This post was almost named "Nutty November" because BW and I got about half the sleep we should have during this very busy month. Part of me is exhausted for it, but most of me is grateful for the new opportunities we've had. As the old adage "stop and smell the roses" goes, I'm thinking about all the things my sense have enjoyed during these last vestiges of Fall.
...a good friend try on wedding dresses for her July nuptials. I learned that in the Czech Republic, you can rent wedding dresses; what a novel idea! This needs to catch on in the U.S. If you don't care about keeping your dress, it's loads more cost effective.
TOUCHED...
...a lot of fake mustaches. I directed and produced our school's play, the Russian satire "The Government Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol, at Theater Na Pradle. It was a riotous success, a ton of fun and incredibly well-acted; the kids were professionals. So thankful for the talented pair of friends who built/painted the set, the mom who made many of the costumes and a whole host of other people who chipped in to help! (photos by our school director)
...Thanksgiving sushi! We worked Thanksgiving Day and couldn't manage to do a proper dinner, so we threw propriety to the wind and took ourselves out for an uni-tamago-tobiko-hamachi treat.
...a "gingerbread" muffin from Costa Coffee that actually tasted like maple, save for a spot of ginger jam in the middle. Nonetheless, I happily scarfed it down. I rarely get káva s sebou (coffee to go) and this was a nice treat to start a full 11-hour Saturday of schoolwork.
...only Czech on a backstage tour of the Estates Theater, where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. (It's a bit more hi-tech now.) Scotswoman and I theater-hopped for Prague's Noc Divadel (Theater Night), where the city open loads of its stages for free. We even scored passes to the Prague Quadrennial theater scenography festival in June.
TASTED...
...Thanksgiving sushi! We worked Thanksgiving Day and couldn't manage to do a proper dinner, so we threw propriety to the wind and took ourselves out for an uni-tamago-tobiko-hamachi treat.
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... the homemade Czech foods svíčková (beef with cream sauce and dumplings) and ovocné knedlíky (fruit dumplings). It was for a competition BW did with the kids where they had to film themselves shopping at a local market and then making traditional regional food. Fingers crossed that they win!
HEARD...
...only Czech on a backstage tour of the Estates Theater, where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. (It's a bit more hi-tech now.) Scotswoman and I theater-hopped for Prague's Noc Divadel (Theater Night), where the city open loads of its stages for free. We even scored passes to the Prague Quadrennial theater scenography festival in June.
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SAW...
...a good friend try on wedding dresses for her July nuptials. I learned that in the Czech Republic, you can rent wedding dresses; what a novel idea! This needs to catch on in the U.S. If you don't care about keeping your dress, it's loads more cost effective.
...the crisp Fall air, laced with woodfire and svařák (hot wine) and trdelník (cylindrical sweet pastry). And Christmas markets are starting to open... my heart is shaking its pom-poms!
Your sushi looks absolutely delicious!!!! Turkey is overated anyway.. :-) . The kids look like they were having fun, but it must have been quite the undertaking!!! Rent a wedding dress is a very good idea. It boggles my mind to spend an insane amount for a dress you wear just once, but sadly l don't think it will catch on.. I can't even see my family members doing it, never mind the rest of the people. Hope you get some rest now! Enjoy...
ReplyDeleteIn China, everyone rents their wedding dresses, too. I actually this it used to be more of a thing in the US, I know my grandma rented her wedding dress 50+ years ago! And "The Government Inspector" brought me flashbacks--I was very involved with the drama club at my college, and that was one of the shows they put on. I didn't act in that one, but I watched it, it's a fun show!
ReplyDeleteI definitely had to study "The Government Inspector" at drama school. :) And hurray for Christmas markets! xx
ReplyDelete"11 hour Saturday workday". Err... don't think I'll be complaining about my workload anytime soon! Congrats on your play and for weathering through your busy November storm. The costumes and set look fabulous and eye-catching!
ReplyDeleteSometimes, Thanksgiving can be sushi and that is totally okay in my book. And re: wedding dresses, it's such a good idea. So good that I thought that there would be similar joints back in the States by now, but friends have informed me that alas, there is not.
That play looks amazing - I can't believe it was just a student production!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on directing & producing that play, Em! When you put in all those extra hours, you surely do deserve your 3 week Christmas-New Year break coming up at the end of this week.
ReplyDeleteAs a non-American, I'll pass no judgement on whether you can really celebrate Thanksgiving by eating sushi :-) But I notice your explanation, no doubt to American friends who have never travelled outside of the USA, that you had to work on Thursday 27th November. Sadly, I've seen comments on social media by Americans who have never travelled, to American friends living & working here, asking whether Czechs celebrate Thanksgiving!!!!!
I totally concur with the idea of renting your wedding dress. Many men hire their suit for the day, so why shouldn't ladies do so too? You can have wonderful wedding without spending a fortune!
Em! that is so cool! the play looks/sounds like it was a smashing success! great job.
ReplyDeleteI love that last photo! Just beautiful! And aw this seems like such a busy month and yet a pretty awesome month at that too! I love all the theatre aspects of it too :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Camila :) At least doing theater is fun, even if it does make life a bit crazy!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Annie! Nothing beats the magic of high school theater ;) Or at least that's what I thought when I was in high school -ha!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Ricky! Yes, the break will be much appreciated :) Your comments from Americans make me want to face-palm. Perhaps some of us need to go back to second-grade Social Studies class. SIgh.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if wedding dress rental would be successful in the US; there's definitely a culture of preserving your dress and handing it down to the next generation... but when my mom took hers out before my wedding, I couldn't even get it over my hips; she's tiny!
Cheers, Polly :) They did a super job!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Cynthia :) Well, perhaps there's a wedding dress rental business just waiting to be started back in the good old US of A. However, my experience is that dresses tend to get pretty beat up/spilled and cried on/dragged on the floor on wedding days; it would take a great drycleaner to get it back to rental shape again. I could see you doing something cool like making your own or something :)
ReplyDeleteYay for Gogol! We did the Jeffrey Hatcher version, which is a bit more zany. Tons o'fun!
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I swear there's got to be a business in it somewhere in the US...
ReplyDeleteYes, the show was super fun to put on; the kids had a blast and we got to learn a bit about Imperial Russia in the process.
Many thanks, Kemkem :) I agree that turkey is overrated; mine always comes out dry anyhow. What is it about our culture that makes dress rental a no-no? And I wonder if other cultures spend as much on weddings as we do, at least relative to median income. It would be a fascinating cultural study!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point... I wouldn't want to be responsible to whatever can happen to a WHITE dress all day long! I actually bought mine last March online (this was before I knew I should NEVER order something worth more than 100 euros to be shipped to CZ; the customs duty was out of control)... and actually it was the FIRST dress I looked at. I was just like "yep, that's it". Done.
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