The cabinet was lying on the kitchen floor, with shattered dishes, glass shards, and roses scattered around. Drops of red, which I hoped were jam but knew were blood, created a macabre pattern on the tile.
That's what I saw when I came downstairs yesterday morning. Nice way to start my Saturday. There had not been a violent crime--the four-year-old had somehow tipped over a huge cabinet, breaking the dishes inside and cutting his head. But everything is okay. He just has a tiny cut on his scalp and the kitchen is now clean and blood-free. Every day is an adventure...
I am trying to go into Prague at least three days a week. Twice for yoga, usually, and then once to walk around and just relax in the city. Last week my "fun day" in Prague was a visit to a National Gallery exhibition of a Czech painter named Otakar Lebeda. He was an art student in Prague and painted primarily landscapes in the late 19th century. He killed himself in 1901 at the age of only 24, which made the whole thing rather melancholy. I liked his paintings, and there were an extraordinary number of them, considering. Some had an Impressionist leaning, which I liked. As luck would have it, the exhibition was in the Waldstein Riding Palace, which forms one corner of the Wallenstein gardens, possibly my favorite spot in all of Prague.
Caution: Artsy photo of the Wallenstein Gardens
Perhaps more memorable than the exhibition was the spectacular unibrow a man was sporting on the metro. It was like a black, furry caterpillar that actually swelled across his nose, forming a thick bridge between each eyebrow. Where is his mom or sister or girlfriend or wife to get that taken care of?
Last weekend I had an Indian/1990s Saturday. Julie and I met some of her friends and went to an Indian restaurant near the center of Prague (tasty but it took forever) and then we went to a Bollywood movie. So fun. There were even live dance performances before the film, and the Indian ambassador was there! Here is a picture of one dance, and then a video of a slightly awkward man dancing with a woman.
If I ever get to graduate school I would like to do something with Bollywood musicals and classical musicals from Hollywood and modern music videos. Sort of an obvious topic but fascinating, I think. So that was the Indian part of the night. Then we went to Wenceslas Square, where I had my first Pilsner Urquell. I couldn’t come home after living in the country where they invented pilsner without having that beer at least once. I am not a big beer drinker, but I liked it. The big building at the center of the picture is the National Museum.
Now for the 1990s portion of the evening. We went to the Lucerna Music Club for a 1980s and 1990s theme night. We walked in to the "Macarena" (hadn't heard that in a while!), and danced to Michael Jackson and Vanilla Ice and "Barbie Girl." The club reminded me a little of Shooters in Durham with a big dance floor, huge screen for music videos, and a balcony that wrapped around the dance floor where mostly men perched to ogle the dancers. (You can see Will Smith in the video from Men in Black on the screen.)
It was a really fun atmosphere--everybody was dancing and enjoying themselves. I had a flashback to middle school dances. Amazing how those lyrics come back to you, years after you heard the song!
This week I went back to the Mala Strana area of Prague for my "fun day" and read for a while in a cozy chair in Starbucks. Ahh the peace and wondrous familiarity of a quiet Starbucks in the middle of Prague.
That peace and familiarity was shattered this weekend by my first trip to IKEA...Wowsers. Pier One +Super Target on steroids and human growth hormone + Costco essence. Awesome. Totally overwhelming. And the place is like a maze. No, not like a maze, it is a maze. Or at least it was for me. I could not find the checkout and the exit. It was crowded (it was a rainy Saturday afternoon) and I couldn’t understand the store maps since they were in Czech and I don’t know the word for checkout or register. You enter the store and then you can’t go out that way. You have to go upstairs, wind your way around, go downstairs, wind your way around that level, and then finally you are herded to the exit. You can’t really cut through departments or find a quick way to the checkout. There are no windows and sort of low ceilings so you lose track of time and space and who you are. At least I did. But now that I know how to shop in IKEA, next time I won’t panic, steal the conch and kill Piggy.
Besides blood, Indian music, IKEA, and Starbucks, this week also featured the baby's first birthday! We used the candles my mom sent me (they burn different colors! super cool!) on the gorgeous cake that the grandmother made. So hurray for his first year!
This occasion made me think: I have been here for 3 months of his life, and he has only lived 12 months...which means I have been around for 25% of his entire life. Crazy.
Perhaps more memorable than the exhibition was the spectacular unibrow a man was sporting on the metro. It was like a black, furry caterpillar that actually swelled across his nose, forming a thick bridge between each eyebrow. Where is his mom or sister or girlfriend or wife to get that taken care of?
It was a really fun atmosphere--everybody was dancing and enjoying themselves. I had a flashback to middle school dances. Amazing how those lyrics come back to you, years after you heard the song!
Cam, congratulations, you just produced a description universally applicable to all Czech males: slightly awkward man. (I would add "effeminate", but I don't insist.) ;o)
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