Bathing myself, continued

Somehow, wherever I travel, I manage to have problems bathing. In Prague, of course, my apartment had a hose shower (coming from the bathtub), but no shower curtain and no place to *hang* the shower head (if I wanted water, one hand had to hold it over myself the whole time), so I managed to regularly flood the bathroom floor until I finally arm-twisted the accommodation service into finding a removable shower curtain for me.

The morning of Day 2 in Morocco (or Day 1, if the first, showerless with no luggage, day is considered Day 0), I slipped in my bathtub. Not only that, but I tried to carefully step in holding onto the metal towel rack above the tub, which immediately pulled out of the drywall (hence the fall). All towel, by the way: immediately soaked. My right knee is killing me. Bathroom partially flooded, and immediately the towels on the fallen bar fell into shower. And, I can't figure out how to drain the tub. Housekeeping did it... maybe it was just super slow. Adventure for tomorrow morning.

Set the bar low, I always say. So, my shower this morning ought to have been a piece of cake. And it was definitely a partial improvement.

I figured out why I fell in the shower -- while I'd assumed that the far end of the tub would be a box like the watery end, it turns out it's a smooth gradual slope, meaning the real bottom of the tub doesn't start until about three feet in. Stepping on sloping wet surfaces: not so good for balance. However the flooding appears unavoidable. There's a platform on the back end of the tub where the curtain doesn't go, which quickly gets covered with water and drips all of this water onto the floor. Flooding is a big problem, partly so I don't feel a need to hide from the cleaning staff, but also because my slippers become beyond slippery if the smooth rubber bottoms get at all wet. Enter fall #2. My joints are never going to forgive me.

Goal for the conference: leave Marrakesh hotel one morning with a dry bathroom floor. It's important to dream big, I know.

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.

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! :-)

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!

http://www.clsp.jhu.edu/~erin/photos/prague

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. :-)

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.

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
  

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!

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!!! :-)

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.

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!

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. :-)

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).

Some pictures: http://water.dreamworx.cz/

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

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

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

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. :-)