radish times

Written days and days ago:

Today must be a writing kind of day. I have nothing really interesting to say but little things keep popping into my head. For example, I don’t understand why there are several things that make me very happy to do in Prague that in New York just used to be irritating. Today I realized that we were almost out of shampoo and tooth paste. Going to the store and buying them pleased me very much. Why is that? In New York, we would have used the last little tiny bit of tooth paste, rolled up the tube and pressed and pressed and pressed and then at the very last moment gone irritatedly to the store to get more.

Also, I like to take the garbage out. It is fun. You have to get the bags ready, go out into the hall, set them down, lock the door, pick them up, walk down the stairs, set them down, and unlock the door. Then you have two choices depending on which door you go out. If you go out the back door, you have to set them down, lock the door, walk through the parking lot, up the little stairs, through the back alley, down the stairs and you come to a gate. So, you set the bags down, unlock the gate, move the bags, lock the gate, put the garbage into the bin, unlock the gate on the other side, and lock it behind you. If you go out the front door, you have to set the bags down, lock the door, pick them up, walk along the side walk until you come to the gate, set the bags down, unlock the gate leaving the key in the lock, put the garbage in the bin and relock the door behind you. If you have recycling, now you cross the street to the three bins, put your glass in the glass bin (it all breaks), then your card board in the card board bin and the same with the plastic. I enjoy it for some reason.

I didn’t really mean to write a letter today but I was just trying to cut up our Christmas tree and I was sitting here thinking. It is not so easy to cut up a Christmas tree, you know. Exspecially (for you, Peter) if you only have a very old rusted small saw. But when you have had your tree for over a month as we have it is necessary.

I was thinking about the sad story my father told me after my last letter about Christmas trees. He reminded me of the old Hans Christian Andersen tale of the tree that gets cut down and brought to this beautiful warm happy house to live for a while. And then, it is thrown out into the cold gutter to die. It is a sad ending.

Our tree had the same experience - except we did not throw it out into the cold street to let it die. We let it die in our warm house. (Really really die - for the Christmas tree stands in Prague do not allow you to give the tree any water). So, in some way I have lived a childhood fantasy. My parents never allowed us to keep the tree until it was completely dead because they didn’t want pine needles all over the house. I, however, was always very curious about what it would be like. Now I know. There is a least an inch of needles under the tree now. The few branches I managed to cut off of it have no needles at all.

The bad thing is that dead Christmas trees are mean. I stopped trying to cut it up because I realized that I had to cover ALL of my skin or else I would be wounded by sticky tree needles which fly everywhere when you are trying to saw off branches.

So, for now that is all. I am off to a Russian lesson and then I hope to go to the store to find some elusive items that I am beginning to really need, like band-aids and rubbing alcohol (I cut my finger with the bread knife yesterday and had nothing to clean or cover it with). Also, I really need some finger nail polish remover! My toes look really funny.

So, as the pace of life has slowed down a little, several things have come to mind that I want to share with you. Two of them have to do with shopping.

As always, I now need to buy some cat litter. When I first came to Prague, Peter had already done some investigatory work at our local pet store. He had found some cat litter that was supposed to be “clumping” cat litter - you know the kind where when the cat pees it makes a hard little ball that you can just scoop out of the box instead of cleaning the whole box all the time. However, upon trying this cat litter, we found that it was only semi-clumping and very soon the cat litter smelled bad. Also, I believe that this particular cat litter is made of the exact same stuff that they put in bean bag chairs. You know - the little white Styrofoam balls that are impossible to sweep up because they are repelled by the broom.

So, together we went back to the pet store and found another kind that also claimed to be clumping. We bought it and it worked really well. It also smelled good. So when we ran out, the idea was to get the exact same kind. It is here that I ran into the big problem: no pet store sells the same kinds of cat litter (or food, for that matter.) There seem to be a gazillion brands of litter because every store has different kinds. So, mistakenly, I decided to explore other pet stores in the area. I didn’t recognize any of the cat litters. So, I thought it would be better to go back to our local store. The problem was that I was in some other area. I thought I was cunning enough to find my way back to our pet store - but I was wrong. So, after being lost for about 30 minutes I finally found the store I had already been to but didn’t recognize anything. At this point I thought that it was absurd to spend 2 hours trying to buy cat litter. So I went in and bought another kind of litter. It worked too but it didn’t smell nice.

So thinking about this problem of a gazillion brands of everything I realized why it seems this way to me. In New York, we also have lots of brands but it doesn’t bother me for the following reasons:

1) If I read the name of a cat litter in New York, I am likely to remember it. For example, Ever Clean or Fresh Step. Here in Prague the names are in Czech and very difficult for me to remember and keep separate.

2) In New York we had a television that continually reminded us of the different brands of cat litter. Here we don’t have a television and even if we did, we would run into problem #1.

3) In addition to telling us the name of the cat litter, the television also lets us know the attributes of the cat litter and why it is different from the other kinds. Here even if we had a television, I would not be able to understand what they were talking about.

And actually, these problems hold for almost any kind of product. The only way for me to make distinctions between them at first is: these are the products our friends use AND these are the products our friends don’t use…

The second thing about shopping I wanted to tell you is related to the first one. I want to explain the feeling of being in the dairy section of a large supermarket in Prague. It is absolutely baffling. To start you should know that in the supermarket with slippery floors, there are six HUGE aisles filled with dairy products. Sure, there is the milk section and it is the equivalent of two entire dairy sections in a New York supermarket. Then there is another aisle that sells only kefir and plain yogurt. There is an entire side of an aisle selling only butter. Then there are at least two entire aisles selling flavored yogurt. Then there is an aisle selling “spreads” - these are something like cream cheese spreads but they are not so cheesy and they are partly made of cream. Also, you should know that sour cream is not the same as sour cream ala New York. It is much more like just cream. And then there are all the cheeses. When I first came here I couldn’t even try to understand the differences between all the different dairy products. It was too overwhelming. Now I have begun to explore. But sometimes I just walk through the aisles smiling.

So what else about life? This past weekend was our birthday party weekend. On Friday we had a party for Peter which ended around 6 am on Saturday. And then on Monday we had a party for me (though mine was in a restaurant, not at home). So the whole weekend and part of the week we were either preparing for, participating in, or recovering from a birthday party. Peter got one game to play at home, one game to play outside, a wallet, a silver chain, a book, a tea set, and a bottle of whiskey. I got some slippers, a book on the Czech language, an onion slicer, some bath balls and gel, a bottle of whiskey, a nightgown/evening dress (we don’t know), and lots of beautiful flowers. For Peter’s birthday we cooked at home. Peter made some really tasty pork chops and several salads and I made some other salads. Then we had a birthday cake with candles. For my birthday we went to this very excellent restaurant. I ate a delicious chicken dish with pineapples and bananas in a creamy curry-ish sauce. Mmmmm. You can look at our website (www.shkin.com) to see pictures of Peter’s party. (We didn’t take the camera to my party).

Our friends, Ostap and Lena, went to Germany for the weekend. So I am watching their dog, Ela (short for Eliphant). Ela is a large shaggy black dog who likes to bark loudly. This has caused Ostap and Lena some serious problems as their neighbors don’t appreciate dogs who like to bark. However, Ela is the sweetest dog. He is very obedient and very loving. So I will be going over there and taking him for a walk two times a day. Last night was my first time. I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure that Ela would listen to me when we were outside. He is used to walking without a leash. But I didn’t need to have worried, he does listen to me and he is very good. A funny thing happened. When we got to the little park near their house, there was a man peeing in the bushes. Ela ran right up beside him and started peeing too. I don’t think the man was embarrassed but it was many minutes before him and his friend stopped laughing.

I am beginning to get some good leads on where I may be able to volunteer. I went to a meeting of English speakers for Amnesty International. There I met several people who had ideas about who I could contact to find some volunteer work. I may even help out in the Amnesty International office. There are two interesting events coming up that I may help with: An ecumenical service for victims of torture and an evening dedicated to the women of Afghanistan.

If all works out, my Czech language classes will begin on February 4. Also I have been studying Russian with our friend Olga. Our lessons were disrupted by the holidays but are now getting back to normal. My homework assignments these days are to prepare to tell a story in Russian about something that happened to me. Yesterday I told about taking the cats to Prague. Today I will tell the story of my birthday party and maybe about my experience walking our friend’s dog.

So, on this birthday morning, I am sitting here waiting for the workmen to start fixing our radiators. They tell me that it will take about 2 - 3 hours. We had to be up at 9 am this morning - our landlord came, the man living upstairs came, and two workman came. Now our landlord and the man upstairs are gone and I am waiting for the workmen to return. They said 10 minutes but it has already been 1/2 hour - so I understand that this job may take longer than 2 - 3 hours. So, I decided to write this e-mail and maybe after I will study Russian.

The pace this last week has been somewhat slower than the previous two weeks. We have seen a couple movies, met friends in the evening to hang out and eat dinner. Two nights ago we had a really good time - we played darts on an electronic darts machine. These are pretty common in the pubs here and it is really fun.

Three nights ago we had a birthday party for Peter. This was really fun. We made several kinds of salads and Peter cooked pork chops marinated in yogurt, tomatoes and onions. It was really good! Then we had a birthday cake, candles and all. The first wave of guests (those with children) left around 11 pm. The others stayed late into the night. You know, here in Prague, the trams stop running at about 12:30 pm and start again at about 5 am. So, if you stay after 12:30 somewhere you either have to try to catch a night tram, which have different routes and only come every 20 - 30 minutes, or you have to call a cab. On the night of Peter’s birthday, we stayed up talking and singing - until someone asked what time it was. We were all shocked to realize that it was 4:15 am. So, our friends decided to wait a little while and take the first morning tram. So, Peter and I went to sleep around 6 am that morning.

It made for a very strange Saturday. We got up just around the time it was getting dark. I know many people do this regularly - but for me it was very weird. It felt like Saturday never happened. So when I woke up on Sunday I was sure it was Saturday.

We tried to see The Fellowship of the Rings last night but it was sold out. I was a little disappointed until I remembered that the movie is about 3 hours long and I was hungry. So in some way it was much better to go get something to eat. We went to this very Americanized cafe where they sell books in English and serve all kinds of American sandwiches. I had a very dry club sandwich and Peter had a very delicious chicken curry sandwich. I didn’t find any books because I was looking for some political or social history of Czech or Eastern Europe. The cafe had lots of novels but no so much non-fiction.

It has been very snowy here. We have about 2 or 3 inches of snow and it keeps replenishing itself. So, it stays white most of the time. It is very pretty and mostly the snow stays clean except in the most crowded places. I have this problem with my pants though. They are a little too long. So, they drag in the snow and get wet and really dirty. I try to pull them up whenever I go through a really deep or dirty puddle but it doesn’t really help all that much. I have also realized the immensely useful quality of door mats. For some reason, here in Prague if you don’t wipe your feet on the door mat you leave dirty wet spots everywhere on the floor inside. I may just be crazy but I don’t remember this happening so much in New York.

So, last night we went to a showing of photographs of Afghanistan taken by a Czech woman sponsored by the People in Need Foundation, a Czech organization working to support human rights in several countries. The photographs were beautiful and moving. I also got to try on a tradition woman’s head dress. It was a really strange feeling - to have everything covered and look at the world through a dark little window.

Today I made my second excursion to the Post Office. The first time I got a very extended tour of our neighborhood before arriving at the post office. It is important to develop exquisite map reading skills to find things in Prague. The Post Office is on the street Kresomyslova. On the map it looked like this street only ran one way off the big street close to our apartment. So I followed this street all the way to its end in the wilderness under a big bridge. I was looking for Kresomyslova, Number 12. Unfortunately for me there were only buildings on one side of the street and they all had odd numbers. So, I stopped and read the map again, tried several allies and an underground stairway but found nothing. So finally I got the map out again and took several deep breaths summoning Unusually Keen Map Reading Powers. And then it was that I saw that in fact the large road near our house is called Sekaninova before it passes under the railroad tracks, THEN it is called Kresomsyslova for about three blocks until it turns into Otokarova for no apparent reason which lasts until the next railroad tracks when it becomes Vrsovicka. It may be hardest for the New Yorkers who did not grow up in the village - but lived in a world where everything had right angles and one name.

I bought my first plant in Prague today (aside from the little Christmas tree which Peter and I bought to set on our balcony). I was walking around our neighborhood when I came upon a little flower and plant store selling both plastic and real plants. I went in and the owner said something to me in Czech. I said “Nerozumin” which means I don’t understand. At first I thought she looked annoyed but then I saw that she was just concentrating very hard. Then she said “spekenzie duetch?” and I said “ne, anglitsky.” She looked concentrated again for a moment and then said with almost a perfect accent “Oh, can I help you?” I bought a little plant that looks like a mix between an ivy and a five-point plant. She told me how to care for it and wrapped it up and I very proudly carried it home.

Dark is falling over Prague right now. The sky is a deep gray blue and the street lamps are on. Tonight Peter and I will go with our friend Arkady to the enormous supermarket somewhere outside of the city. Tomorrow we will have a birthday party for Peter here at our house - so we need to get more food.

So, it is time and more than time for an update. We have had quite a holiday week and several days here. The weekend before Christmas guests began to arrive. They all stayed through New Years, many until this weekend. So, there was lots of activity.

Some amazing things about Prague at this time of year:

- Around Christmas time there are men and women selling carp on almost every street corner. They have big tanks which look like children’s swimming pools that are filled with swimming puckering fish. In between the tanks they have a board or table covered with fish guts and blood. This is where they kill and clean the fish for you. The sellers stand around in the freezing cold, with long aprons and gloves, and reach down into the cold bubbling water to pull out fish. On Christmas Eve the lines for these fish are HUGE everywhere. The day after Christmas the stands and people are gone without a trace.

- Everything is closed here starting on Christmas Eve and reopening on December 27th. EVERYTHING - stores, restaurants,cafes, street stands, everything. Peter had told me about this and told me stories of being in Prague during this time without anything to eat. Not liking this idea at all, we went to the store and bought LOTS of food (besides the food we were cooking for Christmas dinner). We bought way too much - and ate it for something like a week afterwards.

- New Years Eve is really great here. We had friends over for dinner and exchanged gifts. Our plan was to eat here, visit our other friends, and then meet New Years outside in the street preferably near the historic areas of Prague. So… as always things run late but midnight doesn’t wait. So, we finished at our house close to 11 pm. And, Peter saying “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, LET’S GO!!!…” finally got us all out of the house and on our way to our friends house. When we got there, there was not much time - but we had to exchange gifts and have a toast before we left. So, (in a now much told story amongst our friends), we wisked in, almost didn’t sit down at all, gave presents, opened presents, demanded our toast, and ran out. We ended up meeting New Years only a couple of blocks from their house in front of a toy store. Here we opened a bottle of Champaign and set off fire crackers and hooped and hollered. Our way towards the center of Prague was filled with hollering, watching fire works, throwing fire crackers and laughing. There were great crowds of other people on the streets doing the same thing.

During the week, Peter had some days off so we went to a medieval town not far from Prague to look at the town, the castle and the museums. It is a very very beautiful town: beautiful colorful buildings, tiny little winding streets, a very majestic imposing castle, and a large winding river. It was very cold though - so we started the afternoon with a glass of hot wine in a warm cafe. The bus trip on the way back was extremely cold as well - there was no heat and it was three hours long. So, when we got off the bus all we wanted was a warm place with bathrooms.

Things are becoming much more comfortable here. I am no longer nervous about shopping or trying to speak Czech. I got my haircut by myself with a hair stylist whose only English words were “cut,” “wash” and “dry.” There are some things that I still don’t know to buy, like finger nail polish remover. But I will ask our friends here about these things.

So, that is all for now. This week we are back in the regular routine. Peter is working. I am doing some new things, like finding the post office, e-mailing some organizations about volunteering, paying bills.