Back in Brno

Čau čau!

I've been back here in the Czech Republic for about a week and a half, and what a week and a half it's been!  I finally have some free time and am able to give you a little update on what I'm doing, so here we go.

My last meal in RI with Mom: 2 dog special with fries!

I left on March 20th from Boston, flying through London to Prague.  I boarded the British Airways plane in Boston, sitting in the aisle seat with two seats to my left, in the second to last row of the entire plane.  Sure enough, two let's say "large" Scotsmen came booming down the aisle, counting the number of rows.  Of course they stopped next to me and said something along the lines of, "Hey da ooh dayur hair, arg sayts."  I translated that to, "hey there, oh, they're here, our seats."  Sure enough, I had the pleasure of sitting with these two.  I can't really call it sitting, though, because I had to actually lean out into the aisle so that they had enough room.  Seeing this, the very kind flight attendant let me sneak up to a seat in an entirely empty row in the middle of the plane right before take-off, as the rest of the plane glared at my good fortune.  There I was, sitting in the middle seat with a free space on either side of me, about to settle down to begin The Hunger Games (aka the reason I didn't sleep for 35 hours...I couldn't stop reading!).  Suddenly, a tap at my shoulder and the dorkiest looking middle-aged man you've ever seen.  Apparently his headphones weren't working, so he wanted to sit next to me and watch a movie.  I told him to go for it, and went back to my book.  Big mistake.  The entire flight, I was peppered with questions: Have you seen this movie?  Is it good?  What's it about?  What are you doing?  Is that a book?  What's its name?  What's it about?  Is it any good?  Didn't they make that into a movie?  Have you been to Europe before?  What time is it?

Imagine sitting next to a parrot.

Once we landed in London, I flew (pun intended) out of the plane and raced to catch my flight to Prague.  That went well, though one of the stewards could have been my cousin Charlie's twin.  I contemplated asking to take a picture with him, the resemblance was so striking.

I made it to Prague, got stopped by a very stupid customs officer asking me what was in my suitcase ("Clothes."  "How long were you in the US for?"  "Three months."  "Why?"  "I'm an American...I was in my country..."  "Did you purchase anything while in the US?"  "Is that a serious question?"  "What?"  "Are you really asking me if I purchased anything in the US?  Obviously I did, everything I own is from the US."  "Oh, I guess you're right.  Have a nice day." -- yes, that is the real conversation.  He was surprised by how brazen I was.), and then went to JoEllen's school to meet her.  We spent the afternoon in Prague, and then I caught the bus down to Brno.

Standing outside the airport in sunny Praha.

Things in Brno are good.  I stayed with Libor for a few days, in which time I went and visited one and only one apartment.  I now live there and it's great.  There're three of us in the apartment: me, Milan (from the Czech Republic) and Pavol (from Slovakia).  Milan also has an enormous Bernese mountain dog, Nero, who is really friendly and great to have in the apartment with us.  It's a nice place, a three-room apartment with a full kitchen, and we live in a quiet part of the city about a 7-minute tram-ride from the center.

Nero, one of my new roommates

I've already started working and have been working like a dog.  I'm teaching English at one school three days a week, and that's going pretty well, though I've only taught there twice so far.  The students speak English fairly well and understand most of what I say.  I then also did a demo lesson in an elementary school on the same street that I live on, teaching nine 7-year-olds for an hour.  We had an absolute blast, talking about animals and the noises they make (they're actually different between English and Czech, since every language has its own form of onomatopoeia), and then I taught them body parts and we sang, "Head and shoulders, knees and toes."  I was being observed by two teachers, and they enjoyed my lesson so much, they offered me a job with their school.  I now teach little kids (ages 5-10) on the other two days of the week, and though my first lesson was a little shaky, things are already improving there.  I'm also working for two translation companies, and will begin teaching some classes at other schools, as well.  After three months of no work, I have more than I can handle and lots of people contacting me with job offers, which is pretty great.  Who knows what the future holds!

With some of my friends in Černá Hora, a pub on Brno's main square.

This past weekend, my friend and former roommate in Graz, Olga, came to visit.  She's from Valencia, Spain, and is teaching Spanish in Graz for the year.  We hadn't seen each other since the day we moved out of our apartment in Graz three years ago, and we had a blast together.  She came on Saturday afternoon, and I showed her some of Brno.  I called my friend Martin, who is also Libor's cousin, who met Olga this summer while he was traveling in Spain.  I said, "Hey, what are you doing?  Want to come to Brno for the night?"  "I'll take the next train."  He really did, too.  It was great seeing him, I hadn't seen him in more than a year, and we surprised Libor when we all went out for a beer that night.  Martin went back to Ostrava on Sunday, where he studies, and Libor and I showed Olga more of Brno, despite the fact that it was snowing (if you can believe it).  Olga cooked tortilla española for me and my roommates on Sunday night, and then we ended the evening by watching The Sound of Music, which Olga had never seen in its entirety, and which now makes me really want to move back to Austria.  Monday we saw some more sites, and on Tuesday she headed back on down to Austria.  It was a great time with her here, and with some luck I'll get to see her again soon!

Martin and me.

Olga and me.

As for now, I'm in Linhartice, Libor's village.  We came here yesterday for the long Easter weekend and will be making our mrskačky (whips) tomorrow for Monday, when we'll go around whipping the girls to celebrate Easter.  Yesterday, Maundy Thursday, is known in Czech as zelený čtvrtek, green Thursday.  Starobrno, Brno's main brewery, started brewing green beer for the occasion years ago.  Since then, some other breweries have also started, and so Libor, his parents and I went to the village pub last night for some green beer.  I feel like a celebrity in the village since I've been here so many times and everyone knows who the Američan is.

That's about it.  Things here are going pretty well, I'm just enjoying a few days of relaxing after a long two weeks, and then Monday night it's back to Brno (after whipping the girls and many, many shots of slivovice), back to life full of teaching, translating and proofreading.

I'll let you know how Easter Monday goes, but as for now, Happy Easter to everyone!

The Last/The First

"Indeed, so far as its physical aspect is concerned, with its flat, unvaried surface, covered chiefly with wooden houses, few or none of which pretend to architectural beauty--its irregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint, but only tame--its long and lazy street, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill and New Guinea at one end, and a view of the alms-house at the other--such being the features of my native town, it would be quite as reasonable to form a sentimental attachment to a disarranged checker-board.  And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for Old Salem, which, in lack of a better phrase, I must be content to call affection."

In 11th grade American lit, we read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, one of my favorite books.  In the fall of 2011 while living in the Czech Republic, I revisited this book and stumbled across the above passage in the very first chapter, "The Custom House."  At the time, I read it and smiled, understanding exactly what Hawthorne meant, both of us being New England boys.  Since December, I've been home in my sleepy New England town, perpetually annoyed with countless aspects of daily life here, complaining about so many things, and being generally bored.  My dirty little secret, though, is the same as Hawthorne's: "there is within me a feeling for [Westerly], which, in lack of a better phrase, I must be content to call affection."  Home is home.  New England is New England.  And I love it.

Home

For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving tomorrow to return to Europe, more specifically to the Czech Republic.  I'll be living in Brno, working as an English (and potentially German and Italian) teacher, as well as a translator and proofreader.  While I'm looking forward to being back in Brno and in Europe, seeing all my friends, and continuing with life outside of my Groundhog's Day-esque routine that has been the past three months, it does come with a twist of sadness.

My dad has told me several times over the years that his proudest achievement as a father is the fact that my sisters and I talk.  I've always shrugged it off, never thinking it to be something particularly exceptional, but rather just a given, something happening between all siblings.  As I meet more people, see more families interact (or keep each other at a great distance), and simply grow up, I've realized he's right.  At the risk of angering a Czech and a Slovak, I have to admit that my two best friends are my sisters.  We annoy each other, we play jokes on each other, we scream at each other, and we laugh with each other.  The past few months have been an absolute blast for me spending time with them.  One lives here in Westerly, the other in Cambridge, MA, but I've gotten to see each fairly often.  We text message each other constantly, we call each other just to chat, and we just plain have fun together.  We've had the same jokes since we could talk, but we still always laugh.  I figured out at a young age to think of myself not as being one independent being but rather as one piece of a triad, and though we now won't get to see each other as regularly, technology still allows to talk constantly (some might even say too much), share meals together through Skype, and all around be active members of each other's lives regardless of location.  It's a beautiful thing.

The girls and me.

I once read somewhere that the tension that often arises between children and parents is the lack of both sides to acknowledge the other simply as people.  This short passage I read beseeched the reader to look at his parents not as authority figures always wanting to say no, but simply as people who are living their lives, achieving victories, dealing with mistakes and failure, trying to follow their own dreams, and simply doing their best.  As I've gotten older, my relationship with my parents has changed and I've come to know each individually.  Honestly, I don't remember my parents being together, that's just the way it is.  Another dirty little secret is that I don't think I would want them together, as this has helped me get to know each for who they themselves are.  I used to hate being told I look like this parent, that I have the humor of that parent, that I remind you of so-and-so.  The last few months have taught me that there really is no greater compliment.  As far as parents go, I won the jackpot.  Both of my parents work very hard and have passed that work ethic on to my sisters and me.  They've worked so hard so that my sisters and I have all the opportunities we've had, but they've also drawn the line to push us further, to make us work for our own victories and achieve our own goals.  They're still there, though, to help us when things don't work out.  I've found countless aspects, good and bad, of both my parents in me, and I'm excited to see what challenges lie ahead to see what else I can find of them in myself.

People ask me a lot in Europe if it's really difficult for me to be away from my family for such long periods of time, and I answer no, that technology allows us to be in contact constantly.  As I said before, I've been witnessing the familial interactions of several of my friends, both in Europe and beyond, and I have to say that my family really is awesome.  I've talked about my sisters and parents, but it goes even further.  I can't name any family in which the grandson (ie, me) text messages with his grandmother, goes for rides with his grandfather, or calls all three of his grandparents just to chat and see what they're doing.  I don't think it's a common thing for a nephew to text message with his aunts and uncles, to be friends with them on Facebook, to play games against them, and to have next to no barriers when it comes to talking to them, to have no inhibitions about calling them just to chat.  I have such great relationships with my grandparents, aunts and uncles, it's truly astounding.  That then gets passed down to my cousins.  I'm in constant contact with my cousins, be it my 19-year-old cousin calling me to ask for advice about her study abroad possibilities, playing knock-out with my 12 and 10-year-old cousins while talking about the babes of the 7th and 5th grades, teasing the California girl about her sunburn that she calls a tan, or skyping with the 7-year-old down in Florida.  I've lost a lot of friends in the US since first moving to Vermont to go to college, and even more when I moved to Austria for study abroad.  The few I have left, though, combined with my cousins of all ages...well, those are the ones that have me sitting here with a smile on my face.

The point of all this, though, is that while I'm leaving tomorrow to head to Europe for an "indefinite" amount of time, it is definite.  The next few months hold a lot of possibilities, adventures, new experiences, and changes for me.  Who can say what will happen?  I've already got plans in the works for my next great adventure: grad school.  For the time being, though, something has pushed me forward, making me want to go out and spend some time abroad.  I recently finished one of my new favorite books, The Namesake, in which is written, "You are still young.  Free...do yourself a favor.  Before it's too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can.  You will not regret it.  One day it will be too late."

At the end of the day, my time in Europe won't be forever, and I'll be back in what will feel like the blink of an eye.  I'm looking forward to the next few months, to seeing my friends, to having new adventures, to learning lots of new things.  One thing's for sure, though: you can take the boy out of New England, but you can't take the New England out of the boy.  See you soon, Rhode Island.

Conquering the Atlantic, March 19, 2012.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope everyone had a great day of relaxing and eating, things here have been really busy, but a lot of fun.

Thursday was a fairly normal day.  I woke up early in the morning for class at eight, and fear not, I wore my Thanksgiving lumberjack shirt.  We had school as usual, and afterwards I ended up going out to lunch with Dagmar (Germany/Poland), Anton (motherland), Dina (motherland), and Kristina (motherland/Israel).  Most restaurants here have a denní menu or denní nabídka, which is basically just their special of the day.  They're always really cheap (maximum $4), and a full portion.  We went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant, which was a little disappointing (sorry, Dag), as I was looking forward to some chicken tikka masala or keema mattar.  The food was really good, though, and it was certainly one of the most interesting foods I've had on Thanksgiving to say the least.  After that, I went on the hunt for some turkey, as Libor was coming over to make dinner.  After a while of searching, I gave up and just got chicken instead.  We ended up having chicken with peas, corn, and carrots, and I made mashed potatoes.  All in all, not a very exciting Thanksgiving dinner, but better than nothing.  After that, we went over to Ola and Kasia's (part of the Polish tribe, as I'm sure you know by now), where a bunch of people met.  We hung out there for a while, then hit the town.  I figure it was comparable to the first Thanksgiving, with the North American teaching the unknowing Europeans some moves on the dance floor.  Squanto would've been proud.

On Friday, Libor and I hopped on a Studentagency bus and headed up to Prague.  It took about an hour longer than it should've, as we were trapped in some horrific traffic outside of Kutná Hora, but finally, after more than two months of living in the Czech Republic again, I entered the capital city.  We caught the metro to Vltavská and then transferred to the tram, riding out to Petřiny.  JoEllen, who had the pleasure of living and teaching in Ostrava last year with Fulbright, is teaching at a high school in Prague, so we went out to her place.  It's actually the high school where we had our one-day orientation last August before we started teaching.  We made it out there, where she met us with her boyfriend, Martin, who's Czech.  It's a pretty sweet set-up, because they live in buildings right next to each other, so Libor and I ended up staying in her apartment, and she stayed with Martin.

Friday night was pretty low-key.  They made us pizza, and we spent the night just chatting and relaxing, preparing for the big day.  JoEllen and I hadn't seen each other in June, so it was really great to hang out again.  Saturday morning, though, the fun began.  JoEllen had been planning every detail for weeks, and Martin was assigned the task of finding us a turkey.  After calling several butchers in Prague, all of whom told him the smallest they could get would be 33lbs., he finally found one weighing in at a whopping 18.3lbs.  Also, its neck was still attached.  Yum.

Caution: American woman cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

Martin summed it up well, "It's beeeeaaaauuuutiful!"

The day turned out to be fairly Thanksgivingy.  Libor and I walked to Kaufland, something like Walmart, to buy an assortment of drinks for the day (I insisted on getting Coke, 'cause what's Thanksgiving without Coke?  I'm a Livingston, after all...), and then the three men spent the day on the couch while JoEllen slaved away.  Martin told us that in the morning, he had suggested a minor change to JoEllen's schedule and plans, and was promptly relieved of all duties in the kitchen.  I think he wanted our support in the matter, but I just said, "Martin, rule #1 of Thanksgiving.  Do not mess with an American woman today.  You will never win."  JoEllen heard me, and shouted from the kitchen that he should pay attention to what I was saying.  Anyways, I ended up being able to sneak into the kitchen and help Jo a little bit, and I made some quality mashed potatoes if I do say so myself.  I also chopped chocolate bars into chips, and later made my first attempt at baking, which was quite successful.  As dinnertime approached, the other guests arrived: Sujin, who was also on Fulbright with us last year, with her boyfriend Petr, a Czech, as well as Ian, a Scot, with his girlfriend Lucka, a Czech.  All in all, we were three Americans, four Czechs, and a Scot, an interesting line-up for Thanksgiving.  The food was ready, and we had a cornucopia (buh dum bum) of food: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad, and I can't remember what else.  It was amazing, and I can't give JoEllen enough credit for it.  Afterwards, I made chocolate chip cookies, and Sujin served a pumpkin pie she had baked.  That, my friends, is how you do an American Thanksgiving in a foreign country.

Happy Thanksgiving!  L to R: JoEllen, Martin, Ian, Lucka, Libor

Chocolate chip cookies are possible in Europe.

Sunday morning was lazy, but we made pancakes care of the Bisquick Mom forced me to take with me when I left the US in September.  Martin had Canadian maple syrup, and together the combination was fantastic.  All in all, we had a very American weekend, food-wise, culture-wise, and language-wise (I haven't spoken English nonstop since August, this weekend was a nice break and the opportunity to use real English, being with native speakers).  After breakfast (which was basically lunch), JoEllen packed us doggie bags, and Libor and I headed out into the city.  We caught the bus back to Brno at 3:30, but before that wandered around the center a bit.  Prague is absolutely one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, there is no doubt whatsoever about that.  At Christmastime, it's breath-taking.  We took the tram from JoEllen's to Malá Strana, meaning the "Small Side," which is right beneath Prague Castle and the former home of the Czech Republic's artistic scene, above all its authors.  We walked through that area, crossed Charles Bridge, and walked along Karlova Street up to Old Town Square.  From there, we continued on to Wenceslas Square, and then on to the bus station, where we sampled some Burger King.

Jo holding our Canadian syrup, Libor with the pancakes.

Looking at Prague Castle from Charles Bridge.

Old Town Square.

Things here are otherwise busy.  The semester is winding down, which is sad, the Christmas markets have opened, which is awesome, and I'm starting to get ready to head back to the US.  My work plans are changing, but there's no need to go into too much detail with that until things are finalized, but things are definitely looking up.

Yevgeniya, Michal, Kasia and me in front of Brno's tree.

That's all for now.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in the US, and am glad to be enjoying a great final week and a half with everyone in Europe!

Już Mówię po Polsku

Cześć!  If you remember from one of my earlier posts, entitled Nie Mówię po Polsku, then you should have some idea what the title means, as well as what cześć means.  Nie mówię po polsku means, "I don't speak Polish."  This blog's entitled Już Mówię po Polsku, meaning, "I already speak Polish."  I've been here in Brno for two months, I roll mostly with Poles and Russians, and, after this weekend, I've discovered my ability to understand more or less a huge chunk of Polish.  It's been a busy but fun and rewarding week, so allow me to tell you what's happening in Česká republika.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've been trying to find a job here, so that I can then get a visa and stay.  I also need the money, so getting a job is crucial.  I was offered positions at two language schools, either way teaching English, each with its own advantages, each with its disadvantages.  I spent a few days mulling over the possibilities, and finally decided to work at the larger school, and they're going to help me take care of the visa and paperwork, which will hopefully go through quickly.  On Monday, I went and met with them, filled out the paperwork which will be filed for me to be a legal worker in the Czech Republic.  I'm not yet sure if they've filed it or not, because they're under the impression that they need to show my original diploma from UVM, although I've just used a copy in the past, and it hasn't been a problem.  Either way, I should hopefully get my diploma in the mail either tomorrow or Tuesday, and so the ball is already in motion for me to become legal here.  Once that paperwork is submitted, I can apply for a visa in Slovakia, and hopefully that won't take very long.

Thursday was a holiday here.  November 17th is one of the Czech Republic and Slovakia's independence days.  It might sound strange that I wrote "days," whereas in the US we of course only have the 4th of July as our independence day.  Remember, though, that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are right in the heart of Europe, and there have been several different regimes here throughout the centuries.  November 17th is known as Den boje za svobodu a demokracii, the Day of the Battle for Freedom and Democracy.  It was the day that began the Velvet Revolution in Soviet Czechoslovakia.  It's a very important day in their history for obvious reasons, leading to the independence of Czechoslovakia and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.  I celebrated the day with Libor and Ola, from Poland, by going for a hike in Babí Lom, just outside of Brno.  It was a great hike, though we didn't go for as long as we planned.  In the morning, there was frost on the ground, and the day's high was supposed to be somewhere around 33°F.  We had planned to walk for 10km (about six miles), but instead only went 5km.  We took the bus to Vranov, a village outside of Brno, and from there hiked through the forest, across some cool rock formations, and down into the village of Lelekovice.  We had lunch there in a pizzeria, and Ola was nearly frozen to the core, so we caught the bus back to Brno.  It was a beautiful hike, though, and nice to be outside for such a long period of time.  It was a nice relief from the city, too.

A tree covered in frost.

The beginning of the path from Vranov to Lelekovice at about 10:30 in the morning.

In the middle of the forest.  There was a line between the leaves and the wall of frost.

Frozen Ola and happy Libor.  On a clear day, you'd be able to see the Alps in the background.

US mailbox in the middle of the Czech Republic!

On Friday, Libor and I met up in the afternoon and went to Náměstí Míru, the Square of Peace.  There's a nice park there, and in the middle a little sports complex.  There, we met Lukáš, a friend who Libor went to high school with, and we played squash.  I had never played before, and Libor thinks he played maybe once, but we both had no clue what the rules were, etc.  I read a little online before going, but we sat and watched the others until Lukáš could explain to us what we were supposed to do.  It was awesome, such a fun game, and we're going to start going more often now, along with badminton, like we already play.  Mára, who also went to high school with them, met us there, and then we all crossed the city (which is no easy feat, Brno's fairly large) to Lukáš' house.  This summer, he flew to Hanoi, and from there traveled all over Vietnam.  He spent a total of three weeks there, so invited us over to his house to cook Vietnamese food for us (the Vietnamese equivalent of spring rolls), and showed us his pictures from the trip.  It was amazing, and afterwards I told Libor we had better start looking into flights to Asia.  Lukáš liked to point out that he got an Adidas sports shirt for $5, a North Face jacket for maybe $20, all straight from the factory.  Not too shabby.  We then met up with Fanda and another Mára, who are also Libor's former classmates, and went out to a pub owned by, you'll never believe it, the mother of yet another classmate.  It was fun, they're a good group of guys, and a lot of fun to hang out with.

Last night, Ola and her roommate Kasia, who you'll remember from my entry about our adventure to the racetracks, invited a few people over to their place for a little party.  It was a mix of kids from school, but such a good time.  We ended up hanging out there all night, chatting, forcing Kristina to write things in Hebrew for us, watching Dina and Anton write in the Cyrillic alphabet, swapping music, playing games, and just all-around having a good time.  It was definitely one of the highlights of the semester so far.  Anton, from Russia, was here last year doing the same Czech course I'm doing now.  This year, he's a regular master's student.  I asked him if the group of kids last year was as good as this year, and he said not even close, that our year (and even our teacher has confirmed it) is some kind of a weird exception.  I'm definitely lucky that things fell into place that I could come here.

That's about it.  It's been on the one hand a relaxing weekend, but on the other always lots to do, seeing friends, etc.  We're now in the final weeks of the semester, so everybody's starting to get ready either to go home for the holidays, or to go home for good, which is scary to think about.  I'll be returning to the US on December 10th, flying into JFK.  My 90 days in the European Union will be up on December 13th, so it's best if I leave a few days earlier.  I'm flying out of Vienna, and Libor actually just got an interview for a job in Graz, so I'm flirting with the idea of sneaking down to Graz with him for a few days to see my friends there and enjoy Christmas in Austria, because let's face it, Austria is THE Christmas country.  Otherwise, I'm just wrapping things up here, getting ready to move out of my horrible apartment, trying to find a new place for when I return to Europe, and looking forward to going to Prague this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving at JoEllen's!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US!!!

Two Month Anniversary

Greetings from chilly Brno.  Two months ago right now, I was sitting at Logan waiting to board my plane to Spain.

It's been a little while since I've written anything, as things here have been really crazy, but I decided to take the weekend off and relax a bit.  The past few weeks, I've been going nonstop between school, homework, friends, job hunting, interviews, rejections, interviews, rejections, interviews, rejections, interviews, potential employment, interviews, rejections.  Well, you see the pattern.

The good news, though, is that it appears I have a job!  I got hired at a private language school here in Brno, which mostly deals with company courses.  I'll be working full-time, that is, roughly 22 hours a week teaching, plus all the prep and travel time, as I physically have to go to all the different companies around Brno, they don't come to me.  I haven't 100% accepted the offer yet, as there is another possibility at a second school, where I'd teach in the same building all the time, and would also be able to translate and proofread.  It's a little up in the air right now, but at least I finally have concrete options!  I won't even bore you with the insane amount and variety of jobs I've applied for, as I think it would get confusing after a while (since there's been such a huge amount), but the long and short of it is: my days of being poor are potentially coming to a close.  Oh, and I'd finally be 100% legal in the European Union.

Otherwise, my life has been consumed by school.  I've said in my past entries that I love my classes and my classmates.  Well, that's all still true, if not moreso.  It's really great, as we're all so comfortable with each other, and it's just an awesome group of people.  The mix of countries and personalities really compliments itself, and I'm glad to be a part of it.  Everyone here really looks out for one another, and everybody's been really pushing for me to find a job, helping me in the search, "pressing their thumbs" (the Czech equivalent to "crossing their fingers"), and even from Ola, one of my Poles, getting a knee to the butt (apparently in Poland it's good luck).  Everyone's become so integral to each others' lives, and the program wouldn't be the same without them.

We've had some really fascinating discussions in school, but there's one that I'd like to share, and hopefully she won't be too horrified that I'm sharing this, as she reads my blogs.  I've mentioned in some of the past blogs that I have a friend here who was born in Russia and now lives in Israel.  Her name's Kristina, and I like to think of her as the anchor to a lot of our discussions.  For example, last week in class we were having a discussion about culture, our interpretation of culture, and the potential decline of culture in our countries.  She was the last to speak, and reminded us all that culture is a privilege.  How a person defines culture for himself is not important, just the possibility of having it, and having the opportunity to decide that is something in and of itself.  That's not the major story I want to share, though.

Two weeks ago, we were discussing our fears.  It was interesting to see what people had to say.  There were some who said spiders, others who said death.  I shared my absolute disdain for snakes.  Our teacher said, "But you're from the north, there aren't that many snakes there, are there?"  "No, the bad ones are all in the Southwest, but it doesn't matter, the ones in the north freak me out, too."  "What about marine animals?"  "Oh, they're not a problem.  My sisters and I used to catch crabs, sand sharks, etc.  They're normal.  Snakes are just gross."  The conversation progressed, and Kristina was up to bat.  She lived in the Czech Republic last year, in a town called Mariánské Lázně, in the west close to Germany.  In the Czech Republic, every city has sirens that notify its residents of any threat, be it for example an invasion (though, of course, chances of that are slim to none) to an environmental hazard to a biological disaster.  The Czech Republic has two atomic stations, one not too far from Brno, so the sirens and evacuation procedures are always kept up to date.  On the first Wednesday of every month in Brno at 12 noon, the sirens are tested.  The residents know this, so it's not a cause for alarm.  Foreigners, however, do not know this.  Kristina told us how when she was living in Mariánské Lázně, she was sleeping and the sirens went off one morning for a routine test.  Her initial reaction was to find her gas mask, find her parents, and go to the bunker.  Only after did she realize what was happening.  I'm always amazed hearing stories like that from the others, and seeing what's "normal" in their lives.  It's been such a fascinating and exciting experience so far, and I've met such interesting people from around the world who have all become such near and dear friends.

 For Thanksgiving weekend, Libor and I are hightailing it up to Prague.  JoEllen invited me for a Thanksgiving celebration, and so I'm bringing my trusty sidekick along so he can experience a proper Thanksgiving, not the poor excuse for the one I tried to cook in Austria.  JoEllen will be cooking, too, which means it'll be much better quality than what I attempted last year, and it'll be nice to be with friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, since I can't be home in RI for it.  We'll be celebrating on Saturday, though, rather than Thursday, so I'll still get to attempt to cook myself some turkey and see how it goes.  Thursdays have traditionally been the days where Libor and I play badminton and then end up finding a pub or cafe somewhere in the city to hang out for the evening, so maybe I'll leave it to the professionals and try and find turkey on some menu.

That's about it on this side of the ocean.  My Russian and Polish comprehension is getting better, and Machteld from Belgium is helping me learn some freaky, deaky Dutch.  In the next few days, things should be solidified with my work plans.  As of now, though, I'm looking at around December 10th to return to the US, and I can't wait to see everyone!

So that you can put some faces to names I've used, I'll throw in some pictures here of some of my friends.  Hopefully they're not too horrified that their pictures are on my blog.

My trusty sidekick Libor, whom you all know.  Dietlinde took this back in September.

Back: Lukasz (Poland), Marina (Belarus), Yevgeniya (Ukraine), Kristina (Russia/Israel)

, Front: Me, Anton (Russia)

My Poles.  Michal, Martyna, Katarzyna (Kasia)

More Poles: Kasia, Joanna, Ola

The Russian Delegation: Dina (middle), Katya (right)

Edik(Syria), Hristina(Macedonia), Martin(CZ), Michal/Martyna/Kasia/Joanna/Ola(PL), Me, Anton(Russia), Dagmar(Germany)

Na zdraví!  (Cheers!) Left to right: Martyna, Kasia, Asia, Machteld (Belgium), me, Anton, Dagmar, Martin, Edik, Daniel (Syria), Hristina, Michal

Left to Right: Yevgeniya, Anton, Hristina, Me, Marina, Therese (Sweden), Fredrik (Sweden), Mirka (Slovakia), Flic (England)