told me:

"btw-in the Frommers book on Prague-it says that if you don't get lost at least once in Prague, you haven't experienced Prague. I thought that was pretty funny!"

I have definitely experienced Prague. In fact, my legs are about finished experiencing Prague and would like a vacation. But here's the nice thing about getting lost, at least for me: my goal here was to try to calm the heck down a little, try to just lay low for a semester. So far, it's definitely been working. I get places late, I'm relaxed about this whole Czech language thing even though if I really want to learn it I'd have to be studying all night (I have a quiz tomorrow), and I'm generally alright with whatever happens. It's a nice change from my ridiculous life in LA.

Speaking of which, congrats to the Troy Tones for making ICCA semis!

Tonight, we have a get-together for our program that involves bowling and pool and possibly pizza and definitely beer (that should go without saying by now). Which means I have to go study for that quiz...

and by the way

2007-01-22T18:27:00.000+01:00

I got a new cell phone today (so I don't have to use Tomas's anymore), and the guy working at the place didn't speak any English. He was whistling while he showed me some phones...and suddenly I recognized the James Bond theme. So I whistled the next part to him, and we bonded without ever exchanging words.

Oh, the spiritual power of James Bond!

THE BEARS ARE IN THE SUPER BOWL!

2007-01-22T17:23:00.000+01:00

Now, I just have to see the Cubs make the World Series, and I can die happily.

Before the game, I spent Sunday hanging out around the house, doing some reading, nothing special. That night, the family had a small get-together for people on the block, and it was great to meet everyone (honestly, I haven't met a Czech I don't like). Of particular note at this party was our neighbor Edmund, a 60-something year old American expat who moved here from Chapel Hill, NC, about 8 years ago. Seems harmless right? Edmund is completely bald, except for a goatee as white as snow that hangs about three feet from his face. He speaks in a nice, laid back Carolina drawl...constantly. He never. stops. talking. And he speaks no Czech, at all. He doesn't want to learn, claiming he's "re-learning the most basic of languages. When we're in the womb, you know, our first language is listening to our mother's heart, and then we're born and we learn to speak through our bodies. I'm re-learning body language." Kinda a hippie.

The game was great that night. There are a few Chicago people here, one of whom is a ridiculous Bears fan, so it was really fun to watch and be American (which is fun every so often).

It's very nice to have some people here from USC to relate to. Paige, Evan W, and I have been keeping in close contact for the last few days, hanging out often. I'm making sure to get into the city to be with people often (though it's taking a toll on my legs...my knees are killing me from all this walking).

Today was our first day of INTENSIVE CZECH LANGUAGE LESSONS (as it's written on our schedules), and it was....kinda boring. I only fell asleep once (and my friend Steph did too, so it's ok). We're also in the process of finalizing our class schedules (holy crap! i have to go to class here!), and I got very lucky with mine. I only have to change one class, and I only have 1 class on fridays (which ends before noon) - lots of traveling possibilities.

After language lessons, we visited the central builoding for Charles University and were given a tour by the head historian (this was after the vice president spoke to us. he was wearing a medal that was made in like 1940something). Everything in this place is older than the US, and it all holds some incredible traditional value to the University - paintings of patron saints, seats in front of statues of Emperor Charles that only the president of CR can ever sit in, stuff like that. Very neat.

I plan to get to somewhere within CR in two weeks (our first free weekend. I have to be back in time for the Super Bowl!), then maybe to Munich for my birthday weekend (but only if people will go with me. Hate to spend my 21st alone! Wow I'm almost 21).

Believe it or not, I actually have to go do homework now...not sure how well that's gonna go.

first weekend

2007-01-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

First, a hats off to Casey, Mike, and JC, all of whom have either commented on flickr photos or blog posts. You guys are siick. JC - your advice is great, keep it comin! (see story below)

Nothing particularly interesting yesterday. Orientation in the morning, more touring in the afternoon (after a typical Czech lunch of fried cheese sandwiches. Literally a block of fried cheese on bread, with a piece of lettuce and some tartar sauce. Sooo tasty). Our Czech buddies today (we combined with another group) were fantastic (and gorgeous). After our trip to a big mall in Smichov (kind a suburb, but really close still), we had a big dinner for everyone in the program. It was nice to see everyone all together for the first time - we're a huge group!

My efforts to make sure to socialize were successful yesterday, and last night I headed back into the city at about 9 to meet with some folks and head to some pubs. I asked Tomaš what the best route would be to get to the dorms (where I was meeting people) and back after midnight (when the trams change numbers and routes, remember), and this led to a 30 minute conversation and map-searching extravaganza with me, Tomaš, and Zuzana. I know I've said it before, my I am truly lucky to be staying here, with people who care so much about making sure I'm comfortable with everything I do.

Yes, I had that long rant the other day about cultural poaching etc etc, and last night I was proud to be a part of a small group of us who, while we weren't going to hit the pubs Czech-style necessarily, were definitely not looking to go crazy. We walked...and walked...and walked...and finally settled on a pub on the other side of the river that wasn't the cheapest (40Kc [$2] for .5L of beer? Unheard of!).

The real story is in coming home, which I did successfully, but not without the standard drama. I needed the same tram as my friends in the dorms (thank goodness), and so rode with them half way, and then was on my own. I knew the stop I needed to get off at, but couldn't really hear/understand which stop we were at. So, when I thought it was time, I left the tram, looked around, realized I was in the wrong place, looked at the tram leaving, realized another didn't come for 30 minutes, and promptly panicked for a moment. Then I walked. And walked. And walked. 2.5km. All the way home. (I had gotten off early. Common problem, I hear).

The good part of this story - I got home, huffing and puffing from climbing the other half of Baneofmyexistence Hill, at about 2:15am, went to bed by 3, and woke up at 11:30am. Yay, I'm adjusted to the time zone! This morning, I went with Tomas and Zuzan for a sort of tour of the far suburbs of Prague (they often go with a sort of club of people, complete with a tour guide, to explore their own city). It was a nice walk, but they said it wasn't nearly as interesting as others have been.

Tomorrow, I think I'll start to plan more seriously some of my weekend trips - look up prices and stuff. That's before the Bears game of course, which lots of us are going to find a bar to congregate in to watch.

i wasn't lost, i swear

2007-01-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

I left Sheldon and Dan at about 12:30 and caught a cab back to the house (he overcharged me, but I was happy to get home safe and not have to use the night trams...which, while on the same lines, have different numbers than the day trams). Tossed and turned a bit (time change, alcohol, who knows), and ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep. So I was in great shape for the morning, when I had to find my way to a new place - not the study center, but a place we had visited on our afternoon tour. No prob, he says, I love public trans, and once I get there I'll just find familiar sights. I'm a smart guy.

I am not a smart guy. We were scheduled to meet at 9:45. I stepped off the metro (at the correct station) at 9:30, plenty of time to wander around and find our meeting place. I went up and down every street. How hard can it be to hide a group of 100 loud American 20somethings? Up and down the streets again. I try new routes, places that looks kinda sketchy but might be right, you never know, didn't we pass that hostel yesterday? I'm not going to call our resident director, that's giving up (men never ask for directions! never!), oh the McDonald's, I know we passed that! OK, so it's around here somewhere right?

At 9:50, I called the resident director and she didn't pick up. Then I called other numbers on our contact list. No one. Alright Ev. Way to go. Now you're 'that guy.' Remember? The guy in the homestay who couldn't get here. Oh that guy, the short one, I remember him. At almost 10am, I walked far up one street, farther than they could have been, and was resigned to make my way back to the study center. I turned the corner back to the metro. And I've never been happier to see a large group of people. I rule!

So, a morning of more touring (saw a sweet synagogue and Dvorak's grave). Our Czech buddy was much better today, full of energy and knowledge. When we'd seen everything we were supposed to, it was about noon and we had an hour to kill before lunch. So what did we do? Guess. Seriously this tolerance has GOT to improve (and I have to eat bread all the time too, to make sure I can drink more. It's a curse...a wonderful, tasty curse).

Anyhow, after our afternoon orientation sessions (more patronizing rules. But I won't complain here), I met Taryn's friend Steph Beren, who I had spoken to on the phone. She seems really nice. We spoke for a minute, then went our separate ways home.

Which made me realize something important, and I'm happy I realized it now. I love this homestay (if you can't tell), but there is one single downside. I'm going to have to make an extra effort to make sure I meet people, by introducing myself and making sure I give out my phone number (which I didn't have today, otherwise I'd be bar hopping with the apartment kids). Definitely not a big deal. But something I have to keep in mind.

Away I go. I have to start planning out my weekend trips!

Food, Fun, Friends, and a workout

2007-01-18T19:59:00.000+01:00

I have to say, writing this blog has been quite the interesting experience so far. My host family reads it all the time, and clears up any confusions I have about any of the Czech things I write about! It's an interactive experience.

I haven't yet described my typical day so far, which is actually kinda interesting. I start every day with a shower, as always...but Czech showers are not the stand-up-and-rinse style. The shower actually isn't a shower at all - it's a bathtub, with no shower curtain and a shower handle faucet. One has to sit in the tub and run the faucet over the body, turning it off to put on shampoo, etc. Makes me very very happy it's not cold outside right now, or this would be a freezing experience.

Then, there's some breakfast (more about that later), and about a 45min trip (walk, bus ride, metro, walk) to the CIEE study center in Vyšehrad (I got my computer to type in Czech!). The house is on top of one hill...but at the middle of another, bigger hill...so to get to the bus stop I have to climb about 150m up a hill that, I swear, has a 60 degree grade. And teeth. Then it's a short bus ride to the metro stop (public trans is fantastic here, and immaculately clean), followed by another 15 min walk. So I'm getting my exercise. (Pics of this are on the flickr)

Which is a good thing, considering the food. Now, I'd never knock any food of course, and, surprisingly enough, I've had absolutely no gastronomical problems since I've been here (which, if you know me, you know is incredible). But Czech food is a completely different experience from anything else I've ever eaten. For three days now, I've eaten just about nothing but bread, meat, and potatoes, with one or all of the above food items having been fried. Tastes incredible. But WOW that whole trying to stay away from bread thing has gone out the window! So, considering the food and the excessive beer (more on that later), I'll probably come home with calves of steel and a stomach of down feathers.

So after our short tour with our Czech buddies yesterday (I went into Old Town square. Incredible pics on the flickr of that too), our housing director, recognizing that the people in homestays will have a more difficult time meeting people, brought us all to a pub to hang out for a bit. After some drama (Jonas was supposed to pick me up from school and guide me back home, and also give me a house key. and I was supposed to meet Dan earlier), it was a great time. There are some awesome people on this trip who I'm excited to spend more time with. I tried not to order very much, because I kinda figured I'd still be getting dinner at home. But...they knew I'd be here, so maybe they had eaten without me...my hunger got the best of me. I ate the endings of several people's huge meals (a pork chop, some fantastic fried bread, and a bite or two of duck). And, of course, a beer.

Then I went home, managed to get in contact with Dan, and was heading out the door...just in time for dinner to be ready!

Now, let me explain the most important of Czech customs. No means yes. Saying no implies with it the assumption by the other party that you're just being modest, you're embarrassed to say yes. So when offering food, "no" is followed by piling food on your plate. I said no. And ate a lot more (fried meat and rice).

Then I went to meet Dan and Sheldon at their hotel in the center of town. And had another dinner (well this time I didn't really eat. I just had a beer.)

Which brings me to my next point (this is turning into quite the lecture!). When you come to Prague, people tell you that you must expect to drink beer. They are lying. Don't expect to drink beer. Start drinking it, constantly, now, so you can develop a tolerance that might (...might) enable you to still function as a human being here. Rejecting beer isn't really taken seriously here (see above custom). So, when you're on your third, fourth beer of the day (was it that many?) and you didn't mean to drink one (at least not on an empty stomach)...let's just say this lightweight needs to learn to go to class with a buzz.

This post is getting long. I'll end it here and start a new one for today. Dobry den!

happy birthday andrew!

2007-01-18T08:47:00.000+01:00

just a quick hello

2007-01-18T08:28:00.000+01:00

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was honestly running around the entire day. Besides, you probably needed a break from me! I've only got a moment before I have to head off to another day of orientation, so this will be brief for now. I'll be back later.

Yesterday was my first day of official "class," though it was just an orientation day (not very much learning involved). We spent the morning in groups, talking to CIEE instructors about various issues we'll come across here, then we toured a bit of the city with our "Czech Buddies" (I prefer to call them Czech Mates. Oh the pun possibilities!). I spent almost the whole day with the whole group of kids living in homestays, and it was really nice to finally meet some other people on this trip (there are over 120 people total).

I find a divide (at least for now) is kind of inherent between the homestay people and the dorms or apartment. On our tour, one guy (from Buffalo Grove, Scott, he knows you) kept talking about "ridiculous" the night was going to be and kept asking out Czech buddy where a good place was to go out. Number one, I hate guys like that. Number two, it was interesting to hear the difference in mind set. While the dorm folks can go room to room and ask for people to go to bars and have a group to go with...my first thought is, "how the hell would I get home??"

This isn't a bad thing. I think of it as similar to the difference between the tour group I went with in Israel and the tour group Dan went with. Our group was very focused on touring, seeing sights, connecting with Judaism, etc. Dan's group went partying every night. Not to cheapen the latter experience...but I'll take the former. And that's what's happening here. It seems like cultural poaching, almost, to just come here and use the pubs as an excuse to get drunk every night. Czechs love gathering and drinking...but definitely not in the American "frat boy" sense. Don't get me wrong, I'll do my fair share of drinking here. But I'll do it once I can do it within the cultural boundaries.

Whew, that turned into a rant!

There are many more fun things to tell you about, but I'll have to write about it later. Here's a teaser trailer:
1. Czechs value modesty very highly. Which is why they never stop feeding you. I ate three dinners yesterday.
2. I got a cell phone!
3. Showering is quite the cultural experience. As is walking up hills. Every day. I am in pain.
4. This place is ridiculously beautiful and easy to fall in love with.
5. I'm just about the only Jew on my trip (that I've met so far).
6. Sheldon and Dan are supposed to go to Poland today, but have not booked transportation or accommodation to do so. So we had some drinks last night to celebrate!

I'm of to Na Florenci to meet the group. I'm on about 4 hours of sleep (damn time change...). Talk to you soon!

PS. Mom tells me people are reading this and getting a kick out of it. Thanks! Remember: you can respond to posts here (if you register with blogger, which you've already done if you have Gmail), or on Facebook (posts are RSSd to my profile as notes). And if you really like something, you can use the link after every post to email that post to someone (it's the icon below that looks like an envelope)

Jonas has corrected me

2007-01-16T17:43:00.001+01:00

a mile is 1.6 kilometers. shows what I know.

Lucky

2007-01-16T16:44:00.000+01:00

Alright, now that I've caught up on all the posts I wrote but didn't publish, I can finally talk about the rest of the day. And trust me, you want to hear about this one.

Of course there were people form the program on my flight from London to Prague. I didn't get much of a chance to chat though, since I attempted to sleep the whole flight (with some success).

After customs and baggage claim, I walked into the main terminal and found a group of 20somethings that was clearly the CIEE group. I found Paige, said hello, and went to check in with the important people, figuring I'd be sitting there for a bit waiting for my fam to pick me up and would therefore have time to talk some more to Paige. What do we know about assumptions, friends? Vaclav (VAHTS-lav), my 23-year-old host brother, was waiting for me and quickly whisked me off into a car with my host father, Tomas (to-MAHSH).

On the way back, Tomas took the scenic route and showed me "Czech Hollywood" (the town's name escapes me now). Very cool - it's like a small studio city!

I couldn't have been placed with a better family. The house is right on the river at the top of a hill, making the view at sunset just about the best in the city. The whole family is full of energy, constantly doing things and helping other people. Vaclav and Jonas (YO-nahsh) are awesome guys with great senses of humor. Jonas is the man with the plan on the computer - he hooked me up when the wireless wasn't working.

Oh yeah, they have WiFi.

I haven't met Zuzana quite yet, but I spoke to her on the phone and she seems to fit into this pattern quite well. Tomas is completely insane. Not in a "this guy is a threat to himself and others" way, but more of a "this guy doesn't even realize how fantastically hilarious he is" way. I am in love.

A few Tomas quotes from day 1:

Tomas (in broken English): "Czech people are all atheists. I'm a Christian atheist, my wife is a Jew atheist"
Vaclav: "And I'm a Muslim atheist"

after talking about a man who had been in the news lately who had raped 11-year old boys:
Tomas: "We don't do 11-year-old boys here. 20 year old girls, on the other hand..."

Tomas: "I speak fluent German. Most Czechs do"
Me: "You don't speak Russian?"
Tomas: "Ech! I can understand it, of course, I'm probably fluent, so is probably everyone. But it's not our language. Communist language!"

He and I took a bike ride ("WAIT, Ev. A bike ride? You're 5 feet tall. There's no WAY they had a bike that fit you." Ah, but you forget Tomas's bike from the 1960s, the one with the wheels of radius 3in and the lowrider handlebars. There will be flickr pics) Anyway, we took a bike ride around the neighborhood, up a hill that I swear was about a 60 degree grade, and around to a really amazing lookout point. After pointing out the sites (you can see all of Prague) and mentioning the spot on this hill where he and his wife used to make love, we were off back down the 60 degree graded hill (did I mention that this bike only has a front break? cuz yeah almost died) toward a really nice trail by the river.

I woke up at 2:45am. I don't know what time it is in my head anymore. For lunch, before the bike ride, I dunno what we had, but it was delicious and (not surprisingly) filled with ground meat (it was turkey though!) and topped with fresh cheese. Then I proceeded to have the most physical activity I've had since Honors Gym class in high school. And tonight Tomas is taking me to a pub (or "pop" as the call them. and then they mock me by repeating over and over "PUHHHHHHUUUHHHB"). Holy fuck do I need a nap.

Prague is siick.

Beginning of a long day

2007-01-16T16:42:00.000+01:00

I am deliriously exhausted. Went to bed early, but of course I woke up at 2:45am (about 9pm in Chicago) and was a) STARVING, and b) wide awake. After tossing and turning for another 2 hours, I awoke and left the hotel with my 837 pounds of luggage (what's that in kg?). I enjoyed the Jurys Inn. They gave me free OJ when I left.

The airport was incredibly painless (I had to do some baggage adjusting. I've checked the big bag and the big half of my backpack. You only get one carry on when flying through Heathrow. That should be interesting coming home...) Now I'm sitting at a lovely little coffee place, sipping a fantastic latte (with caffeine...it's gonna be a long one, folks) and listening to Sufjan Stevens. I'm going to sleep on the plane if it kills me.

I feel like I haven't stopped sweating since I arrived here. Maybe it's the humidity (which is high), maybe it's my body's reaction to being so confused, or maybe it's all the walking. But honestly, I have to meet my host family in a few hours and I've sweat through my shirt already. And who likes sweating at 6:30am anyway?

The next time I write to you, I will be in Prague.

One night in London

2007-01-15T16:41:00.000+01:00

A kilometer is longer than a mile. Keep that in mind when traveling in Europe.

Getting off the plane, Sheldon and Dan seemed like they were going to take another 20 minutes, so I left ahead of them and planned to meet them at baggage claim. Great plan, except when one continues on to another country (as they did), one doesn't pick up checked bags in between flights. And thus, my time with Dan and Sheldon ended...far too abruptly. It was like I never got to say goodbye to that feeling of homey-ness before I went into the deep, dark uncertainty of navigating this whole thing alone. Kinda threw me off the rest of the day.

I had no problem finding the hotel, but getting to the Tube from the airport, I finally understood what Moses went through (minus the manna...I was starving).

The rest of the day has been quite surreal. My lack of sleep, intense hunger, and lots of physical activity combined to make my mind completely unable to focus on any one thought for more than an instant. I found myself debating whether to eat or shower, and while debating my body decided to carry my into the shower. Cool. Thanks for the decision making, body!

I ate. I went to sleep. And then I woke up. What the hell time is it? My stomach ached, I was incredibly groggy, and for some reason I was convinced I had woken up late (late for what?). Where am I? Why is it light outside? Ehhhhhh scary.

More sleep, and I felt better, good enough to head out and explore London, which I did with a passion. I decided I wasn't quite ready to do the "authentic" Brit stuff, so I stuck to the touristy attractions: Trafalgar Square, Parliament building, Leicester Square, etc (lots of cool pics on the Flickr). It was all very beautiful, but I was kinda half asleep. I am in LOVE with the Tube (I love public transportation, and this is the best of it), and I love London. Such an easy town to just walk around - not intimidating at all. The old buildings seem to bend over you and give you a hug while you walk.

I ate dinner at the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant, and had the fish & chips I promised Casey I would get. Unfortunately, the restaurant was as schlocky as it sounds and was filled with Americans attracted to the kitsch-y name (...like me...). The entree wasn't really...real...so, sorry Casey, but I still haven't really had fish n chips! I met some girls from BU (and other schools) studying here who seemed kinda confused by me:

Them: How do you know where you are?
Me: ...I don't...the Tube gets you everywhere though
Them: So you're just walking around?
Me: Yeah, I had nothing else to do.

Seems logical enough!

I got on the Tube at Leicester Sq. to go home, but found myself getting off one stop later at Piccadilly Circus. After all, you never know when you're going to see these things again. And yes Mike, I went to the London Trocadero. I can see why you and Matta loved it. I realized I had been there the last time I was in London - I definitely remember one particular photo of me playing a racing video game with the steering wheel on the other side.

Back at the hotel now, time to pack up and get ready to leave (wake up call at 4:45am). Thankfully, I feel fairly adjusted to the new time zone (the walk helped a LOT). Tomorrow is sure to be a day to remember :-D.

Look Boss! The Plane!

2007-01-14T16:40:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: I didn't have internet access in London, so the next few posts were written on the Mac before they were posted. In case you were wondering how I seemed to be able to post from the plane...
____________________________________
The day has arrived! Complete insanity. I had no idea what to think - I didn't really feel anything until after dinner, when all of a sudden the anxiety set in. Not nervousness, definitely not, just wanting to get the transition over with and be here already.

Sally gave me a gift before I left - a journal. I'm using it right now! It's awesome, now I'll remember what to blog about. Let's go down the list:

1. Sheldon Kane is insane. After staying awake until 7:30am the previous night (with Dan)completely changing his and Dan's travel itinerary, he made sure to arrive at the airport with about 7 seconds to spare before he would have missed the flight. Dan was already exasperated, finished with dealing with all of this...I can only imagine what the next few weeks will be between them.

2. On the plane, I sat behind TWO (2) crying babies. Why do I always get so lucky????? WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T SIT NEXT TO BABIES ON AIRPLANES????

3. I haven't cut my hair since September (besides a few small trims) and when I wear a hat, I have wings. I'm still determined not to cut it until I get back in May.

4. Before he accidentally spilled red wine all over himself in his sleep (we saw it coming), Sheldon struck up a conversation with the girl sitting next to him who, it turns out, is an ADPi at USC studying abroad in London this semester. Her name is Andrea and she is very nice.

And that does it for the plane ride. I slept for maybe 90 min, tops, so of course I was a bit groggy. Time to find the hotel!

Ch-ch-changes

2007-01-14T07:07:00.001+01:00

before
Originally uploaded by bregman.

So here's me, in January, before I leave...tomorrow...I'll post an "after" picture in May.

Spent the day packing (and recovering from the insanity that was last night). Mom and I managed to fit everything into one rolling duffel bag, which is fantastic. My mother honestly got into a fight with the bag...they had a staring contest. She was determined to fit everything in, even if it didn't like it. dear bag: never mess with Judie.

Saw Scott, Esme, and Taryn one last time this morning (but couldn't eat much at breakfast...). Taryn and I are planning on meeting at some point and heading to Auschwitz, to add another place to our tandem tour of the Jewish world, and possibly also meeting in Dublin for St Pat's Day. It feels like we're making plans to meet at Starbucks: "oh yeah, I'll just meet you in Munich, we'll grab a latte and go to Poland."

The flight tomorrow is at 10:30pm. I'm excited, but not anxious...yet. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I arrive in London at noon Monday, spend the night, and leave for Prague at about 8am Tuesday morning. Seems easy enough. But I have no clue how to get to my hotel in London.

My host family is picking me up in Prague, and what's terrifying is not so much the idea of meeting them (they seem wonderful), but the idea that I have NO CLUE what happens once i get there! I go home, I assume...but then what? Did I miss something in an email from CIEE? Or do I honestly just chill until I'm contacted? And then there's the whole...I speak very little Czech...thing...

Told you I'd get anxious!

first contact!

2007-01-11T22:51:00.000+01:00

Today I got an email from my host family in Prague, who said they had read this blog! I'm too excited for words (it always great when the person/people you're going to meet make first contact. Makes me feel much more comfortable). They sent some pictures, but I'll post some of my own once I get there on Tuesday.

I should mention here, I've started learning some Czech (some Czech...). i'm not very good with languages normally (i get frustrated really easily and give up), so I figured a head start wouldn't hurt too much. Jak se mate? Jmenjui se Evan!

My last days in Northbrook are filled mostly with shopping and waiting. A few friends are still here, who I spend lots of time with and with whom conversations seem always to turn to the more serious...and knock knock jokes. I still have a long list of things to do. Like any big project I work on, i don't think I'll ever be complete/ready/prepared. but then again, that's more fun.

Prepare for Impact

2007-01-10T22:24:00.000+01:00

Ahoi! This seems to be a great time to start this blog...a new chapter in my life. I like to try to take note of times like this, when it seems like the way I perceive everything is filtered through a new lens. It's at the point now when I become annoyed with things that don't apply to Prague...

My host family sounds incredible on paper. A spacious house, near the river, everyone speaks at least some English (the mother is fluent), and two sons (23 and 17). Host dad (Hodaddy?) is a film producer (wanna give me a job?). The house is only a few blocks from the trams, and probably walking distance from the social centers of the city (New and Old Towns). And internet at home! Incredible on paper. But so was communism...

I'm trying to stay skeptical. But I'm finding it difficult.

I'll be posting some pictures from Costa Rica on the flickr soon.