Jejdaaaa!

Hi all. Sorry I haven't blogged in forever, but I decided it would be better for me to enjoy all the experiences I possibly can and reflect on everything later. Yes, this isn't ideal for the rest of you who check this twice daily (or more...mom), but I hope you agree that soaking every experience in is better than staying cooped up in a room typing all day. I'm not taking so many pictures because my new friends from the Czech language course in Dobruška are taking a million and we're compiling them to a group on Facebook from which everyone can use all the photos they want. I do have some of my own, and I'll update them on my Picasa site (picasaweb.google.com/carebear007) when I have more time. I'd be so happy to tell you all about my travels when I return to NE and don't have to miss out on an enrichment activity to type out a blog alone in my room. Hope you can understand! :)

Week 5

I can’t believe I’ve been here for a month already!! From here on out I don’t think I’ll give an entire summary of each day, but rather touch on the highlights of each week. I don’t have wireless internet access, so it’s impossible to update this every day.

            Since coming “home” to Klenčí pod Čerchovem, I spent a lot of time with Martina’s family. (Pavel’s family lives in Moravia, so I haven’t met them.) They are all done with school, so lots of family members gathered at Martina’s parents house for the start of summer vacation. I tried to explain to some of them that July 4th is a special holiday for the US for Independence Day. I told them my family all gathers and grills out and plays games and there are fireworks (that one took a while for them to figure out what I was talking about...they have fireworks only for the New Year) everywhere. I don’t think they really understood the fun and significance of the holiday. I guess you just have to experience it. So that day I knew my family was gathering, so I video chatted with them over Skype. It was SO nice to see my family again and in a small way be there at the party that I was sad to be missing.

            On the 5th Martina’s family had a big, 10-hour-long party with a few kegs of Chodovar (the delicious local beer that has replaced my old favorite) and live music by the family’s ridiculously talented multi-instrument musicians. Now that’s my kind of party! We ate, danced, talked, sang, ate, danced, talked, sang, ate, danced, etc. Everyone was so kind and invited me to participate in everything with them (which reminded me of my family) and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share in this real-life experience with such a wonderful, welcoming family!

            On Tuesday the local priest, who serves about 7 villages in the area, came over for the evening. He is a young priest, about 30 years old, who drives a motorcycle and plays in the country-wide priest soccer league. Awesome! I asked some questions about the diocese, priests, and seminarians, and he said there are about 5 ordinations in the whole country each year, and nearly every priest has multiple parishes. (Hear that, seminarian friends? Learn Czech and help this country out!!) Often times priets from Poland will fill in the priestless parishes, but they don’t usually speak very good Czech, so the people don’t prefer that. After that little lesson, the priest asked the reason for my stay in the Czech Republic, and although I told him it was to better learn the language and the dudy, Pavel made me tell the priest Pavel‘s favorite thing to make me say, which he thinks is the real reason I’m here. “Moje mamínka řekla že sí tady nemám najít manžela, ale já bych chtela.” (I’m not sure if that’s fully correct typed out, but its close.) Translation: My mom said that I shouldn’t find a husband here, but I want to. Pavel simply delights in my admitting that and saying it in Czech to anyone who asks why I’m here. Sheesh! But since the priest was there I added that I’d like this non-existant husband to be Catholic. So he pulled out his cell phone, called a friend, told him what I had said, and handed me the phone. I ended up talking to a young, single, English-speakng, Catholic man who was on his way to the Czech Republic’s Catholic charismatic conference for young people. He asked if I’d be in Domažlice for the Chodské slavností (festival), and we agreed to meet there. I’m not really sure what I got myself into, but oh well. It’s sure to be funny.

            Throughout the week we spent lots of time with Martina’s family, mostly sharing meals. One day late in the week, Jan and I joined his grandma, great-aunt, (yeah, I don’t know how they’re in such good shape to hike through a forest, but they are) and some aunts and cousins on a hike up Výhledy mountain and through Česky les, which borders Germany. I found myself hanging around Jan and two of his male cousins around his age (13), which may be weird, but they spoke a little English to me and made the trip quite funny. Later, we all went to dinner and I got a Chodov beer and some smažený syr (fried cheese) for the first time. I had heard great things about it, but in my opinion its just like eating a fried mozzarella stick. But it was good. Jan also enjoyed making “pivola”, which was a combination of my beer and his Kofola, a Czech pop that is like Coca-Cola but a bit different. I like the mix, and I wish we had Kofola in the states! After dinner, the boys decided to take me on a little adventure through the field/farm across the street from their grandparents’ house because they wanted to show me the potatoes. We walked through corn and I explained that Nebraska is the Cornhusker state, and our corn gets super tall. It helped that Jan was wearing the Nebraska Huskers T-shirt I brought him! In the middle of the corn field was a potato field. They explained to me that potatoes are valuable and people will steal them if they're not in the middle of some other crop. It was a fun little adventure! After that I played some soccer and volleyball with Jan and some of his cousins, and I even taught them how to play a new game. It was a hit!

            The next day we went into Domažlice to buy groceries for the upcoming visitors (friends from Moravia), and Jan and I walked around the square to run some errands and search for kroj pieces in the antique shops. We went into the same one I had had luck in two years ago, and I ended up getting another apron and beaded vest!! The owner had several beaded vests which surprised me, but I chose the one in the best shape. If anyone is looking for antique kroj pieces I’ll let you know where the place is!

            Some of Pavel’s friends from Moravia came to Klenčí during the weekend, and we had lots of good food, lots of time at the swimming pool, and we even hiked up Čerchov mountain (8 miles total?). On Saturday night we went to the next town over (don’t remember the name) for their town celebration, with lots of music and dancing. My favorite part was dancing to two ‘valčík‘ songs (somewhere inbetween a waltz and a polka) with Pavel’s friend, who spun me around til I was dizzy. It was a fun night!

            Sunday morning Pavel and I went to church, then we had lunch and went to the swimming pool again. It was ridiculously hot out, so in the afternoon we mostly stayed inside and lounged. The friends headed back home, and Eliška and Jan went to their grandparents’ house in Moravia for the week. In the evening I took a sunset walk up to the Jinřich Šimon Baar statue on Výhledy Mountain, which looks out over Domažlice and some other Chodsko region towns. It was a nice walk, but since I went alone it definitely made me miss my friends back home!

            On Monday morning I’m heading to Pardubice, Czech Republic to visit my friend Helena and her family, who may actually be relatives of my mom’s family! We are going to try to figure that out while I’m there. After that I’m going to Bratislava, Slovakia to visit Mikulaš, who lived with my aunt and uncle (who will also be visiting!) in Omaha for a year. I won't be blogging because I won't have my laptop, but I’m very excited for the trip, and so blessed to have these wonderful connections in Europe!

week 4 (Prague)

            I didn’t have my laptop with me in Prague, so I couldn’t update my blog. But here are the main details! Pavel and Martina (my host parents) were going to Moravia and had to drive through Prague anyway, so I rode with them and we met up with Marta, the girl from the Czech Republic who my family hosted as a foreign exchange student three years ago. She currently studies and lives in Prague, so I stayed with her there. Since I had been in Prague for a few days two years ago I had already seen all the touristy sites, so this time I wanted to do more of the real life type of stuff. Marta and her friends were just finishing up school and exams, so their summer vacation was just starting. I probably have some of these days mixed up, but the details are still correct!

            Marta and I walked around part of the city during the afternoon, and saw several churches and cemeteries. The first night I was there Marta was scheduled to sing at a private party, so I made plans to hang out with my friend Jakub who also currently lives in Prague. I met him when he was studying at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln a few years ago. We walked to a park area (called Letná) that has a great view of Prague, got some beers, and sat down to chat and look out over all the red roofs. Three other young guys (who spoke English!) came up and sat with us later in the evening, and it turned out that one was from Bohemia/Czech, one was from Moravia, and one was from Slovakia. I consider this to be beneficial to me because they (pretty accurately, according to Jakub) represented the different opinions and feelings of the people of their respective home areas. They explained the relationship between the countries since the split of Czechoslovakia and talked a little bit about the differences among people from the different areas. It ended up being a very fun night!

            In the morning we went to see her boyfriend playing double bass with a band on Charles Bridge, then got some lunch an hung out on Kampa Island (near the Charles Bridge) for the afternoon. When Marta was singing at the fancy restaurant in the evening I decided to tackle Prague on my own. I walked around Orloj and Charles Bridge, and then sat across the river from the Prague Castle to see it at sunset. I also tried to find the front entrance to the Týn church because the front looks really cool from a distance, but I walked around the block twice with no luck. At this time there was a World Cup soccer game showing on a big screen in the Orloj square, so I watched that with a few hundred fanatics for a few minutes, and headed back to the restaurant where Marta was singing. That night we ended up sitting out on the steps of the Rudolfinum (music hall/theatre?) for a long time before heading back to Marta’s apartment for the night.

            The next day we walked around Prague some more, met up with Marta’s friends, and hung out at another park. That evening we went to a nice restaurant and then met up with more people to go to a bar.

            On Sunday morning I requested that we go to Mass at St. Vitus cathedral, which is in the middle of the Prague Castle. After that, I walked around the cathedral for a while and took tons of pictures because it’s so beautiful! There was a small choir from Alaska, who had sung at an earlier Mass, singing in the center of the cathedral. After that we waited for some of Marta’s friends and for the afternoon headed to the gardens of Queen Anne’s summer palace behind the Prague Castle. We also later went to the Letná lookout place again, and I’ve decided that it is one of my favorite spots in Prague.

            Another band Marta sings with played at a funk/reggae concert in Turnov, near her hometown, Jablonec nad Nisou, in the northern part of Czech. We took the bus there and went to the concert, which I enjoyed the most out of all her concerts that week. Her mom met up with us there, and we stayed at her house in Jablonec nad Nisou that evening. We spent the next day in Jablonec nad Nisou as well. That afternoon we took a nice walk in the forest by their house, and I enjoyed Marta’s stories about going to the forest with her grandparents when she was younger. It was also really nice to be able to talk with someone who knows more about me and the things I say about home or how I feel about stuff, because for the last three weeks I didn’t have that. So thanks, Marta. J

            We headed back to Prague that night, and did some shopping the next morning. (I only got a skirt.) Then in the afternoon we met up with some of Marta’s girlfriends at a coffee shop for them to plan their trip to Spain. We ended up staying there for nearly all afternoon. Later, one of the girls came with Marta and me to drink some wine in the park near Marta’s flat, and then we went to an early evening concert of a band made up of classmates of Marta’s from the music school. From there we went back to the same coffee shop as before to hear some piano pieces by one of the girls going to Spain with Marta. After a few songs there we went to an underground pub for a good jazz concert. Toward the end of that concert I overheard some people speaking American English (which always excites me here), so I talked with them for a while. They were three young guys (younger than me!) from Pennsylvania who were traveling through Europe for the summer. I gave them some tips on what to see in Prague, and taught them some useful Czech phrases. It’s always nice to run into other Americans!

            The next day we met up with Marta’s dad and half-brother in the morning for a while, then walked around Prague again. We, again, met up with friends and hung out in a park. I guess that’s a favorite thing to do in Prague. Drink and smoke (not me! But I think I inhaled enough second-hand smoke this week to have smoked a pack myself. L) in a park. So that’s what we did. Then in the afternoon we went back to Marta’s apartment and got ready for a salsa party for her music class. Then we met up with Marta’s friend Vít’a to drink some Sangria in the park before going to the Salsa club. I enjoyed that Marta and Vít’a made a game out of trying to one-up each other with history facts about Prague to determine who would be a better tour guide, and I just tried to remember everything they were saying, like a history lesson. Later, while Vít’a and I went to meet up with people at the Salsa club, Marta went to pick up my older brother, Andy, and his wife, LeAnna, from the train station. (They were traveling around Europe for a month.) They joined us at the pub/club, and we danced and drank and talked for quite a while that night.

            In the morning we headed out to show Andy and LeAnna the sights in Prague, including Wenceslaus Square, Rudolphinum, Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Queen Anne’s summer palace, and, well, I don’t remember what else, but I’m really glad I didn’t have to figure out the tram system through the city, I just had to follow the people who can actually read the signs! That afternoon we met up with another one of Marta’s friends who was also a foreign exchange student in the US, and we hung out at Letná again. It really does have a great view of Prague! After that we went to the store to buy some wine and things to make for dinner, and hung out at the flat for the night. We listened to music and talked and enjoyed each other’s company for a long time, and when we finished the wine Andy brought out the Hruškovíce, which is an alcohol like Slivovice, but made from pears instead of plums. It’s better, in my opinion. However, I also learned later that night that wine and hruškovíce don’t mix very well! Haha…live and learn. But it was a fun evening of just hanging out with friends! J

            The next day Marta, Andy, LeAnna, and I headed to Jablonec nad Nisou, Marta’s home town, for some real Czech life outside of the big city. We spent a lazy day there, and had some great authentic Czech food. Lída, Marta’s mom, is an amazing cook! Marta’s brother, Viktor, also came home for a while in the afternoon, and Andy enjoyed talking with him about computer stuff. In the evening we went to a restaurant that Marta sings at about once a month for a barbecue and a concert of two bands- one classical, and one jazz (Marta sang with them), and went back to her home afterwards.

            Andy and LeAnna had planned a side trip to Terezín, a Czech town that was the site of a Jewish concentration camp during WWII, the next day, and I went along. We took the bus there and followed Rick Steves’ guide to the town. I don’t think I could accurately describe everything in the town, so here’s a great website with lots of information on it. http://www.pruvodce.com/terezin/history.php3 LeAnna had been to the Dachau extermination camp in Germany some years ago, and said Terezín was a lot different because it just went back to being a town after the war, and is still a working town today, just with some museums and memorial spots of the war. When I was in the Czech Republic two years ago we went to the town of Lidice, which was supposed to be totally liquidated and swept off the map because of some anti-Communist people from the town. There was a great museum there with eye-witness testimonies, pictures, a memorial walk with a garden, statues, etc., and I enjoyed learning about the town’s story. I’m not sure what made me like Lidice better than I liked Terezín, but here is some information on Lidice so you can compare for yourself if you wish. http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/history_en.aspx We took the bus back to Prague in the afternoon, and then split off on the trains- I went back to Klenčí pod Čerchovem, and Andy and LeAnna headed back to Jablonec nad Nisou to spend some more time with Marta and her mom. When I got back to Klenčí that night, Jan (my host brother) met me at the train station and kindly biked my bag up the hill, where we met up with his parents and some family members at the pub (which you can see from my house’s terrace…so its like a pub in our back yard…sweet!) for some music and dancing. It was a long day with a fun evening, and I was so happy to be back “home” after the week away!

week 3

Monday, June 21

Jan was home sick from school, and Eliška came home early as well. Nothing too exciting happened today that I can remember. Martina bought peanut butter for the first time. Maybe that’s exciting. I told the family all the best ways, in my opinion, to eat peanut butter. At dinner we discussed American food, so I asked what they’d like me to make. They asked about Thanksgiving, what it’s for, and what my family eats for a Thanksgiving dinner. I thought it would be really neat to make them a Thanksgiving-style meal! After discussing the foods needed for this endeavor and hearing that half the foods didn’t exist here, I decided against it. So my next thought for “American food” was to grill and barbecue chicken and make green bean casserole. But again, after a possibly 30 minute conversation AND looking up pictures on Google about the kind of soup and French’s onions needed to make this classic casserole, those ingredients don’t exist here either. So I settled for my non-American specialty, pasta with carbonara sauce! I’ll make it for dinner tomorrow night. Maybe some other night I’ll make apple crisp for a dessert!

Tuesday, June 22

Eliška and Jan were both home sick from school today. We had breakfast, I played some dudy, and read out on the terrace because the weather was semi-nice out for the first time in a few days, and played some more dudy. Eliška and I watched the movie Dear John with Czech subtitles. When Martina got home we discussed folk songs from the Chodsko region, and she showed me a book of complied songs. Some songs have variations according to the different villages. Later, I made noodles with carbonara sauce for dinner, along with a tomato/onion/cucumber salad. The ingredients for the sauce were definitely different than the ones I use back home, but it tasted just fine and the family really liked it! At night some family friends (an actress and a musician) came over and we had some wine and discussion.

Wednesday, June 23

Jan was home sick today again. I played dudy for a long time this morning, ate lunch, and played dudy again. Jan actually told me I should limit my practice to 2 hours a day! Ha! So then I packed for my week in Prague, read and wrote out on terrace for a long time, ate dinner with Jan, and then walked to Martina’s parents’ house (they REALLY make me miss my grandparents) down the street for the Jan/Jana name day celebration. Its like another birthday, with a party (sometimes) and gifts, every year, but for anyone with the particular name designated for that day. We grilled out and I met more of the family. When we got home, Pavel said “Carrie, we go!” so I hopped in the car without knowing where I was going or what would be happening, but I’ve learned that if it’s with Pavel there are a few guarantees: he will drive fast, I will have to speak Czech, and we will have some sort of adventure that will turn out to be fun and memorable. This time we took some narrow paths up the mountain through the forest as Pavel explained (somehow) that the family belongs to a ski club that owns a holiday house on the mountain. We drove to the house and got out to look over the wonderful view of the Chodsko area. Pavel then proceeded to drive down the ski area, but the grass was very tall so he couldn’t see any of the holes or bumps or rocks that were on the path. I held on to the car the entire ride. Pavel is kind of crazy, but always fun!

**Mystery Meat UPDATE from last week: I believe it is cooked ground pork with onions and spices in it, formed into a loaf. It can be sliced and fried OR sliced and eaten raw (well, the meat is already cooked) like lunch meat. Phew!**

A Realization and Week Two

It hit me this week that no one will really be able to know what happened on this “trip” through a blog. I’m realizing that this isn’t a “trip.” It’s a stay. I’m LIVING here. In my last blog I could cover the main stops of the day in a few sentences with some details. But here I think it’s the little things that happen but I forget to mention here that are having the most impact on me. I can type out a few things that happen during the day, but the interactions and sights I encounter will never be replicated. Like Pavel singing his favorite Moravian song to me, or laughing with Jan about drawings in his English lesson book, or talking with Martina about precise details of a kroj (Czech folk costume), or eating lunch at school with Eliška and her friends, or trying to give Czech commands to their dog Cvrček (sometimes I think he understands Czech better than I do). Part of me wishes I could video tape this whole experience so I can relive it whenever I want to, but another part of me wants to go with the flow and chalk it all up to personal formation whether I remember it or not. Either way, here are some happenings from the past few days.

Monday, June 14

I played dudy with Martina in the morning, and we discussed what we will play together at Vyhledý, a folk festival nearby. I will also play dudy there with Jan. Martina and I also discussed the verb “to practice” in Czech. Its extremely complicated and I still don’t fully understand it. Jan came home from school around 1pm, and we took the bikes out again for a trip around town. We stopped at the post office (where he helped me get stamps and mail postcards), the elementary school (equivalent) he attended, the small town grocery store, the library, and lastly the church. On our way home we stopped at the priest’s home, but he wasn’t there again. In the evening, Eliška, Jan, and I rode bikes down to the town tennis courts and attempted to hit some tennis balls back and forth, but none of us were very good. It was pretty funny. :) When we got home the family asked me some more quetsions about my home, and asked if I would talk about Omaha, Nebraska, and the USA at school the next day, so I prepared a bit at night before bed.

Tuesday, June 15

I got to attend a real Czech gynazium school in Domažlice! It was sort of like a middle school/high school combined. That’s surely not on any tourist’s agenda! So the first two periods I sat in on Martina’s music classes. The kids were pretty burnt out from exams and just from winding down the year, so all we did was listen to and identify different styles of music, and then we sang some Czech and English songs. Of course I sang along! My favorite song we sang was “Falling Slowly” from the movie-musical Once. The song sheet had Czech pronunciation of English words. I thought it was funny. Plus it’s one of my favorite songs anyway! After that I got to give presentations about the US, Nebraska, and Omaha in both Jan and Eliška’s English classes in 3^rd and 4^th periods. Thank goodness I didn’t have to give the presentation in Czech! Jan’s class had more questions than Eliška’s, but both classes were interested in the tornadoes and blizzards we have in Nebraska. I guess those don’t happen much in the Czech Republic. They also asked lots of questions about the schools I went (and currently go) to and the school system in general. It was great to share about the Czech connections in Nebraska and the US as well. After those classes, Pavel picked me up from school and took me to the bank so I could register for a Czech bank card. Then he showed me the Domažlice town hall where I got to meet the mayor (US equivalent) and he let us borrow the key to see the elaborate election/wedding room. We then crossed the street to peek in the big church that is just under the tower Jan and I climbed last week. The woman at the church souvenir table said it was closed, but Pavel worked his charm (he seems to do that a lot) and she let us in the church. It was beautiful, just as all the other Czech churches I’ve seen. I took some pictures and then we headed back to school where I successfully asked for a Czech school lunch using my awesome Czech language skills (ok, I asked Eliška before I said it), and sat with Eliška and her friend at lunch. Eliška had a free period next, so she and I walked around the Domažlice town square looking for antique shops so I could look for some old kroj pieces. We couldn’t find any antique stores open, so we walked back to the school and Pavel again picked me up and took me home before he went to work in Plzen for the afternoon. When Jan got home from school he showed me his English lesson book. We laughed about his doodles and drawings in the book, and I made him fix a page about telling time and read me the times in English. He couldn’t stop laughing! In the evening I went to a concert of Martina and Pepa Kuneš’s music students. Jan is currently the only dudy student at the music school. I smiled extra huge during his dudy solo! After the concert we went to a restaurant in Klenčí for pizza with some of Martina’s family (Martina’s parents, aunt, grandfather, cousin, cousin’s daughter, Eliška, Jan, Martina, and me). Later that night at home, Pavel described some of the family photos that are up around the house. He told me stories (Eliška translated) that went along with the pictures, like about his grandfather being the first woodsman in Moravia to kill a wild boar after the revolution when they were first allowed to hunt again, and his parents‘ farm being taken away by the communists particularly because they were Catholic and successful farmers. I really enjoyed hearing about his family, and I hope I hear more old, interesting stories throughout my stay!

Wednesday, June 16

Today was quite cold. It was the first cold day since I’ve been here. Martina and I ate breakfast together and talked about kroje (Czech folk dresses). After she left for work I practiced dudy for 2 hours. Yes, two full hours of straight dudy playing before 1pm!! I’d call that being productive. Pavel came home for a bit in the early afternoon, so he sang and played some Moravian music for me. We discussed (somehow) the differences between Bohemian and Moravian music, and as he showed me some folk band websites he told me (again, somehow…I’m not really sure how I’m understanding all this Czech. It must be the hand gestures) that he thinks the more decorated a region’s kroj is, the worse that region’s music is. Not that it’s necessarily bad music, just not as precise and unique. I still haven’t decided if I agree with that or not. I suppose I’ll make that call after being here a while longer. After he left for work I practiced my dudy for another hour. My arm muscles actually hurt from playing dudy. This is awesome! When Jan got home from school he helped me correct names and towns in a document about my Czech ancestors. Thank goodness he knows where the correct diacritical markings go, because I sure don’t! Because he insisted on listening to Nirvana as we team-corrected the document, I showed him the Omaha band “311” thinking it was his style of music. Sorry, Omahans, he still likes Nirvana and AC/DC better, but I tried! After dinner I discussed the subtle differences of kroje representing different villages within the Chodsko region with Martina and Pavel, and they showed me Martina’s and Eliška’s kroje. I expressed interest in having a new kroj made for me here so I have one of my own and I won’t keep hogging all the Vankat (my mom’s side of the family) kroj pieces. Not a minute later, proactive Pavel was on the phone with a seamstress friend, and we jumped in the car, drove to her little studio in the next town over, and I was fitted for a new kroj. The only problem was that I hadn’t had time to think about what exactly I wanted. We left the seamstress’s with some pictures and examples, and with a hard decision to make about what exactly I wanted my kroj to look like!

Thursday, June 17

I started off the morning with a nice walk through Klenčí. I didn’t even get lost! Then when Martina got back from her Alpining class (I’m still not really sure what type of exercise that is), we walked to her parents’ house to look at more kroj style possibilities for me. I finally made a decision, but I want it to be a surprise for everyone else so I’m not going to describe it on here. Martina then went to work and I had the early afternoon to myself, so I got caught up on email and facebook (but obviously not my blog or pics- sorry!). While chatting with my friend Tom who is studying in Austria/Germany for the summer, we made the last-minute plan to meet up in Munich for the weekend! Our friend Brian is a grad student there, so we blindly banked on him being free for the weekend and a free place to stay. Shortly after, Pavel came home while I was talking with my mom on Skype video chat, and I translated a little bit so they could talk with each other. Technology is really helpful sometimes! Later we went to a concert of all the guitar students (including Jan) at the music school in Domažlice. Again I smiled like he was my own brother. He played wonderfully! When we got home Eliška helped me find train times to and from Munich. Then Jan and I played some dudy while Martina listened and crutiqued. We decided what songs would be best to use for the performances at folk festivals we have coming up. As I was playing a song for Martina, Jan came back in my room with some paper and handed me a dudy report card!! I couldn’t stop laughing. I was kind of kidding when I asked him for one last week since he had one for his music school and I call him my teacher, but I guess I now have some visible reinforcement!

Funny side story of the day: Martina had left out a little packaged loaf of meat that she told me I could make for lunch. When I got hungry, I went down to the kitchen and stared down the mystery meat to decide if I was supposed to mash the loaf and cook it like ground beef, or cut it in slices and fry it, or mash it into a paste-like meat, or slice it and eat it raw, but I didn’t really know if it was raw. I even considered that it might be like a Czech version of SPAM. Enlisting the help of 3 different Czech-English dictionaries didn’t even help me translate the package. So a good 15 minutes later I just grabbed some bread and cheese thinking I’d make a little plain sandwich. But then I didn’t want to offend anyone by not eating what was offered to me. Knife in hand, I convinced myself to slice a part of the loaf and put it on my sandwich and eat it like lunch meat. It actually wasn’t bad at all! Could I describe what it tasted like? Hmm. No I can’t. But I guess I made a fine decision to just slice it and eat it raw. However, later that night for dinner, since I didn’t eat much of the loaf for lunch, we had the same meat— cooked. So I’m still not really sure what it was, but I’m alive to tell the story, so I guess it was a multi-method meat. Phew!

Friday, June 18

In the morning I prepared for my trip to Munich for the weekend. I walked down to the train stop in Klenčí and got on a small train to Domažlice where I was to catch a connecting train to Munich. I thought I was doing a great job of blending in and looking like a real Czech person until the money collector came around and said something really fast (it was probably normal speed to everyone else) in Czech and I tried to say I was just going from Klenčí to Domažlice and I’d like a student price if there is one. But then I guess he asked for more clarity so all I could do was give him my mastered blank expression and apologize that I didn’t understand Czech. He punched some numbers into his little ticket printer and showed me (because numbers look the same in Czech and English, thank goodness) so I smiled and paid, hoping he might pity me. I realized when we got to the first Domažice stop that there were multiple stops in the town. I got off the train and quickly showed my new money collector friend guy the piece of paper that had the name of my connecting train on it so he could perhaps help me. He motioned for me to get back on the train, so I did, and I kept looking at him and prayed he would somehow tell me at which stop to get off. I couldn’t even get from my small town to the next bigger town without needing help. I’m so glad I’m not in a big town! Sheesh. At the next stop he motioned for me to come with him, so I grabbed my bags and followed him toward the station office. Along the way he asked 3 other train attendants if they spoke English, but of course I had no such luck. So we went into the station office and low and behold, Pavel was there!! What a relief! He talked with the station attendant for a minute, looked at his watch, and said “we go!” I didn’t really know what was happening, but I got in the car with him and he explained (a few times so I would understand) that if I bought my train ticket to Munich in Germany rather than the Czech Republic it would be half the price. We were only about 10 minutes from the border, so we headed to the nearest German train station. (Pavel jokingly calls himself Taxi Karolina.) He called his friend when we left the Domažlice train station (I didn’t know why at the time) and when we passed the last Czech restaurant off the main street, Pavel slowed the car and pulled over to where his friend was standing holding out euro I would need to buy my tickets and to use while I was in Germany. He took it and sped on to the train station. It was like a really awesome drive-by! So we got to the German train station and he helped me buy tickets to and from Munich, and waited with me for my train. While we waited he told me about the firm he is director of. His company is medium-sized with around 130 employees and a multi-region service area. They are in charge of water distribution throughout different towns, and are quite a profitable company. So, after the crazy ticket situation and learning about Pavel’s work, I hopped on the train and headed to Munich. Phew! When I got to Munich, my friend Tom was waiting for me on the platform. Shortly after, we met Brian and took our stuff back to Brian’s apartment. We walked a lot, got some beer, visited the university Brian attends, walked some more in the rain, saw some cool old buildings that were probably important but nobody knew what they were, went to the Augustiner brewery for dinner, walked around some more, and headed home to play cards for the night. After the fact, we probably should have looked up some history info on Munich. Oh well!

Saturday, June 19

In Munich again, we had a late morning and then headed to a restaurant with a live country-ish band. After that we spent the afternoon in the English Gardens and enjoyed seeing a Beer Bike (see pics) and some guys ‘surfing’ along the river (see pics). It rained again during the day, but we still walked around and saw some of the more touristy sites (like the Haufbrau House, or however you spell it in German). Brian wanted to cook us his favorite type of wursts, so we had a nice dinner at the apartment with Brian’s German roommate. We had some great conversation and played cards in the evening. Another good day in Munich!

Sunday, June 20

My friend Tom and I left Munich in the morning to go back to our respective “home” countries. When I got back to Klenčí I went with the family to the filming of a Czech TV special about the Domažlicka Dudácka Musika group. After that I just had a lazy afternoon/evening at home, and got a history lesson from Pavel about his house and the US Army (accidentally?) starting a few houses on the block on fire in 1945. He owns the house we live in and the one next door, and he has done all the remodeling himself with a little help from a friend. We attempted to have a conversation about property taxes and home ownership (like if Czechs mostly pay a one time price for the whole house and then they own it, or if they finance the house and pay it off over a certain number of years). However, my Czech still isn’t good enough to have full conversations, so Eliška helped us translate. Then he told me all about the improvements he has made to the house (rebuilt in 1947) since they bought it in 1996. You can tell the old parts of the house from the new by the floors. My bedroom is a new, updated part. Pavel said it used to be just part of the attic. He also built the deck outside, and told me he wants to knock down part of the wall in my bedroom (ok, it’s not mine. I just mean the room I’m staying in) and I think also part of the wall in his and Martina’s bedroom on the third floor and make stairs from both rooms going to the terrace/deck outside. I’m sure it will be great! Then he remembered he said he’d show me the house next door which they also own (and maybe rent out? I haven’t figured that situation out yet), so we went there and he showed me the main floor with two bedrooms, a dining room, kitchen, and bathroom, all updated by him. Then we peaked down into the cellar where he said bread used to be made. The other steep stairs led to the attic, which is all still the original 100-150 year old wood. You can touch the shingles of the inside of the roof. I think he wants to remodel it and make that into two or three bedrooms. He’s an amazing carpenter and remodeler! I thanked him for the good mini history lesson, and went to bed.

Also, after my trip to Munich, I realized how much I really love the pežina on my bed and I kind of want to buy another suitcase just so I can take it home with me. :)