Adventures in Nudle: making friends and getting fed

By far one of the greatest things in the Czech Republic are the non-stop walk up food windows. They are all over the place, open late at night, perfect for 3 in the morning waiting for the night bus munchies (after a late night of studying in the library of course). They are super cheap with some pretty shady food along with some gloriously fried food. They are normally run by a vietnamese family, and are often serve various asian food. Granted, actually figuring out exactly what nationality it is supposed to be is near impossible except it is never Vietnamese, even if the owner is.

So, Saturday morning, after a late night...studying, we were catching a bus to Prague for the day. I stopped by a random "Japanese" non-stop, SuSushi. They serve sushi, though no sane person would ever get it. Anyway, I walk up to the window and decide for a change of pace to get some chow-mein type noodles. I've never had them before and the word on the menu is "nudle" so I order pronouncing it "noodle" which I thought was a solid guess for the pronunciation. The guy looked at me like I was crazy, so I repeated, and he continued to confusedly stare. Eventually I point and he goes "OH! Nood-lay" and proceeds to get my food while giving me a quick Czech lesson. After, we got back from Prague that night it was 3 am and I was starving, so I decided, with my new knowledge of the correct pronunciation of nudle I would go order some, I walk in and confidently order "Nudle prosim" and get a look of pure and utter apathetic distaste combined with a look that says "what the fuck are you trying to order" from the woman behind the counter. So, I try again, add frustrated with idiot american to the look. Eventually, she goes "nudle" pronounced exactly how I had pronounced it, and begins making it for me. This is the point that I become best friends with the other workers at SuSushi who begin asking me where I'm from, how much Japanese do I know, why don't I speak Czech, what I'm studying. Now whenever I go in there (even though we went over the fact I don't speak Japanese, and neither do they for that matter) they greet me with Konichiwa and give me extra nudle. Now I've managed to make myself hungary with all this talk of nudle, so I'm off to be fed.

Poland

I spent this past weekend in Poland. It was by far the most interesting trip I've taken since I've been here. We started the weekend by going to Auschwitz. After that trip I was convinced that would be easily the most memorable part of the trip. It would be impossible to explain or describe the feeling of walking through that camp, of standing in an actual gas chamber. I know I could not even begin to comprehend the scale of human suffering that place has seen. I honestly have no words to explain.

The next day while on a tour of the city of Krakow we got the news that the President of Poland had died in a plane crash. He was on his way to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre where Soviet troops murdered thousands of the Polish Military and buried them in the Katyn woods. A country that was already joining together that day to remember those who died in Katyn were all of a sudden also mourning the death of their President. It was almost surreal to find ourselves all of a sudden in the midst of a national tragedy. Within hours every flag had a black strip attached or a black flag flying next to it. By that night there was a newspaper printed with information on the crash. Many people in my group attended a memorial mass that night and candles were everywhere. We saw more than one group walking down the street with a Polish flag draped in black in a silent march to pay tribute.

This trip was very different from any other I've taken thus far in my semester. It was a somber reminder of the darker moments in life. Though these darker moments should serve as a reminder to appreciate the lighter, more beautiful parts of life we often take for granted.

Life is Czech-tastic

While hanging out last night my friend Alejandra coined the phrase "czech-tastic" and I have decided to make it my life's mission to make it part of everyday use here at Vinarska and hopefully eventually spread it to the world. First a definition:

Czech-tastic: adj. used to describe something that is completely and utterly Czech, which may often mean it is weird, unnecessarily complex, or has a high alcohol content. Although it all must be fabulous in some way as well: that pivo is totally Czech-tastic.

So, some examples of things that are czech-tastic would be:

1. Czech Easter Traditions: a boy makes (or buys) a whip that they then use to go door to door whipping girls while singing easter carols, the girls then give them eggs or a shot. There is also something about dousing girls in water, still not sure about that one but I did get water thrown on me.
2. Czech Pivo: fabulous beer with a high alcohol content, I don't think I need to say more. Oh except they dyed it green the other day...Czech-tastic!
3. Czech Movies: these are harder to describe so I would suggest reading this movie summary of "The Buttoners" to fully understand typical Czech movies (its's short). Buttoners - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com
4. The SUPO system at Massaryk University: the University made me open a Czech bank account that they put money into, I then have to withdraw the money and deposit it in a SUPO machine that I can find around campus in order to give the money back to the school to pay rent.

Anyway, life is fabulously Czech-tastic. I head to Poland this weekend and I just was in Spain last weekend to see Biggs, my roommate from home. Here are some pictures:

YouTube - Barcelona to see Biggs