Weekend One

Days 4 and 5 (Saturday & Sunday)- We all had a late morning and then ate breakfast on the deck. Pavel and I had a long vocabulary lesson of words of things around the house and yard. We make sure we have correct pronunciation of words before we learn new ones. The hardest for me are the ř, ž, ch, d‘, t‘, and n‘ sounds in Czech, and the hardest for them are the th, v, and a (as in cat) sounds in English. Jan and I are exchanging tongue twisters of the hard sounds in both languages so that we will master them by the time I leave. It’s a fun little game. In the evening, Eliška, her friends, and I took the train to Plzen, which is about an hour away, for a battle-of-the-bands type of concert. Eliška’s friends have a band called Lhotky (translation: Marionettes). Her friends as so funny! They speak English well, which I appreciate a lot because my Czech still isn’t that good yet (of course). Most of the bands at the concert venue “Divadlo pod Lampou”, “Theater under the Lamp” were hard rock screaming metal bands, but Lhotky is a little lighter rock with more of an indie sound. They were definitely my favorite. I was surprised that so many of the concert goers had dreadlocks and long hair and toward the end of the concert they started to make a little mosh pit and swung their long hair around. Not really my type of scene, so I was up in the bar with Eliška and some musician friends. After the concert we walked to another bar for a while and met up with some more people, then went back to Eliška’s boyfriend’s flat with some friends at around 3am and stayed the night.

On Sunday morning Eliška and I went to church in Plzen (I think it was St. John Nepomouk church). It was surprisingly full with people of all ages. I had no clue what the Mass readings were, but I followed along with what everyone else was doing. There was a fabulous full choir with beautiful music. After that we went back to the flat where we hung out for a bit, and then took the train back to Domažlice. The afternoon in Klenči was laid back, and I took a nap because I was exhausted from the previous night. The family asked if I wanted to go to a classical music concert at a church that night, so of course I said yes. Martina played harpsichord in the concert with a small orchestra and a full choir. They featured works from Mozart and Vivaldi, among others. My favorite part was the church. It was built in the 14^th century!! Everything was old style- the stairs up to the loft, the Communion rail, the side altars, even the stations of the cross on the walls. It was beautiful! There are a few pictures on my Picasa site. After the concert we went home for a light dinner and I called Marta (the Czech foreign exchange student my family hosted a few years ago) to discuss my trip to Prague and Jablonec nad Nisou (her hometown). I think I will go June 25-July 3. Andy and LeAnna, my brother and sister-in-law, will be with us for part of the time also. I think it will be fun to have us all together again!