Rugby, Music and Potato Pancakes

Saturday night I met the gang at the Sport Bar for a little Rugby. It was the Scotland vs England, which meant that Adrian would be basing his mood for the night on the outcome of his beloved England team, but Rob would be rooting for Scotland. As my interest in Rugby has grown over the last weeks, I found myself also rooting for Scotland. Scotland played a really solid game and beat England by the skin of their teeth, but it made for an interesting game. Afterwards, I went with Rob and his girlfriend Marta, Chris, Elizabeth, Lucy and Megan to see a band named BT n J. Their flyer describes the sound as "Hiphop funky latino quartet". I think that's not really it. The music was pretty funky jazz, but not particularly latino. The vocals were pretty much just hip-hop. With the flute in the backgroud there were some pretty strange layers working together, and it made for a pretty interesting sound. Eventually Lucy went to pick up a friend who was coming for a visit, and we hung out at the bar for several hours chatting and just having a good time.
On a side note, I have learned my Czech numbers, and was actually able to communicate full with the bartender for the first time about how many beers I wanted, how much I owed and how much change to give back. I was very impressed with myself.
On Sunday night I had Curtis and Scott over to my place for dinner. I made stuffed potato pancakes, Curtis brought some wine, and Scott brought some homemade red cabbage. We chatted about life, women, men, travel, Prague, etc. All the things you would expect us to talk about.

Feels like Spring

This weekend there was a bried respite in the winter cold. The sun appeared and melted all the snow and ice, and warmed everything to just above freezing. On Saturday I took a nice little stroll through my neighborhood which I hadn't done yet. Sunday I met a group of people for Brunch including Scott, Curtis, Beth, Megan, etc(for a complete list please see Curtis's posting of the same event). We had a nice time. There were I think 10 or so of us, and we ate and watched the Olympic games. Afterward the crowd began to shrink in groups of 1 and 2 until only Curtis, Megan, Kelly, and I were left, and we wandered through this lovely park in Holesovice, which I can not wait to see in the real spring, and across the river up to the 17th Century Chateaux in Troja. We wandered through the gardens and took lots of pictures which I will post. Eventually we wandered over to the zoo to catch a bus, which was easily the worst bus ride I have been on here in Prague. Unfortunately the warm weather is not going to last, but it was a much needed reminder that Spring will come.

Birthday

For those of you who sent birthday wishes, I'd like to say a collective thank you. My birthday went very well. Originally I had not planned on having a celbration as such. Generally I just wanted to go somewhere with a couple of friends and throw some darts. People kept asking about my birthday so at the last minute I decided to pretty much just announce where I was going to play darts and see who turned up. The place was recommended to me by my friend and supervisor Ann (who also had me over for Christmas dinner). I was a little nervous about the place because it was located in a Herna bar, but it turned out to be quite nice. There were at least a dozen pool tables and 3 electrronic dart boards which suited me just fine. Approximately 15 people showed up, which was pretty great. For those of you who know me, you'll surely be impressed that I could amass a friendship group of that size in just four months. In the five months I lived in New York I managed to amass exactly 1 brand new friend. The wonders of expatriate life. In any case it was loads of fun. I played darts most of the night, and so was a little less social to those who didn't, but fortunately there were enough people in attendance to keep everyone entertained. Also I won 6 out of 8 games, so I was pretty pleased (My teammate for most of those games was Matt, who had never played before, and so was pretty pleased as well). Anne and her friend John, the only other experienced players also put in good showings, though Megan who had also never played before demonstrated pretty great skills that I hope to exploit from now on. It's always good to have a good opponent. Anyway I drank lots of Czech beer, recieved to bottles of Becherovka and lots of books as gifts, so all in all a better birthday than I had anticipated. Megan was kind enough to take photographs while I played darts, so here they are...Pictures

OH MY GOD IT'S COLD

I haven't updated for a while, but generally that's because life has been pretty quiet. There's just not as much to do when it's -17 degrees outside. Mostly I just go to work (which I fortunately enjoy), watch videos with Megan, and go drinking with the gang. A couple of weeks ago Rob had a poker night at his house, and despite my misgivings about gambling (does not go well with compulsive nature) I went, because it turns out you had best take every social opportunity you have when living overseas. Anyway I was the first one out. I simply played badly. I bought back in however, and came out 25 crowns ahead for the night. So if anyone needs a donation to the "visit Mark in Prague fund" , I am willing to donate my total winnings. That's approximately $1. I decided at the last minute to have an actual birthday celebration, so perhaps after the weekend I will have some new stories or at least a few photos.

Good Deeds

My friend Joan in New York along with my other good friend Andrea created a blog about people doing good deeds for one another. One of the best things about this blog is that it is mostly about New Yorkers doing for each other, which is a story not told enough. I've been keeping an eye on the site and am pretty happy to post a referral. Well done guys, love the site, and its always good to hear that people are still paying attention to the good news. I have added a link to the site on my links list to the left.

Texan dies in bizarre bus accident

I realized I had not told the story about the bus that attacked me. A few weeks back while trying to take Megan out to dinner, we were traveling from one restaurant that was full to another. When we came to the bus stop there was already a bus waiting. A little old woman was standing in the door waiting for her friend to arrive so they could get on. I hesitated for a moment because I didn't want to step in front of her. I realized she wasn't getting on, so I stepped into the doorway. Just as I was taking that step I heard the buzzer that supposed to warn people that the door will be shutting soon. I was already in midstride, so I kept moving. Just as my foot landed on the first step, the door closed. The buses have scissored double doors, so the effect was to catch me right down the middle. Unfortunately the doors are not set to open if they encounter resistance. So I just was trapped there until the bus driver decided to open the door again. He finally did, but only left it open long enough to get al of me, but my other foot through the door, closing it again on my left ankle. I suddenly had visions of myself traveling sown the road with my foot hanging out, but fortunately the driver must have realized that he couldn't do that to someone, and opened the door. This time he left it open long enough for me to get all the way in the bus, and for Megan and the old lady to follow. However he shut the door in the face of the old lady's friend. Somehow it seems I got the blame for this. I could tell by the glare from the little old lady.

New Year's

So the plan for New Year's came together at the last minute as you might expect. Curtis invited me to a friends to have dinner and then head out onot the town form there. I bought a couple of bottles of wine and hit the public transport into town. Dinner was delicious (eggplant Parmesan) and the company was friendly as always. Curtis has a friend in visiting form New York, and he was an interesting new addition to the group. After dinner and drinking we headed off to see some fireworks. I forget what the original plan was. Somehow I got elected navigator, which was just silly, but we lost some of our party on a tram. Basically they are visiting, and we hopped a tram, but they missed it. The tram didn't go far, but I think they were a little lost, and decided not to follow. Anyway we waited for them for a few minutes, and then realized we were going to miss the countdown if we didn't hurry. As we were passing through Namesti Miru, I stopped the party, and talked them into staying put. Namesti Miru is overshadowed by a giant beautiful cathedral, has a large digital clock on one of the buildings, and had just enough people there to create a party atmosphere. I thought it better to stay there than end up missing the countdown on route to a place I wasn't sure how to get to. Anyway we stayed, and the fireworks from here were brilliant. We drank Champaign and I kissed everyone. Later we had a snowball fight.
We decided to have a conference about what to do next. The group was sort of divided. Curtis, Mickey (New York friend), and I wanted to go to this gay bar nearby and do some dancing, but the girls wanted to go elsewhere, I forget where exactly. While we were having this conference some Czechs tossed a firecracker at the group. Everyone scattered except me. I waited for it to go off, and kinda just looked at the group that had thrown it and yelled Happy New Year. I guess they were impressed because one of the guys walked over and handed me a handful of firecrackers. So I had fun throwing those at people. Anyway, we headed off finally, but got distracted on the way by a noisy little sidestreet bar that didn't have a cover, so we went in there for a while. Finally, the boys and I headed out, because we really wanted to dance. I got an opportunity to do some sidewalk ice skating, but apparently neither my shoes nor my stride are properly adjusted to the ice, because I kept busting my ass ALL NIGHT. I fell down 5 times.
We finally managed to get to the club, and did in fact get to do some dancing. Eventually we headed out and went to get a late night snack at this all night fast food Mexican joint I know. But eventually I had to hop the bus and head home. Unfortunately the next morning I felt like some one had beaten me with a rubber hose, and some of the bruises are still there, but it was worth it.

P.S. I gave the address to this blog to some of my new Czech friends (Hello Kate, Jiri, Blanka, and Gabby), so if you see strange new comments in Czech I will do my best to translate those.

Global Update

Ok, my internet connection has not been working for several days. On the bright side, nothing of any real import has happened to me. I had a lovely Christmas, thanks for asking. One of the senior teachers at my school invited me over for lasagna, which was delicious (thanks Anne). We spent most of the night playing an interesting Czech dice game and drinking wine. I was sick most of the last week, so I have done little more than teach, sleep, and whine, but am feeling much better now. I went out to the pub last night with Jiri and Gabriella, which was fun as always. Thursdays are fast becoming my favorite night of the week. I have no plans yet for New Years, but Curtis and I are trying to throw something together. The problem is that we are both broke, so we have to party on a budget. So, Merry Christmas to all, and have a Happy New Year, you are all in my heart this holiday. Na zdravi!!!!

Snow Etc.

I love the snow. I love to throw my blinds open first thing in the morning and watch it flutter to the ground. I love to sit eating my Musli and look out across the everygreen covered hills of Troja to the red tile rooves of Prague and see the white white snow creating a sort of city wide christmasy feel. I love the fact that there is a sled hill right in front of my apartment. I love the way it crunches under my feet when I walk, and I love to romp in it. There are few things in this world that you can romp in, and snow is one of them. That being said, here are a few things I hate doing in the snow...1) Going to the grocery store 2) Waiting for the bus 3) Walking uphill or downhill when it's all icy 4) Smoking. I'm sure there's more, I'll discover them through the course of the winter and keep everyone updated.

A moderate weekend

I decided to do eveything in my power to have a relatively quiet weekend after last weekend. I have a new class on Friday mornings so I knew I needed to head home at a decent hour on Thursday night, plus I wanted to get some stuff done around the flat. So I went to the pub as usual on Thursday, and had a great time. There was some mistletoe, and that caused a minor episode when I stoood under it and the only one who would come give me a kiss was Jiri, whose picture I am attaching sitting with me and Megan. Fortunately no one was quick enough with their cameras to get that on film. I managed to call it a night about 1am when the bartender came to the table and sat down to reckon up and send me on my way. I walked Megan home and then managed to get myslef home at a somewhat decent hour.

Next day I was late for class due to getting lost, but managed it ok. I was a litle tired, but I got through it. That night I invited Megan out to my part of town for dinner and drinks. The restaurant I had chosen was actually completely full when we arrived so we ended up at a very nice little italian/pizza place not too far away. After that we went to an "Irish" bar near my flat. There's really nothing Irish about this particualr bar except that they serve Murphy's. In any case we stayed there chatting until roughly 1am.

Saturday night Curtis was throwing a Christmas party with some friends. I went along and brought a case of beer, that almost got me mugged on the metro, not to mention that I had to put a 1ookc deposit on the crate in which I had to carry it. Most of the party were strangers to me, but it was still alot of fun and I got to meet a few new people. After the party broke up we went off to a dance club called Nebe, where I had a few more drinks and got to do a little dancing. As with any night there's a breakpoint in the evening where it's actually easier to just stay out until 5am and take the metro than to try and catch the night bus/tram. Once we realized we were past that time we just hung out at Nebe until after 5 and then went to get some Gyros. We parted ways with Scott sometime after 5:30 or so and headed to the flat. This was the one late night of the weekend.

Today I have done some laundry, cleaned house, changed a few light bulbs, and updated my blog.

Bender

I went on quite the bender this weekend. Thursday I went to the pub as usual and met a new friend named Jim who currently lives in Dubai, but was in town vising for the weekend. I introduced him to the rest of the pub, and we spent some time together during the weekend. Toward the end of the evening at Konvikt my drinking for the night was paid for by my former tutor Mali in recompense for some work I did at the school. i then teamed up with some of the guys from the new block of students, my belarussian friend Oleg, and Scott who seems like he will feature prominantly in many of my late night adventures. We first tried O'Che's the Cuban I rish bar near the Konvikt. I got a chance to throw some darts with Oleg, but the bar was already ready to close when we got there. So off we went to the Budvar (a budweiser pivovar) around the corner. We sat there and drank and talked until the group began to dwindle, and when they closed at three we wandered off to the Hard Rock for some late night dancing and drinking. We danced until they shut down the DJ. Toward the end of the night when the party had dwindled to Me, Oleg, and Scott, we were joined by a native black czech. He was an interesting character who wanted to discuss politics in the US. Generally I found him interesting if a little confused. Also his reasons for having left he US were a little sketchy. I rolled into my flat at around 6am.

Friday I was invited by Scott to join him, Courtney and Lucy for a party. We went to the party which was entirely people I don't know, and it was a little overwhelming for all of us. Plus I accidentally pulled the coatrack off the wall. Anyway we went to get some food with plans to meet up with the party a little later. We had a nice meal and laughed a little about how overwhelming was the group of people at the party. We gave it a solid effort though, and joined them for the next stage at a little local bar. We simply didn't blend with this crowd and so decided to shoot some pool, where Scott and I got beat 3-2 by the girls. Deciding that 1kc per minute was a little pricey to play much more, we headed off to a metal bar that Courtney recommended. We did a few tequila shots and talked over the metal music for most of the rest of the night. I rolled in at 7am.

Saturday I was invited to Courtney and Aidan's for dinner and drinks. I was supposed to hang out with Jim, so I asked if he could some along. The answer was that as long as we brought more food, so we did. I met up with Jim and Scott on the way to the flat, where we could drop off our stuff before heading to the wine bar around the corner where the evening was to start. On the way there I got a text form my friend Megan who I had been chatting up on Thursday inviting me out for drinks. I invited her along with us, since I was already on my way. Finally we all got together at the wine bar the party now being Courtney, Lucy, Aidan, Scott, Jim, Megan and me. We drank a few pitchers of wine, and chatted about nothing in particular. After we went back to Aid and Courtney's for currey. Fortunately there was plenty of food. After we had eaten and drunk yet more wine we headed off to a local pub for a few drinks. I got into another game of pool, this time with Lucy, Megan, and Aidan. This time I took Lucy as a partner, and we managed to actually win. During this Scott, Courtney, and Jim went off to El Mohito with plans to meet us up at the Harley Bar later. After the game Aidan called it a night, but Lucy, Megan and I headed off to the Harley bar. When we arrived I sort of lost track, as I sat and talked to Megan at the bar while everyone else went off to a table. We closed the Harly bar which came to about 5am I think, but by then everyone else had already gone home. Rolled in at roughly 6am. Sunday I accomplished very little of anything, though I was supposed to go have dinner with Jim, but I didn't hear from him until he was in Amsterdam a few days later.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving went very well. I had several guests, and although the Turkey came out a litle dry thanks to the previously mentioned problem of not knowing how long to cook it, it still tasted delicious. In addition my stuffing which was basically a modification based on local ingredients to Joan's recipe (thanks Joan) was absolutely brilliant. Some of the guests brought food, and we basically just ate, drank and were merry. Pictures

Phil Collins

So I went to see Phil Collins last night. I arrived late, as my friend never showed up, and I ended up going alone. I was sat in the expensive seats which mostly meant I was surrounded by rich older people, who seemed determined not to have any fun. I on the other hand enjoyed the concert immensely. The pictures I took are mostly pretty bad as the lighting just wouldn't work for my camera, and I am not a sufficiently god photographer to fix that problem. I am posting most of them anyway, cause I went through all the trouble to take them. Pictures.

Buying a turkey in Prague

I thought it would be a real challenge to find a turkey for thanksgiving. Turns out there was a whole bin of them at my local Albert gracery store. Once I sifted through the geese, and the French turkeys (which were just too damn slender for my taste), I found what looked like the perfect thanksgiving turkey. Problem was there was no label on it. Now my kitchen is limited in it's readiness, and I knew I didn't have a meat thermometer (almost impossible to buy by the way). Without a label, I couldn't get the weight. So I went to the meat counter and as politely as I could ask in a foreign language, asked her to please weigh it for me. She resused, and started waving her hands at me and such. I didn't leave so she went and got a manager who came out with some sort of scanner, and scanned another turkey and showed me the price. The gist of the problem was that they assumed I needed the weight so I could get a price, when in fact I needed the weight for cooking time. We argued about this for a few minutes, and I was getting really frustrated with her when it hit me that in this situation I'm the jackass. I'm living in their country and shopping at their store speaking my language. So I took my turkey and left.

The rest of the weekend

I love the snow, but does it have to be so damned cold?

Saturday night I met Curts and Erica in front of the national theater. Erica had tickets back to Wisconson on Monday, so we were out to see a few things before she left. We went to have coffee at the Slavia Cafe which is famous for the fact that it was popular among free thinkers during Communism. After that we walked across the Charles Bridge which was beautiful as always. Right in the center a couple were playing violins, and we stopped for a few minutes to listen. The music was lovely, and with the cold air and quiet night it was a little haunting. Then at just the perfect moment in the song, a bird flew up from behind the pair. It was remarkable, but almost so perfec that it made us want to laugh, so we moved on. We walked around a bit and agreed to meet on Sunday morning for coffe, and to go to Kutna Hora to see the bone church.

Sunday monring bright and early we met at Kava Kava Kava. We went to the bus station to get tickets, but the next bus wasn't until almost 4pm. Unfortunately that wouldn't get us there until almost 5pm well after dark. So instead we took a train out of Hlavni Nadrazi that left almost two hours earlier. The train ride was serene, and gave me a chance to see some of the countryside surrounding Prague. When we finally arrived in Kutna Hora, we walked over to the bone church in the freezing wind and snowy rain. The church was really interesting, but only took us about 20 minutes to see and photgraph. Afterwards we wanted to find a very czech bar/restaurant and have some authentic czech food. We wandered around slightly lost for a while, and almost went into a men's club until I translated the sign. Finally we stopped and asked some czechs where the nearest retaurant was, and got some directions. Unfortunately when we showed up they didn't have any food yet (this was about 5pm). So we just drank for a while. This by the way was easily the best beer I have had since coming to Prague. It's a local in Kutna Hora, so if you get the chance, I would try it. There was a painting on the wall that bore a striking resemblance to Curtis, so we all took pictures. We drank, laughed and talked and had a good time. Anyway, Curtis got a little drunk and passed out at the table, before they finally brought menus. We of course couldn't read the menus, so in my very best bad czech I told the waitress to please just bring us whatever they recommended. The food finally came out, and it was really fantastic. If I can ever find the place again I'm taking all my visitors there. It was time to head back to our train, which was the last one to Prague for the night, but we were running late. We had to really book it back to the station. The train was crowded and we had to push open the bathroom door to get in, as the train started rolling as we were climbing up the steps.
We finally got home, and after hugs and goodbyes we went off home to bed. Erica left the next day, so good luck to her, and I hope she's well.

Photos!!

Snow

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Day Out with Curtis

On Thursday Curtis and I met for lunch, which was a challenge, because as I mentioned I stayed out with Kurt until 6am. Anyhow, when I finally arrived we had a nice chat and talked about our Thanksgiving dinner next week. Somehow, probably because I'm so determined to have it, I got drafted as the official planner and host. So we talked about that, and then decided we didn't feel like calling it a day. We ran off to Visehrad to do some sightseeing, but it was already almost four, so we had little daylight left. We decied to come back on Friday and bring our cameras. Basicall Visehrad is the original castle before they moved it up to the hill. Its been rebuilt and renovated many times over the last 800 years or so, but a few of the original ruins can still be seen.

After that we went over to old town to see the Astronomical clock which has been under reconstruction since we arrived, and I needed to get a photo. We had a late lunch at Bohemian bagle and then headed off to do our own thing. I came home an dwatched some downloaded movies, and Curtis went to a movie with another friend. Not that exciting, but check out the photos...

Midweek

So I had my first date with Katerina last night. We met after her English class at a little cafe called Tulip. Its a neat little bar/restaurant owned by an American. The lighting is gentle and the jazz is smooth. We had food and luckily very good conversation. I was very impressed with her English one on one, as we've always met in a group in the past. After dinner and about 3 hours of chit chat, we went downstairs to the live music area where they were playing some funkier jazz, much louder and more lively. We listened to that for a while, and I had a few more drinks. Kate was fighting a cold and so she only drank tea. Because today is a Holiday, the czechs decided to meet up last night instead of the usual Thursday night. At about 10:45 Kate and I wandered over to the Konvikt to see what was up. I was trying desperately to convince her to take a later train home (she lives well outside the city), when she turned to me, smiled, pointed at my nose and in perfect English said, "I see right through you." I laughed my ass off. Anyway we picked up the Czechs and I took them to a party where I was meeting some friends from the current TEFL course who were celebrating their graduation. That's right folks the course after mine is just graduating. I've been here for two months!! Anyway we headed to the party, and I managed to get Kate to stay out for the next train, but only the one. Oh well, the night was wonderful.

I stayed at the party after Kate left. I drank until I was good and smiley, then a group of us went to Usudu to have a few more drinks. We stayed there a couple of hours and then wandered off to get Gyros. We had a debate about where the best Gyros place is in town, so we went to both. After that, I took Kurt home, as he was good and hammered. On the bright side, it was about 5:30 so we were able to take the metro instead of the night bus.

So all in all a very successful night!!

Quiet time and Cold

So I pretty much wasted the entire weekend. After the Thursday pub night, which is easily my favorite night of the week, I sat in my apartment and accomplished nothing. In a way it was nice to not be busy, but also, it was a reminder of an old self. I sat in front of this computer and wiled away my time in another world altogether. I didn't even sleep that much. Yikes!!

On the bright side, I had a really fun night at Pub night as usual. I am quickly becoming popular among the Czechs for whatever reason. Either they really enjoy my company, or I am like some sort of trained monkey they enjoy watching. I'm thinking the former, but who knows for sure; it might be the latter. On the even brighter side I have a date. She's not engaged, she's not married, she doesn't have a boyfriend, she's not crazy, she's not an alcoholic, she's never been married, and she has no kids. I'm not really sure what to do.

It's gotten quite cold here. Like January weather in Houston. I'm simply not used to it. There's a big difference between being prepared for it and being prepared for it if you know what I mean.

Erica

So my friend Erica decided to move to Poland. Turns out that in small towns in Poland they don't speak any English at all. So Erica discovers just a little late that she is a very social person, and finds herself talking to herself for three days. She goes a little bit crazy, quits her new job, and returns to Prague. Not that I knew this, she didn't write, didn't call, nothing. Not that I'm bitter, I just wanted everyone to know, how happy I am that there are lots of English speakers in Prague. So if you ever here me complaining about how hard it is to learn Czech because everyone speaks English please remind me. Thanks.