We're off to see Obama..!

Yesterday morning I was fortunate enough to attend Obama's speech delivered in front of Prague Castle. I hadn't decided to go until the previous night, while at a pub with some Czech friends. Since, in the course of convsersation, some of them expressed interest in trying to go, I thought that I should go as well. After all, I told them, he's my president.

We met at around 8am; getting on a tram that would take us to the entry site (the entire castle district had been locked down since the previous midnight, I believe), we waited. And waited. Why wasn't the tram moving? People kept getting on, and then off, looking around wondering what was happening. The police/security with the menial task of traffic control were no help. Then we realized, due to the spontaneous rush towards the street, that the motorcade was going to pass in front of us.. and it did!

A few excruciatingly long minutes after that (we were very concerned by this point that the castle square would be closed off before we arrived), the tram lurched into motion, and we went up the hill, disembarking with the rest of the mob to scramble through the narrowest alley that leads to the castle. At one point, I thought to myself that we were something like Dorothy and her friends travelling down the yellow brick road in search of the Wizard. We were, after all, walking shoulder to shoulder over cobblestones with a pretty optimistic bounce to our step. I didn't bother voicing that to the others though, as the comparison pretty much ended there; the obvious lack of Munchkins was replaced by the not-exactly-covert presence of snipers on rooftops and in windows.

After getting through the metal detectors, all we had to do was wait, and look for a good spot to stand. Poor Martina, who was shortest of us four, was out of luck wherever we went.. especially after Obama got to the podium and we had everyone's arm-and-camera/cellphone-weilding-fist in our way. Fortunately there were some large display screens (with Czech supertitles). So although I didn't get to see him in the flesh, I could mostly watch him on the screen. The speech itself was good, and of course eloquently delivered (transcript here). I was surprised at the distinct lack of any mention of the proposed American radar station in the Czech Republic, something that has stirred a lot of controversy here. So, the speech and events leading up to it were, altogether, an exciting experience. But I wouldn't say I was swept off my feet by it.. and yet he said it himself:

"I know that a call to arms can stir the souls of men and women more than a call to lay them down."

What was particularly amusing about the whole affair was afterwards, some grandmother there just came up to us and started talking. Addressing some of her statements to me, I apologized to her since I didn't understand what she was asking. And then Martina told her I was American. Boy, did she light up at that. I was able to pick up some of the things she was trying to tell me, including (no joke!) her describing Barack Obama as a man second only to Jesus Christ. Then of course, she went on to ask me some of the typical questions.. What do I do here? Is Czech easy to learn? Prague is a beautiful city, isn't it? etc. We parted after she held my hands in hers, and offered some sort of benediction I didn't understand. I think that was more inspiring than the speech, actually.

Divoká Šárka

Divoká Šárka is a beautiful nature preserve just west of where I live (in Prague 6). It's called Wild Šárka after a legend about a female warrior who, at the bequest of her leader, must seduce and kill Ctirad (the champion of the male warriors). It's unclear whether she kills him herself or her female compatriots kill him, but apparently she was so wrought with guilt that she flung herself off one of the several cliffs (that particular cliff is called Dívčí Skok, the Girl's jump).

Thus far I've been to the area twice; the first was a nice and somewhat strenuous hike with Rebecca. Then, due to so many of my English classes being either temporarily canceled, or canceled outright, I took a free Thursday exploring some of the more much more hair-raising "paths" by myself.

I'm not sure which cliff is the legendary Dívčí Skok, but my goal for the day was to climb to a peak I had made note of the last time, across from - and a little higher up - than the area we had reached. It's the chunk sticking up in the top left of the picture above. Yes, this bit. Looks easy from this angle, no? It appears to have plenty of hill leading up to it. Well, as I soon found out, this was not exactly the case.

I should mention that, from the point where the above picture was taken, Rebecca and I had reached a sort of plateau, a nice little clearing with a small rectangular bit of rock sunk into the center signifying You made it to the top of this hill! There were also paths leading up to it.. an easy meandering one that takes you the long way around, or, for the more adventurous, a steeper rockier way up the front (see the light areas in this picture). Not really true for where I was going on Thursday.. yes, there were paths, but they only went *so far* up the peak, and then veered off to circumnavigate the more difficult bits. Well, I am a certain sort of stupid when it comes to hiking and climbing things, so I wasn't planning to keep to the path. Plus, even as I approached it, it didn't seem *so* very daunting.. as I already mentioned, if you're far enough away it looks relatively easy to get to.

...


That is where I was headed. For reference, the scraggly-looking birch tree on the top is about as tall as I am. Hmm.. well, I couldn't *not* continue at this point, even with the residual childhood acrophobia kicking in at this point (I got rid of most of that by rock-climbing..). So, I trudged onward and upward. It was less inaccessible than I thought, I just had to spend some time looking around for the best angle of attack - the route with the least possibility of leaving me only as a red-stained rock if I happened to trip. And I was somewhat reassured by a tiny bit of grafitti.. meaning that someone else had been stupid enough to go there too. (On closer inspection it turned out to be a crude Death's-head in yellow paint. In retrospect, I'm not sure if that was some hooligan's tag, or a park ranger's warning.)

But, I made it. Here's my bookbag as proof. What do you do when you spend the morning climbing a cliff and reach the summit? Well, I took a short nap. Let me tell you, it's pretty eerie to lay on your back, and see only sky and the faintest hint of horizon in your periphery. I was also amused by the sporadic hail, which, at that altitude wasn't so much falling as dancing up and down on the wind.

After that, I took my time meandering back down, enjoying being "in the nature" as my students say in Czenglish. Here are some pictures I took of some gnarly tree branches and another tree with a corkscrew-like trunk:

The blurriest fireworks picture ever

Šťastný nový rok!

New Year's Eve, known here as Silvestr (31 Dec is the name day for "Silvestr"), was an awesome surprise.

Fireworks which, let's face it, have been shot off for no apparent reason since we moved in during summer, started not long after sundown. There were a few ho-hum displays in a few different locations in the city, but they were pretty short and nothing special. A while later, the Asian corner store beneath our window started shooting fireworks from the front of their store. This was impressive enough, as the explosions were only slightly higher than our 8th floor (9th by American counting) balcony. And, from the looks of it, they were determined to empty out all the overstock from their store. At one point, to our pyromaniacal glee, one of their mortars tipped over and launched rockets all over the street, into a tree, and under the arcaded walkway of the building. The few cars still on the road braked nervously and sped past the square when they thought it was safe.

After that show had ended, and we had caught our breath from laughing and cheering, we all agreed that nothing could ever top that..

..and then midnight happened. It was like a warzone, except far more colourful. From our balcony, which offers about a 190° panoramic view, there wasn't a single area on the horizon that wasn't showered in sparkling light. This video doesn't really do it justice:



And, of course, people were still launching their own from the square beneath us. (Listen for Dan's additional sound effects):

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.

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

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

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 :-)

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.

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!