radish times

Peter and I will be on our way back to Austria on Sunday afternoon. This time it is business, definitely not pleasure. We are going to pay a visit to the regional INS office there to see if we can get some things worked out. Our first order of business will be to get a letter of re-entry to the US for Peter. The INS officer I spoke to on the phone led me to believe that this should be no problem.

But we also have quite a number of questions for him - all about the lost file and what we should be doing about it. We sent a long e-mail today outlining our situation and our questions, so that they may be a little more prepared when we get there (wishful thinking, huh?). When I sent a draft to Peter to look at, he said “there are an awful lot of questions here, aren’t there?” but we couldn’t figure out which ones to take out. [INSERT: It is a really good thing we sent an e-mail! The man from the INS just answered. He said that Monday, September 2, was not a good time to visit ANY US facility because IT’S LABOR DAY!!! He saved us a really disappointing trip to his office. After reading his e-mail I felt really out of touch with American holiday’s! We may try to go on Tuesday instead.]

There has been virtually no progress in finding his file at the INS in New York. We hope that the people in Austria will help figure out what our next steps should be. Our contact at the Congressman’s office in New York was out of the office for most of August because of some medical problems. We hope to get back in touch with her in the next several days. I will let you know what we learn on Monday. I hope we hear something at least vaguely encouraging - but I’m not holding my breath.
We are planning to be in New York at the end of September, probably for two weeks. Today we found some pretty cheap tickets for the first two weeks in October. We can’t buy anything until we get the letter from the INS, but it looks like we will be able to find a nice price. Hopefully we will buy tickets on Monday or Tuesday.

I have been quite busy in the last several days. I have been making lists of lists of lists - an inherited trait (from whom?…I wonder…) and a sign that Fall is near. It feels good - although I am pretty wound up. It won’t last for very long and then I will fall into a pattern and won’t spend so much time planning everything. I will just do it.

I volunteered to be New Member Coordinator for Amnesty International (the English speaking section)last night. It means that I will be spending more time there (going to every meeting…a novelty) and that I will have more responsibility. They have never had this position, so it also means inventing a new position which I really like! This weekend we will be writing the job description for the position. The Amnesty group here needs a good deal more organization that it has - and I think that I, along with the new group coordinators who will be elected in a couple of weeks, will really help move it on its way.

So Prague is drying up. It has been quite a time these past days:

- Flooding in Prague. As you may have heard on the news, much of central Europe has been flooded, including Prague. For thousands of people here it has been a complete disaster. Houses, restaurants, dance clubs, stores, apartment buildings and basements have all been filled with muddy dirty water. For some it was quick - in and out. Others soaked for several days. For Peter and I it has not been bad at all. Aside from some transportation difficulties, we have not really felt it. (Rule: If possible, always live on a hill.)

- No hot water. Peter’s parents were just here for a visit. They spent the first week in a small town south of Prague and then two weeks here in Prague. I was with them in this small down for 4 days or so. As we were getting ready to come to Prague, Peter’s father asked me if we always have hot water in our apartment in Prague. I said “oh, yes. Always!” When we arrived home after a three hour bus ride during which we had no seats, there was a large notice on the front door saying “No hot water Aug. 12 - 18″ So we have been doing the stove heated water sponge bath thing for the past week.

- Walking from the airport. The worst flooding occurred on Wednesday. On Thursday, Peter’s parents were flying to Moscow. Our friend and taxi driver, Petr, picked us all up at 8 am and drove us to the airport. Although many bridges across the river were still closed, we arrived at the airport across the river at 8:30. By 9:10 Svieta and Jena had checked in, gone through passport control and headed to their gate to wait for their 10:25 flight. Peter, Petr and I headed back to Prague.
After waiting 40 minutes in a HUGE traffic jam, we turned around, drove back past the airport in search of an alternative route across the river. After about 15 minutes are fairly fast driving, we encountered another block of traffic - one that would prove unsurmountable. At 10:30, we started talking about getting out of the car and walking across the river. Traffic was terrible and drivers incredibly cranky. Police were not allowing cars to cross the river towards the city center. At 10:45, Peter and I left the car and began to walk. Only one bridge was open to Pedestrian traffic. At 11:20, we arrived at Peter’s job, sweating, tired, hungry and late. Svieta and Jena were by this time half-way to Moscow.

So we have just returned from the Saalfeldon International Jazz Festival. It was amazingly, fabulously, gloriously wonderful.

- It took us about 10 hours to get there from Prague. During this time we rode on 6 different trains and 1 bus. The journey back was about the same amount of time, but we took 6 trains and 2 buses. It sounds worse than it was. It was actually a very smooth and easy trip. Usually, there are 3 connections to get from Prague to Saalfeldon but due to flooding in our area we occasionally had to switch to a bus for a short distance.

- We rode in three types of trains - the kind with little compartments, the kind with seats in rows, and to go across the border, we had a little one car train with wooden seats and tables.

- We stayed in a little tent that we bought for the purpose in the field across from the main festival area. We were surrounded by stunningly beautiful Austrian mountains, some with snow on the top.

- In 73 1/2 hours, we saw 24 concerts. We could have seen 25 but we skipped one in order to make sure we got front row seats in the big stadium.

- We always sat in the front row.

- Peter had an official press pass which gave him many privileges. The most important were: to enter the hall from the press door, giving him a head start on the race for good seats; the use of the press bathroom which was much closer to the stage than the regular people bathroom; the ability to take pictures from directly in front of the stage and from the left side of the stage; free admission to all events at the festival.

- We ate only food we bought at the supermarket - meaning that in five days we ate about 30 pieces of bread with cheese and sausage, along with some apples and pears. The only thing we bought from the festival food stands were beverages other than water.

- Peter took 420 photographs.

The music was really great. Several of our favorite musicians from New York were there. We also got to hear a handful of European musicians that we had not heard before. It was super to meet other people knowledgeable and excited about the same kind of music as we are, especially for Peter who knows a tremendous amount about the musicians, the music and their history.

Item 1:

Dear Ant Expert of Katonah:

When I walked onto the balcony this morning I found a strange thing. There were many ants on the wall. One at chin level was standing absolutely still facing left and down. Another at belly button level was facing right and up. And a third was standing still around knee level. There were several moving ants but they were running back and forth in all sorts of directions. As of the time of this writing , they have resumed their regular up and down pattern but there are many many more than usual. What could have occurred?

Disturbed Prague Observer

Item 2:

I killed a bee on Thursday. It was about mid-day, a little after one. I was frolicking around a public swimming pool in Mikulov. There were many bees working on the flowers there, the little white kind of weedy flowers which are too short to be mowed down. It is not very prestigious work for a bee. The pollen is poor and hard to find, the terrain dangerous and unpredictable.

Bee was working on a particularly perilous patch of Weedy Whites. It is just adjacent to a concrete walk way. Giant feet are apt to descend on these flowers regularly and without warning. Many bees refuse to work this area, which makes it a highly profitable place if you are willing to take the risk. Bee was willing. He needed the pollen. He spent the early part of the week goofing off with friends and misdirecting other bees. He was in some trouble with his swarm, although it was nothing he couldn’t make right with one great day.

Just as he started to work, a huge wet mass smashed him into the ground. Quickly he spun to face the attacker. In less than a tenth of a second he had his stinger into the wet softness that was pressing him to the earth. Suddenly he felt himself being swept up as the large mass moved and turned. By the time he was facing the sun, he had thought “so this is the foot they keep warning me about.” Another large object began swiping at his body, pushing him, nudging him. He couldn’t fight back. He couldn’t resist. He lost his stinger and fell down, down, down….

Item 3:

For the first three hours everything was alright. As soon as I sat down to rest however, my foot swelled up so that I was unable to walk properly for about three days. It hurt a little but it itched like the very devil.