Back in the USA

So I wasn't trampled to death watching the World Cup match, although part of me wanted to keep the previous entry as the final one in the Prague Blog. Had a good time, even though the US team played like crap and got deservedly smacked around by the Czechs. There was a contingency of USA fans there, and it was great hearing the "U! S! A! U! S! A!" chants over the "Češi do toho!" chants. Good times. And for those of you who asked, of course I rooted for the US. And then of course I wore my Petr Čech (CZ's keeper) jersey on the flight home.


After a wonderful night with Pavlina, I got 2 hours sleep and was up at 4:30 to pack the last couple things (I just realized I left my saline solution there... d'oh) and hit the ol' dusty trail.

Checked in at the airport and promptly headed to the airport bar for one more pivo. Shared a laugh with the bartender as I was the only one in the bar at 6:30.

After a long, but uneventful, trip home, the culture shock which has hit me in the first 12 hours hasn't been too bad. What struck me first was that I've been in about a dozen airports in the last 10 months, and in each one, every sign was printed in at least 2, usually 3 or 4, languages. Walking around JFK, it was strange seeing signs in only English. Especially at such a large, international airport. I did feel a little better, though, when the overhead speaker announcements at baggage claim were repeated in Spanish.
So I'm back in the land of the almighty dollar. Nothing like getting a luggage cart for free in Prague and in Dusseldorf only to have to pay $3 (THREE DOLLARS! THAT'S THREE BEERS! OR A BEER AND A GYRO!!!) for one in New York.
I am very not used to hearing English. I find myself unintentionally eavesdropping on others' conversations simply because I can't tune them out. And it turns out that the conversations I haven't been able to understand because they were in Czech really weren't worth listening to anyway.
Went to my favorite Chinese food restaurant last night and felt odd speaking English to people for whom English is not their native language, even though their English was fine. I'm also having a hard time getting "dobrý den," "děkuji," "jo," and "prosím" off my tongue. Saying "thank you" is harder than it sounds.
And the size of the portions! Holy crap! Can't believe how big an order of lo mein is. At least I'm back in the land of the take-away box, so the size of the portions is offset, at least a little. I certainly will miss knowing the size of the meal before ordering.

Although, it was wonderful gaining access to clothes I haven't seen in months (and had completely forgotten about!), taking a high-pressure, high-heat shower while standing up. Got a bagel the way I'm used to (toasted everything, with cream cheese, lox, lettuce, tomato and onion), came home and watched some World Cup. Maybe this won't be so bad...

Before I sign off, I'd like to share some photos I took the other morning. I stayed up all night and took some pictures of the sunrise. Enjoy.


Unless something very important comes up, I plan on leaving this as the last post in the Prague Blog. It's been great sharing the stories and images of the past year with you, and I hope you have enjoyed reading them as I did writing them.

I do plan on starting a blog for my time in Japan (which starts in about a month). Stay tuned for more information.

Be well, velice děkuji and na schledanou.

Mistrovství Světa

So it's World Cup (Mistrovství Světa) time. It's great walking around into any pub that has a TV and watching the game. Equally nice is the huge screen they've set up in Old Town Square for everyone to watch every match.

And with the USA playing the Czech Republic today at 6pm (local), I am donning my USA soccer shirt and will head right into the lion's den. Can't have an uneventful last day.
Will write more later... provided I'm not trampled in a riot this evening...

It Won't Be Long Now...

So I found myself with some American dollar bills the other day. Man, what ugly money we have. All the same size. No little indicators on the short edges to say how much the bill is worth. No color. Ugly and inefficient. Go USA!

Speaking of Go USA!, I was walking around this morning hoping to get some breakfast food. Note that breakfast food (the way I used to) is VERY hard to come by here, especially on a Saturday. McDonalds and KFC are the only places open early (read: before 11am) which have anything resembling an egg sandwich. I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to getting a good NY/NJ bagel with all the toppings at 7am (or 5, jetlag-depending). Can't wait to hit the 24-hour New Jersey diners again.

Among the mixed emotions of the past week or two, I've started to really look forward to eating pizza from Brooklyn's Coal Brick Oven Pizzeria in Hackensack, ice cream from Bischoffs in Teaneck, sushi from a non-landlocked country, going to a major league baseball game, reading every sign and newspaper I can, and watching the Simpsons in English.

Can't say I'm too thrilled about being assaulted with "news" about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the upcoming elections or the summer blockbuster movies. But so be it. Good with the bad.

America on Tuesday.

T-minus...

So I have less than a week left in Prague. Five days, actually. I fly (I have a one-way ticket) from Prague to New York on Tuesday. After a month of bouncing around at home (seeing friends, family, my sister's college graduation), I head to Kusatsu City, Japan, in mid-July, for another year of teaching English.

It's been almost a daily weighing of wants, needs, likes and dislikes since late December before this decision was made. Months of deciding simply whether to stay in Prague for another year or head back to DC eventually morphed into choosing between DC, Prague and Japan. I spent countless frustrating hours listing reasons, both positive and negative, on each of the three, and ended up choosing Japan. The answer to "Why Japan?" is not simple, but the biggest reasons are that the opportunity to live and work there is not something that will not come around again, and it's the place where I will experience the maximum growth.

So, that decided, it's been a roller coaster of emotions these past couple weeks as I prepare for the next month, and the next year. I've had amazing amounts of fun lately. With the spring-time weather, a budding romance, and general comfort level with life here, it's been unspeakably difficult facing how little time I have left. But I feel confident that I have made the right decision, and that the months of deliberating were not wasteful.

The things I will miss are many, as are the things I will be happy to be away from. There have been times in the recent days when I've muttered, "Thank God I don't have to deal with that much longer," followed about an hour later by, "Jeebus I'm going to miss this. Wait, why am I leaving again?"

I will not miss the toilet paper, loud American and British tourists, Tesco and its old women, the salary (both size of and frequency of receiving), unpronounceable 14-letter street names and bald, and toothless gypsy women on trams. I will not miss the omnipresent body odor on public transportation, the omnipresent dog poop on the sidewalks or the omnipresent cigarette smoke in, well, everywhere.
I'm going to be happy to rid my life of Celsius and the 24-hour clock (I've been on it for 9+ months, and still last week I mixed up 7:30 PM and 17:30), though the metric system is pretty darn handy.
I won't miss our kitchen sink with its insane water pressure and wildly inconsistent water temperature. Nor shall I miss our dish drain that is so horribly engineered you're lucky to have plates and bowls stand upright after someone sneezes. I am absolutely counting down the number of sit-down showers I have left to take, and number of loads of laundry that I have to hang-dry.
I won't miss the long, dark, grey, cold winter and its slippery cobblestone. So long to the consonant combinations ctvtr, stsk and zmrzl. And I most certainly will not miss the inability to read signs and communicate with locals about anything other than where the bathroom is. I am happy to distance myself from the impending heart attack from the food. And the Charles Bridge at 2 in the afternoon.

Yet, of course, I will miss the people - friends and students (too many to list individually...), the daily bombardment of gorgeous women, and the locals who I can convince I can speak Czech fluently.
I will absolutely miss the beer (with its quality, price, and drinkable-everywhere quality), medovnik, beton, the chocolate croissants served at Karlovo Naměsti, česnečka, cest'aky, and the 24-hour klobasa, smaženy syr and Becherovka stands.
I will miss the city itself - the architecture, the public transportation, the parks, both those overlooking the city and those invisible-from-the-street little nooks that are their own separate world. I will miss dungeon bars, having a castle on the skyline, the cobblestone (especially marvelling at public works "repaving"), and experiencing picturesque scene after picturesque scene.
I will miss hearing "fakt, jo?", "do pičy!" and "ješte jedno pivo!" I will miss having a beer in movie theaters. Hell, beer anywhere. And at any time. I will miss making up English names for Czech places simply because the Czech name is rediculous to pronounce ("whale bar", "boob-grab alley", "crack bar"...).
I will miss our Sunday brunches. Having free time from 12:30 to (at the earliest) 16:00 everyday. Being done with work at 12:30. Access to a bar across the street, on the corner, around the corner, down the block, up the block... I will miss the quiet of the city. I will miss the wealth of countries, currencies, languages and cultures so near. And the Charles Bridge at 2 in the morning.

I will miss the way people cheers each other when a new beer arrives at the table.

There is much to be excited for too, upon my retun, and my eventual trip over the other pond. Much to do in my final days here. Will be back with some final thoughts before I make the exodus.

A Picture's Worth...

Some pictures of some of my students from this past year...


Had a visit from Henry, Chris and Amanda. Good times.


Part of which was a visit to Karlstejn, a castle about 30 minutes from Prague.


One night, Chris captured some amazing shots right at dusk. Enjoy.


Now that I will have no more visitors, I want to share one of the more... interesting... sights in Prague. It's a tower which broadcasts a wide assortment of things, from television to cell phones. Yet what is different about this tower is what's crawling on its side.

I've seen the tower up close many times, and the babies still are just plain creepy. The Tower's Official Website doesn't say anything about them either.