Veselé Vánoce! Merry Christmas!

In recent years, I've been less and less inclined to "do" Chistmas. Case in point, after my flatmate Dan left for a party early yesterday afternoon (after a few unsuccessful attempts at playing Christmas music to us on his computer), flatmate Grant, Rebecca and I prepared both dinner and cookies to the delightful melodies of Metallica's "Death Magnetic" and "Kill 'Em All". Some people carol. We were more in a headbanging sort of mood. But, as neither Grinch, nor Scrooge, nor shredding guitar solos can prevent the holidays from coming, I decided to blog about what Christmas means in this country.

The holiday season is heralded in on the 5th of December, when Mikuláš (the Bohemian St. Nick) comes to town to ask the children whether they've been good or bad little boys and girls. Unlike in the 'States, where a toddler gets propped up on Santa's knee, may or may not burst into a spontaneous screaming fit, and the "elves" secretly place bets on which child will pee on Santa's red snowpants, the stakes are slightly higher here. Mikuláš comes to town not with the "little helpers" we're familiar with, but with an angel and a devil. Mikuláš (so I've heard from a few students/parents) actually appears to cross-reference children's responses in a large book he carries around. If the child has indeed been good they'll get some sweets from the angel. If not, the devil, who is armed either with a sack or a chain will give the kid a good fright by mimicking a holiday hostage situation.

Christmas proper is typically celebrated on the 24th. The Czechs fast for the day, between dawn and dusk (which really isn't all that bad, considering the general lack of sunlight hours). The mother gets all the fun of cleaning the house, decorating, and preparing the meal (I'm not making this up.. discussing the Christmas traditions was actually the topic of my last Czech lesson of the year). Dad's job is essentially the secret placement of the gifts under the tree. When the time is right, he rings a bell somewhere in the house, which signals to everyone that Ježíšek (literally, "the Little Jesus") has come to their home and left presents. The children are then allowed to run screaming into the room and tear into their gifts. This part sounds refreshingly familiar.

What do they eat, you might ask? Well, I'm glad you brought it up, because for the last week leading up to Christmas, one main ingredient is unavoidable: the Christmas Carp ("kapr"). According to one of my students, this tradition was started either in the 15th or 16th century, when the Church controlled the fishponds. But in this day and age, you can find carpmongers on every other corner in the city:




While they are more than happy to sell you a piece of Carp, part of the appeal is buying an entire fish. Alive. So what does one do with a 26-inch live Carp a week before it meets its fishy maker and gets breaded and fried? Why, it lives in your tub of course! I'm not sure what this means for the general hygiene of the family (I didn't ask) but everyone does tend to agree on two points here: 1] carp is not the tastiest fish in the world to eat, but 2] the kids love the temporary bathtub pet. So this tradition is usually reserved for those with small children. One of my students admits that he dislikes carp so much that they set the fish free and eat pork instead. This culinary emancipation reminded me of my aunt buying a live turkey to set it free for Thanksgiving.

So there you are, Czech Christmas in a nutshell. However you celebrate, I hope you all have a good day. Veselé Vánoce!

Wooden Elevators, or How I Gave Homework to the Director of ČSSZ

Because my classes are so frequently canceled as the Christmas holiday rapidly approaches, I took a pair of [90 min] substitute classes this previous Tuesday. Both were at the headquarters of ČSSZ, the Czech Social Security Administration, a somewhat erratic collection of 5 buildings (and I gave Pavlina, my guide, due credit for describing the company layout as a "labyrinth" in her quite passable English).

My first class was with an elementary student in a not-so-elementary position: a Mr. Joník, who, if my information serves me correctly, is the Director of the Department of Law Enforcement regarding insurance claims ("..odbor vymáhání a právního zajištění pohledávek"), and a graduate of the Charles University Dept of Law. We had a very pleasant lesson over coffee (which his secretary brought me from the adjacent room), and as we began the final exercise Pavlina arrived to collect me. I handed him the photocopy I had made from the workbook and suggested one last exercise so he could practice. "Homework?" he asked me. "Domácí úkol," I smiled back.

My second class was far less interesting, although there were 6 students and the average proficiency was slightly higher. It passed more or less as I had planned, from a brief introduction of the grammar point to the chatty interaction at the close. Pavlina, again waiting for me outside the door at the close of the lesson, remarked that it was nice to see them cooperating.

She led me back towards the main entrance (inserting the labyrinthine comment here), and we passed a set of very bizarre wooden elevators. I had heard rumors of these in the teacher's room at the school, but until this point hadn't ever seen them. Picture this: adjacent doorless openings in the wall wherein the elevator boxes (yes, constructed out of wood) are in constant motion. You simply step into them, and out of them. I told Pavlina that in the US you'd never find something like this: it's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Sensing my intrigue, she took me for a ride on them (after all, why take one flight of stairs downward when you can ride this claustrophobic wooden deathtrap?). Just trying to get on was a thrill.. making the mistake of stepping onto it while the box was flush with the floor, I ended up less-than-gracefully dumping my bookbag-laden body inside. "Imagine in the morning when millions of people are all trying to get in," she said. I did, and 'deathtrap' came to mind again.

Good thing all of them probably have really good social security.

In other news..

This Wednesday I start getting private German lessons, one hour a week. I am exchanging Beginner German for Advanced English with Tereza, my Czech teacher, so it all works out. I am excited to begin.

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In slightly related news, we (the usual four of us) are putting together plans for a weekend expedition to Nürnberg (the home of painter/printmaker Albrecht Dürer) some time in either late January or early February.

Nový Hrad

OK, so I procrastinated a bit before posting this one. So we're going back in time to the weekend before the last.

Saturday was apparently "game night" at my flat.. Chase, Shannon, and Rebecca joined my flatmates Dan and Grant in a board game of epic length: Axis and Allies. Now, I'll play a game like Chess or Poker or something of that length. But this game started around 6ish(?) and ended -- I think, I was actually sleeping -- around 3:15am on Sunday. Not having anywhere near the requisite amount of patience for that amount of socialization, I opted instead to cook dinner for them (my now internationally famous stuffed bell peppers), and sit on the couch embroidering for a few hours. Pictures were taken, although maybe Rebecca will post them on her blog.. since it's about time she updated too.

Naturally, on Sunday everyone was quite dead so my original plan to hike to Nový Hrad was moved to Monday. Fortunately for all involved, Monday was a bank holiday: "Freedom and Democracy Day". Read about the history of that here.

Nový Hrad is the site of a castle ruin in southern area of Prague. It's easily accessible from the metro stop Roztyly via a pleasant walk through a park. All that remains are some portions of walls. Rather than protruding up over the ground, the only chunks left are what may have been the cellars because they're sunk into the ground. That's my guess anyway.

I made a quick-and-dirty sketch of the wall layout. It looked something like this:


The letters are the positions of people in the pictures. I should maybe have included the direction of the shot, but I wasn't all that motivated while creating the graphic, so sue me. If you come visit, I will show you in person.

Picture A: Rebecca and Chase looking down into the large room.
Picture B: Chase walking along one of the sides of the large room. Note the regular holes in the wall where wooden beams would be fitted. UPDATE: Oops, "B" should actually be indicated on the plan on the opposite side of the wall. Not gonna fix it though.
Picture C: Shannon holds a portion of the wall up with only one hand!
Picture D: Another beam-hole. Ooh, exciting! My guess is there was a door here.
Picture E: At the top right of this post. It's me.

First day of snow - sort of - in Prague

It was more like crunchy rain. There was sleet, rain, more sleet, a little bit of snow mixed in, and rain.

Reminded me of Ithaca actually.

This weekend I will catch up on updates for the blog. Promise

Too. Many. Consonants.

OK there are some small obstacles when attempting to learn Czech. One of the more obvious is the letter Ř, the voiced partially-fricative raised alveolar trill. Yea, it's easier to say "voiced partially-fricative raised alveolar trill" than it is for an Anglophone to make the sound.

Today, however, we were continuing our lessons on time phrases and learnt the days of the week. All very good. Up until Thursday. Čtvrtek. Yes, you read that correctly: five consonants in a row, and nearly unpronounceable at best. To make it worse, if you want to refer to something that happens on Thursday, you say v Čtvrtek. UPDATE: According to my own notes, "on Thursday" blissfully becomes ve Čtvrtek, so not so bad after all.

Practicing pronunciation in class is amusing on the easiest of days. This time the cacophony was so intense that Manola, an English teacher from Sicily, exploded into laughter and had to leave the classroom to shut herself in the women's restroom to get it out of her system. The noise can only be compared to the death rattle of a Tourrette-syndrome sufferer with a lisp.

Of course I imagine all the people I walk past on the street think I have Tourette's as I walk along muttering to myself Thursday, Thursday, Trhusday, Thsrday, *&#!, Thursday..." etc.

No offense meant to anyone with TS. I've had a coworker with TS, and it didn't look like the bucket o' hilarity that South Park would have us believe. All the same, it really was the best description of the noise we were making.

Stuff

Today, while I was in Čestlice (a town just outside the southeasternish part Prague) I saw something new - a pheasant in flight. I've only ever seen pheasants either in aviaries or as roadkill, so it was nice to see one alive and enjoying life. Which reminded me of another first sighting. Waay back when I was living in my school-provided flat in Smichov, I saw a hedgehog scurrying about. But, I have pictures of neither. O well.

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In other news, my Czech lessons are going well; I can confidently say nemluvím česky moc dobře ale studuju (I don't speak Czech very well but I am studying). I've also learned all the essentials required for explaining my presence to the receptionists or security guards at my clients' places of businesses - the latter of which almost never speak English. However, by this point most of them recognise me and remember that I'm supposed to be there once or twice a week.

Although Czech is a very interesting language, and a bit of a novelty to someone who's only studied Latin and Romance languages, it's not particularly useful in the grand scheme of things; it's only spoken here in the Czech Republic. I fully intend to continue my lessons, particulary since the school provides them free of charge as long as I'm employed. However I was also considering taking up German, as it (like English, Spanish and French) is a much more international language. Also I've run across many publications that I'm interested in reading - connected either to my interest in medieval combat treatises ("Fechtbücher") or medieval embroideries - that are only in German. So, whereas at the present moment it is literally impossible to save money, I'm hoping that as soon as that obstacle is overcome, I'd like to put aside some money for private German lessons.

Two Hours in Berlin

Yesterday I had to wake up at the completely unholy hour of 3 in preparation for the 10-hour round trip between Prague and Berlin. I, along with 4 other Caledonian School employees, had to make this hellish commute in order to visit the Czech Embassy on Wilhelmstraße as part of the work permit/visa application.

Since we didn't need to wait inside the whole time they were checking our documents, we took a rather rapid stroll around the city. Only now have I gotten the chance to do a bit of research and find out more info on what it is we actually saw.

First we ran across the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), designed by Peter Eisenman (architect) and Buro Happold (engineer). Allegedly, the concrete slabs ("stelae"), which are spaced out geometrically but vary in height - both actual hight and percieved hight due to the uneven plane upon which the memorial is constructed - are "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason" wiki.

Moving past that, we walked beneath the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor), and walked a few blocks to see the remains of the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie. And then we went back to the embassy. Yup, that pretty much sums up the speed at which we saw those sights.

It was, however, the cheapest city tour I've ever taken (not counting the visa application); I spent a grand total of €2.50, and that was on a Döner kebab to keep me nourished on the 5-hour return trip.

Image borrowed from Wikimedia commons

Český ráj, and a visit to Hrad Kost

At 10:00 I met Rebecca, Chase and Shannon at the end of Line B metro, Černy most. From there we caught a bus that took us outside Prague to the city of Mladá Boleslav, where we transferred to a train that would take us farther into the countryside in a vaguely northeastern direction towards the region known as Český ráj. Since the “Bohemian Paradise” is quite a large area, I chose an interesting castle as a focal point for our hike: Kost.

Thus we hopped off the train in the village of Libošovice. Now, when I say “train” I mean this quite loosely. I thought that the trains that took Natasha and I through the mountains in Switzerland were tiny—three cars long, in order to make all those switchback turns—but this particular train that took the four of us through the decidedly flat crop fields of Bohemia was… one car long. One! And on a related note, none of us saw any other sets of tracks, leading me to believe that that one train car is THE train car, going back and forth on its one track.

Once in Libošovice, we sat down to start eating through all the food I had stuffed into my bookbag—two loaves a bread, some cheese, some salami, and a pair of Valencia oranges. (Due to a gap in communication, Rebecca, too, brought some bread and fruit to share. My theory was that we might all get horribly lost, but at least we wouldn’t immediately starve to death.) After lunch, we easily found the 2.5 km trail towards Kost. Along the way we found apple trees, which had delicious fruit. And then we found something even more exciting to eat from: walnut trees! All the available walnuts, however, were too far up to reach. So, we encouraged Chase to climb into the tree, and shake it. Voilà! Walnuts! Shannon volunteered for the next tree-shaking operation.

Before we knew it, we were at the castle. Construction began in the 14th century. It’s situated on a chunk of rock—naturally, to make it more defensible—although this doesn’t make it any more visible from the surrounding areas. In fact, it’s so well hidden that an army can march quite close to it and not realise that it’s there.

Part of the wall is decorated in a style that was popular at some point in the late middle ages (unfortunately I’ve forgotten specifically, I’ll do some research and get back to you all on this), in which the surface is “shaded” to make the stonework appear three-dimensional. In other areas you can see the dimples in the individual stones that aided in the walls’ construction.

During the tour we learned (after the tour guide realised that we were only pretending to understand what she was saying, she gave us the abbreviated version in broken English) about the origin of the coat of arms associated with the castle (or, more appropriately, the Kinský family). Once upon a time there was a lady riding through the forest alone. She was attacked by three wolves, and saved by some gentleman or other. At least that’s all of the story that I understood and/or remember. But, because of this, the coat of arms is a red field charged with three wolf teeth. We saw an 18th(?) century painting depicting the lady on horseback trying to fend off three wolves with her riding stick, which is what prompted our question about the story behind it and eventually led to the explanation of the heraldry. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside the rooms, so you will have to visit the castle yourself to see it. While your there, note also the portrait of a woman that’s got a bullet-hole through the canvas. Another interesting story here: the lady was so talkative that, to prove a point, her husband executed her in effigy. As the story goes, she never spoke again.

There was also a small collection of arms and armour, although there were a few replicas interspersed with the genuine articles, which I wasn’t all that pleased about. At least they could’ve been obviously marked “replica” or “copy” because even though I may know that they’re not the real thing, other people may not. And this, in my opinion, is misleading and goes against everything I believe about history and archaeology.

Outside of the castle, we sat down to eat once again, near a patch of grass that had mushrooms growing in them, a variety that I know my mother will recognise instantly. That brought back nice memories.

We then hiked our way back to Libošovice by a different route. While waiting for the train to arrive we did a little exploring through the village, visiting the church and admiring the cottages and the chickens and just generally enjoying being in a quaint little town in the middle of Autumn.

There are plans in the making for a return trip before too long, to visit some more castles and explore another small chunk of Paradise.

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Bonus Image! Chase considers how best to lay siege to the castle:

In which I make a list

...of the things I've done but not yet talked about. This happens a lot.

- Museum of Decorative Arts (this goes waay back to my first month)
- Vyšehrad, the "other" castle in Prague
- na Babě, a tiny, ruined and now highly graffitied piece of 17th century fortification not far from my flat in Dejvice.

Um, that's about it really. Plans are being formed as I type to travel to Český Raj (literally, "Bohemian Paradise") this weekend. If all goes as planned, that should make for quite an exciting trip. There are castles! And there will be pictures.

Until then, here's a picture of me in what's left of na Babě:

Photo cred goes to Rebecca

I must be doing something right..

Today was the first day I picked up a class as a last-minute substitute teacher. By last minute, I mean from the time I got the SMS on my mobile (when, by the way, I was teaching just outside the city boundaries of Prague) to the start of the class, I had about 5 hours. I usually like to do my planning a day in advance..

By the time I got back to the main school to pick up the requisite paperwork (what am I supposed to be teaching?!), ate some lunch (breakfast was at 5:30), that time was whittled down to about 2 hours. Fortunately this was only the second time this class was meeting, so I didn't have to worry too much about teaching something that had already been covered. I recycled a lesson plan I had used before for another class, and after about 20 minutes of preparation (consisting mainly of finding some books in the library and making photocopies), Voilà! 90 minutes worth of class.

When meeting new classes for the first time, it's always difficult to gauge how much to plan on.. typically safer to err on overplanning, but one never knows.. this could be the most advanced "pre-intermediate" classes in the world. Did I plan enough? Will they burn through it in the first hour? Can I come up with anything on the fly to [productively] fill time? The teaching gods smiled on me, and it went swimmingly right up to the 90 min. mark, and even a few minutes over. So I was relieved just for that. On top of it, some of the students asked me if I was taking over for the other teacher permanently. I reiterated that, no, I was only here for today. A few actually said to me that this was a shame, because they quite enjoyed the class. Which made me feel even better, and made up for all the stress leading up to it.

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago, when, at my first lesson for another class (taking over from the previous year's teacher), the student (only one of the two showed up that day - the other was on a business trip) was concerned that Thursdays were not good for his work schedule, and he wanted to change to Wednesday. I told him that he should talk to the course managers, and that if it was changed he would end up with a new teacher since I wasn't available then. He decided to do the "one class" with me that day, since I was there. At the end of the class, we shook hands, and told him I wished him luck with the new teacher. In response, he said "No, we'll keep it on Thursdays.. you're much more prepared than our last teacher.. it's good." I asked him if he thought his colleague would agree. He replied, laughing, "Yea, I tell him it's Thursdays. Or else I punch him!"

So, in spite of the daily pre-teaching anxiety, it usually turns out alright.. or in some cases, more than alright. I'm also planning to start making my own grammar cheat-sheets (for review and such) since a lot of times in the coursebooks there's so much going on on each page that they're really hard to focus on for too long. Even as a teacher. Clean and simple is good.

007 for a day

So I was in this office complex this morning, meeting a pair of new clientelle for the Caledonian School. Since I was early, I took my sweet time walking around the foyer and (after swiping an ID card given to me by the receptionist) walking up the stairs to enjoy the view out the all-glass façade of the multistory building.

Waaaiiit a minute... these stairs... and this façade... a bit familiar, no? Have I seen this building before?

Indeed I have! After a bit of digging on the internet (most helpfully, this site), my suspicions were confirmed. This was the very location - the "Danube House", Karolinská 650/1 - in which the opening scenes of Casino Royale take place. I climbed the very same stairs that James Bond himself presumably climbed before confronting and assassinating Dryden.

So there you have it. Twice a week I get to feel like James Bond. Hopefully my students will continue to make steady improvements; otherwise I might have to "encourage" them with a silenced Walther P99. :-)

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UPDATE (23 Sept): I should point out that the Danube house wasn't the only filming location used in Casino Royale; another scene takes place in the interior of the Národní muzeum, which I've already visited, and the Strahov Monastery, which I haven't yet visited (but hopefully will before long). The Danube House location is however the only location that was actually supposed to be in Prague (and not representing, for example, a posh Venetian hotel or a British governmental building).

A different sort of museum

For an interesting change in scenery, I went to Prague's Museum of Sex Machines last weekend. It's tucked in a nook not a stone's throw from the astronomical clock at Staroměstské náměstí. This nook is not at all inconspicuous; both the interior and the banners flying outside are the brightest, most painful shade of red you'll ever see. Much like the background color of the picture to the right.

Which, by the way, might resemble an antique egg-beater, but is not. Well.. no, I'll just avoid the obvious joke here (my parents read this blog). It is a hand-powered vibrator, complete with interchangable heads (not pictured). Also featured were various pieces of hand-held mechanical marvels, furniture - including a sex swing allegedy dated ca. 1500 - and insertables of every shape, size, and material. Some of these were almost patently Bad Ideas (not-so-smoothly hewn wood? c'mon that's not cool), others were quite artistic (Czech crystal). Speaking of patents, there were facsimiles of patented sex aids/toys/whatevers scattered on the walls of the most bizzare contraptions ever.

Not everything was as titilating as one might expect; some of the items were rather blasé.. a collection of neo-Victorian corsets? Well.. sure, but that's not entirely interesting. Not as interesting as actual Victorian pieces, at least from a historical perspective, but ok.. they had a lot of wall space to fill.

The most unique item was a reel of an old silent - but with innocuous piano accompaniment - pornographic film from Spain, depicting (according to the experts in this field.. whomever they are!) the first filmed ménage à trois.

Note: Image above pulled from the museum's website. Clicking on it will bring you to said website. If you're at work, probably not a good idea to click on the link. Just sayin'.

Fred & Ginger

Now, as this is supposed to be a travel blog, and I didn't really expect to talk much about the TEFLing side of life.. other than that's the reason for my "traveling" here, so you may notice that I'll talk less and less about my job as things progress. Who wants to hear about work anyway?

That having been said, my first class was this morning (woke up at a painful 5:30am), and, aside from the new-job "am I prepared enough?" nervousness, it wasn't all that extraordinary. EXCEPT for the fact that I met my client in a very unique building: the Dancing House.

Also known as "Fred and Ginger" (after Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers), the Dancing House (Tančící dům), which sits next to the Vltava river, was built in the 90s to replace a building that had been shot to hell in 1945. Aside from a French restaurant on the top floor (La Perle de Prague), there are several multinational firms located throughout it - which explains why I ended up with a client there.

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UPDATE (09 Sept): Well, my client in this building decided to cancel her classes. Apparently that happens a lot. I'll have a new class by tomorrow. Still, I can say that I've worked in that building :-)

So.. many.. books..!

I just recieved my schedule, which ranges from schoolchildren up to upper-intermediate business English classes. I recieved a Caledonian School library card, and recieved copies of all the coursebooks I'll be using with my classes. Because I was given such a wide range... I ended up with about 2 bookbags worth of student copies and teacher copies and CDs and cassette tapes. One of my flatmates only ended up with a 3-inch stack of books. Me, I get a forklift full. Thanks. No pressure.

More on my clientelle after I read through my schedule.

A passing grade and a new place to live!

I passed! (hey..! bet you couldn't have figured that one out from the post title!)

And, as of today, I am completely moved into my new flat in Dejvice (portion of Prague just a wee north of the castle area I actually have a partial view of St Vitus Cathedral from my 8th story balcony!).

Tomorrow there's a meeting at the school, I imagine it's about work visas and schedules and things of that nature. Anyhow, I'm officially in Prague for a year now.

75 minutes!!

75 minutes I waited in line for my 3-month metro pass. Thank GOD I only have to do that 4 times a year.

Národní muzeum

I went to the National Museum yesterday afternoon. That was an experience and a half..! The building is from the late 19th century, built - I believe - speficially for the collections. It's amazing, both inside and out (as you can see from the pictures), although in all honestly the architecture and decoration ended up being far more interesting to me than the actual collections.

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely a 'museum person', and will tend to visit a museum just for the sheer cultural experience even if I'm not completely interested in the theme(s) of the collections. However, before I went, someone at the school had described it as "a building with an endless collection of rocks". Indeed, the Minerology Dept does take up an entire wing of this quite large building. And I did, as he predicted, end up walking through an interminable series of large rooms inhabited by glass cabinet after glass cabinet of what must've been every mineral ever discovered - with [sometimes multiple] examples of every possible variant in crystalline structure. That, my friends, is a lot of rocks!

There's also the Paleontological Dept, which gave me a twinge of nostalgia for the Museum of the Earth - and Sarah - back in Ithaca. And of course we all know that the best Mastodon skeleton in the world is in Ithaca! Between the two, the Národní muzeum's collection of fossils dwarfs the MotE's, but the MotE is definitely geared better for leaving with a sense of "I learned something here" (and yes, the info cards here were Czech/English, so that's not a factor).

I breezed through the Anthropological and Zoological Depts and outright skipped some other departments (after nearly two hours of rocks and bones I was quite ready for a rest), but on my way out wandered through the temporary exhibition called "...A přijely tanky" ("..and the tanks arrived") which was, in part, a photogallery of the 1968 Warsaw-Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. There was also a tank parked in front of the museum as well. Information in English was hard to come by here, because there were a lot of newspaper clippings and postcards/letters on display.. and that would've been a monumental job to translate. But still, the emotional turmoil didn't really need words.

After leaving the museum, I went home and took a nap.



Images stolen from the Wikipedia entry: National Museum (Prague).

::sigh of relief::

I am done! I've completed the TEFL course; perfect attendance, teacher's portfolio organised and handed in. Finally I can work on that whole sleep-deprivation thing. I think my caffeine-to-food intake ratio has been drastically imbalanced these past two weeks. But no longer! Time to relax and get to know Prague a little better while I wait for my results.. which will be released this coming Wednesday.

Assuming a Pass 1 or Pass 2 (I'm thinking I'm solidly in the Pass 2 range), we automatically get Caledonian School contracts. There is also an admin at the school who handles our work visas and residency permits. Getting the visa may very well require leaving the country briefly.. Dresden, Germany was the School's suggestion because it's so very close to Prague. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting Dresden, particularly to visit the Rüstkammer (collection of arms and armour - one of the 4 greatest in Europe).

That is it for now. Naturally, I'm exhausted. I will update - probably on Sunday - with stories of last weekend's visits to the St Agnes of Bohemia Convent and the Museum of Decorative Arts, and anything else I do this weekend of note. There is a segment on the St Agnes visit on my research blog (Taschen) if you'd like a preview of that.

Armed with some Czech!

I've visited a few museums so far (I'll write about them soon, promise), but I just wanted to get this down:

Can I use my camera here?
Můžu tady fotit?
…without flash?
…bez blesku?

Is there more info available in English?
Máte více informací v Angličtinĕ?

I’m interested in medieval art.
Zajímá mĕ středovĕké umĕní.

I’m interested in medieval objects/artifacts.
Zajímají mĕ středovĕké předmĕty.

Translations, thanks to one of my teacher-trainers, are not necessarily literal. But they should get me pointed in the right direction. Once I've got the pronunciation down..!

Culture shock..? What culture shock?

OK, before my flight from NYC-Dublin-Prague I was a bit apprehensive about arriving in the Czech Republic. Not a lot, but whatever amount comes with the "embarking into the unknown" (a big part of this was the one-way ticket issue). It's not a lot, but it's comparable to performing on stage.. you get significantly nervous but not enough to just up and run (which is, at the end of the day, part of the overall thrill). Also, I didn't know what percentage of the locals [who I'd need to interact with on a day-to-day basis] would speak/understand basic English: How difficult would it be to buy groceries, or ask for directions? What about these pickpocketing Roma I keep hearing about?

Now that I've been here for 11 days I can look back and see that there was almost O% culture shock. Sure, all my groceries are labeled in Czech (and usually Slovak and/or Polish and/or Hungarian) and never in English.. which is interesting to say the least. Some people don't understand any English (like the owners of the Tabak shops, where theoretically I should be able to buy postage stamps) but the majority do at some level or another, so that's not really an issue. The city is easily navigable, not to mention gorgeous (although in all fairness it has its rough spots just like any city).

[I feel as though I'm rambling.. I'm a bit distracted, talking with other people and thinking about homework all at the same time as I'm typing this, sorry!]

All in all.. to conclude and come to some sort of point before I just trail off and post mis-sentence.. I think I feel more "shock" due to the fact that I'm not surrounded by my library or have access to my DVDs or music or whatever. Which, if that's as bad as it gets, is not really bad at all. As a matter of fact it's negligable. The end.

[I promise a more coherent and premeditated post next time!]

I'm in Prague!

So, nearly a week in Prague so far! Here are my first impressions:

- Old Town: Beautiful, if a bit crowded. It is the peak of tourist season, after all. I look forward to the colder months, when it empties out leaving more of it to be shared between the locals and the expats (like me!)

- My part of the city (Praha 5): Something like NYC, except less insane. It's way more relaxed.

- Public Trasportation (metro, buses, trams, etc): Awesome. Easy to use. Not squeaky-clean like some places I've been to, but definitely cleaner than Manhattan. And the busses are much more on-time than Ithaca's T-Cat. Did I mention easy to use?

- Beer: One stereotype about the Czech Republic is that here the beer is cheaper than water. In most cases, that is in fact true. And it is so much better than anything State-side (referring to Czech beers on draught).

- The Caledonian School: Good teachers (esp. Andrea), good classmates, and the Czech guinea-pig students are very receptive and eager to learn. Have good feelings about this.

That's all for now.. Dobrou noc!

OK, so I never finished blogging about Switzerland.

I apologize. Life gets in the way. Especially those really annoying bits, like work.

A new chapter will be started very shortly, however: tomorrow night I depart for Prague. When will I return? Your guess is as good as mine, actually. I will be taking the TEFL certification course at the Caledonian School, and from then, hope to be teaching English. That's about all I know so far. I will try to keep everyone posted!

Back in the States..

..but stay tuned, I still have more of my Swiss trip to share with you all. It may just take a while.

Château de Chillon

Now what can I saw about what is in fact the most impressive example of castlery in the country? Even as one approaches it, one’s step accelerates to match the beating of one’s heart. With the exception of the home of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum (which is a castle/palace in its own right, yet whose interior lacks the sort of impregnable feel that the exterior would lead to believe) this is the first bona fide medieval fortification I’ve ever set foot inside. You can walk throughout most of the structure, from the courtyards to the towers (which give an amazing view of Lac Léman and the distant Alps), and a pamphlet explains the uses of all the various rooms (in English too!), which are many: prison, dining halls, bedrooms, even toilets (which naturally empty straight into the lake). In one semi-large hall, there was a collection of wooden chests from the 15th through 17th centuries. There were a few dozen (yes, I took pictures of them all), but for now I’ll just share one.

Hmm, I’m actually really at a loss for words here. Perhaps I’ll have more to say on it after I read the book I bought that explains the whole history of the castle. For now, I’ll just share some pictures:

A swan makes her nest at the base of the wall.
Extant wooden supports used in the creation of the vaulted ceiling.
A charcoal (!) sketch on a part of the plaster-covered wall in the prison area.
Coat of arms in stained glass.
A view of the castle, lake, and Alps.

Oh, I did forget to mention that the castle produces its own wine, Clos de Chillon. It’s available exclusively at the Château, and I did buy a bottle. OK fine, I bought two bottles. Hopefully at least one will back it back to the States. Here’s a glimpse of the vinyard, a stone’s throw away from the castle.

Montreux, via Interlaken Ost

On the morning of 12 April, Natasha and I woke up at a painful 7:30 to start our journey towards Montreux. We had only a few change-overs, and one happened to be in Interlaken Ost; having an hour or so to kill, we decided to walk around and see the area. There was nothing too spectacular about it; I saw no castles or other great architecture, and we certainly didn’t have time to find any museums, but it was a beautiful day and quite scenic. The picture above hints at but doesn’t quite do justice to the colourfulness of the place. And yes, the water really is an unreal teal colour.

The train that bore us from Interlaken to Montreux, however, was amazing. Our 4-day rail passes somehow entitled us to take the “GoldenPass Panoramic” line, which, as the name suggests, is a very scenic trip through the Alps on a train that’s made up of a lot of window. Furthermore, as luck would have it, it only rained for about 5 minutes.

Going down into Montreux, which is on the northeastern shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), was reminiscent of riding into the Grand Canyon on mule-back: a very narrow path, with very sharp turns, winding its way down down down.. Only this time, we were on a train. Granted, a very small train (I think there were only 3 or 4 cars), but still somewhat hair-raising to see only mountainside through one window and a very steep drop out the other. We did survive, however, to take another very short train ride from the station at Montreux to the extremely impressive Château de Chillon. Which is another entry entirely.

Schweizerisches Landesmuseum

Possibly one of the nicest museums I’ve been to so far, the Landesmuseum has exhibits that span from prehistory, through Roman occupation (Helvetia), the middle ages, right up to the modern era. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures once inside the museum; there were many, many Medieval artefacts that I would’ve loved to have photos of, including some extant heraldic banners from the mid-15th through early 16th centuries made of painted canvas, silk, and silk damask (aquisition no.s KZ 5738, KZ 5732, ZB Zürich 850, and KZ 5636). There was also a complete set of clothing from around the same time period, including pourpoint (Wams, in German), trousers, woolen stockings, and a satin cap (acquisition no. LM 2396). Also, a doublet from the first half of the 17th century made of satin (aquisition no. LM 14005.2).

One of the best things at the museum, however, was the special exhibit “Medieval Book of Hours: From private devotion to luxury manuscripts”. There, I got to thumb through facsimile copies of both the Belles Heures.. and the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry! The most impressive book on display was actually also a facsimile: the so-called Livre d’Heures Noir, ca. 1475. This book has black pages – begotten by soaking the parchment in a ferrous-copper emulsion – and painted over in blue and gold. The original is held by the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, NY. I must visit it.

I also learned a new term: das Besteck. Meaning “tucked away”, it refers to cutlery sets that no gentleman in the middle ages would be without.

One thing about the museum that disappointed me was the shop, or virtual lack thereof. It was about the size of a broom closet, and had only touristy things to buy. I had been hoping, due to my inability to take photographs, that I could at least purchase some postcards with some of the aformentioned pieces displayed, or perhaps some books on the collection. Perhaps it was due to the construction (the museum is currently being expanded), but perhaps not. O well, I suppose I’ll just have to go back another time.

Antique-shopping!

The Old Town is teeming with antique shops and book shops.. and of course antique book shops. I finally got the courage to go into a few, and even took a few pictures. I asked, of course, before I did so; none of them really minded. In fact, one was quite nice about it. I had passed one particular shop window a few times before this day, and had seen some items that I know someone back home would find interesting: Dochtscheren, or wick-cutters. When I asked if I could take a photo of them, the proprietor actually arranged them out on one of his tables, in chronological order. Here is that picture; from left to right they increase in age (going from 19th c. to 17th c.). So, thank you Herr Krimmer from ANTIQUITÉS.

If it’s Napoleon I-era swords and pistols you’re interested in, visit MERIDIAN-GALERIE. Also a very nice store, but the proprietor seemed a bit nervous. He did flatter me by asking me if I was French though (since at this point I was still relying mostly on French for the essential communication issues). I’ll just go ahead and infer from that that my accent didn’t entirely suck.

The picture at the top of the post is just one set of shelves of many, in a store called EOS Buchantiquariat Benz.

Museum Bellerive

I visited this tiny little exhibit last Thurs. Basically, it’s a collection of architectural bits and pieces from the 19th century. I do mean bits and pieces quite literally; the main room on the ground floor is comprised of a few racks with mostly organized piles of things, from the locking mechanisms on doors, to the tiny little hinged figure-heads that prop the shutters open. (In Zürich, just about all the windows on all the buildings have shutters. And they are all held open by these little busts. Strangely enough, I haven’t taken a picture of any.) Here’s an image of the main room’s collections. Yes, it even includes quite a few kitchen sinks.

Other offshoot rooms featured elements such as wallpaper (extant pieces, sample books, even wood blocks for printing the patterns) or fancy wood inlay work. The picture at the head of this post is a detail from a panel that, beyond appearing three-dimensional due to the differently coloured pieces of wood, also included chunks of mirror to further confuse the eye. Made by Trix & Robert Haussmann, it’s called Türpaneel und Raumgitter (1980).

If you go, the exhibit may well be different: according to the cryptic blurb in my guidebook, the museum “displays its permanent collection in the form of a continuous programme of temporary exhibitions”. So essentially, they have a ton of stuff in storage and they rotate their way through it to make sure every piece of old house-bits gets its due time in the limelight. Or, at least time in another pile, but on a different set of shelves.

Another quick update!!

Hello everyone, sorry I've been away from the blog for the last few days. I was out and about in different parts of Switzerland, visiting museums and castles and mountains O my!

So, I will return later to give more detailed accounts (plus I still have the rest of last week to talk about). Don't worry, I've been writing everything down in a little journal so I won't miss any important details. OK so here's the short version:

(Sat-Sun) Went to Interlaken briefly. Took a gorgeous train ride (panoramic windows on the train) from Interlaken to Montreux. Saw the Chillon castle (amazing!). Spent the night in a hostel. Left the next day to take another train ride through the Alps to Gruyères. There, saw the quaint pretty little town, the castle, and of course the HR Giger museum - just as awesome as I imagined it to be. Then returned to Zürich.

(Mon) Hung out in Zürich, caught some of the Spring Festival in which a large snowman is burnt at the stake in the public square. And explodes. (It's a snowman made out of wood shavings and fireworks, apparently).

(Today) Hopping back on a train to Luzern to see more cathedrals and museums.

Until I return, ciao!

Kunsthaus Zürich

Talk about lucky; the Kunsthaus is about a 2 minute walk from Natasha's flat. It's filled primarily with contemporary art, for example Torben Geihler's Matterhorn (2002), or Erwin Wurm's Guggenheim melting (2005). However, like the picture in this post indicates, there is some old art as well. To the left is the Kreuzigung of Giuliano di Simone (ca. 1400). Here's a detail. Here is a picture of Darbringung Christi by 'Der jüngere Berner Nelkenmeister'.

There was also a pair of portraits by Hans Asper there. Since I've now also been to the Landesmuseum, and seen a few more portraits of his, I've noticed that in multiple instances he's decorated women's belts with a clasped-hands motif. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures in the Landesmuseum, but here's a detail of his Bildnis der Cleophea Krieg von Bellikon (1538). I want to keep an eye out for this motif now.

Zürcher Kantonalbank

Walking into one of those large Swiss banks was a real trip; especially so because I went alone. I needed to exchange the rest of my American cash for Swiss cash (why I didn't just do it at the airport, who knows). However it wasn't really all that bad. The receptionist spoke well enough English, and the teller I had spoke very fluently. Fortunately the exchange rate was pretty decent (CHF0.99 to USD1), but I got charged CHF5 commission. O well, it was well worth the experience.

Quick Update! (Blitzupdate?)

Falling behind on my posts here... I'm currently at an internet cafe, and my time is rapidly ticking down; I will come back later to expand a bit.

So.. since last post I have 1) been to a Swiss bank, 2) visited the Kunsthaus Zürich, 3) revisted the Grossmünster and its crypt, 4) visted the Museum Bellrive, and 5) visited the Schweizeriches Landesmuseum.

I also went antique shopping in the Aldstadt the other afternoon, which was very exciting.

Aaaand, I have booked a hostel in Montreux and bought a 4-day rail pass, so will probably be adding Luzern to my itinerary.

Mental note: The keyboard layout is very weird here. Stuff has been moved around, which makes it very difficult to type. But it is very easy to find all the diacriticals.

It's the little things in life...

...like your first conversation in a foreign language with a stranger, brief as it may be, that really inspires confidence in yourself. Sure, I studied French for a while. In the classroom, however, there's no real pressure to get it right; if you don't, someone will correct you and you'll move on.

So I went exploring on my own again today. I was looking for the Augustinerkirche; I found it, however it was closed. So I walked around (again, somewhat aimlesslessly) just making sudden turns down interesting-looking alleys. I've determined that because of the number of very distinctive and rather tall building that pepper the city, it's nearly impossible to get lost: find one or two on the skyline and you can easily figure out how to get back to more familiar territory.

I ended up walking up to the Lindenhof without realising it. The Lindenhof is a lookout point used by the Romans, but unfortunately there's nothing really there now that betrays their presence. Except a small chunk of rock with some text on it, including the (abbreviated) words STATIONIS TVRICENSIS - the place name that eventually turned into Zürich. The view is great; here are some shots of the Limmat, the Grossmünster, and the Predigerkirche, which ended up being my next stop (bear with me). Also, on the Lindenhof there is a large chess board, where I stopped to watch some men play, and another fountain. I don't think I've yet mentioned this, but there are fountains everywhere. Literally. Here's a picture of a pidegeon drinking from one.

So, getting back to the original story above, when I got to the Predigerkirche, I didn't notice any signage indicating whether or not photography was allowed (it wasn't, for example, inside the Fraumünster or the Grossmünster), so I walked over to a nice lady looking like she was keeping an eye on the place. Ever the optimist, I asked her, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" "Nein." Figures. "..français?" "Ja ja!" Of course you do. Pulling out my camera, "Puis-je utiliser ici?" She smiled, "Oui, bien sûr!" Alors... here are some shots of the very pretty organ, a groin vault, and a portion of the nave. Like St Peters Kirche, it had been completely Baroqued over (can I use Baroqued as a verb?), but there were some small medieval remains, including a bit of rock with an inscription and a fragment of a fresco. I wish there was some sort of literature on these things. I feel very stupid, as a medievalist, to not know exactly what these things are. Hopefully I will find out at a later date.

St Peters Kirche

I took a few pictures of this amazing church, not only of the clockface (the largest around) but also the interior too. Will update this post later with links. It's time for breakfast and more exploration of the city.

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UPDATE: OK, here come some more pictures.
Hier klicken for a shot of the interior, facing the apse.
Hier klicken for a shot of the organ.
Hier klicken for some scrap of medieval wall painting. There wasn't any literature on this that I could find, so I'm not entirely sure what it is.
Hier klicken for a shot of Natasha hanging over the railing outside.
Hier klicken for a nice view from the Grossmünster tower.
Hier klicken for a shot of the tower from the Lindenhof down the Pfalzgasse.

Höckerschwan

This is a happy swan. How can I tell it's happy, you ask? Well, it's in Switzerland. Swans back in the States don't have such a great view of the Alps. Swans in the UK have it even worse; in spite of Royal protection, they're apparently being eaten by Croation refugees (according to Mark). Ergo, happy swan.

Camera works!

Figures that the nicest picture I take so far is of flowers, and not anything of any cultural importance..

Mental note

Swiss franc coins come in larger denominations than I'm used to. Don't leave that pile of change on the table - it's not as useless as American coins are.

A little solo exploration

Natasha has her senior recital coming up at the end of the month. While she went off to her conservatory to practice, I took the opportunity to walk around aimlessly with a camera* and see what I stumbled across.

Starting out on the only path familiar to me, I walked along the Rämistrasse to the Utoquai, then followed that down to Zürichhorn Park. I didn't actually walk through the park since that was something I was planning on seeing with Natasha, however while in the immediate area I did find out that the Johann Jacobs Museum (the coffee museum) was closed until the 26th - shortly after I arrive back in the States. This was particularly disappointing because I had been keen to buy some souvenirs or postcards for a pair of coffee addicts back home. O well (next time)!

I crossed the Limmat again, via the Quaibrücke; this time I walked southwards. I wandered around Belvoir park for a spell, then stumbled across something my mother would definitely appreciate: a greenhouse. Not in my guidebook (perhaps too small, or too random, of a place), I had found the Sukkulenten-Sammlung (succulent plant collection - cacti, agaves, aloes &c.) There were a few plants in bloom that I could've photographed, however it was at least 25 degrees warmer and 125% more humid; my camera lens wanted none of that. After the feeling in my fingers had returned, I went out into the cold again, and eventually made my way back to our flat. I'd like to point out that not once did I get lost (in fact, I only used a small map to identify some buildings), which is quite a feat for someone whose sense of direction is as crap as mine. Particularly because had I gotten lost, I would've really been up sh!t creek, since my grasp of German is almost nonexistant. I know that Links means "left." I'm not sure what "right" is. I should find out. Just in case.

*I haven't yet figured out how to make my mother's camera talk to Natasha's computer. When I do, I'll start putting some of the pictures up.

"I love the smell of Europe in the morning!"

Yes, I've been saving that Eddie Izzard quote for some time now..

Zürich is beautiful, as expected. Yesterday, when I arrived (8:05 local) everything was a little overcast. Actually, a lot overcast; I didn't actually see Switzerland until 1 minute before the plane touched down, and that's no exaggeration (I had been checking my watch obsessively throughout the flight). Natasha met me at the airport, we took the train to the Bahnhof and then walked the rest of the way to her flat. She explained to me that on Sundays the stores are closed and thus the city looked somewhat less populated than I had been led to believe. With the exception of one police car that sped by (it's wail almost deafening us) I was by far the noisiest thing around, dragging my luggage across cobblestone street after street.

A brief hot shower and not-so-brief nap later (it was, after all, 3am as far as my body was concerned), Natasha and I went for a walk; she took me to the edge of the Zürichsee but it was still too overcast to see the Alps in the distance. We went over the Münsterbrücke and meandered around town a bit, then returned home to defrost, eat dinner, and sleep.

T-minus 4 days

Well, I think I'm ready. More than ready. Everything is packed but my slippers.

Monies in the bank; debit card authorised for use overseas (and withdrawl limit increased); mail put on hold for the next 2.5 weeks, and landlord already paid for the month.

All I really have left to do is eat all the perishable food still residing in the fridge. Given my usual tendency to eat as many meals per diem as possible (but stopping myself only because I can't afford to have a Hobbit's appetite), this should be no problem at all. In fact, I look forward to the challenge.

Soon to break out into the Euro scene

Well, after I've spent 20+ years of my life daydreaming about "someday" travelling abroad, I am finally going. My adventures will begin less than two weeks from now, when I fly to Zürich, Switzerland to visit an old friend. There, I plan on spending a leisurely 16ish days visiting museums, exploring a castle or two, and maybe scrambling around the Swiss Alps.

Following that will be what I can only imagine as the 3 most anxious months ever, in which I sell my soul back to retail hell - full-time - to make as much money as possible in preparation for my move to Praha, CZ to (hopefully) teach English.

So, if Europe is indeed what I've always dreamed it to be, and I happen to have a free moment to share any of my adventures/experiences with everyone else, this would be the place for that.