My internet connection has been down more than it has been up this weekend. Tonight, I am finally able to post this message, but my over-priced Edge Technology WiFi Modem is refusing to transmit photos. I'll try to send them tomorrow.
Thursday I had coffee with David and Chris at Slavia. This is the kind of historic coffee house where if literati didn’t meet to exchange contraband manuscripts, they should have. It is right across from the National Theater. It overlooks the river and snow covered castle grounds beyond. It was such a wonderful Prague experience that I almost didn’t mind the pain of my Czech class that followed it.
There was a major civil protest about the healthcare system on Friday at Old Town Square. I have been following a series of these protests since the fall. The minister of health was forced to resign as a result of the fall protests, and now the protests are calling for the resignation of the new minister. The problem seems to be that the system is deep in the red due to a long series of issues ranging from corruption, to overpricing of services and drugs, to inadequate basic tax revenues, and high expectation for broad availability of services at very low cost. The current minister has imposed strict limits on spending which have curtailed availability of services, as well as payments to service providers. Not a pretty picture. The protest was very well attended and reminded me of some marches that Pam, Meg, and I attended in Washington.
I finally found the State Opera House. It is near Vaclav (Wenceslaus) Square, but on the far side of some mean looking divided highways. In only about 20 minutes of wandering this way and that, I found the pedestrian tunnels, crossed under successfully, and bought myself a ticket ($28) to see La Traviata. I hiked back home, past the Protest again, and changed out of jeans into more opera-like, although still cold weather-worthy, attire. I hiked back up to the Theater. If you saw Amadeus, you have seen the inside of this Theater. I sat in the first balcony and felt like I was in the movies. There was an older Czech woman next to me who had gorgeous gem rings on every finger. Her tall, thin, 50-something daughter had a turquoise, long dress, with matching bead necklace and ring. The people ahead of me were wearing jeans and speaking German. The people behind me asked the usher for a program in French, German, Italian, or Austrian, and settled for one in English. There were two intermissions. Champagne was $2, juice $1. The subtitles were in Czech, so when I got home I looked up the English libretto on the web to remind myself of the details of the plot…but the staging was so spectacular that even if you didn’t know anything about the story, it was worth the music and the staging to be there.
Kylowna, the Fulbrighter I hope to visit in the small town of Zatec in March, came in to Prague Saturday to have her hair braided…a five hour process! She called and we went to dinner afterwards at Hot, a nice, upscale place she knew on Vaclav Square. It was a relaxed evening of nice cocktails, really good food…rack of lamb, potatoes, salad, and cheesecake…good conversation, and hockey on a muted (thank goodness) huge screen TV. Hockey is a very big deal here and the Czech were playing for the Bronze medal against the Russians.
On the way back to her hotel and my apartment, we crossed through Old Town Square. A stage was set up and two gigantic outdoor TV screens. A thousand or more people were watching the hockey game. It was about 25 degrees Fahrenheit out there! We took pictures and didn’t stay. There were even temporary hot dog stands set up…big ones!
Today, however, was the highlight of the week….Dog Dancing! I went with Susan, a Fulbrighter from KU, by metro and tram, out to the stadium a bit away from center city. It was my first time out of the center of the city, since Russ and I ventured to the end of the Yellow Metro line in a fruitless search for IKEA to get some minor supplies we wanted for this all-IKEA apartment. It was a daunting task and we didn’t need the supplies enough to carry through to the end of it. Today, it was nice to see some open spaces and houses with yards. She and I walked around quite a bit looking for the stadium…if you get the impression that I spend a lot of time walking in circles looking for things, you have the correct impression.
Everyone needs to experience a Dog Dancing competition. The dogs are so smart. The people are so…hmmmmm….quaint. The dogs walk backwards, roll over, leap on their human partners’ backs, turn aerial flips, sing, twirl, and curtsy. What kinds of dogs, you ask? There was a foxterier, several border kolie, a čivava (the first letter sounds like the first letter in tsetse fly), a Belgicky ovčák Malinoa (who pulled his partner around the dance floor on her roller blades), a labrdor, a dobrman, a pitbul, a pudl, and even a bigl. This was definitely not my last trip to a Dog Dancing competition. What a howl!
Tomorrow is my second day of teaching my class. I may have scared them all away last week. There were 12 in class Monday, but only 4 turned in the assignment that they were to send by email yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment