HiFromPrague

Whirlwind outta Prague

2008-08-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

The couple days prior to leaving Prague were madness, whatwith attempting to hug friends one last time and mail tons of boxes and eat as many sausages/plates of goulash as possible. And on top of that, Bri and I attempted to deposit a shoebox of coin change and the bank ladies made me count it out and bag it all because apparently the banks aren't modern enough to do that and the bank ladies were too lazy to help. They sat and watched me count for 1.5 hours and talked in Czech about how ridiculous someone is who would save a whole box of change. Seriously. I probably should have pinged the change at them like a tennis ball machine and stormed out, but Czech coinage is worth a lot; there was almost $300 in the box.

Here are some pics of our last hours...

I visited Monika in Plzen and she took me to a photography exhibit at the city's beauteous Jewish synagogue.Plzeners love Americans, as we liberated them from the Nazis. This huge memorial in the center of town says "Thank You America!" There are still American servicemen who travel to Plzen every year for the anniversary, so Monika tells me.We bought matching Bata shoes and posed by a statue of popular Czech children's puppets. Bata is the most famous shoe brand here and they last forever.We traveled to Logan and Martina's new flat and had a quick beer or two around the corner. We gave them practically the entire contents of our flat before we left.Our lovely neighbor Klara threw us a goodbye shindig at the local pub and made loads of veggie salad and chicken schnitzel from birds she and her hubbie had butchered the day before. They don't have a lot but are so, so giving. I brought chlebicky (Czech open-faced sandwiches) and dessert. The pub guys gave Brian his very own beer glass, which was kind of touching because they're pretty gruff. I would have taken more photos but my camera died!We had an awesome dinner with the Jonas family and after kissing the kids Natalie and Adam and wishing them goodbye......we went out all night with Roman and Vendula. See how innocent?Follow the yellow straw. This is how Roman gets free drinks ;)I walked around the city and felt all weepy and took loads of pics I thought were really poignant at the time, silly me.We had a final dinner with Michel and Lenka and listened to some DJ music.Dobrou Chut! (Enjoy your meal!)Brian played pool with 2 former students. Milan, the one on the right, wanted to come to the airport with us at 5 a.m. but we told him to sleep in.I laughed at these canned sausages one last time. (Czech out the little man on the can.) And then we ate a final sausage on Wenceslaus Square. Mmmmmm... sauerkraut, onions, mustard...One last look at the National Museum on Wenceslaus Square.This was the end of our authentic Czech goulash and beer consumption.And a goodbye to the creepy girl face above the door to our flat as we left for the airport. Oh!

Na shledanou

2008-07-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

The pivo has run dry, the goulash is cold, the castle's luster has dimmed. It's time for us to humbly bow out; the curtain has closed on our European adventure.

Despite the excitement of living abroad, the plot hasn't always been entertaining. At times we felt culturally and linguistically isolated; sick of cooking with a 195os oven; tear-your-hair out frustrated with Czech bureacracy; angry about the dog poo all over the sidwalks; etc.

Yet our stage has been filled with a cast of characters from all walks of life whom we'll dearly miss, and we've had the chance to see more of the world's scenes than we ever thought possible. Every single day we were exposed to new things or learned something that enhanced us as human beings. Czech friends, and those of other nationalities, invited us into their homes and hearts. Prague is now our second home and it's provided us with an astounding script.

Much love to you and yours. Goodbye. Na shledanou.

Shifting living spaces

2008-07-26T01:07:00.000-07:00

We've had 7 big cardboard boxes full of our lives planted in the middle of our Prague flat for a few weeks now. They've sat there and stared at us, wondering when and where they'd be sent. And now, finally, we have a place to mail them!

We'll be living in Galtier Towers in downtown St. Paul, thankgoodness; the overseas application process was a bit tricky. First we arranged to rent a loft from a private owner and he backed out, and then faxing application materials and Czech-language paystubs, etc., to the Towers was kind of a mess. But it's all good now!

Our Czech landlady Pavla came over yesterday to sort out utility bills and the deposit and do the final walk-through. In this country, you pay a set amount all year and then either pay more in or get reimbursed when the final electricity and water bills are tallied. But (after we'd spent all day cleaning) she didn't even do a walk-through; she told us our flat was being converted into a garage for the building and everything was getting ripped out. So, after over 100 years of tenants, we were the last ones in this little place. Imagine all the ghosts it has...

A modern urban skyscraper is going to be quite a change from 14-foot ceilings and ancient wood floors!

Thweaty in Barthelona, Thpain

2008-07-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

We reluctantly got on a bus leaving the gorgeous Costa Brava to go to Barcelona for 2 days. We arrived in the city to find it blistering hot and very crowded. And then there was the hotel incident...

I'd booked a pension online that looked charming but it was definitely not in person. Basically it was a rat hole on the 3rd floor of a decrepit building, and it was oven-hot, not habitable. So we left to find another place, through a tourist info center. It was so packed that we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, and then we were told there were basically no rooms left in the city thanks to a Bruce Springsteen concert and a music festival called Summercase featuring Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs (again), etc. Stranded, overheated and crabby with a tangle of maps, we ended up having to book a 5-star hotel. Seriously. We got it for a third of the normal price as a last minute deal, but it was still more than we'd planned on spending. That whole mess took about half the day.

After cooling off in our fancy room we headed onto the iconic Spanish boulevard La Ramblas and wandered around a bit. I remembered it as being colorful, lively and full of flowers and street performers from when I'd been to Spain with a school group in high school, but this time it just seemed elbow-to-elbow packed and sweltering. We liked wandering around the crooked little alleys branching off La Ramblas better.
Brian booked us an evening package that included tapas and sangria at a little pub and then a Flamenco show. That was a lot of fun; we chatted with other tourists and hung out after the show with two cool gals from Toronto who were traveling through Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The next day we attempted sightseeing in the high temps, but I felt sick as a dog by about noon when the sun started blaring (heatstroke?) and couldn't make it terribly far. I just didn't feel like myself and could barely be bothered to take photos, much less walk a whole lot. Brian felt like he was melting, too. A shame, since we didn't get to some of the major sights. Still, we checked out the Gothic Quarter:And Gaudi's Casa Batllo, a modernist building commissioned in the early 1900s that's covered in multi-colored glass and ceramic mosiacs. Its architectural style looks like a big undulating ameoba, very surreal:And the neoclassical Plaza Reial, amongst other things:

Here were a couple other photos I snapped, too. ¡Ethtaba muy caliente!

Cothta Brava, Thpain!

2008-07-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

You know you're in Thpain when everyone thpeakth with a theriouth lithp.

Whoa- I was going to write the whole blog entry like that, but now I think it would be incomprehensible.

We recently did absolutely nothing for a few days on Thpain's northeastsern Costa Brava, and it was lovely! I'd never been on a beach holiday before; I'm used to the tradition of Rankin travel, which is loads of sightseeing and moving constantly. But Brian chose the vacay destination this time and the days involved alternating sessions of:

-Laying on the beach
-Swimming in the Mediterranean
-Walking along the coast
-Sipping sangria
-Peoplewatching
-and watching le Tour de France whenever possible

We interspersed that with a few other things, such as:

-Me climbing into a carnival ride spinny thing, falling "teacups over ass", as Brian called it, and getting my knees and elbows skinned up. I'm so smart.

-Laughing at this truck.

-getting dressed up

-kissing statues

-checking out the Gothic Catalan Parish Church

-splitting a gorgeous pan of seafood paella

We stayed at a simple little family-owned place and the grandma of the joint rushed up to us every morning to croak "Bon Dia!" (that's in Catalan) and "Como ethtath?!" and kiss our cheeks 20 times. Loved it.

Spinning our wheels

2008-07-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Brian exercised infinite patience last week when he took me out riding on a new route south of Prague. He's been cycling much much more than me this summer (i.e. is way fitter and faster) yet lovingly pulled my slow butt 75 km through the city and then foresty areas along the River Vltava. Here are some pics, though they're more of eating and resting than riding :)

Havemystuff

2008-07-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

I had a little Havemystuff girlie gathering to get rid of apartment decor and books and clothing that Bri and I can't/don't want to take back to the U.S. Many teachers/friends have already left for the summer, but we still got a little group of 6 together, and my giveaway pile shrank quite a bit. I also picked up a couple things that were brought- oops!

We had a meal at our corner cheap Czech pub, rifled through stuff and drank wine, and then Leah had the smashing idea to make brownies with half the contents of my food shelves. They ended up with sprinkles, cognac, a chocolate bar, toast spreads, coconut and goodness knows what else in them. Very delish, though we annihilated the pan; brownie batter/crumbs ended up all over the kitchen, on shoes, across the floor, and even in my hair- oops again!

Rain does not rock

2008-07-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

Upon arriving at the enormous Rock for People concert in early July, Leah and her friend Maz and I assumed this guy in a Speedo would be the worst thing we'd encounter-------->

We were wrong.

The day was mild and breezy when we pulled into the concert complex, an old abandoned airport just outside of Hradec Kralove, about an hour and a half by train from Prague. We set up our tents, bought wristbands and watched Flogging Molly (from the US!) and a Mexican band called Los de Abajo, I think. They were both fantastic. We made friends with a young Czech bartender, too, who gave us free pineapple juice.
But then clouds rolled in and it started sprinkling, so we put rain gear on. Not dissuaded by the weather, we walked around the concert grounds. We all ate veggie stir fry that was ironically from a "Mexican" fast food stall.
Then it really started raining, so we bedded down in a huge makeshift cajovna (tea cafe) that someone had fashioned out of a big tent, old rugs and lots of shisha pipes. We had about 2.5 hrs until the Kaiser Chiefs played so we chilled out.
We wandered back into the rain for the Kaiser Chiefs and then it started pouring. For all the standing in muddy slop and torrents of water in the dark, the band honestly didn't put on that great of a show. The music was good but their stage presence was pretty dull; they lacked energy. So we trudged back to our tents before the set was even over.
Miraculously, we stayed pretty dry overnight; it was still drizzling when we woke up. By then everything we owned was damp, so Leah and I got up to find coffee and didn't even bother with umbrellas. Here I am in wet tent city. Some peoples' tents collapsed overnight in big pools of water and they were sleeping in/under cars and stuff.
After deliberating, we decided to head out of the soggy concert grounds and back to Prague. Of course, by the time we had packed up all our stuff, walked to the shuttle bus, rode back into Hradec Kralove and bought train tickets, the rain stopped. Go figure.

We went to a little self-service cafe for lunch before boarding the train. We set our bags at a table so we wouldn't have to bring them to the counter while ordering and when we got back, some little old Czech lady was sitting at our table with all our bags. Since there wasn't room for all of us, we sat at a different table and watched the old lady eat and then spoon her leftovers into tupperware containers to take home. Then another Czech woman barked at us to clean up our mess as we were finishing so she could sit in our spots. Rude. Rude. Rude. Leah ended up going back to the concerts the next day with her boyfriend David, but I stayed in Prague, nice and dry and away from angry ženy (women) ;)

Pissed about Missiles

2008-07-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

After eating in the Prague area of Mala Strana last night, we noticed loads of police and secret service-looking guards swarming around a certain block. I mused out loud about what could be causing the commotion and Logan said, "Condoleeza's in town." Sure enough, I saw in the Czech news today that she'd stayed at the Mandarin Hotel, near our restaurant, and had in fact signed a controversial radar base treaty with Czech Secretary of State Karel Schwarzenberg.

Sorry if I'm being redundant writing about this again, but here's a quick explanation: The treaty allows the Czech government to consider letting the USA plant radar missile detection technology in the Czech Republic, despite two thirds of Czechs opposing the move (note protest photo on right from BBC). The technology would detect missiles from countries like Iran (and Russia, though the US won't admit it) and then a separate base in Poland would shoot the missiles down with a set of counter missiles.

Needless to say, Russia is pissed about this and trying to frighten the Czech government into rejecting the radar base plan. The Russian foreign ministry released a statement saying: "If a US strategic anti-missile shield starts to be deployed near our borders, we will be forced to react not in a diplomatic fashion but with military-technical means."

Artsy Fartsty

2008-07-08T03:22:00.000-07:00

Brian climbed off his bike yet again to see art with me. Really! Since our neighbor and good friend Klara works at Veletrzni Palac, which houses the nation's contemporary art museum, we met her for lunch and then she led us through the current temporary exhibition, International Triennale of Contemporary Art 2008. Here are some of the parts I really dug:

A room completely covered in animals. Klara's younger brother Honza, a budding Czech artist, helped helped a famous Argentian artist paint this.

Pissers. Love it.

More raunchy stuff! This whole wall was covered in mounted animal butts.

Some of Klara's brother's paintings.

This photograph on glass depicts people beating up a Jewish man in the same neighborhood where Veletrzni Palac stands. Klara said just a block away was the deportation point where Prague Jews were loaded onto a train and taken to Auschwitz. Horrifying.

The wires in this room carried different frequencies, so walking underneath them with headphones gave you a sort of static symphony.

You are getting verrrrrrry sleepy...

Too many goodbyes

2008-07-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

M'asselema, Khush, Ciao, Na shledanou, Adiós, Au revoir, etc. etc.

We said goodbye to Jeremy for good, as he's off to England and then Kurdistan with Colin. Kurdistan does not exist officially as a country; it's an area inhabited by Kurds that covers parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia. From a political standpoint, Iraqi Kurdistan is the only official autonomous federal entity. Our friend Nergis, a medical student here, is half Iraqi Kurd and she says her family can't move back to their homeland because of conflict. Anyhow, it was sad saying goodbye to a dear friend/mentor.

I also had a last coffee with my teacher friend Ann. We met at Troja Chateau, about 2 miles north of our flat. The chateau is a summer palace built for a Count Václav Vojtìch Šternberg in the 17th century. Then we took a walk through Stromovka Park, the park below my flat that once was the count's game reserve.

We're also saying goodbye to some of our favorite haunts, like Wakata, a little underground DJ bar that makes the infamous Wakata Houska, basically a cream cheese and pickle sandwich with spices and tabasco sauce. Yummm...

Another fave we ate at for the last time with friends is a little Czech place a block away, Na Paliarce. It has humoungoid home-cooked meals for less than you pay at McDonalds. See how much I love the Kureci Kapsa (a chicken dish)?

Nekkid pictures, not of us

2008-07-05T00:19:00.000-07:00

If you ever get a hankering for seeing photos of mirrored reflections of naked people dancing around abandoned warehouses, check out the photography of Vasil Stanko(http://www.czechslovakphotos.com/html/stanko.html)

We viewed a bunch at the functionalist Manes Art Gallery in Prague, pictured to the right. We agreed they were cool, if not slightly redundant. I like this one because the woman looks like she's ready to fly into the air:

The area around Manes is gorgeous, so we sat on a cafe deck and soaked it all in.

A rooftop goodbye

2008-07-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

I felt like a chimneysweep from the Disney movie "Mary Poppins" at a recent going away party. Abbie and Sonya held a goodbye gathering for leaving teachers John, Lisa and I on their Prague flat's rooftop terrace. Once could tangibly scamper across all the neighboring stoops and roofs and flues for miles, but the party was much to nice to leave for doing strange things like that.

Abbie, a vegetarian, layed out loads of summery salads and cheeses and breads, so we all pigged out and drank beer and Buck's Fizz, a British mimosa with strawberries and cucumbers in it. I contributed a good old throwback to the Our Savior's Lutheran Church potlucks of my North Dakota childhood: Ramen Noodle Salad. It was a hit.

We also played some nutty British games like "Pass the Parcel" and watched the sun set over the spires and summits of Prague. A bit shout out to Abbie and Sonya for a super time and a stunning view.

Like Christmastime

2008-07-02T23:51:00.000-07:00

Our students were like little elves the last day of school, bringing us flowers and candy and gifts to say thank you and goodbye. We carried it all home in armloads and I spread everything out on the table. My favorite was a t-shirt my tutor group gave me with their picture and all their signatures. One of Brian's students made him a metal crown that said "King of Brianstein." Brianstein is the fake country he invented in class that students could solve economic problems for. We're both really going to miss our monkeys, I mean teenagers.

Camping, cycling, canoeing, confusion ;)

2008-07-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

During the last week of school I spent a couple night in the south Bohemian wilderness chaperoning the annual CCC (camping, canoeing, cycling) trip. The trip organisers, Dana and Vladimir (in photo) Gavrinev, teach gym at our school. As they are Czech and their activities assistants were Czech college students and all the kids speak Czech, there wasn't much English popping out of anyones' mouths. So I spent most of the time straining to decipher words/phrases and relying on students to fill me in. Mucho confusing. And my allergies were going nuts. But on the bright side of things, the kids were awesome and we spent the days biking all over the woods, playing volleyball, swimming, etc. And each night after telling the kids to go to bed, a huge beer keg was rolled out for the adults. Only in the Czech Republic!

After canoeing in the morning, we'd set off on bikes; I had to borrow one from a student since I only have a road bike here in the CR.

First we cycled to the country cottage of one of the activity assistant Honza's aunts, who just happened to live in the area.

Then we rode to a small dam, where an old man was bathing. The little plaque on the dam in the photo commemorates how high the water got in the floods of 2002. Honza said his old aunt had to be rescued from her cottage by boat.

Our last stop was an enormous sand quarry that had been turned into a lake. The water was crystal clear and lovely.

Back at the camp there was lots of soccer tennis (I hadn't heard of it, either!) and volleyball and badminton.

Every morning we'd lay out platters of cheese and ham and white yogurt and rohliks (Czech bread rolls). Then the adults would eat the leftovers for lunch and order dinner from the camp restaurant, but the kids had to cycle to a nearby town to buy and cook their own food. Needless to say, most of them lived off instant soup for a week. The chatas (huts) the adults stayed in are in the background.

This is where the kids slept. Fine, except it poured rain a couple of nights!

I left a day early because I had to finish many things up at school before it ended. The train ride home was pure hell; I was stuffed into a dusty, tiny compartment with 7 other people in temps that had to be over 110 degrees. It was so hot the air was blurry. The trains are rusty little tin can things with poor ventilation. But traveling on them is really cheap!

Everywhere, balls

2008-06-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Amidst the madness of Eurocup football (yes, soccer, for all you Americans), we didn't actually watch Spain outplay Germany 1-0 in Eurocup, but we did see the megatron setup/fan mob in Old Town Square. That was pretty rad.
We got a mad dose of beach volleyball, too, over the weekend when some American expat friends set up a tourney and we played 'til our skin was crisp. It was really windy so the ball kept blowing all over the place. It made the game a bit futile but still fun. Here's the beach area:

Lastly, my school had a ball on a boat last week to say goodbye to staff before we all broke off into different directions around the world. We ate, drank and danced to ridiculous British pop songs as the night fell and we skimmed along the river...

Finito!

2008-06-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

We did it! 2 years of marking papers, prepping our classrooms, trying to decipher Czech swear words, celebrating learning successes, planning lessons until midnight, struggling with cultural differences, loving learning about new cultures, doing Drama and Sport, wearing uncomfortable dress clothes in buildings with no air-conditioning, leading field trips into the Bohemian woods, writing curriculum, reading reading reading to know our subjects better, dealing with teen angst, laughing at teen silliness, getting to know our fellow staff, stressing over IB and IGCSE exams, doling out discipline, trying to make learning fun, commuting on packed public transit, explaining explaining explaining, etc.

Can't believe it's over... teaching in Prague. Our last day of school was June 27, though I have to go in next week to pack up my office. I'm especially proud of the spectacular Mr. Brian Steinhoff, as he took on an enormous challenge in teaching Business and Economics untrained and then flourished.

Here's my currently sweltering little oven of an office, on the top floor of the school building. My space is in the back left corner.

29 and fine fine fine

2008-06-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

I blinked and suddenly I was 29; I can't believe how fast it came up! Good thing I like aging; life seems richer and more lovely every year.

On Friday Brian took me out for a beautiful meal at Angel Restaurant in the Old Town. He also gave me a sophisticated white purse from Zara, offering to return it if I didn't like it. My first thought was: Yikes! How am I going to keep that clean??? And then my second thought was: Wait a minute. It's gorgeous. And stylish. And the stained canvas thing I'm carrying just ain't cuttin it anymore. Thus, I kept the birthday purse.

On Saturday the Jonas's threw a birthday/going away barbeque, since Vendula and I were both celebrating our birthdays in mid-June, and since it's one of the last times we'll be able to get together before leaving, as they are headed to Mexico in a few days. Vendula made an enormous spread of food, including huge pork loins and fat tandoori chicken breasts that Brian helped grill. The Jonas gang gave me Czech fairytale books and an enormous bouquet of flowers, which made me tear up in front of everyone. They pasted pictures of their family in one of the books- the sweetest thing ever. Here are some photos:

Then on Sunday I made a brunch for some friends; I'd wanted to have people over and cook forever, and the big 29 made for a good excuse to do it. I thought I'd be all Martha Stewart and make fancy quiche... but was cursing myself at 8 a.m. while I was hand-rolling out the crust, covered in flour. It all turned out great, though. We visited my neighborhood beer garden afterwords:

Czechs choked on Turkey; Turkey gobbles Croatia

2008-06-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you following Eurocup... WOW was Turkey's victory against Croatia wild; the game went down to a nait-biting shoot-out! Bri was pulling for Croatia, as Turkey beat the Czech Republic last Sunday, knocking them out of the tournament.

Here's the Czech record:

Czech 1 - Switzerland 0

Czech 1 - Portugal 3

Czech 2 - Turkey 3

I was in a taxi when Portugal scored their third goal against the CR, and my driver got so pissed he jammed the accelerator and I thought we were going to shoot off the bridge we were on.

Read about Euro2008 at: http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/

Many Mamas

2008-06-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

In the past few weeks, I've been to Amsterdam, Berlin and, of course, Prague, and I've noticed their ebulliant, round figures everywhere... pregnant gals. What's in the water?

Even my Tae Bo instructor is preggers... very preggers. She's 6 months along, very bulbous, and still leading the classes, though she doesn't do the bouncy stuff like jumping jacks. I don't know how she does it!

Here's the low-down on maternity leave in the CR:
The maternity leave entitlement is 28 weeks. A mother with two or more children is entitled to 37 weeks of maternity leave. Parental leave – this type of leave may be granted, upon request, to a mother or father after the end of maternity leave or upon taking a child into his/her care and until the child reaches the age of three.

So we won't be living under a bridge

2008-06-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

I got a job!

It's at Community of Peace Academy, the incredible St. Paul school I worked at as a teaching assistant and sub while I was earning my Master's. I'll be teaching high school English and many of my students will be the same ones I assisted when they were in junior high, woo hoo! CPA is a public charter school that stresses a mission of non-violence through peace, compassion and multiculturalism, and you can find out more about it at http://cpa.charter.k12.mn.us/.

I couldn't be more ecstatic!

A roadtrip in pursuit of the presidents

2008-06-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Millions of peaches, peaches for me.... Millions of peaches, peaches for free... (tempo switch) Peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory down toooooowwwwn...

Remember those song lyrics?

They're from the song "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America, a band that enjoyed most of its notoriety in the mid-to-late 90s. Other hits include "Lump" (she's Lump, she's Lump, she's Lump, she's in my head) and "Kitty" (kitty on my foot and I wan-na touch it) and the "Cleveland Rocks" intro from the Drew Carey Show. Check them out at http://www.presidentsrock.com/.

Being that PUSA is the favorite band of Brian's school/band buddy, Michel, the boys thought it would be fun to drive to Berlin last weekend to see a gig. So Brian, Michel, Michel's wife Lenka and I piled into his Skoda and made a 1-night road trip of it. Great times. Here are some pics:

Eurocup was everywhere!

We fueled up with sushi before the big event. Eurocup was playing in the sushi bar, too

Michel, PUSA's biggest fan, got right up front!

The fans were super fun- lots of bodysurfing and moshing and stuff

I could feel the sweat flying off lead singer Chris Ballew's bald head

We ladies do the post-concert crash

Doesn't Bri look like Gavin Rossdale in this pic?

This is the crazy rock 'n roll hotel we stayed at

Very very weird German billboard

Dude, Brian's, like, so rockin'

2008-06-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Brian, like, totally rocked a gig at Vagon, a righteous venue in downtown Prague, man. I was like, "Dude, you're so rockin', Bri," and he was like, "Reeer reeer reeer" with his guitar. His sweet band did a little Foo Fighters, some Dandy Warhols, some U2- It damn near blew my eardrums, man. He's, like, stoked that it was even more rockin' than his last gig, last weekend in a village. Village chicks are gnarly, man.

Brian's band opened for these famous old man Czech metalhead dudes from different bands in the 80s and 90s who, like, hitched up to form a "supergroup" - like Great White, Lion Snake and DejaVu. Plus they got some hotties, man, to sing up front. Their music was a little too glam-rock but it was a rockin' time, man. Rockin' time.

Momma does the 'Dam

2008-06-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

When my mom and I used to go to "The Dam" when I was little, we went to Larimore Dam, where I bobbed in green water in a floaty tube and mom read a book on the cigarette butt-strewn mini beach. But when we went to "The Dam" recently, it was definitely not the picnic spot of my childhood; it was the most glorious city in the Netherlands, AMSTERDAM!

My momma, Sue, decided to take a Eurotrip through Holland and France with her friends Sue and Wally, and bought me an airline ticket to meet up with her in Amsterdam. We had a great time, even though I was suffering from a pretty nasty allergic reaction to what I'm assuming was pollen the whole time (and still am. ouch.).

FRIDAY: Cheesy

Upon all flying into and gathering at the airport in the morning, mom and I and Wally and Sue and their daughter, Andy, all headed to Alkmaar, a famous cheese-making town where they do market demonstrations every Friday morning. The market demonstrations show how local teams used to compete against each other for the most quality cheese produced and how Dutch cheese would be priced and sold by merchants. We even visited the local museum and saw lots of fun contraptions like this old cheese press. If Brian had been there, he'd have died and gone to heaven.

In the afternoon Andy led us back to Amsterdam and through the Red Light District, the downtown, the city flower market, a famous department store, an antique book market, etc. Wally and I walked Andy (who is 5 months pregnant!) to her evening dance class while the two Sues went to the Anne Frank House; we'd already seen it. Then we all re-convened for a dinner in a fancy little restaurant overlooking the water/ports.

SATURDAY: Museumy

We were cultured folk on Saturday, as we visited the national Rijksmuseum, which houses the world's largest collection of Dutch art, and then the Van Gogh Museum, which I actually stayed out of because I'd already seen it. I tried to do some shopping instead, but since the Museum Quarter is near the opulent area of town, all I could really find was Chanel, Dolce and Gabbana, etc. Slightly out of my budget. We were shot after hoofing it over canals and through floors and floors of art, so Sue took us to a hidden garden in the middle of town that was just gorgeous.

After losing each other on the train (long story), we haphazardly made it back to Andy and her husband Kim's place, where we were staying. They had a huge fajita-and-quiche dinner party with loads of nice Dutch people, including Kim's parents, and we drank more wine than was probably necessary ;) Very nice time!

SUNDAY: Visity
Mom and I stayed at the townhome while the rest of the crew went to church; we couldn't all fit in Kim and Andy's tiny Dutch car. Thus, we did a number on the previous night's leftovers- yum. In the afternoon we visited Kim's family friend Patricia in another town. Her husband was out doing a half-ironman triathlon at the time. They have a gorgeous house.

And since I saw the NoDaks last weekend, they've spent 3 nights in Paris and are headed to the south of France. Have fun! Miss you!

Bike lane banality

2008-05-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

Think your city has bad bike lanes? Consider this, a photo taken by Grant Podelco, an American journalist living in the CR who created "Grant's Prague Bike Blog" (see blog links to the left):

The lane, on a bridge near our flat, ends abruptly and requires the cyclist to just glide on into moving traffic. Brilliant!

Grant also posted a link to a video, "Stupidist Bike Lanes" that some of you cycling enthusiasts may like:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392/bctid1504447505

Only in the Czech Republic

2008-05-29T03:54:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago one of Brian's students invited us to the restaurant/bar where he works, appropriately monikered "The Pub." It's a place filled with tables with beer taps sprouting out of the middle of them. A little computer screen on the tap keeps track of the beer poured, and a huge screen on the wall shows how many beers each table has had. It also shows which tables in other "The Pub"s around the Czech Republic have consumed the most beer, thus encouraging competition. A table near us had had 53 beers- and these aren't the wimpy little American 12-ouncers. We're talking full half-liters. I wonder how they felt the next morning.

Brian ordered a quesadilla at "The Pub" and I asked for a club sandwich, which looked like this:

But it tasted good, anyhow. Brian's student gave him a tour of the keg room, which was enormous, and then as we were finishing up, a woman in a bikini top and platform boots sidled up next to a table of men and you can guess what happened next. Yes, in the name of a bachelor party, the classy lady proceeded to undress completely, wrap the bachelor's belt around his neck and walk him around like a dog, and even relieve the bachelor of his own attire. This with Brian's student working near us and the student's parents sitting at a nearby table. And, amazingly, nobody really seemed shocked by the whole spectacle; just another day in the neighborhood.

This would have been illegal in the USA on so many levels!

Commute Complaint

2008-05-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yet again, transportation in our neighborhood is all mangled. The main tram line here is being replaced and overcrowded buses are running instead. Here's the commute to school now...

Walk to bus stop near our flat, then hop on the "X1" bus.

Get off bus and hustle 5 minutes to the Vltavska metro entrance.

Go underground and wait for the metro. If you're me, the metro takes you to school; if you're Brian, you have to catch another bus after leaving the metro. Man, we're looking forward to good old USA driving again! Even if it is $4 a gallon...

Newsy bits, read all about it

2008-05-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

Pigs rule over memorial rights

Activists are trying to get a 34-year-old pig farm removed from the site of what was once a Holocaust Concentration Camp that held mostly Roma (gypsy) victims. The government keeps putting the removal of the pig farm on the agenda but nothing much has been done about it aside from the dedication of a memorial there. According to archives, 1,307 Romany men, women and children passed through the Lety camp. A total of 327 died there, and more than 500 were sent to Auschwitz after the camp’s shutdown. Historians estimate about 90 percent of the Bohemian Roma population was wiped out during World War II.

Ginger Czechs: They do exist!

Today while sitting on the tram, I saw what I think were the first red-headed Czechs I've ever noticed. They were a mother and son, full of freckles. It's rare to see redheads here, for some reason, unless they're British, Irish, American, etc. I wonder why...

Ready for radar?
From radio.cz:
On Wednesday the government approved a treaty between the Czech Republic and the US on the deployment of an American radar base on Czech territory. The treaty, to be signed later this summer, sets the ground for a planned US missile defence system in Europe, including not only the radar in the Czech Republic but also interceptor rockets in Poland. But reaching agreement with the US is only the first step. The coalition will next have to push the treaty through Parliament and there is every indication that it won’t have it easy.

Stable brain? Melt it with manic music

On Monday, some friends and I went to a film comprised of this Berlin punk band, The Tiger Lillies, singing songs inspired by the horrific writings of British author H.P. Lovecraft. It was seriously the weirdest thing I've ever seen; my brain felt like it was dissolving about 10 mins. into the showing. The trailer for the movie is below. My brother would probably love it, whatwith the creepy diabolic voice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3GpX8AXNRk

The littlest Rankin is all grown up

2008-05-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

The smashing Erin, a.k.a. Boo, a.k.a. Green Fairy, a.k.a. Ernestine, etc., just waltzed past a huge milestone over the weekend in a black cap and gown. It's true; believe it or not, the littlest Rankin has officially graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a Speech Pathology degree. I say "believe it or not" not because she's a dunce (quite the opposite), but because it seems like only yesterday that the chubby little diapered cherub was petting dead fish on our lawn... and now she's this incredibly knowledgeable, talented, lovely, gorgeous (etc. etc.) young woman who I couldn't be more proud of. She's a constant source of inspiration to me and I feel blessed every single day that she's my sister. Future plans? Grad school in Duluth. What a brainy babe! Love you and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Dream job woes

2008-05-19T02:16:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd found my dream school when I saw an ad for an English teacher at "River's Edge Academy" in St. Paul. It's a charter school that weaves traditional subject learning together with Mississippi River Conservation; students study in school and then do expeditions on the river/study native cultures/maintain the environment/etc. Well, the good news is that I applied for the job and then was offered the position, but the bad news is that I turned it down.

Why?

Because 2008-09 is set to be the first year of the school's existence... but... the principal couldn't guarantee me that it would have full enrollment (thus, open at all) this fall. She said they were "optimistic." What does that mean? 70 percent? 99 percent? Argh. So back to the drawing board.

Studentis Creativis

2008-05-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

Studentis creativis (stuh-DEN-tis cree-AY-tih-vis), also known as the studentis writingus, is a species of mammal that inhabits the forests and steppes of Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. They can be identified by their propensity toward paper and their laid-back posture. Unlike other studentis species, they prosper when fed Tennyson, Dove, Blake, Dickinson and Levine. Varieties include many shapes, colours and sizes, though a typical height is anywhere from 60 to 75 inches. Carnivores, they cluster together in social groups of about 10 to 15.

Here one can see a traditional studentis creativis cluster, including three elders of the closely related teacheris chaperongus.

Studentis creativis move in lines through wooded areas. Beware; they have a penchant for rolling suitcases and become ornery when required to move great distances.

Here a few studentis creativis study their prey - blank sheets of paper - with intensity.

While studentis creativis can be wily, they are submissive when in an encounter with a dominant teacheris chaperongus.

Sometimes teacheris chaperongus mistake studentis creativis for common sheep.

Nightime rituals for studentis creativis include moving around in darkness, searching for the elusive beerophora and vodkauclid, which they make efforts to consume in hidden areas.

Brian's big greasy gig

2008-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

I finally tracked down a couple photos from Brian's school's "Grease" production, although you can't see him in them. I think he's playing guitar to the left of the stage. His friend Michael, the guy who leads musical stuff at the school, just booked a couple of non-kiddie gigs for their band, which is cool. It's been pouring buckets here in Prague and Brian has been nutty not being able to ride his bike, so I'm glad he can direct his attention to his guitar rather than pacing around the flat, checking the weather channel repeatedly.

Mmmmmm, svickova

2008-05-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Creamy, lemony sauce smothering sirloin, flanked with dumplings and topped with a daub of whipped cream and cranberries. Sound orgasmic? It is! It's svickova (pronounced SVHEECH-koh-vah), my favorite Czech food.

Upon hearing how much I love it, Roman and Vendula invited Brian and I over for an overnight so I could learn to make it. FYI- It takes hours, and the Jonases live outside of Prague. Here are the pictures...

Vendula was an excellent instructor. *urp*

Bri and I brought a homemade apple pie and it just so happened that Vendula had made one, too!

This is what the boys did while we gals slaved away. (There's a TV in the kitchen/dining room.)

This is the Jonas' outdoor patio. Note the brick house; the neighbors thought Roman and Vendula were crazy when they designed and built it because it's not a common building material over here. All of the bricks are handmade by a friend of Roman's. The house is very cubist, with open, airy, minimalist design. Very cool.
Time to eat!

The living room... See the crazy flat screen TV, which is also a wireless computer.

3 hours after inhaling svickova, the men were roasting sausages in the fireplace.

Ahhh... the cooks get a rest.

Mark your calendars ;)

2008-05-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

In the words of Neil Diamond, "We're coming to Amerrrrriiicaaaa!" We bought our plane tix home and are arriving in Mpls. July 29. And will be visiting a Pizza Hut promptly thereafter.

We had 2 days off this week (Czech holiday) and I spent mine hauling students into the woods for a creative writing trip. Brian spent his on his bike, riding 60 miles on Thursday and 50 on Friday. Apparently we both thrive on torture ;)

Bri asked me to cut his hair but, to make a long story short (ha ha, I made a pun), the guard on his electric razor collapsed during the process and now he's pretty much bald. Good thing he looks good no matter what.

Logan's declared he wants to rent our flat after we move; he and Martina currently live atop 8 flights of stair with no elevator and are looking to downsize. So now we don't have to clean out the fridge; woo hoo! (just kidding, you guys)

Here are some Czech jokes before the Velvet Revolution (during Socialism and Communism):

Are there any countries where it is not possible to build socialism?Yes, countries like Luxembourg are far to small for such a big mess.

What was the name of the most beautiful island in the Red Sea? West Berlin.

Granny is busy painting her house with new white paint, when a passerby asks, "Why are you painting your house white." "Because," says Granny, "I heard that communists will never get into the white house."

How are the Soviet hospitals heated?They find the patients with the highest temperatures and give them blankets.

God grants wishes to an American, a Frenchman, and a Czech.The American says: "My neighbor has a beautiful house. I want an even better one."The Frenchman says: "My neighbor has a beautiful wife. I want an even better one."The Czech says: "My neighbor has a beautiful pig. Kill it."A Czech is stranded on a desert island. He finds a lamp, rubs it, and a genie offers him 3 wishes.I want a cold bottle of beer," says the Czech. A bottle of beer appears and the Czech drinks it all in one swallow. Magically, it fills itself up again. "It's a magic bottle," says the genie, "It'll never run dry. What do you want for your other wishes?"Give me two more of these," says the Czech.

What was Gustav Husak's (Czech Communist Party leader's) main accomplishment as a surgeon?He transplanted the heart of Europe into the ass of the Soviet Union.

A man is standing in line for meat, and after awhile, becomes very angry and begins cursing the system. A suspiciously dressed man who had been lurking nearby walks up to him and says "Comrade, in the old days if someone made such complaints, well..." makes a gesture in the shape of a pistol and points it at his head.After awhile, the man comes home empty handed. "What's wrong?" asks his wife, "Are they out of meat?" "Worse," says the man, "they're out of bullets."

A pollster asks an American, a Russian, and a Czech: "What is your opinion about standing in line for meat?"The American says: "What do you mean, 'standing in line'?"The Russian says: "What do you mean, 'meat'?"The Czech says: "What do you mean, 'think'?"

Little Joseph says to his mother: "Mom, the meat is pretty tough today."Well," she says, "Grandpa wasn't getting any younger."

Bob the Blob

2008-05-03T02:56:00.000-07:00

An enormous area in our neighborhood, near Letna Park, is being dug up for the Czech Republic's new national library. The design that was nearly approved for the library was this champagne-and-purple octopus/chewed gum thing, nicknamed Bob the Blob. But now the president is criticising it and some zoning requirements were not met, so the design may be radically changed, to something more normal.

I understand why Czechs would want to deviate a bit from GDR concrete buildings and traditional baroque architecture, but wow.

May as well be German

2008-05-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

I was in Germany two times in April, in Munich with Brian's family and in Dresden with my teacher friend Daniela. Here's the photo evidence...

MUNICH

Munich is Germany's third-largest city and has been home to such people as Freddie Mercury, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler and the Mambo No. 5 guy, Lou Bega. It was originally founded as a settlement of Benedictine monks, but that was like 900 years ago. Have you ever seen the movie "Munich", about the 1972 Olympic Games massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists? It give me chills, but it's really good. I've been to Munich twice now and have not made it to the Olympic Stadium...

Mariah and I are standing outside the Munich Town Hall. So gothic, so cool.
This is the Hofbrahaus, a famous beer hall where we had lunch.

I was looking at the beer coasters and the Hofbrahaus, which have a picture of 6 German old men in Oktoberfest holding beer steins, and then realised the men at the table next to us looked uncannily like them. So I asked... and it was them! They come to the Hofbrahaus every Wednesday and have their own table. They signed the coaster for me :)

Bri and I are outside the Munich Hard Rock Cafe, which featured Brian's golden boy. So we had to take a picture.

We went on a bus tour of the city and I loved driving through this market-y place.

We went out one night to an Irish club and I wanted green olives, but there weren't any. So Pam and I ran to Karlsadt, a department store, and literally slid through the doors as it was closing. Here she is holding the olives we risked life and limb to get. Oddly enough, one of the band members playing at the Irish club had lived in Michigan!

DRESDEN
Dresden is in the region of Saxony and was literally obliterated by the Allies in WWII, then spent 40 years in the Soviet Bloc until German reunification in 1990. The city has been meticulously pieced back together with its original blocks of stone and has loads of new construction, too.

This is the super modern area near the main train station.

And this is the Frauenkirche, which was completely destroyed and just re-opened in 2005. It's kind of a symbol of the German spirit.

The public transit rocks and is cheap. We are bigs fans.

This is Zwinger Palace, built by Augustus the Strong because he'd heard about Versailles in France and had a bit of castle envy.

My favorite part of Dresden is Neustadt, where artists have decorated the buildings in all sorts of crazy ways. There are loads of quirky little cafes and shops, too.

Mama's making a visit; Condoleeza isn't

2008-05-02T02:12:00.001-07:00

A student just gave me this photo from the play and I had to share it. Brian, this is what you're looking forward to in 40 years.

I am very very excited to see my mama; she's coming to Europe May 30 with the Lang clan and I'm meeting her in Amsterdam for a few days. Then I have to go back to school and she's heading to Paris and then the south of France in a rental car. Calling in sick to join her BRIEFLY crossed my mind but 1) I am terrible at lying; my conscience would eat me alive, and 2) she's staying in the red light district of Paris and I don't want any pimps chasing after me! I kid, I kid.

Condoleeza Rice was supposed to be in Prague May 5 to sign a bilateral agreement on the American missle defense radar base that I've written about many times before (and that 70 percent of Czechs don't support). But now she's not coming due to "scheduling problems" and may be here in June, instead. It just so happens that Greepeace had organised a big demonstration on the proposed radar site and have been occupying it for a few days now. But I guess they'll have to come back. Here's a photo.

Last night was the Czech witch-burning holiday and we didn't go to any celebrations, but I did read on radio.cz that a man died after apparently setting himself on fire. Awful.

You can be the audience

2008-04-27T04:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from the ECP school play "Lovecraft: Devil's Reef." They were taken by the talented Martina and the dedicated gym teacher Vladimir. More can be found at Martina's picassa site, http://picasaweb.google.com/qeshet/Lovecraft or at Vladimir's photo site, http://gavra.rajce.idnes.cz/.

Agent Jablonski (Alex) visiting the insane asylum.

Edward (David) be transformed into an amphibian.

Dr. Dakinov (Maria) advising electroshock therapy.

Mad Zadok (Alex 2) warning Edward about frog people.

Reef birds attacking Mina (Elaida) in her lifeboat.

H.P. Lovecraft and Auntie Bea (Mr. Hillier and Ms. Rankin) at home.

Froggy madness.

Carter (Barbora) taking a drink break.

Bike tires, Bohemian beef and Crappy cookies

2008-04-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

Brian just blew a tire (not a tube, a tire) somewhere waaaaay outside of Prague in the country and I just ordered a taxi to pick him up, since I speak better Czech. I haven't really ever missed having a car until now!

This weekend we're going to our friends' Roman and Vendula's house so I can learn to make Svickova, my favorite Czech food. It's beef in this lemony cream sauce with dumplings. I could swim in a vat of it, I love it so much. We're going to spend the night since public transit from their suburb quits early. Ok, I officially miss having a car again.

I bought a package of these Bio healthy sunflower seed cookies and I just bit into one and there was what looked like part of a Band-aid inside. I think I'm going to throw up.

Our Canadian buds Michelle and Josh visited Prague last week; they moved to New York last summer for Josh's medical residency. They miss Europe a lot. Here are a couple photos of a night out, with their med school crew.

Logan's hometown buds, Tom and Steve, came to see the play. Most of my photos didn't turn out, but here's a pic of Tom apparently snoozing in a pub near the theatre with Logan and Martina. Isn't Martina's new haircut cute?

Daniela and I went to Dresden a few weeks ago and it poured the whole time we were there. But we still had lotsa fun! I'll get some pics up...

Thespian Thtuff

2008-04-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

Grease is the word... Bri's school just wrapped up its play and he said it was a winner. I'll post pics if they ever come my way. Despite all the rehearsals Brian begrudgingly attended, he admitted it ended up being a lot of fun and great for the kids. I would have liked to see the production, but my school play is this weekend, too. Our final night is tomorrow, so Bri can see it. It's about 4 psychiatric patients whose mysterious pasts are linked by happenings at a reef of the coast Maine. Lots of demonic sea creatures and psychotic episodes and stuff. It was born out of our buddy Logan's demented brain; it's an original production that the kids helped write. Here are pictures from rehearsal yesterday...

Took the gondola out for a spin

2008-04-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

I'm late getting these pictures up...

After conquering Rome, Brian, Wally, Pam, Mariah and I headed to... Venice!

Much coffee was needed to get on the very early train to the city of canals. This McDonalds cup cracked me up.
Our train was completely surrounded by water as we glided into the city of canals. Right away we noticed that there were no cars; only boats. Even the ambulances and taxis!
Our hotel had lost half of our reservation but everything worked out, thankgoodness. The front desk guy was super helpful and booked us a gondola ride for that afternoon. After a fish lunch and some meandering, we sailed off down the watery streets. I felt like Shakepeare’s Shylock was going to pop up on one of the bridges.

Later we did some more touring. The city was pretty empty because of the holiday. Venice was built as a maritime port across 110 small islands on the edge of the Adriatic Sea. I have no idea how the buildings were planted; their foundations seem to dip right into the water! Here's a typical church and bridge:

The next morning we took a water taxi to another island and saw a glass factory where everything is handmade. The products were gorgeous but alarmingly expensive. Here are two guys working on a vase they just pulled from a huge furnace.

These long helixes of colored glass are what all the vases, sculptures, lamps, etc. are made of. It was cool to see how they were melted and shaped.

We spent the rest of the day on foot, winding through crumbly alleyways all over the city and crossing many bridges.

Soon one of the narrow passages we were in opened up to Venice's San Marco Seistre (St. Mark's Square), flanked by the breathtaking Basilica San Marco, built in 828. It looms over an enormous piazza filled with pigeons and tourists. Wow.

We made our way to the seaside and had gelato while a cruiseship skimmed by.

Then we said a sad goodbye to enchanting Venice and took an overnight train to Munich. Yup, 6 bunk beds in a 7x7-foot compartment. Kid you not. Pam and Wally were good sports and Mariah talked about it every day for the whole next week. We rubbed the knots out of our backs for the whole next week ;)

Czechs in Space

2008-04-13T13:56:00.001-07:00

A while ago I wrote about our friend Roman's travel/advertising agency winning the Eastern European marketing contract for Virgin Galactic's new space tourism program. Well, he just had a big press conference (complete with a dummy wearing a space suit) for all of the big media outlets here and the flights are officially on sale in these parts. Roman said a few people have put down deposit money, and one guy called to say that he wanted to buy his business partner a spot on a flight for a 33rd birthday present. (!!) Here's an article from the Prague Daily Monitor:

Prague, April 3 (CTK) - Czechs can buy tickets to space as of Thursday, Hanus Nemecek of travel agency Typ, which represents US company Virgin Galactic on the Czech market, told a news conference.

First space flights are scheduled for the end of 2009, and Czechs could travel to space a year later.

The price of five minutes in zero gravity is the same all over the world and equals $200,000 (Kc3.2m). CK Typ, specialised in tailor-suit trips, registers two Czechs interested in the trip to 110 kilometres above Earth.

RESIGNED!

2008-04-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we blew our last chances to stay in Prague another year ;) Brian and I officially handed in our resignation notices and are looking forward to returning to Minnesotaland in July. Even though we hadn't planned on staying more than 2 years here, it was still a tough decision to make. But we're confident it's the right decision. Plus little E. Rankin just got accepted to grad school in Duluth, so I'm super pumped to live near her again.

So... now comes flat, I mean apartment, hunting; auto, I mean car, buying; post, I mean job, searching; etc. Any advice/suggestions about any of this would be tres appreciated! And, *aherm*, if you need a lobbyist or an English teacher, we're free for hire. I'm not ashamed to pimp us out.

See many of you at the end of July!

The chin skin of Paris Hilton

2008-04-05T15:24:00.001-07:00

Poor Paris Hilton... She and boyfriend Benji Madden were vacationing in Prague on March 30 when the papparazzi attacked! Ms. Hilton fell trying to run away from photographers and hurt her chin. There is a bunch of Czech news coverage on YouTube, but here is a video in English:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvCPR_PeOCQ&feature=related

When in Rome...

2008-04-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

Most people search for a fictitious bunny on Easter, but not us; we tried to track down the Pope. In true last-minute fashion, our motley crew journeyed to Rome for the holiday.

As stated earlier, the weather was less than cooperative. It basically poured buckets the whole three days we were there, which combined with freezing temps and standing in line outside for hours at a time proved to be frustrating. But the grandeur of the Italian capitol city made it more than worth it.

FRIDAY: Heavy rain with cloud cover
Upon arrival on Good Friday, we checked into our hotel and headed straight to the Colosseum, only to find that it was closing early because the Pope was speaking there that night. So we walked through the Roman Forum, the Palatine and the Imperial Forum
The Roman Forum was the symbolic heart of the empire, where law and business were practiced. It holds the Senate, built in 45 B.C. by Julius Caesar, and the Arch of Septimius Severus, next to which Marc Antony supposedly asked his countrymen to lend him their ears. The Palatine (the hill overlooking the forum) was where Rome was founded around 900 B.C. and later became a sort of Beverly Hills for the city’s movers and shakers.
The Imperial Forum is a space of former markets and squares built by different emperors over time. Mussolini built a huge road right through the middle of the archeological site.
We settled into a nearby Irish pub (what a multicultural day) to warm up but Mariah and I had itchy feet so we hiked north to Trevi Fountain.
Then torrential rain started coming down sideways, plus we were tipsy from avoiding the weather for so long, so we got a couple of taxis back to the hotel. Or at least near the hotel because the drivers, and we, were lost. The day ended with Italian food that made me want to lick my plate clean. Mmmmmm…

SATURDAY: Downpour and grey skies
Long story short, we joined the enormous snake of umbrellas circling the Vatican and proceeded to stand in line for nearly 3 hours to see the Sistine Chapel, etc.

Vatican City, which occupies less than half a km squared, is the head of the Catholic Church and the smallest country in the world. It has about 800 residents and its own postal service, army (Swiss Guard), supermarket, radio and TV stations, railway station, etc.

The Vatican museums were awe-inspiring, and the Sistine Chapel was literally a religious experience. It’s used for Popes’ private prayers and papal elections and is ensconsed by Michelangelo’s handiwork. In 1508, it took him four and a half years to paint Creation on the ceiling, and then in 1535 he painted Last Judgement on the wall. You absolutely are forbidden to take photos inside of the Sistine Chapel (as well as speak in anything but a whisper), so we only have pictures from other museum wings.

This tapestry is from the 1500s.

I love love loved the ceilings!

The Vatican was, ironically, built on area where Nero baited and persecuted Christians around A.D. 60. St. Peter’s Basilica in particular is planted right on the spot where the apostle Peter was crucified. We really wanted to go in it but ran out of time.

Soaked and exhausted after our Vatican adventure, we retired to yet more pasta. That’s not a complaint, mind you. We had an awesome waiter who went as far as hard-boiling a couple eggs for Mariah for Easter the next day.

EASTER SUNDAY: Heavy rainshowers with limited sun
After the Easter Bunny visited Mariah, we tried our hands at the Colosseum again and WOW was it fantastic.

You probably already know that it was a humongous ampitheatre built just after the death of Christ to host gory battles between gladiators, wild beasts and criminals. It could hold about 80,000 spectators and had a host of underground passageways for releasing animals through trapdoors, clearing carnage, etc. A common sentence in the Roman criminal justice system was to release prisoners, unarmed, into the arena.

Here’s what it looked like back in the day.

Here’s Bri and I on the edge of the stadium, overlooking part of the Palatine.

And the ladies couldn’t resist posing with a gladiator hunk.

Our Easter dinner consisted of pizza and wine- both really really good. And the next morning we did the next leg of our heroes’ journey. Bless!

We clean up nice

2008-04-01T13:44:00.001-07:00

The end of my school’s term was wrapped up and tied with a big Graduation Ball bow. The ball is like a prom for students, teachers and parents, but waaaay more fancy than what we’re used to in the US. Brian and I cleaned ourselves up and said goodbye to his family for a night to be all glam. Here are some candids.

Graduation boys

Girls in their gowns

We girlie teachers look like we’re going to a funeral

Smoooooove

I’m a lucky gal

Super students

Two years ago, these guys were pipsqueaks

aka James Bond

A Prague Nursery Rhyme

2008-04-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

Ack- the internet hasn't been working for days! So I'm a little behind... Enjoy :)

A Prague Nursery Rhyme

Little Mariah P moved in next to me
Toting grandma and grandpa along
They saw the clock tower when it struck the hour
And listened to bells chime a song

Easter markets were a hit and Mariah with wit
Said, “Prague is pretty old, huh?”
She went to a stall and bought a wooden doll
With grandparents Wally and Pamela

Getting to the castle was, well, quite a hassle
Because of so many stone stairs
But then Miss Mariah P acted very jol-ly
And posed like a statue with airs

The view from the top made Mariah P hop
As sun shone o’er the golden city
A group picture was made; they stood in the shade
And admired all which was so pretty

Czech food and Czech beer weren’t too queer
Though a mirror maze made Miss P scary
One bar had some tables which made it able
To pour your own Pilsner… quite merry!

They traipsed all ‘round the centuries-old town
Weathering cold temperatures and rain
Each night they’d dry socks and rest on our block
And start touring the next day again

After many great times, I must end the rhyme
For Mariah P, Wally and Pam just left
But warm memories and love across the seas
Will keep us from being bereft!

HAPPY EASTER from the Vatican

2008-03-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, bunnies. Sorry I havenàt posted in a while... between visitors and the end of school and a last-minute trip, my fingers havenàt made it to the keyboard. Wally and Pam thought Easter in Rome would be fun so we hopped on a Smartwings flight to Italy and have been touring the city in what could be classified as torrential rain. The sights are mind-boggling and the food is to die for, but the weather has been terrible. Two out of three ainàt bad, though :) We have seen the Colloseum, Vatican City, the Roman Forum, etc... Iàll post pics when we get back. We are headed to Venice on a train tomorrow, then to Munich, then back to Praha. Blessings and enjoy the holiday!

Mr. Steinhoff's neighborhood

2008-03-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

Won't you be, won't you be, please won't you be... my neighbor? Hi, neighbors! a.k.a. Wally Steinhoff, partner Pam and grandgirlie Mariah! (but no Mr. McFeely)

The fam is now settled in a holiday flat across the street from us. Luckily, we found one so close with a huge kitchen and bathroom, so we can all be near each other. Wally, Pam and Mariah finally arrived after making the long and arduous journey from Trinidad. A short layover in New York for some sightseeing helped break the trip up, though, and they're slowly but surely getting over jetlag. We're so touched that they put all the effort into making it here!

We had munchies and drinks last night in Jama, an expat-y cave bar in the center , and slept in today. We're aiming for the castle this afternoon and Mariah is bonkers about seeing the mirror maze on Petrin Hill so we'll try to fit that in, too. Lotsa fun in store with the fam! :)

Yahnarific in Praha!

2008-03-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

We blinked and Rachel/Mark were here and gone. But the couple days we did have with them were A-W-E-S-O-M-E. We packed lots in to the too-short visit, and here are some highlights!

THURSDAY NIGHT:

I met the Yahnas at the airport with cans of beer and shipped them to our 'hood via good ol' public transit. Doesn't Mark look perky on the tram, not having slept for 30 hours? As stated earlier on the blog, Mark and Rachel got their first Czech restaurant/beer experience and we turned in about 11 p.m. because the poor travelers were near braindead from lack of sleep and Bri and I had to teach the next day.

FRIDAY DAY:

Hubbie and wifey got some much-needed sleep and then headed into the center's Easter markets while Bri and I worked. I will post a bunch of their pics when Rachel sends them to me.

FRIDAY NIGHT:

What happens in Prague stays in Prague.

I made reservations at a proper Czech beer hall for dinner and we ate delicacies like Utopenec (pickled chubby sausage, in photo) and Goulash. Look at Rachel say "Mmmmm Mmmmm!"
After food and beer, we went to friends Leah and David's flat party, in honor of David's bro who was visiting from London. Here we are on the balcony, but you can't see any of the pretty rooftops in the background.

Then we hit some favorite night spots in the Old Town and danced/b.s.'d the night (and a good chunk of the morning) away. Good times!

SATURDAY DAY:

Despite a lack of sleep, we were up decently early for brunch at the swanky Cafe Louvre. From there we walked past the National Theatre, over the River Vltava and up to Prague Castle, where we walked inside the castletacular complex and saw St. Vitus' cathedral, which makes your eyes pop, it's so decadent. Mark and Rach also did a bit of Euro shoe shopping. Here are some photos of our sightseeing:

SATURDAY NIGHT:

We had a hard time getting to our restaurant, as the metro was completely packed with crazed, screaming Sparta hockey fans. When we tried to push our way on, they actually pointed the butts of their flags at us like swords. I managed to push through anyhow, but didn't realise Mark and Rachel and Brian weren't behind me until the metro started pulling away. Oops. But we finally caught up with friends at Radost, our favorite vegetarian restaurant/celebrity magnet. We didn't see any celebs but thought it might be fun to re-enact the Rhianna video that was filmed there. Rachel's doing the bathroom/mirror scene. Hot!

We stuffed ourselves silly with quesadillas, pasta, curry and vegan desserts and then forewent dance plans to chill at a little cocktail bar and rest our weary soles. This drunk Czech chick swerved past Brian waaaay too close on the street afterwards and flipped a U-turn right near all of us, so we yelled at the vehicle. A passenger guy opened the door and started swearing at us in Czech, so we swore in Czech back. Realising we weren't Czech, he yelled at us to "go home." So we yelled "Bydlim Praha!" (I live in Prague!)

SUNDAY DAY:

After huge British breakfasts (eggs, toast, beans, mushrooms, sausage, potatoes) in our 'hood, I brought Mark and Rachel to the Jewish quarter and chilled in a cafe while they did the grand tour of the cemetery/synagogues/etc. I'll post Rach's pics later. Then we hit Old Town Square and Wenceslaus Square for souvenier shopping/sightseeing galore. Hubby and wife had a bit of trouble picking out which of the thousand gorgeous street paintings they wanted to buy for themselves and relatives. . Mark also bought a sausage, which we took turns gnawing on. I love the photos of those two trying to conquer the beast. Mark said he couldn't get the onion taste out of his mouth for hours.

I also had to laugh at this sign that we saw, because Rachel had some issues with security at the airport. It was so totally her!

SUNDAY NIGHT:

We ate Czech pizza, which is quite different than what you find in America because it's super thin and can have lots of strange toppings like tuna and corn. But we stuck to basics. And we visited the Letna beer garden to overlook Prague at night.

So it was a spectacular time, albeit short. We miss the Yahnas already! Come back! ;)

Safe and sound

2008-03-07T03:26:00.000-08:00

The Yahnas supreme arrived in Prague safe and sound last night- whew! They actually sped through baggage claim and were waiting a few minutes for me before I arrived to pick them up (I always wait like an hour for visitors to get through that part). Despite being awake for 30 hours and spending the day sightseeing in Frankfurt, Germany, they joined us for a delectable meal at Fraktal, our favorite restaurant/pub in our 'hood, and taste-tested Czech beer. Needless to say, I think they're hooked. They're off traipsing around the city today (Friday) while Bri and I are at work and we're going to present them with Czechtacular goulash and fried cheese tonight, plus some pubbing. So happy to have them here!

How to experience the Czech medical system

2008-03-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

1) Vomit and have piercing abdominal pain for 15 hours.

2) Search the internet for the nearest hospital complex that accepts your Czech national medical insurance. If you live at Kamenicka 45, that would be the USTREDNI VOJENSKA NEMOCNICE (Central Military Hospital), which is the most modern hospital in the Czech Republic.

3) Hop on the tram at 7:30 a.m. and avoid making eye contact with the drunk old man who's ranting and waving a half-empty box of wine around. When he says, "Mate moje korunny?" (Do you have my money?), respond "Nerozumim" (I don't understand) even though you full well do.

4) Exit tram and enter hospital complex through pedestrian gate.

5) Communicate with very nice hospital receptionist and nurse by pointing at stomach and saying "Polest!" (pain!). Then sit and wait.

6) Observe stream of other ER walk-in patients, including a monk in full robes.

7) Finally see doctor, who speaks quite good English, and let him run a barrage of tests on you= physical, blood, urine and ultrasound. Note that doctors here earn about the same amount as teachers do in the USA!

8) Chat with sweet old orderly who wheels you to ultrasound room. He speaks broken English, likes attending Sparta football games and works 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

9) Have ultrasound with jolly guy who turns his computer screen toward you and quizzes you on the parts he's examining... liver, pancreas, stomach, etc. Laugh with him.

10) Get wheeled back to doctor who informs you that you don't need immediate surgery on anything but must return to hospital tomorrow. Worry when doctor apologetically says that you must pay an ER fee because you figure you don't have enough cash. But then find out it's only 90kc (5 US dollars).

11) Go home on tram. No winos on tram this time.

12) Return to hospital next day, in taxi.

13) Upon entering building, take photo of weird statue you didn't notice yesterday.

14) Wave and smile at receptionist, nurse, orderly, etc.

15) While waiting for doctor, stare in disbelief as you recognise one of the surgeons who is talking to another patient near you. His name is Lukáš Pollert and he gave a lecture at your school last week (which is on the other side of Prague) about being a former Olympic medalwinner. He won medals in 1992 and 1996 for canoeing and sold one in a pub. He's also a city councilor in Prague.

16) Be seen by a new doctor, who orders more tests, including one for pregnancy. Worry not, it was negative.

17) Say hello to old woman doctor who enters room and pushes all over your stomach where it hurts. Wince in pain and try not to cry. Sigh in relief when she announces in Czech that you do not have appendicitis. (Your little sis had hers removed last year.)

18) Nod when you're told to see a stomach specialist tomorrow. Pay 90kc ER fee and fill prescription for 3 medicines, for "getting rid of bacteria and lowering acid," the doctor tells you.

19) Go back to UVN for a 3rd time. Observe patients in robes wandering over grounds. See stomach specialist who orders a gastroscopy for 2 days from now.

20) Return to UVN 2 days later. Find "Gastronomy surgerie" (gastrointestinal clinic) on map.

21) Meet doctor, who is really friendly and speaks excellent English. Have your throat sprayed with a local anesthesia, take your shirt off, lay on your side and cringe while a camera is painfully shoved into your throat, stomach and small intestine. Gag and squeeze your eyes closed while tears involuntarily pour out of them. Open eyes to see a team of Charles University medical students staring at you while you are making horrid gurgling sounds and retching. Wave meekly when the doctor introduces them.

22) Leave hospital with what little dignity you have left.

23) Return AGAIN the next day (5th day in one week) to receive your results. And the diagnosis is..... (drumroll please)...... da da da da....... Ulcers!

Czechxican food and French billiards

2008-02-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here are a few piddly happenings here in Prague land, for lack of something better to write about...

- Brian has been practicing guitar for the school play, "Grease." I still think he should dress the part.

- We had some friends over for a "Czechxican" dinner. That means I really wanted to cook Mexican, but it's hard to find ingredients over here, so I had to mash my own refried beans, sprinkle everything with Eidam (white, waxy) cheese and manuever a salsa out of whatever fresh veggies I could find. It actually tasted OK.

- Jaro, a neighborhood dude from the local pub, taught us how to play Carom, which is French billiards. It's like pool, except you play with 4 balls and the the table has no pockets.

- I was ill for part of my week-long break from school with tummy problems. My adventure with the Czech med system will have its own looooong blog entry, tho.

- Brian finally gave into me and shaved his mug. He'd been sporting a scruffy look for a while.

- I went away for a night to a little spa town called Marianske Lazne, to soak in its natural ground spring baths and get a massage. Here are some photos of the little town:

Unsightly Katherine

2008-02-28T02:56:00.000-08:00

Ugly Betty now has a Czech cousin! Meet "Ošklivka Katka", the Czech knock-off of American super-sitcom "Ugly Betty." Her name translates to "Unsightly Katherine" or "Foul Katherine" in English. Ha! But... did you know that "Ugly Betty" in the U.S.A. is actually a rip-off of a Colombian sitcom, "Yo Soy Betty la Fea"? And that Czechs have been watching a dubbed version of the Colombian sitcom for years? Weird, huh?!

More visitors extraordinaire!

2008-02-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

We have more awesome visitor news- Brian's dad, Wally; his partner, Pam; and their jumping bean, Mariah, are all coming to visit for the second half of March! I unfortunately don't have a photo of them to post because I accidentally erased all my pictures from anything earlier than summer of 2006... good thing I have a back-up back in the US! Anyhoo, they're staying in a building of new holiday flats right across the street from us; they'll have their own kitchen and TV and stuff, plus the place has a sauna, I think. We're going to try to haul them around central Europe a bit. Should be good times!

Life is a walk in the park

2008-02-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

¿Cómo es usted? Jak se mas? Comment êtes-vous ? Wie geht es Ihnen? Come lei è?

How are you?

Sorry nothing's been written on this blog for a while; life has been crazy for the past couple weeks. But I'm on break now and plan to catch up all sorts of things I haven't done in a while, like mailing postcards, marking like 80 essays, scouring the stovetop where Brian left a bag of coffee on a hot burner, etc. "At least now it's fresh roasted," he said of the java as it sizzled and spit flames on top of the stove.

I took a walk through Letna Park and down into the center, where I saw a modern art exhibit titled "The Uncertain States of America." It was pretty good- lotsa provocative stuff by young American artists within the last 10 years that represents "a narrative with a clear social and political conscience" (according to the curators of the exhibit, who are from Norway). This exhibit piece is from an artist named Karl Haendel, who does compilatations of pictures and words. I likey.

Here are some photos from my walk into town. The day was grey but gorgeous, nonetheless:

School play, bloody students and all

2008-02-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

My IB Theatre Arts students' performance was last Friday and I'm still in disbelief that we pulled it off; 5 minutes before going on stage, my students were still adjusting set technology and going over lines (while I was tearing my hair out!). It all went pretty well, actually. Here's a photo of Lukas and Ivana, who played the main characters, during a rehearsal. I'll put up more photos of the real performance soon.

The play, called "Tone Clusters," is a bit odd... it's basically a couple in their 50s being interviewed by a body-less voice on a TV set, with a projector screen behind them. The voice asks them a string of questions about their son, who has been accused of murdering the neighbor girl, wrapping her in plastic, and hiding her in the family basement. We did a couple of creepy photo shoots for images to put on the projector screen. Here are some pictures of us posing the murder of the neighbor girl (played by student Emma) in my school's basement.

And lastly, here is student Albert, who designed the set and is the sound/lighting/tech guru at our school.

My man's back from the 'dam

2008-02-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly enough, Bri (and Leah and Kelly) did come back to chilly, grey Prague from warm, vibrant Amsterdam. He reports that it was a blast but he is not a writer (except for guitar lyrics), so here's some photo evidence. I missed him a lot; geez, he's grown on me ;)

Buh-bye Bri, Yo Yahnas!

2008-02-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

Bri left today for a little "him" trip to Amsterdam, with friends Leah and Kelly; they have half-term holiday right now, unlike me who's stuck in school trying to patch together her IB Theatre Arts students' wayward play. What I wouldn't give to be wandering along a canal, listening to bike bells ring and smelling tulips! Aaah, happy thoughts...

Actually, I have a really really happy thought- Mark and Rachel Yahna are coming to visit in March! Yaaaaaaaay! For those of you who don't know, Rachel and I have been best buds since we were brace faces and had bad perms- hot! Rach and Mark and I grew up together in NoDak, then all lived in in the Fargo-Moorhead area during college, then most recently all called Minneapolis/St. Paul our homes. So I'm having withdrawl symptoms... and their visit will be the perfect antidote :) I can't wait!!

North Dakota famous

2008-02-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

For most people, skimming snowdrifts through North Dakota woods in temperatures hovering around zero sounds like tough work. But my mom and her best bud, Sue Lang, actually make it a point to do this frequently in the name of exercise and, yes, enjoyment. The Grand Forks Herald recently published an article about these two active ladies, and the link is here: http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=65702. So celeb! :)

Brian is gaining a bit of notoriety himself, as the new guitarist for his school's spring musical. The play director begged him to play for the school production of "Grease" and he obliged, though he's not crazy about having to learn all the music. He'll do an awesome job, as always. Maybe he should wear some tight leather pants for inspiration...

I'm directing my IB Theatre Arts students' production of the play "Tone Clusters" this Friday. The group means well but isn't the most diligent, so hopefully it all comes together in 5 days. Eep.

New salad on top

2008-02-02T01:41:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the new salad. It's so light and I'm so pale, I feel a bit like a giant walking Q-tip. But people seem to dig it and a student said I look 10 yrs younger. He's my new favorite student.

To the Moon!

2008-02-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

In the fall, our buddy Roman asked me to edit the English in a marketing proposal for him. I was like, "Ok," thinking it was nothing. Thus, I was surprised when I found out the proposal involved Roman's agency getting a marketing contract for Virgin Galactic's new space tourism.

Well, Roman ended up winning the contract and is now Virgin Galactic's marketing director for all of Eastern Europe. Wow. He went to New York last week to meet with Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin empire and see the space tourism shuttle, which should begin flying in 2009. A seat on one of these flights, which gives you about 5 total minutes in outer space, is about $500,000. About 200 people around the world have already purchased seats.

The shuttle is flown waaaaay up into the sky by being attached to 2 airplanes and then catapults itself into the heavens, hangs out a bit, then rotates and fires itself back to earth. You can see exactly how it works at http://www.virgingalactic.com/.

Roman's been to all 7 continents and was the sixth or seventh Czech on Antarctica. We told him he should be the first Czech in space! Since he's working form Virgin, he has the option to be one of the first 100 space touists ever.

Tae Bo, Rihanna and subprime mortgages

2008-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's January, but no, it's not freezing cold. Brian has been out a couple of times on his bike already because temps have been resting around 40-50 or so degrees. The mild weather and the fact that it doesn't get dark at 4 p.m. is really uplifting.

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I just found out that the singer Rihanna's video for her song "Please Don't Stop the Music" was filmed in Prague, in the vegetarian restaurant/club "Radost." You can tell from the wallpaper in the background and some shots of the stairs and the dancefloor. That's the place where we saw Incubus last year and where my mom and her friend Sue drank a fair amount of wine when they came to visit! :)

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The postal service here borders on lunacy. If I have to go pick up a package there or mail something, I have to put aside 45 minutes for standing in line/waiting for my package to be found. The postal workers have computers circa 1987 (green block writing on black screen), and they keep package records in handwriting. I swear. They couldn't find a box my little sis sent me and started paging through handwritten ledger books right in front of me. Yikes!

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Brian has been enjoying teaching a lot lately (but, no, won't be keeping it as a long-term career) and is working on planning a lesson that will require his Econ class to solve the subprime mortgage lending crisis in class. Cool, huh? I'm delaying my planning right now by writing this blog :)

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I have been doing aerobics at a place on my block every now and then. They're in Czech so I'm always a few steps behind everyone and nod stupidly at the instructor when she barks at me in her moon man language. But I now know where all the gorgeous Czech women get fit- Monday and Thursday night Tae Bo. They actually tape their hands and have official Tae Bo clothes and stuff.

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Since my head of English quit, our new student teacher, Rachel, has been moved to teach some of my English and Drama classes. She's the blonde in this photo, and her roommate Lindsey (the one with short hair) is student teaching in Music at Brian's school. They're from Ohio and Minnesota, respectively. The readhead on the end, Abbie, teaches history at ECP and is from Pennsylvania. So we were a little American gang the other weekend. We lapsed into USA slang over drinks and our British friends said they couldn't understand what we were talking about. Now they know how it feels! Weirdly enough, this picture is from Radost, too, in the cafe part.

No dirty drills, please

2008-01-25T02:02:00.000-08:00

When I saw the building our new Czech dentist operates out of, I almost ran my teeth right back home; it was a monsterous Communist-style box surrounded by a creaky metal fence and dead overgrown bushes. I could just imagine some sociopath gleefully wedging a dirty drill into my gums amidst my screaming.

But the inside of the dental office was really homey and our dentist was spectacular. He spoke really good English and was super personable. Together, with check-ups and cleanings, Bri and I payed about $80 (and that's with one of us not having dental insurance). I'd heard that dental tourism was big here in the Czech Republic; now I know why.

Germed, clogged and sniffled

2008-01-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

Somebody snuck in our flat last week and stuffed my lungs, ears, glands, throat and nose with chunky peanut butter and gravel. Or at least that's what it feels like. I missed 3.5 days of school last week and was sprawled on the couch all weekend in pain. And today (Monday) I'm a pathetic excuse for a teacher, as I can't hear anything and am coughing more than talking. Not fun. Brian's got the sniffles, too, as do most of our students and coworkers. We're all just a seething mass of germs here in the Czech Republic. I really miss the over-sanitised pristine-ness of the US of America sometimes!

????????????

2008-01-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

My boss, the Head of the English Department at my school, just quit with no explanation. He missed the first day of school after winter break without calling in and saying he'd be absent, then came back for one day, then called in sick for a week, then sent a letter of resignation, effective immediately.

The weird thing is, he left all his teaching materials/pictures/books/etc. in our office. His phone is now disconnected and I heard his car is sitting in an auto shop, uncollected.

The guy had a wife and kids back in the UK, so I'm guessing he felt pulled to be with them after seeing them over Christmas. But he could have at least given us some notice; he left us other 3 English teachers with all of his mock exams to mark, grade reports to write, classes to plan for, etc. It's a real mess and the workload is huge. Plus Brian and I actually hung out with him a bit; he was a friend.

My feelings about the whole thing are jumping between massively worried and extremely angry.

Why?

Czech Idol!

2008-01-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

A student at my school won some sort of "Czech Idol" competition and now has this video out, of his song "Mně sílu dáš". His sister is pretty talented, too; she sings in local musicals and stuff.

Snaps of 2007

2008-01-16T03:55:00.001-08:00

Who knew tubas could be hot?

2008-01-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

There's a teeny village of 400 people in rugged eastern Romania, near the Moldavian border, and in that village 12 men gather to play brass instruments. The men don't use sheet music; their songs are handed down through generations, as are their instruments.

Brian and Colin and I found ourselves smooshed between sweaty fans of this gypsy brass band at Club Akropolis the other night. The group, called Fanfare Ciocarlia, now performs all over Europe and just did a tour in Japan. It's music is really peppery, quick Balkan jazz/funk; standing in the audience and wriggling to the rhythm gets dizzying fast.

The club was so packed that Brian and I got separated from Colin, who's seen the band play 5 or 6 times. It's not really Brian's thing (he says it sounds like Hare Krishna music), but I dug it.

A Horni, pork-filled Czech New Year

2008-01-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

STASTNY NOVY ROC! That's "happy new year" in Czech, y'all.

Last year we spent New Year's imbibing with thousands of people and dodging bottle rockets in Old Town Square, central Prague, so we were happy when Czech friends Roman and Vendula invited us to a skiing New Year with their friends and family in the countryside. It was like a mini winter wonderland, so crystalline and pretty.

The place we travelled to was called "Horni Maxov" and when we told Roman what "horny" meant in English, he thought it was hilarious and proceeded to call us the "horny maximum" couple the whole weekend. Most people at the New Year gathering spoke at least a tiny bit of English, but Bri and I definitely had to brush up on what little Czech we know.

Bri and I don't really have any ski gear here, so we just rented some cross country skis. Otherwise, we hung out at our pension (totally kitschy, from the Communist era) and Bri did some sledding with the dads in the group and their kids. It was niiiiiiice and relaxing. We learned some Czech card game, too. Here's Bri getting help from Roman's son, Adam.

I wasn't feeling the best for most of the trip and neither was Vendula. So this super sweet pension owner, Martina, gave us carafes of tea to take back to our rooms at night.

Here are some sledding photos; I played photog while the kids ran over the other adults with sleds.

The theme of the actual New Year's Eve party was the 70s, so Bri and I dressed up like the king and queen of disco. Bri even grew a cheesy mustache for his costume. It was funny because the Czechs all thought we looked like people from the 80s; under Communism, it was illegal to have things from the West, so fashion was way behind. The kids also dressed up, like characters from some famous Czech children's show. Here are some random pics:

It's Czech tradition to put kids in costumes on New Year's Eve and play games with them and stuff.

Here's the Jonas family (Roman, Vendula, Natalie and Adam) in their 70s garb. I teach Natalie English at ECP.

Here we are, disco royalty. I made Brian wear a gold chain. He made me wear Farrah hair.

The fireworks were really awesome. There are virtually no fireworks laws in the CR.

Food kept getting brought out... after we ate a huge 3-course dinner with 3 different types of meat as an entree. There were trays of cheese and bread, chocolate fondue, sliced up fruits, etc. These huge chunks of pork made their appearance at midnight. More Czech tradition.

Things got more lively after the kids went to bed. Here are some of the hippie crowd.

And karoake was fun. Would you believe the guy in the Durex shirt is Brian's boss? We didn't realise that he was one of Roman's best friends until after we'd known him a while.

The best to you and yours in the New Year :-)

le voyage magique p.III

2008-01-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

...And the last bits of Paris...

Our hotel room was waaaaay on the top floor of a skinny building with a staircase that seemed to spiral into oblivion.

Here's a rockin photo of the Louvre's glass pyramid, from one of the former palace arches...

...and here's the inside. It's enormous; we only saw about a third of it in the couple of hours we were there. We said hi to the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory.

I chilled out with Venus de Milo and Brian hung with some dude whose name I don't know. Doesn't Bri look like him? Now he just needs a deer, a kid and no pants.

Here's a random street we were walking on. I love how the kids in orange just pop out at you.

This is the Pompidou Modern Art Centre, where I spent the better part of an afternoon while Bri did his own walking tour. He said it looked like a giant hamster cage. I actually spent more time standing in line to get in the place than I was able to spend looking at art.

Here we are in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, in all her French Gothic glory.

I like this picture of Bri on the south side of the church.

And here is Notre Dame at dusk. No sign of Quasimodo.

Last but not least, Brian's favourite food, asking to be eaten. We brought some back with us and Bri loved it, barely stopping short of spreading it on a flat surface and rolling around in it. We brought a cylinder of cheese back for a French friend, too, and she ate the whole thing in one day. It's probably worth mentioning that she's pregnant ;)

le voyage magique p.II

2008-01-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

More about Paris...

We were greeted by a big smile on Rivoli, a big shopping street that runs right through the center of the city. Brian noted that since French workers are often on strike, people must have a lot of time on their hands.

One of our favorite walking breaks was for this awesome creme brulee in some obscure little brasserie. It was a little plate of heaven.

This is the outside and the inside of the famous Galerie Lafayette, a very upscale 10-story department store. It's well-known for its art nouveau design. We saw a 260 euro pair of panties in it!!

Here's the restaurant where we ate Christmas Eve dinner. The French have these cool menus called "Prix fix" where you pay a set price for a meal with 2 or more courses and then you choose from a few different things for each course, and choices vary day-to-day

.To get to and from the airport, we took a train from this station, Gare du Nord.
Most things were closed on Christmas so we slept in late and then took a walk through Montmarte, the neighborhood where "Amelie" was filmed. I'm nuts about that movie, so you can imagine my delight when we found Sacre Coeur Basilica (in photo), where Amelie leaves a package for her beloved. I made Brian take a bunch of pictures of me acting like Amelie :) Montmarte is also just north of the neighborhood Piagelle where "Moulin Rouge" takes place.

And here she is, the Moulin Rouge. Shows there are no less than $150 US Dollars per ticket.

These old French cemeteries were so cool. Brian said the tombs in New Orleans are just like these.

Here's more of the "Amelie" neighborhood :)

le voyage magique p.I

2008-01-03T02:47:00.000-08:00

Contrary to the stereotype, Brian and I found the French to be lovely people. And they didn't hate us for being American! But then we weren't loud westerners asking for directions to the nearest McDonalds either, so that probably helped ;)

We spent most of our time wandering around Paris, mesmerized, taking in the major sights. I had been to the city of lights at age 14 for a school trip; it was my first voyage abroad and sparked a love for travel in me. This trip with Bri was no less bewitching.

Our hotel was north of the center in a residential area. This is the first cafe (brasserie) we visited, called Chez Jeanette. Nobody spoke English there and the interior was pure crumbling decadence. The photo below is of one of the main streets through the neighborhood..

Petanque (bocce ball) is hugely popular in France, but moreso among older people. This park that we walked through had about 8 petanque games in session. The park had free WiFi, FYI.

This was taken on our first visit to the Louvre, when we just walked around the complex. We came back again to go inside the most-visited museum in the world, which used to be a royal palace. It was used to house art in 1793 but then lost most of its war-acquired collection after the defeat of Napoleon. Today it displays about 35,000 works of art, less than 10 percent of its collection. The glass pyramid in the center of the complex was designed by American architect I.M.Pei and added in 1989.

You can't help but notice the proliferation of flower and fruit/vegatable stands in Paris. Color just pops out from everywhere, even in December. I was drawn to a pallet of red/green lychees one day and now have a mild addiction. Likewise, Bri got hooked on French cheese.

This is the Jardin Tuileries, leading up to the Champs Elysees, which Brian was excited to see from all the Tour de France coverage he's watched. It's not normally grey; I used a b&w filter.

Here's Brian on the Champs, in front of the Arc de Triomphe. He was surprised to see the avenue is a 2km incline.

I bet you can guess what this is. Did you know it was almost torn down in 1909, 20 years after it was built, but was saved for communication signal purposes? Neither did I. Also, when the Nazis invaded Paris the French cut the cables to the elevator in the tower so that Hitler would have to climb the 81 stories to hoist a swastika flag from it, which blew away about an hour later. Hitler later ordered the tower to be demolished but his underlings disobeyed him.

The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited monument in the world. We asked some dude to take a picture of us in front of it but somehow the bright guy managed to leave it out. Argh.

We did manage to take this one ourselves, though :)

The Wheels on the Bus Go...

2008-01-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

My last night in London, my kind host Steve and I carolled with other Christmas-y people at Trafalgar Square (there he is in the photo), grabbed a divine curry meal in the Bangladeshi Brick Lane and visited a bar that looked like something straight out of Alice and Wonderland. It was built into an old Victorian home, with windy staircases and decaying wallpaper printed with bizarre fox hunting scenes.

The next morning I journeyed to Victoria Coach Station and readied myself for the 20-hour bus ride to Prague, which was the most inexpensive return transit I could find. The coach was packed; I had bought the last seat on the bus when I booked my ticket the week before. I slept all the way to Dover and was amazed by the infamous white cliffs. Then, instead of going by chunnel to the continent, the bus loaded up on an enormous ferry and we floated across the English Channel. It was so cool; everyone had to get off the bus and go upstairs to the ferry's lounges/cafe/bar/casino/viewing deck, etc.
The rest of the bus trip went fairly fast; the coach had TVs and after reading/watching movies, I slept overnight to Prague and was in Brian's arms by 7 a.m. the next morning :)

Ye Quirky London Sites

2008-01-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

Oddities exist everywhere, don't they? Here are some offbeat things I discovered in London...

Surveillance cameras are EVERYWHERE! Apparently the crime rate hasn't gone down in London since their installation, but prosecution has gone up.

The shopping is fierce! Anything you could think about buying is available here. Such as these kitty shoes. Meow.

Double-decker buses are the BOMB. I loved sitting on top, right in the front because you feel like you're in a hovercraft. And they allow you to see the city, unlike the tube.

Apparently it's illegal to feed pigeons in London. These people were holding a "Save the Trafalgar Pigeons from Starving" demonstration in the square one day...

More shoes... these are from Camden, where stalls of kitsch go on for miles. This particular tent had Doc Martens in any color you want.

Of course, the English drive on left side of the road and many tourists are confused like this, so you see these instructions at EVERY intersection in the city to keep you from getting smacked by an oncoming vehicle.

Fast-food sushi is huge. Ummmm.

This is a garbage-collector bobbing in the River Thames. It says, "I Eat Rubbish." How delightful. I prefer sushi.

This crack in the cement of the floor of the Tate Modern is actually a temporary art installation by Doris Salcedo. It's called "Shibboleth" and is meant to portray the experience of immigrants, segregation and racial hatred.

This is London City Hall at about 5 p.m. I think it looks like technological worker bees in a giant electric honeycomb.

Ye Olde London Sites

2008-01-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

I think I managed to stick my freezing nose into most major corners of London. I saw loads, from Chinatown to No. 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister's residence). Here are some photos and highlights of "touristy stuff" from my 3 oh-so-English days.

This is Buckingham Palace. I actually wasn't all that impressed by it. And it kind of makes me ill that taxpayers submit loads of money to support the luxurious lifestyle of a royal family that doesn't do a whole lot. But I digress.

I showed up at 11:30 to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace only to find out that it's done every other day in winter months... and I arrived on the wrong day. But luckily, I got to see this cool horse procession anyhow.

Here's me outside the north entrance of Westminster Abbey, where all sorts of famous people are buried, such as Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens and Queen Elizabeth I. Fun fact: 3/4 of the King James Bible was translated here.
This is London's West End, where all the musicals take place. I went to some stand-up comedy one night in this area and got ripped on by the comedians for being American. But the people in the audience were really nice.

I always thought this was Big Ben but it's actually just called "The Clock Tower". "Big Ben" is the 16-ton bell inside of it. It's at the entrance to the Houses of Parlaiment, and BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the clock's chiming before newscasts every day.

I met friend Lisa for lunch one day in the Battersea area of London, along the River Thames. She took me on a gorgeous walk through a huge park and past the Albert Bridge; here she is in front of it.

Here I am at the British Museum, in front of the "Native American" exhibit- woo hoo! I love love love that most museums in London are FREE! It's like a dream come true!

This is Camden, an area of London that is like Uptown Minneapolis on crack. The whole place is covered in seedy markets and people from every walk of life. I especially liked the guy with the tatooed face and the Serbian gothic girl that helped me find some second-hand red denim pants.

Trafalgar Square, flanked by the National Gallery and a Christmas tree which is given by Norway each year. Steve and I went carolling here on my last night in the city.

There's this great pedestrian path, Millenium Bridge, that stretches from the area near St. Paul's Cathedral (in the background) to the Tate Modern art museum.

Here's an enormous spidey statue outside of Tate Modern, where I spent the better part of a day because I get a kick out of contemporary art.

This is the inside of the Covent Garden Christmas market. There are markets everywhere in Lond, year-round. I had to sit on my hands to keep from buying stuff I didn't need, like mince pies and necklaces made out of buttons.

Last but not least, here I am in front of the Tower Bridge- isn't it spectacular?

Planes, trains and automobiles... to London

2008-01-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Via train, bus, plane and another bus, I made it to London and back just prior to Christmas. I had a week off that Brian didn't, so I took the aforementioned transit to see the nucleus of the UK for a few days of "me time".

The first leg of the journey was a 3-hr bus to Brno, Czech Republic, because that airport had the cheapest flight to London. The plane was hilarious; it was like a gigantic flying billboard inside and the air hostesses kept trying to sell lottery tickets. I arrived at Stanstead airport and jumped on a bus into central London, which was an 80-minute ride. I must have looked confused when I got off the bus because a guy smoking a cigarette outside the tube (i.e. subway) station offered to help me. Turns out he was an actual tube engineer and I got a tour of the underground offices, plus he gave me a free ticket to get to my destination. Crazy, huh?

Friend Logan's best bud Steve offered to put me up for a few nights, and I arrived at his place about 9 p.m., after a full day of travel. He lives in a terrace house (like a really long line of miniature townhomes all squashed together) with 3 other roommates. Here's a photo of the little garden area out their back door. One of Steve's roomies was out of town, so I conked out in the available bed.

The next morning I was shocked to hear the voice on the tube say, "This train is for cockfosters." Then I realized that the last stop on that particular line was a station called "cockfosters". Ha! Things had the funniest names in London, from "Cricklewood" (a part of the city) to "Blackfriars" (another tube station). The tube, or London Underground, was absolutely massive; it has 275 stations on all its lines and carries over 3 million passengers per day. I felt like a maze-crazed gerbil in it. And it's super expensive; it's 4 pounds (8 American dollars) to ride ONE WAY somewhere! Thankfully, I used Steve's roomie's transit card and that made things a lot cheaper.

Season's Greetings and a short novel

2007-12-17T00:25:00.000-08:00

After combing central Prague for Christmas lights, we finally scored at a little local drugstore. So Brian strung them around our scrubby little plastic tree, ala "Charlie Brown Christmas," and our flat now officially feels cozy and set for the holidays. Here is our Christmas letter, via the world wide web. Forgive me for not printing it out! It's quite long because I like to write; sorry for that :)

Season’s Greetings, family and friends!

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy in the holiday season. We’re sending warm thoughts your way…

2007 was a dynamic year for us; we kind of “broke through” the Czech living barrier and became friendly with people in our ‘hood. Prague really began to feel like home rather than a long holiday. Our stony neighbors actually say “Dobry den” (good day) to us now!

Here’s a quick synopsis of our 2007:

WINTER
We got our best Christmas presents in the form of friends Brian McD and Meghan, who stayed with us in December, and then my little (but very tall) sis, the fabulous Erin Rankin. She got to spend a week here and celebrate New Years with us, toasting Russians with champagne smack in the middle of Old Town Square, fireworks and all. Brian’s cycling friend, Derrek, and his girlfriend, Jonica, also stopped through the city for a few days, and I took my THIRD trip to Bratislava to beg at the Czech Embassy there for a work visa, which I was finally granted. Brian started his cycling training because it was so warm and he got all skinny. In February a Czech friend, Roman, took us to Barrandov Film Studios and we got to walk around the set of Vin Diesel’s newest movie, “Babylon.” We took a train to Munich, where we met German friends Uli (an old high school classmate) and Willi, celebrated Carnivale, took a sobering trip to Dachau Concentration Camp and ate Pizza Hut for the first time in months. I chaperoned a school trip to the Czech countryside and then an American friend, Andi, and her Dutch husband, Kim, travelled from Holland to chill in Prague for a weekend and we ate at a swanky vegetarian restaurant where we ran into the band “Incubus.” We were starting to feel like celebrity magnets.

SPRING
My Spring started off with a bang, literally, when I ran the Prague half-marathon in March in 2 hours and 4 minutes. The following weekend Brian and I spit-shined our fancy duds and attended school’s Graduation Ball. Fighting off lingering colds, we slipped away to Czech spa town Karlovy Vary and drank lots of healing hot-spring water. We were so happy when Brian’s mom, Candy, and her friend, Mary, arrived in Prague shortly after and we spun them around the city. They took us on a spectacular jaunt to Vienna and the Blue Danube, too. The Drama Club that teacher friend Logan and I run put on the annual school play, a twisted adaptation of “The Tempest” that takes place on a Siberian Gulag. Also, we got new neighbors when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie moved to Prague for a month. We did some hiking in the mountainous Czech countryside, attended an anti-Communism festival, discovered a riverside beach where we subsequently spent many hours, and flew to Italy so Brian could take in the Giro d’Italia cycling race, which was phenomenal.

SUMMER
Brian returned to his rocker roots through performing at his school’s “Battle of the Bands” in a big club. Pres. George W. Bush, Jr. dropped in on Prague, no, not to watch Brian play the guitar, but to defend the United States’ desire to plant a radar base in the Czech Republic. In late June, Erin’s smiley college roomie Gretchen stopped by for a couple of nights and after that we were hit by the horrid news that two of my students and their sister died in a plane crash in Cambodia. It was hard; being so far from home, your colleagues and students tend to feel like family. At the end of June I had to pay what was essentially a bribe to keep my work visa but things brightened up... we got to come home!

The best part of our year by far was July, when we returned to our beloved USA! We flew into Minneapolis and were met by Erin and my mom, Sue, and then headed to Michigan, which was gorgeous and sporty as usual. Brian cycled with his buddies a lot and we celebrated the 4th along Lake Superior. Candy made our favorite goodies/fawned over us and Brian’s dad, Wally, flew all the way from Trinidad to see us and took us around to the Steinhoff relatives. Next was North Dakota. My cousin Olivia was visiting from Seattle and poor Erin was recovering from an appendectomy. William came home for a few days, handsome and happy as ever. We took him to a waterpark playground and he loved sloshing around in the spouts. Mom Sue and Dad Gary took us on picnics and challenged us to Trivial Pursuit before they headed off to Alaska on their own vacation, and I attended my wild 10-year class reunion. Sadly, just as we were leaving Larimore, we got news that Brian’s grandma had passed away. So he returned to Michigan while I caught a ride to Minneapolis with my girlfriend Holly, and Brian rejoined me a couple days later at friends Mark and Rachel’s house, where we stayed all week (thanks, guys!). We had a blast catching up with close friends, and an extra-special gift was girlfriend Veronica’s return from Iraq after being stationed abroad for 22 months. It was really hard to return to Europe after such a special month at home!

The day we arrived back in Prague, we were deeply saddened by the news of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Thank goodness none of our loved ones were involved in the accident, but how awful for those affected by it. We took a cycling trip to Poland in August. My quads hurt just thinking about it. Veronica joined us at the end of the month for a trip to Berlin and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and then hung out in Prague for a week, her visit being a fitting way to conclude an excellent summer.

FALL
Teaching commenced and Brian got wrapped up in Czech sports, attending hockey and football games. We took a hearty hiking trip to the NE Czech Republic with friends, went to a wine festival in Prague and travelled to a little medeival town named Cesky Krumlov for a weekend getaway. The biggest gem of the season, however, was our trip to Cairo, Egypt. Two colleagues and I had an English teaching conference there and Brian came along for fun. We saw the pyramids at Giza, the Nile, the Khan al Khalili markets and more. I got promoted to Head of Performing Arts at my school after that and brought a bunch of students to a 3-day international theatre conference in Prague. Brian spent a lot of time rehearsing with his teacher band again and took up running.

This winter I was in charge putting on my school’s Christmas Concert and it didn’t bomb; yay! Brian has been madly writing references for all of his students planning to study Econ in university. He works a week longer in December than I do, so I’m stealing away to London for a few days. We also planned a trip to Paris for Christmas, since we can’t go home to the USA. C’est cela oui. (Yes, that’s right.) And that’s about it!

Much Love and Bless!
Emily and Brian

GOP me, Iowa

2007-12-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm currenty reveling in the banality of the first of the Republicans' Iowa debates, being re-broadcast here on CNN from Sunday. Even Brian is not impressed. "Predictable," he calls them, though he's tickled that he can watch them right now.

My opinion on fighting terrorism? Fight global poverty. Enough opinions, though. I don't want the blog comments to morph into a battle zone ;)

Here's a little political cartoon that feathered my funny bone.

Chili, Japanese dance and gay Santa

2007-12-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Bri cooked up a massive batch of chili last weekend and we had a little dinner party. It was a symphony of spices and stuff. He claims that it wasn't "Wally-esque" enough (referring to his dad's all-day simmering skills), but I thought it was magnificent. *urp* The friends to the right are a few of his happy consumers.

Last week I orchestrated our school's Christmas Concert, which was one of the duties I acquired when I became a Head. But Petra, the choir teacher, was in charge of the loads of music and Logan helped out with the running of things. I had my Drama students perform a modern Japanese dance we'd been working on, called Butoh. Dancers paint themselves white and express the catharsis of emotion through movement. It looked excellent but I think a lot of the stuffy audience members were slightly confused! :) Here are some pre-concert photos:

We're clawing our way to the holiday break; it can't come soon enough. I get a week more of break than Brian does this December, but I think he gets more time than me in the Spring. Yesterday I booked a trip to London during my days off while Bri will be slaving away ;) I found a plane ticket there for $35. Seriously. And Logan hooked me up to stay for free with one of his buddies, who has come to Prague a couple of times. I've always wanted to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Big Ben, etc...

We bought some cheesy Christmas decorations for our flat and this silver-clad Santa complete with eyeliner is our favourite. We called him "gay Santa" but our Brit friends corrected us and called him "Camp Santa." ("Camp" is the Brit word for an effeminite gay man.)

Eeeeeeeek!

2007-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

While Brian was vaccuming our bedroom for the first time in.... well, I'm embarrassed to say... I decided to clean behind our oven for the first time since we've lived in our flat. (I know, gross, but I didn't even know I could move the dang thing. And I have cleaned inside it.) I figured there would be some dust and a few crumbs back there, but nothing prepared me for the horrors that abounded.

Along with a sticky black muck caked with dirt and goodness-knows-what, there was the equivalent of a package of spilled noodles (which are of a type I've never cooked with), random bits of vegetables, pieces of plastic wrapping and... here's the best part... a Christmas tree ornament labeled "2000." I had to pull hard to free it from its grimy bed.

Copy me on this: I am going to try to keep my home from being disgusting in the New Year.

IGCSE Drama Competition Piece

2007-12-02T02:40:00.000-08:00

Here's the award-winning Drama piece, in 3 parts!

All hail Brian

2007-12-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

This is the new masterpiece that Bri's students have created via Facebook:

Celebriteens and UK peeps

2007-11-30T23:25:00.000-08:00

If we lived nearer to each other, I'd let you ask my IGCSE Drama students for autographs... ;) The kids did outstanding at the ClassInAction International Drama competition Logan and I took them to last weekend; they won "Audience Favorite", "Best Direction" and "Best Actor" (student Jegor Lanovenko). And they finished 2nd behind a school from the UK for "Best Overall". The UK group basically sang some songs from "Hairspray" and fumbled around with some wimpy choreography. My kids were bummed that they got beat by that but who cares? It was tons of fun! They're already making plans to attend next year.

Here are some photos of the kids rehearsing outside a central Prague coffee place the morning of the competition:

As soon as I figure out how to convert MPEG2 files into AVI files, I'll post the video of the kids' performance on this blog.

On top of the conference chaos, 5 of Logan's dearest friends visited him and Martina from the UK. Very cool peeps. Here are a few other random shots from the weekend (most of which I stole from other people):

Brits eating a British breakfast, with baked beans galore

We teacher people are all smiles about the kids' success

The students enjoy a nighttime boat ride on the River Vltava with other conference participants. (And they thought it was going to be "lame")

Logan and his friend Natalie say, "Peace in the Middle East!"

Jeremy stopped by one of our drama group dinners to look surprised for the camera

Garnett tugged my heartstrings

2007-11-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

I've always had a slight crush on Kevin Garnett, baller extraordinaire. And my former part-time job as a Timberwolves waitress allowed me to scoop up all his glory on a weekly basis during the NBA season... while making tips! How cool is that? (Nevermind the blah customers like Witchy McBitch who screamed at me when she knocked over my tray of drinks onto her Kate Spade purse.)

So it came as a little shock and tug on the heartstrings when I recently noticed on some obscure European sports channel that Garnett is now a Celtic. Ack! And he was traded like months ago! I am soooo out of the loop on some things.

Anyhoo, Garnett is the most loyal NBA player ever; he stayed with the T-wolves for 12 seasons while blocking trades that almost took place. I hope he's happy in Boston now...

Turkey time!

2007-11-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

It was a busy bee weekend, whatwith my students' Drama conference/competition and a whole gaggle (ok, 5) of Logan's friends visiting from the UK. Nevertheless, there's always time for turkey and thankfully fellow American Leah and her like-minded fork-chewing British boyfriend David provided the roasted bird this year.

Brian got to stay for the whole celebration but I had to shuttle myself between students and Drama workshops, so I only got an hour to inhale cranberries (which aren't available here; Leah smuggled them in) and stuffing. But it was delish and lots of fun. Here are photos of the little international gathering...

"Think there's football on one of these channels???"

After the turkey ran out, we ate this little guy.

Chat chat chat, we feel fat fat fat

Lots o' dishes to do...

Oddities thru the Fuji Finepix

2007-11-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

Here are a few strange things I captured with the camera...

Weird window display; those kiddie mannequins look like extraterrestrial gremlins.

This has-been storefront says, "Hubbub and Sons: An impulsive customer is our best customer."

On the entrance to the metro (subway): no rollerblades, no food, no smoking and no... uh... gasoline?

USA Cars. Tacky storefront in a historical area. The place even sells custome-made Hummer IIs.

More Czech living quirks

2007-11-15T12:02:00.000-08:00

You can't find hairspray with a pump top; only aerosole cans exist here.
Conversely, you can't find a can of spray starch. It's only available in powder.
Banana is "banan" in Czech and cake is "dort." But to order a piece of banana cake it's "bananovy kolac."
Old men drink beer at little outdoor stands at 7 a.m.
Some of them you see at the same stand at 4 p.m., only louder.
There are loads and loads of flower shops everywhere.
Electronics cost significantly more than in the UK or the US.
The Four Non Blonde's "What's Up" is played a lot on the Czech version of MTV, called OCKO.
As far as guitars are concerned, no "made in the USA" labels. Mostly generic.
Most teens take evening dance classes while in gymnazium (high school); it's tradition.

Made me smile...

2007-11-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Just when my teacher self feels like imploding, they go and do something like this :)

BULLSHIT

2007-11-11T01:23:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, a group called the Young National Democrats appealed to the city of Prague to hold a march in the Jewish Quarter of the city on Saturday, Nov. 10, to protest Czech participation in the occupation of Iraq and the "totalitarian practices applied by the Prague City Hall and against the suppression of the freedom of speech and assembly."

Free speech=Human right. 'Nuf said.

But........ the Young National Democrat party is a group of Neo-Nazis and Nov. 10 just happened to be the 69th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a horrific night in 1938 when Nazis came together and viciously attacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues throughout Europe. The event was named Kristallnacht (Night of Crystal) because streets were so covered in broken glass. Jews were beaten to death, over a thousand religious buildings were ransacked or set on fire and 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps. This night heralded in what was to be the next 6 years of the insanity and bloodshed of WWII, and the extermination of 6 million Jews.

The city of Prague approved and then banned the march in the Jewish Quarter for fear of violence but said the vitrolic, hateful, toxic (OK, those were my words) group could assemble elsewhere. Neo-nazis claimed this was a violation of their right to freedom of speech and assembly, and retaliatated. Extremists from across the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Slovakia were expected to show up to push the march ahead. Prague's city government sent 1,400 riot police to seal off the Jewish Quarter yesterday; I took this photo of a line of them standing on a street. Likewise, hundreds of people opposing the Fascist scum were expected to show up to block the march..We stayed away from the center of Prague throughout all of this, with the exception of briefly walking past this one outer corner of the sealed-off area. What ended up happening? You may have read about it already, but here are a couple of articles:

1) This is from the Canadian Press, which had one of the most recently-published articles: http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hFv7c-28GaNC_44GuVZGhui72OfQ

2) Here is one from Agence France-Presse about the people to who took to the streets (including concentration camp survivors) to block the Neo-Nazis: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJMWn8gLRyfChyHQ62NKLrzQ233Q

3) And here is an article from the Associated Press, which I like for its usually balanced take on things: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRCUGE_7lMeWvf7FdY9eqFKSLkNQD8SR3VJG0

Yes, even Neo-Nazis have rights. But isn't ironic?

--This photo is from Euronews.com

Come Sail Away

2007-11-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

I went to check out a student (guy in the orange jacket) compete in a sailing competition this past weekend. It was so relaxing to watch the sailboats meandering across the Vltava River. Leah joined me and we just sat on the banks and chit-chatted while the colorful triangles breezed past us. My student ended up getting second.

Six Degrees of Separation

2007-11-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

Our neighbor friend Ian took this cover photo of supermodel Petra Nemcova and others pics for the October issue of "Joy" magazine, which is like a "Cosmopolitan" in the U.S. He says she was nice but a bit vacant. I say the end product looks really great.

I also had to share this fun picture of my BFF, Holly, on Halloween. She happened to rub shoulders with celeb Josh Duhamel in Minneapolis, and look at that grip he has on her arm! Wouldn't they have cute kids?! Though I bet he practices that smouldery-eye smile the mirror a lot...

Laissez les bons temps rouler

2007-11-05T02:38:00.000-08:00

Translation from French: "Let the good times roll!"

Bri and I decided to give each other a trip to Paris for Christmas; we found cheapie tickets and a half-off hotel room over the holiday, so we're heading there on Dec. 23 for a couple of nights.

Some fun facts about the "city of lights":

- Parisians spend 15 percent of their annual income on wine

- There are 2.5 million rivets in the Eiffel Tower

- Public toilets are free in Paris (unlike many other European cities) and clean themselves after every use

- Although Paris is big enough to house over 2 million people, you can walk across the city in 2 hrs

- The marshmallow made its debut in Paris

Halloweenies!

2007-11-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

My colleague Lisa covered lots of bases this weekend; she threw a birthday/housewarming/Halloween party. I dressed up as the Green Fairy (of Absinthe notoriety) and poured thimble-sized shots for partygoers because, frankly, I think the stuff is vile and too much makes you sick. It's 70% alcohol. Blech! Brian didn't want to dress up because we had planned to go out afterwords, so he just told everyone he was Bon Jovi. Oh- I made these cookies for the party, too, thanks to a kit my mom sent. It was fun but I think her second-graders could rival me in creativity... :)

Getting all medieval in Bohemia

2007-10-28T00:25:00.000-07:00

This chair might not be too relaxing...

...but we sure were, chilling out for a couple days this week in a little south Bohemian town called Cesky Krumlov.

The area is an UNESCO site and it's adorable, save for the gimmicky torture museum that we stupidly shelled out money to see, hence the spikey chair photo. The town was founded in the late 13th century in a bend in the Vltava River, was occupied by Austrians and Nazi Germans at different times, and then fell into disrepair during Communism. But it's been restored and we liked visiting it.

It poured the whole time we were there, so what we saw of the town was quite grey. I'd like to go back when the sky isn't so droopy and my feet aren't soaked/cold. This is a view of the Krumlov Castle wrapping around a curve in the river. It has a Baroque theatre built in 1766 with all of its original stage machinery/props/etc.! Because it's so old, it's only used 3 times a yr. It also has a moat with 2 bears living in it.

This stacked archway bridge connects some of the castle's 40 buildings. People walked across in the covered areas and there's even a level for riding horses across.

Here's me on the steps to St. Vitus Church, which dates back to the 1400s and is supposedly haunted. It's inner crypt, where noblemen/women are buried, has been tampered with many times throughout the centuries and its cemetery was dug and moved due to overcrowding during the Bubonic Plague in 1585.

We also saw the Egon Schiele Art Centrum, which houses the collection of Schiele, a famous Austrian artist whose mom was from Cesky Krumlov. He also lived in CK for about a year with his lover, until the townspeople chased him out for painting scandalous nudes. Here's one of his paintings, which I stole off the internet:

Bri bought me these cool paint-your-own postcards at the Schiele center and we spent a rainy afternoon in a pub doodling on them.

The food in this little town was hearty and cheap. We ate in a little Bohemian restaurant that served food like people ate in medieval times. I had some cheese-and-millet (grain) cake thing and cabbage soup and Bri had lots of smoked meat. We also hung out at a bar that looked like a torture museum itself- very dungeon-y.

Here's part of the town square and then our hostel, which put us in a hollow mouth of a room with creaky floors and imposing old furniture, including an enormous, decaying chandelier over our 4-post bed. Good stuff.

They grow up so fast

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Every Mon.-Fri. I start my day with these goofy 14-15 yr old mugs. They are my "tutor group". In Euro education, that means something similar to homeroom. I have to register them every morning, read the announcements, dole out merits/detentions, etc., plus I teach them 40 mins. of what is essentially health education every Wednesday afternoon. They're a bushel of peaches most of the time; I really love them to bits. Though I'll never tell them that ;)

I also just petitioned for, and was given, the title of Head of Performing Arts at ECP. Logan is in my dept., and he's been super cool about my application for the position. The school music teacher, Petra, is with us, too. I was already doing a lot of head stuff; this just kind of makes it official.

More views of Cairo through the camera lens

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Here are a few more fo-toes...

Jeremy and Steve experiencing sensory overload at the Khan al Khalili markets

Gobs of shisha pipes and smoking tobacco scattered everywhere at the markets

Brian eating street vendor food at Khan al Khalili; he must have a stomach of steel to not get sick from that

Arabic Fanta and Coca-Cola

I look like the giant caterpillar on the mushroom in "Alice in Wonderland"

Jeremy makes friends with one of the thousands of homeless cats in the city. He likes mangy animals

Typical Arabic tea, with mint in it. People drink this stuff day and night and in between

Egyptian policemen. They are everywhere in the city, esp. traffic cops, which doesn't make any sense because no one follows any traffic rules whatsoever. Mostly you see a few of them standing around together. And many have guns

An Egyptian license plate. No idea what it says. Although Jeremy, who has studied Arabic, could actually read some signs and stuff

Egyptian housing along the highway. I thought it was sub-standard; Jeremy said it wasn't

A big ass! Ha!

These horses are getting a bath in a branch of the Nile. Nevermind the garbage and waste floating around in the water...

An Egyptian Vodaphone (cell phone) store. Vodaphone is the service Bri and I use in Prague

Look! No hands!

My humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps (it's a Fergie song, mom and dad)

Brian and his guide set off toward the Pyramid of Chephren. Notice that it's been stripped of its casing up to the top; it used to be completely covered with polished white limestone that made it gleam like a diamond in the sun, but subsequent rulers took off the outer shell to line mosques in the city

The Cairenese panorama from Giza Plateau. You can see the back of the Sphinx's head to the left. There is also the excavation of the "city" that serviced the pyramid builders in this picture

Here's the face of the Sphinx, in front of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the largest pyramid. The Sphinx is suffering from the equivalent of stone cancer; it is decaying away into the desert sands

i like camels

The Nile running through central Cairo. Lots of fancy yachts and things

Upscale housing in central Cairo. Only for the posh