l'auberge espagnole

yesterday evening we (six girls) were invited to a dinner party at a flat in dejvice where three czech boys, some of g.'s friends, live.  five minutes within walking through the door (the space where the door should be, that is; the actual door was leaning on the wall a meter away), we were cutting vegetables, washing the dishes, airing out the tablecloth, and emptying ashtrays, while our hosts stood back in quiet defeat.  and we made some balloon animals on the way there.  oh and between the nine of us, we represented six different countries: czech republic, russia, estonia, france, italy, mexico, and japan.

pondělí velikonoční (easter monday)

happy easter monday; no school!  in the czech easter, there is a tradition for every day of the week leading up this day.  the most interesting one is called pomlázka (from the verb "pomladit," meaning "to make younger").  in this centuries-old tradition, boys run around the village, holding whips made from braided pussywillow twigs with colorful ribbons tied to the end.  with these, they proceed to whip the girls of the village, and sometimes even douse them with water.  the girls then reward the boys by giving them lovely painted eggs that they have worked on all week.  fair exchange, no?  at first i thought, oh funny old village tradition, ha-ha, but now i am scared because i am seeing boys in the street with these whips sticking out of their back pockets!  (above, "mazanec" easter bread.)

zelený čtvrtek (green thursday)

sometimes wine + strudel happens in the middle of the day.  yesterday there was a party in the fashion studio; people dancing like crazy on the table to 1990s hits.  it was so fun!  and the most interesting part is that this happens in the school.  people hold parties after hours in their studios and nobody minds.  well, the man at the reception desk came upstairs to tell us to keep it down a couple of times, but when his shift was over, he went home and we were free to continue.  imagine that, i wish MICA was so welcoming, but then again the student body at VŠUP is practically nonexistent, and sometimes it seems that the school is empty.

jsem ráda, že jsem ráda

i think that spring is coming soon.  n. and i went to a french crêperie near strossmayerovo naměstí yesterday evening and i had an apple purée and honey crêpe and hot milk with almond syrup and jack johnson was quietly singing from the speakers ("i was sitting, waiting, wishing you believed in superstitions, then maybe you'd see the signs...") and i had a sudden and overwhelming feeling of being very happy and very content with my life at that moment.

kabul

we celebrated friday the thirteenth at an afghan restaurant called kabul, where the waiter turned out to be russian, and spent all evening fluttering around our table and answering every request with some witty remark.  after we had asked for the check, he brought another round of red wine, "from him."  and on our way out we were told that we had "colored his entire evening."  definitely coming back to this place.

čajovna u kostela

n. and i went to another tearoom this evening.  they had better halva than the clock tower tea club, and something very very delicious called masala chai, which is a sweet indian tea brewed with milk and strong spices.  this was a good way to spend the evening because i was like a zombie all day.

с 8-ым марта

march 8th is international women's day.  it isn't actually very international, because only people from former soviet republics take it very seriously and celebrate, but i wish all of you a happy day, anyway.  today we will go to eat celebratory cake.  also, as of today, i have been living in prague for one month.

dinner party

last night we had a birthday party for r. in the big leisure room on the first floor of the dormitory.  people cooked very, very good food.  that's czech rum + cola in my hand and i am crazy from going to bed late and waking early.  pam-param-pam-pam.  photograph by a.

the tea club

there is a clock tower outside of my window.

if one goes up and up and up the staircase inside at night,

one finds a tea club.

we went up yesterday to the warm carpeted rooms, where we took off our coats and shoes at the door and put on the provided slippers, and sat on the floor around a low table drinking turkish black tea and eating halva.