And…life goes on. I’ve been marginally failing at updating
this blog consistently. Those of you at home might say, “Why Kailey, I’m sure
you’re busy, you must have some excuse.” Or maybe that's just me in my own brain. Some of you even went as far as saying
that you expected you wouldn’t hear from me as often once the pace picked up
here. Let me put this for you in four short words. I have no excuse. Plain and simple. I’m pretty sure I could
have scraped up plenty of time to give you some sort of update on Sunday these
past two weeks. But I didn’t. So now it
is Thursday and I’m giving you a synopsis of my excapades in
the week past.
This weekend I went to the Czech Republic to visit my friend
Eliska. Because only those who love me really read this blog, I’m almost sure
you’ve encountered her before. Maybe in the flesh. Maybe recently. Maybe you’ve
never met her but you’ve heard me talk about her. Maybe you’ve only recently
met me or don’t know me and certainly don’t know Eliska, and for some unknown
reason you’ve stumbled upon this blog and are interested enough to have read
all the way to the second paragraph. Good for you! She cropped up
here and
here on my blog
(and in my life) previously. She’s a very important person
to me, and I’ve known her since I was eight.
But, as I was saying. I visited my friend Eliska this
weekend in the Czech Republic. Arriving on Thursday night, I was picked up by
Eliska’s mother, Anna. Anna then proceeded to lose herself within the labyrinth
that is the Prague interstate system. (Really it’s kind of a nightmare.) I
wasn’t really sure what was going on since Anna doesn’t speak much English and
I speak even less Czech, but given the fact that I spend a significant chunk of
my life lost, I could tell that we weren’t found. Also, I started to get the
idea that Anna thought that because I had known Eliska for almost twelve years
and people are generally able to pick up language when they are surrounded by
it for an extended period of time, I would at least understand what she was
saying in Czech when her English vocabulary was insufficient. That would be
intuitive in most circumstances, but Czech is a totally different ball game.
There is no way that I will ever understand the Czech language without formal
lessons. People often say that English is a hard language to learn. They have
never attempted Czech. The effort required to comprehend even the idea of Czech
makes English look like Kindergarten naptime. After vacantly smiling in Anna’s
direction while she spoke to me in Czech for a while, I watched as Anna turned
on the radio, skipped over the talk show channel, and settled for bad European
pop, until she changed it to classical music, and then a folk station. Because
everyone knows incomprehension when they see it and it was certainly written
all over my face. Needless to say, we
did find our way home and then I thought it was bedtime so I got into footsie
pajamas. Eliska laughed at me good-naturedly for wearing them, and Anna asked
me whether I had a bear onesie also, and I tried to explain that no I didn’t
but I did have a giraffe onesie, but I’m not really sure we communicated.
The next day I went with Eli to the school at which she
teaches. She’s an English teacher at a high school and she asked if I would be
her special guest and conversate with her kids. Given that last use of
vernacular, I’m not really sure she chose the right person, but I did go. We
sat around tables and they went in a circle and each asked me a question in
English, which I answered in English. The first class asked basic questions
like, “Why are you here?” “How long are you here?” “What’s your favorite Czech
food?” “How do you know Eliska?”
Eliska’s favorite class asked questions like, “How do you feel about
your U.S. government?” “What did you think about the shut-down?” “Do you have
siblings? What are they like?” “What has your study abroad experience been
like?” “What are you going to do with your life?” And my favorite question of
the day, “Do you have any funny stories to tell us about you and Eliska?” I
told them
this one.
(Gotta love vague hyperlinks.) The last class I talked to
was given decks of cards with questions on them to generate discussion. They
were very shy, and because the Czech school system cares just about as much
about what teachers do with their students as the honey badger does, Eliska
left me to my own devices and supervised a movie watching session in another
room, returning at the end of class to wrap up. What twenty-year-old American
woman gets to hang out alone in a classroom full of Czech teenagers just
chatting for the sake of chatting? This one.
The last time I was in the Czech Republic, I met Petra, one
of Eliska’s lifelong friends, while we were lodging in a communist era cabin in
the mountains for several days along with several other people Eliska and Petra
knew. We planned to visit her and her
children again while I was there and took a bus to Milín, sitting on the floor
of the bus since there were no seats left. Petra and her husband, Vojta, have
the coolest house decked out with wood everywhere in the little town of Milín,
and I was very honored to be a guest there. Also I think I’m a little fatter
because of it. Petra is a phenomenal cook. So without further ado, here are
some extra noisy pictures of my time with Petra and her family. I'm pretty sure this was the sort of day where flash would have been advisable, but I am a stubborn person opposed to flash unless absolutely necessary. Mostly because I'm not really sure how to use it without making people's faces blindingly white. So. All that to say you'll have to endure the less than mediocre picture quality from this point forward.
Ondra's friend Eliska spent the night the first night that we were there, and then spent the day. For the sake of this blogpost that contains two Eliska's, I'll call her "Little Eliska," and my Eliska, "Big Eliska."
This is Ondra. He has a the best squinty smile when he's really amused, but I failed to capture it due to being present for the smiles, but not with camera in hand.
We took a nature walk around the premises of a castle near Petra's house. There are so many castles in the Czech Republic. It's not even funny. Big Eliska offered to take my picture. So I climbed on top of something and managed to pose in a less-than-flattering manner. Because I'm gifted at goofy.
Little Eliska became pretty enamored with me for some reason and held my hand for the good portion of our nature walk on Saturday.
The composition of this photo is not spectacular by any means, but I'm posting it regardless. I think it gives a good illustration of two striking things. One being the exploratory nature of Czech people that is characteristically similar to Coloradans. The other is the state of my figure since I started running longer distances in addition to all the walking I have to do to get places. My mixed genetic make-up dictates that this increase in activity causes thickening rather than thinning. I'll just leave it at that.
These kids have known each other since they were babies. They're six now and are planning their wedding. Can I get an "awwwww?"
Also, Ondra never stops moving and grooving. He seems to have very focused energy and plenty of it.
"Views"
No telling what this memorial is for.
Pretend that this is an old time photo, and not that I was wielding my camera in an ignorant manner.
Skillz, my people. Skillz.
After our nature walk, we came back, and snacked, and colored for a while. Petra took this picture.
I swear this soup was the most amazing pumpkin dish I have ever tasted aside from pumpkin pie. Maybe even more so, because it was to die for. Petra is such a good cook.
This cat is adorable. He is incredibly friendly and well-loved. And nameless.
I leave you with this mug to show what can happen when you become family with someone overseas. This mug belonged to my family back in the day, and I found it in Big Eliska's apartment. Apparently Eli got so attached to it that my mom told her to just take it. So she did, and I stumbled across it years later in a different country across the ocean. Go figure.