I forgot!

There are so many things I keep meaning to write about but I keep forgetting them when I get a chance so sit in front of the computer.

So, I'm hoping that by starting to write something will come back and the words will flow. As of yet, no such luck.

Bummer.

____________________________

WAIT! For all you potential tourists or possible locals - I got carded 3 or 4 times on the metro the other day - all over the city! AND for those of you who are confident that the transit people never get the police involved... well you're wrong! At Florenc there were at least 8 transit officers and another 6 police officers - and the people who weren't paying or were being difficult were being handed straight over to the cops. I've never seen anything like it before! CRAZY!!!

another monday

I really coulda taken a pass this Monday. Class hasn't started yet but I'm ready to go home and head back to bed.

I made a point of washing my hair last night - Monday's are always the hardest day for timing for us. I don't have to work really early and Coral has the same schedule every day so we're usually both trying to use the bathroom at the same time. This way we can avoid that.

I thought ahead, had everything ready to go, and made it out of the house in time to meet my bus. The 224. It never showed up. I was there on time, yet 15 minutes after it was due it still hadn't arrived. So I had to take an alternate. The 188. And for some reason the 8 minute bus ride was closer to 30 minutes. And everyone who had been waiting for the 224, and there should have been 2 in that time frame, was now boarding the 188. Which meant we were overcrowded.

I was smashed against the pole, a woman's chair, and other humans so closely that we weren't just standing shoulder to shoulder but buttcheek to buttcheek and calf to calf. I also kept getting my head slammed in to the ticket stamping machine. And people kept trying to board well after maximum capacity.

Finally we made it to the metro, which is when I called the school to let them know I would be late. I boarded the metro and promptly zoned out, like everyone else on the train. You just listen for the name of your stops and get off when you hear it called.

Well at one point in the journey I thought we were running pretty slow - it felt like we'd made more stops than the recording indicate. But then I zoned out again and got off when my stop was called.


Unfortunately I'd been right. The recording was off, which was discovered when everyone who departed the train reached the top of the escalators... and found we were all one stop beyond where the recording indicated. So, back down the escalator and in to the next return train and then out at the next stop and then a rush to catch the tram and a short walk and here I am sitting in a freezing cold room with a slow computer, empty except for me, and the speakers don't work so I can neither watch nor listen to anything I was planning on watching and listening to today.

Bleck. There's my indulgent self-pity. Now, I'm over it.

I've got the Czech Blues

I was out the other night and caught a metro home shortly after eleven, giving me enough time to catch a bus home before they close down at midnight.

The typical morning metro experience is very cold and impersonal - people are tightly contained within themselves, no eye contact, no laughing, no smiling - no conversation even. Business suits and rigid bodies - impeccable posture and and air of the solitary... not a truly inviting experience unless you really like to be left alone in the a.m - rather cold. But it's warm... I haven't seen a heater yet, but inside of the train it's warm.

The night metro ride is totally different - first the smell of alcohol is probably the strongest sensory experience of the journey. The laughter, sprawling bodies, an air of giddiness, the noise of 50 conversations in just as many languages... people dressed up to go clubbing, bar hopping, the theater, or the symphony... it's tourists and locals after a long day of work or a walking followed by more than a few beers. Smiles across the aisles, and somteimes strangers even speak - totally un-czech!! The night metro ride can be almost fun.

So, the other night I caught a metro home by myself. The platform had a fair amount of people trying to get home, like me, before the buses stop running. I got into the nearest least crowded car I could find - and the doors shut behind me as I slid into an empty seat - and the noises started... at first laughter and then melodic undertone - until I realized there was a group of men with a guitar or two standing a short section away from me, leading a rather raucous rendition of the Blues - the majority of the car joined in... in czech.

We carried on through a few stops like this, with the newcomers joining in, until the men reached their stop and departed to a huge round of applause... and the car fell back in to the familiar nighttime cacophony of conversation.