We Interrupt This Blog...

to bring you this very important news: The exchange rate is now 18.66 Czech crowns to 1 US Dollar.
BUY BUY BUY.

Czech Opera

Thanks to my University, I got to see the premiere of Cosi Fan Tutti at what I think was the State Opera House for free!
The opera house was an absolutely stunning building:

The pomegranate at the bottom is the sign for Cosi Fan Tutti.

The opera was really...weird. The actors were excellent, and the singing was wonderful, but the plot and staging and sets were really weird. My friends were offended on behalf of females by the end.

 

It was cool to see though. We were all the way at the top level.

The actors.

Big flowers for the premiere.

The actors in front of the weird set.

The plot basically consisted of Woman A loves Man A and Woman B loves Man B. Then Friend of Boys convinces the Men that women are fickle and the Women will cheat on them if given the opportunity. He tells them to pretend to go to war, and then come back in disguise and see what the women will do. The Women are, understandably, very upset, and vow to be faithful.

Upon hearing that the Men are at war, the maid (the woman in the red dress) tells the Women to go out and have fun, because the Men are very far away, and by the time they come back, the Women will be married somewhere.

The Men come back disguised as "Albanian nobles" and woo the women, only Man B is wooing Woman A and Man A is wooing Woman B. One of the Women capitulates the first day, and her original lover, being highly irritated by the fact that she was so unfaithful, resolves to make the other Woman give in as well. The other Woman has said she is going to dress as a man and go off to war, but about 30 seconds after that solo ends, the Man comes in and she immediately changes her mind and goes off with him.

The Friend convinces the Women to marry the "Albanian nobles", and they do in a sham ceremony. Then the "Albanian Nobles" leave, and the Men "Return". They find the "marriage certificates" and feign ignorance and outrage. The Women apologize, and say they deserve death, but conveniently forget to be really pissed off that you know, the Men completely messed with them.

In the end, the reverse couples agree to get married, but the original couples clasp hands as they stand with the other partners.

....Like I said, weird.

Czech Hokej!

I went to a Czech hockey game the other day- two Prague teams: Sparta and Slavia.
We were at the Tesla Arena, which is Sparta's arena. I was originally rooting for Slavia, but they wound up getting crushed and I really wanted to cheer.

It was a great game to root for Sparta- they won 4-1. Poor Slavia goalie.
It turns out that "Ice Sluts" are an international phenomenon!

Henrik would have spit on them.

The advertisements are rather unfortunately placed.

"One city = One club"

Ouch, for Slavia.

Budvar!

Happy Goalie! Happy Goalie should be happy, he won the game.

So this guy named Vyborne scored two goals, which started the crowd chanting "VY-BOR-NE", which was awesome, because it means GOOD.

There were back and forth chants in the crowd, where one side would yell SPARTA! and the other would respond PRAHA! (HC Sparta Praha is the full name of the team) There was also a clapping cheer that ended in SPAR-TA! which kept making me want to yell POTVIN SUCKS!

There were definitely some penalties called- I believe there was a hooking call at one point, and a fight was definitely called. It was awesome. The first time a fight broke out my row was told to sit down, but then a full fight started and we were allowed to stand.

Punching!

More punching!

There were no fight straps on the jerseys- one person's jersey was completely off by the end.

At the very end of the game there was a handshake line, and then one of the strangest things I've ever seen- Sparta lined up at their blue line, and the crowd did a chant. After the chant, the team went to center ice and stood in a circle. Then they ran and belly flopped onto the ice!

It was really weird, but kind of cool.

It was a really fun game- my friend, who had never watched hockey (we were supposed to watch a game together so I could teach her, but alas, it never happened), came out of the game jumping and so excited to go to another game!

Midweek Update

In the last few days I went to a place called Beer Factory, toured the Jewish Town, went to Tesco about three times, went to the Louis Armstrong Restaurant, and made fun of New Jersey.

But then again, it's New Jersey. How could I not?

More (not making fun of New Jersey) after the jump. This one's a long post.

Czeching Out Prague

I know, I'm hilarious, right?
So I finally made it around Prague- I fell asleep at about 5 the first day and didn't wake up.
I had my first beer- it's a little bit sharp, but I suppose I'll have to adjust to like it.
I also had my second beer. The director of the program wasn't kidding when they said the beer was strong! I had one before going to bed and it was just the thing I needed- slept like a baby.
I went to a bar with a friend, and after walking in and sitting down at the bar, the bartender asked if I was 18. Oh well.
It's cold here, but not much colder than in New York. Unlike New York, I have to worry about falling icicles and snow. Every few blocks there will be an area with police tape up- that means there's a lot of snow or ice on top of the building that might fall and hit you. Fun stuff.

 

They don't have signs like this. There are a lot of signs, but they're all in Czech.

This is a place a few blocks down from my dorm. It has something to do with a tailor- Krejci (the C should have a hacek- the little V mark) means tailor.

I'm still working on figure out the proper key codes to add haceks to all my letters.
Going out to dinner shortly!
Na shledanou! (Nah Skleh-dah-nou. Think Canadian oo for the ou)

Prague Arrival!

Finally arrived in Prague today!
From JFK to Paris

(Paris lit up at 4 am their time)

and from Paris to Prague!

I don't think this is Prague. I think it's like the Newark to New Jersey, or the area by JFK to Manhattan. Close, but the "flyover area".

A rainbow followed our plane from Paris to Prague, which I thought was a good sign.

More after the jump.