Budapest.

....Maybe?  I had a chance to go about a month ago but was leery about money and getting stopped at the border(s) and being locked up and deported since I don't have my visa yet.  But this time I have the chance to go with my friend who has a car.  Cheaper and no mean train check people.  Better chances.  Budapest!  Which actually is pronounced Budapesht.  I just thought people were being pretentious. 

The weather wasn't quite as nice as last weekend, a little chilly and windy, but there was still beer gardening.  It was pretty nice and low-key actually.  Had sea-food for the first time since coming here.  One of my friends is making a short film about being an expat.  He's interviewing friends here who come from all over the world, just asking where they're from and why they came, what they like/don't like, if it was a good decision to come, etc.  I hate hearing my voice recorded and thought my interview was pretty boring, but I'm excited to see how it turns out!

I just finished reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.  Long, but a quick read, I really liked it.  Much nicer than The Unbearable Lightness of Being which I've been working on.  Blegh. 

Been in Prague for 5 months today!  I'm very much looking foward to the half a year mark.  And shortly after that will be my birthday.  And it will be awesome.



How does it feel.

It's a wonderful bar moment when four people from four different countries simultaneously start singing along to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" starting with that first "didn't you?!".  Especially when they didn't have to pay their bill because they won the pub quiz!  Just saying.  We're brilliant. 

The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend.  Two days of sunshine and the highest temperatures I've felt since being here.  There was much wandering around town with a video camera, eating ice cream on park benches, drinking beer in the beer gardens, and general people watching and judging various crimes against fashion.  It's really like a different city when it's bright and warm.  Today is cooler and raining, I'm glad it held off all weekend. 

A lot of Czechs leave Prague on the weekends. They go to their smaller hometowns or on vacation or skiing or cycling now that it's getting warmer. I heard English everywhere in the beer gardens.  And saw people I knew/recognized in other groups separate from the ones I was in.  So hopefully it's more of a not-Czech-not-tourist-but-expat kind of thing. 

Beer. Gardens.

They're happening baby.  And they are spectacular. 

This has been the week of cancellations, both early and late.  I love the late ones but if they cancel early I don't get paid and I'd rather just work and get the money.  Both yesterday and today I didn't have to do anything until 3pm.  When you have four 7:30 am classes a week that means a lot.  Sleeping late, doing laundry, reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" in the sunshine.  Nice. 

Yesterday a friend and I walked around Riegrovy Sady (one of my favorite parks) while we each had nothing to do.  There was a couple on the park bench next to ours and they pulled out a bottle of wine.  No glasses and apparently no bottle opener either.  We subtly watched them solve the problem by shoving the cork into the bottle with a highlighter from one of their bags.  There was much giggling and splashing and not that embarassed embarassement from them.  We talked about how they'll remember the day a lot better now since something went slightly wrong.  It would have been an ordinary day with wine in the park but now it's that one time you forgot the stupid bottle opener and we dug around in your bag to find anything to use and those people speaking English giggled at us while we licked wine off of our hands and arms. 

Don't stop me noooow!

Czech Queen cover band wasn't as good as the Czech Led Zeppelin cover band, but it was still awesome.  (And way better than the Czech Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band.) 

The lead singer had some Mercury-esque pipes and looked just like the lead singer of The Killers.  They opened with a weird version of We Will Rock You, but finished with a more traditional one.  Really crapped out with Bohemian Rhapsody.  It's difficult and all but it would have been better to just not do it all than skip the entire middle.  It's really funny how into it the Czech people were.  Knew more of the songs and words than I did it seemed like.  I'm thinking it's because of how Queen and all kinds of other stuff is newer here than it is at home due to the whole communism thing.

The weather was a little crappy again so had a mini How I Met Your Mother marathon with a friend at her place on Saturday.  Then we went to U Sadu to meet a lot of others for a "goodbye to one roommate, hello to the new one" at the flat-away-from-flat.  The new roommate couldn't show so it was just a "goodbye to one roommate" party.  There were probably over twenty people in our group there and I counted thirteen nationalities.  Sweet. 

Mostly bummed around today.  Got chinese food and watched a movie with another friend.  Walking home at one point I went a way that offered a good view of the city and had a sudden reminder of where I was again.  Some weekends when I'm not working with Czech people all day or traveling around the city it's easy to forget.  I'm comfortable with the weird pseudo-family I have here and the neighborhoods and local hangouts.  It all feels very normal now.

Tourists have never heard of expats.

They can't have, or else they wouldn't say the things they say in public. 

I kind of love not understanding Czech.  I say hello and goodbye and please and thank you and order food and all, but as for overhearing conversations on the tram and streets it's just a lot of somehow organized, indistinguishable noises.  People generally talk about mundane things so it's nice not being sucked into eavesdropping on things you don't care about. 

It's equally nice for most Czech people to not understand me and my friends yakking about classes and movies and what we want to do that night.  I hope they don't at least. 

Queen cover band tonight!  I don't think they could top the Led Zeppelin guys but I have high hopes for awesomeness.

Shortest, busiest, and most tiring week ever.  Great one though!  I'm really glad my parents were able to come visit.  I have friends here who's just aren't able to and I think it was great that they got to see the city and meet my friends here.  They should be in the air headed home now.  Probably a tiring week for them too, but I think they had fun.

I still don't have a huge course-load yet.  I feel pretty good about it but I know people who have been here longer working almost twice as much.  I got my first big paycheck today!  (I say "big" but what I mean is a full month's worth.)  But yeah, working and hanging with the parents (and friends here) made for super busy week. 

Finished it up last night with a "Top Five Music Night".  Three of us got together having picked our top five  bands, songs, albums, solo artists, and lyrics.  Wish it hadn't been on a Sunday because we stayed up too late but it was worth it.  Gotta plan some lessons now since I put it off.

The Not So Amazing Jicin Adventure! And parents!

Remember The Amazing Jicin Adventure?  Of course you do.  Had another one yesterday.  We climbed a big hill.  It was sweet.

In more exciting news, the parents are here in Prague!  It's surreal.  So far this has been a world unseen to everyone I know back home.  No frame of reference, no connections to anyone here, etc.  I'm excited to show them around and be an old pro in the city.  Also excited for them to meet my mess of international friends. 

move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass.

I have lost the ability to plan more than four days ahead. 

The parents are coming to visit in three days and that's pretty difficult to get my head around.

I've been invited "into the nature, on the cottage" (English teacher inside joke) for a birthday next month.  I'm on board but yeah, long ways away to be thinking about it now. 

Arcade Fire is going to be in Austria in June and the two guys I spend hours listening to and talking about music with are talking about going.  That's pretty much unfathomable.  Not just because it's so long away but also because ARCADE FIRE.  They're going to be the band that always reminds me of this place and time and the people here and what all I've done and been through.  And to see them while here, with those two friends, would be epic. 

I've settled into a routine by now though, I do need to make some longer-term plans.  Since I've been here everything has been uncertain and tentative.  I'm still leery about getting too comfortable since I don't have that visa in my passport yet.  I don't exactly live in fear but there is the thought in the back of my mind that it won't get approved and I'll have to go home and leave everything and everybody here.  (I've realized and come to terms with that whether I leave sooner or later this whole thing is just going to end in tears.) 

Anyway, those three "events" might mentally settle me down more. 

By the way, four month mark!  That's 1/3 of a year.  I AM THE PENGUIN.



Weekendagain.

Had dinner at the flat-away-from-flat on Friday.  We made chicken and corn on the cob and veggies and had bread and beer and cookies.  There were about ten people and seven nationalities.  It was lots of fun just comfortably sitting around, eating with people who all came from different places and nobody knew each other before doing the Prague-thing. 

Yesterday I watched some Doctor Who, helped friends carry empty glass bottles to a potraviny in exchange for cash, broke my watch, did some touristy-Prague stuff with a friend, we were hugged by a man in black-face....which probably still won't be the weirdest thing I see or that happens here.  There's more and more tourists cropping up.  It doesn't make me happy.  There's a huge catch 22 of wanting warmer weather and hating all the people crowding streets and asking me for directions. 

Today I plan on getting a new watch (I feel naked without one), getting coffee with a friend and maybe wandering around Vysehrad park/castle, which I haven't done yet.  I also need to lesson plan.  I usually plan through Tuesday-sometimes-Wednesday on Friday afternoons but there weren't enough hours in the day and I've just got a couple ideas outlined.

This is the first week of teaching I've had that is kind of dragging.  It was also the first week I wasn't really looking forward to starting up on Sunday.  Another teacher-friend who has been here a while told me "Yep, this is your life now."  Ah, routine.

I got observed by my "tutor" yesterday morning.  About three times a semester we have to get observed for about half of a class just to make sure that we actually have plans and lesson points.  I felt really good about it since it was a one-to-one with one of my favorite students.  He usually talks and talks and talks but he kind of clammed up with the other guy in the room.  It was a little painful, but I doubt I'm fired or anything.  I should get my feedback next week. 

The weather has been AWESOME this week.  Sunshine.  Above freezing temperatures.  What is this whole walking around with my coat open business?!  I've been sitting in parks during my free time, reading or just listening to music, with my face to the sun.  I think it's going back to cloudyness this weekend but I'm going to soak it up while I can.