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!
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!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Skiing all week!
Since last Sunday (and perhaps until next Sunday), I have been with the rest of UFAL (linguistics institute people at Charles Univ) in Kvilda, a tiny town in the southern part of the Czech Republic near Germany, known for the highest Czech elevations and also (unofficially) for the coldest weather in CR (record so far: -25C == -13F). And why, you may ask? For "work purposes"? Barely. Until today, we've spent all week cross-country skiing!
I didn't like it much at first, but it's growing on me. It's pretty much like hiking through mounds of snow... most of the scenery here is beautiful (once I can upload pictures, I'll show you!) The first afternoon I went 8km, the next afternoon only 6km (I skipped the morning, then a late start in the afternoon). But Tuesday I went 8 + 11 km, and yesterday I took an all-day 24km (15mi) trip! And wow, I'm sore. :-)
I didn't like it much at first, but it's growing on me. It's pretty much like hiking through mounds of snow... most of the scenery here is beautiful (once I can upload pictures, I'll show you!) The first afternoon I went 8km, the next afternoon only 6km (I skipped the morning, then a late start in the afternoon). But Tuesday I went 8 + 11 km, and yesterday I took an all-day 24km (15mi) trip! And wow, I'm sore. :-)
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Cubism and useless plugs
Went to the Cubism Museum in this building in Prague today, after a morning of miserable weather and household shopping. It's amazing how difficult it is to find a travel adapter (for plugs for electronic appliances) here. I may have to get someone to send me one from the US, which seems silly, but I don't have a lot of other options. I only have one adapter right now after blowing the other out the first day, and I need to keep that at work for my laptop.
The museum was cool though, and all Czech artists. I feel like I did a lot of the Prague touristy stuff my first (March '04 two-week) trip, so now I'm looking for the more "off the beaten path" stuff. Traveling to other parts of Europe will be a big priority too though. :-) Right now I'm thinking Paris and London to visit some people, and I think my friend Paola can help me find a place to stay in Rome. Wow, for someone who's never really traveled, being able to do any of this is just crazy to think about :-)
The museum was cool though, and all Czech artists. I feel like I did a lot of the Prague touristy stuff my first (March '04 two-week) trip, so now I'm looking for the more "off the beaten path" stuff. Traveling to other parts of Europe will be a big priority too though. :-) Right now I'm thinking Paris and London to visit some people, and I think my friend Paola can help me find a place to stay in Rome. Wow, for someone who's never really traveled, being able to do any of this is just crazy to think about :-)
Friday, January 20, 2006
Regarding pictures
Unfortunately, while I do have my camera here, it seems I've misplaced my transfer cable, so for now I can't upload anything. In the meantime, maybe I'll just steal other pictures from the web to show you around the city. :-)
My walk from home to work:
1) Walk through Old Town Square (I live on Hredebni street, top center of the OTS map)
2) Cross over the Charles Bridge (much emptier in January)
3) I work in Malostranské náměstí (the plainest building from the outside in the 4 pictures -- see pict #2 on the left. The inside is beautiful though.)
My walk from home to work:
1) Walk through Old Town Square (I live on Hredebni street, top center of the OTS map)
2) Cross over the Charles Bridge (much emptier in January)
3) I work in Malostranské náměstí (the plainest building from the outside in the 4 pictures -- see pict #2 on the left. The inside is beautiful though.)
All 80's, All the time
Most of the stores and restaurants here remind me of sitting in the backseat of the stationwagon while growing up- all 80's music, all the time. Yesterday while I had coffee in a nearby cafe, we jammed to Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven on Earth", the first tape I ever owned. Very funny. :-)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Hello from Prague!
After a rush of last minute preparation in Baltimore, I'm finally here, living in the Czech Republic for the next four months (Jan 15-May 15)! Since general communication may be a little spotty (and I'm supposed to work instead of email all day, or so I hear...), I've set up this blog for posting pictures, descriptions of things I've done here, or random thoughts as I see fit. I've also set this blog up because... well, I'm a little bit nerdy. :-P
For those of you who don't know (and at the same time, care), I'm in Prague continuing my research from JHU's Center for Language and Speech Processing for a grant we have with ÚFAL, the Czech computational linguistics group here in Prague. The first two days here were full of meetings, but now things are settling down and falling into a routine.
I love Prague! I was here briefly once before, but this feels very different. I am thrilled with my apartment here (right in the middle of town). It's a 30-minute walk (tram is the same length), but through beautiful parts of town so I really enjoy it. Plus, that should help me work off the Pilsner beer belly that may come in the coming months. ;-)
For those of you who don't know (and at the same time, care), I'm in Prague continuing my research from JHU's Center for Language and Speech Processing for a grant we have with ÚFAL, the Czech computational linguistics group here in Prague. The first two days here were full of meetings, but now things are settling down and falling into a routine.
I love Prague! I was here briefly once before, but this feels very different. I am thrilled with my apartment here (right in the middle of town). It's a 30-minute walk (tram is the same length), but through beautiful parts of town so I really enjoy it. Plus, that should help me work off the Pilsner beer belly that may come in the coming months. ;-)
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