Of Prague and Stomach Flu

The last week has definitely been an adventure. Not going to school everyday means a couple of things. One: I no longer had access to internet. Two: I have to find a job! Three: I had no reason to wake up in the morning. Four: Ergo, I had no reason to go to bed at night. However, except for an unfortunate incident where I accidentally ended up in Zizkov at 4am, everything was going ok. I even have a very good chance at a full-time gig at a very good school named St. James. Good pay, good benefits, great reputation, etc. Thursday night rolls around which some of you may know is also our school's "pub night". All the teachers and students get together and knock back a few at the local pub "Konvikt". Friday turns out to be a Holiday in the Czech Republic, I'm not really sure why, it has something to do with independence in 1918. Anyway, none of the students attend. Only teachers. Among other things this means we all fit in one room, and everybody can talk to everybody. It did get a little out of control. There is a new class there to replace ours, and ours is starting to break up and go about their business, so everyone was feeling pretty open. Eventually I left, a little early, because I was already starting to not feel so good. I didn't leave alone however, and it was my first night to eat at McDonald's since arriving. Nothing else was open, and she was hungry, so we stopped in. Oddly enough (or perhaps not) it tastes exactly the same.
I didn't get much sleep that night. By the next morning I'm feeling kinda yucky. After escorting my friend to the metro station, I almost didn't make it back up the stairs to my temp apartment. When I finally did get there, I passed out cold on my bed. On the bright side, my room mate Kurt never came home that night, so I managed to sleep undisturbed throughout most of the day. Problem was, I had committed to dinner and drinks with a large contingent of other teachers for Friday night (7pm IP Pavlova). So, basically around 4:30, I pull myself out of bed, stumble into the kitchen, make myself some coffee, and try to pretend that I'm not getting sick. In hindsight, I probably should have just turned in for the night.
Kurt (who finally came home) and I made it to dinner. I wasn't feeling well, but put on a happy face, and hopefully nobody noticed my frequent trips to the bathroom. After dinner most of the other teachers peeled off and went home, and the one person I wanted to be there had not made it. Did I go home and get some rest? Perhaps take some medicine? No, no, there's a band playing over in Mala Stranska, can't miss it. So Kurt (who walked his girl home before meeting us at the next bar), Erica, Adrian, and myself head off on the tram to Mala Stranska. The band was interesting. Actually the music was pretty good, but the singing was awful, plus it was in czech, which is a language not suited for rock n roll of any kind. Sorry.
After the band we decided to head back to this little brewery in the basement of our building since we'd be moving out in a few days and hadn't tried it. I thought this was a great idea, as it got me closer to my own apartment, and nearer an opportunity to climb into my bed. After a few drinks the place closed down (everyone was closing early because of the holiday), so we headed back into town on foot, and wandered the streets a little aimlessly. We happened on this little family pub where this friendly older man was there with his daughter and golden retriever (someone remind me to write a piece on Prague and Dogs). I fell in love with the dog (lily) and she fell in love with me, but she went home with her owner I'm afraid. We hung there for a while before heading to the night trams and homebound.
So Saturday is kinda dark. I rolled around in cold sweats all day, frequenting the bathroom and trying to take in more water than I was putting out. It didn't work so my muscles started to get weak from dehydration. Unfortunately, I had committed to bringing a group to a Halloween party on Saturday night. My fear was that the hostess, who had not planned things very well, would have no guests if I didn't bring some, and it might get very awkward sitting there alone just me, her, and her boyfriend. I had promised on Thursday night to bring as many people as I could, and had set that in motion on Friday, so now there were people meeting to follow me to the party on Saturday. I managed to slide out of bed around 5:30 or so (meet was 6:30 IP Pavlova) and cowboy up and get my ass party ready. I marched down to IP Pavlova, rounded up my guests, and went to dinner. We made the party a little after nine, and I had brought more than half the guests, so I felt good about that. We had fun, though the party was a little subdued, and then our hostess got incredibly drunk and we made our way to the night bus.
When we got back into town we split up, some heading home, some to Hard Rock, and I followed Curtis to a club that his room mate DJ's at. Danced, had a beer, then headed home.
Sunday I finally decided to take it easy. My muscles were sore and cramping, my stomach was in knots, I had the shakes, and I guess it was about time I took a day off. Then today I had to move all my stuff across town into my new apartment.

SO the good news is, I'm now in my new apartment. That means internet whenever I'm home, and the Phone is now hooked up all the time. Yea! Oh and I am feeling a little better, but I need to get to bed cause I have an interview tomorrow!

I graduated

So I managed to graduate from TEFL school. That means...well it means that I can show people a little cert that means I am capable of teaching someone else my native tongue. Here's the tough part: I have to find a job. I did pretty well in the class so I am hoping that wont be too hard. Also I have no money. In case you hadn't heard the bank turned off my credit card, so I had to have money wired over (thanks mom) so that I wouldn't starve, and could pay for an apartment. The good news is I found a place!(harder than it sounds. House hunting in english is a contact sport in Prague) That means that I will have my phone working full time in about a week. I have an interview this week with a great school, so maybe that will work out as well. Keep your fingers crossed. On the romance front, I've made no real progress since coming here(except Eilidh, which is admittedly a big exception), but hopefully that's just because I haven't had time. It also hurts that I don't speak Czech. I got involved in this very intense flirting thing with this beautiful Czech woman at a club the other night, but eventually we had to give up, as we simply couldn't communicate. Oh well, motivation to learn I guess.

So for those of you reading this (both of you), please send more email!! Also, if you don't mind staying in a hostel, I'm now open for business as a host. (Also you could check out couchsurfing.com). My place though very nice, is also tiny and shared with three others. (have my own room, and a washer and dryer!!)

My weekend

Having recently come unscathed from a near pickpocketing incident, which I tried to publish on the blog, but somehow screwed it up, I had decided to have a quiet relaxing weekend. I went on Friday to watch the Red Sox/White Sox game, which was a lot of fun although the Red Soxs lost, the team I was apparently rooting for. All was well, went home at a decent hour, got a good night's sleep. I woke up relatively early the next morning to stroll around the neighborhood and see close up some of the sights I had only seen in passing, and head to some gardens for a rareish sight of green. So here was my plan for Saturday: a) meet classmates for lunch b) go home and work on my teaching project c)meet a few of the classmates, who were off to sight see, at a neat little hooka bar near old town and drink tea over a relaxing water pipe c) drink no alcohol and call it a night early, so that I could get up Sunday and do something productive. I was doing fine right up to the lunch!
After lunch I promptly went home and fell asleep. However I did manage to meet the gang at the hooka bar, and got back on schedule. Afterwards we all went to grab a snack before splitting up again. Here's where it all sort of fell apart on me, in what turns out to be a spectacular way. The Dutch it seems were having a victory party in the old town square. The square filled to capacity with orange jumpsuits, and Dutch flags, all surrounding a big brass and drums band that were playing rollicking good songs.
Of course we had to join in, we didn't have a choice. While we danced and sang, and cheered with the Dutch, one of my classmates met two very lovely young Scottish girls in town for a holiday. He was kind enough to introduce himself and then me (I can hear you smirking Joan). They followed us to a Jazz club where we had a beer, and then to an ex-pat dance club called Le Chateau. We danced and drank and had a merry time. Things got a little out of control by the time we left which includes one of my classmates doing a fascinating dance with a scarf, and me kissing a guy. Finally we decided to leave (in reality Penny who was with Kurt decided to leave. Eilidh and I were doing just fine). Anyway we walked the girls to a cab, though again Penny kept having to come back for Eilidh (pronounced Ailey) and myself, which was kinda funny, though not to Penny. Finally I managed to stumble home with the promise of dinner the next night from the girls. I slept most of the day on Sunday, and then managed to pull myself together to meet my friend Megan who is shopping for an apartment, and I went along as muscle. We went to lunch and then I went home to prepare for the Dinner on Sunday night.
We met at the Jan Hus statue in Old Town Square, where I arrived early to listen to the bustle and babble. Off to dinner we went, when everyone arrived. Then we sort of pub crawled along the Vltava back to my place where I could drop off some stuff. We split up with plans to meet at the Hard Rock Cafe (everything else was closed by now). Kurt and Penny had trouble finding the place, so we all met back at my place about an hour or two later, (I lost track of time)(Turns out Kurt told me it was actually more like 3 or 4 hours, sorry Penny). Finally the girls went home, and I crawled back into bed. We met them for lunch on Monday, and then went to a park to just sit in the sun together. In the end we said goodbye in front of our school, exchanging email addresses and promising to keep in touch.
So essentially, I failed in almost every way to accomplish anything over the weekend, but it was fucking worth it!

The wedding

Ok, I have a brief break in my studies, and I forgot to bring my camera which has all my photos of Prague thus far. However I do have a few photo's from Shelby and Andy's wedding from my phone. The wedding of course was brilliant. Beautiful day, beautiful bride, just beautiful in general (Andy looked nice as well). The wedding took place in Astoria park and was presided over by the honorable reverend Brian Pappas. Then we marched through the streets of Astoria with noise makers trying to make quite a rucous. It seems to have worked as we had plenty of lookers on from the windows. We ended the parade at the Bohemian Beer Garden where the reception was to take place, where much frolicking, drinking, and dancing ensued. I managed to hyjack the reception for one good country song so that I could do a little two-stepping. The party slowly shrank away until there were just enough of us left to dive into the limo (I sat in front so I didn't actually do any diving) and head to the UES for an after reception party. We had a few drinks there before the bride and groom finally headed off to marital bliss.

Most of my pictures are a little blurry, as they were taken of people in motion with a camera phone, but this one I particularly like. It really captures something I think.

Prague

Ok, I've been without internet for a while, so I'm way behind on posts. I need to post something about Shelby and Andy's wedding, and also about my mom's trip to New York. However, since I just arrived in Prague, that seems to be the most important thing at the moment, plus I'm paying by the minute here, so I gotta be quick.
The city is incredible and I've exhausted myself walking around. Even the cheesy little Hostel I'm staying is pretty cool. So far I've walked around taking photos everywhere, I've visited my school, and some of you got an email from there, I've walked along the Vltava (more photos), I've walked along Winceslas Square (more photos), and I've slept for about 14 hours. Oh I also had to buy a textbook and start doing some homework.
Anyway, those of you who bet I wouldn't get this far have to pay up! Everyone who backed me gets a virtual high five.

Photos are me ariving in Prague (or the arrivals sign at the airport)
The castle across the Vltava
And Good King Winceslas

More Later.

Stacy's Baby

ok I just visited Stacy's Blog (Wherever did he get an idea to do a blog?), and there are pictures of the new Suarez. www.planetsuarez.blogspot.com. Check it out.

Rainman goes to Prague

Those of you who know me know that by nature I am a creature of habits. I tend to fall into routines to help me make sense of the world. Unfortunately this doesn't always jibe to well with the life I embarked on a couple of years ago, and certainly the life I am currently leading. I don't usually think much on the subject, but when I awoke in Connor's bedroom this morning, and looked out on the now familiar view of the Triboro Bridge that awaits me every morning I was momentarily haunted by the idea that I will be uprooting again in a scant few short weeks. Certainly as the last few months have flown by for me, so will the next three weeks. Of course, I could no more stay in Joan's son's bedroom than I could stay in Houston from which I fled like a fox from the hunt. It seems strange to me, that I will soon be in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, and will have to find a way, not just to visit, but forge out a life there. it's exhilerating, and horrifying at the same time. At times I can't wait to get on the plane, and at others I want to hug my metro card to my chest, close my eyes and mutter like rainman trying to watch Jeopardy.

Funny thing is everybody told me i'd never do it. Told me that people always say they're gonna do stuff like this but never do (Of course that's bullshit, because I know too many ex-pats), and I always responded that shere force of will would get me on the plane, so I guess i'm a man of my word. I've won a few bets, or I will when I actually get there. Perhaps this is all coming up because I'm going to visit my family this weekend, or because my best friend who is a mere child just had his second baby. I haven't seen him yet, but I'm sure he's beautiful, and apparently he's tiny like his father. Who knows. Either way, in just five months I've managed to make New York my home, but now it's almost time to go and try to do the same in Prague.

Ok, a few things of note have occurred since last I posted. Over the weekend I hung out with my friend Nunio. I actually thought he had already left town, he's moving to Houston with his wife, and so was surprised to hear from him on Friday night. We went to one of my favorite pubs, Biddy's on the UES, and started to get good and trashed. A few hours later we wandered off to another UES pub called Trinity, making an accidental stop along the way at a gay piano bar next door. That was an interesting experience. Good piano bar, though. On another night I might have stayed and had a few laughs. We got pretty hammered had some pizza, flirted with some girls (though Nunio played the good husband "wingman" role), and headed home. I did manage to pass out on the train and end up in South Brooklyn. Get out a map. I live in North Astoria. I was in South Brooklyn. Now for you Houstonians, this might not seem to far, so get out your subway maps, and track the route home on the N. Saturday night we gave it another go, though we got considerably less drunk, and had a very different night. Nunio's a good guy though, and I'm sorry that I spent so little time with him here in New York. I played hookie from work on Tuesday and finally bought my plane ticket. That was pretty scary. Somehow my $700 plane ticket seems more inescapable than my $2000 tuition in Prague. I've been battling home-sickness for a couple of weeks, so the buying of the tickets was pretty frightening.

My friend Rush just had a baby, and Stacy's baby should be born by the time I go home for a visit over Labor day. More babies. My family is throwing a birthday party a week early for my neice Keely while I'm home, because she swears I promised her I would come home for her birthday, which I didn't, but at least this way everyone wins, and she's not scarred for life.

The picture is Nunio standing outside of a bar in the West Village on Saturday night. We hid in here from some of Nunio's friends.

Sometimes the good die old

Well my grandmother was born in PA. Where or when..well thats not too important right now. Anyway, her parents divorced when she was young and her mother remarried and moved to Jacksonville, TX whle she and her sister Ruthie stayed up in PA with her father. when my grandmother (Nana) was about 15 she walked into her fathers room and found him on the floor with a pistol in his hand and a resulting piece of flesh missing from his head. As you can assume, my Nana is a bit F*&@#D in the head, but thats a different adventure in my life. Well to state the obvious she and her sister moved to Texas with her mother and her new husband, Larue (poppy). Poppy's life was a great tale, but my goal today is my adventure in Jacksonville, TX. Poppy died of cancer on Monday @ around 8pm. He HAS an extremly large family, 6 kids, 17 grandkids, 30 G-Grandkids, and 1 G-G-Grandkid. The funeral was mostly like a day dream. It's interesting to say how so much family gathered at one location for such a somber event can alter reality to create such a joyous rememberance of life. Very few was shed in the way of tears, more importantly we celebrated his 91 years on this planet. Everyone was present, cityfellows, countryfolk... rich, poor...blacksheep and the unmentionables. But on a lighter note... I never really realised that when family is so distant...3rd and 4th cousins, it's never really expected that they can be so damn hot... but you know my motto...Just once..

Stacy Suarez
Starbucks TX

Mark's new e-mail address

So, I'm sat at home late on a Tuesday night checking my e-mail, when I receive an e-mail from my dear friend Mark. OK...so it's another post about his blog, which I've already signed up to - so no big deal. Then I look more closely... I notice the new e-mail address and explode into laughter. For those that don't know Mark's new e-mail is dntpanic.TPC@gmail.com. Ask Mark what it means if you feel like a good laugh :o)

Something to think about

So I talked briefly to my friend Stacy today whose post is below. Even though he (yes it's a he) rarely returns my calls anymore, he did call to congratulate me on my new blog. We chatted briefly about the coming of his new child. Now Stacy is 18 or 19 or something like that, and his wife is at best 15 years old, and they're working on their second beautiful new child. Due very soon. He told me the date, but good friend that I am I already forgot. He's planning to make me the godfather, which is very cool and quite an honor. How he convinced his wife, I'll never know. But it got me thinking. Here I am divorced, 31, moving to Prague, and this little man is having a second baby. It's a litle strange. Also, I'm going to be the godfather. That means if (god forbid) both of them should die in a horrible accident, I am supposed to step in and take care of the baby. Now mind you only the second child, the first one will have to fend for herself. The image that came into my mind was the night we were out together and I got so trashed I was lying in the back of our friends pickup. This wasn't years ago in our wild and crazy days, but scant months ago. He has a picture that he loves to show around (god bless camera phones). Stacy and I actually became friends by being drinking buddies at work. Ssssh, don't tell anyone, that's a secret cause he was my employee. Still he trusts me with his family. Or maybe it's just a symbolic gesture as these things so often are, and he has airtight stipulations in his will that under no circumstances am I to take any responsibility for the boy (I just found out it was a boy today). Anyway, food for thought.

the post you have awaited for has arrived

nice...me like...so i'm not sure how the godfather thing will work with you out to get hitched but whatever. I'm happy you got something up this way we don't have to conspire to try to steal your diary anymore.

Ouch!!!

This is what happens when you park illegally in New York.

It's a start

Well a few people have joined up, and that's just great. Hopefully everyone will keep an eye on this page, but then again perhaps it would be best to just post whatever I want wihout worrying about the consequences. I'm also keeping a written diary of events, though as I get closer to leaving and a little more tight on cash, I have to admit the diary is getting a little stale. Anyhow, the point is, I get an opportunity to ramble on endlessly about myself, and hopefully start a few discussions along the way. You may note that my cousin signed up but had nothing to add to my little blog. The point is everyone should spend their spare time wondering about me, the center of the universe. If not then, well, I'll just keep typing.

hi, it's me, joan!

So, Mark's an old friend and lives with me while he is waiting to go to Prague. I dearly love him and hope that living in NYC is a good preparation for the CR. Virgin passport being used = RIGHT ON!!

Love from home

This thing is cool... A good way to keep everyone up to date on your travels. Now...get your a** to the Czech republic and bring back a wife :o)

Join Up

Ok, well I got the thing working. In order to post comments and stuff I have to make you a member of the site. If you would like to be a member, drop me an email, and I will invite you in.

The Beginning

My first post. Right now I'm just trying to see how well this thing works.