Don't give the ghost up just clench your fist

So it's July in Prague. And it's quite lovely. So a lot of things have happened in the few months since I've blogged in here . . . and I thought that the best way to tell you about them was via list. Cause there's nothing I love more in the world than a list (yeah so that's a total lie, but whatever).

So it was this lovely sunny day . . . and then it just got all overcast and such, I'm so disappointed. But that's okay.

1. I moved (twice, kind of): the lease on my apartment was up on June 15, so I've relocated to a new flat near Vyshehrad right along the river. And in there I moved rooms once. I'll tell you more about the apartment (with pictures!) once I have a chance to get myself unpacked, cause that's been a slow process.

2. I had a birthday: Friday July 3! twas my birthday . . . and it was a lovely one. Thursday evening I was out with friends who were gracious enough to sing me happy birthday and buy me drinks at midnight (and later). Then Friday evening my friends Kate, Sinead & Chris had a gig at The Royal Oak (one of my weekly stops). The show was great fun, and at the end they sang me an awesome birthday song complete with cake and candles.

3. I finished the semester: this was a teary event (not really) for me. But the school year in the Czech Republic finishes at the end of June. My lessons were stopping from mid-May until just last week (with some continuing over the summer). It was quite bittersweet (because there's the risk that I won't see some of these great people ever again). A few students gave me going away presents, which I vaguely remember doing in elementary school, but this is way more awesome. I received roses from my pair of twenty-something girls (who are way cool) and snazzy coffee/tee cups and saucers from two of my Nova TV students. They're quite pretty and say "moje nova. moje televize." Means "my nova. my television" . . . I think nova actually means "new" but in this context it's talking about the TV station (look at my badass translation skills)

4. I learned to count from jeden to sto: I learned to count from one to one hundred. My friend Veronika and I meet once a week or so to have a Czech-English exchange. We try really, really hard to actually work on language, and not just chit chat about life and everything else. It's really fun and interesting, and my Czech is improving (though at a rather glacial pace).

5. I gave tests!: One of the big parts of any teacher's life is testing, but I kind of hoped I could escapte that whole aspect by being a TEFL teacher. Not so much. Testing is just, not fun! My students didn't mind so much, because they actually know their progress . . . but I just hate being that teacher, you know? Oh well.

6. I had visitors: My High School pals Genna and Elissa (and her main squeeze Steve) came to visit for a long weekend. We had a great time exploring the city in the touristy fashion (it was kind of crazy, but also awesome).

7. I played tourist: We took the 22 tram (the tourist tram) up to the the castle and then walked down the hill and across the Charles Bridge, occasionally skipping into shops to avoid the rain. We finished up in Old Town Square and enjoyed some dinner at the classically touristy (and yet not) Cafe Louvre. We also visited the Jewish Quarter, and saw some the sights there.

8. I visited Terezin: Saturday was spent at Terezin (Theresienstadt) which was once a Ghetto and prison for Jews during WWII. It was technically not a concentration camp, but instead a brutal ghetto and prison that often served as a stopping point before being moved to Poland. It was originally built in the 19th century to stop the Prussians, though was never used as that. It consists of a small walled city and a fortress. This, according to the Nazis, was the ideal place to keep the Jews, pre-made walls and defenses holding people in. The original inhabitants were eventually removed and the village converted to a ghetto (which at one point was spruced up to impress the Red Cross, who only saw what they wanted to see). The fortress had been used as a prison for years (housing Greek freedom fighters and Gavrilo Princip the man who assassinated Franz Ferdinand). It was later used as a brutal prison for the Jews from various ghettos. We were given a personal tour by Pavel, a Czech Jew who survived Terezin and time in Auschwitz-Birkenau. This experience was in some senses surreal and others amazing, to meet this man who had lived these moments in full force, and who was now giving himself and his story, over and over again . . . lest we forget.

9. I haven't heard about my visa . . . that's it.

10. I watched the river almost flood: In my lovely new apartment I have a sunroom/breakfast nook/way awesome totally fantastic room. It has huge windows over looking the river, which is peaceful and quiet and lovely for me. The fun part was sitting in my chair, watching the rain fall and the river, rise and rise. The flow is so interesting too. In the early morning it's rather slow and glass-like. But later in the day, as the boats appear, it moves quicker and quicker, as if it's trying to keep up. There are jazz boats and tour boats that love to take pictures of my awesome cubist house (and me in the window) as the sail past.

11. I tried absinthe: This was part of my birthday celebration. After the show, we enjoyed the Royal Oak as it calmed down, and then my friends decided to buy me some absinthe, which I have never officially tried. It was an experience, and not necessarily a tasty one. The trick is to melt the sugar into the class without catching the glass, the table and other assorted areas around you on fire. And not burning your mouth. I tried, and it was fun, but I don't know how soon I'll try again.

12: I went to a 5-story dance club: it's a crazy place called Karlovy Lazne. The bartenders try to swindle you, and the drinks are a little pricier than our favorite clubs Futurum & Lucerna. Buut, it has multiple floors including Top 40, R&B, Techno and Disco. The Disco floor is awesome cause it contains brightly colored squares that light-up under you while you dance. We went a little crazy, but the night wasn't quite complete, cause I didn't hear any Abba . . . tears.

13: I like Indian food now . . . that's it . . . it's just so good!

More to come! cau!

So my tast buds have changed

No, that's a literal statement. I genuinely think my taste buds have changed since moving to Prague. There is a good chance that I'm just maturing and being less picky about my food and beverage choices, but things have changed.

Here's the big one though: I'm drinking beer. I know right! It's craziness. I have never been a beer drinker. I like to think it stems from an unfortunate dinner experience many years ago, when I mistakenly took an overlarge swig of my mother's beer rather than the "weekend" soda-pop I was enjoying. Needless to say, the moment was tragic. From then on, I always thought beer tasted a bit like wet bread, which sounds really disgusting but is true. In college I began to enjoy socially imbibing vodka and the occasional class of wonderful white wine (gewurztraminer especially).

But some thing's different. The school I'm training at encourages a weekly pub night on Thursdays at a local pub. It's a great opportunity for the tutors to mix with the trainees, former trainees and of course the wonderful Czech students who are receiving the "benefits" of our English skills. The first night at the pub I thought I'd try a beer, I had one earlier in the week (a Budvar, for your curiosity, the original and true Budweiser recipe) and enjoyed it pretty well. So the first pub night I took a chance and let a friend of mine order me a few beers. I was testing the waters, trying to decide what was going to become my standard drink. I switched to some white table wine later in the night, which tasted like rusty tap water, so I decided to stay away.

But the following pub night, something changed. As if a switch was flicked in my brain, I became a beer drinker.

I lived in the capitol state of Beer and Cheese for nearly five years and drank less beer than I can count on one hand. I have grown up in a family of beer drinkers, it's been passed down from generation to generation. We, family of mine, and our ancestors are perpetual beer drinkers. They discuss it, attempt to find new and fascinating varieties. I have perpetually been one of the few and proud non-beer drinkers at family gatherings.

I can say, from my limited beer experiences, that Czech beer is decidedly quite different than American beer, even the "primo-Wisconsin" beers taste disgusting in comparison. It may easily have something to do with this different recipe. There's something about the taste, just . . . better.

It could also involve the fact that the average pint of beer at a pub costs 30-35 Czech koruna (crowns) which is roughly $1.75 give or take. And it's just a bit stronger than the 3.2 found in MN grocery stores.

I sincerely doubt that I will continue to be a beer drinker when I return to the States and the pitiful malted beverages it offers. But for here, now, I will always remember my first few weeks in Prague as the time I when I came to enjoy beer.

Na zdravi!