The Prussia Periodicals

Day 59: Friday, February 27, 2009 Well, I have sent all of my paperwork to The American Village in France. So this time next month, I will have traveled to my job site (still unknown) and start work there! But in the meantime, I will be going to a farm in Italy in exchange for food and a bed. It is near Lucca, which is near Pisa. I don't know if I will be able to see the Leaning Tower though... After I spend two whole weeks of the advertised “planting vines and clearing forests,” I will go to Germany and see a fellow Triple R Ranch worker named Christian. He offered me his hospitality and we are finally going to make it work! So after a weekend near Frankfurt, I will have only three more nights till I go to Paris and start my English immersion camp adventure. Maybe I can hop down to Rome for quick hostel takeover. I mean, a hostel sleep over. I mean, I would sleep at a hostel. All in all, with the aid of inexpensive flight ticket searches, my flight to Italy from Prague, by way of ...

Day 57 My how the days pass when you are doing nothing. Don't worry, I'm still alive! But indeed, I have been doing next to nothing. I have slept, eaten, watched movies, walked around the city, and visited friends. Besides that, I have done nothing but sit around and think of doing something. Not true, I have been looking for a good volunteering gig for me this coming month. As you may know, my job in France does not start till late March. So what am I to do until then? Continue this nothingness? Hardly. Most likely, I will go to France, Spain, or Italy where most of the volunteer jobs seem to be. There are a couple in England but not as many as France.

Day 54: Sunday, Feb 22, 2009 I had at one point in my blog tried to start having a 'thought for the day.' Yeah, you can see that lasted for a long time. Anyway, I have found that when I have nothing to do, I don't do anything. But when I have a lot to do, I do a lot. Why is this? Am I put into a mindset of production or of laziness depending on my agenda? Today, I did little more than go to church, eat lunch, browse facebook, and watch videos online. However, I did get a call from my landlord. He's a good landlord who is very particular about the legality of what he is doing. Which is a good thing. But it is not always a good thing for people like me. He asked for a security deposit. Even though I am only going to be here in this spacious perfect room for two weeks. Its a good room. I have a desk, an armchair, a couch, and a coffee table. There is also a double bed, currently split into two. The window looks out into a classic Praguian yard in the middle of the building...

Day 53: I woke up again to snow this morning. Now to my fellow Virginian residents, that may sound amazing. But the impossible has almost happened. I am getting tired of snow. Snow means that its cold. Snow means clouds. Snow means winter. And even though I just left Spain two days ago, I desperately miss the sun already. I miss warm weather. Thankfully, I can just stay inside today except for one thing. Yesterday, when grocery shopping, I bought milk. But not just any milk. Butter milk. You can't blame a guy who can't read Czech labels. So how do I know its butter milk? When I poured it on a big bowl of cereal and smelled it, I immediately knew something changed. I looked at the box and there in small print, in English, it read “butter milk.” I looked for an expiration date... couldn't find one. Please understand, oh faithful reader, that I have never encountered butter milk before. But from this first time experience, I instantly judge it as a vile, despicable, merciless,...

Day 52: A day of nothing. I'm just sitting here doing nothing. Its nice. I'm Prague, doing nothing. Maybe later I'll go to the Zizkov statue or up Petrin hill. It did snow a little this morning though so the hill might be a little treacherous. Okay, so I never went exploring today. But I did go to Sophie and Coralie's birthday party. Why does Loli always have the nice apartments? She moved from a flat with a great view of Narodni museum and now she has one with Prague castle and Petrin hill. My window looks out to a small garden in the middle of the building and our balcony looks over the busy street of Vinohradsy.

Day 51: Thursday Waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning is never fun. Try 4. I rolled out of bed and packed up, trying not to bother my hostel roommates. Of course I forgot that the metro stops around midnight so the hostel guy called a taxi. Only 33 euros. I'll leave the calculation to dollars up to you. I don't want to worry about it. When the cab driver asked me what terminal I had no idea. I had bought the ticket online at a cheap website called ryanair. But as soon as I said the name out loud, I questioned if it even existed. But the driver nodded and drove. And suddenly, I was in Madrid's aeropuerta. Its big and not exactly well organized. I walked back and forth from the entrance to check in to my terminal. But very soon, we were up in the air and I desperately wanted to go to sleep. But its hard for me not to get excited when going to new places, Milan, Italy the case today. I did not actually go to Milan, that is just the category that the airport falls under ca...

Day 50: Wednesday: February 17, 2009 Today is a relaxing day. But then again, this whole trip is relaxing for me. I got up and went out to find a new wall adapter. I'm not sure if all of you faithful readers know that Europe is different in many different aspects. Our USA three pronged wall plugs cannot work in Europe. Over here they are based for 220 volts. Not whatever the US ones are. I had received an adapter for Christmas but its not working now, I don't know why, so I had to buy a new one. I went to a newspaper stand and asked “Donde esta... electronic store?” He said “Que?” I whipped out the not-working-adapter and he said “oh technologia!” He proceeded to speak English and pointed over there. But I heard him say “corte ingles” which is a big store all over central Madrid. So off I went! But once inside, I realized I was in a bookstore. “Pardon? Hables Ingles?” “More or less.” “Donde esta...” I held up my adapter. “Ah... go this way all. On the .... right.” “Gracias.” “A...

Day 49: TOLEDO!!! Wow! I didn't know such cool places existed. Toledo, Spain is only a quick bullet train ride south of Madrid. And it is well worth the thirty minute train ride. While there, my camera died as did my mp3 player. The wall adapter from Best Buy seems to have run its course. That morning I tried to plug in my camera but it didn't work. I tried my computer and that didn't work either. So this morning (Wednesday) I went to a store and bought one but I'll speak of that later. Around 10 in the morning, I went to the train station by way of metro. After yesterday, I knew the trains were fairly cheap and good. But the ticket office didn't sell bullet train tickets. He directed me to costumer service where I bought it for 9,35 euros. Within the hour, I was walking in the medieval town of Toledo. Since yesterday's excursion of mine without a map went so well, I did the same thing. But once again, my fallibility came through for me and I got lost in windin...

Day 48: Segovia Getting up at 9:30 was no problem. Getting to a city outside of Madrid was. I had a free breakfast at the hostel and then I went out into the nice and cool weather of central Spain. I hopped on a metro to where I thought the bus station was. But instead I found the train station. So I checked the prices and to go to Segovia was only 6 euros. I figured that was well worth a train ride so bought a ticket from a man who spoke hardly any English. I tried to speak Spanish but it wasn't working. “Yo tengo... sigh. No hablo espanol....Segovia?” “Seis.” Seis? Oh yeah six. “It is at five after ten.” “OK.” He handed me the ticket and told me, “Platform One.” So I waited twenty minutes at platform one inside a huge train station. But then on the adjacent platform two, a train pulled up advertising Segovia. Unsure and already waiting five extra minutes then I was supposed to, I jumped on and sat down. It wasn't until 11:30 that a man came around to check tickets and he aske...

This morning I checked out of m 2 star hotel that I had shared with Mark and rode the metro to my new hostel. The MAD Hostel. Which is very nice. Its three floors in the facade of a town square with a big sun roof. But as soon as I arrived, I left to meet the 'gang' in Plaza Tirso de Molina. We had planned last night to go to the market. THE market. A kilometer long road, maybe two, of booths and people selling clothes, pottery, trinkets, do-dads, gadgets, gizmos, whozits, whatzits galore, thingabobs and more. We had to say goodbye to Maureen and we saw her off in her taxi. Then JP took us to a nice Spanish restaurant and then we said goodbye to him. Then after sitting outside in the sun for a while, I left to go to the Prado museum. I was feeling the sun and my face is a little red but its not that bad... yet. I'll probably feel it in the morning. Prado was... big. But it was good. It had a lot of high renaissance and Barogue paintings. But it was mostly portraits of peopl...

So of course I didnt go to the Prado. As I was finishing posting this blog, Shaunna and Maureen from Pueblo Ingles came into the Internet cafe! For holding 7 millions people, Madrid seems like a small town! I keep running into people I met during the week! We called up Milan from Canada and JP (Juan Pedro)(ironically my initials as well) a local that was in the course and we hung out all night. I finally crashed in my 2 star hotel bed at 4 am. I wasn't really sleepy till 2 cause I slept in till noon. But by 4, I was ready to go to sleep. But the ladies gave JP a long tearful goodbye. But then we saw him again this morning.

Day 46: Madrid: 2/14/09 if you read yesterday's blog, you may think that Madrid is a horrible place to not offer me a place to sleep. Thankfully, a fellow volunteer from Pueblo Ingles helped me out. But he left in the morning and I had to check out before noon. So at 11:35, when I heard the maid next door, I turned in the room key. However, the receptionist was so nice! I asked where an internet cafe was and she told me, then she offered to put my suitcase in the corner while I went. I was uncertain at first, but as John said earlier this week, “how are we to be trusted by anyone unless we trust as well?” But the internet cafe was a little harder to find than I thought. In Prague, the only things you can find more of than internet cafes are abandoned churches. I tried Starbucks but they didn't have WIFI so as someone tried to hand me an ad, “Hola, hi. Hables Ingles?” “Yes.” “Where is an Internet cafe?” “First you take my flyer, than I'll tell you.” This made me laugh so I p...

Day 45: I woke up this morning ready to start another week of Pueblo Ingles. Breakfast was a little vacant. Not everyone had woken up yet after the last night. But the morning was easy enough. We just had a last group activity: sing a song about Pueblo Ingles. It was suggested we take the melody of a song and just change the lyrics. So we did. Our group redid “frerer jacques” Pueblo Ingles Pueblo Ingles Talk all day Talk all day Do you understand me? Do you understand me? Not at all Not at all Pueblo Ingles Pueblo Ingles Drink all night Drink all night Do you understand me? Do you understand me? Yes of course! Yes of course! Pueblo Ingles Pueblo Ingles We are done! We are done! Do you understand me? Do you understand me? More or less More or less And for those of you that don't know, among lisping in certain words, Spanish people like to say “more or less” or rather, “Mas o miente” or something like that. Canadians say “eh” and Spaniards say “more or less.” Learn something new eve...

Day 44: 2/12/09 The last full day at Pueblo Ingles. It was not because it had not set in yet. Domiinque from France but currently working in Barcelon and I walked to La Alberca and took some pictures and just enjoyed the sunlight. And then Eduardo and I walked again to La Alberca and talked about the village, the countryside, and just his life as a mechanic's son and now lawyer. And then siesta. But it was no normal siesta. We went up to a nearby mountain top to see the views and an old monastery at the top. Four cars took off down the road at 70 kph (whatever that means) and we were winding around the base of the mountain in no time. Soon, we could see snow again but it was all frozen over from the night before. Trees were a little different on the side of this peak. High branches were far from the ground and so snow dripping off the pines fell far. But dead leafy trees had their arms sticking out in every direction very close to the ground. But no snow was attached to these unatt...

So, Pueblo Ingles is over. (Tear...) I have not as of yet written what all went on Thursday. Today is Friday and the sun rose over the Sierra de Gredos with a bold golden hue. I'm taking the bus back to Madrid with the rest of the Pueblo Ingles people and then... yeah. I am currently planning to stay in Madrid a couple of days, like the weekend, to see this city that so many Spaniards recommend seeing. After that, I will most likely go back to Prague for two weeks or until the end of March. I'm hoping to travel a little before I go work in France March 25th. Thanks to the Internet, I can travel cheaply. in college, everyone laughed at me for being cheap! Well, who is laughing now?! Ha ha ha ha! skyscanner.net, helpx.net, and mindmyhouse.com can allow me to see Europe sometimes without paying a dime. Excuse me, a euro. I do not know when I will be able to update my blog in the near future. But I will definitely do my best to keep you, O faithful reader, in the know.

Day 43: 2/11/09 A very eventful day. If I get unmotivated in my writing, I just fall back to a bullet-form, listing stuff. Breakfast was delightful. Its in a buffet style with over easy eggs, strange bacon-esque slices of ham, OJ, coffee or tea, toast and other random breakfasty foods. FT: This morning I was happy to see I had Free Time. So one hour of nothing! Its great. SO I browsed skyscanner.net a fantastic website that is even better than chapoair.com. A flight to Rome for 30 euros! AH! The question is not about money any more. (Not that it was a big worry anyways.) But a flight back to Prague is 60 euros or about $80. And I bought a ticket to Madrid for $200. Blarg. But now I see that from Prague, a flight to the UK is as cheap as $3 and to Rome is $35! I like Europe. Cause they like public transportation. My two session today consisted of a one-on-one with Emilio and a phone session with Daniel. Its hard to sum up conversations but for the most part, we just talked about Europe,...

Day 42: Tuesday: 2/10/09 Today was an unusual day in the program. It was a field trip day. Everyone went into La Alberca where we were told the story of the town, the history, and interesting things that happen here. The town was built around 900 ad, more or less. Famous artists and the king visited the area and La Alberca. Once every year, the town square is used as a bull ring and they run the bulls in from over there to over there. And every house tried to look like good Christian homes because of the Inquisition. Crosses are etched in stone or wood, symbols are on doors, etc. It was different to see and hear one of our colleagues from Spain suddenly speak their native tongue to a pharmacy owner or a bartender. Spanish is so fast! I hear words like por favor or para but everything else is way too fast. Four years of a forced foreign language in school and here I am! Able to understand next to nothing. Lunch was late and great again. Before lunch, we went into a wine cellar with dust...

Day 41: Monday, February 9, 2009 Ah, I am in Spain. Let us dwell on that nice little fact for a moment. It is raining right now and I sneezed a few times today. They say the mountain air is good for you but I think I am getting a cold. It is that time of year for me so I accept it. Also, talking all day does tend to put a frog in one's throat. One of my one-on-one's was designated as a telephone session. Alberto called my room from his room and we role-played about 'holidays.' That's “a vacation” to Americans but I can adapt to keep it less confusing. I will correct certain things and let other things go. For example, “Jeff.” Its not that hard. But the Spanish language takes J and switches it to a haehggh sound. So apparently my name is haehgghff. “No,” I say, “Jeff.” “Haehgghff.” the Spaniards say. “Geh-ff.” I try phonetics. “Yeff” “Gehff.” “Heff.” “Jeff.” I repeat. “Yeff.” “Close enough.”

Day 40: 2/8/09, Sunday Pueblos Ingles is great! Free hotel room which is fabulous. Free Spanish food which is amazing. Free life experience talking to Spanish men and women as well as Anglos from all over, which is fantastic. Breakfast starts at 9 and as it usual with every meal, four people sit together. Two Anglos and two Spaniards. We talk and chat about stuff. Then there are four hours of morning activities. Most common is one-on-one sessions where obviously, I talk to a non-native speaker by myself. We talk and chat about traveling, food, life, the universe, and everything. Today, I only had two of these. We also had a three-on-three sessions where obviously, I talked to three non-native speakers with two other native speakers. And there was an hour of sitting in an audience of five, listening to presentations given by non-native speakers about their jobs (or yobs, as they like to say). Lunch was great but late at 2pm however, we are given a siesta time until five. Then there are ...

Day 39, continued... So during my siesta, Doug and Lorna invited me along to go to La Alberca with a couple of others including some others. I was going outside to take some pictures but ran into this collaboration of Canadian actor, Scottish something or another, my Spaniard roommate (but its more like bungalow- mate) Jose and friend whose name I forget. La Alberca is a tiny town in the mountains, not twenty minutes from our site by walking. Gorgeous mountain peaks tried to reach higher than the dead trees so I could take their pictures around the slightly curving road. And it was not until late that I realized that I left my stupid camera cord in Prague. Sigh. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I will not try to test that theory here today. You, oh faithful reader, can wait until I go back and get the rest of my luggage. I can try to describe the beautiful Spanish countryside with a few sentences, but not every last amazing detail. Not the color of bark here or there, not ...

Day 39: La Alberca I got the France job! Come March 26th, I'll be in Paris and then a camp to teach kids English! Pueblos Ingles feeds all of us well and today is our first full day. The morning involved one on one's for four hours with an hour of free time. More to come, but I am going to take my “siesta” now.

Day 38: SPAIN 2/6/09 This morning was hectic. I set my alarm for three different times in hopes of not being late at he bus station. The Pueblos Ingles company, which I was signed up for this week, was leaving at 9:30 am, so I set my alarm for 8 am to walk five blocks. No big deal right? Wrong. Pueblos Ingles is an English immersion company that advertises for volunteering native English speakers to come to a village or small town and speak English to paying Spanish natives. The Spaniards are either very motivated learners or business people from a company that wants them to speak English better. The company pays for all the volunteers food, lodging in a Very nice hotel, and the bus ride to the small place in the Spanish countryside. And our bus was leaving at 9:30. Understand that when I reset my watch, I was under the impression that since Spain was right under Greenwich, England, it must obviously also be under the Greenwich time zone which is different from Prague. Nooope! The Gree...

Day 37: MADRID, SPAIN I'm writing this in Spain. But yesterday's events only lead up to my arrival in this amazing hotel in the Spanish mountains. You probably aren't interested in my successful phone interview with an English-immersion kid's camp in France or the fast taxi ride I had to the Prague airport. You probably don't care about my flight details or how I got lost in the airport near Madrid. You might be concerned about how I stumbled into a Madrid metro station and saw about fifteen homeless people sleeping as another man came running in my direction for a reason I don't know. If anyone is reading this remembers the name Braxton, I thought I saw him, my high school music teacher on the subway. But you probably are not interested anyways about how I found the hostel with three beautiful French-Canadians who invited me to go out and eat and drink with them. But I will tell you about how I walked alone at my own pace down a road in Madrid and found some ...

Day 36: 2/4/09 The National Gallery of Prague is modern art. Bleh. And contemporary art. Blarg. And any other so called 'art' that is not artistic but just thrown into this place because there was no room for it in the Vltava River. There was one cool painting by some dude from the the Czech Republic about the underground railroad, not Harriet Tubman, but Prague's subway system. But beside that, I walked through the entire five floors of 'art' and saw a naked woman by Picasso, a naked woman by some guy, a naked couple by that person, and photographs of a guy painting with a skinned goat's blood. Yeah, he was holding the dead animal and painting with it. Sculptures, structures, and thingamagigs were displayed all around. In two hours, I asked if Amanda and Andy were ready to go. They agreed. And I'm glad it was free. We then had a dinner made of classic American style breakfast food with pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The British couple, as well as all of us, hea...

Day 36: 2/4/09 The National Gallery of Prague is modern art. Bleh. And contemporary art. Blarg. And any other so called 'art' that is not artistic but just thrown into this place because there was no room for it in the Vltava River. There was one cool painting by some dude from the the Czech Republic about the underground railroad, not Harriet Tubman, but Prague's subway system. But beside that, I walked through the entire five floors of 'art' and saw a naked woman by Picasso, a naked woman by some guy, a naked couple by that person, and photographs of a guy painting with a skinned goat's blood. Yeah, he was holding the dead animal and painting with it. Sculptures, structures, and thingamagigs were displayed all around. In two hours, I asked if Amanda and Andy were ready to go. They agreed. And I'm glad it was free. We then had a dinner made of classic American style breakfast food with pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The British couple, as well as all of us, hea...

2/4/2009 On Day 35, I am one day away from getting on a plane for Spain. And right now, I am in the dead center of Prague, a block from Wencelas Square as well as my current apartment (which I will be leaving tomorrow), and about a nice ten minute walk to the river as well as Old Town Square. And what pray tell central location would host a weary world traveler such as I? A lovely little restaurant with free wireless internet and a superb cappuccino called... Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is odd to think that it is 5:00 am for home and 11:00 here. And in Spain its 10:00 am. Time zones are funny things. I'm by the window so I watch person after person stroll past. Men in buisiness suits. Youth with Ipods. Women in skirts, in February. Everyone breathing out visible puffs of air, scarfs and hats all adorning. Scarfs are very common. I have yet to wear mine because it feels so... not feminine, but different. I guess I am used to having the cool wind whip around my skinny neck. Street swe...

Day 34: Feb 3, 09 So the landlord has no problem with us staying here for another month. Am I worried about getting kicked out of our apartment in two days with nowhere to go but Spain on Thursday? Not at all! I will move out seeing how there are three people (other course takers) taking my place. But the apartment is big with six mattresses available to crash upon. So this week involves emailing and calling jobs and getting a job! My budget may allow me a crazy side trip to the Iberian peninsula (no not Siberia, that's just too crazy!) but I would like a job with the certificate that I will receive. Do you ever get epitomes? You think of something and then you're like “Ah Hah! Wow! That's true!” I have had a couple of those in the past few years. 1. Darkness does not overwhelm light. A light cannot be overtaken by darkness. It is the light that does all of the overpowering. If it seems that the dark is winning, it is the light's fault for not being bright enough. (Yes ...

Day 33: February 2, 2009 So on Saturday night, (I can't believe I forgot to type this!) there was a fight in our apartment building. And I mean a fight. It involved, I think, two voices, both speaking fluent unhesitating Czech. Andy and I were just sitting around doing nothing around 11:00 pm when suddenly from the stairs, I assume, these two people, a man and a woman, were yelling at each other in our hall, possibly right outside our door. And I mean yelling. Unabashed yelling. Throwing all caution to the wind shouting. Some blows were thrown. Some punches were landed. Some slaps were delivered. And Andy and I were kinda flipping out. Curiosity is a curious thing. We wanted to open the door and witness what was taking place but at the same time, simple human nature and fear of getting involved with even more fearful consequences kept us from opening the door. We heard doors slammed. Muffled shouting now. A door opens. The man is shouting again. The door is slammed. He started poun...

Day 32: February 1, 2009 I have officially been in Europe for a month now. Its cool. Now I have to find a job. But one of the big English schools in Prague should hire me, no problem. Am I worried about getting kicked out of our apartment in two days with nowhere to go but Spain on Thursday? Maybe a little. Am I worried about not having a job yet? Maybe Am I worried about not getting paid for that hypothetical theoretical job till after a month of work? Nah Am I worried about living in Prague like I was earlier? Not anymore Am I worried in general? Kinda