State of the Republic

some things about stuff you might want to know...

- Yesterday I got off the bus and suddenly someone came up behind me and said “Hey.” I was, naturally, startled, but it was just Simon. He had just been saying goodbye to his girlfriend ( !!! the plot thickens...) and was heading back to the house, too. He was in a fantastic mood, and reported that his parents said they would be home late, so we made dinner together (Elena, naturally, came home an hour later and made me another dinner, but don’t worry, I’m learning to plan ahead and not eat much either time) and watched a movie. I guess Mr. Hyde was sleeping or something, nevim how long this will last, but I no longer feel like I’m wrecking havoc on my host family.

- I realized today that I have a “regular” seat on the bus that I automatically go to. I had a moment of pause, thinking of Emerson and his damned worn path, and then I decided to forget convention and be comfortable for a bit. Besides, I’m doing all new things every day now, so one familiar route isn’t bad, is it?

- A sudden glut of broccoli has appeared in the house. Tonight, we had homemade broccoli soup and then broccoli cheese omeletes with mashed potatoes. I have been sneaking vegetables every now and then, but I have no idea how their systems are dealing with this sudden onslaught of vitamins and minerals. We had sour cream with the mashed potatoes, and they called it “funny mayonnaise.” I was giggling to myself that Simon seemed to cope with the veggies by supplementing sour cream for all of the fat content, and just then he said, “The good thing about this mayonnaise is that it covers the taste of the vegetables.” Last night we also had mashed potatoes, and I am not joking at all when I tell you that I made a mistake by letting Elena serve me, because she gave me enough sour cream to cover literally half of a regular-sized plate. The potatoes covered the other half. I, of course, ate most of the potatoes and only a little of the sour cream, and she promptly concluded that I don’t like sour cream. This is false. Tonight, then, she felt the need to explain to me that sour cream does have a lot of fat, but that’s why she mixes onions in it. To which I can only say, “Whaaat?!?”

- The weather here is GROSS. Each morning there is a new dusting of snow on the ground, but the sun is out. By the time I leave the house, it is either raining or snowing and very windy, and that lasts most of the day. Apparently last Saturday was the day of a certain Saint who, in the legends, “rides a white horse.” This has been interpreted to mean that Saturday will be the first day it snows, and miracle or science, it happened, and it hasn’t let up since. Also, it’s cold. I’ve taken to wearing nylons or thermals under my pants at all times, and even that’s not really cutting it. I’m just not used to it yet, but man. The house is also not cold, but never really warm, so that’s been hard for me. Thank goodness for my gigantic down comforter (I realize I have yet to describe my fabulous bed. Soon I will do just that.).

- I seriously considered morphing this blog into a sort of project journal for my ISP (Independent Study Project), but I decided that I want to keep my readership. Keeping that in mind, you do still have to put up with some of my yammering about cool things I’m learning/doing. I am really really pumped about my project all of a sudden. It’s been pretty hard for me to call people and set up meetings (I’m shy about that type of thing even in the US), and it feels really good to both set up and conduct interviews with people who are quite important (if I do say so myself) in the world of Czech Roma education. I still get pretty nervous every time I go to meet someone, but I think it will get easier, and as silly as it sounds I’m learning some pretty good life lessons. I have to say that doing a project like this is a pretty fabulous way to learn, and I’ll admit that all of the people who have been telling me “Well, there’s always the Watson...” now have me thinking, “Hey, I could do a Watson....” but that’s something to figure out much later. For now, I will continue down my pocket-protector, broken-glasses, too-short pants –worthy path, and take comfort in the fact that if I am a nerd because I like this project, at least I am a nerd in Prague.

- Zuzka (my friend from Olomouc) just sent me her essay to proof-read. She is applying to study in the US for a semester as part of her quest to attend Yale. It is so cute and so so funny. I feel bad posting the whole thing, but let me just show you the first sentence (mind you, this is all one sentence: “And so she was standing, alone but in a crowded place, her fingers were thrilled, her little delicate body was waving in the cold wind of the Monsieur Fall, she was so hot and so childlike, she was still standing and everything and everyone around her was running against new opportunities, and she was still standing- thinking about Rimbaud and his conviction, she was holding a big huge book , the title inscribe in the hardcover: Schindler`s list, of course it was an American edition, she was so exhausted of looking for the British one.” If you’re wondering “what in the world does any of that mean?” You’re thinking a lot like I am. I think that she got a little too ambitious and used the dictionary a little too much. Oh golly. Sometime when you need a pick-me-up I’ll let you read the whole thing, if you can manage