Day 4: technically

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (eep, it's 2009!)

So this is my first post on this blog, but not my first day in Prague. I've been meaning to start this (I actually thought about beginning it before I left, but I didn't). I decided it was high time to start it because I had my first tumble today. That’s right, Winter in Prague 1, Janine 0. So depressing. And worse because it was so centrally located and there people heading home from work wandering about. The other day I mused that even though it was slick, it was nice to have pants without salt stains on the hems. I lied. I’ll blame it on the cobblestones or black ice, or something other than myself (and no Mom, I wasn’t wearing horrible shoes).

Life here has been fascinating so far. I arrived in Prague on Saturday, January 3 (my half b-day) in the late afternoon. First glitch, I lost a suitcase in my many connections and layovers. (Though I did get to stop in Dublin & have an Irish stamp in my passport) But more on my plane experience later. The first thing that struck me was A: how empty the airport was. And B: how strange it was that the songs on the radio in the car I took to my flat was Alanis Morriesette and then an acoustic version of "Ayo" a really bad Timbaland song.

We drove through suburban like areas, and it seemed very "Eastern Europe" and then not. It seems as if there is a contrast between old & new buildings, but a complete lack of what I like to call the "Soviet Bloc" look (a place my old 1984 Volvo Station Wagon would fit in quite nicely). Instead the architecture is a mix between rococo and something else that I'm not quite sure the name of.

My flat is typical of the era (at least in design and structure, though not really in style; the school is big on what I like to call Bargain Ikea chic, fantastic. But there are double doors leading in and out (and between) every room and the lobby is gorgeous.

The school is across the river from my flat which prove for an awesome walk everyday (expect the slippage, cause my knee is sore). I love that everything (literally from the local mini-mart to the school to the café across the street) is in an older building, very little is new, or modern or grotesque. Well there is one building, a part of the National Theater, that looks like bubble wrap. I’ll bring my camera out and take some photos.

But the best part of my walk is the exquisite view of the Prague Castle (Prazky Hrad) and the Charles Bridge (Karluv most) all lit up at night. Again, must bring camera.

So my trip over was long, quite long. But and I was a cross between terrified, as every little girl is when she leaves home, and exhilarated.

I had this amusing image of myself, on my flight to Dublin, running up to a flight attendant and demanding that they let me off the airplane because I did not want to leave these United States.

Instead, my flight was a little less than comfortable. I did enjoy not having a person next to me, so extra room for my sprawling legs and myself. Of course, I couldn’t sleep, so I watched movies. Three to be exact, if you’re curious: Pineapple Express (mediocre, not as funny as I’d hoped). The City of Ember (not so great a movie, but I must read the book) and The Duchess (Keira Knightley in a period drama . . . Dominic Cooper looking handsome and Ralph Fiennes the baddy with heart made of some gold and other metal amalgamation? . . . surprisingly decent.

I also had the awesome opportunity to be sick on the plane, and I do not recommend it; so take your airsickness patch and keep that tiny paper bag with you at all times (like your seatbelt). Seriously, I felt like I was at a hockey game or in church, it was all stand-up, sit-down, fight! Fight! Fight!

I had some fun observations as well:
-It’s fun to try and determine based on hair style, dress, skin tone (ie pale, not pale etc) if a person is of American, Irish or some other descent. Less for judgmental purposes and more for pure entertainment, because you’ll never really know.
-Vomiting on a plane is messy (raise your hand if you now know way too much?!
-Aer Lingus flight attendants sometimes wear a lot of cologne.
-Smiling helps
-It’s my half birthday
-Some Irish pronounce the ‘ch’ in Chicago just like that, ‘ch’ rather than ‘sh’.

The Dublin airport is whiter and more meandering that I expected it would be, whiter in the sense that the floors and chairs and walls are a clean combination of silver and white. It makes for a quite pretty and clean looking space, in contrast with the perpetual gray and bleakness that often pervades American airports.

Well, to bed. Take Care and

Dia ‘smuire dhoaibh (that’s good-bye in Gaelic).