Weekend Update

My new favorite Czech word is “drb”. It means “gossip”, but I like it better for its phonetics than for its meaning. I haven’t had much “drb” in my head lately- though our group has certainly supplied plenty, there’s something about the end that makes the silly stories that came between much less important.

On Saturday I spent the day with my fellow students, most of whom flew out this morning. We hit our favorite café/pub, Krasny Straty (It means “beautiful losses”, and I was actually there two distint times Saturday alone), but ended up at a new place, a pub called Mlyn (mill) on Kampa, the island between Malostrana and the river. It was a pleasant night and a fitting goodbye. I’m sounding sentimental now, but I really don’t feel that sad. The few good friends I’ve made here I expect to see again- it’s more the end of the experience that’s getting to me.

Sunday was a stark contrast to Saturday as it was a day of domesticity. I was “helping” Elena prepare for a party that night, which meant that I performed small jobs and then waited patiently for her to find something else that I couldn’t screw up. I did get to see her prepare poppyseed, which is a first for me. We put it through a mincer, and though I couldn’t tell the difference between pre- and post- mince poppyseed, it was apparently much smaller and better. The quantity of poppyseed in the house right now is enormous, and I’m curious to see in what form we eat it. Elena had me eat a plain spoonfull, and I guess it was good, though I can’t imagine eating it like that all of the time. We also made about a billion of these marshmallow-like things. We sqeezed the batter out of a bag (I felt like the Target cake lady) onto cookie sheets and then baked them, and they are delicious, though I don’t know what they are.
The actual party began at 5. It was partially a Christmas party but mostly a surprise celebration for Elena’s 90 year old aunt, Verunka. Verunka, or Vera, herself was a tiny woman but very strong-willed. Everyone kept telling me she was in a bad mood, but I couldn’t tell myself. Apparently she was a specialist in Oriental culture. Three of her friends were here, and they all had studied some part of “The West”—one was an expert on India, one on China, etc. I bet they were having phenomenal conversations, and I would have loved to hear the Czech perspective on the culture, but alas I heard only Czech. It was hard to focus on anything, actually, because there were about 20 people in the house, which is a lot for this house, all trying to sqeeze around the table to eat, etc. It was really overwhelming. At first I was understanding a lot but I soon grew tired and couldn’t listen as carefully anymore. We ate a ton, of course- two pasta dishes, something I would call cabbage-tomato soup, and two cakes- one with strawberry and bananas, the other with pineapple. Otherwise, the night was pretty unremarkable. I can't wait for a family gathering that includes my real family!