Unfortunately, Czech is not all chocolate and surrendering(little French joke there, sorry couldn’t resist). Czech is not a romance language after all. It is fact descended from the Slavic languages spoken in Poland, and Slovenia, and shares some words with Russian. Like these languages, Czech is not strictly based on vowel sounds. Rather, it depends on different combinations of syllables to create words. As result of this oddity, there are some words in Czech with absolutely no vowels(or at least that’s my understanding of the language, or maybe I’m just making it up so I feel better about the random strings of consonants running around. Or maybe I’m not making it up, after all I did get the highest grade on the final in my class(A+ )
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your prospective, Czech class wasn’t all about the language. We spent a little bit of time delving into the word of Czech culture. One of our first activates, and one of my favorite was to watch a Czech film about an old Czech man who ends up basically adopting a young Russian boy in 1989 Czech Republic (right when the Czech’s decided that they REALLY didn’t like the Russians.), it was about the most heartwarming movie this side of Bambi (though Spoiler Alert: his mom didn’t get shot in the end). Next, we headed off to the National Gallery of the Czech Republic’s Modern Art museum. I never realized that a machine gun, and the model of the Prague TV tower counted as art, but overall it was pretty neat, and fortunately all the signs were in English. The next week, we hit up the Czech National Press Club’s photography exhibit, where they displayed what they considered to be the best picture that a Czech photographer had taken, this year. It turned out to be one of President Obama’s visit to the Czech Republic, with him at a podium staring at statue of Thomas Masaryk, the first President of the Czech Republic, with Prague and the Castle in the background, slightly obscured by fog. There were also some interesting pictures of President Klaus, of the Czech Republic, going about his daily routine, he seems much more relaxed then President Obama. On the last day we went to see another Czech Film, this one in the surrealist vein. It was about a Czech family that was unable to have children, and so adopted a piece of wood shaped like a baby that turned into a monster that ate everything, including the Postman, a social worker, a creepy old dude, and a cat, until it was killed by an old lady with a hoe (I told you it was surrealist).
Fortunately, though our lives were not completely dominated by the Czech language.(at least not any more than usual) On the Thursday after the start of classes, we once again managed to gather a “family dinner”, this time up to almost 16 people. In what may have prove to be a miracle, Jake and Walt managed to produce enough pasta, bread and desert to feed everyone, all for less than 50kc apiece(a pretty good deal). Unfortunately, the threat of a mid-term cast a long shadow over that dinner. The next night was slightly more relaxed however.
Most of AIFS spent that Friday, and the next one for that matter, venturing out to check out Prague’s nightlife. Apparently, and I have this mostly second hand, since the Fall of Communism, Prague has experienced something of an explosion in the variety and quality of its nightlife(I suppose none to a lot counts as an explosion.) My understanding is that there are lots of “cool clubs” spread across Prague. We went to check out one called Lucerna, located near the AIFS office. Lucerna, made the Leafe back in Williamsburg look positively tame (of course apparently so do visiting days at some retirement homes, but I digress). The club exists on two floors, one on which it seemed like a sea of people was dancing, and the other a balcony directly above that allowed you to take in the view. As it turned out, it was 80s and 90s night, so we heard a lot of familiar tunes, including It’s the Final Countdown, We Will Rock You, and other American favorites that I’m sure I can’t think of. Much as I, somewhat surprisingly enjoyed myself, I was rather happy, when Stef and Ryan appeared almost dragging another AIFSer, who had a had a bit too much and so will remain nameless, and announced that they were leaving. Unfortunately none of the four of us had any idea how to get back to the dorm via Tram, but we were able to discover a taxi(at 3:00 in the morning) and us are limited Czech to get him to drive us back to the dorm.
Apparently, we left the club not a moment too soon. When I got up the next morning(well, afternoon would probably be more accurate) rumors were spreading that at least one member of the AIFS crew had gotten drugged. At first some of the girls suspected that it was a rufie intended for one of the them, but that had ended up in the hands of guy, later Jake, my expert on all the things in my naivety I have missed out on, informed by that the symptoms were more like acid or E. Apparently, the victim of this incident believed, fervently, that 1) a sausage he had purchased from the Sausage stand near the couple was very precious 2) that Jake was trying to steal said sausage from him, and after he ate it from his stomach and 3) that Jake was not in fact Jake, but was either a very evil form of Jake or that Jake had been processed by yours truly, and that I was after his sausage(for the record my studies in evil wizardry have not advanced to the steal your soul and steal your food level, but will…soon…very soon, muhahahahahahaha). But seriously, as funny as it sounds though, it was a pretty serious thing, and a reminder to us all that we should be very careful, and look out for each other, as fortunately happened in this instance (and would in later instances that will not be making it into this blog.)
The next day, Saturday, marked the fulfillment of a long quest. If you remember, Allie from South Carolina had decided very early on in the trip that she wanted to go sledding. As it happened, Jake, Ian and I found ourselves in Wenslaus Square, waiting for Allie. We wandered into a sporting goods store just off the square, and amid the skis and snowboards, we discovered several small round pieces of plastic, with handles, that might charitably be described as sleds…for 200kc, or roughly $10. With our purchases in hand, and one for Allie, we set off to Petin Hill, on which Prague Castle sits. Now, Petin Hill could be better described as a mountain, but I guess Petin Mountain sounds funny. Anyway, we headed about half way up the mountain/hill, put our “sleds” into the somewhat icy snow, and rode down, with yours truly in the lead. Even though I ended up doing a good bit of the hill on my stomach, it was pretty exciting. Unfortunately we only managed to get in one very short run that evening, as Ian and Allie both lacked gloves, and their hands were somewhat frozen.
Properly equipped the next morning we set out for Petin Hill once again. This time, we managed to sled all the way down to the bottom from that same midpoint…twice. Slightly battered(Jake hit a bike path, Allie nearly took out a tree, my sled was stopped by Thomas Masaryk and Ian nearly took out a baby) we headed a small restaurant to rest for a little while. While there, I managed to finally have that great Czech delicacy, fried cheese. (Seriously, you would think you were in Wisconsin or something). As with almost anything fried, Smanzeny Syr(that’s Czech) turned out to be pretty good. After that, we headed back up the hill for one last run, while admiring a Czech man with the balls to do it on nothing more than a plastic bag.
With the sledding adventures over, it was once again back to the grind of Czech class. By Tuesday, my ego, never the strongest in Language classes, was feeling rather severely bruised, and I was feeling really tired, and rather frustrated with the whole thing. And then I saw the damned Colonel, and he called to me, and I…while, to make a long story rather short, I finally broke down and went to a KFC, and got some food. It tasted pretty much about how I expected, though the little taste of home did perk me up quite a bit. I got some coleslaw with my chicken(who know they had coleslaw on the far side of the world). Unfortunately, however, the guy who gave me my food forgot to give me a fork. So, I went to get one, figuring I could leave my food alone for about five minutes. But, I didn’t know the Czech word for fork, and the lady at the counter didn’t know what fork meant (I swear I would though more ignorant Americans would show up at a KFC). After playing charades, with a lot of finger pointing, I managed to get a small spoon that would be useful in consuming coleslaw. Expecting to dig in to the American goodness that is Coleslaw I returned to my table, only to discover another difference between the US and the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, if you leave the table that means you’re done, and my food had vanished. Slightly annoyed, and with a small spoon I had no idea what to do with, I headed back to my dorm, and resolved to ask my teacher how you say fork in Czech.
The next day pasted uneventfully, and then it was Thursday, and I had to ace a final. After the final, as a bit of reward our teacher took as to a Czech Restauran, which we had to pay for, but was still pretty neat. Afterwards, Ryan and I stopped by a bar for a little while, as we were waiting for a cultural event to start. That evening it was a performance of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. We had third row seats. It was, in a word, awesome. Dvorak Hall(of course) where the orchestra plays, was beautiful, with lots of colors(unfortunately they don’t allow pictures). They played some modern stuff, one especially interest piece, and probably my favorite from the evening which featured trumpets, and some Chopin, which featured an apparently famous, or a least respected Vietnamese pianist.
The next day, after spending the day watching a Czech Film, we headed out to, once again to Club Lucrena, It was pretty much the same as the week before, though thankfully no one was drugged this time. I went back rather early, as the next morning I had another AIFS event, a visit to Dobris Castle north of Prague. As has proven true on this trip time and again, when the Czech’s say Castle what they really mean is Chateau. And Dobris was quite the Chateau. It was built right about the same time as the palace of Versailles in Paris, and Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, in Rocco, style, so it was pretty opulent inside. After that tour, I was pretty much beat, so headed back to my room to chill out for a while. That night was another group excursion, this time to a bar a goodly ways away from the dorm. It was kind of chill, but the others decided they wanted to check out a hookah bar they had heard about, and I was tired, and I had quite enough by the point(when I start feeling dizzy, that’s enough) so I headed back to the dorm.
The ballroom in Dobris, their answer to the Hall of Mirrors.
The next morning (well, afternoon really), we headed out into the city once again, on yet another adventure. This time it was Stef who had found the idea, in this case bobsledding…well not really, more like go-carting in a metal tube on a sled with brakes, and…while not much else. For 40kc, or about $2, we could each take a run down the track. The first I did it rather slowly, remembering an unfortunate experience where I managed to get kicked off a go-cart track, on my birthday, for going around corners too fast. The next time though, after seeing how fast my friends were going, I let up on the brake. It was really exciting. After the two runs, we headed inside, to get a bit and (for some, not me) a drink, and the Stef, Kate, Adrian and I, headed back to the dorm, where the chilling out before the first day of classes commenced.
Next: Prague Part V, on Classes, and, well whatever happens next, this blog is now officially up to date.
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