Megan's Birthday

So I write this at the conclusion of a birthday party. I have spent the last two days making the Megan's daily routine and the preparations for her party appear as effortless as possible. On thursday night I snuck a decent frying pan into her house, and on Friday morning (after a secret trip to the grocery store) I prepared home made pancakes. I also created a wonderful apple syrup from scratch which was just perfect.
For the party saturday night Megan wanted a pretty wide variety of snack foods from a list of potentials I had sent her in advance. I cooked a few of them before the guests arrived, but kept a few in reserve. Once everyone began to arrive I basically turned myself into host so that Megan could mix mingle and drink without worrying about everyone else. I kept the food table fully stocked so that everyone had plenty and the wine and booze flowing. Curtis ans Anne began doing yoga and Adrian and the girls ocupied the "jukebox" to keep the music entertaining. In the end I let the last few people out around 6am (Megan had been asleep for hours).
Overall I would say that Megan had a very pleasant birthday, and that I helped make that happen.

The Golden Pig

I was teaching a class the other day that mostly revolved around advertising. I asked the student to describe for me her favorite tv commercial. She thought a bout it for a while and was describing it. Basically it's a scene of a father and daughter in the woods talking. They are having a nice little chat when the conversation rolls around to the christmas golden pig...
"Excuse me?" I interrupted, being a terrible mistake for a teacher when the student is producing well, but I thought there might be a translation error.
"The Christmas golden pig," she repeated.
"Pig? Like oink oink pig?"
"Yes"
"It's golden?" She gave me a couple of czech words which basically mean gold covered or gilded, which verified that I had not misheard, and that she had not mistranslated.
"What does this have to do with Christmas?" I asked a little befuddled. I mean I understand that all cultures celebrate holidays differently and I have already come to terms with the fact that the presents at christmas here are delivered by a flying baby jesus, but golden pigs?? Come on! I thought she was pulling my leg. However it turns out that children here are taught to fast all day for Christmas until the evening meal. If they manage not to eat at all they are promised to see the golden pig. Apparently if you see the golden pig then you are supposed to get a wish or something to that effect.
I had basically forgotten whatever it was I was supposed to be teaching, and kept mumbling things about gloden pigs for Christmas.
For the next week I went around asking everyone if they knew that there was a Golden Christmas Pig. I keep imagining gilded pigs running around the Czech countryside hiding from naughty little children who eat on Christmas.

Melnik

On the long train ride back from Kutna Hora, Megan and I read through the guidebook that we had carried there. One of the more interesting and easily reached places is a small town just north of Prague called Melnik. There is of course a cathedral of note, a small castle (really more of a palace), but most interesting is that it lies at the heart of Bohemian wine country. Generally Bohemia is not known for wine, but this little town and the fields that surround it are dedicted to this and have been for centuries. Most of the vines orginated in the burgandy growing area of France. After the last few weeks of heavy walking, Megan and I thought wine country sounded just fantastic, so on Saturday morning we got up and headed to the bus. It was a quick one hour ride and we had stopped to get a map in advance this time, so that we might not get lost repeatedly. Melnik was actually quite small and we managed pretty well. Shortly after we arrived, there was a small parade through the center of town and we stopped in the square to watch it pass. After that we went for a little lunch, which unfortunately took forever, but soon we were on our way to the wine cellar. The church was definitely worth seeing, and has an attached bone church, which we missed (though I have heard it is unimpressive compared to the one at Kutna Hora). We went into the castle and found the area for the wine cellar tour. Here's how it works. You pay some money and they send you alone into the wine cellar to look around and read about it's history and the history of the region. Then you go back to the shop and they hand you a small wine glass, and send you down into another part of the cellar where there are several barrels topped with the various vintages from the winery. They give you a description of the different wines to read and leave you alone to taste and try them. Megan and I managed to get through most of them and it was fun to try them and compare them. Oh I almost forgot, they give you little bits of bread to clean your palate between bottles. Finally the place was closing up, and Megan and I had to make our way back to the bus and head back to town. we cooked dinner that night creating a fun little chicken parmesan, and then we were both beat so we crashed out. Pictures..

Kutna Hora (take two)

It turns out that Megan had never been to see the bone church, and when I went to Kutna Hora that's all I saw since the group ended up at a pub getting drunk (http://markwright.blogspot.com/2005/11/rest-of-weekend.html). We decided to take a daytrip down there and this time see as much as possible. We got up early on Saturday and hopped a train. An hour later we were walking over to the bone church (kostnice). I made the trip inside a second time, and it was worth seeing again. This time there was more daylight which made it less creepy, but still very interesting. Megan took lots of pictures, and we headed off to explore. The first thing I wanted to do was find the little pub that we had stopped in at last time I was there, and despite a few wrong turns I managed to find it. It had started to rain a bit while we were searching so I hoped that we could go in and have a drink while we waited out the rain. unfortunately the place was closed, so we had to continue to walk in the rain.
From there we were heading into the main part of Kutna Hora where there is an incredible church and several other sights worth seeing. unfortunately I took a wrong turn and the map sucked so we had a little touble finding the place, but eventually we got there. I was very excited and we wandered around looking at everything for several hours. The big cathedral (St. Barbara's) was really something. Anyway, after that we headed off to get something to eat and drink and found a great little restaurant and brewery called Dacicky's and had some spectacular food and great beer. After that we headed back to the train, but I managed to get us lost again, and we took a very scenic route. In the end we made it back, but the train was rerouted and took us two hours to get home stopping at every little village that had put out a wooden patio by the railway.
We finally made it home however, and met up with Scott, Adrian, Matt, and several others for some fun latin dance music at a little local dance pub. Megan and I called it a night around 2am however, as it had been a long day. Because I had been there before I stupidly didn't bring my camera so the photos are from my camera phone. Pictures...

Vysehrad

Megan had never visited Vysehrad castle which is a shame because it's actually on the Prague metro, so I decided to take her. I myself had not been there since Curtis and I went in November (http://markwright.blogspot.com/2005/11/day-out-with-curtis.html). This time the trees and flowers were all in bloom, and it was realy much more like walking through a great big park with small ruins laying here and there. I was able to guide Megan a bit, since I had been there with Curtis, and I knew a little more about it from studies sinec that time. Also, though I can by no means speak Czech, my ability to read it has made some small progress, and I was able to read more of the signs and such since last I was there. Also since I had been there last, they have opened a new little museum called the Goticky Sklep (Gothic Cellar). There were several wonderful displays from the architectural digs about the site, as well as history and legend about Vysehrad. I found it very educational and entertaining.
The weather held out for us most of the day and we wandered through the parks and flowering trees. Eventually we headed to the beer garden that sits atop the hilll overlooking the city. We ordered drinks and sat outside, but the weather turned on us finally and we had to head indoors. Fortunately the bad weather was shortlived and we headed back out for some sausage outside. Shortly after that we headed back home and relaxed after all the walking.

Eight Years Ago!!

I was teaching a class that largely revolves around different types of national issues from homelessness to crime. The interesting thing about many of the Czechs is that they have lived for so long in a closed society. Though travel has of course opened up for them dramatically since the revolution, they are still sometimes restricted by money or motivation. In any case, I am often astounded by the perspectives they have. Today the issue was crime.
One of the more interesting things about living in the Czech Republic is the near absence of violent crime. In fact, except for a few pickpockets and the occasional mugging there is almost no crime at all. You can see this exemplified every day in the way they behave. The first time you see an 8 year old riding around the city's public transport alone be prepared for a little holier than thou shock. However, the one that really gets me is that mothers out for a days shopping will often leave their babies in their strollers outside the front door while inside. I'm not kidding. At first I thought this was insanity, but then remembered where I am. It's simply unthinkable for most Czechs that someone would do something horrible to their baby.
The point is that when I brought this topic up in class, the students' first reaction was to say that crime was out of control. We talked about that for a while, until I got them to admit that it was worse than it used to be, but that in comparison, was quite low. As part of my arguement I brought up the story about the babies. One of my students was quite surprised. She said Czech mothers are very responsible (which I have found to be very true), and that she thought they were being more careful. I asked why, and she said "well, we had a kidnapping eight years ago, and everyone was very concerned." I rest my case.

Many Cultured Weekend

Thurdsday night I had a bender. My friend Ian showed up at pub night and mentioned that it had been a while since he had a 5am night. This seemed like a challenge, so after pub night we went off with Scott and played darts and pool, and drank until well after 5am.
On friday, Megan decided to cook me dinner, having partaken in my culinary skills now for several months. Our plan was to have another outdoor weekend, but the forecast was against us. In any case Megan prepared a chopsky salad, paprika chicken, and dumplings. It was of course delicious, and there were plenty of leftovers. After dinner, we headed over to Matt's place for a little house party. We were the first there, though we arrived over half an hour late, and the party was a little slow to get moving. Eventually Chris and Scott arrived, and everyone started drinking and having fun. I went out on the balcony with Scott for a while, whicle Megan discussed poetry with Chris and Matt. Later in the night four Spanich girls that Matt's roommate invited came in, drank 2 bottles of rum, and began dancing and singing. It was an interesting introduction into their culture, as they showed us a traditional dance of Southern Spain, and sang what I gathered were traditional songs. One of them was even so nice as to give me her address and phone number in Spain should I ever visit. However, I was still pretty beat from my bender on Friday, and the girls didn't speak much English (Scott and Matt's roommate speak spanish), so I headed home with Megan around 1am.
Saturday night we met up with Scott for what is arguably the best svickova in town. We ate dinner and chatted over pivo for a couple of hours. After that we went off to see a band that includes Scott's celebrity student Mira. This man is some kind of local Czech rock star, and simply oozes charm and goodwill. Apprently his wife is also pretty famous. At least famous enought o be recognized. In any case the band was an interesting mix, and played a wide variety of songs though the most fun for me were The Girl from Ipanema and Lili Marlen. These were two of their softer tunes, but there was plenty of good rocking and a little pop as well. As Scott said you never what's coming up next. Megan and i left Scott with Mira around midnight or so (might have been earlier).
Sunday the weather was cold and rainy, so we just stayed in, but on Monday the weather cleared up for Mayday. The first of may is something akin to our Valientine's Day. Traditionally you are supposed to take your girld to the top of Petrin hill and kiss her under a flowering tree (there is some dispute as to specific types of tree). I couldn't miss the opportunity so Megan and I headed out to Ptrin Hill. Curtis wanted to meet us and spend the day, since we hadn't seen each other in months, so we met at the bottom of the hill and began the climb. There is a small moastary called Strahov at the back of the hill. This was our destination. Megan and I went in to take a peak at the interior of the library, though very little is accessible as the monastery is still in use. We found a lovely little flowering tree for our customary smooch, and then met back up with Curtis for the walk down. Back in mala Strana we ate lunch at a spectacular Mexican Restaurant, and decided we were not ready to call it a day. We walked over to a spectacular baroque garden called the Wallenstein garden. After that we took a tram up to the Royal Gardens, and strolled on through those into Letna Park. We walked past the anti-communist rally held at the base of what was once a giant Stalin statue, and on over to the beer garden that overlooks Prague from the north. We had a drink and the sperated with Curtis. Megan and I walked back to her place, where I gathered up my stuff and headed home. I had not brought my camera, so pictures will have to wait on Curtis and Megan.

Zoo

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love animals. They bring out the little kid in me, and often make me a little giddy. This of course translates perfectly to a love of zoos. Zoos are the perfect blend of child and adult themepark. A proper zoo has rides, balloons, bright shiny colors, and if possible touchable animals. Combine all that with the educational plaques, beautiful views, and hopefully decent food, and you get a wonderland of entertainment. I could wander a zoo for days, and come back a week later and be amazed. Needless to say I have been anticipating a zoo trip since my arrival in Prague. The worst part is that the zoo is walking distance from my house. The day finally arrived on Saturday. The weather was beautiful. Sunny with just a few clouds in the sky, warm enough not to wear a jacket, but not so much as to be uncomfortable. Megan and I started the trek from my house, which gives us two options. We can follow the road around, which is the easier route I would say, or we can cut over Troja hill and go through the large botanical gardens. We, of course, chose the latter. The large park is beautiful, and just beginning to flower and bud. Lots of people were of course out on this fine spring day, and we made a few discoveries, including some spectacular childrens playgrounds (that it took great personal restraint to stay out of) and some community firepits (which I hope to take advantage of). The long walk ended in our arrival at the zoo. The Prague zoo is magnificent, though not all the exhibits were ready for the season, yet, so I will have to go back. Megan and I managed to show up at every exhibit just before the crowd arrived, so we were lucky not to get trampled too much. About midday we stopped at a little grill and got some klobasa, then headed down to the chairlift that runs between the top part of the zoo and the bottom part. Finally we headed into the childrens zoo to pet the sheep, goats,and Llammas with the other kids (though Megan clearly has more difficulty finding her inner child than I do). We ended the day with the walk home, which was uphill, and so more difficult after a day of walking, and dinner at the italian restaurant in my building. Pictures

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was mostly quiet. I had very few plans. I went to Pub night as usual on Thursday with dancing after. On Friday my friend and colleague Anne had planned a little dart night at Harleq'in. Megan, Aidrian, Rob, Marta, Matt, and I all showed up to toss a few darts. most people slowly dissappeared, but as the night grew long, Anne talked Megan, Aid and I into going to the Piano Bar, though i'll admit I needed little convincing. Aid and Megan were the toughest. Aid had plans to go out of town with Rob and Marta the next day, but in the end he joined us. We wandered over to the Piano bar making a couple of stops on the way. At one bar we were refused draft beer becasue they were "out". This was my first lesson in attempts by bar owner to increase their margins using the late night crowd. In the end, we made it to Piano bar. Unfortunately there was no Piano playing for the night, but we did get a very fun drag variety show. Lip synching, dresses, wigs, et al. Around 4am Megan and I decided to leave, though Aid and Anne stuck around. I got directions from Aid to make sure I got home ok, and verified those directions with Anne. That's really when th night started to fall apart. Megan was exhaisted to the point of being nearly incapacitated. We followed the directions given, but after a fw minutes of walking realized we were going in the wrong direction. We found the nearest tram stop, and decided to wait for the next tram in our direction, as it was not long due. It came promptly, and took us over to IP Pavlova, where we could catch the last night bus back to my neighborhood, at 4:45. We hopped on , and to keep Megan distracted from her exhaustion, I went through her Czech flash carsd with her. Apparently the driver decided not to finish his route, something I still don't understand. We realized this after about 20 minutes on the bus and we were passing Muzeum. Shortly thereafter we arrived back at IP Pavlova. Now about 5:15 we went down to take the Metro which starts at 5am. Eventually it rolled into the station and took us to Kobylisy, while Megan tried to catch a nap. At Kobylisy we had to wait for the first morning bus to take us home, which didn't pull up until almost 5:45. We finally managed to get home around 6am or thereabouts. Sometime during all of this, I had promised Megan that she would have a completely lazy sleep day on Saturday, so that's what she got.

The search for Einbahn

Megan and I went to Vienna on Saturday. I was well overdue for a trip out of the country, both morally and legally, but I wanted to do something different than the standard trip to Dresden which is by far the shortest and easiest trip to make. In any case we bought the tickets Friday afternoon and had an early night as the train would be leaving at 6am. We were runninga little late on the way in in the morning, but so was the train so we got on our way a little before 7am. The train ride was mostly uneventful as we were both very tired and slept for the bulk of the trip. Unfortunately the listed time it takes to get to Vienna is incorrect so we got a little concerned as we passed our arrival time while still in the Czech Republic. There was also a brief fright when the Czech border guard stared a little long at my passport, probably wondering why this was my first trip out of the country (Americans are only allowed to stay for 90 days at a stretch). In the long run we finally made it to Vienna at about noon. The map I had downloaded of the internet only included historic Vienna, so we had to find our way from the South Train Station to what is called "the Ring". The Ring is basically a semicircle around Vienna where most of the historic buildings are. The plan was to stroll around this boulevard, ad then cross the center to see St. Stephens Cathedral, then head up to the Danube and maybe get a glimpse of the giant Ferris Wheel. The problem of course is finding the Ring from the Train Station. On the bright side, I picked the right path and it led us into town. Once more or less near the ring it can actually be a little hard to figure out which street it is, until you know. There were lots of signs that said where to go and what to see, so with a little triangulation we managed to find our way onto the ring. This might have gone quicker excpet there was one sign that kept confusing me. it pointed in several different directions and seemed often to conflict with the other signs that were slowly but surely leading us to the Ring. I finally decided to ignore it and find the site on the map later after we were on the ring. Later in the day I compained to Megan that I kept seeing this sign everywhere and wondered what it was. It must clearly be an important site, because there were signs all over the city. She looked at the sign which read "Einbahn". She looked at me and said, "that means 'one way' dear." I laughed. Good for me, at least I didn't try to follow them.
We had lunch at a South American restaurant that was very good, and ten wandered the city for most of the day. We managed to circle the ring and see many of the historic buildings, and also have some time wandering the cobblestone streets in the center around the Cathedral. We took a tour of the catacombs, but though it was very interesting, they were by and large disappointing. By the time we got to the Danube we were pretty beat, and decided that the distance view of the giant Ferris Wheel woudl have to do, as we still had a long walk back to the train station. On the way we stopped at a cafe to have a drink and then, xince we arrived quite early at the station, I sat down for a cup of coffee. Eventually we boarded our train which left at around 6:30, and started the long journey back to Prague. We ate dinner on the train, a first for both of us, and then napped and talked in our compartment until we finally got home around midnight.
All in all Vienna was a spectacular city. The architecture is grand, and elegant, and everything is gilded. The parks were already green, and the trees were budding, and we were blessed with a warm and sunny day. However, it was good to get home to Prague. Pictures.

The Triumvirate of Health and Happiness

One of the interesting things about teaching is that you never know what your students are going to say. Most of them have been taught by at least one other teacher, usually several. Their conversations of course are limited to whatever English they can recall (which admittedly is far better than my Czech to give credit). Strangely their responses can sometimes give insight into their culture. I was teaching a class today on family life and we were brainstorming on what you need to grow up healthy and happy. We made a pretty good list, and I was impressed with their insights. However, what stuck out were three of the seemingly more important items, which if you know the Czechs is not altogether surprising. They were: Peace, Love, and Good Weather.

Spring has finally come!!

Saturday the weather had finally turned nice, and Megan and I decided to go to Petrin Hill, which is something I hadn’t seen yet, as it’s mostly and outdoors kind of attraction. We took the metro over the river, and walked in the sunshine over to the funicular which takes you to the top of the hill. In fact we didn't know exactly where this was, so we had a fun time walking through Mala Stranska trying to find it. Along the way we happened accidentally into a little park with a duck pond and some pretty architecture. There was also a very pretty sundial, which does not keep up ith daylight savings time, by the way. Once we made it to the top of the hill, we wandered around in the nature for a while, and then headed over to the main attraction. Petrin hill is topped by a scale model of the Eiffel Tower. According to the literature, if you include the hill on which it stands, the top is about the same height as the original. Built in 1891, it was restored in 2001, to make it safe and pretty again. We walked up the 400 stairs or so to the top, which is an adventure. The stairs wind around the outside of the tower. The steel grid is of course between you and certain death, but its still open air, and when you get up close to the top the dangers of vertigo are very real. The steps are narrow and steep, so you have to be careful. I took lots of pictures from the top, including one that is just looking down. As I write this I have not viewed them, so hopefully they turned out well. After the tower we went into the basement where there is a strange museum of artifacts from what appears to be a wholly fictitious historical person, “Jara Cimrman, genius who has not become famous”. The museum is very comical however, and I recommend it if you are ever in Prague. Finally, we went to an exhibit that has a mirror maze and some fun mirrors, as well as a seemingly out of place but very interesting exhibit about the Swiss invasion. All of this was built in 1891 as well, and was impressive considering the time. We were pretty tired at this point and wandered leisurely down the hill to lunch at Bohemian Bagel, then headed back to Krakov to rest. That night we went to dinner and were joined by Scott. We had a few beers and discussed the history of the Czech Republic at length before going to bed.

Another Birthday

On Thursday, with a lot of help from Megan, David and Andy I planned a surprise 50^th birthday for Jiri (George). David and Andy bought a cake in the shape of breasts, which was probably the highlight of the party, but Megan and I decorated our usual pub with balloons and tablecloths (these were obviously for little kids with little giraffes and such on them). We even had noise makers, though I was the only one who seemed inclined to use them. George always comes early, so unfortunately there were not a lot of people to greet him, but we had a card that I made everyone sign as they came in. George was overwhelmed, I think, with the spontaneous display of friendship, and seems to have had an especially good time. I was in top form, because I felt really good about being the catalyst for the whole thing. I drank a little too much however and paid for it the next day. The problem was I never ate dinner, and on top of my usual Thursday drinking, Matt brought out a bottle of amaretto which he and I shared, and George kept buying shots of Becherovka to say thanks for caring. But except for the wrestling match I had with Matt out in the street, I seem to have avoided making a complete fool of myself, and the evening was a complete success. David has all the pictures, so hopefully he will send them to me, and I can post them.

Dancing, birthdays, and pizza

So thursday night was pretty standard, except that Megan's mom was there for a couple of hours, so everyone especially me was on their best behaviour. Later of course we headed off to Nebe for dancing (I had challenged Mali to a dance off). There was a little misunderstanding with a young woman and Scott. Unfortunately it's not really my story to post. The thing is though that generally with Czech girls you usually know where you stand. They rarely play games.
Friday night I was in vited to Ian's birthday party in Andel. He had a private room in a cavernous little bar so at first I had trouble finding them. Eventually I sat down and was reminded of what a small world Prague is, especially among TEFL teachers and expats, as I knew a couple of people there from teaching. The party was fun and everybody got pretty trashed. Megan came along after she sent her mom and sister to bed early becasue they had an early flight home. She was a little sad and withdrawn for the night, but that's understandable. After the party most of us headed over to another local bar/club, which was a little dead, but made for a good place for a large group. We found a private little room and sat down to chat and drink further. Scott had a friend in town so he pretty much stayed out front to catch up. Eventually Ian pushed himself a little to far, and the night began to wind down. I said my goodnights and headed home.
Saturday I had to go to meet a client so I was up relatively early, and knowing there was no food in the house I stopped at the potraviny on the way back to pick up some lunch. Megan and I sat around my place most of the afternoon, really just being lazy. That night however, we wandered downstairs to a new restaurant in my building. It's mostly a little Italian Pizzeria, but I think they were a little shocked to meet English speakers in the place. My neighborhood has very few English speakers. In any case the food was pretty darn good, and the beer was reasonably priced, so Megan and I sat and talked for several hours about teaching and such, finally closing our discussion on the topic of religion of all things, and headded back upstairs.
Sunday was a blowoff day. We watched some downloaded TV shows, and movies, and then after Megan went home I just did laundry. The attached picture is me (of course), Megan, and Katka.

Another quiet weekend

Thursday was the normal routine of Pub night and dancing. I went home earlier than usual at about 3am. I slept in a little on Friday as my morning class had cancelled, and managed to take a little nap in the afternoon. That night I met Megan, Matt, and his room mate out for dinner and a couple of drinks to celebrate St. Patty's day, but I was pretty tired so called it a night shortly after dinner. Megan's mother and sister were coming in to town on Saturday, so she and I had lunch at this quaint little Czech place a few blocks from Jan Hus' church. I had what is so far the best goulash. We spent some time hanging about and then I left her to go fetch her family. It had been a while since I had a Saturday night to myself, so I squandered it shamelessly, and accomplished nothing. I turned down invites to a club from Scott, and drinks with Megan after she put her mom to bed.
Sunday I met Scott for a late lunch, so we could chat about some of the events from Thursday night, and life in general (which mostly means women). We met at the Bohemian bagel in Old Town. I had a few cups of their bottomless coffee and some rare American style breakfast food, while we chatted. After Scott invited me to go to the museum of military history in Zizkov, as he was meeting Ian and Jason. I decided to tag along. The museum is up on a hill that is topped by the statue of Jan Zizka, where there is a really spectacular view of Prague. I have taken some pictures of the view, the statue and the museum, but I only had my camera phone with me, so I apologize for the mediocre quality.
Scott is even more fascinated with history than I am and his slow trek through the museum finally drove Ian and Jason to hit the road. I waited in part because I wanted to chat some more with Scott, but also because I wasn't exactly sure how to get home, as I had been talking to Ian all the way here instead of paying attention to our route. In the end Scott and I walked back into town and went to a favorite cafe of his where we had soup (exceptional in a city of exceptional soups) and then drank until about 1am. We managed to run the gamut of topics this evening from women (always at the top of the list) to racial inequity in the US. Needless to say it was a fun evening. I grabbed the night bus home (first time on a Sunday), and stumbled into my apartment around 1:30am.

I hate being sick

Ok so I was sick most of the weekend and spent almost the whole time in bed or at least near it. I did go to Pub night on Thursday and since my Friday morning class had cancelled, I went to Nebe for a little dancing afterward with Scott, Matt, MJ, Mali, Caroline, Chris, etc. I danced myself a little silly. Chris, Matt, Scott and I went for some food a little later, and I managed to get home about 5ish. I was a little hungover for my Friday mid day class, but they are a very cool advanced class, and I often think they are hungover themselves. Friday I made dinner for Megan (Klobasa and mashed potatoes), and we watched some movies etc, as I was starting not to feel well. The rest of the weekend was just me whining about being sick, so I won't bore you with the details. However, I would like to point out that we got about 4 inches of snow.

Poker is clearly not my game

So Rob had another poker night on Friday. He has a new place in the center so it was easier to get to this time around instead of having to go to the middle of nowhere. Of course I live in the middle of Nowhere so I can't really bitch. Anyway, I played a couple of hads really badly and wound up blowing through 200kc. Oh well, I had a good time, and that's not too much to pay for a good time. Scott arrived at the game after it was all wrapping up, and sat for a few minutes chatting. After that, we took Adrian and went to meet Mali in Zizkov. As we were walking over there, I actually got my first close up view of Zizkov tower. It was apparently originally designed to block out "western" tv and radio signals, but was not completed until '92 I think. So obviously that didn't work out. However, it is a very interesting tower, and has strange creepy baby sculpures climbing all over it. I will try ot get a close up picture and post it.
Anyway we met Mali and headed over to some dive herna bar to drink and chat to the wee hours of morning. I can't exactly remember what time I got home but it was after 6 I think.

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