So, with that out of the way, when I left off, we were standing on Pilsen’s main street, on the 2nd May, meaning that there were exactly 20 days between those events and my still impending departure. The Monday of that week pasted with an increasing sense of dread, at least on my part, as we were nearing the official AIFS Farewell Party, not helped, at all, by the fact that there were still finals to look forward to too (ha).
Tuesday proved to be a nice break however. After watching the reasonably comprehensible Stalker (just ask Sasha Prokov.) and the slightly less understandable but still enjoyable A Short Film About Love, AIFS out went for our first group outing in quite some time.
Jake’s performance the Sunday before had greatly impressed somebody at Red Room, and so they had invited him back to perform a show. Jake, being the creative person that he is, threw together a show, and a band, with Walter on accordion, and Kate on Ukulele. This not the first time this group had played together, on Saturday we had had the dorm open mike night, which mostly consisted of those three play, and my trying to figure out Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the piano. Those three sounded awesome, at Red Room, especially when they played together, and even more especially on the song that for me has become the theme of the trip, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel. Them play this was enough to basically annex Red Room to the United States for a couple hours, as about 50 people from AIFS showed up.
Jake and Kate perform...awesomely
Some of their adoring fans.
After the show was over, a bunch us, including the three musicians piled onto the last train of the night and headed for the Dorm. As it happened, the three of them decided to play Wagon Wheel one more time, and everyone else decided to sing along. At first I’m fairly certain that the Czech people on the train were convinced that this bunch of singing Americans were either very drunk, or very insane. But eventually they got into it. Some much so that by the time the Americans finished the song they all started clapping and making requests….which unfortunately Jake, Walt and Kate were unable to fulfill.
The next morning was another ascent to the Hrad…at least for me. You see, the Czech kids were having a test that day, and I had forgotten that the Professor told me not to show up…after that bit of stupidly, I went back down the hill to my discussion section with Prof. Johnson, not before stopping off in the AIFS Office to print out my assignment, and then off to MittleEuropa once again. Then it was back to the Dorm to get ready for the AIFS Farewell Party.
By this point it had started raining, and I didn’t bring an umbrella with me to the Czech Republic, something my parents would comment on when they finally arrived. So I got pretty good and wet going to the AIFS party…but that was ok. Once I got there it was a pretty lively scene. Jana had managed to produce a local band that was playing some Jazz music. They had good Czech food(loved the Goulash) and good conversation with my friends.
As the night wore on however, people started dancing…and I was getting a little bored. It turns out that some of the English Country dancing lessons I got paid off just a little, because I managed to swing dance with a couple of the girls….and then with Alex Horn…which was awesome because Alex is a much better dancer than I am…I pretty sure the pictures are on Facebook…and someone ,probably Jake or Walt has a video it too…which they should put on Facebook.
(sorry, no pictures of this...I was dancing so I couldn't take any)
After the dancing, there was a bit of toast making. Allie and Walt both made fairly moving toasts…and then yours truly went imitated Diego’s toast from fourth months ago. But it was all in good fun…and Allie, Walt, Jake, Kate, myself, and for a wonder of wonders Ryan Perry, head off to Usudu, another bar in Prague, where we seem to finish up the night fairly often. We were joined at Usudu, some minutes later by my dancing partner, Alex, and Becca as well. At this point though, Allie and I decided to head back to the dorm. After all, since it was a Wednesday I had a class I couldn’t miss the next morning.
And I didn’t miss it…though I might have been a little late (sorry Professor). In film class we watch a Milos Forman film, Fireman’s Ball which was far better than the run of the mill Czech New Wave film. I was very impressed. I hung out at the dorm for a while after my class, and then headed out with Ian, and some of the boys for a night of revelry in honor of the honorary member of AIFS, Sarah Pilchek(who basically moved into our dorm after she figured out how cool we all are…did that sound arrogant? Opps).
I headed back earlier then most…probably because I had to attend to make up class for Czechoslovak New Wave. We missed one earlier in the semester because the Professor was out sick. The make-up class was interesting though, because we watched a film from 2003, Boredom in Brno. The film pays tribute to the films of the Czechoslovak New Wave and some critics, including yours truly (in my final paper) have argued that it should be included in that august group.
That night was fairly quiet because Jake and Allie had headed out earlier to Liberec to plant trees. I managed to find some people to hang out with, the three Toms, Steve Thomas, Bryan K, and Tom Bearce’s little brother. At pretty relaxed crowd. We got some drinks and played some cards...in which I got utterly beaten by the other guys, and then Bryan and I folded and went back to the dorm...
With Jake and Allie gone, Saturday and Sunday were both pretty uneventful. With the except a day trip with Zee on Saturday. We, myself, Zee, Stephanie Woodward, and Brigitte(Zee's regular crowd) headed out to a garden on the outskirts of Prague. It is home to the Czech botanical society, and is absolutely one of the most beautiful places in Prague. We stopped for Pizza on our way back to the Dorm. After that, I crashed pretty hard didn’t do much of anything for the rest of Saturday, except stay in my room and watch Babylon 5(great TV show by the way, but now I’m going to have to shell out for four more DVD sets…damned things are like crack.)
On Sunday, I decided to check something I'd been meaning to see for a while, the Museum of Communism. The Museum chronicles the history of the Czech Republic from its take over by the communists in 1948 under the leadership of Klement Gottwald, to the end of Communism in 1989(its so weird that I was actually alive at that point) with the Velvet Revolution and the election of Vaclav Haval as President. I was very impressed with museum and I bought an awesome Lenin postcard to prove it.
Like everything else, some Prague streets were renamed to honor revolutionary "heroes".
On Tuesday, that is, the 11th of May, my parents finally arrived in Prague. And wonder of wonders what should happen but the weather turned nasty and cold. Zee blames it on the Volcano, but I think that the Oxenfords should never travel to Europe as a group…but it was definitely nice to have someone other than me pay for dinner those nights, and it was good to see my family after being away from them for four months.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I showed them around Prague a little bit. Then on Thursday afternoon, we headed for the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin….
Next: Berlin: City of Museums
Then: Prague Part Part XII: Na Sleddou.
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