Sunday, December 31, 2006

In the Middle East! (first impressions)

Today is the beginning of my second full day in the United Arab Emirates*, visiting my boyfriend's family who live here. I'm staying in Abu Dhabi, though will be spending some time in Dubai (images) as well. I'm only here until Jan 5 -- there's a lot to see in not very much time!

Travel was long (12 hours from Dulles to Kuwait City on United -- bad food, okay service, limited movie selection, but an Ambien from the guy next to me helped me sleep through most of it. 2 hours from Kuwait to Dubai. Both flights full.) but not unbearable. It's a nine-hour difference here -- highly unlikely I'll recover from jet lag before I leave though, so I'm just making the most of it.

First impressions: Many, and my thoughts are a bit jumbled so sorry for that.
  • So far, everything feels very modern and western. Buildings and streets feel about the same, the supermarket/mall felt the same, the crowds haven't felt too different.
  • English: Is everywhere -- almost every sign, building, etc is translated in both English and Arabic.
  • Airport: Dubai's airport was incredibly crowded, especially considering that my flight arrived 12:50am! The lines in passport control reminded me of US control at peak times. Several women on my Kuwait-Dubai flight were covered up to their eyes, though they interestingly did seem to be co-mingling with men. Perhaps the men were family members though.
  • "Natives": I've seen very few native Emiratians so far. Of course, they are only 20% of the population here, but it still feels odd. There is not a lot of intermingling, primarily I gather for the cultural reasons that the native population is far more conservative in their Islamic traditions than the greater population, though a good portion of the 80% expatriots are indeed Arabs.
  • Westerners: Are everywhere. My impression has been biased of course, as I am staying in a Spanish-Syrian household and last night his mother held a dinner party for friends -- probably 2/3 Spaniards and the rest a mixed crowd of expatriots. His mother works at the Spanish embassy, so in turn much of the crowd was Foreign Service related. It was interesting to meet a related ambassador, but even more interesting to meet people ~my age who were the children of embassy workers. The three daughters of the ambassador were 19, 21, 22, were very close, were obviously privileged though also grounded, and had lived a variety of places -- Cameroon, Guatamala, China, the Netherlands, Spain, US, no where more than 4 years at a time. I met a man who works at the Canadian embassy and has moved his children to Ghana, Cairo, and more. In addition to foreign service workers, I met families associated with the energy industry (I tried not to make a face) -- moving throughout Middle East, UK, Spain, Netherlands, etc.
  • Status of Women: Again, so it doesn't feel much different here than at home. There are many mixed messages --at the grocery store for example there are checkout lines "Reserved for Ladies and the Disabled" (this is apparently bc many native women are not comfortable sharing a line with men). Culturally here women not only stay veiled -- everything but face and hands covered and no pants allowed -- but also cover all of their face but their eyes when in public. As I mentioned, I've seen little of this though.

    On the other hand, manequins in the mall had hard nipples sticking out, and American TV of all sorts is broadcast here -- my bf's 14 year old sister is a devoted follower of "So You Think You Can Dance", which somehow felt a bit risque. :-) Also, I went to a bar last night, where "natives" and westerns were both around and my bf told me it was very new that natives would even feel comfortable to be seen drinking in public. Note that we only saw men, no native women.
I'm going to try to go back to sleep (hasn't worked for the past hour or so). Tonight we head to Dubai to celebrate New Year's Eve... should be an experience! :-)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Back to Prague

Last night I left Saarbrucken for Frankfurt, where I met up with my friend Ashish from undergrad (lots of fun, despite transportation fiascos), and this morning I flew from Frankfurt to Prague.

I try to keep these blog entries from ever getting too long or wordy, and with that said it's difficult finding the best words to describe the sense of peace I feel to be back in Prague. It's more than an appreciation for the beauty of the city (which during the Advent season it certainly is, even if the streets are overwhelmed with tourists more than the 40 degree weather would typically suggest). More also than the thrill of seeing old friends.

I admit, a part of me was excited about leaving Prague to return to the U.S. last May, though I knew I'd miss the views and some of the people. Returning today though, I find a sense of belonging and completion; I feel like I've returned to a home. I love Prague for both the castle and the ugly graffiti, the rich culture and the frustrating tourists who clog the streets but never bother to learn where the real values of thee city lie. It's like loving a sibling for both friendship and flaws. There is a certain satisfaction in my heart as I navigate across town through the clogs of tourists, knowing that to them the city is only a beautiful stranger, but I've experienced a touch of its intimacy.

The feeling surprised me a little. Living in Prague for my brief four months, I reached the conclusion that I would never be really happy living abroad long term; always feeling like the outsider trying to adjust and fit in. This makes me reconsider a bit whether I could adjust and live long term as an expatriot. I'm not convinced that I could... but I've never believed that home is simply the place where you've grown up when it comes to the U.S., and I'm at a place in my life where I'm debating opening the circle a bit further.

Hello, Prague. I've returned, and I've missed you.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Fool me once...

Drats, foiled again!

First off, I admit that the title of this post was just a little bit of an excuse to call attention to one of my favorite Bush quotes.

With that out of the way, I really did have a point here. :-P And that point, it turns out, is mushrooms. If you know me, you know that I do my best to be open-minded with food... but mushrooms and olives are where I draw the line. Or at least try to.


Back in August 2004, I was just beginning to start traveling (my only previous lone trip to Europe was Prague in March 2004 -- who knew I'd be starting a trend?). I was in Geneva, Switzerland for a conference, and went out to dinner with some colleagues. The menu was in French, as that's what most of the western Swiss speak. I asked the girls I was eating with to translate the menu, and I chose what I wanted. When it came time to order, I wanted to be self-sufficient so I ordered for myself, in French. And it turns out, I remembered the wrong thing! ;-) I was one line off. The meal arrived, and I was expecting something like pasta... and it's a bowl of mushrooms! only mushrooms! in some sort of gravy sauce! I was horrified. I ate nearly half of it, then finally confessed to the other girls what I did and one was nice and traded the rest of her meal with me. ;)

Of course, after that experience I was certain to memorize the word for mushroom -- champignon in french -- and since then, for each country I visit, I make sure to learn the word for mushroom so I can avoid it. A foolproof plan.

And THEN -- Germany foiled my plan!

A few nights ago in Germany, I again went to the restaurant below my hotel to get a pizza for dinner. Straightforward, yes? After almost two weeks in town, I knew a few German food words, and "Champignon" (just like the French work) was early on my word-spotting list. Based on my confidence, combined with cheapness, I ordered one of the more simple pizzas from the menu. Pizza arrives... COVERED with mushrooms!!

For all you fellow mushroom haters who may choose to wander Germany in the future: it turns out there's a second, secret word! "Pilzen". I felt tricked :) I saw that word on the menu (with the words for cheese, tomato, and pepperoni which I knew), but thought of the beer ("Pils" in German, "Pilsner" in Czech") and figured it was just a spice of some sort.

Again, I sucked it up and ate the mushrooms. Ay de mi. :-P

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Something in the water...

Is there anymore much more distasteful than, thirsting for water, you take a big swig and find it salty and carbonated? For whatever reason, the Europeans appear to love this stuff. Not only is tap water almost never served (though in countries like German it is quite safe), but the bottled water is by a large majority (and definitely by default) carbonated. Perhaps one can develop a taste for it... but I don't find it at all refreshing, and what's more, find myself burping far more that usual. :-) How ladylike, eh?

You've got to love a country where finding a glass of uncarbonated water is on level with acquiring a PhD, and yet you can buy a "glass" of Jägermeister in the university cafeteria!!

To review, Jägermeister is
  • (German translation) anise- and herb-flavored digestive
  • (English translation) a huge post-frat party hangover mechanism
Party on. :-) But don't drink the water.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Maybe I'll become a coin collector :-)

Cool only to me (probably), but feel free to read on. :-)

Seven years ago, the governments of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and some other ones gave up their national currency to form the euro, one unified currency set, which by the way continues to kick the US dollar's butt. Until today, I always thought that the bills and coins were identical throughout the region. Just now though, while avoiding work to productively examine the edge inscriptions on the two two-euro coins in my pocket (one said "2 EURO", and the other a much harsher "EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT"; surprisingly the translation is quite friendly), I noticed that there are actually notable differences. Avoiding work already, I decided to investigate more.



It's interesting to see which countries really put effort into it. (Hint: Not Ireland. And Pope Benedict XVI must be feeling a *teeny* bit inadaquate about now...) Obviously, all coin types are accepted throughout the euro-using region (there's an actual name for that -- the "Eurozone"), and they gave up national expression when it came to bills, where having a single standard is maybe a little more important.

One more way to draw in the coin collectors, I guess (and speaking of that, I've passed a few coin collector shops in Saarbrucken alone -- I guess there's a crowd still mourning the loss of the Deutsche Mark). Not that Americans can speak.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Currency check

Today, the US dollar hit a 20-month low against the euro. 1 euro now equals $1.37 US, 11% more than at the beginning of the year. As if things here weren't too expensive anyway, this tidbit definitely helps to explain the dull ache in my wallet these days.

But, could be worse... the pound has now risen to $1.94, a FOURTEEN-YEAR high!!! (In April it was $1.78) Good thing I'm not heading to London anytime soon. :-)

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Native Americans making a comeback... in Germany?




As I wandered Saarbrucken this weekend, I was struck by what seems to be a (recent?) trend here: Native American performances and paraphenilia. Street performers, Lakota tribe dream catchers, little collectible teepees...

Anyway, seemed a little left field. The music and traditions are beautiful, I just never expected to see them pop up in Saarbrucken!

Not such a bad little city

This weekend, the weekend between my two weeks in Germany, I'd intended to duck out of Saarbrucken, a population 150,000 small city no one's heard of, and head to Paris again to see my friend Ben and/or former exchange student Audren, or to Munich to explore, or maybe day trips to Luxembourg or Strasbourg or Heidelberg...

Instead, I decided late last week that I would just stay here. Once I made the decision, it made sense. I had work to do. Weather forecasts weren't pretty. Et cetera. It seemed like a shame to lose the traveling opportunity while I'm out here, but then again I'm definitely not wanting for travel this year, and then there's the matter of traveling to Europe last weekend, traveling to Prague next weekend, returning to Baltimore the next weekend, flying to see my family in NC 12 days later, and flying to Dubai a week after that. Even typing all that tires me out, so the idea of sleeping in a bit, wandering the city, and getting some work done sounded nice.

And it turns out, for all the complaining about Saarbrucken from the locals about how little there is to do, I've had a really nice weekend. Nothing flashy, but some history, some lovely buildings, the annual Saarbrucken Christmas market celebration, and the free bicycle the fantastic hotel staff here let me borrow to wander the city have contributed to a great weekend.



On the bad end, work has been worthless this weekend, due more to software problems and the issues of working remotely than lack of trying... hopefully I'll keep productive this next week in Germany.

Friday, November 24, 2006

my italian thanksgiving

Ah yes, staying abroad for the holidays... just like the pilgrims used to do!

It's kind of surreal being here over Thanksgiving, if for no reason than things are just... normal here. Normal work, normal schedule, normal portion sizes. :-) And did you ever consider how few national cuisines really focus on turkey? Guess it makes sense.

Anyway, for my Thanksgiving, I ended up at an Italian restaurant in Germany with my Czech host professor, a Dutch masters student, a prospective faculty member from Spain currently finishing her postdoc in the Netherlands, and a couple of native Germans. Of course, with that mix, I did have a few very American-feeling moments when the topic switched to politics!

Bring on the stuffing, boys.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Gastronomical Travelings

I haven't been a great German tourist so far, I admit. Not that there have been a lot of tourist options so far in Saarbrucken (but this weekend I may check out Munich or Cologne, stay tuned...), but more than that, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't had a single beer, German or otherwise, and the three nights I've been here I went out for Thai buffet, followed by pizza in the "italian" place connected to my hotel, and last night I grabbed some kabab from a carry-out stand on the street. I have had "German" food for lunch in tha cafeteria each day, but I'm not sure that's really a shining example of German cuisine. Hey, at least I haven't stooped to McDonalds!

Well, we'll see how my Thanksgiving meal turns out. :-)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The coatless, wanna-be pentalinguist

More of the cold and wet today. Made better, of course, by the fact that this morning I realized I'd left my coat (the night before) in the restaurant connected to my hotel. Which of course doesn't open til 10:30. (doh!) Oh well -- I had time to buy some local stuff I needed, like a sim card for my phone, and all worked out. Note: avoid this in the future.

I've memorized a grand total of about five German phrases so far and carry my little phrase book everywhere, but hopefully that will progress over the next few weeks. It's funny - whenever I try to think of how to say something small in German, the answer comes to me in broken Czech, or Spanish, or Arabic (and more often of course, just English) instead. It's like I'm in a competition to see how many languages I can learn to not really speak. :-) As it turns out, it's been much more difficult to find English speakers here than in central Prague so far, likely because in Germany the skill is less necessary. And somehow, oddly, Saarbrücken doesn't rank as a top German tourist stop!

Monday, November 20, 2006

Sister cities?

According to the wikipedia entry on Saarbrucken, my current "home", its sister city in the US is none other than my much-more-real home Pittsburgh (where I was born, attended college, and most of my family lives). Good to know!

Wonder what, if anything, it means. Do they have club meetings? Share kielbasa recipes? :-) Alright, that's Polish... whatever...

The secret of exchanging money

A small deal to some, but after all of my months of travel, I finally did find a way to exchange US money without losing half of it in the process! The not-so-secret secret: exchange at a bank.

Of course, for a scenario like my four month stint in Prague, there's no way I would have been able to bring over that much US cash, so my high-fee approach might still be unavoidable. For shorter trips though, I'd heard suggestions ranging from
  • Exchange US-> foreign while in the US: lower demand means the exchange rate will be better
    Absolutely not! Or, possibly for high demand currency like euros (but then that might go against the motivation anyway), but not for currency like Czech koronas. Low demand means even lower supply, and the rates were the absolute worst.
  • Exchange US->foreign at a standard currency exchange booth at your destination.
    Sometimes this is okay, but watch for unflattering exchange rates and extra fees.
  • Exchange US->foreign by simply using foreign ATMs.
    It is possible that the rate is better than standard exchange booths, but don't forget about bank fees, especially from your US bank. Note: Bank of America loves to f*** you on all foreign transactions -- atm withdrawals, check card usage, credit card usage, etc.
  • Withdraw $$ in US and exchange at destination bank. Note: probability of teller speaking English is low; bring translations.
Instead, I withdrew $300 in the US (ha, like that will be enough), converted $100 to euros in the Frankfurt airport to start with, and just returned from the bank to convert another $100 as I'm, yes, already running low.

$100 US at airport yesterday --> 67 euro and change
$100 US at bank today --> 75 euro and change.

Where did my first $100/67 euro go? 6 euro taxi, 15e dinner, 20e dine card deposit, 10e on university dine card (4,80 gone on first lunch), 10,5e on week-long bus pass, and just a few left (plus my new 75e :-))

Much of that is ~one-time expenses -- hopefully sailing will be smoother here on out!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

On the train: lovin' the leaves

Though when I passed through Pittsburgh and Ohio recently to attend my cousin Heather's bridal shower, I found that autumn had long passed, Baltimore has been going through a late and extended beautiful fall these past few weeks. I'm thrilled to report that this area of Germany looks to be about the same. The views from my train from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken (3hr, not nearly as eventful as my last pass through this area) have been quiet lovely.

I'm afraid to pull out my camera though for fear of looking like the ultimate tourist -- not that reading Rick Steves' classic "German Phrase Book and Dictionary" hasn't given me away! -- but I've got a good hour left on the train so I may change my mind yet, especially if my car empties out.

Even the rows of crops seem to change a variety of colors. I wasn't expecting that! I don't typically think of crops as deciduous, but I guess it depends on what types of crops they are.

Speaking of the Rick Steves' book (and yes, he does apostrophize that way), thanks much to Simil for letting me borrow it! It's concise and well-organized; definitely I'll be going into this Germany trip slightly more prepared than last March's trip, when I was too overwhelmed with trying to absorb Czech (alas, to no avail) to worry about the correct way to say "good morning" in German. I don't expect to need German much this trip either, but I'll at least give it a go.

Just as I admired the German scenary here in.... [glancing out the train window -- where am I? Fahrkarten? Whoops, no, that's the ticket counter I think. ;-) I don't see the sign...] anyway, small little German town en route to Saarbrucken. [Sobernheim.] But between all of the traditional little houses, etc, I just saw the "Chicago Sports Bar", which if I'm not mistaken also offers kareoke. Funny the things that pop up where you don't expect them. :-)

My train is running a good 20 minutes late.... I'm thrilled that I caught the one route from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken which didn't require transfers. :-) I definitely trust myself more than in my early travels, but this is just easier.

It's raining now, as weather.com warned me to expect for at least the next 10 days. So much for my nice out-the-window-colorful-crops photos. Oh well, hopefully there'll be nice scenary to record in Saarbrucken.

Beginning a new journey, and recalling the last

Today's flights were my third trip across the Atlantic this year, and those who know me probably know that a fourth trip awaits in December. My trip to Prague from January to May was pretty well documented in this blog (as were the subsequent intra-Europe trips to London, Saarbrucken, and Paris). I don't believe I mentioned my trip to Spain in August at all, so now is as good a time as any...

This August I spent 10 days with my boyfriend's family in the village he's from but never officially lived, and where his mother grew up. (details: Liendo is a small village on the northern Spanish coast west of Bilbao -- see related link). I'll include a few quick shots below -- why not? -- but too much to write up. Basically, the area was gorgeous,


I enjoyed meeting his father and Spanish side of the family, and had a lot of time going out (til at least 5am most nights, and often later) with his friends!

The biggest surprise: after 3 years in high school and a few semesters in college, it turns out that I really do know how to speak a little bit of Spanish! I had some serious doubts going into it, and was a little worried about feeling out of place and left out of conversations when I didn't understand. Once I relaxed and stopped worry about the inevitable mistakes though, I did pretty well! His friends were all impressed with me. And good thing too, because I definitely overestimated the English proficiency of everyone we'd meet there.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Let's get this party started...

This Saturday I head back to Europe, spending two weeks in Saarbrucken, Germany and one week in Prague. The trip is completely work-focused, as was my initial Prague trip, but I'm hoping once again to get a little exploring done in the meantime.

Stay tuned! :-)

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Finally compiled: The Best of Prague

I've been home almost a month now, and have finally compiled the best of my photos from Prague. A few pictures don't do the sites justice still, but several are breathtaking. I consider myself unbelievably lucky to have considered these streets my home for four months. I hope you enjoy them!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Observations on U.S. life from an ex-expatriot :-)

I've been back in the U.S. for a week -- 2 days in NC, 1 day (12 hours!) driving to Baltimore, a weekend in Philly, and several days in Baltimore since. Being back is very strange -- I haven't been away long enough that much has actually changed, but yet things have. I feel like I've entered a time warp, cryogenically frozen for four months. No, too dramatic. I feel like someone switched the channel on me during a commercial break and forgot to switch it back, for just long enough that I have to stare at my original surroundings in confusion for a minute or two until I finally understand again how all of the characters and subplots are fitting together. Not a big shock, just a double take and a readjustment period til I'm all settled in again.

A few things I've noticed more than usual
  • Sitting in traffic S-U-C-K-S! Why is there no decent train system here?? :-)
  • Grabbing food on the run -- I've missed you much
  • Weather always seems better when I'm not there! Just as Prague was getting gorgeous I had to leave; just as I arrive in NC and Baltimore, the beautiful weather hides behind cold breezes and lots of clouds. :-/ Poo.
  • Just sitting in lab exhausts me as much here as it did there, but the daydream-inducing view out the window there was better.
  • I love driving through the mountains and cities full of green (that would be NC, not Baltimore, for those who don't know...)
  • Americans speak really loudly to each other on the streets -- especially as tourists, it seems, but even here at home
  • Gone for four months, but the main headlines never see to change: Iraq, Natalee Holloway, and the sniper trials.

I miss Prague, but am glad to be home, despite its quirks. :-)

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Last night in Prague

Departure time: Seven hours (leave for airport 4:15am, flight departs 7am)

Suitcases packed: ~75% done

These past few days have been full of goodbyes. My last day at my office in Malostranske Namesti. My last walk across the Charles Bridge and through the streets of Prague. My last drinks with American pals in Prague. My last dinner with co-workers. Tonight though, saying goodbye to my incredible Czech friends Pavel and Eliska, has definitely been the hardest, and for really the first time I'm feeling some of the loss soon to come.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Less than a week!

I fly far, far away from Prague in less than a week -- seriously, my time here has sped by much faster than I anticipated back in October when my advisor told me I had to come for four months. I'll be leaving Prague with mixed feelings. Not only is this an incredibly beautiful city with a rich people and history, but this really is the best time of the year to be here (and the weather through Sunday looks gorgeous!). On the other hand, returning to normal life of friends, boyfriend, and family will be really nice as well. Not to mention about 23432 weddings to attend over the course of the summer!

So, what will I do with my last week? Beyond work, I plan to spend the next few days going out with friends, finally catching a performance at the National Theater, packing and wrapping up loose ends, completing my rest of my ridiculous souvenier shopping list, and most of all, spending a lot of time walking around outdoors and loving Prague. :-)

Some cool things I've done in the past week:
  • Explored Prague views on Petrin Hill

  • Attended a campfire party with Czechs -- cooking sausages on a stick over a fire and singing songs with live guitar accompaniment was never so fun :-)


  • Skipped most of a day of work to finally explore Kutna Hora, an old silver mine town an hour or so outside of Prague

  • Spent an afternoon playing touch football (fun!) with a fun set of expats
  • Evening barbeque with friends

Monday, May 01, 2006

All about London

As usual, I'm way behind -- I'm sure I'll be writing about things I did and forgot to mention months after I return from Prague. :-)

Anyway, London... (trip taken April 20-23, photos here)


I was fortunate to be able to meet up with two friends and have another fantastic weekend with beautiful weather. :-) Happily I was also able to save money on hotels in the process! And a good thing too, because... good lord, London is expensive! Seriously, NYC didn't even compare. I just kept pretending that I was paying dollars instead of pounds for my own mental health (when in reality one pound is ~ $1.78.... wow, has that changed a lot...). My bank account caught on to the trick though.

But we'll forget that for now.

List of favorite London moments (not nec in order)
  1. Seeing the Producers at Covent Gardens in the London West End
  2. Catching up with Jeff Goodman and reminiscing about good old high school days :-)
  3. Jeff's whirlwind tour of London's sites
  4. Getting to wander London with my boyfriend's sister Sara -- first time we've really hung out alone, and as I expected we had a great time!
  5. Getting to ask my dumb tourist questions in English instead being limited to large arm gestures and repeated pleas of "Yes? Please? English?" in whatever language was appropriate at the time :-)
Paris was more beautiful than London, but London just felt more approachable and definitely more familiar. Plus, the London subway map didn't give me a headache.




London Underground

Paris Metro

Paris was a beautiful place to visit, but I think I could actually see myself living in London.

If I could afford it. :-)

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Where the money goes

This is horrifyingly amazing. I'm looking at my finances for the last 3 1/2 months, and found a few surprises:

$56.18 in ATM fees -- charges for withdrawing money in Prague, Germany, France, UK
$12.52 in "Internation Transaction" credit card service charges - 3% fee
$38.51 in fees charged for using my check/debit card in stores
-------
$107.21 spent on nothing.

I'd considered getting a Czech bank account while I was here, but it seemed like too much of a hassle. I mainly only use my debit card on groceries and a few larger items -- the fact that stores here charge an extra fee for using credit cards really starts to add up. I use my credit card for large travel items (paying for hotels killed me here, and of course I won't get reimbursed for that part). When I withdraw money from an ATM, I'm (now) aware that it charges ~$7 in fees each withdrawal, so I try to take out as much money as the machine will let me, at least in Prague.

Thought I was doing this intelligently..... ouch. The scary thing is this could have been much worse. There must be a better way to do this!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

back to Easter


I spent Easter weekend in Liberec with my friend Eliska and her family. The city was nice (often cold and rainy, but not this time), her family was great, and I enjoyed Czech Easter traditions like spending a day decorating eggs.

And yes, I let myself be pomlázka'd. :-)

When I wrote in my blog earlier about my discovery of the pomlazka tradition, I wasn't surprised to raise the ire of some of the Czechs who read my blog. So to mysterious Czech readers Jana and Mirek, and others who didn't comment on the blog, I wanted to respond and elaborate a bit. I hope you'll take it in the light, discussion-provoking manner in which it's intended!

I should be clearer; especially after having experienced the holiday and tradition, I realize that the whipping is for the most part in good fun. It was nice having neighbors stopping by the house and chatting (even if it was to spank us and get some painted eggs, candy, and alcohol!), and when not a lot of boys stopped by I could tell my host family was a bit disappointed. It's nice to hold on to traditions, and absolutely no one who stopped by was mean or disrespectful in any way.


That said, the tradition will always trouble me a bit, and here's why. I don't believe that many Czech men are aggressive and ready to pounce, but some could be, and here's a holiday where hitting women literally is condoned. Several boys who stopped by insisted that the soft end of the pomlaska was for young girls and we had to get the hard end which stung more, and a Czech guy I talked to said he knew guys who bought very hard whips special bc they thought it was more fun when it hurt.

Even more than that though, there's something a little disturbing to me about teaching this to children. Playful as it may be, there's something slightly degrading about being spanked, and I believe it must set in children's heads early on that boys (even the younger ones) dominate girls (even the older ones). So we'll leave it at that. I won't ask the Czechs to change their traditions, but were I to settle in Prague permanently, I wouldn't teach them to my children either. To each his own.

But back to Liberec and my Czech Easter -- everything was beautiful, everyone was wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for a better holiday!!! :-)

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Here come the tourists... in their underwear




Charles Bridge in February

Charles Bridge in April

Okay, not really, obviously. That would make them a bit easier to bear though I think! (and maybe you need to be a regular blog reader to get that joke anyway :-))

To all of you not currently in Prague, you're missing out (and you're lucky). The weather here is beautiful, which makes walking through the beautiful streets, courtyards, and bridges amazing.

However, all of Europe and elsewhere seems to have figured out the secret, and they've flooded the streets! What's more, the various shop, craft, and restaurant owners have decided to take advantage of the recent population shift (Dear Czechs: welcome to capitalism), and they've decided that their normal shops and restaurants aren't enough -- instead they've choked Staromestske Namesti (the Old Town Square), Malostranske Namesti (where I work), Andel, and who knows where else with little house-like shop structures.

And yes, I do realize the irony in my annoyance that the Old Town Square old marketplace has actually become, god-forbid, a market. ;-) Still, it's bad enough tripping over tourists without also tripping over porta-potties and huge artificial trees with Easter eggs on them! Easter was just last week of course, but the celebration has been going on almost a month now!

And yes, I'll describe my Easter experiences soon... busy, busy, busy.



Friday, April 14, 2006

Paris pictures finally up

I went to Paris almost a month ago, but finally posted the pictures on my website. Check them out here.

Boo for being sick

As it turns out, I've spent today being sick - obviously no fun. Thankfully a teleconference planned for this afternoon with others from my grant in Prague, Saarbrucken Germany, Baltimore, and Providence has been postponed to next week (and thankfully again not til Tues rather than Monday, when I'll still be out of town for Easter Monday, hopefully without anyone swinging a pomlazka at me!)

So I'm pretty much useless today. (But yes, I can still blog :-) Not much brain power required here...) The timing is no good...
  • For work: I'm already going to be missing Monday for Easter traveling, and London next Friday, and have to give an hour long talk to the Czechs here the following Monday, so getting work done today would have been best.

  • Personally: yesterday out of nowhere while walking home from work, I ran into an old friend from CMU! I hadn't seen Andy Lee (or Andrew, as he's reverted to) since, well, I'm sure I was in Pittsburgh at the time. Nice to see him though -- he and some friends just ran the Paris marathon, which must have been awesome, and have been traveling through Europe since. Anyway, hoped to meet up tonight, but as I'm half dead and continue to sporadically cough out my lungs, don't think it will happen. Would have been fun, but so it goes.

    (read Andrew's blog)

    Plus, when is getting sick ever good?

  • Travel-wise: Going to visit Eliska and her family in Liberec tomorrow; hope I feel better then!

  • Because, if it happened just one month later, I could have my mom making soup for me!
Okay, enough whining from me! Hope you have a good day, and a great Easter!

Veselé Velikonoce!

Three month anniversary -- and one to go!

Three months ago, on Jan 14, I arrived in Prague, and exactly one month from now, May 14, I head home.

It's really amazing how time has flown!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

The strangest Easter tradition I've ever heard of

Today, talking to the Czech professor who is hosting me here in the Czech Republic, he told me nonchalantly about an old Czech Easter tradition which made my jaw drop. And sure enough, I confirmed it with a number of others, all of whom found it typical and no big deal.

Every Easter Monday, to bring good luck and a good summer harvest, men and boys whip the girls and women.

Seriously, yes! I can only imagine that this is generally done in a light and teasing manner, as the Czech guys who told me are all sweet as can be and I can't imagine them taking part in this otherwise. But still, they also mentioned that sometimes it is taken too far, "and the women don't appreciate that much". An understatement if I ever heard one!


The whipping generally occurs on either the legs or the buttocks. The name of the whip -- and the "flogging festival" itself -- is the pomlázka. The tradition is a pagan one, and perhaps regrew in popularity during Communist times, in which celebrating the religious focus of Easter was generally forbidden. (Also due to this, Easter Monday and not at all Good Friday or even Easter Sunday is the most celebrated day here). The pomlazka whip is traditionally made of braided willow twigs, but these days men typically just buy them. Often, the women also have water thrown on them by the men, to "cleanse" them prior to the whipping. In exchange for being whipped by the men, the women are expected to give the man who whipped them candy or some small gift. More often in recent times the gift is actually alcohol. Really, you ask, get the men carrying the whips drunk? Whose idea was this?!! They also give the men they like a ribbon to hang off of the whip. Boys and men who are left without many ribbons hanging off their whip are often quite embarrassed.

Signs of an abusive relationship? Women who are not whipped, or not often, are said to be a little hurt, since no one bothered to show them the proper attention.

So what do women think of this? Here is one Czech woman's point of view.


Can you even imagine something like this happening in the U.S.? Even assuming that it was absolutely always done in good fun (which I have trouble believing so condoning it seems a little scary), can you imagine parents putting up with this being done in a schoolyard, for example? This is the country where children hugging each other can sometimes get them in trouble!

Craziness, pure craziness. No one better shake a twig at me this weekend, that's all I can say!



To any Czechs reading this, I'm sure you'll think I'm overreacting and tell me it's no big deal, and I'm sure it normally isn't. Regardless, this entry covers my general reaction. :-)

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Unexperienced Prague experiences

The past two nights I've gone out with my American friend Mark (introduced via email by my Hopkins friend Andrew) and two of his buddies from growing up in South Carolina, John and Justin. The guys were a lot of fun -- I had a great time listening to their stories, and group-reminiscing about our days growing up in the South. :-) John and Justin were actually hear on part of their whirlwind tour of Europe -- 2-3 weeks spent in Dublin, Frankfurt, Heidelburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Berlin next (I think that's it, that's what I'm remembering anyway). Anyway, lots of fun, and if I can remember the URL of their blog I'll definitely check it out.

Talking to them though, I realized their blog has a lot of stuff that mine does not: scandels and taboo. :-) Not that I would be opposed to including some on mine but there are the problems that 1) my mom reads this, 2) I actually *am* opposed to including really personal things, or things which could discourage future employments :-), and really the most important reason 3) I spend most of my days staring at my computer doing work, and not a lot generally happens to me here.

From what I've learned though, it seems I am missing out on a key Prague experience which all of these guys and others have experienced: midday drug pushes and sex offers. ;-)

Probably a lot of it is because I'm female (esp the sex offers), maybe because I look clean cut (I decided not to experiment with the always popular goth look when coming here), or because I walk through town quickly and with purpose (it's very difficult for me to walk slowly actually... seems more efficient my way!). But for these guys, Prague has a whole different side. Guys walk up to them on the street with heavily accented "Hey, you want the pot?" (or "Do you know where I can get the pot?"), or walking the other direction and whispering "heroin!" just as they pass by. Unbelievable -- this just doesn't happen to me, and based on my experiences here it's hard to imagine that it could!

And this isn't confined to particularly shady areas of town either. Walking town, one guy had a girl walk up to him and say "Excuse me, do you want sex?" and when he said no, she countered "Why not? Why don't you want sex?". Another guy was wandering Wenseslas Square past a group of girls talking, and as he passed two looked at him and said "Blowjob? You want a blowjob? I do for you...". A very generous offer, I'm sure, but he managed to resist somehow.

I'm told just five years ago things like this were much worse, which I believe (and definitely even more so pre-1989). Still, it makes me rethink things a bit. Perhaps when my relatives were telling me to watch out because "Prague is the porn capital of the world" (still no evidence of this so far from my observations), they were more right than we guessed!

Floods in Prague, cont'd

arnab said...

how were the floods in prague? i saw pictures of budapest under several feet of water... i hope vltava wasn't as bad as danube!

--
Actually, I'm a little confused, though maybe I'm misunderstanding... the floods I mentioned were of tourists, not of water! Pictures of Budapest under several feet of tourists would be kind of cool to see though. :-)

Speaking of floods though, there was a pretty bad one in Prague back in 2002... if you know what Prague looks like normally, the pictures posted below are pretty crazy. (And even without that, it's obvious that the water mark on most of the buildings is at least six feet up... yikes).


The Charles Bridge held strong though, no levee-type incidents here! They just don't build them like they built them in 1357 anymore. :-P

Thursday, April 06, 2006

I love Dan Quayle quotes

Yes, I'll get back to my Prague experiences soon... I have a bunch of posts half written and pictures waiting to post, but I just haven't been able to sit down to do it. In the meantime though, I thought this page was great. I used to collect dumb Dan Quayle quotes, demonstrating the wisdom of George H. W. Bush's VP almost as much as the quotables of our current esteemed world leader. This page has a good collection though -- nice for a laugh. :-)

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dan_quayle.html

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Interesting article from BBC

Let's be honest: if you have time to read my blog, you have time to read a quick article and provoke your mind a bit. :-)

In the interest of being a "real blogger", here's a link to an interesting article from the BBC that I haven't seen picked up on any American news sites yet.

"How the US 'lost' Latin America"
(thanks to Arnab for passing the link along)

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Spring is finally here! :-)

No snow for over 2 weeks! (well, sort of....)

Weather in the solid 50s! (trust me, that's warm)

And floods and floods of tourists everywhere (you win some, you lose some)


Spring has finally reached Prague! :-D

Congratulations Stacie!!!

Congratulations to one of my best friends (and favorite yinzer) (and devoted blog fan), who was just accepted to the MBA program at Harvard Business School!!!!!!!!!

Way to go, Stacie!! :-D

Monday, March 20, 2006

At the dinner table: A side-by-side comparison of the eating habits of Czechs, Germans, the French, and Americans.

Disclaimer: These observations are admittedly one sided impressions from what were sometimes brief encounters with native eaters. Any readers of Czech, German, French, or American origin should not take offense at anything stated here. On the other hand, comments to the blog entry are appreciated!

Breakfast:
  • Czechs: Bread and meat: Hard long thin rolls, various slices of salomi and other meats, yogart with granola perhaps.
  • Germans: Sliced bread or croissants with cheeses (brie and the like), marmalades, honey. Also cherry tomatoes and pickles -- I think I'm the only American capable of enjoying pickles for breakfast, as it turns out. :-)
  • French: French croissant (more crumbly than I'm used to) or bread with jam, yogart, cheese
  • Americans: There are really three types: 1) Cereal, probably sweet; 2) sausage, eggs, pancakes, etc.; 3) Huh, breakfast? Does coffee count?

When you walk into a moderately nice restaurant:
  • Czechs: Seat yourself
  • Germans: They point at a table and you assume you should sit there.
  • French: You should have a reservation
  • Americans: Don't even think of seating yourself... customers can't be trusted to do such things correctly. A personal escort will walk you to your table, even standing beside the chair you should sit in to ensure that you don't miss it and sit on the floor instead.

When the food arrives, waiters say:
  • Czechs: "Please" (prosim). Actually, people use "prosim" for everything in the CR!
  • Germans: "Thank you" (danke shen?) I was never sure whether I should also say thank you, or try to be more creative
  • French: ???
  • Americans: "Here you go"?

Dinner must always include:
  • Czechs: Soup. Always. If not at dinner, definitely lunchtime. Potato dumplings aren't mandatory but strongly encouraged, along with a thick sauce of some sort.
  • Germans: Potatoes and a slab of meat, maybe Weiner Schnizel. Also salads seem to be a constant side item, but sometimes this literally means a bowl of lettuce with dressing thrown in. What can I say, they're a highly bare-bones and efficient people. :-)
  • French: Wine and dessert
  • Americans: Umm, french fries?

Speaking of french fries, here is how they're eaten:
  • Czechs: With tartar sauce (mayo-based)
  • Germans: Alone? I wasn't offered anything anyway.
  • French: With mustard
  • Americans: Good old Heinz ketchup

Eating styles:
  • Czechs: Eat incredibly quickly, and always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times.
  • Germans: Always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times. Eat more slowly than Czechs, but still faster than me. This is possibly because I am attempting to eat my pasta with my fork in my left hand at the time. ;-)
  • French: Always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times. If by chance this isn't the case (silly American), both hands should be visable above the table at all times or it's considered to be very rude.
  • Americans: Cut food with fork in left, knife in right, but eat with only one hand which means fork in right hand while knife stays on the right side of the plate. My Czech friend told me he learned officially in his English class that Americans are "one-hand eaters". If this is you, beware -- in Europe waiters try to clear your plate away the moment both fork and knife sit on the same side of your plate. If this happens to you, simply swat them away and say "Hey, I'm an American!". They'll understand... ;-)

With meals, people drink:
  • Czechs: Beer, or nothing -- both happen often and at all times of the day. Otherwise, carbonated bottled water. Tap water doesn't do the most pleasant things to the digestive system.
  • Germans: Beer or tap water
  • French: Wine. Actually, in the first restaurant we went to, I was asked what wine I wanted as my appetizer. Nice place. :-) Coffee comes at the end of the meal.
  • Americans: A soft drink.

Beer:
  • Czechs: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" (pivo) and they'll give you a beer. No specific beer name necessary most of the time. Two main local brews: Pilsner and Staropramen. Cost: $1 (30 Kz)
  • Germans: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" (bier) and they'll give you a funny look. They ask 'dark?', you say no, and they'll give you a Ur Pils. Still, they weren't quite as haughty about beer as I expected.
  • French: Why are you ordering beer in France?
  • Americans: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" and they'll roll their eyes and go to the next customer. :-)

Dessert:
  • Czechs: If it's there, normally some pastry or dumpling with fruit involved.
  • Germans: I only had one dessert, and it was at a Tapas restaurant -- not the best example. The Crema Catalana was good though...
  • French: Almost always part of the meal, at lunch times too. And all the desserts I saw (pastries, tartes, sorbets, creme broulees...) all looked (okay, tasted) fantastic!
  • Americans: Cookie, ice cream, cakes... Hey, sometimes all three at once. :-)

Tipping after meals:
  • Czechs: Optional, meant to be an actual indicator of how pleased you are with a meal. If you tip around 10% your Czech companions' eyes will boggle, and I'm sure they'll go home to their wives shocked at how frivolous those Americans are with money. Around 5% is more appropriate it seems. This money all goes directly into their pockets, no tax on it. Of course, some touristy places in Prague they'll add 18% tip to your bill, just because they figure you won't fight it I guess.
  • Germans: I never found out the protocol. Following the Czech lead I didn't tip American amounts, but around 10%. Either the waiters hated me or were thrilled with their fantastic luck. The guys in the restaurant below my hotel (two visits) didn't seem to mind me much.
  • French: Included in the food price I'm told, though that's not directly stated on the bill.
  • Americans: 15% mandatory, 20% if you're very happy. Waitresses make crap because the system assumes that they'll get 10% tip at the bare, bare minimum. When I waitressed after high school, we had to submit tip amounts at the end of the night, which of course there was never time to actually count. I was told to just write slightly more than 10% of my total bills; any less the IRS might chase you.

For a good dinner you pay:
  • Czechs: 350 Kz for 2 people... around $15 total, $7.50 each (Klub Arkitektu with my mom... fantastic meal too).
  • Germans: 15 Euros... around $20? (hotel restaurant)
  • French: 35 Euros or more, depending on how much wine you had (various restaurants)
  • Americans: $20

A fantastic journey westward

I just returned to Prague after five days in Saarbrucken (Germany), and another two in Paris.

Saarbrucken was a productive work visit... made a lot of interesting contacts, gave a well-received talk, and though the linguistics (specifically deep semantics) overload made my head hurt a bit, there's a chance some of it could actually end up helping my research -- something professionally useful from this Europe trip!

Paris was just a fantastic trip overall, thanks to the organized guiding of my French pals Ben and Daphnee, who not only led me through almost every Paris monument and famous sight known to tourists, not only found me a great and reasonably-priced hotel, but took me to some fantastic restaurants for food that blew even me away, and I rarely care much about food one way or the other. I took way too many pictures to post or to entertain anyone but the most bored and work-avoiding of my "readership", but once I upload everything I'll find a few interesting ones to post here and will put others on my separate CLSP picture site.

I love Prague and was happy to return... still, great to have a little adventure and take advantage of my time in Europe!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Travels to Saarbrucken, Germany

I’m writing this as I sit on the train from Mainz, Germany to my final destination of Saarbrucken, where I’ll spend the next week working at Saarland University. (Note: post written Monday 3/13, posted 3/14). The plan was fly Prague -> Frankfurt and take train(s) southwest to Saarbrucken, estimated 1.5+2 hrs. It’s been a much longer travel than I expected. My very first lone train ride (not counting the MARC to DC) and the rest of my traveling day hasn’t been the cleanest, but it looks to all work out in the end (of course, I’m not checked into the hotel yet…).

Yesterday, planned travel day: surprise snowstorm, and the city kind of choked. There were several inches on the ground and almost no roads were really cleared, but it didn’t even occur to me til I was almost at the airport that things might be shut down. Sure enough, soon as I arrive I see that my flight was cancelled, and soon after the airport was announced closed until late that evening. After 2 hours in a slow line to reschedule my flight, I picked a morning flight for the next day instead of taking my chances for the evening. As it turned out, things did open and I could have taken off at 7pm… but an extra 8 hrs at the airport without a guarantee just didn’t seem worth it.

The Prague airport was open today. I got there a little more than an hour before my 10:20 flight, but just checking in took almost 45 minutes so I was a little panicked. It wasn’t just me though -- everyone surrounding me was on the 10:20 flight, the desk people just seemed extraordinarily slow. It turned out that the airline woman yesterday didn’t actually switch my flight to today like she said she had, but the rush of getting everyone through the line worked to my advantage I guess -- the woman who checked me in just sighed and added me to the flight right then to keep things moving. The flight left Prague ~20 min late, prob because of the delay in checking everyone in, but it worked out okay.

There’s a small train station in the Frankfurt airport; I bought tix for a 1:23 train, but after waiting from 1pm, when a train arrived at 1:15, I got on assuming it was early or would wait. Of course, all signs were in Germany, but Mainz, the city I needed, seemed to be on the sign so I went with it. And of course… wrong train. It shared routes with my train til the 2nd-to-last stop so I didn’t realize til it was too late. I took an extra train to get from Weisbaren (??) where I ended up to Mainz, hoping noone would check my ticket to see what happened (they didn’t). The mistake of not waiting 5 min for the correct train has pushed my schedule over 2 hr behind though, on top of the day behind I already started from the snow. I just hope that the Saarland people didn’t have too much planned for me. It turns out my Vodaphone mobile service doesn’t work here either; a disappointment since Vodaphone is all over Europe. Having one service cover the entire U.S. has spoiled me I guess. Not worth it to buy prepaid Germany service for a week though, with the overhead of buying the card and the min minutes necessary to buy.

One thing to mention though -- the west Germany landscape has indeed been pretty beautiful; it’s been nice to see it by train. I’m going by train from Saarbrucken to Paris next weekend, so I think that will be even better. Prague is lucky its got the beautiful buildings and architecture and history working for it. I miss seeing mountains.

Backpedal 3/9: The Computer Science Ball


As though I hadn’t gone to enough balls in the two months I’ve been in Prague, I went to a third one this past Thursday. This ball was not Moravian like the other two (one in Pavel’s village, another called the Moravian Ball here in Prague), so the music and dancing was a bit different. More notably, this was the ball for the Charles University Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Math, Physics, and Computer Science (“faculties” here are like departments or colleges in the U.S.). The poster, with the girl wrapped around her guy as he stares longingly into his laptop screen, says it all. :-) It used to annoy me a lot when I passed it in my office building. Then it occurred to me though that if the Johns Hopkins (let alone Carnegie Mellon!) computer science and math and linguistics students had their own ball, it would be a chore to get the guys out of the computer lab and into fancy clothes to begin with!


Guys here are pretty good dancers, forced to learn in high school. Too bad we don’t have that more in the States -- I’d love to have a good dancing partner and opportunities to show it off!

The best part about the ball: the ballroom was absolutely gorgeous.

Backpedal: 3/8 PHP party with Honza

Last Wed night I went to a small party at my friend Honza’s apartment. PHP stands for something Czech, and I was assured that it wasn’t named for the programming language Honza and his friends do work in. Right. Anyway, they get together once a month or so, play their guitars and sing songs, drink various drinks, and are merry. An evening of good fun -- some pictures here:

Backpedal: 2/11 Ball in Pavel's village

Didn't write earlier, so writing now. Topic: my weekend in Moravia, otherwise described in this post.

This was the first of the balls I attended in the Czech Republic, as well as the smallest and the cutest. I was the least sure of what to expect here. I figured it would be mostly young people, but the village is pretty small (~125 houses) and social events are few and far between, so there were people of all ages (above the minimum of 15), including Pavel’s kindergarten teacher whom I had the opportunity to meet! ;-) At first I mainly sat and watched others dancing, then Pavel danced with me a few times, and slowly others worked up the courage (I think they were mainly intimidated by the language barrier which I can understand. Many were starting to enjoy the opportunity to practice their English with me, which ranged from “Hello How Are You” to quite good. I had a lot of fun talking, and especially dancing. I need to talk my boyfriend into doing this with me more.


One of the highlights of the village ball: a raffle. Some won shampoo, others won kitchen appliances. Eliska, however, won a prized dead pheasant. The idea I guess is that you take it home, defeather it, and enjoy some nice fresh pheasant. Mmmm. I thought it was pretty funny, but some men near us, possibly the hunters who donated it in the first place, scolded us for not giving the prize its due and proper respect. Whoops. :-)


Sadly, none of us won one of the grand prizes: a pig’s head, just like the one I’d watched Pavel’s family slice off their pig earlier that day. Some lucky family must have been pretty excited. :-)

Sunday, March 05, 2006

The conclusion of the Winter Olympics

The Winter 2006 Olympics have finally concluded. The final Czech count was four medals, including a coveted ice hockey bronze (though they had been pining for the gold this year), so they improved greatly from my 2/14 post. Ice hockey is definitely Olympic event #1 here, followed maybe by the various cross-country skiing events (Sasha Cohen who?), and it's easy to tell why since these are the Czechs' strengths.

Nice to have something to follow here from Prague alongside my American buddies. I'm still sad that I'll have to miss the Oscars tonight though!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

The Magic Flute


Last night my mother and I went to the Estates Theater, part of the Czech National Theater, where my mother saw her very first opera: Mozart's The Magic Flute. Appropriate since we just watched the movie Amadeus earlier this week which includes some of the production of it (premier 2 months prior to Mozart's death). I got my mom to rent Amadeus from Blockbuster before flying out here -- not because we were going to see "The Magic Flute", but because I found out that much of it was filmed here in Prague. Yes, I'm a little nerdy. :-) Anyway, at least Amadeus prepared me for the fact that this opera would be pretty absurb, though I was still surprised. A very strange story.


I was a little disappointed by the quality of the performance actually, though my mother didn't notice anything so it's probably because at years of performing, my ear is pretty sensitive to issues with pitch, etc. Anyway, everything was good, but just not as good as I would have expected in Prague, city of classical music and city of Mozart, and with the National Theater no less. We could have gone to the Czech State Opera house... perhaps that would have been better. The problem was that operas at the CSOH had subtitles only in Czech, while Magic Flute was sung in German with Czech dialog, but had subtitles in German and English. The better for the tourists, which was what more than half of the audience was... which may be why it wasn't quite up to par. Oh well, the price for convenience I guess.

Monday, February 27, 2006

a little behind on the blog

So, I'm a little behind on the blog, but will try to catch up soon. Recent topics/ events:
* More in Moravia: A village ball, a little polka, and a dead pheasant
* Fitzgerald Adventures: My mom's in town. Watch out, Prague. ;-)
* The Moravian Ball. As it turns out, in Prague, not in Moravia. This one had traditional costumes and dancing though (not by me) -- yay for huge skirts and men wearing feathered hats. ;-)

Wheeee!!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Pig Pictures!

Pictures from the pig-butchering part of my weekend in Moravia are now posted -- see them here!

Notice that the verbs "butchering" and "slaughtering" have maybe a more violent connotation than what we did. There is some blood involved though, so if that bothers you, beware. I thought the process was really interesting though.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Pig Slaughtering Festivities: A Weekend in Moravia!!

This past weekend I went with my friend Pavel and his girlfriend Eliska to Pavel's village in Moravia, the eastern half of the Czech Republic. I don't think it's even possible to describe everything that we did, but I'll give a good overview. :-) His village is very small (~150 homes), and is located close to the small but art-oriented town Moravsky Krumlov (zoom out 2 levels to see Prague and CR), which is an hour train ride from CR's second largest city Brno. We stayed with his parents, younger sister Jana, and younger brother+girlfriend (Petr, Misa).

Pavel's younger sister Hana lives a short walk away with her husband and baby daughter (a 2-month old premie who's just one of the smallest things I've ever seen!).


Pavel, Eliska, father, Jana, mother, Petr, Misa

Baby Katka - 2 months old!

The feature event of the weekend: about 4 times a year, Pavel's extended family gets together to slaughter one of their pigs. They then slice up and store the meat for stews and eating for months to come, the fat to use for cooking oil, the skin and other meat for sausage,... actually, the only part of the entire pig not stored and used were its feet, its tail, and in this case its intestines, though those can also be used for sausage casing, etc.

It may sound strange, but the whole process was actually kind of fascinating, and far less bloody than I expected as well (they did work over drains which collected everything immediately). I took way too many pictures to post to the blog, but I will put them on a separate webpage and link up soon. Actually, Pavel's family almost never buys meat, eggs, or veggies -- between their pigs, rabbits, hens, and large garden they're pretty much set!

Pavel's family was wonderful and welcoming, as was everyone else I met in the village. A number of his relatives seemed fascinated to have an American visiting in their house, and so bombarded Eliska with questions about me as we went to return equiptment to relatives and walk around the village. And everywhere we went, we were invited in and offered a shot of their homemade alcohol, which of course it would be very rude to say no to! Between the shots of "stay warm" alcohol Pavel's family gave me in the morning, the glasses of warm spiced wine his mother and grandmother insisted I drink at lunchtime, and the shots of "we welcome you" alcohol his relatives around the village gave us, I was working up quite the buzz by mid-afternoon. Which of course meant that I took a three-hour nap, as did the rest of the family. :-)

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The Czech Olympians

It's Olympics time, and I feel kind of bad for the Czechs.

I only have four channels (two govmt, two Czech-dubbed soap-opera-and-drama channels) on my TV and since they're all in Czech I don't watch them often. One of the two govm't channels has been broadcasting a summary of the day's Olympics events in the evenings when I'm home though, so I've been watching a bit. (Definitely an advantage of watching sports... no translation necessary).

I have no idea what the broadcasters are saying, but for each event they show first the impressive feats of some of the winners, which is always followed by a glimpse of the Czech competitor, who seemingly inevitably takes a nasty fall into the snow or ice. Then they show the medalists -- #1,#2,#3 -- followed by the Czech competitor (#37). This is often followed by an interview with the fallen Olympian, whose fake smile and disappointment is obvious in any language.

Poor Czechs... better luck soon. (they do have one medal so far though -- I think it's in a x-country skiing event. Makes sense).

Monday, February 13, 2006

Here comes the bride... in her underwear

This weekend I went to a Czech bridal show with my friend Eliska, who's getting married this fall. I've never been to a bridal show before this, though I assume American ones are pretty much the same... lots of booths and vendors giving you your pick of flowers, invitations, cakes, photographers, and of course, dresses.

You couldn't try any of the dresses on, just look at them. But lucky for us there was a wedding dress fashion show. Quite the visual experience. :-) Some of the dresses were nice, others were a bit odd. They weren't just presented though, they were presented with a little story. And for the final bit, they were presented with the feature performer dancing around the brides in her underwear. Again, quite the visual experience! :-P Nothing too scandalous, but there was definitely some nipplage going on under the lace. Just to share. My more exciting videos won't fit on the page, but the following will give you a good idea..







Saturday, February 11, 2006

a real throat twister

A popular "tongue-twister" here is "strč prst skrz krk", which means roughly "stick a finger through your throat". While it might be a popular saying with violent bulemics, it's mainly popular because no foreigner is capable of pronouncing it. Where in the world did the vowels go?!?

I had someone pronounce it for me, and it seriously just sounds like a 5-second almost-cough. A real throat twister. :-P

and pictures from a... unique Czech event

As a former marching band participant (I refuse to say nerd, thank you), I went to my fair share of marching competitions. Nothing ever beat the crazy "high stepping marching band" competition I went to with Carrie O'Brien (wow could those kids boogey with their sousaphones! (i.e. marching tubas) You'd have to see it to understand). But still this event came close.

As I walked with a friend across town on my way home, we saw that there was some type of Czech marching band competition going on, despite the drizzle. I'd love to know what exactly it was, but it was just the weirdest thing. The music was pretty normal (and non-fabulous), but the costumes were really wild! It wasn't students either; there were definitely many marchers approaching middle age.

You've never seen anything like it... I have photos posted here along with a quick video for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy! :-)

Pictures from skiing in Kvilda!!

Take a look!
(Click on the pictures themselves for comments and explanations)

My camera is now working, and I'm finally able to upload the pictures I took during the week I spent skiing in Kvilda! Granted, my camera died halfway through the trip, but I still got some nice pictures of the countryside. Check it out. :-)

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Go Steelers!!

Better late than never, eh? :-) But anyway, I'm proud of my hometown team, the 2005 Superbowl Champs!

I actually did watch the first half of the game from an (overpriced touristy) sports bar I found in Prague. Sadly, while most of the commercials did seem to be American-made, none were the exciting and creative ones you folks in the states got to watch. :-( (we had the likes of Yoplait Yogart's "itsy bitsy teeny weeny, eat our yogart and you can wear a bathing suit in public" commercial instead). We did get the Rolling Stones halftime show though (my friend in France told me that she didn't), so I got to see a too-old-for-this Mick Jaggar swinging his hips around like everyone else. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

The first half of the game seemed a bit messy actually, though Pittsburgh did end up ahead. Glad the second half apparently worked out better for them. At 6 hours ahead of EST, that part was way past my bedtime. :-)

Sunday, February 05, 2006

sex and the city

It's funny how perception of different issues varies from country to country. Take "sex" in Prague. I've made several interesting observations here in the past 3 weeks.

First off, it's European, so I guess it's natural that many of the ads and billboards around the city are a little more risque than the American red states would ever permit. Naked women w/ nipples barely covered, girls making out,... you know, the usual.

I first noticed something here was a bit different though while moving into the apartment I'm renting here, which is subleted out through an accommadation service. I crawl up to the little loft where I sleep, and there's a box of condoms in the drawer beside the bed. How... considerate of them, I guess. Then I turn around and see the pretty explicit sketch of a couple having sex, which I get to go to sleep to every night. (It's hard to describe when I know my mom reads these messages. :-P) But the point is, some people own this stuff, sure. But would you seriously leave this artwork up when you rent out your apartment to strangers for months on end??!!

Premarital sex and pregnancy: Again, this just struck me as odd. While skiing in Kvilda last week, I was asking a friend about one of the professors I had met on the trip. He described her studies, her research for a year in the States, and then how she became "impregnated" by her boyfriend while there and came back to Prague and got married. Not in a gossipy tone, just matter-of-fact news about a faculty member they work closely with here. Unexpected. And then talking to my roommate in Kvilda (prob about my mom's age), I was sharing the recent news that my brother had just postponed his wedding by a month, which is news because the wedding is only 3 (now 4) months away! The woman was surprised that Americans take so much time to plan weddings (I explained that venue and date decisions are often made >1 yr ahead of time). She said "In the Czech Republic, or at least a few years back, most weddings happened because a child was expected, so you did it within a month. That's how it happened to me." Okay, well, thanks for sharing. :-)

Granted, it's not the news itself that is necessarily surprising me so much, it's the fact that it's shared so easily by and about people I barely know.

And speaking of Kvilda, the skiing "seminar" was for everyone in UFAL, along with their families, which for most students meant bringing a significant other. It's a very nice gesture, but again I'm used to a little more separation bw personal and professional. And it's hard to imagine Fred (my 73-yr-old Czech advisor) paying for hotel rooms for anyone and their girlfriends (or boyfriends) at CLSP! ;-)

Chinese tourists

Is it terrible of me that I find it hilarious to see the large groups of Chinese tourists walking around Prague? Not because they're Chinese, and not because they're tourists of course. It always just amuses me somehow to see the guaranteed one or two (normally in their 50s-60s) who are walking around wearing SARS-leftover masks in attempt to stay warm. :-) The SARS scare was a terrible thing to go through, blah blah blah... but it always just looks like there was a mass escape from a Chinese rest home or a retired doctors' convention!

Just wanted to share. :-P

Saturday, February 04, 2006

met some Americans!

Finally, with the help of my friend Andrew back in Baltimore, I met an American here (Andrew knew him from home) who introduced me to a bunch of other expats. Every one of them (and supposedly most of the Americans who are living in Prague) is involved in the TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) program. They live in Prague and make decent enough money teaching only 20 hours/week -- not bad. :-) Most of them are here for a year, though some are considering extending in another year. A few of them are writers hoping to get writing time while here, others just wanted a new experience, and I get the feeling a few others just weren't sure what else they wanted to do after college was over. One girl was pretty funny -- I keep wondering if her English class is walking away with Valley Girl accents too! ;-)

It was nice to have a social night on the town though. :-)

Friday, February 03, 2006

Prague Myth #3: Everything's cheaper in Prague

The beers (esp Pilsen and other locals): definitely yes, especially in non-touristy places; half a liter will cost you under $1 US each!

The food is typically a little cheaper than US, especially at grocery stores, but not always. And if you want to eat at one of those open air restaurants in the Old Town Square, forget it. :-) Subway and McD and the like are close to US prices.

Public transportation here (subway, tram, bus) is a godsend: cheap, clean, and runs often, always on time, and to where you want to go.

What I've actually found to be fairly expensive here are electronics. You won't save money buying CDs here. Another prime example: in my quest to get my camera working, I looked into what the Sony store charges for a new AC adapter cable for my camera. Answer: a whopping Kc 1800, or 2300 for a charger alone! (US prices: at least $77 US for a simple charger cable!). Hairdryers etc are also ~US prices.

Apartment rent in the city is fairly expensive too; almost all of the students here at ÚFAL live well outside the city and commute in. Monthly phone service to my apartment will be ~$20/month, plus extra when I actually make any calls (this is comperable to US minimal service), and slow ADSL internet is another $22 on top of that for 256 Mbps max. Not as nice as you might think.

But all in all, for a weekend or weeklong trip where food and drink are the main focuses, Prague is a great place to be. And for the beautiful sights and culture, it's hard to beat. :-)

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Prague Myth #2: It's a dangerous city

Now, granted, some of this may just be me coming from Baltimore, the "Greatest City in America", where everyone knows someone who's been mugged, sometimes in the middle of the day. (There are several examples just in my lab!)

There ARE some concerns here with pickpockets on public transportation at night (they often work in groups and someone will start to distract you while someone else goes to work, I hear), and the streets do clear out pretty early (work days start early here traditionally, and by midnight most bars close and public transportation is spotty). But still, I'm walking through the streets here every evening on my way home from the office feeling pretty comfortable being alone (it's unavoidable), and that's saying something. Perhaps I'm being naive, but beyond the usual measure of caution walking around any big city, I'd say that Prague is pretty safe. Definitely better than I hear it was a few years back anyway.

Prague Myth #1: Everyone speaks English

If you're wandering the touristy areas like Wenceslas Square, then probably (still no guarantees though; I went into some cell phone stores and nada). Many restaurants in have English menus for your benefit. Wandering through the streets, there's a good chance you'll hear some English here and there, though most likely of the UK variety and much more during tourist season. And a good many students are pretty comfortable with English. That's kind of the end of it though.

Up til 1989 (a big year around here), everyone was required to take Russian in school, and almost no one spoke English. Up til a few years ago, there still weren't a good number of English teachers around it seems, so I'm told it's only in the past 5 years that a real effort has been made. Considering all of that, the Czechs here are doing pretty well.

Basically, if you come for a short visit and stay in main touristy areas, you won't have any problems not knowing any of the language. The problem comes in if you need to do some shopping outside a souvenier shop (who'd've know buying a plug adapter would be so hard!), need directions from an obscure corner of the city, or travel outside Prague at all. Trust me, the chances of your bus driver knowing a word besides "hello" are pretty slim. Luckily, I have some good tour guides, and a semi-useful pocket dictionary, not that I have any idea how to construct a sentence!

In the meantime, it's more "Mluvite anglicky?" for me!

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Feeling very American

With Bush's SOTU in two days, the Superbowl in a week (Go Steelers!!!), and the Oscars coming up sometime in the next month, I'm getting a little obsessed with trying to find a way to watch a little American TV. My little apartment TV carries only the four Czech channels, so that's no help. I've been searching for a US-catering bar (with all the tourism you'd think there'd be a few), but so far no luck. :-(

Czech Survival Guide: Laundry Time

So after a week of regular work and a second week of skiing long-distances (who knew how sweaty you could get in -25C temperatures?!), it was inevitable: time to figure out how the strange clothes-washing contraption in my bathroom works.

It's definitely a shame my camera still isn't working (give it a week); this is the oddest washing machine I've ever seen. Fortunately I got someone from the accommodations office to translate the Czech settings into broken English, but there are these strange three doors I must open to get the clothes in, and it's still unclear what exactly to do with the detergent, let alone fabric softener. The first load I was afraid to even include fab softnr, in case I ruined something. I let it run the full "white cotton" length of time, figuring it would run for a little more than the usual 30 minutes. It did: it ran for over 2 hours! And of course everything is a little crunchy now...

Load #2: Given a 2-hr runtime, I figured I could get some household shopping done in the meantime. I added clothes, detergent, and feeling adventurous, a little fab softnr into an unintelligibly marked opening. (I'd love to know how I'm supposed to "eyeball" ~38ml of softner, btw :-) ). When I returned with my groceries, about half the bathroom floor was covered in bubbles!! Not typically a good sign. Man, I feel like one of those pitiful guys in undergrad so confused they were willing to pay the girls upstairs to do their laundry for them! I was definitely one step from going door-to-door in my building repeating "Mluvite anglicky?" (Do you speak English?)

Load #3: Paranoid, I used less detergent and less fab softener this time, then left to spend an hour or so at work. No huge problems this time, but not much of the water drained out so clothes were soaking wet.

My apartment is now full of slightly wet clothing, btw. Good times!