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. :)