One last thing. My program forbade me to go into Prague on Saturday because of a Neo-Nazi march scheduled and the protests planned to stop it. Looks like it's a pretty good thing that I didn't go:
http://praguepost.com/articles/2007/11/07/police-detain-396-extremists.php
That site has details about the march and why it was so inflammatory, as well.
Family, note the street that's metioned (Pariska is I think how its spelled)-- that's the street our hotel is on. Hopefully there will be no Nazis in Prague for Christmas.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Strike.
So Simon didn’t come, which was a bummer, but that was still an hour of my life worth commemorating.
Elena had told me that she called ahead and made a reservation for us, so imagine my surprise when we arrived at the alley (in the basement of a hotel) with only four lanes total, only one of which was in use. Despite the lack of quantity, the quality was surprisingly good, including the now-normal screens which played ridiculous videos and tracked the score electronically, and, more noticably, permanent black-light lighting (Elena joked that finally she felt like the clothes she washed were really getting clean, since all of the white looked so white). The most impressive feature was a speedometer that told you how fast your throw was after each bowl. The numbers, unfortunately, meant nothing to me, since they were in km/hr, but it was still a cool concept. Jan, however, seemed to take it more seriously. His method of bowling consisted of standing as far back as possible, getting a flying start, and then whipping the ball down with all his might. I had to admire his utter lack of attention to direction. He got really into it, jumping up and down when he did well, but he was still a good sport when he did poorly, which was sadly most of the time. You could tell he was getting frustrated when his delivery turned into him literally running down the lane before he threw. The more I think about it, the more he looks like a skinnier (but not skinny) Santa Claus.
Elena took the direct opposite approach; she would stand by the line, get set, take several wind-up/practice swings, and then let go. This was actually fairly effective, and you could tell she was very pleased. I really shouldn’t be making fun of them, since I’m sure they were amused by my stutter-step bowl. They both were extremely cute and very supportive of one another and of me. In fact, after almost every bowl, it was necessary to give another one of the appreciative “Hesky”s that I’m starting to know so well. After I bowled a spare I even got a “Dobrou Hesky!”
The other occupied lane housed one guy whose girlfriend sat watching him the whole time. Aftter he got a strike, she would give him a low high-five. He bowled at least three games by himself while we were there. It was so funny.
Also, there was a bar right next to the alley, and they were playing large music videos, so Justin Timberlake provided the melody for my bowling. It was awesome.
I should also point out that true to my Wisconsin gym-class training, I won both games (which were played at break-neck speed; once the person before you was done, you WENT- Megan you would have loved it), though not by much, and that’s not saying much. I was a bit thrown off by the fact that instead of the normal bowling lines/markers, the whole lane was painted like a road, complete with dotted lane markers going down the middle. These markings started where you were supposed to start your approach (I guess) which was a good ten feet back. So strange.
Elena had told me that she called ahead and made a reservation for us, so imagine my surprise when we arrived at the alley (in the basement of a hotel) with only four lanes total, only one of which was in use. Despite the lack of quantity, the quality was surprisingly good, including the now-normal screens which played ridiculous videos and tracked the score electronically, and, more noticably, permanent black-light lighting (Elena joked that finally she felt like the clothes she washed were really getting clean, since all of the white looked so white). The most impressive feature was a speedometer that told you how fast your throw was after each bowl. The numbers, unfortunately, meant nothing to me, since they were in km/hr, but it was still a cool concept. Jan, however, seemed to take it more seriously. His method of bowling consisted of standing as far back as possible, getting a flying start, and then whipping the ball down with all his might. I had to admire his utter lack of attention to direction. He got really into it, jumping up and down when he did well, but he was still a good sport when he did poorly, which was sadly most of the time. You could tell he was getting frustrated when his delivery turned into him literally running down the lane before he threw. The more I think about it, the more he looks like a skinnier (but not skinny) Santa Claus.
Elena took the direct opposite approach; she would stand by the line, get set, take several wind-up/practice swings, and then let go. This was actually fairly effective, and you could tell she was very pleased. I really shouldn’t be making fun of them, since I’m sure they were amused by my stutter-step bowl. They both were extremely cute and very supportive of one another and of me. In fact, after almost every bowl, it was necessary to give another one of the appreciative “Hesky”s that I’m starting to know so well. After I bowled a spare I even got a “Dobrou Hesky!”
The other occupied lane housed one guy whose girlfriend sat watching him the whole time. Aftter he got a strike, she would give him a low high-five. He bowled at least three games by himself while we were there. It was so funny.
Also, there was a bar right next to the alley, and they were playing large music videos, so Justin Timberlake provided the melody for my bowling. It was awesome.
I should also point out that true to my Wisconsin gym-class training, I won both games (which were played at break-neck speed; once the person before you was done, you WENT- Megan you would have loved it), though not by much, and that’s not saying much. I was a bit thrown off by the fact that instead of the normal bowling lines/markers, the whole lane was painted like a road, complete with dotted lane markers going down the middle. These markings started where you were supposed to start your approach (I guess) which was a good ten feet back. So strange.
Housekeeping
Well, it turned out to be a rather unprolific week as far as my blogging goes. When I don’t blog, do you picture me doing nothing blog-worthy or being too busy to relate my overwhelmingly exciting adventures? Last week was a mix of both. Probably the most remarkable thing I did was attend an International Conference on Community Schools, which was exactly as very important and very boring as it sounds. I also took two tests and gave a presentation in Czech for a full five minutes. I used almost every word I know and most words I had to use twice ;). That’s a stretch; taking the test proved to me that I did know a lot. Unfortunately, during the oral part of the test I got pretty nervous. I had to have a conversation in Czech with a man that I didn’t know while my teachers listened and graded me. At one point he asked me what my dad did, and instead of being smart and lying and saying that my dad was an actor, a teacher, a manager, or in economics (those are pretty much the only profession-words we know), I tried to describe with my limited Czech vocabulary what I can barely explain to people in English. Oh, well. My friends in the program and I have been communicating with each other in Czech frequently, which feels good. Last night we went to a restaurant and used nothing but Czech with the waitress, which is surprisingly difficult. Also, one guy complimented me on the Czech I used in a text message I sent to him, and I hadn’t realized that I was using Czech and not English.
I have had a remarkably low-key weekend, which relates to what I was aiming at and completely missing in the first paragraph: I’m really feeling home-y in Prague. I no longer stare open-mouthed at the castle, instead I use it for orientating myself. It’s not a big deal to walk into a café and order green tea and sit at my usual table. I have mastered the bus schedule to the point that I (almost) never get down the hill just in time to see it pull away. It’s strange to be comfortable in Prague, but good, too. This week I have some meetings scheduled for my project, but I also have a lot of free time with which I intend to do some more of the touristy things I haven’t done yet, which will be good, since time is running out.
I did intend to go into Prague this weekend, but yesterday the weather was awful and this morning I woke up to a blanket of snow (almost literally; there’s a skylight over my bed, so I could see that I was covered right when I woke up). I still wanted to trek into the city, but today my whole host family was home (they were all gone all day yesterday), so I’ve been spending some time with them most of the day. Elena is campaining fiercely for me to buy some boots (I didn’t bring any), and today I finally had to admit that she’s right. She didn’t bring it up at first, and I admired her restraint, but a little bit into lunch she couldn’t resist. Bugger. I had a great conversation with her after lunch because she started talking about her favorite topic- how “kids these days” are disrespectful and so on, and when I asked why she thought that was she got on her other favorite topic: Life Under Communism. Remind me to tell you about some of her stories sometime, because it’s really fascinating stuff. She’s very melodramatic about it, so I sometimes forget how serious it was, but it’s truly amazing that she grew up living such a different life.
Anyway, we circled back around to complaining about Simon, who is “Really very smart. I am his mother but I am not just saying that. He really is very smart but he is lazy and impatient and if you want something you have to work.” I nod sympathetically and think about how lazy and impatient I was when I was 16 and how lazy and impatient I’m sure she was when she was 16. Poor Simon. Today at lunch (which consisted of hotdogs wrapped in homemade buns and some palacinky cake that tasted a bit like bread pudding) they had a conversation in Czech that ended with him storming away from the table. I have no idea what it was about, but then Jan told me (through Elena’s translation) that he (Jan) feels bad that they are not at home very much and can’t spend much time with me, and that Simon is jealous of me because of that. So now I feel bad because first of all I’m not around that much either and they don’t have to spend that much time with me and also I really hope that Simon isn’t jealous of me, though that’s totally legitimate because I’m here taking up space in his house and taking attention away from him. Sigh. We’ll see. Also, I think we’re all going bowling tonight, which should be hilarious. Apparently Simon doesn’t want to go, and when I asked Elena whether he liked bowling she said “Yes he loves it but he does not like it with us”. I had to laugh because of all of the times Tim (sorry Tim) or even I, for that matter, didn’t want to do something with parents that we would normally like. Hopefully he’ll come, because I cannot imagine bowling with Jan and Elena. Well, I can, but it’s a very funny picture.
And that’s the current saga of my life. I’ll tell you more about my project soon. Also, please email me or leave a comment if there are things you want me to talk about that I haven’t brought up yet, because I’m getting so used to things that I don’t know what’s interesting anymore. Hope you’re all well.
I have had a remarkably low-key weekend, which relates to what I was aiming at and completely missing in the first paragraph: I’m really feeling home-y in Prague. I no longer stare open-mouthed at the castle, instead I use it for orientating myself. It’s not a big deal to walk into a café and order green tea and sit at my usual table. I have mastered the bus schedule to the point that I (almost) never get down the hill just in time to see it pull away. It’s strange to be comfortable in Prague, but good, too. This week I have some meetings scheduled for my project, but I also have a lot of free time with which I intend to do some more of the touristy things I haven’t done yet, which will be good, since time is running out.
I did intend to go into Prague this weekend, but yesterday the weather was awful and this morning I woke up to a blanket of snow (almost literally; there’s a skylight over my bed, so I could see that I was covered right when I woke up). I still wanted to trek into the city, but today my whole host family was home (they were all gone all day yesterday), so I’ve been spending some time with them most of the day. Elena is campaining fiercely for me to buy some boots (I didn’t bring any), and today I finally had to admit that she’s right. She didn’t bring it up at first, and I admired her restraint, but a little bit into lunch she couldn’t resist. Bugger. I had a great conversation with her after lunch because she started talking about her favorite topic- how “kids these days” are disrespectful and so on, and when I asked why she thought that was she got on her other favorite topic: Life Under Communism. Remind me to tell you about some of her stories sometime, because it’s really fascinating stuff. She’s very melodramatic about it, so I sometimes forget how serious it was, but it’s truly amazing that she grew up living such a different life.
Anyway, we circled back around to complaining about Simon, who is “Really very smart. I am his mother but I am not just saying that. He really is very smart but he is lazy and impatient and if you want something you have to work.” I nod sympathetically and think about how lazy and impatient I was when I was 16 and how lazy and impatient I’m sure she was when she was 16. Poor Simon. Today at lunch (which consisted of hotdogs wrapped in homemade buns and some palacinky cake that tasted a bit like bread pudding) they had a conversation in Czech that ended with him storming away from the table. I have no idea what it was about, but then Jan told me (through Elena’s translation) that he (Jan) feels bad that they are not at home very much and can’t spend much time with me, and that Simon is jealous of me because of that. So now I feel bad because first of all I’m not around that much either and they don’t have to spend that much time with me and also I really hope that Simon isn’t jealous of me, though that’s totally legitimate because I’m here taking up space in his house and taking attention away from him. Sigh. We’ll see. Also, I think we’re all going bowling tonight, which should be hilarious. Apparently Simon doesn’t want to go, and when I asked Elena whether he liked bowling she said “Yes he loves it but he does not like it with us”. I had to laugh because of all of the times Tim (sorry Tim) or even I, for that matter, didn’t want to do something with parents that we would normally like. Hopefully he’ll come, because I cannot imagine bowling with Jan and Elena. Well, I can, but it’s a very funny picture.
And that’s the current saga of my life. I’ll tell you more about my project soon. Also, please email me or leave a comment if there are things you want me to talk about that I haven’t brought up yet, because I’m getting so used to things that I don’t know what’s interesting anymore. Hope you’re all well.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Czechmate
Today an old woman got on the bus and as I stood up quickly to let her sit down I saw a girl across the aisle do the same thing. I had already made eye contact with the woman, so she took my seat. I was a bit disturbed by how competetive and eventually triumphant I felt. This “altruism” might become an addiction if I’m not careful. I could write a whole novel about the things that happen on the bus. Sometime, remind me to tell you about my favorite bus driver, who, I realized today (for you Carleton people), looks exactly like Glen Perry. Weird.
I just got home from a 4-hour study session in a teahouse. It was strangely effective, and I can’t stop thinking about all of these topics. The most annoying question, which is unfortunately one of the focuses of our program (which maybe explains why it’s annoying now), is “What is Central Europe?” I suppose that before the program, I had never really thought about it- I think I could barely tell you which countries were in Central Europe- but by now it had become an extremely loaded term for me. We were out one night with a Czech guy and we asked him how he would define CE. He said, “Any place where you can get apple strudl.” It sounds stupid, but that’s one of the more accurate definitions you could probably give. As a cultural term (“Eastern Europe” is usually used as its political counterpart- it’s equally difficult to pin down), I find CE pretty arbitrary. The countries included (usually Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and others, but it really fluxuates) don’t really have that much in common, and since evidence of globalization (another tired topic) is everywhere, unique culture is hard to find anymore. In fact, I would argue that CE is losing its validity by the second, so use it now while it’s still semi-correct.
I could probably write a whole novel on globalization, but I wouldn’t want to because it’s boring and it’s been done. It has surprised me, however, how “modern” the Czech Republic is in the commercialized sense. I think I came in with some pretty romantic notions about how it would be simpler, more honest, less subject to consumerism, etc, and while that’s still the case in some ways, it’s absolutely false as far as STUFF goes. Like I said, I went to IKEA with Elena on Sunday and it was scary how familiar and huge it was. TESCO is all over the place- it’s like a combination of a Walmart and a Target and has everything you’d ever need- and it’s always packed. I’ll admit, I’ve gone there several times myself because it’s convenient and it really is cheaper. Currently, Tesco doesn’t have any of the problems that cause controversy about businesses like Walmart, but I wouldn’t be shocked if those catch up soon, too. While I’ve found a few things that are completely “Czech”, you have to look. The weirdest part for me right now is to hear my host family or other Czechs talk about these places. My host mom was proud of how big IKEA was (she thought I wouldn’t have seen anything like it before, since my hometown is so small compared to Prague), and she went on and on about how good its food court is. She gets excited about window displays and cheap little Christmas things that I feel rather cynical about. I guess that’s not completely fair; I went into a mall the other day that was full of fake evergreen branches and Christmas lights, and I’ll admit I felt a thrill.
Another big element in the CE/globalization question is the EU, which again I hadn’t thought about too much before. I think that the EU will speed up globalization, at least in Europe, pretty considerably (maybe that’s obvious), and it seems like there are some clear benefits that will come with it, as well. For example, the EU has strict rules about humanitarian laws in its countries. This is especially interesting to me, since my project is on Roma education, and the Roma should be one of the main beneficiaries of the EU aid in the CR. So far, however, any money given for the Roma from the EU has gone straight into the pockets of Czech politicians, and the CR keeps making promises to change racist laws, practices, etc, but not delivering on those. It will be really interesting to see how the EU deals with this. I have no idea what the process is, though I’ve been told that the EU has brought 4 complaints against the CR already for this. I’m not doing a very good job of explaining, and the situation is really too big to talk about in one paragraph (or even a whole post!) anyway, but this is an issue in other EU countries, as well. Italy, for example, is currently trying to expel all of its Romany Roma from the river areas. This seems silly and I don’t usually do things like this, but I’m so very involved in this right now and the link just got forwarded to me, so if you can, take some time to type your name into http://www.romanetwork.org/protest2.htm. I would also encourage you to research the situation more, but heck, I barely have time for that, so ask me sometime and I’ll ramble on about it. I’ll probably be talking more specifically (and, we can hope, coherently) about the Roma in the CR when I start my project (Monday!).
Ach jo, I don’t know if this is even worth posting, it’s so all-over. My thoughts are pretty jumpy, and I would do well to remember that the quality of my writing is inversely proportional to the number of parentheses (and commas) I use. I know it’s hard to follow, and I apologize for that. All of this is so complex that it’s better to hae a conversation about it if you’re truly interested. But I’m putting it up anyway, if only so that I can revise it (extensively) later.
My dinner tonight: homemade garlic soup with homemade croutons, then what Elena called “Spanish bird” which was some meat (pork?) wrapped around a mixture of 2 types of sausage, hardboiled eggs (because clearly we weren’t getting enough protein), and a very minimal amount of something green that I’m hoping was a vegetable but I think was a pickle (does that count?), creating a roll about four inches in diameter. This was placed on top of rice and of course served with a side of normal-sized potato dumplings.
I just got home from a 4-hour study session in a teahouse. It was strangely effective, and I can’t stop thinking about all of these topics. The most annoying question, which is unfortunately one of the focuses of our program (which maybe explains why it’s annoying now), is “What is Central Europe?” I suppose that before the program, I had never really thought about it- I think I could barely tell you which countries were in Central Europe- but by now it had become an extremely loaded term for me. We were out one night with a Czech guy and we asked him how he would define CE. He said, “Any place where you can get apple strudl.” It sounds stupid, but that’s one of the more accurate definitions you could probably give. As a cultural term (“Eastern Europe” is usually used as its political counterpart- it’s equally difficult to pin down), I find CE pretty arbitrary. The countries included (usually Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and others, but it really fluxuates) don’t really have that much in common, and since evidence of globalization (another tired topic) is everywhere, unique culture is hard to find anymore. In fact, I would argue that CE is losing its validity by the second, so use it now while it’s still semi-correct.
I could probably write a whole novel on globalization, but I wouldn’t want to because it’s boring and it’s been done. It has surprised me, however, how “modern” the Czech Republic is in the commercialized sense. I think I came in with some pretty romantic notions about how it would be simpler, more honest, less subject to consumerism, etc, and while that’s still the case in some ways, it’s absolutely false as far as STUFF goes. Like I said, I went to IKEA with Elena on Sunday and it was scary how familiar and huge it was. TESCO is all over the place- it’s like a combination of a Walmart and a Target and has everything you’d ever need- and it’s always packed. I’ll admit, I’ve gone there several times myself because it’s convenient and it really is cheaper. Currently, Tesco doesn’t have any of the problems that cause controversy about businesses like Walmart, but I wouldn’t be shocked if those catch up soon, too. While I’ve found a few things that are completely “Czech”, you have to look. The weirdest part for me right now is to hear my host family or other Czechs talk about these places. My host mom was proud of how big IKEA was (she thought I wouldn’t have seen anything like it before, since my hometown is so small compared to Prague), and she went on and on about how good its food court is. She gets excited about window displays and cheap little Christmas things that I feel rather cynical about. I guess that’s not completely fair; I went into a mall the other day that was full of fake evergreen branches and Christmas lights, and I’ll admit I felt a thrill.
Another big element in the CE/globalization question is the EU, which again I hadn’t thought about too much before. I think that the EU will speed up globalization, at least in Europe, pretty considerably (maybe that’s obvious), and it seems like there are some clear benefits that will come with it, as well. For example, the EU has strict rules about humanitarian laws in its countries. This is especially interesting to me, since my project is on Roma education, and the Roma should be one of the main beneficiaries of the EU aid in the CR. So far, however, any money given for the Roma from the EU has gone straight into the pockets of Czech politicians, and the CR keeps making promises to change racist laws, practices, etc, but not delivering on those. It will be really interesting to see how the EU deals with this. I have no idea what the process is, though I’ve been told that the EU has brought 4 complaints against the CR already for this. I’m not doing a very good job of explaining, and the situation is really too big to talk about in one paragraph (or even a whole post!) anyway, but this is an issue in other EU countries, as well. Italy, for example, is currently trying to expel all of its Romany Roma from the river areas. This seems silly and I don’t usually do things like this, but I’m so very involved in this right now and the link just got forwarded to me, so if you can, take some time to type your name into http://www.romanetwork.org/protest2.htm. I would also encourage you to research the situation more, but heck, I barely have time for that, so ask me sometime and I’ll ramble on about it. I’ll probably be talking more specifically (and, we can hope, coherently) about the Roma in the CR when I start my project (Monday!).
Ach jo, I don’t know if this is even worth posting, it’s so all-over. My thoughts are pretty jumpy, and I would do well to remember that the quality of my writing is inversely proportional to the number of parentheses (and commas) I use. I know it’s hard to follow, and I apologize for that. All of this is so complex that it’s better to hae a conversation about it if you’re truly interested. But I’m putting it up anyway, if only so that I can revise it (extensively) later.
My dinner tonight: homemade garlic soup with homemade croutons, then what Elena called “Spanish bird” which was some meat (pork?) wrapped around a mixture of 2 types of sausage, hardboiled eggs (because clearly we weren’t getting enough protein), and a very minimal amount of something green that I’m hoping was a vegetable but I think was a pickle (does that count?), creating a roll about four inches in diameter. This was placed on top of rice and of course served with a side of normal-sized potato dumplings.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Co Jedla Jsem Dnes (nebo Proc Nebudu Moct Jit Nekde)
The title means “What I ate today (or Why I will never be able to eat again ever)”
Muzu pist a neprocovat nebo necist protoze pisu cesky.
I should have saved the food entry for after today, because today was mind-blowing as far as food goes. I went downstairs at about 9 and was immediately served a pile of small sections of palacinky (pancakes) covered in sugar with blueberries on top. Myum. Then I went to Ikea with Elena (it was towards the city limits, in a section with many other huge stores. I felt very much like I was at home). On our way, she made me eat a banana and this Czech pastry which was a sort of gingerbread cake with a thick layer of apricot jam in the middle, all covered in chocolate.
This afternoon, I was at a café studying with some friends and I decided to order a bagel with cream cheese. I should have known better. “Cream cheese” is apparently a euphenism or at least a terrible misnomer for something that was definitely both cheesy and creamy but also had the characteristics of an egg salad with unidentifiable chuncks. There was about a kilogram of the stuff on my bagel, and after one bite I decided that wouldn’t do, so most of it remained on my plate. The taste was okay, but it was thick thick stuff. I would venture to guess that it was at least 50% mayonnaise.
I got back to the house before the rest of my host family. Elena had told that they would be home late, so I should eat some soup and more palacinky and more of the chocolate pudding/custard thing she made for last night. Well, I had some of the homemade soup (delicious- potatoes and beans and meat and cheese and onions and other delicious things) and some palacinky, though I decided to hold off on the pudding. Good thing I did, because an hour later Elena was home and cooking again. She made potato dumplings, a family favorite, and insisted that I eat at least one. I haven’t had quite this variety of dumpling before, and these things bear description. Each “dumpling” is the size and shape of a large orange, and probably weighs about three times the amound of an average orange. Inside of it is a golf-ball-sized quantity of some meat/onion concoction. The outside layer is almost all potato, as far as I can tell, but somehow it is actually denser than the potato itself. I have no idea how this is accomplished, but it is certainly true (and now in my stomach). I declined saurkraut as a sidedish, but Elena persisted and told me I needed something else, so she offered pickled beets, which I also said no to, so she made me up a special plate of homemade pickles. They were good but holy makeral I’m full. And I only ate one of these dumplings- Jan had six and I’m not exaggerating. There’s no way that you are comprehending how much food that is.
For dessert (because of course there was dessert), Elena had prepared a sort of homemade wafer cookie candy bar by taking plate-sized wafer cookies and layering them after putting a hefty portion of nutella between each layer. Nutella is this beautiful hazlenut chocolate spread, and if this is the first time you’re hearing about it, get thee to a grocery store now (you can buy it in the US, but it’s a lot more expensive than here).
So I feasted and now I am too tired to study. Exams this week, which might mean no postings, but more likely means a lot of postings as I delay studying.
Muzu pist a neprocovat nebo necist protoze pisu cesky.
I should have saved the food entry for after today, because today was mind-blowing as far as food goes. I went downstairs at about 9 and was immediately served a pile of small sections of palacinky (pancakes) covered in sugar with blueberries on top. Myum. Then I went to Ikea with Elena (it was towards the city limits, in a section with many other huge stores. I felt very much like I was at home). On our way, she made me eat a banana and this Czech pastry which was a sort of gingerbread cake with a thick layer of apricot jam in the middle, all covered in chocolate.
This afternoon, I was at a café studying with some friends and I decided to order a bagel with cream cheese. I should have known better. “Cream cheese” is apparently a euphenism or at least a terrible misnomer for something that was definitely both cheesy and creamy but also had the characteristics of an egg salad with unidentifiable chuncks. There was about a kilogram of the stuff on my bagel, and after one bite I decided that wouldn’t do, so most of it remained on my plate. The taste was okay, but it was thick thick stuff. I would venture to guess that it was at least 50% mayonnaise.
I got back to the house before the rest of my host family. Elena had told that they would be home late, so I should eat some soup and more palacinky and more of the chocolate pudding/custard thing she made for last night. Well, I had some of the homemade soup (delicious- potatoes and beans and meat and cheese and onions and other delicious things) and some palacinky, though I decided to hold off on the pudding. Good thing I did, because an hour later Elena was home and cooking again. She made potato dumplings, a family favorite, and insisted that I eat at least one. I haven’t had quite this variety of dumpling before, and these things bear description. Each “dumpling” is the size and shape of a large orange, and probably weighs about three times the amound of an average orange. Inside of it is a golf-ball-sized quantity of some meat/onion concoction. The outside layer is almost all potato, as far as I can tell, but somehow it is actually denser than the potato itself. I have no idea how this is accomplished, but it is certainly true (and now in my stomach). I declined saurkraut as a sidedish, but Elena persisted and told me I needed something else, so she offered pickled beets, which I also said no to, so she made me up a special plate of homemade pickles. They were good but holy makeral I’m full. And I only ate one of these dumplings- Jan had six and I’m not exaggerating. There’s no way that you are comprehending how much food that is.
For dessert (because of course there was dessert), Elena had prepared a sort of homemade wafer cookie candy bar by taking plate-sized wafer cookies and layering them after putting a hefty portion of nutella between each layer. Nutella is this beautiful hazlenut chocolate spread, and if this is the first time you’re hearing about it, get thee to a grocery store now (you can buy it in the US, but it’s a lot more expensive than here).
So I feasted and now I am too tired to study. Exams this week, which might mean no postings, but more likely means a lot of postings as I delay studying.
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