The Week in Review

Thursday night I went to the ballet. There were two cultural events this semester that we got to choose from, and because I am lucky, and in general a very culture-friendly person, I made it to both the Bartered Bride (+1 culture point), which was about a month ago, and Ballet Extrem (+1 culture point), which was Thursday.

After going to the ballet, I was feeling particularly cultural, though looking back on it, I realize that my feelings of cultural advancement are slightly tempered by the fact that I had Burger King for lunch (+1 ex-pat point), [cheap] Mexican for dinner (+1 ex-pat point, +1 smart point--two tacos and a margarita for 110 crowns), and that the first act of the ballet itself was a little less Swan Lake, a little more MTV Video Music Awards (+1 cool, -1 culture). The rest of the ballet, of course, redeemed itself with a highly erotic second act, and a Lion King-esque third act which featured a man dressed up as a baby mouthing Michael Jackson (+2 cool points). After the opera, I headed across the street to Cafe Slavia, a former hang out of Kafka (+1 culture point, +1 cool point), but that has now--supposedly--become a current hang out for tourists (-1 culture point, -1 cool point).

Friday was essentially a lost day, so I will ignore it (-1 cool point).

On Saturday I was forced to go to Radomysl, a small village in southern Bohemia. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. We had to stay with local families, and somehow, thankfully, Tanya and I ended up in the same house (+1 cool point) and, as we figured out just as we were leaving the town (-1 smart point), the father in the family we were staying with was the mayor (+1 cool point). They were an incredibly hospitable family, and had a 19-year-old daughter, Katerina, who spent a lot of time with us. We also got to meet her boyfriend Jakub.

While there we had the option of eating duck--I refused (-1 culture point)--and just ate Czech food in general. Apparently they were celebrating some kind of feast or rural/farmers' harvest holiday, I think. So there was lots of food. As well as a woman playing bagpipes (+1 culture point) I also had the chance to try out the two local beers: Dudak--which translates into "Bagpipes," and Klostermann (+2 culture points, +2 tasty points). After dinner they took us over to a Czech dance where they had a live band playing Czech songs (+1 culture point). I have to admit, the last time I heard so much polka, I was at a Minnesota wedding (+1 culture point). While at the dance, I also had the opportunity to try two other spirits native to the Czech Republic: Becherovka and Slivovice (+2 culture points, +1 tasty point for the Becherovka, -1 tasty point for the Slivovice).

The next morning we got up to an EXCELLENT breakfast, with jogurt, grilled cheese-esque sandwiches that also had ham, ketchup, and mustard on them, traditional Czech pastries, and tea (+3 tasty points). We then went on a comprehensive tour of Radomysl. We toured the nursery school (+1 adorable point) and got paper apples that the children had made for the us (+1 adorable point), we toured the elementary/middle school and got to see people playing ping pong, we walked to the Baroque Church (+1 culture point), we walked down an extremely muddy path (-1 cool point) to the Jewish cemetery--or "cementary" as the people of Radomysl kept spelling it/saying it--and saw Franz Kafka's grandfather's grave (+1 cool point, +1 culture point).

Then we had lunch where I had another chicken schnitzel (+1 culture point) and water--jemne perliva--though my host family wanted to know why I wasn't getting another beer. After lunch, Tanya and I went with Katerina to the next town over, Strakonice where her boyfriend lives, to go watch a puppet show (+1 cool point). Her boyfriend does the lights for it. When we arrived, children were lined up off the stage, waiting for their chance to either sing a song or tell a rhyme, something that they do before the show (+5 adorable points). After the first act, because we were well connected (Katerina's boyfriend's mom also does things at the puppet theatre), we got to go backstage and climb into the rafters to watch the puppeteers working their magic (+2 cool points). We also got to see the people standing to the side of the stage, doing the voices (+2 cool points). Interesting to note: the table the people backstage were sitting at was littered with glasses of beer and an open bottle of wine (+1 cool point, +1 class point). I'm not sure if that's something you'd see backstage at a children's puppet theatre in the States.

After that we had to go and meet up with our class to talk about culture and values and stuff like that (-2 cool points). But we got a bag of Radomysl souvenirs like a book and a DVD (+2 cool points), some kind of cake thing from our teacher's mom (+1 cool point), and Tanya and I came out of the weekend absolutely loaded with different kinds of chocolate (+3 cool points) because our host family wanted us to experience the Czech candy scene.

Totals:
Culture- 10 points
Cool- 16 points
Class- 1 point
Ex-pat*- 2 points
Adorable- 7 points
Smart- 0 points
Tasty- 5 points

And tonight I am taking it easy, maybe watching the second half of the new "Dr. Zhivago" with my host dad. Tomorrow we don't have school because of communism.

*You may have noticed the addition of the "Ex-pat" category. There are times where I think my actions could be interpreted as times where I should lose a culture point, but really I feel that those actions should be interpreted in a more positive way. Thus I am naming them "Ex-pat" points because it gives a more positive spin on something that could otherwise have a negative connotation. These actions are not negative actions, or actions that are actually taking away culture. They are merely actions that are more culturally American than they are culturally Czech.