Five-sense Saturday: New nephew edition

The shift from Spring to Summer was packed with enough things to knock our senses right out. Here are some of our oblíbené (favorites):

HEARD:

...Don Giovanni, Mozart's masterpiece, at the Estates Theatre. I'm not one to run the opera - and this one is 3 hours long - but I enjoyed it with girlfriends. The costumes and visuals were stunning; they very much complemented the music.

-from Narodni Divadlo

...a very charismatic (and very pregnant) gal belting out Edith Piaf at Prague's annual French Market. She had a simply incredible voice.

TASTED:

...a lavender crepe from the Dejvické farmers' market. It's laced with lavender syrup, sprinkled with crushed lavender and topped with lavender merengue. 

...the stellar steak tartar at Lokal Stromovka, a Czech chain perched on the edge of our favorite park. BW swears it's the best in Prague. Like all good Czechs, you eat it piled on a piece of fried bread that's been rubbed with a garlic bulb.

SMELLED:

...lots of musty vintage things on board the floating flea market parked at Naplavka on Saturday mornings. No purchases this time, but I did once score an epic leather fanny pack.

...the many bonfires of Čarodějnice, the holiday that burns the winter witches (i.e. piles of wood) to usher in Spring every April 30. On Kampa Island, the burnings were accompanied by fire-dancers.

TOUCHED:

...a generous helping of hail - I'm glad we don't have a car here in Prague, because I imagine dealing with car insurance would've been a nightmare.

...an awful lot of Prague pavement with the pup; we are usually back in the U.S. in the summertime, but not this year. This has given us the chance to play Magellan and explore many corners of the city we love.

SAW:

... The new Viggo Mortensen film "Captain Fantastic" at our favorite movie theatre, the retro Bio Oko - it allows dogs. And has beach chairs. And if you're lucky, you'll run into a block party outside, like the one below.

...our brand-new nephew! Ok, so it has been over FaceTime, but we are thankful for this mode of communication and have logged many sessions trying to get the little guy from Tacoma, WA, to smile. We are so thrilled about this little man and the health and happiness of his mom and dad, too. Definitely the best part of this year :) 

Read More

Work then play

"Drowning in paper" is how I'd describe this week. BW has been filling out application papers for a US project. I've been marking International Baccalaureate papers on top of my normally hefty teaching load, for a bit of extra cash. Workworkwork mode, triple time.

Spring Break started today, and the first portion of it will be dedicated to these IB papers, but I can't complain; we will be zooming off on a "beer and history" themed road trip on Wednesday, and for now my marking is being done in lovely nooks like this, my beloved I.P. Pavlova cafe, Pražírna Kávy.

Last Sunday, I was marking at Cafe Zanzibar and noticed a striking regular - a Barbie Doll-esque woman who is perpetually planted at the same table, book in one hand and cigarette in the other. Always crowned with a huge blond bouffant and planted in 6-inch stiletto boots, her size-zero self waves off menus, orders a white wine and ginger tea, and then loses herself in literature.

So, today, although I have no want of a blond bouffant or cigarette, I do want the pages of these exams to go quickly; I need to "lose myself" in them, as well. Thus, in the name of focus, I, too, ordered a hot drink and white wine.

Hopefully these pages will go fast.

Stacks of papers notwithstanding, Spring as a whole has brought many gems - dinners with friends (Ben made beef bourguignon at ours one night), seeing "Grand Hotel Budapest,"  a visit to a new church run by a fellow blogger, discovering a cheap n cheerful Czech-Mex spot, picnics in green spaces, BW winning his March Madness bracket, a new Principal's license, and some excellent family news, which I'll post about later. 

#Thinkspring! And back to the exams...

Read More

Spring on wheels

While this season means the stress of school reports (almost done), high-stakes exams (starting soon) and a theatrical production (just finished), it all seems to melt away under warm Spring sunbeams. Nothing seems so bad when they're dancing on your pasty skin after a grey winter.

The pleasant temps also allow for equally de-stressing outdoor pursuits. We've been taking in Prague's parks by foot and relishing all the fresh blooms.

In Letna Park

And then there's biking; for our first ride of the season, we did a 50km ride from Prague to Karlstejn Castle. It was for a fundraiser for an orphanage in Tanzania that my school supports.

We gathered early on a Saturday,

Near school

smiling even though longer dreams would have been ideal.

Grinning through gritted teeth

The route took us along some small cliffs...

The sun went away and a chill set in

...over a bridge...

No trolls, though

...past the most bucolic scenery...

Painting-worthy

...and to the village of Karlstejn, crowned with a castle!

Victory!

BW and I each inhaled thick bowls of kulajda soup and plates of fried cheese, chicken schnitzel and potatoes. After all, my heart rate said I burned something like 1,400 calories! 

It hurts to sit

And then it was back home on the train for us. Others in the group BIKED back to Prague, but our derrieres had received enough abuse for the day :)

The Karlstejn train station

Read More

Walk with Whitman

How to describe today?        Halcyon.
It was golden; it was unspoiled; it was picturesque.

It made me go all Transcendentalist; the more we walked through Prague's verdant Riegerovy Sady, the more I had Walt Whitman running through my head. Thus, this post is a string of park photos matched with some favorite poetic bits from Whitman's Leaves of Grass, in no particular order.

Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat,
  Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not
      even the best,
  Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
  How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

  I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green
      stuff woven.

Spontaneous me, Nature,
The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with

The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
  Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
  Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, 

  embracing, arm-curving and tightening

Love-buds put before you and within you whoever you are,
  Buds to be unfolded on the old terms,
  If you bring the warmth of the sun to them they will open and bring
      form, color, perfume, to you,
  If you become the aliment and the wet they will become flowers,
      fruits, tall branches and trees.

I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough...
  To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, 

  laughing flesh is enough

Good in all,
  In the satisfaction and aplomb of animals,
  In the annual return of the seasons,
  In the hilarity of youth,

We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun,
  We found our own O my soul in the calm and cool of the daybreak

I dream'd in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the
      whole of the rest of the earth,
  I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,
  Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love,

      it led the rest

Read More