Fun with haggis

We went down the rabbit hole of haggis, tartan, bagpipes and wee drams of whiskey last weekend, and we liked it. The impetus was Burns Night, a Scottish holiday that commemorates the poet Robert Burns. Multiple people ER works with are Scottish, and they throw a huge Burns party/charity fundraiser every year. So we got gussied up and joined in.

This year's charity was the Motol Children's Hospital- a great reason to buy raffle tickets. BW and I won the Chivas Regal raffle at our table and just poured it 'round.

The haggis - offal and oats cooked in a sheep stomach - was marched into the hall with a bagpipes procession. After a Burns poem and a speech, it was speared with a knife and set out to eat. We were slightly afraid, but it wasn't that bad!

There were also toasts to the lads and lassies, prize raffles (we won a facial and Indian food), music, and - BW's "favorite", traditional Scottish dancing. The man who professed to never dance entered the thick of it and, I think, had fun.

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Óčko and snow

How totally appropriate that Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice Baby" just aired in our living room on Óčko, the Czech equivalent of MTV - we finally got bona fide snow! And it's terrifically cold out! 

I like having the channel on in the background while I mark papers, which usually means BW departs for another room; although Óčko has current Czech and Slovak music, for some reason it also plays cheesy 90s American gems like Ace of Base and Color Me Badd. And for a guy with discerning musical tastes, that's just unforgivable. I read on Wikipedia that about 8 hours of programming a day is controlled by viewer votes... so maybe my neighbors were really hankering for Vanilla Ice this evening.  

I kid you not.

Back to the weather. The tincture of snowflakes today gave a lovely ambiance of being holed up in a snowglobe. They fell in a perfect powdered-sugar dusting, not enough to impede traffic or give students legitimate excuses for being late to school. 

The courtyard behind school

Toward evening things got a bit thicker, but BW and I both welcomed it; the white stuff imparts a nice Minnesota feel.

The street we live on

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Great relatives, pun intended

There once was a wildly world-traveled, warm-hearted and slightly wayward couple who brought groups of Western Washington University students to Prague for a study abroad program.

Over a decade later they've returned, sans students, to indulge in Prague's pleasures once again, holing up in a very Czech residential area and searching for a place that serves delectable fried duck. No, no dry Arizona heat or green Florida Keys for these two; they are spending 2 months of retirement in the arms of the Bohemian winter.

This wandering couple are ER's great-uncle and aunt, brother and sister-in-law to her maternal grandma, and we had the loveliest lunch with them last weekend at Kavarna Zanzibar.

Note to expats: we didn't eat Zanzibar's English breakfast, but they have one for 145kc, which is a steal compared to similar offerings in the center. Great Aunt really liked the salmon tartare.

After bidding our dear relatives goodbye, we strolled around the branch of Charles University that is near our flat. The General Teaching Hospital is there, along with the Faculty of Mathematics, the Institute of Physiology, etc. We don't know how old those particular buildings were, but Charles U was established in 1348, being one of the oldest post-secondary institutions in Europe, and ranks in the top 1.5 percent of the world's best universities. Some photos, unfiltered:

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BW's day

všechno nejlepší k narozeninám (happy birthday) BW! You're an incredible husband, best friend, dog dad, top chef, stage golem, travel partner and so much more.  I'd be remiss not to make you feel as red-letter as possible today. The birthday plans...

18:30 reservation at Lokal in Mala Strana

from hotelopia.cz

A gift certificate from Shakespeare and Sons bookstore

from Prague-praha.org

Some jazz and a nightcap at U Maleho Glena

from U Maleho Glena's website

And some strawberry bublanina at home for dessert since I can't get the ingredients here to make your normal pistachio birthday cake 

before

and after

Cheers to many more birthdays and adventures! <3

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Snowlessness

Pretty much all winter, our grand Prague has looked naked thanks to a deficit of snow. The city also seems quite overcast/moody because it can't preen itself under a sparkly blanket of white. Although it's decent enough weather for walking, you can feel the population here itching to get on slopes and sled hills. Even the statues seem a bit depressed...

BW was supposed to chaperon the school ski trip tomorrow (his birthday), Thursday and Friday. However, it got canceled because there's really nothing to ski on!

Today there was a slight dusting of snowflakes, but they didn't stick around too long. I don't know why on Earth someone was unhappy about the snow, per the sad face on this car in the Old Town...

Within an hour of the snowfall, everything had liquefied.

And the sky looked phosphorescent over Prague Castle tonight.

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Czexican

Catching up with old friends is like wrapping yourself in a cozy quilt of conversation and not noticing when the coffee goes cold.
Or like canon-balling into the sparkling sea after a looooong drive to the beach.
Or like savoring a spicy enchilada on a grey day and suddenly thinking everything seems brighter.

Well, we got to have our friends AND our enchiladas this weekend when we caught up with Mr. and Mrs TyVole over Mexican food at Las Adelitas. ER has known the charming Czechs for about 8 years, since her early days in Prague when she taught their daughter, and they are as excellent as ever.

We dug into our not-exactly-authentic-but-quite-good-for-Prague fare and Mr. and Mrs. TyVole not only spoke in English the whole time (which must have been brain-bending), but also gave us tips about the cheapest taxi company, where to find a fabric store, which iconic Czech musicians to listen to, etc.

Now you see it.

Now you don't! 

We hadn't had "Mexican" food since we lived in America and we were looking forward to dinner; ingredients are sparse and imports are pretty much just Old El Paso. The day leading up to the meal was grey - it's snowed once this whole winter and the rest of the time the sky's looked like fog slop -

...but having people like this around makes the weather completely inconsequential!

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Plastic hockey sticks and holey balls

Our landlord is a serious florbal (in English: floorball) player. Cool! 

Buuuut... our only frame of reference for the sport is the few times we played it in elementary gym class - and  back then we called it "floor hockey," but we used a plastic puck instead of the wiffle-like, holey balls they use here.

We should probably learn more about this sport because it's Big here. Like Really Big. It's on TV a lot and there are even whole stores for it, like this one near my school:

I Googled "Cesky Florbal" and found out that there's a mammoth international floorball tournament in Prague every August. In 2014, they expect 200 teams from 20 countries from around the world. It's been going on since 1992, and apparently the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland are floorball powerhouses.

From FISU.net

According to Wikipedia, the highest finish the Czech National Florbal team has had was Bronze in the World Championships in 2010. Not too shabby.

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Missing pants/missing chair

We saw a bunch of people walking through Prague with very bare legs (and more) on Sunday. And if you live in a city with a subway, you probably did, too; it was the worldwide no-pants subway ride!

No pants? No problem.

I rode the metro at 9:30 a.m., before the half-naked commuters came out, on my way to do some exam marking with a colleague. I was so bleary-eyed that I got on a train that took me in the opposite direction of the neighborhood I was headed for and didn't realize my gaffe until a few stops down the line. The train could have been headed to Jupiter and I wouldn't have realized it.

Apparently nobody rides the metro at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning

I was late meeting my colleague and the morning was hairy, but that afternoon some shopping for BW's birthday gift made up for it. A trip to the Palladium shopping center was serene and packed with sales. And I ran into a former student working in the Apple resale store; there are zero "real" Apple stores in this country.

I barely go to malls, but when I do, I like them empty like this!

These guys were planted outside of Palladium. I've seen this street performer set-up a hundred times, but this was probably the most creative one yet.

Look! No chair!

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Prague resolutions

Despite the spice and life of Spain, we were glad to return home on Sunday. We both felt hugged by Prague upon entering the city; it was nice to hear the hum of Czech conversation and feel cobblestones under our feet again. Prague is good, and we made some New Year's resolutions for living here...

Be bookish:

Before the holidays, we'd tried to get library cards at the Municipal Library of Prague but couldn't because our long term visas haven't finished processing yet. So we want to get library-legal when we can.

Outside a book tower at the library...

...and inside of it!

Continue avoiding Western treats:
Starbucks, Fridays, KFC, etc., are expensive here (especially relative to the cost of living), and, really, why would you get a so-so cappuccino in a paper cup when you can get a rich, perfectly-foamed one on a silver tray with a little biscuit in a gorgeous Art Nouveau cafe?

I went with my students for our Tutor group's holiday party

Slip out of the city:
This country is hands-down gorgeous and you can get everywhere on public transit. I don't know if Czechs really understand how lucky they are to have these 50,000 square miles. We intend to see a lot more of them this year.

A photo of Cesky Raj/Bohemian Paradise by Steve Carlson, from ivanterzic

Soup it up:
When we go out for cheap Czech, it usually involves sausages and/or dumplings and/or fried cheese, etc. Our new favorite is topinka - lard-soaked toast smothered with roasted garlic. To keep our arteries clear, we're going to try to indulge less in the heavy stuff and partake more in the healthy stuff when a Czech food craving hits.

Cesnecka polevka (garlic soup)

Sopky salat (mixed vegetable salad) from CSDR.cz

Happy New Year!

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Barcelona noticings

Ten days is a long time to spend in one city, no matter how delightful it is. Yet, planting yourself on holiday in one place allows you to turn the pace down a notch because you're not rushing from thingtothingtothing before boarding another bus/train/plane to the next destination whilst typing madly on a iSomething. We spent more time sipping homemade espresso and strolling along off-season beaches than we did speed-walking through museums and attractions, and we were unplugged from technology for most of the trip. It was nice.

We observed old men playing petanque in the park and the hazy way the afternoon air caught sunbeams over palm trees. We pointed at clever graffiti and how Iberico ham prices fluctuated from shop to shop.  We noticed things that would have otherwise been invisible had we been in a rush. Here are a few images of our noticings...

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