Czech 101
Strč prst skrz krk...
I think I had the most tasteless dinner of my life last night. Not awful tasting... just tasteless. I picked up some kielbasa looking things and some pasta. It turned out that they were pork hot dogs... and I had no ketchup, or salt, or butter for that matter.
I now have those things in the kitchen. Good thing I’m going out for dinner tonight.
The day began by going to the NYU center for our Czech classes. This is going to be fun... anyways “Strč prst skrz krk” has no vowels and reads “put your finger through your throat.”
Now if that’s not a useful sentence I don’t know what is... I couldn’t make this crap up.
After class we went to Charles University to have lunch... again no clue what it was... but I ate it. After that we went to a lecture on Czech culture. We learned that most of Europe is identity based on language. If you don’t speak the language, your not one of us... Not the most American concept here. We also learned that the first phrase of the Czech anthem is “where is my home?”-- yes with the question mark and everything. This is why the Czech’s have been thru 8 changes of regime between 1918 and 1992... The speaker characterized the country as, “having Stockholm syndrome.” More to come on what exactly Stockholm syndrome actually is... after I research it a bit.
During questions I posed this: “It seems like much of the Czech culture is dysfunctional, is there anything that works in the system.”
Short answer: no.
Long answer: the humanitarian aid... (see subsection 150, part 8, lines 15-18 and corresponding footnotes 3-7.)
Just kidding. It’s complicated, so I’ll spare everyone the details.
After the lecture we were released to the city once again. Steve, Krista, Matt, and I went to the bank, and then to get our metro passes for the semester. The line was out the door and around the corner, so we opted to do it tomorrow morning instead. We then went to T-Mobile so Matt and I could pick up SIM cards to have Czech numbers.
Finally we ended up at Tesco to pick up groceries, and other items.... And yes, as you can see by the picture at the top, I found my Czech extension cord! After smelling virtually every laundry detergent available to try and discern which was which I settled for the “Woolite- Colors.” Safest choice by far. Dryer sheets are a problem...
You see the Czech people don’t usually use dryers, rather let their clothes air dry. So they use liquid fabric softener. Since I’m clueless on how to do that, I’ll just live without Sunggle Fresh for a few months. It’s not going to kill me.
Finally we ended up in the supermarket portion of the 6 floor extravaganza... and what a crazy friggen place that is. There’s people everywhere, going ten thousand different directions. And they don’t call back up to the front when it’s busy. You just wait longer.
I picked up some microwave popcorn (which actually pops better than American popcorn), ketchup, salt, pepper, oil, and mints. I was going to get things that needed refrigeration, but I was feeling lazy and the store was nuts. I’ll just stop at the corner market and pick that up.
Anyways, we have dinner tonight just down the street 5 blocks or so, and then maybe I’ll head out for a drink afterward at one of the local pubs.
More to come later. For now, I’m going to go play with my extension cords :)