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!!!

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.

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. :-)

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).

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..

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. :-)

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. :-)

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

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. :-)

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. :-)

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!