Visiting Nana

We're back from Michigan, which was an adventure unto itself. Mainly dealing with my 92 year old grandmother and the madness that spins around her and her husband in their new apartment (and no, it's not assisted living).

But that fun basically revolves around organizing daily medication doses into baggies (she keeps throwing out those pill holders everyone in the family keeps sending her!), trying to convince her husband she should have two hearing aids instead of one, and of course no trip would be complete without the visit to the doctor to get her toenails cut. And no charge for it!

Yeah, you know it was fun.

Actually it was. Nana is great and just laughs her ass off at everything. We also had a lovely time at the Valentine's Day dance at the Moose Lodge. Here's some pics!




We said we were on a diet... and so they took us to "Wing Night" at the Vets Club... fried chicken wings, onion rings and fried mushrooms... not sure how many Weight Watchers points this was...









Nana at Tim Horton's - isn't she adorable?











Another day at Tim Horton's, Nana's favorite place for soup and frozen cappucino









Nana laughs her ass off about her dying hearing aid!










Andy dances with Norma, the single woman who came to the dance with us.

We're Back!

We survived the flight and are alive. It was smooth and easy and I didn't even take my anti-anxiety pills!

I was pretty hopped up on head cold meds and the sickness made Andy and I essentially deaf with the pressure from the flight (my left ear is still stopped up), and I did have a glass of wine with lunch on the second flight, but overall I was really calm and just enjoyed the flight.

Now we're back in NYC staying with mom and step-dad, had Saigon Grill for dinner, and got plenty of sleep. NYC is overwhelming! That's how I felt last night when we ran across the street to Duane Reade for cold medicine. After being in Prague it is so strange to be back.

Still a little jet-lagged after waking up but I think the onion bagel Andy just got me from Hot N Crusty should help.

Some Last Prague Pics

We're all packed! Here's some last pics... click here
.

Um.

I'm seriously feeling the blues right now about leaving.
Andy and I are starting to get really upset. I don't think we'd expected such a wave of emotion upon leaving his family and this beautiful city.

It sucks!

On a different note - we went into Prague for the last time today. Stopped at the library (had to return books), bookstore (needed a nice fluffy book for the plane ride), Shadow Bar - which was so crowded we had to go someplace else! - and then Noi.

We ate so much I vomited.

No, seriously.

In the bathroom at Noi.
Which is really cramped.
I could only get down on one knee.
I looked like I was proposing to the toilet.
It was sexy.

I think I just drank too much. This is NOT in any way a reflection of Noi's food, which is awesome!

Ho hum. I have pictures to post tomorrow. Čau!

Job Loss and Other Stuff for Today

I am getting sick. I can feel it. I just pray it doesn't turn into bronchitis, since I'm officially uninsured once I return to the US.

Andy's mother's out of her room, and back in the real world with us today, but I took a 2 hour nap and have been gulping down the remaining Airborne I brought with me, which I'd planned to take the day before the flight since I always get sick from flying.

(I LOVE Airborne! Apparently there have been lawsuits about it not working, but that's crap. It works for me. I've tested it when I've flown, and working in a classroom, and it's great. Apparently it's very controversial and the lawsuits have been all about "Big Pharma" trying to squash this alternative product. Support it if it works for you!)

Anyway, if you got that promo-post from me in your reader or email about the signatures, please ignore it. It was me accidentally letting that website post something here. We learn through mistakes, right? The whole signature at the bottom of the blog is cool, though, and one that I wanted to totally "borrow" from a great commenter and one of my new favorite bloggers, Carolina Girl . But the signature kept coming out all ugly and fuzzy, so I gave up.

Andy's brother David lost his job today. He works for Moeller, the electrical-something or other company, which was recently bought by Americans... so of course now they're doing lay offs. The sucky part is that he has a company car (and computer, and cell) and of course all that goes back to them on Friday, his last day.

The non-sucky part is that he gets a 5 month severance package AND what amounts to unemployment from the country. Nice, right? Or maybe it's not... I've never been laid off or fired, so I don't know what the deal is with severance and unemployment in the US, but either way, at least he doesn't have to freak out right now about money. Although, he does now need to get a car since he lives in a village that's not super convenient with public transportation.

So, my day's slow. How's yours?

Gettin' All Teary-Eyed

Andy and I are starting to feel sad.

After nearly 7 months of being here, staying with his parents, we're gearing up to leave (in case you couldn't tell from all the posts about it).

Today we woke up and are totally depressed. Now everything is all "This is the last time we'll go somewhere/do something" and it kinda sucks.

Not to mention, Andy's mom is sick and has been trying to stay away from us so we don't get sick. She's been holed up in her bedroom since last Monday. That sucks, too. We like her and want to spend time with her.

We definitely have things we are looking forward to, but it's still hard to leave.
Andy's mother never goes to the airport when we leave, because it's too sad for her. She just told Andy that she doesn't want his dad to drive us because she thinks he'll cry and she won't be there for him.

It's all so sad.

We've been incredibly lucky to take this break from reality and come here. Not to mention, it's kind of resolved a lot of things for Andy, since he hasn't been home for so long since before he left to come to the US, when he was 19. Now, he's seen how his parents and brothers are living and feels like everything's okay, and now we can get on with our lives.

Whatever, I'm going to try to get happy and just enjoy this last week.

I hope everyone else out there is having a good day!

Fear of Flying

I have a fear of flying.

I haven't always had this fear. In fact, I used to like flying. Actually, I still do. I enjoy the adventure, hanging out in airports (I suppose that's not technically "flying"), and airline food.

But I still have a fear.

Growing up in NYC and originally from Indiana, I was used to flying from a young age, to see my grandparents for summers. I flew alone several times when I was a kid.

Sadly, as I've gotten older I've become more aware. Of crashes and accidents and disasters. And after September 11th my fears expanded to include those of not just crashing, but flying into a building.

I don't let this fear stop me from flying, of course. If I didn't fly I'd never travel to all the great places I've traveled to. And yes, I know that my chances of getting into a car accident are way more likely than being in a plane crash.

But, I'm still freaked out.

In recent years I've taken to swallowing some prescribed anti-anxiety pills before take off. These are pretty great for knocking me out for a couple hours. Of course, this sometimes backfires, such as the time when we boarded the plane, took our seats, I fell asleep and woke up to find that we were delayed and hadn't even taken off yet. Great.

I also enjoy drinking on flights. This came in handy particularly when I was flying from France with E., and we basically drank ourselves into a stupor because she was so freaked out and tense from flying and it rubbed off on me. I try to continue the tradition of drinking a couple glasses of wine, and airlines that don't charge for alcohol are fabulous in my book.

Now I think about our impending flight next Sunday. We have a quick flight to Frankfurt and then, 2 hours later, a flight to NYC. This basically means I can't take my magic pills for the first flight.

After the recent landing of that plane in the Hudson I saw a little video headline from some morning show about how to deal with fears of flying. The "expert" said that it's a learned behavior and can totally be undone with therapy. That's great, but doesn't help me right now for next week's flight.

So, after some more internet research on how to quell the fears and anxiety, I found a free online course, made by an American pilot who assures us he is no expert, but wants to inform people to help them chill out.

I'm 3 lessons into it (there are 5) and it's GREAT! He interviews retired and current pilots, flight attendants and all kinds of people. The lesson I just finished was all about TURBULANCE and that rocked my socks because I feel way more calm now. I won't explain why (there's too much to say), but you can click here and educate yourself.

I don't know if this will help me from freaking out on the flight, but the way I see it is:
pills + wine + being educated = calm(er) allyn.

Christ!

We are leaving Prague SO SOON!

We are super excited to get back, but also super sad that we are leaving.

If you're just tuning in... we've been here in Prague staying with Andy's parents since July (2008) and it's been an amazing experience.

We've gotten used to seeing the beautiful city... it's like being in a fairy tale with that castle and the river and the Charles Bridge.

We've gotten used to semi-lousy customer service ("Ne mame" = "We don't have it", a phrase we've gotten very accustomed to hearing).

We've gotten used to not working!!!

We've gotten used to beer and smazeny syr (fried cheese) and topinky (fried bread) all the time.

We've gotten used to being in a small country.

We've gotten used to walks in the woods.

We've gotten used to gray days.

We've gotten used to playing squash.

We've gotten used to cobblestone streets.

We've gotten used to Czech tv.

We've gotten used to Andy's parents.

BUT we look forward to...

Seeing friends and family.

Moving to Western Massachusetts.

American TV!!!

Starting over in a new town, getting new jobs, making new friends and getting a new life set up.

Pretty decent customer service (hopefully... Duane Reade I still have no hope for you!).

American food (I crave sandwiches and BBQ more than anything!).

Going on a Midwestern road trip as soon as we get back (I'm comin' Nana!).

Tomorrow we go to Prague for the 3rd to last time... lunch and just walking around, then Saturday to Sudička for fondue with the brothers and girlfriends, and then next Thursday will be our last dinner out... Shadow bar for drinks and the Noi for Thai.

9 days people! Then we are back in good ol' New York!!

2008 in Pictures

After reliving 2008 for that survey I decided to post some of my favorite pictures from last year.

These are in no particular order, and there were so many... sadly my hair looked like crap in 90% of those, so I had to leave them out.
Wintry branches in Loket.

Christmas ornaments in Nuremberg.


Piazza San Marco, Venice.


Prague Castle (a little blurry but still pretty!)

Heather playing the horn at Stodola on that fateful night!

Me and my man at the Louvre in Paris.

Students! Reading! Of their own will!

The plane ride to Prague, July 8th.

Students working together.

My birthday dinner at La Flor.

Spanish Moss in Savannah.

She-crab bisque at Poogan's Porch in Charleston, SC.

Good Question

Czech food is not diet food. Say it with me.

Anyway, we're coming home in less than 3 weeks and that's nice. In the meantime I seem to be a disgusting mess. Snow and cold make it hard to walk.

Regardless, walk we did, around Prague today. Went to the library. Among others, I got The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Have you read it? What'd you think? Will I like it?

Bought a couple little gifty things for family. Bought a cool soapdish for our house that we don't have yet. Had a couple beers. Went to Tesco to buy Wasa crackers (the only thing between me and a mumu). Went home.

Talked to Nana, who told me my cousin is moving to California, where, she informed me there are a "ton of gays" and she's very worried that they will hurt my cousin. This was news to me, because Nana's always been pretty chill about that stuff. Nevertheless, I tried to soothe her. "But Nana, the gays aren't violent!" She wasn't convinced.

Anyhoo, we finished "The Wire" which is truly one of the best shows of all time. It's up there with "Six Feet Under" and... I can't even think of another show right now that's as smart as "The Wire". We lurved it!

We saw this poster the other day and I liked it. I never thought to ask this question. I like posters - they make you think.

Oh! And this picture is for Edith - not very clear, but this is what is served at the billiard hall over here.

For when you're drunk.

It's bread spread with pork fat and topped with raw onions, and a dash paprika to make it pretty. It's awesome when you're drinking... but the next day you wake up tasting nothing but onions. But that doesn't stop you from craving it a week later - oh no. As you can see, I could barely refrain from stuffing the whole dern thing in my mouth before I realized I needed to take a picture of it's hangover-easing goodness. Don't mind the bite marks.


Andy and his mother are laughing like crazy Czech hyenas downstairs so I must go join the fun. Tootles.

It's Official!

We've bought our tickets.

We fly back on Sunday, February 1st.

We are flying Lufthansa, with a layover in Frankfurt.
We opted (I refused) to not fly on a prop-jet to Frankfurt.

I've never flown Lufthansa. Have you? I hope I hear only good things about them!
I think they are supposed to be good. Right?

I hate flying.

Český Krumlov

I have been badgering Andy about going to Český Krumlov while we are here in the Czech Republic
(we went the first time I was here), and we finally traveled down there last weekend.

Český Krumlov is a lovely town, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that was chosen as the seat of the kingdom under the rule of the Lords of Rožmberk, from 1302 - 1602. It is a winding medieval town with water going through it and a castle on a hill. I love the castle because it is painted (as many Czech buildings are) to look like it has three-dimensional bricks or designs. It's very pretty.

We drove there on Sunday and it was crappy, snowy and rainy out, but we got there and walked around and had a lovely day. We had an interesting meaty-lunch in an old pub that had barely any light, and was smoky and built into a wall, or something. It was strange. Unfortunately I didn't get the name.

The only unhappy part of the day was that the Christmas market - it was a bust. It was in a nice square, but was very tiny and didn't have many items for sale, and what was for sale wasn't impressive. I saw a sign for hot chocolate and when we got up to the stand we saw that the hot chocolate and the coffee were both from a machine. Like the one H-Link had. Yuck. (though it was good at H-Link.) So we went to another stand and got apple cider, which we only realized after we'd paid, was powdered (and they didn't even try to hide it!). But, it was cold out and the cider was hot, so it was okay.

Anyway, I'm glad we got to go to Český Krumlov again and it really is such a beautiful town - apparently it even ranked #16 on National Geographic's 100 Most Beautiful Historic Places in the World.
Even in the cold winter, it's not hard to see why (more pictures).

Plus, I think this castle would be a good retreat against zombies... the walls are really high.

Mikuláš, Anděl & Čert

Before St. Nicholas was a saint, and before he evolved into Santa Claus, he was a bishop. This is how he is portrayed here in the Czech Republic every December 5th (the eve of his feast day), when people dress as Mikuláš (Nicholas), an Anděl (angel) and the Čert (devil or demon) and visit the homes of children (usually for a small fee and/or a shot or a beer) to give them gifts of candy and goodies, but not before scaring the hell out of them.

Here's what happens: Mikuláš, Anděl and Čert visit the home, the children stand there facing them, scared to death of the Čert (who has a long tail, and a chain and is just frightening). Mikuláš, who is kindly and warm, reads from a book and lists the ways the child was bad this year (lying, not cleaning, etc.). The child then owns up to this wrongdoing saying "To je pravda" (It is true) and then each child has to say a poem or sing a song to receive the gifts. At some point the Čert tries to put the child into a bag to take them away to someplace (hell?) where all bad children go.

For my first Mikuláš, Anděl a Čert experience, we went to the home of Katka's sister, Petra & her boyfriend. Her daughter, Cristina (who is the adorable brunette) is five and said she wasn't really nervous, but check out the look on her face. That girl is seriously freaked out. Andy's brother, Lukaš and his girlfriend Katka dressed as Mikuláš and the Čert (we didn't have an angel) and were awesome - especially Katka as the Čert - she spoke/screamed like a lunatic and made these horrible sounds.

This tradition is awesome!

It incorporated drinking, dressing up and scaring (but then rewarding) children.










Notice the (fake) child's leg
hanging out of the Čert's bag!

For more pictures, click here.

Nuremberg

Before I start I'd like to say I really didn't like my last post. Particularly, I didn't like the scrapbooking (is this one word? or should it be hyphenated? everything gets it with the red underline...) picture I included, because I started thinking maybe people would think it's a picture of me scrapbooking. It's not. Don't be confused.

Nuremberg, Germany.
It was fun. But I'm beat from traveling! Even such a little trip! It was cold, of course... surely a few degrees colder than here in Prague. Going on a trip in this cold weather can be difficult, because you're standing the whole time and you can't just relax on a bench and people watch. We stood and people watched plenty, but we realized we were on our feet for basically two days. That was a little rough, but the rest rocked!

I have two albums with Nuremberg pictures (the first starts with a few in Prague on Thanksgiving). To see pics click here and
here.

We arrived in Nuremberg after a pleasant and fast-moving 5 hour train trip. We dropped our two backpacks at the Hotel Victoria and went for lunch. Then we went to the Nazi Documentation Center Museum which is in the old Nazi Congress Hall, which was far as I know, was never finished. We walked around a lot and saw the Zeppelinfield, where the Nazis would rally together and share their craziness and hate. It was freaky, and strange. The stands were overgrown which made it even creepier than it was.

The rest of our trip was spent on a Rick Steves' walking tour, eating Nürnberger Bratwurst on a bun, drinking glühwein (mulled wine) and hot alcoholic egg nog - all from stands on the streets.

There were so many glühwein stands, and when you get your glühwein you pay a little extra for the annual cup of the market, and carry it around to the other stands for more wine/egg nog/etc, and then you can keep the cup as a keepsake to remember your glühwein-drinking days in Nuremberg, or you can return it at any stand and get your money back. We kept ours, of course. We also got some cups from another stand that were different from the cups all the other stands were using. We like being individuals, so we kept those, too.

Our hotel was very nice. It was quite fancy which we felt we could handle since it was only one night that we would be there. It was right at the beginning of Königstraße, inside the wall for the old town, so it was a great location. We were able to easily get around, and make our way to the Christkindlmarkt, which is the annual Christmas market that draws 2 million visitors every year. Some say it's the biggest in Europe. It was big, and pretty great. Of course, kind of like NYC street fairs, there seemed to be a limit to what the stands were selling... it was kind of the same thing, over and over again. So there was glühwein, bratwurst, gingerbread, ornaments, hats/gloves/scarves... and the same over and over again. There were some differences, of course, but not much. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to walk around and see everything. It was very festive and Christmasy, which I love.

People were pretty controlled and friendly and not that big of a pain in the ass, except for the few who did the tourist stop-dead-in-their-tracks and not move thing, right in the middle of a giant thoroughfare... but then, that always happens.

We barely made our connecting train on the way back, got stuck in a cabin with some smelly people and then the lights went out making it impossible to read for the remaining 4 hours. 45 minutes before we came into Prague the train broke down and we had to wait for it to be fixed... but only for about 25 minutes. It didn't ruin the trip in any way.

It was a great time, and I'd definitely recommend the Nuremberg Christkindlmarkt to anyone... it was great holiday fun. It was so festive and nice.

I'm a big Christmas fan and any excuse to feel all warm inside while I walk around in the cold - whether from happiness and children singing, or from the wine - make for a great time for me.

Last note: Speaking of children singing... we happened to catch some little German kids singing Christmas songs in front of a church (Frauenkirche I think) and it was really cute so here's the video. Unfortunately I missed taping them singing "O Tannenbaum" but this other thing is funny and cute, and I like how the teacher sounds singing in German.

blog madness!

You know what's funny?
Looking through blogs.
At the top of my blog, at the very top, there should be a little button for you to go to the "next blog". You should do it. It's great. When I'm bored I do this, and just see what's out there.
There are an alarming number of "krafty" and scrapbooking blogs out there. And, for some reason, the majority of blogs I run into are in other languages... I'm not sure if that's because I'm in a non-English speaking country or what. But, it's great. And fun. And sometimes you actually find something worth reading. But, more often, you find things to make fun of.

We are leaving for Nuremberg tonight. Or tomorrow. Depending on how you look at it. We are taking a 5:15am train from the station in Prague, and so we are waking up at 3:30 and Andy's dad is driving us to the station. So we will be getting to bed very early tonight.

We will arrive in Nuremberg at 10am, which is a much better deal than taking the Student Agency bus, which would have left at 11:30 tonight but arrived in Nuremberg at 4:15am. What the heck would we do!? No, the train is better, and quite frankly I feel safer because although the Student Agency buses (which are not actually driven by students, as far as I know... I'm not sure why they are called that) run all the time, all over the place, there was an accident a month or so ago, and people died. So, I'm cool with the train.

We are excited about Nuremberg, since we are just going to be there for like 31 hours, but sometimes those are the best trips (like our Vienna trip last year that was sooo awesome!). So, we will arrive, visit Nazi sites, eat, shop at the Christmas market, eat, drink beer, shop, walk around, take pictures, eat and drink and come back. What could be a better trip!? AND we're staying at some fancy 3 star hotel, so that's exciting. It might just mean that there's a bathroom in the room, since apparently all the stars mean something like that, and I know nothing about this, but whatever, I'm going to Germany and that's exciting.

The freaky faceless babies

Some of you (Michael) might be wondering about the picture of the weird faceless babies that I have added to my name-bar thingie at the top.

These, as my buddy Crapper might recognize, are actually the same babies, created by artist David Cerny, that crawl up the Žižkov TV Tower.

Now an additional three have been installed at Kampa Park, in Malá Strana in Prague, next to the Kampa Museum, where these giant babies are just "crawling" around.

FYI - they weigh 800kg each and their faces are ventilation shafts.

Freaky, right?

Yet another reason why Prague rocks. Giant faceless babies!!

Snowy Prague

The first snow is here!

It started snowing Friday night, and continued yesterday.

Of course, we had to go
into the city and be part of it. We went to the castle at night, then walked down through Malá Strana.

Then we made our way over to Václavské náměstí, had some mulled wine and walked around. It was beautiful!

tram ride!!!

Sparkly Tesco!

Writing, Jazz & Soccer

Still writing... up to about 31,000 words (75 pages) and pushing on...
Did some YA book research last night by looking at Judy Blume's website. It was great! If you are a fan of her work at all, I would suggest you check it out. She has a little back stor for each book she's written. I was especially interested in reading about Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, one of my all time favorite Judy Blume books.

Besides writing... this week we did a few interesting things. Last Friday we went to Shadow Bar and had drinks, and then went for thai at Noi, the only Thai restaurant that lives up to my standards here in Prague. It's great.

Saturday we went to Blues Sklep with Lukas, Katka and David. We saw the Tony Viktora Band playing jazz and jamming. The best part was the piano player, who reminded me of many things: a muppet, Herb Mack if he were a crazy drunk piano player, Bob Dylan. Because he was so AWESOME, I had to share it with you in a video.



Sunday we went to a soccer match between Slavia (the top Czech soccer team) and Viktoria (a team much lower on the soccer ladder). Slavia won, of course, but it was a good game anyway because Viktoria fought hard, and though it was chilly it wasn't awful, and it was fun! The best part was that Slavia fans wear these red and white scarves and wave them around alot and shout a lot, and it was fun and exciting and the scarves made me think of Harry Potter. I liked it.

Dresden

We first went to Dresden, Germany on our first trip together to the Czech Republic. Both Andy and I are huge Kurt Vonnegut fans and we were interested in Dresden because it had been bombed by the allies on February 13, 1945, while Vonnegut was a POW being held in an underground prison camp, which he wrote about in Slaughterhouse Five.

Another interesting piece of history about this event was that while the allies were aiming at Dresden, they nearly leveled Prague in error. Prague and Dresden are quite close to each other, especially when you are up in a plane looking down. There was supposedly a navigational error, and actually some bombs were dropped on Prague (affecting some areas of the city, such as Zizkov and Vinohrady, I believe, that are not the main old historical center of Prague) but ultimately I seem to remember that Prague is considered "untouched" by war.

When we visited the city the first time we saw old wreckage from the bombs. This time, though, we didn't. I could swear we were in some of the same spots, but there's a massive amount of construction going on there, and Andy heard that Dresden is expected to be finally built back up by 2010. This is kind of sad, because although the wreckage is sad and destructive and all that, it's a big piece of history that is quite fascinating. I'm glad we saw it the first time (of course, my pictures from then are not digital, otherwise I'd post them here).

But, this time, our trip wasn't so much about history. It was about shopping. Andy's brother Lukas and his girlfriend Katka went to Dresden last week and brought back all kinds of German goodies for us, so Andy's parents decided they wanted to take the trip. It's only about a two hour drive, so we went this past Saturday. It was a nice day trip. We bought a few things, mainly liquor or interesting German food. Here's the pictures. Dresden Pictures

Here's a video, too. My videos are not exciting, they are mainly just a glance around, but I like seeing them since they include the sounds and feel of the place and time, a little bit more than a simple picture.
Oh, yeah, and sorry for the weird guy who pops his head in toward the end... he follows me everywhere and is quite a nuisance! :-)