Don't have a heart attack now...

...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.

How did this week go by so fast?

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...

Changing more classes...

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.

the opera and the slopes

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.

The reason I'm here

Thanks for the travel suggestions everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A true adventure

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."

Jonas has corrected me

a mile is 1.6 kilometers. shows what I know.

Lucky

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.