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

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.

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.

Velmi, not vemly

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 snowing again

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???

A fantastic dinner conversation

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.

I got lost again

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.

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...

Cell Phones, Spelunking, and SPERMs

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.

Goodnight

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.

Kicked out

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...

Another weekend in Prague

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.

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."

first weekend

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.

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.