radish times

So, it is almost 2002. I am just writing to wish you the best happiest new year!

Things here in Prague are all about the holidays. It feels like we have been celebrating something for weeks (little exaggeration.) We have celebrated Christmas, friends visiting, and tonight is a big celebration, complete with lots of food, drink and presents. Past nights have been full of the first two but not the last.

The long e-mails have been delayed by the fact that things are busy all the time. I cooked a huge Swedish dinner for our friends for Christmas. We have been eating this food ever since, and praise God that we are about to finish it. But then we are cooking again tonight - so it may be the same thing all over again.

I will get going on the long updates pretty soon. In the meantime, I love all of you and wish you the very best.

I have been pondering all night what kind of Christmas message to send across the ocean to you. As Christmas Eve morning dawns, I think of how I have spent this day in past years. I didn’t realize until now that Christmas is the most important holiday in our family. Easter may have more doctrinal value, but it was always Christmas that everyone came home and celebrated and sat around together. I didn’t realize how important that coming together was to my belief about what Christmas is.

So with that prelude, here is my Christmas thought. Christmas is that warmth you feel by being with people who really love you and all of your strange oddities. I have that warmth with Peter but I miss very much being surrounded by lots of people radiating that same warmth. So, if you have that today and tomorrow, give great thanks. And, if you don’t feel it right away, take a minute and try.

Wishing all of you the very best Christmas!

It is a picturesque morning here in Prague. All the roof tops are white and snow is still falling. The sky is a whitish gray. Trains run past up on the hill there in the distance so that they look like toy trains. Cars and trucks move slowly on the road down below. You can not hear the sound from this distance. Every now and then you can hear a tram go past. People are slogging up the hill in their big winter coats and shoes. There is a little tiny fur tree sitting on our patio. It is the only green living thing you can see. For me all this is happening to the Goldberg variations from a mostly warm bright room.

So what is happening in Prague? The holiday shopping rush has begun. Peter and I made a couple small trips to the store this weekend. Once to Ikea to return some stuff (and where we bought pickled herring!!! and linginberry jam) and once to the supermarket. This place is unbelievable to me. You all know of the thing with the cars that attach themselves to people movers going up or down. But you don’t know about the floor thing. They clean their floors all the time - all the time. They have these machines they ride around the store in. Not only do they take the dirt off, but they leave some shiny smooth chemical cover. Now this sounds really nice, no doubt, but if you combine it with having shoes that only grip when there is something to grip on and the fact that everyone in the store has a huge cart which they move from place to place at the speed of light, you will find something very different. It is something like playing bumper cars - except people don’t laugh when you smash into them. The carts there enjoy speed and use even the smallest push as an excuse to go flying off down the aisle. It takes tremendous strength to turn it - at which point I am always afraid that my feet fly will off the floor and I will become a dangerous flying projectile rushing directly towards one of the four million people in the store at that exact time. So, you see, shopping is always a great adventure.

However, in all its fun, I cleverly purchased shoes this weekend that I hope will put a damper on the flying projectile thing once and for all. I bought a pair of sneakers. I have not tried them on the supermarket floors yet - but I trust they will grip regardless of how clean the floor is.

Other bright and interesting activities: I hemmed a curtain for the first time in my life and if you ignore the fact that one corner is about two inches shorter than the other corner, you might say I did a passable job. Since these curtains hang all the way to the floor though - it is not so noticeable. Peter asked me if I was going to redo it, and I looked at him as if he were crazy. However, after I have finished all the other curtains, I may see if I can do something to improve it. I know what I did wrong. I dreamt about it last night. I have no idea why I didn’t do it the first time (shame on the daughter and niece of such accomplished seamstresses!). I didn’t pin it while it was hanging. I cut it and made some chalk marks and then trusted myself to pin it in a straight line. What was I thinking! In fact I dreamt that it would even be easy to sew it while it’s hanging.

Peter intrepidly changed the light fixture in the living room last night. Instead of this very old, dirtily uncleanble chandelier on which tall persons bang their heads, we now have a very modern looking track-lightish kind of fixture. Only the very tallest of tall people could bang their heads on this one - but if such a clumsy person came to our house they would never make it to the living room, as they would bump their head on several door frames first. I am very pleased with the new light.

Dad - please forgive me if I misspelled linginberry. I cannot unlock the pantry (which happens about 50% of the time) to see how it is really spelled. Untie!

I am waiting for the delivery of our new sofa. I am a little nervous about it because I assume that the delivery men will speak Czech - and as yet I cannot speak in that language. I keep thinking of all the new immigrants to New York who cannot understand English yet, and they all seem to survive. I will be really pleased to have a sofa though. So my excitement is battling with my nervousness.

Peter and I have continued to shop. Last night we bought some lamps and a lamp fixture for the living room. It will be really nice when we have them all installed. Lots of light.

Yesterday I was really tired for some reason. After my Russian lesson at Peter’s office (during which we spent one hour going over 4 letters!) I came home and meant to clean windows and study Russian. Instead I spent several hours reading a book and laying on the bed with the cats. After we went shopping, Peter and I tried the Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. It was ok, not so bad. The food is milder than the Chinese food in New York but its tasty. The best part was that instead of bringing fortune cookies at the end, they brought sugar covered peanuts and sweet wine in tiny glasses.

We had a long ride on the Metro to go to the store last night. As you may know, there are three Metro lines in Prague, each having maybe 15 stops. So, even though the ride was long, I felt very accomplished at having gone all the way to one end of town and back. I am beginning to learn the names of stations and where they are. Of course, most of the time on the Metro I stare at the map to try to remember the stations and understand the announcements.

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So now it is later. The couch was delivered. It was not bad at all. The delivery men were very nice. They realized that I didn’t speak Czech and almost all our communication was by hand movements. I was supposed to ask them to write down on their sales slip that there is a small crack on the inside of one of the legs of the couch. However, this seemed to be an infinitely complicated thing to try to communicate - especially since the couch was completely wrapped in heavy plastic.

I also took up my courage and went to the supermarket by myself. It was fun. The supermarket I went to is something like 5 trams stops away. It is two floors - and they have this people mover thing or escalator with out stairs in between the two floors. The cool thing about it is that wheels of the carts are not really wheels - they are metal and they immediately lock onto the metal of the escalator so that they don’t role down it. I bought several things including milk, cheese and vegetables. The lady at the cash register I think asked me if I had exact change - but I didn’t understand her at all. So she just made this dismissive motion and gave me my change.

It is one of the things that is really hard when you don’t speak the language. If you are going to do anything by yourself you have to become used to feeling like an idiot with several different people for each thing you do. And actually, not just an idiot but an annoying one as well. You cannot let this bother you - if you do then you become flustered and do many other stupid things in addition to not understanding what is going on around you. When I was buying a pack of cigarettes this evening I was trying to use coins because all my bills were much too big for such a small purchase. I gave the man too little. After he counted it, I understood that and I understood what the price was supposed to be but I didn’t understand how much more I was supposed to give him. After a little trial and error I got it right. The man was very nice and helpful - but there is no way to feel proud and happy after such an experience. You can feel stupid or amused - or, as in my case, a little bit of both.

I am not at all deterred from doing things on my own though. I know that I will both learn to deal with these situations better and I will learn the Czech! But it takes a great deal of energy.

So preparing the apartment continues. Peter and I bought a duvet cover, some pillows, some curtains, a vacuum cleaner and a sofa this weekend. I just spent the morning putting everything in place. I really like the guest room. It is all light blue (both the bed spread and the curtains). One strange thing about this room is that it is not a rectangle. Two of the walls are not parallel. This makes everything in the room look crooked. So I placed the bed so that on one side it is about two inches from the wall and on the other side it is about six inches from the wall. This is the only way to make things look straight. I am not sure about the living room. We got bright yellow curtains for it. We must see how it goes with the sofa (which will be delivered Wednesday) but right now I am not sure that I like them. They are all extremely long (300 cm) and I think I will be hemming them all by hand.

It is funny that we lived in the apartment in New York City for so long with a sewing machine and we never did anything with it. Now that I don’t have one, every time I turn around I want one. Actually, if we had one, I might have made the curtains myself. There is a much much bigger selection of colors and patterns if you are just buying fabric.

One of the next projects is to clean the windows. They are all double paned. The outside is clean and the inside is clean - it is in the middle that is dirty - so the project is to take the windows apart and clean in the middle.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Prague. It was sunny almost all day long. Peter and I did a little work around the house in the morning. Peter hung a mirror which was very difficult to hang since it is in three pieces. I hung the first thing on the wall - the Bell Pole that my mom embroidered. Then we went to Vysehrad - a castle very close to our house. It has a large park around it and a really beautiful view from almost all sides. Vysehrad is also the name of our subway station.

After that we went exploring in our neighborhood a little bit. We found a small but nice little supermarket. It is not like the enormous one we went to last weekend - but it has all the things we might need and is not very far away. We also found a couple of bakeries and Peter showed me the many meat stores that are close to our house. We took some pictures of our apartment building which I will send as soon as I take some of the inside of our apartment.

After this exploration we went to Ikea, with our friend who has a car. This is where we bought all the curtains and stuff - though not the sofa and vacuum cleaner which we bought on Saturday. Then we went to our friend’s (Arkady’s) house for dinner. He has a new three week old son. HOW CUTE! I got to watch him having his bath… it was adorable although he in general was not very happy about it.

I am loving our little washing machine. We can put a load in and go out and when we come back it is done. It is so easy. Then we hang the clothes to dry. No basements. No time schedule. Very easy and excellent.

The cats have discovered the new bed spread on the bed in the guest room and have set about to cover it with cat hair. Right now Pippin and Kisco have stationed themselves there. Krolik is not with them. He has been in big trouble this morning because he cannot understand that we did not buy the curtains for him to play with.

Well that is about all for today. I must eat dinner and then be off to study Russian and teach English with a friend.

Prague is cold. It is not really winter here yet, but hats and gloves are definitely in order! I have been learning to use the trams. It is actually a lot easier than I thought it might be. Why they do not have trams in New York, I don’t know. They are an excellent form of transportation. They run on a schedule - so you always know when to catch one and they are comfortable and convenient. I was afraid I would be eternally confused because the trams go in so many directions and make so many turns, but actually it is not hard to learn. Right now, I am mostly using the 7, 18, 11, 14, and 6 trams. These can get me to Lina and Anton’s house, Peter’s office, Olga’s house, and many stores.

I had my first Russian class today. It is very much too easy. It is for absolute beginners. Today we got through half of the alphabet…not very far! But still it is interesting because I learned some new words and saw some other people from the place where Peter works. I am going to ask the teacher is she knows of any classes which are more advanced. I think I will keep going to this one until I find a better one. I have so much time that there is no reason not to use two hours a week to learn a few words. I am also practicing Russian with some friends here in exchange for teaching some English.

My Czech lessons don’t start until February but I think I will learn quite a bit of Czech before then. It is all around and it is very hard for me not to impatient to understand more than I do. So far I can say hello, excuse me, thank you, please, and may I have a beer?. Peter is really wonderful in learning Czech. He is not afraid to ask anyone any question and he works on what he knows all the time. It is a good example for me to follow.

We are beginning to really work hard on the apartment. Peter installed a new phone jack so that we can plug in the computer and phone at the same time. I cleaned out a cabinet which had many beautiful glass serving dishes in it. When you guys come to visit, we can serve everything on glass and crystal plates. Before I washed them I didn’t know how beautiful they were because they were covered in dust. I also started scrubbing the floor. I did about 1/20th of the job and it took me over an hour. So I think I will do it in little pieces. The floor is wood but it is really old and there is mostly no finish on it - so the dirt is deep in the crevices. It is great to see what it looks like after - but it is hard work.

I really like being in Prague. It is so great to be with Peter again. I get excited when I know he is coming home or that we will meet in a couple of hours. I haven’t really explored the neighborhood yet on my own. Every time I have some time in the apartment I decide to clean something or fix something. Peter said that he was here about two weeks before he started going out side to explore. And in some way this makes a lot of sense. There is a lot to explore just in the apartment.

It is funny - every time I think “oh, I would like …(something)…” I find it in the apartment. For example, this happened with hangers, index cards, sewing needles and thread, glass cleaner, etc. I don’t think it will happen many more times because we have pretty much been through everything in the apartment.

One funny thing about the apartment for me is that everything has a lock. All the closets, the wardrobe, the pantry, the cabinet. So every time you want something you have to unlock and then relock a door. Having to do this reminds me stronger than most other things that I am not in New York.

Krolik just had his first birthday. We didn’t celebrate it. As he was leaving for work this morning Peter said, “oh, Dec. 1 was Krolik’s birthday.” In some way, Krolik has adjusted faster than the other cats. Right now he is sitting on my lap and purring loudly!

So here I am in Prague. It is Tuesday, which means it is my fourth day here. I just finished cleaning and organizing some of the closets. Cleaning is serious because this apartment has not been used for 10 years - so the dirt here is heavy and hard to remove. Right now I have the lap top in the bed room and I am sitting on the bed. I don’t yet know how to plug the laptop into a power socket (because it needs to be grounded) so I am using up the battery.

The people who are renting us the apartment left us some really beautiful furniture. Two of these pieces of furniture are the wardrobe and dresser in the bedroom. Both stand about six feet (2 meters) high. They are made of some very nice medium colored wood. The dresser has two compartments with shelves from top to bottom on either side. In the middle top there is a cabinet and in the middle bottom there are drawers. The wardrobe is about the same size as the dresser and it is just for hanging clothes. The other pieces of furniture they left are in the living room. They are a matching bookcase and desk of dark wood with some light panels. The bookcase is ENORMOUS. It is also about six feet high and something like eight feet across. Every shelf has the ability to hold three rows of books from front to back. It is filled with old Czech books and papers. The desk is not so big as the other furniture. It is a real royal looking desk.

I thought we needed hangers until I cleaned out one of the closets. At the bottom I found about 20 old wood hangers. I washed them and took off the dirty fabric and will use them for my clothes.

Peter and I are not sure how we will fix up the guest room and living room. We looked at some couches and are thinking about what we might want. We will also get some kind of shelves or stand for our stereo (which we don’t have yet) and TV (if we get one). We have mostly been working on the bedroom and kitchen. I don’t think we will add any furniture to the bedroom - but I have been organizing my stuff in it. We probably won’t add anything else big to the kitchen.

In the kitchen we have a really nice big pantry. It is very cool inside and has a ventilation vent to keep air circulating. I washed and installed all the shelves today. Certainly we are keeping our potatoes and other food stuffs in this pantry. We also have a refrigerator which is small but nice. We just bought a microwave which is sitting on top of the refrigerator. We have a new stove that the landlord put in. Next to it is the counter and sink. The round table in the corner folds down - so right now it is a semi-circle and we have four matching stools to sit on.

Our landlord bought us a big rug to put in one of the rooms. We haven’t put it anywhere yet - but we think the only place it will fit is in the living room. We are a little afraid that the cats might pee on it.

The long hall of closets that we have runs from floor to ceiling. There is LOTS of storage space. Some of these closets also have shelves and some do not. We also have some ceiling storage space. The hallway leading from the kitchen towards the bed room has a lower ceiling than the rest of the apartment because there is a very deep storage space above it.

So, that is all about the apartment for now. I may take some digital pictures and send them as we fix stuff up. We have an incredible view from the bedroom, living room and balcony. We are halfway up a huge hill - so we look out over a little park and then lots of red roofed building.

The cats are doing very well. Bobo mostly only comes out at night but when he does he seems good and purrs a lot. The other three are much more curious and are always looking at everything. Kisco already got shut up in a closet for several hours and Pippin already tried to explore the hallway and stairs outside the apartment. Krolik has explored every very dirty place in the apartment and for the first two days was more gray than white. They are eating well, using their bathroom and their scratching pad, and sleeping with us every night. Right now, the three of them are all sleeping around me as I type.

Peter and I bought a little portable CD player so we could listen to music - and yes!, we went to a concert last night. They were all New York musicians and we had seen all but one of them live before. It was really nice though. Peter took about 80 pictures. Then we went out to Monday beer night. This is the traditional beer night for Peter and his friends to meet their Czech friends. So the table was very busy with Czech, Russian and English.

Peter and I explored several beer places in our neighborhood. There are several nice ones. We still have much more exploring to do. We have also cooked dinner two nights. We went food shopping at this tremendously huge supermarket about 10 minutes by tram from our house. It is two floors and each floor is about the same size as a supermarket in the suburbs.