skip to the end if you just want a summery =)

Last night was the opening of the gallery of work from the seniors from tereza’s school… which I had to explain the titles of senior junior sophomore freshman… we are apparently the only ones that do that.. good to know.  Adi (tereza’s friend) and a bunch of her friends and me (I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet but I feel very much like a pet… the pet American… well when you think about it I just walk around with them smiling having no idea what they are talking about and then get all excited when one of them turns to me and starts speaking English, I consider that the occasional reaching down to pet the dog. And I even do stupid pet tricks! The sounds I can make a a pretty big hit… I was unaware how many people here know police academy movies… every time I make some of the noises they are like “police academy guy.” And occasionally they teach me new tricks like things to say in czech for which I am rewarded by more English “petting.”…. I’m a puppy. Its my fault really. I don’t speak Czech and I went to a/the country that speaks Czech.. but I looked. The only Czech lessons I could really find were in the Czech republic… which I need to work on finding the right one for me so I can graduate from puppy to 4 year old) walk the usual marathon to get somewhere, but as usual it was worth the trip. The gallery was in an old warehouse that was build during communism, which was expressed to me was the major benefit of communism. Lots of building happened.  The outside of the building looked like your typical warehouse but the inside where the gallery was revealed a very impressive ceiling that was like a weaving of huge wood beams that supported the roof and a well lit wide open space surrounded in windows. (my battery died before I could get a good picture of the ceiling. So sad) They had great exhibits of all forms of design at the school. The most impressive to me were the interior designs and the product designs. The interior designers had models constructed and digital 3d pictures of what their designs would look like and over in the product design there was this backpack (I will post a picture below) that wasn’t like a “project” it was a really nice backpack that they designed and build for bicyclists. It was very impressive and very professional looking. I wouldn’t doubt it if it went into production soon. There were websites and videos and displays and paintings and photographs and even a section for fashion design that had the dresses and outfits on forms and also photographs of their other work and the work displayed. It was a great time!

      Today is the day that I once again confirmed that the iphone, though a pain in the butt to get to work outside of at&t, is probably the most versatile tool of the century. There really is an app for everything. Today I went out fully armed with iphone in hand. I had an app for currency conversion, my google maps, and a translator from any language to any language…. It even asked me what region I’m in so it can adjust for the change in dialects! The thing is spot on when you are translating word for word but phrases I’m having a bit of difficulty with. Still an amazing application. After spending a few days in the rain while I was in Prague I have been on a mission to find a jacket that is waterproof… yes I’m kicking myself for not bringing one. I thought, Its almost summertime, it wont get cold enough to really need a jacket.” Somehow my, I thought intelligent, mind didn’t go, “cold or no cold.. it will still rain now and then, and you have to walk everywhere.” So going through the shopping areas looking for a rain jacket was harder than I thought because there were no just generic rain jackets. Everything was name brand and expensive. Well, it wasn’t really expensive everywhere but still more than I want to pay for something that its only purpose was to keep me dry. I also had a thought. Why do we have to have attractive/stylish looking rain jackets? How many times have you been running through pouring rain and thought to yourself, “wow, that person has a really nice looking rain jacket. I wonder where they got it. It is far more stylish than the one I am currently wearing.” NO! you have one goal in mind and your sights are set on it. The door of whatever building or car you are running to! Then when you get to the building or car you take the coat off. I suppose you could consider something stylish if you were say in a light misty rain where people still look around and notice their surroundings, but in that I case I usually don’t use a jacket. But if you want to spend the money to buy an expensive stylish name brand rain coat that you can be the talk of the town during all those slight misty rain days.. be my guest. I was looking for something along the lines of a trash bag with sleeves. So my search took me to a store with cheap prices on very generic looking stuff in the window and very well priced. Imagine a store walmart clothing section at about the quality style they had about 10 years ago (I couldn’t just say Wal-Mart clothing because admit it, these days you walk by the clothes in wal mart  and think to yourself.. ok that’s kinda cool looking or “cute” for the ladies where as 10 years ago you would only go there if you needed some fruit of the loom sweatshirts or maybe some underwear… I don’t care weather you act on the thought and purchase the item or not, you have still thought it. I guess they got the picture after target stepped up their game) So I thought “PERFECT” and went in. It was exactly what I expected except for the employees were all of a middle eastern ethnic group and when they approached me for help I tried the best I could to say I don’t need help. So they look at me and start speaking more Czech. So I said in Czech “I don’t speak Czech” but I guess since Czech is a second language to both of them they weren’t able to understand my less than accurate Czech as well as native Czechs do. So what happens next? They bring more employees over that are speaking more Czech all the while the original guy that approached me kept trying to get me to try on the first jacket I picked up earlier. I find out that either my translator on my iphone is slightly off on the phrase “I don’t speak Czech. It is ok, I don’t need help” or they just cant read Czech lol because after  4 employees stood around me watching me type the phrase out in English then follow me over to the window so I get good reception to let the translator do its thing then show it to them… they simply call over two more employees and I had to try to explain to the first guy who carried the jacket over to the window with us once again that I don’t not want that jacket. So here I stand, surrounded by the entire stores work force with the exception of the person working the register. Does it stop there? Nope. The person at the register looks at me and says “English Speak?” I was filled with mixed emotions. Excitement because those were English words. Relief because my following of employees dispersed at the sound of loosing their sale to the cashier girl so I no longer felt like the Wells Fargo wagon as it came down the street (it was between that and an ice-cream truck that pulled up to a playground). And sadness because though it was English… it was “English Speak.” Taking what I can get, I tried for “rain coat?”… blank face… “jacket?” …she holds up a tshirt…. So I go all out on this one as I repeat “no rain, ne prishi” while making the spirit finger representation of rain above my head followed by the “I’m cold” cross your arms motion. BINGO and we are off to the jacket section that I had already found earlier but at that time my concern was simply to be able to look at them on my own. Suddenly 2 of the other people realize “OH RAIN COAT… HE WANTS A RAIN COAT” (in whatever language it is that epiphanies occur in their heads). So they run over to try and “assist.” After trying on the coat I had originally picked up just so I can get the guy to leave that one alone I find the one I want and got out of there feeling like… well.. I cant really describe the feeling, but I’m hoping I was able to put you in my place well enough that you know the feeling I’m talking about. You don’t know weather to laugh or cry and your head hurts really bad, is the best I can do. Other things happened today but that’s really a whole day worth of fun right there. …wow this was 2.5 pages long. Sorry. For those of you that just skip to the end here is a sum up.

Saw pretty things, don’t speak Czech, iphone = win, walmart shopping with customer service on a level you’ve never seen before, I have a rain jacket. 

gogo business cards

So I have tried for two years at the place i used to work to get business cards made up for me because they are very useful for someone in my profession.... I needed some here so i was like "self, you are creative... try making your own... even if its just your name and email!" .... i went through a lot of brainstorming and thinking and this is what i came up with! i think it is pretty creative for a business card... feel free to check for spelling errors... i tend to make them. But i spent like four hours on them and now my brain hurts and i'm hungry... so not going to do todays update lol. I'll try to cover it tomorrow =)

ALLL BY MY SEEEEeeeeeEEElllfffff

Today so far has been a very interesting day. Tereza had to go into Prague, so just a few days into my trip I am on my own… David vs Usti round one!

   I got a bright and early start and ate breakfast at about 8:30 (yogurt and this really good granola mix with sugar and raisins that we made the night before) then walked with Tereza to get some stuff printed and then to her school then to the bus then I’m on my own. I wasn’t that worried about it because I saw a good section of the main area yesterday. So not knowing the area’s of Usti that are full of “gypsies” and I’m “not supposed to go there” I was as adventurous as I could/should be on my first solo david day. My strategy was to pretty much follow the same path we took yesterday but also check out what is one block either way of the path we took and I walked a bit past where we turned around yesterday.  SO MUCH FUN.  I really like Usti. It seems like there are several schools around here so there are a lot of people around my age. The “shopping area” as I will call it, was pretty much the same as yesterday other than the “square” area is setting up for something that looks like a “help something” display area.. (I don’t really know what that “something” is but I  can only assume that it is for people that need help. The displays had lots of faces of people…that’s really my only clue. It could be for teeth whitening for all I know=/) ((side side note: Americans/I  apparently have really white teeth and its been pointed out to me a couple times))  I was able to go find the key copier person and explain to him that the key he cut for me yesterday didn’t work and I needed it fixed by using a very confused face and pointing at the keys giving them thumbs ups and thumbs down (remind me to thank the romans for that apparently universal sign) then passed the McDonald’s again… WHY IS IT SO TEMPTING!? We have been brain washed! So seeing the McD’s once again made me realize how hungry I am so I walked my way back to the apartment to go to the grocery store because I really just no how to get to places from the apartment but I’m sure there was a quicker way to get there. OH MAN! The grocery store by myself was so much different that grocery store with someone that speaks Czech! I thought to myself that its groceries… I can tell what it is without speaking Czech…. Fail. Everything is packaged and labeled differently and they have stuff that I have no clue what it is and when I would find a familiar American brand it was 3x the price of the Czech (I assume equivalent) versions. And I cant describe how tempting the familiar overpriced American food was to my growling tummy that just wanted to buy some food and go home and eat. But I told my stomach “Stomach, if I got American food I might as well have gone to McDs and ruined my Czech experience.” Stomach understood and sent a neurological message to my brain either to be smarter or just be a bit more fearless in my selections so it can be satisfied because the decision between the stuff that looked like turkey and the stuff that looked like ham and the 15000 kinds of bread that are just sitting out in the open and the mustard that comes in a plastic cup that resembles yogurt and the cheeses that are all pretty much the same except for the packaging became simply “this looks good” and grabbed it. (I know I know its just the materials for a sandwich but I can barely cook in the US… not quite ready to try my hand at cooking Czech food… especially with tereza’s roommates there to watch me make a fool of myself… if I had my own place I probably would have been more up for trying cooking) And just in case it turned out to be aweful I got something like an icecream sandwich but with a wafer on each side rather than chocolate cookie brownie thing… and yes I admit Lays potato chips… but they were the only chips that had a flavor that I could find and I really wanted chips.

            The walk home was pretty awesome because one of the schools I passed was apparently a music school and there were some horn instruments and some percussion and maybe a woodwind or two providing me with theme music while I walked (I just assumed that they were playing for  me because this is my blog)

            Ok so I’m eating my Czech sandwich and chips while I type… the verdict on my purchases?! The ham/turkey stuff was neither ham nor turkey but still good and if I wasn’t set on trying different things I would purchase it again next trip, the cheese was swiss and good, I went with packaged bread but it was Czech bread…. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the bread rolls that I like so much because they are literally just funneld down from giant bins to this shelf where everyone is just digging through finding the rolls they want.. I was about to go there anyway and dig in myself but right in front of me was a man that looks like he does landscaping or something going by the suit on his hands and arms searching for  his rolls and I just couldn’t do it… you cant really rinse bread off, next time I’m going for it! Ice cream sandwich was wicked good and I remembered I had something just like it or maybe the same exact thing several years ago when I was here. But the biggest surprise to me was the bag of chips… THEY WERE OVER HALF FULL (and I’m not just being optimistic..badum ching!)! It wasn’t the 15% chips 85% air we have become so used to! Lays! You have some splainin to do!

            Later tonight I am going to an opening of some of the students of tereza’s school art exhibits. I will have to update you on that later. But all in all I think being on your own in a place where you have no idea where anything is and don’t understand anything anyone is saying is an experience that I am so happy I got to experience and wouldn’t give up a second of it! Try it sometime! Even if its just Louisiana, China town, or a world of warcraft convention… just something where you cant understand anything.

gogo pictures

 

Usti day 1

I hope you will not feel let down with the post about today but I am just tired of typing... i've done the last 2 posts already today and I will make up for it in the next post. 

 Usti is a really great town! It has a population of about 100,000 people and has really beautiful views once you get to the edges of the city. It is interesting here because of the mix of old and new architecture. You see so many stages of architecture, they have the really old stuff, the common european houses that are still really old and cool looking, the stuff that really looks like it was build during communism (thats the best way i can describe it) and some stuff that looks pretty new but the style looks outdated and then you see a few building here and there that is much more modern. One of which was designed by one of the professors at tereza's school and also the inside was designed by some of the students in the interior design department. 

It has its own public transportation system of trams and busses but I didn't buy a pass for here because nothing is too far out of the way that I cant just walk to it. I may regret this on rainy days (OH YEAH TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY) but then i can just buy a single ticket and be ok. 

We (me tereza and her friend adela (spelling?)) went first to see if we could get my iphone working at the phone shop with no luck. They wanted a pretty steep price and to keep my phone for a couple days. We then went through the shopping area type place. (i think my writing is less entertaining today than it was earlier..sorry =/) Got keys made at the key shop so i can get in and out of the apartment building and looked at some really cool shoes that were a really good price. (aparently my running shoes scream "american") the brand was called "bata" but not sure yet if i actually want to spend money on shoes or just stand out as an american. I'll probably wait and see if i can get a job that pays first. I have to point out that we passed a mcdonalds and instantly i was hungry... i never really realized how powerful the mcdonalds image was! i was noticing it in prague that i saw a mcdonalds and CRAVED a double cheeseburger but this time it actualy just made me hungry... nothing specific but my my stomach just started growling! it was sad... i guess i've been supersized? I resisted my temptation from the expensive fast food chain and instead went with tereza to the grocery store that is pretty awesome and i hope to have fun shopping there in the future! They cooked and we ate (they wont let me help.. i keep trying to help!!) then went to terezas school that is really nice and the work they are doing here in design is top notch! It is final exams time so its just people working in the labs and things. Its a really fun environment that reminds me of the times spent in the video editing lab at uca with 10 other students staying up all night to finish a film. (one time i even brought my tent to the lab and woke up the next day and packed the tent up as the 8am class was coming in). While here i had a somewhat failed and extreemly frustrating attempt at skype but on the bright side i did manage to hack and unlock my own iphone cause i'm leet like that... if anyone wants to go to europe with an iphone and not pay international fees let me know. I now know hot to unlock it and use one of the sim cards from here for the whole time your staying and its way cheaper than even having a phone in the us. I payed about 10 bucks and my phone has all the credit i think i'll need for a month. And all the other iphone stuff works too! It will be another 10 bucks though to get unlimited internet which isn't that bad either... 20$ a month phonebill compared to the 90$ a month bill in arkansas. We then got back and i was able to confirm that czech women will cook for anything!... one of her roomates was making pasta (seems normal right?) then she takes the bowl of pasta pours it into a bowl of dog food and mixes it and gives it to the dog.... EVEN THE DOGS GET COOKED FOR! its awesome lol. 

Krivoklat the castle that will take me longer to learn to say than it took to build it.

I thought we were just going to get up and go to Usti today but i was so wrong! And in a good way. Tereza's boyfriend decided to drive us out to a castle that was pretty far out in the country. So even though I felt like the really awkward third person because her boyfriend doesn't speak a word of english so they spoke czech nearly the whole time, I had a great time! The roads here are AMAZING! I swear you barely go 100yards in a straight line. Curves and hills and fields and woods and rivers and towns flying by and cars missing you by inches is way more fun than i could have imagined! It is a great realization of their need for little cars! The castle was beautiful and the history behind it was really interesting! It was used back before Charles IV and was his home for a while. (if you know your czech history he is kind of a big deal!) Its been so many things throughout history.. I guess because you get to a point where your like "so i have the castle... what do i do with it?" It started on a different hill as a hunting getaway for the kings then became more of a castle when they built on the hill its currently on and then was a hunting getaway castle for a while then it was things like a really nice castle like house for people, a school, and it was a prison for a very long time! There were like 900 years spanned from its first prisoner to its last prisoner! Thats a long time just as a prison! We saw the different chanbers of the king and queen. AN AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL chapel area (no pictures were allowed inside but i tried my best to get a picture of the alter that stood like 2 stories tall and was just amazing! you only see a part of it and its blury... sorry but it was the best i could do)  and a library that has books dating back to forever ago and a book that has like 3000 pages and is is about 2'x1.5' in size and a good 8 or 9 inches thick! it was a boring read though. And we saw the dungeon and its torture devices..ooooohhh i saw an actual iron maden! It would have NOT been fun at all to die in that! Then another amazing trip home and we boarded the train to Usti! I think i want to live in europe just because of how much i love traveling by train! It was a really fun atmosphere at the train station because the train we were on was full of kids on their way to amsterdam. Probably 100 or more 20 somethings and I think each one was speaking their own language.  I was loving the train ride but i fell asleep because its is just so relaxing and i had a lot of walking done for that day. I got to usti... brought the rain with me. And then made it to my new home for the next few months! Outside it looks really shady but the inside is so nice! White walls and wood floors and its just spotless (i'm nervous about having to keep things as clean as when i arrived =/ ) I unpacked and they fixed dinner! These czechs cook all the time! every meal is cooked! It is great i love it! It was this dill seasoned gravy substance with fried eggs and dumplings... sounds weird but everything here sounds like that but tastes so good! I was amazed that I have been here this long and just now had dumplings for the first time. Last time i think 3/4 of the meals had dumplings. The lack of dumplings left me wondering if maybe i was in the wrong country... but now i have dumplings and all is well, I really am in the Czech... whew!

I'll take luck over a schedule any day =)

So last night as we sitting around talking and the tv is playing in the background seemingly unnoticed when Tereza looks to it and says "oh yeah! tomorrow is the czech tv day" (thats in quotes but that isn't exactly what she said but it wasn't really an event that gets etched into your memory forever... but nonetheless it was very exciting to hear). So as it turned out the 30th was the one day out of the year that Czech tv opens its doors to the public and lets you walk around and check stuff out! We were greeted by famous czech cartoon characters (well people in suits that were made to look like the characters) then given a tour booklet that was written completely in czech that tereza then decided she would translate for me (cause she is super nice like that) but once we got going i didn't actually need a translator! its film and tv equipment! it was like a kid in candy land! THEY LET ME TOUCH ALL KINDS OF BUTTONS! Though tv isn't really where i want to go with my career, it was a lot of fun to stand behind one of the live tv studio cameras and control it for a little while and learn what all the buttons do and how to use it. Then seeing all the mobile news gathering vehicles and the amazing equipment inside that was getting live feeds from the cameras and microphones i just got done playing with so i got to push MORE BUTTONS! My favorite part of the tour as far as equipment goes was this camera with an AMAZING lens on it. I have a picture of it but it just doesn't do justice to the power behind this thing!  We were zooming in on guys constructing a highrise building several several blocks away! it was like that alfred hitchcok movie on steroids! Then we went into the studios where they had the sets and stages for some of the shows they record there. Very fun to look at and learn from the setups but didn't really have as much of the wow factor for me considering i had no idea what the shows were.  I went and shook the hands of some tv actors that had the same lack of wow factor but still cool. I would have promoted myself a little bit but it was one of those wait in line things so i had to hurry through. Speaking of promoting myself... i guess its just because i'm really tall or an american or something but the live camera setups where everywhere and they kept pointing on me lol. it was fun but my noes itched and i had to just live with it because i never got a chance to fix it without like 50 people behind me seeing me pick my nose on a big screen and who knows if any of them were being fed to the actual broadcast (when we got home we turned on the tv and they were showing feeds from the cameras so if they were doing those updates while one of the cameras were on me that would mean its and good thing i didn't pick my nose and that  i've already been on czech tv and its only been a few days lol.) And they had a shop that reminded me of being back in theatre with all the flats and scenery being built. They had a wearhouse filled with furniture just staked all over itself for filming whatever they need... the catch is that 90% of the stuff in there would be considered a priceless antique in the us... there was furniture that was like hundreds of years old or something just sitting in a wearhouse. I also got to see lab where they develop the film but they are mostly digital now. and then we got to go up into the news room and sit at the czech tv news desk and see everyone working on the stories they have coming up and things. And then they had an amazing sound recording studio with a sound room that made me feel like a little man. And then we went back out in the wonderful rainy cold weather that i brought with me. After that Tereza had  a lot of school work to finish up and i didn't really want to unpack all my things and work on my own stuff with me having to just pack it up to leave for usti tomorrow so she gave me all of the first season of a tv show called "big bang theory" OMG I LOVE IT! why didn't i know about this? not sure if you will like it or not but i would suggest dvr'ing it if you get the chance... they are on season 2 so i dont know how good it is now but it made me laugh a lot in season 1. Tomorrow USTI! DAY OVER!

oh wait... pictures

Getting stuff done

Today (the 29^th) was “get stuff done day.” There will be more of these to come but this was just the first one. We got up and had frest strawberries in yougurt! SO GOOD! I think I may have to make a whole different blog on the food because its one of my favorite things so far. We then went to one of the metro stations and got my transportation pass. It gives me full access to the tons of metros busses and trams that go over the whole city! Its great! At least now when I get lost in the city it doesn’t cost me anything to try and find my way out! I also got this card called “incarta?” It cost me 300kc but it gives me 25% of train travel for the next 3 years… not mad at that. It helps a lot because I have to take a train from Usti to Prague and not sure quite yet if its going to be more worth it to get the monthly pass or just pay by the trip. I guess depends on where I find work or an internship. If its in Prague it will be more worth it to get the monthly pass… the pass is pretty much the same cost as 15 round trips. So if you go every day that’s 50%. Note to self… I need to form some kind of school that I can stay in and keep my “student” status. My student id that I kept works for some things but all the really important discounts require an “international student card” or something that takes paperwork. Student stuff is all at about half price! Well as far as transportation and special events and tourist places its half price.

Then we went and exchanged what cash i had into crowns (i'm not spelling it right but its the czech currency and it sounds like crowns). The best exchange rate we could find was located under some shopping center run by english speaking middle eastern people. 18.80 is the rate at the moment... in case anyone wanted to know. Its not the official rate but its the best you can get anywhere so the exchange people get their cut. It was a better rate than the banks had! 

With the money exchanged our next place to go was Tereza had a Dr appointment. So i sat in the waiting room by myself pretending to read a czech magazine when one of the doctors walks in and looks at me and says "CHAKEc KLC EHr LKjoi ;ljow er Ljoipap olher?" (or something very close to that. I responded with a nod of my head and a point in the direction of the other room. He then said "afvpoienarl al;kjfo a;lkdhfopique" and walked back into his office.  I'd like to think the conversation went like this "have you been helped?" *nod and point* "ok good just checking." But for all i know it could have been "Mr Dobczesh can you show me wich arm i am suposed to amputate today?" *nod and point* "well seems like that arm is working pretty well.. too bad you have to loose it... let me go get my saw." I left before I could confirm either of those.

Next to the VODAphone place. And i spent the next hour trying to figure out the czech mobile phone system with a lot of help from Tereza. From what i can understand it is much better than ours because you only pay for what you send or call not what you receive. So when you have those mass text happy friends of yours can send to their hearts delight and you dont read them and cry wishing you had unlimited texting. So now i have a sim card with 200kc's of credit on it but that clever apple has made it very difficult to make my iphone work. FYI the lovely people at AT&T will tell you that you cant remove your sim card from your iphone and you have to buy a new one... here i am aparently the only one in the country that doesn't know that all it takes is a paperclip to take the card out.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kir19QRGzv8 . 

Then we went back to tereza's parents house and i came to the realization... I"M REALLY TIRED... and slept till dinner then ate then slept till the next day... Not a very climactic ending to the day but thats really how it went. So to make up for it, I will leave you with a thought i had... Here there is aparently an Italian mafia, Ukrainian mafia, Indian mafia and probably more.... Anyone know of an american mafia? will i have to start one myself? it is tempting

  oh btw this is my transportation pass lol