Wednesday, December 31, 2008

new year's playlist

as we were braving the sudden winter storm that attacked pittsburgh on this fine new years eve, j robb and i discussed the viability of a new years playlist. i decided to undertake this challenge only to realize that the number of songs that directly refer to new years is rather small and that you can only stretch non-literal references to the change of the calendar so far (unless you want a list with a ton of songs along the lines of "A Long December" by the Counting Crows). and anyway, that's boring!

so my new years playlist is "resolution" themed, so all the songs refer to resolutions i will attempt to make and keep in the year 2009.


Song: Everyday I Write the Book - Elvis Costello
Resolution: I will write a book.

Song: Amsterdam - Peter, Bjorn and John
Resolution: I will start seriously looking into ways to live in my favorite city in Europe.

Songs: Grand Canyon - Magnetic Fields, Washington DC - Magnetic Fields, Chicago - Sufjan Stevens, No Sleep Til Brooklyn - The Beastie Boys, Tennessee Sucks - Ryan Adams
Resolution: I will go on a Great American Roadtrip.

Song: The Legionnaire's Lament - The Decemberists
Resolution: I will expand my vocabulary with words like "laudanum," "fecundity," and "charabanc."

Song: The New Workout Plan - Kanye West
Resolution: I will finally get in shape.

Song: Elevator - Flo Rida featuring Timbaland
Resolution: I will start taking the stairs.

Song: Love is Like a Rock - Donnie Iris
Resolution: I will listen to more "homegrown" artists.

Song: After the Goldrush - Neil Young
Resolution: I will give up on this whole "panning for gold" get-rich-quick thing.

Song: Cherchez La Ghost - Ghostface Killah
Resolution: I will learn French.

Song: Spiderwebs - No Doubt
Resolution: I will change the message on my answering machine.

Song: So Fresh, So Clean - Outkast
Resolution: I will try to bathe every day.

Song: Pussy Galore - The Roots
Resolution: I will catch up on all the old Bond movies I've yet to see.

Song: It's Not Easy Being Green - Kermit the Frog
Resolution: I'll start looking into sustainable sources of energy and becoming more environmentally conscious.

Song: Step into My Office, Baby - Belle and Sebastian
Resolution: I will stop sleeping with my secretary.

Song: Got Ya Money - Ol' Dirty Bastard
Resolution (well, not really): God give us strength to continue living on this planet another year without ODB.

Here's to 2009!

Love, Jen

Sunday, December 28, 2008

liveblog: Steelers v. Browns

for this, the final game of the season and the only game i've seen in pittsburgh, i've decided to liveblog. my liveblogging experience includes 2 Pens games and one afternoon of Austrian music television (see below and the raleigh street blog).

so far, not much has happened. in fact until about three minutes ago, this game was super boring. it seemed like at least 17 points had been scored but were not recorded on the scoreboard. i guess they were disallowed (or maybe it's broken?!).

bruce gradkowski is pitching for the Browns, which makes him i think the 4th person to quarterback the team this season? i have a soft spot for bruce, mostly because he's from pittsburgh (seton la salle) and because his name is super fun to say with a pittsburgh accent.

lots of exciting things keep almost happening. stallworth was literally flipped over by a steelers tackle, yet attempted to stand up after he landed and continued acquiring YAC. he ran pretty far before anyone thought to mention that his elbow had downed him.

this might sound stupid, but something i have struggled with my entire football watching career is the difference between an incomplete pass and a complete pass that is then fumbled. i'm not convinced that there is any discernable difference to anyone; whichever referee is in charge just guesses, then the rest of them agree because they have no clue either. the steelers picked up a "fumble" that turned out to be merely an incomplete pass. he ran it nearly to the endzone, but the whistles were blowing. disappointing. the thing is, i'm pretty sure everyone viewing with the naked eye thought the pass was complete then fumbled, including the announcer. i would love to ask a panel of referees about this.

i just remembered that in order to be a complete pass, the pass has to be caught legally and then the player has to execute a "football move" which is my FAVORITE term in professional sports commentary. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE. which further proves that the incomplete v. complete+fumble is an impossible call to make.

big ben has managed to throw a few passes this quarter to the players on his own team.

1:48 in the 2nd. roethlisberger is down, but don't worry because after willie parker scored a few minutes ago, and then threw the ball nearly to the second level of seating in celebration. remember that commercial where john elway threw that nerf football the entire length of the field? it was just like that.

ben does not appear to even be thinking about getting up off the field.

well, here comes byron leftwich. at least we're keeping with the theme of former MAC conference quarterbacks. (bruce - toledo, ben - miami of oh., byron - marshall*.) also all their names start with the letter B! fuuuuuck yeah.

"is he still...? he is dead." - my mom on the fact that ben hasn't stood up yet.

with no hope of securing the top seed in the AFC, there was really no reason for mike tomlin to play ben. now let's hope byron can get us through the playoffs.

what do you think about this? should teams bench their first stringers at the end of the season if a win is not necessary?

they're DRILLING his helmet to take it off!!!!! we're being assured that they do this in "any number of scenarios" but i think maybe to avoid inciting a panic they could have saved this for the locker room.

they're taking him out on a stretcher.
"it'd be funny if they dropped him." -mom

ben just gave a thumbs up to the crowd as the little motorized cart carried his stretcher down the sideline. WHAT A RELIEF.

"i hope leftwich throws about 5 touchdowns." -mom. you know, it HAS been quite a while since we've had a good quarterback controversy.

there's talk of Cleveland looking to sign Bill Cowher as head coach next year. am i the only one who sees this as completely implausible? you can't coach the steelers for 15 years then coach the Browns. Or the Cowboys, the Bengals, the Ravens, or the Eagles. The other 27 teams? have at it.

Leftwich just "scrambled" his eggs 8 yards for a touchdown. pack your bags, ben.

it's the 2nd half now. i got kinda bored of liveblogging.

winter is great. in the colder markets they put up those space-heater type things near the benches so the players can stay warm between plays. they have signs that say "caution: very hot. stay back 4 feet." EVERY GAME without fail, there is some sort of joke made using these signs. today, it was "the steelers defense is on fire!" as the camera caught townsend and the rest of them unknowingly standing in the vicinity of the heater. HILARIOUS.

okay this has gone on long enough. the score is 17-0 with 4:53 left in the 3rd quarter. i'm probably going to take a nap. PEACE.


*now in conference USA i guess, but recently. when leftwich played there, they were still MAC.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

(almost)* liveblogging austrian music television

i haven't had a TV in six months, and have barely watched any television in 11. With my recent move across town I find myself in an apartment with a TV and only one channel** - "gotv," or basically austria's answer to MTV.

having been out of the game for quite a while, i have to admit that when i see videos shown, it has a hypnotizing, paralyzing affect. i spent most of this afternoon listening to and watching music videos, mesmerized. here are some of the most interesting ones i saw:


"Hearts Burned Into Fire," by Bullet for My Valentine

because i was watching a German-language based broadcast, and on first appearances, i totally expected this band to sound like something like motorhead. the guys strode out with cut-off black muscle shirts and bottle-black, shoulder-length hair. the guitarist
played the opening notes on only the fret-board, and i thought "this guy is preparing to rock harder than slash ever dreamed."

i was totally wrong! it was emo! which boggled my mind. there was even a "screamo" break. i'm disappointed already.


"Erdbeben," by Fettes Brot.

I'm guessing these guys are German, but judging by their clothes, they are either sailors, mimes or French. i want to say they sounded a bit like German Reggae, but i don't know if the world is ready for that musical concept. nonetheless, this song was "ubercatchy." the rhythms of the german language lend themselves beautifully to bands that sound like the Bloodhound Gang. and death metal.


"Warwick Avenue," by Duffy

Duffy is allegedly the "next Amy Winehouse," which I think means she sings like she's black. I didn't want to like her, but my walls were bombed after about 2.5 seconds of this song. It's like getting to like Winehouse without the moral responsibility similar to how you feel about having to bail a younger sibling out of a bad situation even though you know they totally deserve what they got. and impetigo.


"I Kissed a Girl," by Katy Perry

This song makes me want to kiss girls, or at least boys that wear Cherry Chapstick.


"That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)" by Panic at the Disco

First of all, I read online that a few months ago, P!ATD officially took the exclamation point out of their name, changing it to simple PATD, which is nice because now, when typing the band name, Microsoft Word will stop recognizing the faux beginning of a new sentence. these guys are nothing if not practical.

the moral of this PATD video: change***. the guys change sizes, ages, generations, space-time continuums, musical instruments and, unfortunately, sound. i don't know about the whole album, but judging on this song, this will not spurn the kind of show that, in order to get pumped up for, you stand outside the open trunk of a friend's car in the parking lot of the Chevrolet Ampitheater shotgunning Natty Light.


next, we were launched into a "hosted by MGMT" segment. i'll have to say that at first, MGMT annoyed the shit out of me, but their video "Electric Feel" has changed my mind. And the one dude can rock a pink bandana like no other. they showed many of their favorite videos, but the stylish headwear segues beautifully into:


"November Rain," by Guns N Roses

I have a new theory about this video, and prepare yourself because it's pretty fucking mindblowing. Slash was totally fucking Axl's new wife.

I have only a cursory knowledge of the autobiographical details that inspired this video. I remember that Stephanie Seymour was Axl Rose's actual girlfriend (wife?) but beyond that I'm clueless. I could have done some research... but Google in the Brain hasn't been invented yet. someday, music video viewers will have to analyze this video without the firsthand knowledge of the zeitgeist**** that our generation has, and this is what they will decide.

In the chapel scene, Stephanie strides down the catwalk towards her future husband, who has shed his perma-bandana for the special day. she's beaming, but as she nears Axl, her smile fades. however, she doesn't bail and the preacher begins the ceremony. everything seems fine, but then its time to exchange the rings: Slash, clearly the best man, fumbles around. he can't find them. Duff McCagan/Izzy Stradlin (no clue) saves the day: he throws up a leather-gloved hand, where the rings rest on his pinky finger. Slash takes them and SLAMS them down on the BIBLE, then does a 180 and blows the joint.

after the nuptials are completed, Axl and Stephanie climb into the "just married" car to head off into the soundstage sunset. but before they drive off, Stephanie looks longingly off into the distance: presumably at nothing, or at the symbolic departure of her single life. but wait! she is actually looking for the one person not present and accounted for: Slash, who had exited the chapel early to prepare to play the most epic guitar solo of the video music era.

at the end of the video, after stephanie's untimely demise, Axl tosses and turns in bed, unable to sleep. Is he tormented about living a life alone after his one true love was taken from him prematurely? or is he tormented by the fact that he'll never know for sure that his best friend was bagging his girl?


i should be winning awards.










*in middle school, our morning news program claimed to be broadcast "almost live, from high atop our school (or something like that, as the AV studio was above my homeroom). "almost live" meant that we recorded it in the morning, but broadcast sometime around 10:30 am. despite this pre-recorded aspect, we didn't stop to correct mistakes or do re-takes, so language trip ups were left to scar the guilty party far into their teenage years. this means that basically, i watched MTV all day and am now blogging about it at 12:30am because i don't have anything better to do.

**later realized i was changing the TV channels, not the cable box channels. We actually have loads of channels, but so far they're all in German.

****I didn't know the name of this song while I was writing this... so, I guess this idea is not as novel as i thought.

****i'm allowed to use German words because this is Austrian TV!!!!!!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

you-hoo-hooooo may say i'm a pessimist, but i'm not the only one...

this might seem alarming i think the john lennon song "imagine" is pretty depressing.

i know i am probably not the go-to source for trenchant insights into widely popular, yet, sadly, misunderstood songs*, but i think everyone has been looking at this song the wrong way.

guaranteed, if you and a group of your close friends, kin or a mixture thereof are sitting around and this song comes on, someone will inevitably remark about how idealistic and beautiful it is. if they don't say it out loud, one or more of them are definitely thinking it. because john is an excellent songwriter, you unconsciously do what he commands you to - imagine this utopian world he's thinking of. a brotherhood of man? who can really argue with that. sounds pretty awesome.

i think it's pretty much accepted that john was the token idealistic songwriter of the 60s/70s, but i think if he's worth his snuff, there's got to be more to this song than the simple, idealistic message of "can't we all just get along?"

he starts listing all the things that we'd have to take out of the equation in order to achieve this perfect world. so basically we're getting rid of possessions, countries, religion (including heaven and hell**), and consequently, things that we kill or die for, greed, hunger, and the negative side effects of living as though your fate is fixed.

but is the price worth the reward? i mean, yeah... this world would be awesome. but it would also be boring. these Utopians would have nothing to fight about or hate each other for, yes, but they'd also have nothing*** to talk about.

maybe this sounds ridiculous, but does he REALLY want to give up all of that, or expect anyone else to want to? i think no. and that's why this song is depressing and genius.

so he never actually uses the word "utopia" but that's what we're getting at here, i think, and while i was looking up the adjective form of the word (because apparently, in order for blogger to accept it, you have to capitalize it... even if you are not specifically describing Sir Thomas More's Utopia. idiots.) i stumbled on the etymology of the word, which i didn't know but maybe you did. it comes from the Greek words that mean "not" and "a place" so basically it means "nowhere."

so this perfect world is actually nowhere - it's some place we'll never find, which is one layer of sad. on top of that, to get it, we'd have to give up everything that makes most people's lives bearable. and so even if we could eliminate all those things, we probably never would.

which, to me, is fucking depressing. but maybe i'm the pessimist.



*but, doesn't make me any less right about "california girls."

**i read somewhere that at the airport in liverpool are written the words "above us only sky," which might be the best side effect of this song. this and FC's slogan of "you'll never walk alone" have me convinced that liverpool might be the coolest place ever. it's like those kids that write song lyrics and quotes all over their book covers... except they wrote them on their city. liverpudlians are awesome. and they're called liverpudlians! i love it.

***although, john neglects to mention getting rid of global warming, which would surely cause these Utopians some unforseen conflict.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

speed friendship

prague is a city full of transients. as far as the expat community goes, anyway. you'll find the occasional lifer, and a handful of 6-10 year residents, but for the most part, the people you meet are usually at some stage of on their way out.

a year ago i would never have thought i'd stay in prague longer than the end of the school year. in fact, when i first got here, i thought staying a month would be difficult.

now that it's official (i'm staying, at this point, indefinitely), i have to watch as all the friends i've made leave, one at a time. as everyone prepares to leave and i prepare to stay... it's time to make some new friends.

so we've employed a new tactic... speed friendship. it's pretty straightforward. you meet someone new and instead of awkward small talk and promises of future get-togethers that may or may not go unfulfilled, you immediately become best friends. because when you, or your new friend, might be leaving at any time, there's no time to waste.

we met our new friend pavel a little over two weeks ago. it was a Chat Boy's/Fatteau night* and we were dragging from Lucerna the night before (being unemployed in the summer leaves a lot of time and not much to do... so we get drunk). just as we were about to split, marie strolled up with pavel. we'd met him before, briefly, at the beer garden, but never really spent any time with him. that would soon change.

we were out until sun up (which, to be fair, isn't saying much when the sun rises at 4:30 am), got to mcdonalds so early (late?) that they weren't serving breakfast yet, and caught the first metro home.

"y'all want to go to the pool tomorrow?" pavel said as we parted ways at JZP. (he really meant "today." also, despite his czech name, he grew up in Georgia. so that should explain the y'alls.)

so a few hours later, we dragged ourselves in a hungover stupor down to the riverside to sunbathe. then we went out to dinner. then we went to akropolis for reggae night... and stayed out until sun up. again.

we saw pavel almost everyday that week, because that's what speed friendship requires. after less than 14 days, it's like we've been friends for years.

with anna and lori leaving in exactly two weeks (YIKES), all new friendships have got to be speed friendships. and it's fun. we started another speed friendship with tom, a guy we met wandering around in bratislava. at 2 pm we were introducing ourselves on the street, and by 6pm we were chipping in for a bottle of becherovka for the bus ride home.

i don't have a good conclusion for this post, as usual. i am the SNL of blogs. anyway, point is... watch out for us on the street. you may be the next victim of speed friendship.




*Chat Boy's and Fatteau are code names for two bars, Fat Boy's and Chateau, that are frequented by expats. They are on the same street, and situated in such a way that patrons of one bar often migrate to the other bar, sometimes with a drink in hand. if you say "let's go to Chat Boy's tonight" you are indicating that you'd like to go to Fat Boy's and then possibly to Chateau, or somewhere in between.

Monday, June 23, 2008

ginning up excitement for wagging the dog

while i may not have any real life credentials, in my head, at least, i like to consider myself an amateur linguist. this is a difficult hobby/pasttime/non-paying profession when you are immersed in a culture where you don't speak the language. every month we splurge on one or two books each to be passed around, and the extent of our magazine collection is the "US Weekly" and "Allure" that come in my mom's care package.

anyway, as soon as i got back onto american soil in june, i stopped at the newsstand at the cincinnati airport to load up on the monthly periodicals i'd been missing since moving to europe. namely, esquire to read chuck klosterman's column. but i picked up a vanity fair to add to the reading material, and an in style* to serve as a picture book.

needless to say we've been devouring this sudden wellspring of english-language journalism. during reading i've come across two interesting phrases, both from political articles.

the first is "gin up," used in the article "the cynic and senator obama," from esquire. Here's the sentence:

"...the Republicans masterfully used the threat of gay people getting married to gin up turnout where they needed it most."

i think the meaning is pretty clear from the context, but i looked it up just to be sure. the meaning is "to enliven, make more exciting" but it's seemingly also used as a synonym for create or generate. you can gin up turn out, gin up interest, or gin up a new way to do something. it comes from the phrase of the same meaning, to "ginger up," which is taken from a method of placing part of the ginger root under a horse's tail to make it perk up at shows. (info from various online etymology dictionaries, and the New York Times article On Language: Whitewater Words, which is full of awesome idioms coined in the Clinton era).

thought it doesn't have a political origin, it seems to be used quite often (okay, based on a cursory google search, but still) used in political headlines. such as:

FBI pressured to gin up Iraq-Al Qaeda links
Huckabee sweeps through SC to gin up support
NW Repubican: Hateful moonbats gin up fake outrage

next question, what is a hateful moonbat?

ANYWAY, the next one that caught my eye was "wag the dog," from The Last Good Campaign in Vanity Fair. The article about Bobby Kennedy's 1968 campaign contained the following sentence:

"Kennedy was concerned that, if he ran, an increasingly unstable Lyndon Johnson might 'wag the dog,' provoking an international crisis or even starting a war to upstage the challenger's candidacy."

so, obviously, wag the dog means to divert attention from one problematic event by creating another for the attention to be focused on. the phrase comes from the saying "a dog is smarter than his tail," and if he weren't, the tail would wag the dog. (Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms). the most notable use of the phrase is in the movie Wag the Dog starring Dustin Hoffman, where i believe a fake war is launched to divert attention from a sex scandal (and who doesn't love dustin hoffman, really? for my money, movies featuring pirates, crocodiles and flying ageless men don't get better than Hook.)

so these are two phrases that i'm hoping will come into more common use. i'm planning to start ginning up excitement for lucerna this weekend on tuesday. and if any questionable events occur, i will certainly wag the dog on saturday afternoon by focusing attention on more important questions, such as how dark "kelly green" actually is or what an epic influence "google in your brain" would have on humanity.

yeehaw.




*why do i buy in style, really? i am not "in style" or really even close, for that matter. most days i don't wear make up. today i didn't wash my hair. and also, i wear jeans and t-shirts everyday. i guess it's wishful thinking. in my mind's eye, i see myself, someday, with the closet of carrie bradshaw.

Monday, June 16, 2008

miscellany

spelled that wrong.

trip for july so far is looking like:

poland
-auchwitz
-krackow
-warsaw
lithuania
-vilnius
latvia
-riga
estonia
-tallinn
finland
-helsinki

effing awesome. if we can find a way to do it cheaply... looks like it will be a combination of planes, trains, buses, automobiles and one ferry.


in other news:
-the beer garden is amazing.
-i decided my favorite steeler ever is norm johnson, place kicker, 1995-1998.
-i just joined last.fm and use it with the application "what i listen to" on facebook. i'm obsessed.
-i'm addicted to coke
-okay not the drug
-delta airlines sucks. i wish i could vow to never fly with them again, but they are so cheap.
-anthony kiedis was on my flight from pittsburgh to nyc.
-i'm boring.

ttyl.

Monday, June 02, 2008

blogging the pens

tmill and i liveblogged the first two periods of the penguins game on saturday night. because we were watching in squirrel hill, the posts can be found at 5534 Raleigh Street's blog.

we didn't blog the third period because we were all too busy trying to slit our wrists.

go pens.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I FORGOT...

SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETZ!

PRETZEL MELT! TURKEY, PROVOLONE AND MAYONNAAAAAAISE!

I LOVE AMERICA!



GO PENS!

Monday, May 26, 2008

where my love lies waiting silently for me*

so this friday i will return to pittsburgh, finally, after having been the farthest distance i've ever been from home and for the longest amount of time. my mom dropped me and my three suitcases off at pittsburgh international airport on september 5, 2007; i will return at 8:30 pm this friday, may 30, 2008.

i'm not moving back, only visiting. which sounds fucking surreal to say. i guess i had always thought about moving out of pittsburgh; i'd imagined myself in many places - penn state or washington DC in my high school days, berkeley in the days in college when i was convinced i needed a fresh start - but had never really come close to doing it, to leaving. until prague came up and i said - well i've got nothing better to do.

i suppose it's changed my outlook for the better. i think before i would have been content to stay in pittsburgh forever (and actually, part of me still feels that way. a little part of me wishes i had never left. sadly, there is something comforting about having such a provincial view of the world, and that is a feeling i'll never get back.) i wanted to settle there, even at the age of 23 (which, 9 months ago, i thought was old). but now i know that pittsburgh isn't going anywhere, and that what i really want is to live as many places as i can before it's too late, before i'm married (or in a serious relationship) with a family (which i want) and a "real" job (which, actually, will be my life's goal to avoid). a year here, a year there won't bother me. returning to pittsburgh, for the foreseeable future, will not be a move, just a visit.

which, let me tell you, feels awesome.

i guess it's a trite saying, but you really do have to move away before you realize how much home means to you. i've never loved every single thing about pittsburgh more than i do since i've been abroad and i've never wanted to go back as much. i cannot WAIT to indulge in all the things that i used to consider commonplace:

primanti's sandwiches
dr pepper (fountain drinks. free refills. and ICE.)
pierogies
cheap beer and more importantly, mixed drinks at a comparable price
JEOPARDY!
burritos (and mexican food in general)
chicken caesar wraps from hemingways
baseball
giant eagle
fast food options other than mcdonalds
PIZZA
being able to buy blue jeans that aren't ugly
shitty oakland bars with familiar faces
(and bars with jukeboxes)
the lack of graffiti (compared to here)
good old PAT transit, and actually riding in a car
the imperial system of measurement
my friends.


around christmas i felt that spending almost $1000 to go back to a place for three weeks that i'd lived in for 23 years was a bit insane. now it's worth every penny. it kinda makes me enjoy being away, strangely: i always want to feel this excited to return there. this might sound stupid, but it's the kind of town you never really leave. (who do i think i am, don henley? was i born in the fucking hotel california? yeesh).

i want to go to as many places as possible so that someday i can tell my kids - trust me, this is the best city in the world.

but for now let me know if you want me to bring you some mac and cheese from boston market.



*homeward bound, simon and garfunkel

Thursday, May 22, 2008

when you say california girls, what do you really mean by that?

i recently purchased "Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys," for the low low price of $12.99. this purchase has renewed my faith in iTunes as a music purchase medium. finding this was kinda like if your parents steal your baby blanket from you because you are 18 and still carry it around, give it to goodwill, someone buys it, then you find it at some jobber down the street's garage sale a few years later for 50 cents. iTunes has sold me back my childhood, and at what those in the biz call "a steal."

my dad used to bump the beach boys in the car. he had a different greatest hits tape, but it included all the standards - beginning with "kokomo," around to "wouldn't it be nice" and "i get around." the sweet harmonies and unmistakeable falsetto are ingrained in my brain. anna might make fun of me, but listening to the beach boys takes me back to a time way before i even began to think that someday i might really enjoy the feeling of nostalgia.

ANYWAY, in my now (hopefully) more mature and educated state, how i listen to some of these songs has changed. one too many higher level literature classes has ruined my ability to enjoy words (whether written or sung) without thinking about what the really MEAN. this leads me to the "california girls conundrum."

the beach boys are renowned for singing about the simple things: girls, living in sunny california, going to the beach, surfing, and being popular in high school. ironically, wasn't brian wilson addicted to cocaine or something? anyway thats beside the point.

the song "california girls," on the surface, seems to fit right into this mold: the Boys wish to champion those bikini-clad, bleach-blonde, ditzy-yet-lovable girls that reside in their home state. or DO THEY?

in the first verse, they sing:
"well east coast girls are hip/
i really dig those styles they wear/
and southern girls with the way they talk/
they knock me out when i'm down there/

the mid-west farmers daughters/
really make you feel all right/
and the northern girls with the way they kiss/
they keep their boyfriends warm at night."

as he goes on to croon "i wish they all could be california girls," the listener assumes that he has experienced, even enjoyed, all of these girls from different areas of the states, but that they could never top the girls he knows and loves from california. he even begins with a conversational marker, "well," that while not officially, at least in use suggests that he might continue later with a "but." "well, these girls are great, but california girls are the best."

but, keep listening! in the next verse he continues:

"the west coast has the sunshine/
and the girls all get so tanned/
i dig a french bikini on hawaii island/
dolls by a palm tree in the sand/"

this verse is startling because, in all the 1000 times i'd heard this song, i thought this entire verse was about girls from the west coast and/or california. but upon further research, he mentions hawaii! another example of girls he likes that are NOT california natives.

and finally, the death blow:

"i been all around this great big world/
and i seen all kinds of girls/
yeah, but i couldn't wait to get back to the States/
back to the cutest girls in the world."

so here's what i'm thinking. the Boys are not suggesting that california girls are superior to girls from all other places, domestic or foreign; they are suggesting that they prefer girls from the United States and they wish that all of these different, wonderful girls could all live in california and, therefore, in closer proximity to where they live.

doesn't this blow your freakin' mind? all my life i was under the impression that i was somehow inferior to my west-coast counterparts (and if you've ever seen the video for david lee roth's cover of this song, thats probably the way he interpreted it, too. in fact, you should watch this video, it's hilarious: david lee roth, already too old and it's still only 1985. in fact, he tried as hard as he could to ruin that song by including confederate flags, suggestively shucking an ear of corn, and singing in the key of H. and still failed. )

anyway, i wonder if my dad knew what he was getting my brain into when he harmlessly sung along with these beach boys ditties... that i'd still be thinking about it 15-20 years later.

now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go watch van halen videos on youtube.

Friday, May 16, 2008

things i love about europe

there are advertisements and sometimes movie posters on the walls lining the escalators in the metro. on the poster for that "what happens in vegas," someone wrote "fuck" on ashton kutcher's face.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

as long as it's talking with you, talk of the weather will do

the other day at the beer garden in riergrovy sady, drew acknowledged what most of us were thinking: all we talk about these days is the weather.

it's finally warm here in prague. like, really warm, not just the tease of a balmy day in the middle of february -- and suddenly it has become 100 times more pleasant to live here.

winter here was strange. it wasn't all that cold - in fact i can think of maybe 2 weeks of the whole winter, one just before christmas and one in february -- when it was really cold. other than that, it was a manageable cold. still cold enough for a jacket, but not so cold that you thought about throwing yourself in front of the 9 tram because it wasn't the 24.

it wasn't a bitter cold winter here, but it was bleak. the sky had been gray since september. i mean i can remember several fucking cold days in the pittsburgh winters i grew up in, but it never seemed quite as dreary and depressing as a mild winter in the czech republic. i've lived through blizzards and states-of-emergency due to ice storms and negative windchills but the sun always seemed to shine. and spirits were usually high with the hope of spring being right around the corner. even with such extremes, in pittsburgh we at least had 4 seasons. in the czech republic, it seems like there are two: summer and depression.

but summer is finally here. summer, not spring. on the first page of "a moveable feast" hemingway writes about the weather in paris, describing it thusly:

"then* there was the bad weather. it would come in one day when the fall was over. we would have to shut the windows in the night against the rain and the cold wind would strip the leaves from the trees in the place contrescarpe."

the phenomenon that hemingway describes about paris's bad weather arriving is exactly how prague's warm weather arrived. one day it was in the low 40s and rainy and the next it was 75 and sunny and hasn't looked back since.

so, seemingly overnight, everyone is in a better mood. we're all walking to work, walking all the way to town just because we can, making extra trips to the store just to enjoy the sunshine. we've spent every night out at the beer garden (which is a european phenomenon that i give an enthusiastic two thumbs up) because drinking outside is far superior to drinking indoors. the weather's newfound clemency has even painted a new coat on the freakshow that usually congregates outside hlavni nadrazi. the lawn almost looks inviting now. almost.

consequently, about 80% of our conversations either revolve around the weather or begin with a comment like "it is SO nice out today" or "i can't beLIEVE how warm it is." i suppose it seems like empty small talk, but it's the only thing on our minds. i guess rightly so - weather affects what you eat, what you wear, what you do for fun, where you live, your demeanor. wars are fought over weather. weather has given a lot of people (namely al gore) a career. so maybe it's not such small talk.

or maybe we don't have anything better to talk about... just like i don't have anything better to write about.



*that is the first two sentences of "a moveable feast" and can i say how big a fan i am of beginning a book with the word then? genius.

Friday, May 02, 2008

the disco tram

all right, so the disco tram that i mentioned earlier. i suppose i owe an explanation, as promised.

last week, as she is wont to do, debbie was perusing the New York Times travel section and stumbled upon an article entitled "After midnight in 10 European cities."

The premise is this: you pay 320 crowns (so, at a current exchange rate of 15 crowns to the dollar, about 20 bucks) for the privilege of boarding an unnumbered tram at namesti miru filled with 50 strangers who share the common interest of wishing to dance to disco music while drinking warm staropramen and hanging on to the nearest pole, strap or unsuspecting dancer for dear life. all while fighting the forces of a bladder full of beer. this continues for two hours as the tram traces routes you didn't even know existed to parts of town both remote and familiar, the endpoint being the club "roxy" near namesti repuliky.

during the two and a half hour tram ride, i posed for several pictures with perfect strangers (sadly not THE Perfect Strangers), asked for 4 beers, was given 6 and paid for 10, considered peeing in an empty beer can, a trash bag or simply in my pants until finally being allowed off the tram to pee in a park, met a canadian, did not meet a czech gentleman with curly hair speaking english with a british accent because he was at the back of the tram and we were at the front (the layout of public transportation discourages mingling, probably for good reason), and successfully communicated in czech with the affable, yellow-vested security guard manning the tram's middle door. "kolik minut until we stop?" yeah, i am pretty proud of myself for that one.

i suppose enjoying this kind of event lies in mastering the fine art of being just drunk enough to still be able to stand, despite the jerky movements of prague integrated transport system. much the same as it's american counterpart, the party bus, the "party tram" is not for the casual drinker. maybe i'm being a negative nancy, but i would almost rather have just paid the cover for roxy and started the night there.

on the bright side, drew and i managed to persuade a taxi driver to take us to JZP for "sto," which is 100 crowns!!!! this is amazing and completely warrants my use of four exclamation points in the previous sentence. 100 crowns for a cab ride is almost unheard of.

also, i didn't get hit in the head with any drink containers. so i suppose it was a good day.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

funniest thing this week

this afternoon, drew, marie and i went for a walk to a place around i.p. pavlova to pick up tickets for our "disco tram" ride next wednesday. (i know... what the fuck is that? more later).

we took the scenic route down what has to be the most beautiful street in prague. nice houses and blossoming trees everywhere. the weather is perfect today (FINALLY. for god's sake, it's been cold since september.) as we walked, we passed a group of gypsy children, i'd say with an average age of 9.5. for a while they were close behind us but, as we were walking at a faster rate, we ended up walking about 20 feet ahead of them.

a few minutes later, a rock hits the back of my leg. i say to the girls, "did those kids just throw a rock at me?" to which marie replied, "no, that was me. sorry. i kicked it with my boot."

fair enough. then, a few more minutes later, we hear the thud of a water bottle hitting the ground a foot or two behind us. then, minutes later, again. just as i began to wonder aloud if the kids were trying to hit us, the water bottle in question hit me on the side of the head! i turned around and the kids were running to hide.

i think one of the girls suggested i "go get them," but that begs the question, what could i have done? i can't reprimand them as they probably speak czech (or if they were indeed gypsies, i guess romanian or whatever language it is that gypsies speak) and i don't.

i felt that they should not go unpunished, but i didn't know what to do. i guess you can't hit other people's children, right? there were probably more gypsy children nearby, and they are ruthless. so any confrontation and i would have got much more than i was prepared to handle. next thing you know, instead of just a bump on my head i've got a knife would to deal with and no health insurance. so we just walked away.

PS, just to be clear, i mean no offense to gypsies. kids, in general, are jerks.

Monday, April 21, 2008

new developments

it's been almost two weeks since my last post so i'm mostly doing this to get myself some momentum back. spoiler alert: all of the following might be boring.

-sergio has left the country. he is back in austin, tx, drinking dr. pepper and watching the spurs. this is sad because, not only is sergio really cool, but he was one of our only guy friends here. i'm used to being surrounded by at least one guy friend for each girl friend i have, and that's not been the case since someone up there decided we should have 22 girls and 2 boys in our TEFL class. don't get me wrong, i love all the girls i've met... but sometimes you need some testosterone. it changes the whole dynamic. and the great thing about sergio was that he wasn't just "drew's boyfriend." he was friends with us, too.

-drew is leaving on may 19. late last saturday night, whilst we sipped on a 120 crown gin and tonic together, we cooked up a scheme to save us both rent. drew will leave her lease early and move into my room for the weeks between may 1st and the 19th. this is interesting because if you've seen my room you know i only have one bed. it is a double, but drew and i will essentially be spooning for three straight weeks. i think it'll be a little interesting, but mostly fun. it'll be kinda like having a three-week sleepover. when i lived with anthony, we had platonic sleepovers pretty much every night, and i miss it.

-i want to inventory all the books i've read since i've been in prague. this might take time.

-i want to go somewhere. berlin maybe.

-i'm conjuring up a pretty sweet trip for july. more info later.\

bye!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

payday is thursday

i've only got enough crowns to do one of the following: put credits on my phone or buy deodorant.

which is the better alternative: ignoring my friends' calls and texts or pushing them away more passively with my stench?

Sunday, April 06, 2008

i bet you look good on the dance floor*

one of the first things i want to know about someone is what kind of music they like. in the long run this doesn't "matter**" -- i'm not going to prejudge the quality of the friendship on whether the person prefers ryan adams or bryan adams.

however, it does serve two important purposes: if you have favorite bands in common it gives you an automatic conversation topic until you know the person well enough that you have better things to talk about, and if their taste in music differs, it's like you just got free reign on a record store. you remember when we were kids, and nickelodeon (i can't remember if it was a specific game show or just something they gave away for no good reason) would bestow upon some lucky kids the chance to run through toys r us for five minutes? and whatever toys they collected in their carts, they could keep?

meeting people with different music tastes is like that. not in the sense that it's like free music, but that they can say "hey, i think you'd really like this band." and maybe you'd have had no excuse to listen to this band before, or maybe it is an obscure band that you wouldn't have discovered without their help.

i will always have jeff robb to thank for introducing me to the decemberists. i will have the combination of alicia's discovery on myspace, jocelyn's ownership of the album, and pete's taking me to his show at mr smalls for my love of the DJ girl talk. a former coworker, blockbuster steve, introduced me to dashboard confessional. mxpx will always be connected to my high school crush, ian.

and nick i can thank for english rock.

allow me to sidetrack for a minute. you know how certain smells, sounds, places, etc. will indelibly connect themselves to a certain memory? then, everytime you hear or smell or see that thing, that memory will come back to you more forcibly than any time you sit and try to think about it independently? off the top of my head i can think of these examples:

-clinique "happy" perfume will always remind me of the holiday dance in 9th grade, which i attended with adam bishop.
-the song "i'm real" by j.lo, remixed with ja rule, will always remind me of driving to work at blockbuster in the summer of 2002.
-the song "bandages" by hot hot heat will always remind me of the period of time, in 2003-04, when i commuted to school (especially because there is a sound in that song which is identical to the sound a 2003 saturn ion makes when it is low on gas).
-the band "city and colour" reminds me of driving through kansas in june 2006.

and so on. typically, these kind of associations don't happen automatically. i didn't think "okay, from now on, every time i smell this perfume, i'm going to think back on my first boyfriend and how i borrowed a purple dress from my neighbor to wear to this dance, and that he brought me flowers and we had an awkward photo session in front of our tiny, fake christmas tree in my living room and that three months later adam broke up with me, probably because i told him i wouldn't have sex with him." it happened last summer when i was coming around the corner in the offices of marcus and shapira, and bernadette, dan shapira's secretary, had just sprayed that perfume and bam - i felt like i was 14 again. this was years later.

and thats how it usually goes. however, i've noticed that this process has sped up considerably since i've been in prague. already, certain sounds and smells are triggering memories that happened only, at most, three months ago. i stepped into the staff room at the bell school the other day and immediately felt uneasy and anxious, as if being there reminded me of something bad. i don't remember any particularly traumatic experiences taking place there, other than maybe being vastly underprepared for lessons. also, the other day i sprayed my perfume and felt nostalgic, although now i can't remember for what. i'm not sure i felt it for anything specific, but isn't that a bit weird? it was a memory of nothing, but i could pinpoint the time to sometime in the last few months. it doesn't make any sense, i know.

now back to music. i've met loads of new people here and i've been fortunate enough to be given/steal music from them. most notably, by the virtue of mixtapes and shared ipods, i've been introduced by nick to english rock bands (the verve, the libertines, babyshambles, pulp, etc.). this is not music i would have sought out on my own, but i love it.

this music will always be prague to me. and it's already reminding me of prague days gone by. i can't explain this accelerated nostalgia, but a few years from now, songs like "albion" and "supersonic" will remind me of december 2007; of watching movies, going to pubs, hanging out in riegrovy sady, drinking gambrinus, watching dogs cum on each others backs (okay that was february, but you get the point).






*arctic monkeys

**chuck klosterman wrote an interesting column on this for esquire. in fact, for almost any topic, chuck has probably written something profound and hilarious. here's that article: me, on shuffle

Sunday, March 30, 2008

lamenting the passing of the blockbuster era

i think there comes a point in everyone's life where you stop acknowledging the arrival of new technology. you refuse to become part of this new technology community and simultaneously become ultra-nostalgic for bygone or moribund technologies. i think this usually happens when you're an "adult" which i guess is anywhere between the age of 18 to 45 (so, unspecific.) i guess it's different for everyone. also, it's not necessarily universal at first; you may balk at certain advancements and embrace others.

for example, my mom has no idea how to use a computer. she knows the internet exists and sees how it could benefit her life, but only at the hands of others. last week i mentioned that i wanted "all the pretty horses" on DVD, and she said she had looked for it but didn't see it at the store. she said "well i could go to barnes and noble and have them order it." then i suggested i could have amazon.com deliver it to her house, then she could mail it to me (since, even though it's 2008*, amazon.com does not deliver worldwide.) she reacted as though this made sense but was not an option she would consider. "i'll just see if i can find it."

also, last christmas i bought her an ipod shuffle. i loaded a bunch of her CDs on her computer then filled up the shuffle with songs she wanted. she began using it at work and said she really loved it; so much that for her birthday, dale (her boyfriend) bought her another one because she wanted to have two song-set options. so, she's embracing technology, but not fully enough to realize that she could drag and drop new songs and in about three minutes have a new playlist on her original ipod. although try explaining that to someone who doesn't know the meaning of the words "drag" "drop" or "playlist."

ANYWAY, i like to consider myself "young" and "hip" and "up with the technology of the time," but i realized recently that i am already falling victim to "technology freeze." i am 23 years old and already becoming stodgy. in fact it started 5 years ago when i worked at blockbuster.

blockbuster first opened in 1985 (nerd alert. but we had to learn all of this stuff during orientation). i began working there in late summer 2001; i'd say at that point blockbuster had just hit or was just coming down from it's heyday. to give you a benchmark, this was just about the last time you could rent a movie in your choice of DVD or VHS. (by the way, who the hell else misses VHS tapes? i see no advantage to DVDs. all my DVDs are scratched. VHS tapes were indestructible. and you could always find the exact place in the movie you left off.) now, blockbuster is all but dead. 9 or 10 blockbuster stores closed in pittsburgh about two years ago; the blockbuster i used to work at in hempfield plaza is now a mattress store.

blockbuster is all but dead, and why? netflix. and ondemand. and itunes. no one wants to leave their house to go rent a movie that, for the same price, can be delivered to their living room with the press of a button.

i suppose this is logical; however, i find it depressing. i think there's something lost when you're deprived of "a trip to blockbuster." this used to be a favorite past time of my father, brother and i; almost every weekend we'd get in the car, drive to the same blockbuster where i'd later work, rent two or three of the latest releases on VHS - sometimes he'd even spring for the over-priced, tooth-rotting snacks lining the check-out.

and what's more fun than going with a significant other and spending the better part of an hour arguing about the movie that you'll end up making out through the last half of anyway? this is an especially fun experience on a first date. suddenly a simple consumer transaction can have make-or-break status on the relationship. your cinematic tastes are on display; you're under intense pressure to make an impressive decision. frankly, it renders me helpless. i play the "non-decision maker," which can be equally as damaging. no one wants to date a waffler.

but who wants this situation?

"okay, let's watch a movie. what do you want to watch?"
"well, i just got braveheart in the mail today. and charlie and the chocolate factory has been sitting on top of the tv for three weeks now. so, you pick..."

the point is, going to rent a movie is as much of the experience as actually watching it. and yeah, right now i suppose you still have a choice; if you enjoy that, you can still go down to blockbuster instead of using netflix. but it won't be that way for long. netflix is running blockbuster into the ground. one day you won't have this choice anymore, and that day will be sad.

maybe the people it affects most won't notice; i suppose that i'm not exactly feeling bereaved over the loss of the drive-in movie the way that generations before me are. so maybe my children will not even notice. they won't even ask me if they can rent movies anymore; we'll probably have a robot like in "bicentennial man" that handles all of those kind of problems while i am busy taking a nap. but maybe, when they hit their mid-twenties, movies will be sent via telepathy directly to your brain, and they will wax nostalgic about the days when you had to sit down and actually press buttons on a remote control to watch a movie.






*i like to use the phrase, "come on, it is 200_ (insert current year)" to express my dismay that certain inconveniences still occur, like the inability to have things from american websites delivered to europe without paying exorbitant postage. also, i feel it is far enough in the future that i shouldn't have to:

-wait 3 minutes for a page on internet to load, ever, no matter what kind of internet connection i'm using.
-wrestle with my ipod earphones EVERY TIME i take it out of my purse to use it.
-take the lid off and stick my hand in the back of a toilet to flush it.

Friday, March 28, 2008

killing yourself to live (again)

do you ever get to a point when you're tired of reading? i was at that point yesterday. i was stranded in the middle of "something happened," by joseph heller. it's well-written, interesting - i want to be absorbed in it, but for some reason i just can't get there.

i've found this year that without owning a tv and without having any real hobbies, i have a lot of spare time. i am one of those people that, when left with extra time and very little responsibility, chooses to nap. as perfect as this life sounds (30 or so hour work week and bars everywhere with very cheap beer), i often get bored. my roommates and i have resorted to card and dice games, but you can only spend so much time playing rummy before the thought of trying to find the six to complete a five-six-seven run in spades makes you want to stab your eyes out.

so i sleep a lot, probably more than i should, which when you wake up having wasted an entire afternoon in bed does nothing but induce a feeling of guilt. given all this time i should be developing some skill, or at least (the english major in me contends) reading.

but i read in waves and sometimes i just don't have it in me. there will be weeks when i finish a book every two days, then a month when i laboriously cover about 10 pages a day, if i'm lucky. i'm there now. i find myself zoning out through entire pages of "something happened," and reading them with little regard to what actually happens. reading this book has become less about enjoying it or getting any intellectual satisfaction and more about setting a landspeed record for number of pages per minute.

until today i was saved. i've discovered by observing books left on the desk in the teacher's office that john, a new guy at dino elementary, has excellent taste in literature. and by excellent i mean nearly perfectly aligned with mine. first he had "chuck klosterman IV." then "extremely loud and incredibly close," by jonathan safran foer. i don't know what else john has up his sleeve, but i want to. also, today he was hunched over his laptop, downloading an entire season of "america's next top model." he seems perfect.

he mentioned that he'd read "killing yourself to live," which is probably the best of klosterman's four nonfiction books to date. i've read it twice, both times completed in one or maybe two sittings spanning a few hours. i asked to borrow it, and in my third reading i think i've found the reading spark i needed.

in about an hour today i've already "read" 71 pages; i use the word read hesitantly, because it almost doesn't seem like reading. it's like having a conversation with someone you find endlessly interesting, who you'd listen to talk for hours on end without hoping to get a word in yourself and be pretty okay with it.

if i could write a book, in a perfect world it would sound just like "killing yourself to live," though if i ever attempted to mimic klosterman i would fail, as i am neither as witty or clever as he. that and i have yet to adopt an affinity for adverbs like "soul-crushingly."

if you are unfamiliar, "killing yourself to live" is klosterman's documentation of a roadtrip he took a few years ago working as a staff writer for Spin Magazine. He spent a few weeks and covered over 6500 miles visiting places in america where famous musicians had died. though this propels the plot and gives us a reason for following him on this epic trip, it's not really the most interesting part of the book.

klosterman gets away with, if not succeeds at making interesting, what every writer secretly wants to do - talk about themselves to a captive audience. i probably know more about chuck klosterman than some of the people i actually know in real life that i count among my friends. and though it seems like that would be maybe the most boring book ever, it's not.

so i'll probably tear through it and you should, too. and if you ever get the chance to see mr. klosterman read at a major book retailer in your hometown, don't forget to bring your copy of his book to autograph.

(what were we thinking?)

Monday, March 24, 2008

people you (want to) know go to chateau

the great thing about the czech republic is that it's completely acceptable to go to the bar on major holidays. in fact i think it's encouraged.

after a few minutes of confusion caused by the changing of the clocks (apparently it's next week), anna and i got back an hour we thought we'd lost. we decided to take advantage and see what our friends were up to.

turns out we don't have many friends, or they were just not up to anything. until marie and amanda agreed to meet us at chateau. almost simultaneously, anna and lori's italian friend stephano agreed to meet us there as well.

so on a blustery (american) easter evening (the czech's traditionally observe a non-religious holiday on the monday after easter), we set out with the goal to maybe get tipsy but definitely end up at mcdonald's when the night was through, regardless of inebriation levels.

chateau is one of those places that you either love or hate. it's full name is "chateau l'enfer rouge" and, as the italians later explained, the upstairs is considered the "chateau" and downstairs considred "l'enfer rouge" or "the red hell." which is about right. it's always crowded with expats. upstairs it's your typical college-type bar. order drinks at the bar, try to find a table but usually end up standing, get hit on by random drunk dudes.

our first encounter, minutes after we got our beers, was with mitch. it went like this:

"hey, do you speak english?"
"yeah."
"cool! are you american?"
"yes."
"awesome! it's great to see some friendly american faces."
"yeah. how long have you been in prague?"
"oh, two days."

apparently mitch just couldn't stand being away from his countrymen. we talked to him for a few minutes before he was distracted by a phone call and never returned (guess we're pretty charming). we learned that he and his friends chose prague for spring break because "it's cheap - not on the euro."

next was the one-two punch of a guy from nigeria whose name i didn't catch and gary from kent, england. i got stuck with gary, who spent the whole conversation using his witty, biting sarcasm to make feel inadequate. two tidbits:

"where are you from?"
"england." (said like it's something that should be obvious.)
"yeah but where at?"
"kent. do you know where that is?"
"no, not exactly."
rolls his eyes.

like my brain has a world atlas built in? imagine if i asked him if he knew where scranton was. goodluck with that one, dude.

gary is a med student, five years in, so like most longtime residents of prague, he's bitter about almost anything. he "hates chateau" and "got dragged out." but then he named the bars he preferred - m1, bombay, harley's -- which are all just like chateau, as in they're crowded and full of expats.

"do you like tretter's?" (note: it's a swanky cocktail bar.)
"no, a little too fancy for me."
"oh, so you're one of those down to earth girls?"
what do you say to that? "uh, i guess..."
"i know. this whole red hooded sweatshirt thing is a facade."

i explained that yeah, i'm really high maintenance, i just dress in a sweatshirt and ripped jeans to go to the bar to throw everyone for a loop. i then explained that we were going to find our friends.

"so i'll see you in ten minutes, right?"

which is true. you really can't avoid anyone in chateau. on any given night, everyone you don't really want to run into in prague is at chateau. we ran into one of my coworker's russian friends, lori and anna's ex-roommate john (who is probably not too happy with the way things ended), and "tefl jen," a former teacher trainer at TEFL worldwide who's scathing lesson observation assessments left a bad taste in our mouths.

all in all though, chateau is not as bad as i used to think. you actually end up talking to people (even though they might be creepy dudes) as opposed to sitting around a table with people you already know, which is a nice change of pace.

on the way home we stopped at mcdonalds. to anna's dismay, you cannot order a swiss king sandwich (which includes bacon AND a slab of fried cheese). as we were enjoying our food, we watched a group of 19 year old brits get kicked out for being too belligerent. considering it's a 24 hour mcdonald's in wenceslas square - probably one of the more difficult places in the world to be ejected from - being tossed out was quite an accomplishment for them.

anyway, happy easter!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

an evening at the movies

isn't it always the way that just as you're feeling pretty good about living in europe, you get thrown a curveball deep from the heart of america.

the preview was in czech but that theme song was impossible to mistake.

new indiana jones movie!

i literally gasped.

i have not anticipated a movie so anxiously since my friends and i stuffed ourselves into a packed theater to see a midnight showing of lord of the rings: return of the king.




(i need to get a hobby.)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

someone got too high in amsterdam

so, i don't make a habit of smoking pot.

every once in a while i'll get into the spirit. last february i purchased my first and only eighth from one of my coworkers. i suppose i'll leave out names in case my partner in crime doesn't want his or her illegal activities published on the interwebs, but my "friend" and i decided to smoke one evening in my apartment.

there's nothing more hilarious than watching two people who've never smoked on their own before figure out how to do it it. i ended up balancing my cell phone on my shoulder while my (three-years) younger brother instructed me, step-by-step, how to roll a joint. so much for being the older, wiser sister.

after crouching on my bed near open window, wondering aloud if i was "doing it right," we got high. and then i layed on my bed ate two or three bags of microwave popcorn while my concomitant sat in the other room, typing furiously at the computer. at least i think so - i couldn't be bothered to find out. i was too busy thinking thoughts like "this popcorn makes different sounds depending on which teeth i chew it with."

and that was the last time i was high. i avoid it, mostly to avoid the embarassment that comes with being the newbie. i always need coached, or need someone else to light the bong while i try to coordinate inhaling with releasing my finger from the little hold, or whatever it is you're supposed to do.

but this weekend, in amsterdam, i figured... when in rome, right?

the six of us collected at a coffeeshop at about 8:30 saturday night. we parked ourselves at a table where two dutch were already seated, and they passed us what appeared to be a community bong. identifying that as an option with questionalbe safety, we purchased a joint.

leading up to this, i desperately wanted to eat some sort of muffin as opposed to smoke. i figured i could get high while avoiding the inevitable embarassment of attempting to smoke. the coffeeshop was out, so i settled for the joint being passed around.

i took a few hits and after 10 minutes or so hadn't felt anything. something seemed amiss. so in my crucial mistake of the night, i spoke up and confessed "i don't think i'm doing this right."

then came the onslaught of coaching. exhale first! hold it in! if you breathe out smoke, it worked! it was nice, i suppose - i didn't feel embarassed. in fact i felt emboldened. so when someone suggested i take an extra hit or two "just to be safe," i did.

the next thing i remember, i was outside. still sitting on my chair, exactly as before, all my friends circled around me in what seemed like the same order they'd been sitting in seconds before. it seemed like someone had rolled up the background of inside like a classroom map and rolled down one with a picture of the outside in its place. a bleach-blond gentleman whom i'd never met was handing me three huge, white tablets.

"eat these, they'll make you feel better."

isn't that what guys say to girls just before they try to date rape them?

at first, no one would really tell me what was going on. just that everything was okay and that i should eat the tablets. sugar tablets, apparently, not giant roofies. so i started sucking on one and it made me feel terrible. i was hot but the blond gentleman insisted that i put a jacket on.

so here's what happened (as i was told): i remember all of a sudden feeling very high. i wanted to get up to use the bathroom but thought pretty confidently that i wouldn't be able to walk the 5 feet between there and my seat. i leaned my head on my hand, which drew the attention of my friends (as i seemed to be lapsing into my usual state when under the influence of any sort of drug - sleepiness.) as i listened to pleas to "make it a happy high," i tried to comply but instead fainted.

apparently i went forward first, putting my forehead on the table, arms dangling at my sides. my friends thought i was joking, and the friend to my right nudged me so as to persuade me to sit up. i did, but not on purpose - and slumped back in my chair, mouth open, eyes closed, white as a sheet. that's when everyone panicked.

my five friends went five directions to seek help, and finally the bartender (the nice bleach blond gentleman with the pills) picked me up, chair and all, and took me outside. i was out for about four minutes.

so my fears of looking like a novice were verified. i got so high that my blood sugar dropped (something that allegedly happens quite often, even to large men with much more body mass than me), and i passed out in a coffee shop in amsterdam, the smoking capital of the world.

enough to make me not want to smoke for quite a while. that, and the terrible four hours i spent coming down from that high, of which about fifteen minutes were pleasant. i was in "funny" high mode, sitting in my chair outside the coffeeshop, wrapped in my coat and someone else's pashmina, from about 9:30 to 9:45. i was fed crackers, trying to muster up enough confidence in the ability of my legs to hold my weight, and for that time it was fun.

i convinced my friends that if the cracker was too small, i shouldn't eat it because i would bite my fingers off. "teeth are sharp," i told them. then i described the scene from batman where the penguin bites off someones nose.

"like mike tyson and evander holyfield," someone added.

"yeah! hey, if mike tyson had a mini-me, its name would be "tyke myson," i said.

so after nearly scaring everyone to death, at least i was able to entertain them nonsensical statements about popular culture. and smart ass remarks.

"hey," i said to the bartender, "do you think if i bit my fingers off, that would raise my blood sugar?"

Friday, March 21, 2008

amsterdam

amsterdam was wonderful. i expected it to be dirty and seedy and altogether uninhabitable, but it was the opposite. it's clean. it's cozy. the people are in good spirits and ride bikes everywhere. and, dutch is way easier than czech.

we were on approximately hour 1.5 of our bike tour when i realized that i could probably live in amsterdam forever. i can't put my finger on why, just like i can't picture why i liked boston so much when i first visited, but it might have had to do with the weather.

it's unfortunate that opinions of places have to do with something so uncontrollable, but if it's pleasant outside (60-70 degrees F) it seems to be perfect weather to fall in love with a place.

since i've been back to prague i've been trying to find a way to move to amsterdam. it's almost impossible to teach english there (because most of the dutch speak better english than i do), but "mike" of mike's bike tours told us that holland and the US have some sort of agreement where they will grant visas as long as you invest a certain amount of money each year into a business (the figure is around $5000).

so i'm thinking, the dangling conversation in amsterdam? sounds perfect. plus i think in the two days i was in amsterdam i learned more dutch than i've learned czech in the 7 months i've been in prague.

so lace up your wooden shoes, let's move to holland.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

conversation with pete

so pete and i are chatting about ancient drama, nothing worth going into, but it brought up an interesting question. i guess it's almost a trite topic to debate but i've been thinking about it lately. how well do you really know someone?

my argument is that no matter what you think you know about someone, you don't ever really know them - you know what they let you know. despite hours of conversation, deep secrets revealed, the ability to complete sentences, it could be only a slice of the pie that they've carefully chosen to reveal.

i mean, think about it - is there anyone who knows every single about you? your best friend, your boy/girlfriend, your brother or sister, your parents? i doubt it. and if there is, it's because you let them, you chose to tell them everything.

how can you ever be sure what percentage you're getting? what criteria allow you to sleep at night? is it "oh, they are my best friend, they wouldn't hide anything from me." or "we've been dating for a year and a half. he's not that kind of person, she would never lie to me, blah blah blah..."

i think you'd be surprised. and isn't it just when you think you've got someone pegged, they slip up and allow one of the things they've chosen to bury surface?

the opposite argument, from pete: "all secrets stink. and eventually they all rise."

i'm not sure. flip through all the files in your head of the things you know about the people around you. then think about what they know about you. think the files are complete?

do you think you know what you're getting yourself into?

Sunday, March 09, 2008

donald ducking it* and other things not to do on a street of curtainless windows

i now live in an apartment on the second floor of a five-story apartment building whose living room picture windows face the bedroom and living room windows of another five-story apartment building across the street. this is the first time i've lived in such a large buildling and one in which all the windows face out to the street.

and the best part is, no one closes their curtains, so in lieu of television (which we don't have), one can be entertained by the goings-on of the across-the-street neighbors.

it's kind of cool. these people's day-to-day activities range from the relatively normal to the quite strange. normal: the other day an older woman wearing a hot pink shirt leaned out her window in the morning to greet the day. today, a man two-windows up mopped his hardwood floors. strange: from a window on the fifth floor earlier this evening, every few minutes, a few bright camera flashes. we couldn't see any sort of photo shoot set-up - so either someone's taking mystery pictures or attempting to fix a broken strobe light.

but it's a double-edged sword. i reazlied only a few days ago, just after a shower, that if i can see into all my neighbors windows they can also see into mine. someone has probably been getting a free show for a week and a half.

i wonder what the neighbors think of us? if they spend any time gazing into our windows, they probably just see three girls glued to their computers. sometimes its hard to pull yourself away from online scrabble.



*"donald ducking it," to those unfamiliar, is wearing a shirt but no garment on the lower half of the body, like donald duck. the style is almost always completely awkward and therefore not advised.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

i'd follow you down but not that far

in an effort to counteract itune's trenchant attack on my ability to withstand repetition, i've decided to bombard it with new music. by mathematical odds, if i put enough songs that are a.) good and b.) new, itunes will be forced to stop playing the crap it usually plays.

today, as a law-abiding "internetizen" (a portmanteau of internet + citizen! I'M CLEVER.), among other downloads, i fairly exchanged 11.28 American Dollars for the privilege of listening to and burning up to ten times "20th century masters: the millenium collection: gin blossums."

this brings up a few issues. first of all, from what i could surmise on itunes, the gin blossums had one album. but guess how many greatest hits albums they had? no less than two. is it me or does this seem a bit out of proportion?

but anyway, who doesn't love the gin blossums? there are at least six excellent songs out of eleven, that among these:

hey jealousy
follow you down
til i hear it from you
allison road
found out about you
until i fall away

ALL of those songs are amazing. and you have to figure, for a band that only put on one or maybe two albums, to have six hits is some pretty excellent batting.

i love the gin blossums for one reason only, the same reason the two-disc "buzz" compilation album is one of my favorites: nostalgia. the ages of about 10-15 or 16, for whatever reason, were the most impressionable on me as far as music goes. the gin blossums feel like the mid-nineties, and the mid-nineties were when i was "growing up." which means the gin blossums feel like growing up. they will always be perfect.

so i'm going to go rock out and try to rage against the party shuffle. fun game: see if you can spot the place in this entry that is influenced by the language style of the declaration of independence!

PEACE.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

itunes party shuffle sucks ass

lovely language skills in the title, i know. but who else is fed up with party shuffle?

almost everyone i know that listens to digital music and owns a computer has itunes, and everyone i know that has itunes HATES party shuffle.

i want to like party shuffle. i do. sometimes i can't decide on a particular artist to focus my ears on, and i'd like someone else to do that work for me. or i realize that as a music listener i am very predictable - i listen to probably the same 100 or so songs all the time. honestly, sometimes i'll hear a song play on my computer and actually think "where the hell did THAT come from?" so the party shuffle is a good way of brushing the dust off the songs that are good but most of the time forgotten.

but it's crap, and here's why: it plays the same songs all the time, too. i have almost 3000 songs and i swear i hear the same ones all the time. yes, i know that the best of frank sinatra is a 2-disc set so maybe i am asking for it, but how is it that in the list of 100 upcoming random songs, there are ALWAYS six or seven from old blue eyes? i don't see how it's mathematically possible.

alicia often utilized her party shuffle feature, and i swear that all we ever listened to was the song "we look like giants" by death cab for cutie. look it up and i bet it's in her top played list. it has to be. that, and madonna. everytime you turn around you're hearing that "this used to be my playground..." song.

so what's the problem? i checked my preferences to see if i had any funny settings checked accidentally, like "play more annoying songs constantly," or "i LOVE vertical horizon, play them 1000 times a day please." (okay, i'll admit that if that box actually existed, i'd check it.)

you can select "play higher rated songs more often," but i don't have this checked and i only have one rated song ("livin on the edge," aerosmith. 5 stars. why?). you can also adjust how "random" your random shuffle is - it can be more likely or less likely to play your favorite songs. mine is set right at the middle on "random." so, theoretically, every song should have the opportunity to be played, right?

not quite. apparently, party shuffle isn't random in the sense that each song has equal odds of getting played. the shuffle function on the ipod chooses songs by an alogrithm that uses no replacement - meaning that every song will be played, to the end of the entire library, before any are repeated (like choosing cards from a deck until it's gone.) however, the party shuffle feature works WITH replacement, meaning each time a song is played, when it's finished it is tossed back into the pot, with equal chances of being chosen again as a song that hasn't been played. so the party shuffle is only random so far as the number of upcoming songs you choose to show.

likely story. i think apple is lying. even with replacement, it seems like with songs numbering in the thousands, artist repeats would be sparse.

we're thinking either a.) this "randomness" is a lie. apple is actually, without telling you, trying to figure out which songs you play often and bringing you into a self-perpetuating loop by playing those most-often-played songs more often. sooner or later you'll be sitting motionless at your desk, eyes glazed over and fixed at a crack in the wall, drooling, thinking only "how the HELL did i end up with the backstreet boys on my computer, and will i have to listen to only "i want it that way," for the rest of eternity?

or maybe any even slimier scheme - a conspiracy with certain artists to write code that plays their songs more often.

jocelyn's thoughts:

"i don't mind so much hearing fall out boy all the time, but my party shuffle really doesn't need to be playing the RENT soundtrack all the time. it gets a little embarrassing."

so yeah, i'm not the only one who feels like something is up. if you can shed some light on the party shuffle mystery, please do. until then i'll be listening to "we look like giants," until i forget my name.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

a few words on the death of myron cope

at two points this morning i was describing the intricacies of the pittsburgh patois to my less yinzer prague friends. i think a while back we all discussed the fact that none of us seem to have regional accents, although apparently i say the word "potraviny*" a little funny because on several occasions it has led to these discussions on "pittsburghese." it's difficult, when put on the spot, for me to explain the differences (though when i'm drunk i'm quite fluent in pittsburghese).

i realized i could have just pointed to the apotheosis of the "yinzer," myron cope.

myron cope passed away last wednesday, february 27th. the four known regular readers of this blog run the gamut from those who are quite familiar with myron cope (alicia), those who have felt his influence, if only subconsciously (debbie, lori) to those who would not know a terrible towel if it smacked them in the face (nick).

here is the pittsburgh post-gazette's, in my opinion quite well-written, obituary for mr. cope:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08058/860750-13.stm.

so now we're all on the same page.

myron cope is synonomous with the pittsburgh steelers. he's their voice (a nasaly, scrappy southwestern pennsylvania yowl), he invented the "terrible towel" (which, if you're unfamiliar, is a bright gold tea-towel meant to be waved in a helicopter style, making a circular motion with the wrist, above one's head in order to show appreciation for a good play to rouse the excitement of players and fellow fans. it's nearly impossible to imagine a steelers' game without the sea of gold they create). he coined the term "immaculate reception," for the best-known play in steelers' history. before he retired in 2005, it was common practice for many to turn down the sound on the TV broadcast for the game and turn up cope's show on WDVE**.

if you're a steelers fan, i challenge you to imagine steelers football without myron cope; it can't be done.

his death has got me thinking about a few things. first, his accent, as i've already said. quintessentially pittsburgh in a time when regional accents like ours are becoming more scarce. and he's added quite the roster of terms to our vocabulary, most notably "yoi" and "double yoi." (i mentioned mike lange below; pittsburgh has been blessed with very linguistically influential broadcasters.)

secondly, at the city's memorial service for mr. cope, fans outside the city-county building downtown waved terrible towels and chanted some of his catchphrases. this sounds like the most ideal funeral service ever. even during a moment of silence, the towels were still waving.

third, it got me thinking about the vicissitudes of a sports town. i began watching football when i was about 9, so you can say i've been a fan for the better part of fifteen years. the steelers franchise has quite a penchant for stability; in all my years of watching football, we had the same coach, bill cowher. last year he was gone. now with someone as important to the idea of steelers football as myron cope to be gone, it makes it a little more apparent that we're entering a new "era."

i haven't been watching long enough to remember a different era of steelers football, like those who are old enough to remember the steelers of the 70s. but i'd imagine it's going to be quite strange. i don't know how someone remains a fan of a team for so long without being very sad about their nostalgic feelings for bygone eras of that team. i can't imagine how weird it would be for someone who had listened to his broadcasts to suddenly hear someone else's voice calling out plays.

for the meantime, cope's influence on the steelers and pittsburgh won't change. but someday it will. the things we associate with the steelers will be completely different. i know it might sound stupid, like it's just a sport, but i think anyone who has a hometown team can understand what a huge part of a city's culture its sports teams are. i'm reaching the point where i can start to remember a time when things were different, and that's odd. i suppose at this age that starts to happen with a lot of other things.

anyway. my last point about myron cope is this: what a wonderful time to be in pittsburgh. sad, yes, but one of my favorite things about pittsburgh is the camaraderie. pittsburghers have a way of pulling together in times of happiness and equally in times of sadness. i think that's really important in a hometown and it's absence is something that makes prague feel a bit empty. i'm not sure if i can quite put it into words, but i've never felt more at home than the celebration after the steelers' superbowl win in 2006. i've also never felt more at home than standing on the sidewalk, with a bunch of strangers, watching our new mayor bob o'connor's funeral procession slide down grant street last september.

this was a bit rambling, but the point is: he'll be missed.

"bye now!"






*potraviny in czech means food or groceries, although i think it has taken on the colloquial meaning of "grocer's." basically, there are hundreds of small convenience stores in prague and they usually list on their signs what they provide: cigarettes, alcohol, drinks, fruits, vegetables, etc. i'm no expert but i think groceries, or "potraviny" has become the umbrella term for all these offerings and therefore appears on most if not all convenience store signs. i don't know if czech speakers refer to them this way, but us english speakers with a dearth of czech knowledge use it as a noun to mean "convenience store."

**is this common practice in any other major sports market? because not only is it done for steelers games to hear cope's show, i know many penguins fans who will tune into mike lange's radio broadcast instead of listening to the announcers on TV. no one watches pirates games on TV, so to my knowledge there is no baseball equivalent.

Friday, February 29, 2008

i love brussel sprouts and other europe revelations

living in europe has caused me to do a lot of things i never considered before. for instance, drinking tea when one is not sick. drinking alone (not tea.) using applicator-less tampons.

i've become a lot more lax in the frequency of taking showers; chances are, if you've skipped one you are still nowhere near as redolent as the better part of the czech population riding the metro on that given day.

today for lunch at school we had "kureci maso" or if you're anglophilic, "chicken meat," rice with veggies mixed in and some sort of gravy sauce. as i was picking through my rice, i saw it: and i panicked. a brussel sprout.

i have never in my life eaten a brussel sprout; in fact, it is the only food i've have been cultured to fear. that's a lie, there's two: brussel sprouts and liver and onions. everyone i've ever met who has had these two foods finds them disgusting. my dad hated brussel sprouts, so we never had them at home, and after i "grew up" it never occurred to me to try them because i was sure i'd hate them.

apparently i was all worked up for nothing because they taste exactly as they look: like tiny balls of lettuce.

i was wondering today what changes my friends at home might notice after not having seen me for almost a year. i don't think i've changed much, but i probably have. maybe i will be out of touch with pittsburgh when i return.

you know, beyond smelling a little funky and having a newfound love for ostracized vegetables.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

got nothing to do today but smile

i had quite a biting rant prepared on becoming legally employed in the EU (which i'm certain will resurface at some point, probably this week when lucka finds yet another way to delay my application for a work permit), but i suddenly find myself devoid of all negative feeling.

this sunday afternoon, february 23, 2008, it is 61 degrees farenheit in prague, which almost certainly has to be a lie - i would put it at at least 70 degrees. it's by far the warmest and most pleasant day i can remember since i've been here. almost immediately upon our arrival in september it was cold, chilly and rainy everyday and it only got colder.

it hasn't exactly been a cold winter, but it's been cold enough. (apparently, this october and november were colder on average than december and january were. one of my students told me this and i can't really be bothered to look it up; just take my word that its more or less true). the two times i can actually remember thinking "boy it is fucking cold" were the week leading up to and surrounding christmas, and last week.

otherwise it's been positively balmy.

i was on my way to use the internet at jama. i made it a few blocks down krizikova and realized i had left our windows open and thought it might be prudent, given the robbery a few weeks back, to close them. on my way i figured, why not try the internet in the park?

which has led to the greatest idea i've had in weeks, though not really revolutionary -- get a beer at the potraviny and use the internet in the park. lovely!

i don't think i've been in a better mood in weeks. there are kids rollerblading, people are out on balconies. i walked over to the park on the other side of our apartment building to give the internet a whirl there, and on my way back i almost said out loud "FUCK i'm hot." in a sweatshirt. it's wonderful.

this is my favorite day of the year. almost no one is in a bad mood on the first really warm day. march is probably going to end up being a bitch, but today (and this week at least), you can get a beer, drink it outside (no open container laws! what a utopia the czech republic is) and not really be mad or upset about anything. wonderful.

and meanwhile, it's 15 degrees and snowy in pittsburgh! haha.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

if you want a show, just let me know and i'll sing in your ear again*

you know what's embarassing? crying on an airport shuttle bus. because there's no way to hide it, really. shuttles are always crowded and the seats are arranged in such a way that you are forced to face your copassengers. so no matter what you do, they know you are crying. and crying people (especially crying people that are alone) don't do anything but make everyone else SUPER uncomfortable.

and they were probably all thinking, "seriously? who ACTUALLY cries at the airport?" then they look around to see if there are movie cameras and they've somehow unknowingly stumbled onto the set of a romantic comedy.

at least i made it out of the terminal. right? that would have been worse.

i don't really ever cry, so when i do i have no idea how to handle it. i suppose first i try to decide why exactly i'm crying. it's not because he's gone because that has happened before. maybe it's because last time, in the back of my mind, i knew i would see him again, and maybe this time i don't know that.

actually i think i was crying because life is just not fair. which sounds horribly childish. that is a lesson i have supposedly learned before, but maybe i hadn't.

it's not fair that i cannot legally work in europe. it's not fair that i spent an entire night trying to think of a way that i could but came up with nothing. it's not fair that relationships have to be decided by arbitrary things like geography. it's not fair that something like that makes it over before it starts. it's not fair that, because of airport security, you can no longer run to the gate to stop someone from boarding a plane. it's not fair that doing that probably wouldn't work anyway.

it's not fair that i couldn't think of something to say that could fix it.

and it's not fair that maybe that thing is not what he wanted anyway. it's not fair that the nonexistant fix-all might not actually fix all.

maybe i'm naive but i didn't think it worked this way. but maybe it does, and maybe that's the lesson.

so i was sitting in a seat, freezing, tired, hoping my phone would vibrate (but it didn't), crying like a child with a child's excuse for it. life's not fair.

i don't know how to conclude this, except to say that after i decided what i was crying about, i tried to think of something else in order to stop. there was a couple across the way who had just arrived from ireland and the woman had the most beautiful accent. so i listened for a while. but it just made it worse. somehow, listening to this woman say "wednesday" made me cry even more.

i wish i had an accent. life's not fair.



*this title is a line from "the drugs don't work," by the verve.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

a short note about lists and my inability to properly utilize them

my memory is slipping. lately i'll think of something good, maybe an idea for a blog or some place i want to travel, or i'll stumble on a word while i'm reading that i want to look up*, and i'll say to myself - i won't forget this one. how hard can it possibly be to remember that i want to look up "abseiling?"

pretty tough, apparently, because i just had to refer to notes to remember it. and that happens all the time now. if i don't write something down, it's even money that it'll be lost forever within 5-7 minutes. then it will occur to me later -- not what i wanted to remember, but in the form of that nervous, empty feeling you get when you realize you forgot something. then, usually, more energy than is proportional to the importance of the forgotten fact is used trying to remember it.

so i've resorted to making lists. my plan was to have several lists that are constantly updated, so i'll have one for "travel destinations" and one for "words to look up," another for "books i want to read," and maybe "blog ideas so nick stops whining about it not having been updated in a week."

the thing is, i'm crap at making lists! i get performance anxiety or something, i don't know, but when i sit down to write down all the things i've thought of, i suddenly can't remember them. then i end up with a list that is two items long or that ends up a lot more disappointing in quality than what i imagined it would be. (if you saw my "europe 2008 goals" list on the facebook you'll know what i mean.)

for instance, i wanted to start a list of "things i would like to see." obviously there are many but when i sat to write the list, all i could come up with was "space shuttle launch." (but, good one, right?).

i am also attempting to write for a friend a sort of "pittsburgh travel guide." i didn't know where to start really so i began making lists, neighborhood by neighborhood, of all the places i think someone visiting pittsburgh for the first time should see. now, pittsburgh is a place i like to think i know a good deal about, having lived there for 23 years. lord knows i can talk about it for hours. but when i sat to write this list, i got nowhere. all the places sounded lame and stupid, and it was rather short.

AND, even if i do get a successful list written, i don't use it! last week i made a shopping list of things i needed at tesco's (unnecessary possessive) and forgot to bring it. then, instead of going to tesco, i went to billa -- only to end up buying just ONE of the things on my list. fittingly i can't remember what else was on it now, but i walked out of the billa that day with only a bag of five ridiculously overpriced disposable pink razors.

i did make one quite good list today that i intend on using, and it is "blog ideas." however, my memory is already failing me on just what i meant by some of the list items. it is:

collections - ppl
itunes shuffle
immigrant (just one? and what about him/her?)
british eng.
the woods (rather unspecific!)
dealbreakers (okay i remember EXACTLY what i want to say about this one, actually)

and that was only about an hour ago. let's see what survives the night.




*my dictionary is being held hostage, and last night i found out USED, by drew and sergio! specifically "oh, i've been carrying it around in my bag. it's crap though. it's missing words."

Saturday, February 09, 2008

in holland*, everyone is an expert in paintings and tulips

prague is getting boring. not the city, i suppose (i love it here), but it's just falling into routine. maybe its the time of year or just the current state of my jobs, life, lack of hobbies, etc., but i feel like i'm entering a rut.

on the bright side, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. (what a terrible mixed metaphor)...lori, anna, debs and i are going to amsterdam for the weekend of march 14-16. this will be my first big trip since i've been in europe, which is pathetic and exciting all at once. i don't know what there's to do in amsterdam (other than the obvious, which we will be doing... use your imagination.)

i've decided that enough is enough, i'm going to start spending my money on travelling instead of whatever dumb shit i find to blow my paycheck on here in prague.

we're also pretty certainly going to dublin in june to see radiohead. the tickets are 53 pounds (i can't even make the pound symbol on my computer, thats how expensive they are). how do people in GB live? i have never spent that much on a concert, ever. i don't know if this is what you usually pay but JEEZ. that's around $120. out of control. however, i like radiohead, i want to see dublin, and this is a good excuse to waste that money, i suppose.

(however, i decided recently that i HATE going to concerts. it's always crowded and you don't get anywhere close to the stage. the opening bands are usually crap, unless you get lucky. and the band never plays the songs that everyone wants to hear, they play the songs from whichever album they're promoting, usually the newest. no one wants to hear that crap. so you stand there, barely able to see the band, getting bumped into by obnoxious teenagers, listening to songs you don't even want to hear. lame. dear radiohead, please play high and dry and will be forgiven.)

all other proceeds leftover from the next few months paychecks will be going to the "summer 2008 travelling fund." my educational obligations at both schools are over at the end of june. i want to ride on the trans-siberian railroad, hopefully to beijing (and coincidentally, the olympics will be there this summer... i wonder if that'll coincide?) i was originally planning to fly back to the states from there and be done with my year abroad, but now i'm not so sure.

in a perfect world, i'd like to travel for the two months remaining in the summer (july and august); then, either start a job in a new country (italy? i hope i hope i hope) or go home. i don't know if this is financially possible. i guess we'll see what falls off the truck.

i had this feeling that i needed to see as much as possible in my year in prague, but i suppose thats not true. i was dead set on only being here a year, but i'm not anymore. i'll have plenty of time to get where i want to go - no sense squishing it into 6 months. however, i'm still tired of wasting my weekends not doing much else other than reading, laying around, taking naps and cleaning.




*i thought amsterdam was in the netherlands, and i never realized until i was corrected yesterday that the netherlands and holland are the same place. although, not really - holland is a province IN the netherlands. but for 24 hours, i thought my 16 years of education had failed me at the most basic geography.
also, the title of this blog is from the book "the fall" by albert camus and hopefully i didn't remember it wrong.