Living in Prague

An exceedingly small amount of nothing is occuring in my life right now, and therefore I have been unable to conjure up a bellyful of humorous web postings as of late. But fear not - when I get bored of writing I usually fall back on my camera, and this weekend I will be in Munich for Oktoberfest! I expect to take some great pictures of myself drinking with friends, then strangers, and hopefully staring down the dress of some pretty bavarian maid. i'll then find some drunk people doing stupid things, and take a few pictures of them passed out in their own vomit/urine/etc. After which I will probably pass out in a body fluid or two, wake up, wander the streets for a few hours taking blurry pictures of the sunset, then lose my camera. Sounds like a plan! Anyway - Prague: some things that have happened lately: 1) It turns out September is summer! During school I never noticed this, but it's still relatively warm and pleasant, the leaves are mostly green, and beer can still be consumed outdoors. The weather is turning a bit, and I can already smell my smoke-infested winter coat in the next room, taunting me through its malevolence. Bastard. 2) I went out last friday night with a number of czech co-workers in the 'hood, also known as upper Zizkov. Found a couple of cool bars, and ended up at the Acropolis pub/club, which is about as pleasant as it gets in the neighborhood. The most important discovery of the night, I do believe, was that I can speak czech under the influence of Alcohol. I can't understand it, but I can congugate my way late into the night under the influence of this IQ-enhancing drug. Today I proposed to my Czech teacher that we should all go out for drinks before class, which was well received. Now if I can only convince the company to pick up the tab...I mean, it's a teaching aid.... 3) I kinda got promoted. I interviewed for a couple of positions that were open, and failed to get either one. But because I lobbied pretty hard, and made a good impression, they decided to give me a 'third position' that won't actually start until after the end of the year. I don't have to interview or anything - it's mine. But I'm having delayed reaction happiness about it - I'm still disappointed I didn't get the other two positions. And my pay raise won't occur until January or so, which means that my bank account is going to be pretty bare after I travel home for christmas. But I sorta got promoted, so I should stop my bitching. 4) I finally had my 'wow, I really wish I lived in the USA moment.' This ostensibly occured on a fine saturday night in which I managed to ingest a pair of perfect pivos at the underground oasis/shithole known as 'U Sudu'. That's great and all, but Saturday night (more accurately, Sunday morning) was the momentous sporting occasion known as 'Texas v. Ohio State', which I have been excited about since my 6th month in the womb. At around 1:45 (15 min before kickoff) I wandered over to the Sportbar, a rambling affair in which I watched last year's rose bowl until 5:30 am. But it was mysteriously empty, and the waitress was threatening to close. We left (as I was trying to educate the dirty Frenchman who lives in the closet of my flat about football) and wandered over to Jama, the Prague equivalent of the 'Easy Rhino', complete with large, mediocre food and hot, surly waitresses. Oh, and lots and lots of fratboys who have 'let themselves go' a bit further than they did during senior year. ANYway that place was closed. Lights out, lame-o closed BEFORE 2 on a SATURDAY night. Large groups of men were just roaming around downtown trying to find a place to party and this lame-o joint was stone cold DEAD. And let me tell you, Prague was nasty on saturday night. We had to walk back to the sportbar through a miasma of gypsy whores and Nigerians urging us to pay more money for slightly higher quality whores. Some smiling british bloke was walking down a sidestreet with a Gypsy girl who was so illegal that I almost stopped to bitch him out. But any movement and 5 gypsies would jump out to protect their cashflow, and i would end up needing thirty stiches and a blood transfusion. and probably get aids as a default. So we walked back into the sportbar and I haggled with the manager a bit about staying open. He was perfectly correct when he said he couldn't, i mean we wanted the place to stay open until 5am so two guys could get drunk and watch american football. He obviously felt bad (maybe threatened - i was wearing the don't mess with texas t-shirt), and i felt a shread of empathy eminating from his slightly-sleasy frame. But I went home empty-handed, sober, and in the accompaniment of a dirty frenchman. Then the next day I found out we won, somehow, in Ohio. And I was both happy and depressed and kinda wanted to be back home. So I went to a castle that day to take the edge off... But I'm not homesick now. I'm going to Munich tomorrow to enjoy the mass beer and take blurry pictures of unspeakable acts. See you then.