Three Big

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

On Monday my buddy Jaclyn and one of her friends visited Prague. She went to Boston College and studied in Venice with me during fall of our junior year. We had a tasty lunch at a vegetarian restaurant that Julie took me to a few weeks ago. Although I do not want to complain and I am trying to "assimilate," I do welcome a change from the meat and starch meals that are my usual. The restaurant is right off of Old Town Square, one of, if not the most, touristy areas, but it is very inexpensive and delicious and has a great atmosphere. Then we caught a New Europe tour. My cousin Jenner recommended I try New Europe. He and his friends went on their Prague tour when they visited, and they just raved about it and their tour guide. The tours are free and you tip at the end if you liked it. The guides are young and their audience is young, too. It was a group of students from all over the world: I heard Spanish, French, and German, along with Australian accents and various American twangs. There were some guys from Scotland wearing funny plaid fedoras that the tour guide mocked incessantly. Beyond their comedic value, the Scottish boys' toppers were helpful in locating the tour group in Prague's busy streets: Stop to take a picture...turn around...where's the tour? Oh, there is the garish plaid! We are saved.

As luck would have it, Jaclyn and her friend and I were assigned to the same tour guide that Jenner had! He is from "a small village north of Mexico called Los Angeles" but has lived in and around Prague for eight years. He was extremely entertaining and knowledgeable. At this point, almost two months in, I have seen most of the historic city center, but I have not taken an official tour. So I knew some of what the guide was saying but he filled in the gaps and connected some of my aimless and confused wandering. I had to leave before the tour ended to catch a bus back to Nove Straseci, but I think I will finish the tour another day.

Yesterday, the grandfather brought me a pillow with a picture of a golden retriever on it! I had told Eva about my much missed doggies at home, and she must have told her dad. Amazing. The dog on the pillow looks like Parry! It is sitting on my bed and I smile when I see it.

Having to watch my language (in more ways than one) with the boys has made me realize how often I say certain things and how nonsensical English can be. For instance, the word "too." Sure sounds like "two." And I sure use it a lot. Too much, too tall, too big, too loud...etc. As the boys understand more and more English they have started to look a little puzzled at these expressions. Yesterday, I said "Too big!" about a huge toy truck that the boys were trying to put on a small shelf. Honzik looked at me and said "Three big!"

That same afternoon, when the grandfather gave me the Parry pillow, I thanked him profusely and said to Eva, happily, "I have gotten too much stuff today!" (The grandfather had already brought me a popsicle and a small bagpack.) Honzik immediately looked upset. He started to cry a little and climbed on his mom's lap. I heard my name as they chatted in Czech. Turns out, he heard "too" but thought "two" and then thought that I meant I had gotten two pillows! He was upset because he had only gotten one pillow from his grandfather and didn't know why I had two! I do not have the Czech skills to establish the differences between "too" and "two" but hopefully they will get worked out in time.

This is a video of the village square and the city center. There is a statue of a man and a girl on the left side. She is either pinning a medal on his chest or cutting his heart out. I have not examined it closely.

The big building that the clip ends on is the high school.

This video was taken from the opposite direction. So you can get a total view of the square and the bustling center of town.

Now that you have some idea of the size of the village, you will understand my surprise at counting no less than five garden/flower shops. These people love their plants! I have never seen such gorgeous window boxes. Front yards are tidy and lovingly kept. Flowers, like those fantastic hydrangeas I took a picture of a few weeks ago, are the norm, not the exception. And there are exotic, blooming orchids in almost every window. Cherry trees, peach trees, currants, strawberries...everywhere. Just beautiful.

I have been trying to become a "regular" at the cukrana in the village. I get a cappuccino and sit there with a book or my hot pink moleskin (thanks, Virginia!).

I get some strange looks still but I have gotten used to it. I would like it to be my Czech Parker and Otis. (If you are ever in Durham, do stop by!) Parker and Otis is about 1 block and a half from my old apartment, and it was my favorite place to browse (wonderful unique foods and gifts) or eat or do schoolwork or all of the above. I loved to walk there in the mornings before class and get coffee and a bagel. It was my special twice weekly ritual. Sometimes three times if I went for Saturday brunch, but who is counting? Oh, their coffee! I got my mom hooked, too! Now that I don't live at the apartment anymore, she will have to come up with some excuses to swing by Parker and Otis...

(Palacinkarna next door is the pancake shop. But their pancakes are more like crepes, I think.)

So that was my commercial for Parker and Otis. I really miss it. The original point of this tangent, though, was that I am making an effort to hang out in the village. If you can call walking five minutes and relaxing with coffee or a Czech pastry an "effort."

Here is a too quick (sorry) pan of the main drag. The post office, then the palacinkarna, then the cukrana, then a haircutters then a drugstore then pharmacy...

Here is a nicely decayed building with a beautiful door.

But what really got my attention were the creepily lifelike female heads above the door and windows.

Creepy, right? Reminds me of heads on pikes, not vaguely Greek architectural ornamentations.

This morning I did one of Danya's yoga classes. (she is a Duke student who taught my favorite yoga classes at school. She let me record some classes so now I can bring Wilson Gym and Danya and Duke with me wherever I go!) It can be tricky to find space in my third floor apartment for sweeping hands-to-the-sky yoga gestures since it is an attic (though beautifully finished) with dramatically slanted ceilings, but if I turn my mat just so in the doorway I have an unobstructed vertical reach. I am not that tall, after all.

During my free time I have been researching graduate schools. Wow overwhelming. I had forgotten how awful applications can be.

I have also returned to knitting. I didn't bring any needles or yarn here, but there is a knitting shop in the village so I thought it would be nice to start again. I went to the yarn shop and walked in, expecting to see knitting needles against one wall and cubbies or shelves of yarn that I could browse and touch. Yarn shopping is quite tactile. But what I found was an L-shaped counter running the length of the tiny shop. Behind the counter was a fairly sour looking woman, and behind the woman were shelves of yarn. You have to ask the woman to get you the needles and the yarn and the patterns and everything. No relaxed browsing here. I mumbled "dobry den" (hello) and then "ummm... I'll be back...I mean, dekuji (thank you)...umm...nashledanou (good-bye)" as I blushed and retreated out of the shop. Later, Eva took me back and through her I was able to get some yarn and needles. She said that the shop makes her feel like she is in the 1950s since it is so old fashioned. And speaking of the 1950s...

Caution! Man From The '50s Crossing