SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETZ!
PRETZEL MELT! TURKEY, PROVOLONE AND MAYONNAAAAAAISE!
I LOVE AMERICA!
GO PENS!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
-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?
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
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
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