Prague: The Epilogue

As most everyone knows, I had an absolutely amazing time in Prague. More than anything, it was the people who made the trip. Hilen and Kirsten and I became really, really close. I really hope we'll see each other again. Hilen is talking about a trip to Seattle, and Kirsten and I are both thinking about a pilgrimage to DC to visit Hilen. I also plan to get in touch with Alex (the cool Bulgarian kid who I hooped with in Prague) when I'm in Boston in January--he'll be at Boston College working on his MBA. This American kid (Tyson) and this other Kazakhstani dude (Dias) were also talking about going to Boston some time in January to visit so we may try to plan it so we can all get together. I can't remember if we were talking about this before the two of them were smashed or after, but they were very excited about the prospect of them (Alex, Tyson, and Dias) hanging out with me and my sister in Boston. LOL. I think they must have been drunk. Anyways, we'll see. It's cool because Tyson was pretty arrogant starting the trip and I think there was some tension between him and Alex, but by the end of the trip, the friendship between those three guys may have been the strongest of the group. Tyson and Alex were hilarious playing basketball--by the end of the trip, all of their trash talking was really good natured. It was such a change from the beginning of the trip.

The person I'm most disappointed in is Lou. The 4th TA. Hilen, Kirsten, and I really hit it off. And initially Lou was pretty cool--he was really genuinely hilarious. We teased him mercilessly because he's such a perfectionist/workaholic. Everyday he would grade himself on his discussion groups. Everywhere we all went, he brought work with him. He brought his reading materials when we all went to the pool, when we went to a jazz fest, etc. And then after his discussion groups were over, he started reading a book for one of his Georgetown classes in the fall. I can be a little anal about that stuff too (or at least I was in college), but he being anal to a whole new level. He's a big fitness buff, so he weightlifted literally everyday of the trip. Now, that's fine--if the gym had been decent (it was in this basement with plaster falling off the walls and no air conditioning) and had any cardio equipment, I would have been there everyday too. BUT on top of working out everyday, he kept to this extremely restrictive diet. Every morning at breakfast, he would get 5 pieces of black bread, 5 hardboiled eggs (naturally, he only eats the egg whites), and a banana. Now I realize that he's trying to balance his meals and keep his calories, etc., at certain levels, but I asked him, "Lou, do you really like plain bread and eggs THAT much? Why do you eat literally that same meal every day?" His response was that, "Well, there are 10-15 grams of complex carbs in each piece of bread, 6 grams of protein in each egg white, and 10 grams of simple and complex carbs in the banana." So I asked, "Do you like hardboiled eggs?" He said "No, but this is the most efficient way to obtain the optimal proportion of carbs and protein." Now you all know that I'm anal about what I eat and one of the most frustrating things about Prague for me was the diet... But I at least tried some of the local foods and if I couldn't get perfectly healthy meals I would at least try to eat somewhat healthy foods that I enjoyed. There is something seriously wrong with this guy. But the obnoxious part is that he just started skipping all the meals with the program and would go eat by himself--everyone needs some downtime, but it was really apparent to the students that he just wasn't around. I found it a little irritating that he didn't care if he was totally disrespectful.

Anyways, Hilen, Kirsten, and I made a lot of efforts to invite him out with just us or when we were with all the students and he would always say, "OK, I'll meet you guys in 10 minutes" or whatever, but then he wouldn't show up. So whenever we'd ask why he didn't show, he'd say, "Well, I thought I'd hurt your feelings less by saying I'd come." We were like, dude, it's not about our feelings, it's about showing common courtesy. On more than 1 occasion, we were left waiting for him and then he never showed. The four of us all went to a Brazilian rodizio place Thursday night, but I know he only went because he knew the food would be good. (Here's a pic of the 4 of us...)

But the time when this pissed me off the most was on graduation day. There was a really nice reception following the ceremony and all the students were excited to be done--well, Lou just didn't even bother going to the reception. And he didn't bother telling anyone he was leaving. So all the students were trying to take pictures of the TAs, etc., and we just had to tell them all that we didn't know where Lou went. Then after the reception, there was a party at a Mexican restaurant. Kirsten and I betting on whether Lou would even go to the party. She said she didn't think he'd show up at all, so I said, "Um, OK, let's not bet on this." Well, we were both wrong--he did go to the restaurant. He told me on the walk over that he was hungry and he felt like having a burrito. So when we got there, he saw the food (a buffet spread of non-Mexican foods: cold cuts, breads, cheeses, fruits, etc.) and said, "This isn't Mexican food." So I left him looking at the food... And about 5 minutes later, people were asking, "Where'd Lou go--is he here? We have gifts for him..." So Hilen, Kirsten, and I looked for him, but he'd left... presumably because there wasn't any food he would eat. None of the students complained, but I'm sure they were all like, "What's wrong with this guy??" Anyways, I think the reason I'm so angry about it because it's like, dude, show some respect to these students.

Anyways, Hilen and Kirsten and I were all pissed at him. Then we were talking to Matt, our boss, who has always defended Lou (they were both in the same frat). Anyways, a couple hours into the party, he asked where Lou was, so we were like, "Well, actually, he left a couple hours ago. He was here for about 5 minutes and decided to leave, but didn't tell anyone." So even Matt was like, "That guy sucks." (He was drunk, so I'm sure that's why he said that so candidly.) So basically he left Prague without even saying goodbye (since his flight left early in the morning) to anyone.

I SO want to delete him as a myspace friend.

This is the only thing that irritated me about the trip. That and the fact that I MISS MY DOG so much!!! :-( I can't wait to see him. It was hard coming home to an empty house.

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OK, so a top 10 of things I'll always remember about Prague/AIPES 2006.

10) Shakira, "Hips Don't Lie" -- it was played in every single club and at every single party at least 5 times.

9) Pilsner Urquell... The first beer I would have to say I enjoyed. Maybe because I finally drank enough beer to acquire a taste for it.

8) Corollary to #9: The fact that beer in Prague is cheaper than water blows my mind. Beer is usually about 20 KC (less than $1). Water is usually about 30KC (more than $1).

7) The architecture is so amazing--the really grand/old buildings are obviously stunning to look at, but I really enjoyed looking at the exterior doors on all the small buildings. The doors all had so much character. Doors in all shapes and sizes and styles... Really cool. Here's one I especially liked.

6) Hot Love. As much as I can't stand Lou, we had some good laughs when he ordered "Hot Love" as a dessert in this small town and we pissed off the waitresses because we were laughing at it so much.



5) Flaming absinthe shots. No hallucinations, but that was some potent stuff and lighting it on fire was scary. Absinthe is 70% alcohol, which I believe is 140 proof, but a lot of the alcohol burns off when you light it on fire. (See photo at left. My camera died before we lit our shots on fire, which is disappointing. The guy on the left is the older brother of one of our students. He'd done the AIPES program in 2003 and came to watch the graduation ceremony. I met him at the ceremony and he coerced me into doing an absinthe shot with him. I coerced the other TAs into also doing a shot with us. Anyway, the guy is really cool; he's only 27 and he worked as the Economics Adviser to the Prime Minister of Slovakia until the Prime Minister lost the last election. He said that because of the transition, older people who still have the old Communist mentality just aren't as employable as young people who have been raised with new ideas about democracy/capitalism.)

4) Such a great pedestrian city with efficient public transit... You know it's a city designed for walking because the sidewalks get way more space in the right-of-way than the street does. Sidewalks are like 20 feeet wide. Everyone walks everywhere and takes the metro (the subway). I think all the walking in the 90 degree heat/90% humidity is the only reason I didn't gain 10 pounds from the food...

3) And speaking of the food. I will miss the pastries (cheese and fruit pastries and croissants) and the gelato-like ice cream. Hilen, Kirsten, and I had ice cream together all the time and our favorite place was called "Cream and Dream." It was the best!

2) The feeling of being in such an international city--there were people from so many different nationalities in Prague. It was amazing to experience. Seattle has a long way to go in this regard!!

1) The people--especially at the Country Presentation Dinner. It was one of the most moving experiences to see all these groups of students really come together and cheer for each other in spite of cultural conflicts (i.e., the Russians and the former Soviet countries; the Bosnians and the Serbians; etc)

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And here's a top 10 list of reasons I'm glad to be back in America/Seattle:

10) Free water in restaurants. Everyone knows I generally don't drink water, but I realized that I must like water at least somewhat since I missed having complimentary water in restaurants.

9) The ability to customize my meals--in the Czech Republic, people just don't understand what you mean when you ask them to "hold the mayonnaise and cheese and substitute spinach for lettuce."

8) Deodorant. That is, other people wearing some.

7) The weather: I came home to overcast, gloomy skies and 68 degree weather. I don't care if it's cold, I love it.

6) Air conditioning... You know it's scarce when restaurants in Prague actually have signage advertising that they have air conditioning. The general lack of air conditioning combined with #8 made for an awfully smelly city.

5) Peanut butter. This is a delicacy that is totally underappreciated by Europeans.

4) Knowing where the hell things are. Even in 3 weeks, I still didn't know where I was half the time.

3) Starbucks. In Seattle, you can't throw a rock and not hit one. It seems excessive until you go abroad and there isn't a single Starbucks in sight. For some bizarre reason, the big chain in Prague is KFC. It isn't even McDonald's!

2) My friends and family: I can't wait to catch up with everyone!! (And free phone calls to my family... after too many $20 phone calls from the CR... Uh, yeah, I checked my phone bill some time during the first week and now I'm way too scared to check it again.)

1) MY BABY, SIDNEY!!! He's now only 2 states away and I'll have him back in 3 weeks!!!!