• Summer

    a new year

    happy new year! this year i didn’t feel much pressure to ring in the new year in any particular style. we went to our friend (and czech teacher’s) house in a nearby village on the afternoon of the thirty-first and had a frosty walk before we made it back to the house for punch, snacks, and chatting. in my memory, i cannot remember trying slivovice before (i know) until that day and i quite liked it. after many drinks and coming back home at a reasonable hour, i just couldn’t summon the ire to go out “on the town”, and even better that we could see loads of fireworks from…

  • Summer

    czech reads

    one of my favorite things to do when in another country is to voraciously read the best literature of that place. it really puts you better in touch with not only the culture and history, but you can bet every czech has also read those books so it gives you something to talk about. here are some of my favorite czech reads over the last year… hrabal is a super eccentric and beloved twentieth century author who often writes about life in prague during the communist era. published in 1976 but not officially until 1989 due to censorship, we learn about the story of an old drunk working as a…