Nothing Like a Hog Roast...in the Czech Republic

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It’s been a while since I’ve updated, so I suppose I should start out by talking about the opera that I apparently forgot to write about. Last Tuesday a fair-sized group of us went to an opera in the city. I can’t remember the name of the theatre we went to (I’m not sure I ever knew it, to be honest), but tickets were only about 40 crowns. For a price like that, the seats weren’t ideal, but we could still hear. We saw “The Marriage of Figaro,” which was very entertaining, but I didn’t follow quite as well as I would have liked. For the first half of the performance I couldn’t see the stage because my seat was at an awkward angle in the top terrace, so I had my own idea of what was going on and who was singing. I could still read the subtitles (yes, there were subtitles in both English and Czech because the opera was written in Italian) so I was fairly accurate in my own interpretation. Some of the students who went had seen enough during the first half, so they left during the break. This allowed me to move and get a better seat toward the center of the terrace so I actually got to watch the second half as well as hear it. Overall I’d say it was a very nice experience, but I don’t have much frame of reference as that was the first opera I’ve ever been to. I’d also like to note that we had a downpour on our way there. It’s rained nearly every day we’ve been here, and it’s poured every time I’ve dressed up for anything.

To fast-forward a bit, we had a hog roast on Friday with all of the Czech students, the American group, and apparently the Russians and a group from Malaysia (I think) were also there. It was a lot of fun. When I got there I’d already been signed up to a team for the night’s events, which included tug-o-war, a sack race, egg and spoon, and a beer pong tournament. Someone let Asa pick the name, so we were known as the Flying Hellfish. Apparently a reference to The Simpsons. I remarked on it (I don’t remember what I said) and both Nick and Asa said it was either that or the Red Wings. I was quite alright with Flying Hellfish.

But, back to the hog roast. It was a lot of fun. We took a tour of the campus brewery, which was mind-numbingly boring so Rebecca, one of the students, and I ran out the door when everyone else went to move to the next room. Out of all of the events they had planned, I think we really only did the tug-o-war and the beer pong tournament (though only half of that got finished). The tug-o-war was fun. OSU ended up winning, with some help from one of the Kansas girls and one of the Russian students. We were going into one of the tug-o-war games and were missing someone so Asa yelled “It’s ok! We have a Russian!! It’s ok!” So I of course introduced myself. I believe he said his name is Stanislav. He was very nice, and actually made me switch places with him on the rope so I wouldn’t get stepped on (I took my shoes off, and the other kids had on workboots). I’ve passed him a few times since then and we’ve said hi. Maybe I’m a dork, but I’m excited about meeting people from other countries while I’m here. One of the Czech students told me that we were going to have fireworks at midnight, so after a while Heather and I went back to the dorm with the intentions of coming back out for the fireworks. Well it seems they left them off at about 10:30, so we missed them.

A lot of people were talking about not being in the States for the Fourth of July. They seemed really upset about being abroad for the fourth. Honestly I didn’t really think about it so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. It really just felt like any other day. So I’ve been trying to figure out if that makes me a bad American.

And because this is a short entry otherwise without photos, I'm going to include a few pictures of campus. Enjoy!

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Photos

JIH
My dorm! Slightly soviet-looking...

JIH
View of the back of my dorm, from the other side of the soccer pitch.

Rose garden
Roses grow like weeds here. Slightly ridiculous, but very pretty.

Pathway
Don't know where it goes, but it's pretty.

Comments

[mom]

From home!
What no pictures of the hog roast?! I want to see the fun!