A quick goodbye

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?

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?

The reason I'm here, part 9723012938

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?)

Self-meditation, all the time

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.

holy crap!!

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.