December 28, 2006
Feels like home to me...
Well, other than my brother getting engaged last Saturday, this week has pretty much held the usual holiday fare. Of course, our family's "usual holiday fare" looks a bit different than that of other families. The week starts off with the bajillion mile sojourn across the Atlantic, braving long holiday lines at the airport, 3 crowded, uncomfortable flights, and more. This year's traveling highlights included sitting next to THE most talkative math professor who is also a Jewish convert who just finally got custody of his children in the last few years because family courts usually favour the mother and the story goes a little something like this... three hours into it, after dinner, I turned to him and said something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I have to go to church and be awake and such in the morning. I'm going to sleep," and turned to face the window. When I arrived in Brussels, I mistakenly walked onto the set of "A Very Merry Concentration Camp Christmas" and was somehow verbally abused by the female security guard whose two English phrases were "Get your luggage!" and "You stand there!" I seriously ran to the bathroom and cried afterward. It was horrible. To complete the tour, my dad was misinformed about where I was flying from and we both spent a good half hour or more waiting for one another in separate terminals at the Prague airport.
However, things were, as they usually are, uphill after the trip. After arriving on Christmas eve afternoon, I took a nap and then the whole fam piled into a rental car (yay for Europe! no need to actually own one) to go to what turned out to be an incredibly saccharine Christmas Eve service. I mean, for crying out loud, right before we read the Scriptural Christmas story, we got a story read to us by Pearl S. Buck. And the sermon... well, I've heard meatier words from "Delilah" on KEZK. And who cares about a cheesy sermon when there are good friends to greet you after the service and beer and homemade pizza to greet you when you get home?
The rest of Christmas flowed as usual - presents, stockings, a Christmas party, picking on Aimee (my sixteen year old sister), and rousing the dogs to a good barkfest. And now, a few days later, I've been able to pack the time with trouncing around Prague, losing horribly at pool in the same cafe where Kafka and others used to sit and talk and think and write (Cafe Louvre), staring up at the castle from my delicious Videnska Kava (viennese coffee) at Kavarna Slavia (Cafe Slavia) along the river, catching up with old friends, shopping the hip Euro stores with Aimee, staring down at Vaclavske Namesti (Wenceslas Square) from my seat in the posh McDonald's in the middle of the square while snow coats everyone and everything... elbowing between passersby to make the metro, squashing my way up to a corner kiosk in the Christmas kiosk, between kids hankering for parek v rohliku (hot dogs) and old men grouching about who knows what so that I might get svarak, or mulled wine. Yum!
Well, I was going to continue telling about my week but I got plum tuckered out of writing after barely covering the first 72 hours, so I quit. But here it is, everyone - a post!
| By Heather | 02:25 PM
Comments
You got to have coffee where Kafka used to hang out? You lucky bug! Lucky bug, as opposed to an unlucky bug (Gregor from "Metamorphosis”). I'm sad that you weren't treated nicely at the airport. That crummy gal! Glad you got to pick on your sister. Taunting has a nice way of lifting one’s spirits.
Hug to you Heather.
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at December 28, 2006 03:55 PM
Welcome back to the blogosphere my wonderful roomate! Thanks for sharing a little bit of Prague with us. See you soon! wow, look at all those nouns and verbs!
Posted by: Claire at December 28, 2006 10:07 PM
It was lovely (and humorous) to read your post! I can just imagine you soaking in your dear city!
I watched Mission Impossible 1 the other day and thought of you.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Posted by: Laura at December 29, 2006 03:25 PM
Welcome back to the blog world and to the states. :)
Posted by: Tanya at January 2, 2007 12:04 AM