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Published: July 14th 2006
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New Town
Me in front of the national museum! So after blogging yesterday, two friends and I went downstairs to one of the (yes, there is more than one) pubs in the basement of our dorm. So to answer everyone's Pivo-related (Czech language lesson for the day: pivo = beer) questions, yes, I like it, it tastes good (better than American beer, I am told), no it is not expensive (between 20-25 Kc, or about $1) and, no, I do not have an addiction/obsession.
This morning was the beginning of work on our presentations. That was an...interesting...experience. We broke up into small groups of five to work on our presentations. Well some of the Czech students have internships and jobs at ad agencies, so some of them are not able to make it too all class meetings. Anyway, two of the people in my group were otherwise occupied this morning, so there were only three of us in my group. It was me, the pretentious, not-so-much-liking-Americans French guy, and the slightly socially awkward, pretty-much-oblivious-to-the-world American girl. The French (he's half Czech but he has a very strong French accent and hates speaking English) guy would just do things without letting us know what he was doing and the other
girl would just sit there and say not-quite-getting-the-point things occasionally. It was pretty difficult to try to get anything done.
Anyway it came time for lunch and the French guy said he had to take a two hour lunch because that's how long it takes him to eat. Anyway, I went to lunch with Maxine and her group and vented and felt better about the situation. We ate at a "real" Czech restaraunt, kind of out of the way, but no tourists. Our Czech friends helped up with ordering and stuff. I ordered chicken and potatoes, which was really good.
When I got back Katka and the other guy who was supposed to be in my group (who is in high school, apparently) had both arrived. I was pretty happy about that. The afternoon was a little better because Katka was there. (By the way, Katka is the Czech equivalent of Katie) Now that the Czech students were there, the French guy pretty much didn't speak a word of English but instead addressed the group in Czech, no matter how many times anyone reminded him to speak English since the class was supposed to be taught in English. He and the high school guy pretty much wandered in and out of the room, checked their e-mail and made calls on their cell phones (ringing cell phones are apparently pretty common in Czech classrooms). The American girl sat there and didn't say much. On the bright side, Katka and I got a lot of work done, so that was fun. There is not a whole lot of involvement on the part of the professors, they are mostly just advisors, and to get them involved in the situation would have stirred up more trouble than it would have been worth.
Anyway, that being over, today my friends and I were supposed to go with our Czech friend Petra to her home town. Apparently there was a miscommunication and she only had room for three, so Maxine and I stayed behind. We decided to go into New Town to go shopping instead. We went to Wencelas Square, a tourist-y shopping area, and looked around for a while. We actually ran into one of our Czech friends (the one who took me on the car tour of the city that first night) and walked around with her for a little while. It was nice to just spend some time alone with Maxine. Even though we are roommates, there are always a bunch of people in the room, so we don't get much of a chance to just hang out together. Oh, and my new favorite Czech word is "Selva" which means sale. Maxine and I had dinner in New Town. We had Smajny Syr (Fried cheese, in this case it was a sandwich) from a street booth.
Tomorrow is more work on our presentations (yep, working on a Saturday) and then I think we are going to go out for a pivo to celebrate the weekend. (But we drink pivo in moderation so there's no need to worry!!!) The groups are merging so I get to work with some better people, including my friend Dionne and the Czech girl we ran into this evening (I know her name but I have no idea how to spell it). I think we will probably spend more time in the city tomorrow night!
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Dad
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Bad morning?
Sorry to hear that your morning didn't go so well but it was good to hear that the afternoon was better and that you had a good evening. Hope to hear from you on Skype again soon. Love you!