no. 31, ulice čechova

if found this house yesterday, on the next street, and immediately and inexplicably wanted to cry.  i have come back to stand in front of it twice today, my head filling with stories about who must live in the top floor, where the door leading to the decaying balcony is open.  it must be the home of someone like the canterville ghost.  judging by the inscription "léta páně mdccccv," it was built in 1905.

then later today, i saw one of "our" men, in a black trench coat, walking down the street toward me, and decided that he, without a doubt, lives, slightly miss havisham-style, in this house.  he drinks cold tea and sits at a three-legged writing desk, writing detective stories.

park stromovka

i finally went to explore my neighborhood, bubeneč, and found this very, very large and dismally beautiful park behind the street where i live.  there are many hidden places and twisty trees, and mysterious mansions visible on hilltops.

drawing class

on thursday i was finally able to go to drawing class, which lasted about three hours.  there is a giant roll of paper in the corner and when i come in, i tear off a very long piece and attach it to a very tall easel, and draw the nude model full size.  i hate working so big, but it wasn't so bad at all...

městská knihovna v praze

i went this morning  to make a borrower's card at the prague municipal library.  n. came with me to speed up the process by speaking czech and translating the application.  now with my card, i really feel more a part of a community, in a very tiny way.  the english and russian collections are not very big (but why should they be?) but this way i don't have to be picky and will be happy to read whatever i can find.

re-evolution

yesterday evening i went with n. and i. and r. to popo cafe petl in malá strana for live latin music.  we sat at a very small round table with giant mugs of hoegaarden, and stood up sometimes to dance in front of the stage.  i did not plan on dancing, but "seize the day more often" is one of my resolutions for the new year.  also, these glowing penguins were accidently discovered by me when i was wandering around aimlessly on kampa island.  they are part of kampa museum's exhibition called re-evolution.

8 1/2

the english-language globe bookstore and cafe on pštrossova has free screenings of classic films every sunday night.  yesterday i went with n. and n. and r. to drink hot wine and watch fellini's "8 1/2."  it was very beautiful in imagery and music, but i thought that it would never end... 

снег пошёл.

on thursday i did not return until 10:30 pm, so there was no chance of going out, but a few people came to my room with little presents like chocolates, a small kalanchoe plant, and a bird bookmark.  it was so sweet, and we had a bottle of red wine saved up for the occasion (or until we found a corkscrew).  tonight we will try to get more people together for a proper 21st celebration.

gmt+1

ever since i arrived here almost two weeks ago, i feel like i have been running late to everything.  every day i find myself in the position of holding a sandwich in one hand, and pulling my tights on with the other, while trying to remember where i put my keys.  for someone who is never late to anything ever, i am very shocked and confused.  everyone says that this is ok, because the czechs are always late, but that is hardly a consolation.

zoo praha

this morning i went to a lecture on the history of graphic design with alan záruba, and then to the prague zoo, where i ran straight for the elephants because i had to meet again with saul and pavel this afternoon to see an exhibition of the national gallery's dance-themed paintings and prints at the wallenstein riding school. 

at dinner yesterday pavel hardly addressed me, which i had no qualms about because i was just happy to look and listen without any motives (although it was reassuring when i ventured to share an opinion and found him nodding vigorously), but then he offered to help me with learning linocut, suggesting that i can use his tools and studio, and that he can help me in the lithograph workshop at school. and then i somehow got an invitation to come with him to venice for the biennale, where he is a commissioner of the czech/slovak pavilion and has an extra room in the apartment he keeps there. yes, i am curious, but i had to decline!

pavel piekar

dr. saul myers invited me to dinner with pavel piekar, who is an artist and technician at the national gallery in prague.  we had dinner at his private studio.  he is quietly eccentric, which is slightly intimidating, but with time (and moravian wine) he shared his views on modern art and showed me his work, which consists of very complicated, multiple-color linocuts. he had several recent prints hanging up, one of which i immediately recognized as a portrait of the russian poet marina tsvetayeva. just the day before i was searching though her poetry, wondering if she had ever been to prague.  i found out from pavel that she had lived in prague for several years, and the city's influence can be found in some of her work.  this was like a little birthday present, and also the strangest birthday i have ever had. 

назови меня пани

i never would have imagined that i would turn twenty-one so far away from where i expected to turn twenty-one.

strange thing number three

i tore this page out of a november 2007 issue of travel + leisure about a year ago, and scanned it just before coming to prague.  there was an interesting brief article about the czech republic today and a few photographs by matthew monteith from his book czech eden.  today i walked into the bookbinding studio and while i was talking to the head of the workshop, some blond woman turned around and looked directly at me, and it was THIS. WOMAN. 

чужие города

some scenery that passed by between prague and litoměřice.

česky jazyk

today was the first czech language class.  it seems that i am going to be studying quite a lot on my own if i truly want to learn it.  "kdo je to? to je babička.  cto je to? to je ananas!"  (учительницу зовут зина копецка.)

view from my window

my room

sunday

my new roommate moved in today.  n. is from ukraine but has lived in prague for two years, speaks czech, and sometimes works as a guide, so she knows a lot about the history of the city.  this is very lucky for me.  even more serendipitously, we first met at a bar a few nights ago:  i was told that i will have a ukrainian girl named n. moving in on sunday, and when i saw her i got the feeling that she is that girl, and when she came to talk to me, she said she somehow knew that i was her future roommate, too.  so strange how these things are happening.

den svatého valentina

i went out looking for the place where i signed my name on the john lennon wall in malá strana back when i was sixteen, but i did not find it.  layers of paint and messages written in markers have accumulated over the years.  but i did stumble upon a very festive saint valentine's fair near karlův bridge.

this is home now

here is the outside of the mikoláš aleš dormitory.  my window is on the left hand side of the top balcony.  if you look closely, you can see the white paper elephants on the glass.

i am listening to cats on fire and thinking, wow, i really like cats on fire and they sound perfect in this city (thank you, b.) "in this vast space of my own, no one's left me, i'm just alone..."

postcards from prague

i found a used book store that also sells hundreds of soviet-era eastern european postcards.  i found some from prague and brno, so get ready for some interesting things in the mail, lovely friends.

very cold day

today was the second part of our architectural tour. it was so cold that i thought my nose would fall off. "grog" (a hot cognac drink) and "medovina" (mead) were my best friends today.

saint vitus' dance

today was the first part of our architectural tour around prague, which included going inside katedrála svatého víta (saint vitus cathedral), and as further proof that my life is ruled by kismet, i ran into dr. saul myers, my kafka professor from MICA.  back in baltimore, we joked that maybe we will accidentally meet at café kafka, but that it should actually happen in such a big city, and not in any place but literally in "the castle" is a very, very interesting coincidence.

jiří slíva

a. and i wandered into the graphic techniques workshop this morning to see if we can take it, and there was only one man sitting at the window, autographing prints for an illustrated version of the bible. he said he is not the instructor but only using the studio and then showed us the beautiful illustrations he is signing.  then i found out that this is a very well-known czech illustrator/designer jiří slíva.

bookbinding

the first bookbinding and paper-making workshop was today.  we were shown how to do perfect bookbinding and made little books to take notes in for the class.

kafka on the bus

as if it is not enough to jump through hoops to get a czech visa, i have to register it with the immigration police too.  i got up before dawn today to go to prague 3, wait in the cold for it to open, and find out that this is the wrong place.  trams, buses, and metro rides later, i finally found the right office for usa citizens, and there was no line and the clerk spoke english (two things that i was told are absolutely impossible at the immigration police).  when i walked home, it struck me as very funny to be walking up a hill under falling snow, toward a looming and mysterious castle, after a day of treacherous bureaucracy.

litoměřice

today we (five people, all voluntary, there is no structure here and not much makes sense) took a train with our illustration professor, juraj horváth (of baobab books), to a 10th century town about two hours outside of prague called litoměřice, to see a show of drawings and posters by the very famous czech illustrator/designer jiří šalamoun (very hard to find online).  it is very beautiful and friendly illustration, and i especially like his hand-drawn letters.

l'auberge espagnole

my mailing address, so don't forget to buy 90 cent stamps and send me many letters:

CZECH REPUBLIC

bryksenkova yelena

kolej mikoláše alše 

na výšinách 2,   311

170 00 praha 7

when i figure out how česká pošta works, i will send mail too.  today was the first day of school.  if you have seen the film l'auberge espagnole, that is the only way to show what this is like.  a real big senseless mess.  students who speak different languages are crowded together discussing how no one understands what is going on.  it's brilliant.  just when i had reconciled myself to the idea that i will not hear my voice again for the next five months, i met russian, danish, french, japanese, italian, hungarian, german, american, spanish, and israeli students.  nobody seems to understand much about this country, and despite that fact is quite cheerful anyway, so i decided to follow suit and not panic about anything at all. 

ahoj from praha

i arrived in prague on saturday evening and took a taxi to the mikoláš aleš dormitory. the woman in charge that night was very cheerful but speaks zero english and a few words in russian, so we spoke our languages at the same time until we hit a common word. my room has two beds, one yet unoccupied, and two large windows with good views. the first night was a little bewildering and strange and lonely, but it is important to be calm and cheerful in these situations. on sunday i got up early with the dogwalkers, bought "potraviny" ("groceries" in czech, "poisons" in russian) and went around exploring my surroundings without a map (best way to learn). i went through a park, and the city crept up from below the hill so suddenly that i almost started crying, because it is so magically beautiful. i wanted to find my school for monday, and was briefly disoriented before i looked down and noticed that i am literally standing on the letters "VŠUP."

night and night's travelers

i have four hours at heathrow. that was the quickest transatlantic flight of my life.  i didn't watch a single film, tried to sleep, looked out the window.  i always count the hours, waiting for the flight to end, but for the first time i wanted it to go on forever, flying through the shining winter night.  i have no idea what is waiting for me at the other end.  

WTF london

i have a flight this friday on british airways with a connection in heathrow airport, and london decides to get its heaviest snowfall in 18 years.  keep your fingers, toes, and anything else crossable, crossed.

czechoslovakian illustration

i am looking at czechoslovakian children's book illustration from the 1960s.  these books are so obscure and rare, but i hope to get my hands on some of them someday.  i don't have anything czech in my collection yet.  my favorite is květa pacovská (i remember drooling over her book the little flower king, but i want to find it in the original czech):

also very charming are books by vlasta váňová and alena santarová (this especially because of the elephant).  this illustration reminds me of everything good, happy, and magical in the world.

prague, 1993

i found this photograph in a september 1993 national geographic today.