another weekend in Žižkov, stuck in the apartment writing papers (who said Žižkov was for partying?)

It is 2pm (or 14:00) on Sunday. I am sitting inside an internet cafe here in Žižkov. I have just finished finding some information I need for one of the two papers I have to write this weekend. I am almost done with the rough draft of one of the papers and now that I have this information I can start on the second paper.

My computer stopped working a few days ago. It has been having a hard time since before I left, but now it finally gave out. Yesterday I ordered a new battery for the thing and I hope that gets it working again. It would be nice to have it now for these papers since they have a word limit and counting and editing by hand is a pain in the ass. Oh well.

I am two weeks (half way) through the course, like I said, I have two papers due Monday, I teach three times next week, and I have a paper due next monday, but if i can survive until next Monday, that last week is going to be a breeze. Then, i am told that schools around here are tripping over themselves to hire teachers with a CELTA certification, so it seems that if i can pass finding a job will not be a hard thing to do.

After that it seems we have many people visiting, including ... DANA! Well, probably. it depends on how the plans for her trip go. Also, Jay and I are considering a trip to Slovakia, to the mountains, for a few days of nothingness as soon as this course ends.

Which brings up a good point. It has been really hot here. Like 35 degrees every day (except for the last two days, which have been beautiful). It is expected to get up to 45 later this month (that is 115 degrees!), which is why Jay and I are planning to go to the mountains.

What else? um... Staying out too late on Friday nights trying to blow of steam built up from the week before so it wont blow up at the wrong time during the next week. but luckly only two more weeks of class left.

There pretty much isnt any time for anything else right now, but i am sure i will have stories about it all when it is done. one of these days there will be a real blog post.

I am, however, having a good time with the course, even though it is exahusting. The people are fun, though sadly most of them will be leaving Prague when the course is over. But i guess that is the way things are here. People seem to come and go a lot.

just pictures with some notes... this will have to be fast.

yeah, finally got around to getting pictures up. so here we go.

Dublin...

Jay at the Guinness brewery




note the spelling of "taxi"

Our Apartment

view from the bedroom window

Thursday, 11 July

me and kat






what you can't see is that it is 3am.

Blaq Mummy

this room is only about 15'x15', with plaster walls.




















Finally, this is Blaq Mummy


Inside a pyramid, there is a pyramid... another bee-hive

Grafitti (sp?) from around Prague.

we think there might be some kind of code

From Wichita Falls to Praha...

well, this isn't going to be a proper update, basically because doing a proper update to truly do justice to everything that i have done and experienced so far would take quite a while, and i am going to need to sit down and type it out and then post it.

however, until then, Jay and I made it to Prague without going crazy, everything has gone really smoothly so far and we have met many people (though all but about three have already left because they were here for last year). Though we did meet this girl at church on sunday (we went to watch the world cup afterwards and then went out for drinks) who's name is Kat, she is actually from Prague.

Jay and i both recieved our packages that we shipped ourselves this morning and then headed to the airport to pick up Matt Graham, a friend of Jay's visiting us.

okay.. i have been keeping a journal and i will be able to tell all the stories of my experiences so far, but it honestly might take a little while to happen.

i fly out in the morning...

well... noon, to be exact.

good-bye America. good-bye the United States of America. good-bye Texas. good-bye all the people here.

i'll miss the people far more than the place, of course. but people can travel. people can come visit!

hopefully i'll have something real to say on the other side of this travelling.

drag it up...

Thursday Night

Since Thursday was the only time that the lot of us would all be in Wichita Falls on the same day for, well, quite a while at the very least, we decided to get together and have some fun.

Originally it was my job to come up with plans for an evening that would not suck as much as the last time we all hung out. I, of course, got this assignment by being an ass and stating how boring what we did over Christmas was. I do think, however, that I was well justified in my complaint, see as how the culmination of the evening was "hanging out" at a country-dance-bar-dive called Outskirts here in Wichita on the Falls.

So, I put my mind to it, and with quite a bit of help from Stuart and mainly Melody, a plan was devised. Melody would cook for us - with us providing all the help she needed, of course - and then we would head out to my father's rock crushing plant to be ever so slightly irresponsible with fire works (since there has been a burn ban on in this part of Texas for the past four years).

The best laid plans, though. Let's just say, as brilliant as those plans were, they crashed to the ground and burned like a saw dust factory in August in West Texas.

So what did we do instead? Oh, the usual. We all met for dinner at El Chico and, according to Karen, all ordered very boring meals. We then proceeded back to my house (where else?) to um... sit around and watch dogs? Yeah, yeah. It's Wichita Falls, what else are you going to do?

As much fun as we were having sitting around and watching dogs and talking (and yes, it was fun, I am not being sarcastic) somebody grew bored with it after a few hours and suggested that we go get snow cones. Then - this was tragic - Then Stuart and I had to inform Krista that her favorite snow cone hole-in-the-wall had shut down. So, after some driving around we ended up at Sonic.

That's right, Sonic. Wichita Falls, unlike many small towns, has a choice of four or five Sonics to choose from - we chose the closest.

After we all ordered blasts (and looked gay for ordering the same thing) we sat for a while and soon noticed... well, honestly, this can only be believed if you see it. So, please, read this sign carefully, and we will discuss it momentarily.

Ok, so let us read the sign together. "Every Monday 5pm till Close Half Price Ex-Long Chile Chesse Coneys." Okay. Really? Did someone, anyone, proof read this thing? I assume that someone had to submit the order for the sign, then someone had to take the order for the sign, then someone had to actually make the sign, then someone had to pick the sign up, then someone had to unroll the sign and instruct that it be hung up, then someone had to actually hang the sign up for the world to read - to read this, "EVERY MONDAY 5PM TILL CLOSE HALF PRICE EX-LONG CHILE CHESSE CONEYS!!!!"

CHILE!

CHESSE!

EX-LONG!!!!

TILL!!!!!

EVERY MONDAY
5PM THRU CLOSE
HALF PRICE X-LONG
CHILI CHEESE CONEYS

Thank you Sonic!

After getting a nice little laugh out of this, we headed back - yeah, yeah - to my house to um... sit around and watch dogs and talk for a little while longer.

We did have fun, of course. I enjoyed the evening quite a bit, and we even took pictures to remember the occasion - not that it was a popular decision, but pictures were taken, none-the-less.

From left to right: Krista, Melody, Stuart, Allison, Me (Clifton) and Karen.

Don't we all look so... so... the camera was on a timer, we didn't have a clue what was going on.

Okay, I have to get up in the morning and learn how to make ice cream.