.squashed out

.i'm starting to love Prague again, lot of things to do, many friends, many activities (while Saarbrucken was quite dull from time to time) - I haven't stopped this week so far ;).

Some squash was planned for this evening (thanx to Alex). It was my premiere this year and it looked that way... Poor condition, slow movements, wrong placement of balls. Nevertheless, now after finding people interested in playing on regular basis I hope for quick regaining of lost confidence and speed ;).
One hour took all my energy, but the feelings are positive, I love this sport! So back to writing diploma thesis now, with new fresh ideas I've just got :)...

.time shift with friends

.my very good friend from El Salvador was celebrating her birthday last evening. I was honoured to be among the invited people, so I can write a short report about this event :).
It all started in Pizza Coloseum near Mustek metro station. It's the biggest restaurant with huge signs all around, nevertheless I managed to miss it and be lost for a while ;). But I didn't lose my spirit and finally after 30 minute struggle and search found it.
What to say about minutes that followed? A lot of new faces and friends. And not to forget good Italian food with wine ;). So I've met guy from the USA (successful marathon runner), that is much longer in Prague, than I am, his colleague who speaks fluently Japanese, knows much about Russia and Ukraine (we talked a bit about Khreschatyk, famous street in Kiev...). Nice to know you guys!
Our (only J., L., V., D., J., G. and me were left, names shortened to keep discretion ;) ) second destination was pub Papas (for some coffee, long drinks and chat). Nice place, very inspiring, because everybody started to fold some paper origami ;). It had to be funny, watching us... This way, the time was passing really quickly by and the night has come to the point of time shift ("summer time" has started, at 2 am time was moved to 3 am). The pub was closing and we had to leave. I was home shortly before 4 am, so it was a long night...

I almost forgot, the spoken languages during the night were (no particular order): English, Spanish, Czech, Japanese, Ukrainian, Slovak... Quite a Babylon ;)!

Thanx for the night, everybody and once again Feliz Cumpleaños, amiga!

.febio's back!

.open up some champagne and cheers! One of the most important film festivals in central Europe is back and in full strength again :). Febiofest has started and that means that for 8 days there are plenty of whole world movies to see. So grab your chance and run for some tickets while you still can (32 000 tickets sold in advance-sale!)...

I've chosen 4 films so far, mixing US, Indian, Vietnamese and Slovak cinematography :). Today I enjoyed new independent movie with Ryan Gosling (my favourite young actor), called Half Nelson. World divided between drugs and civil rights history, philosophy... Raw camera, good performance, mixed and disturbed feelings. Slow paced but intelligent film, give it a try!

.boredom in Cambridge

.this day was special. I was for the first time in Narodni divadlo (national theatre) in Prague. Yes, that's true, after 6 years of study in this magnificent city I still haven't visited one of the most famous buildings.

The play was supposed to be interesting... It is named Rock'n'Roll and is talking about Prague's history during normalisation period (1968-1990). It was divided into many small fragments situated in turns in Prague and Cambridge. Yet it was not funny enough to be a comedy, nor thrilling enough to be a drama... And it was looooong (>3h). Probably the main problem was that author is British and that means, that he hasn't lived through any of these events (not that I had, to be honest, I was too young when "velvet revolution" took part to be a part of it). And in this case not even very decent performance by actors can uplift such piece into a quality production...
I think we should talk about this dark period of our history, but maybe satire and shallow dialogues about communism is not the best we can do. This way the people younger than me didn't understand at all what was going on on the stage, people much older probably thought it to be too provoking and attacking. I was quite disappointed by the chance that was not made use of...

Footnote: the music was good ;), all the rock giants from these times (Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, etc.)...

.(snow) party

.yesterday was a crazy day :). Dormitory Hvezda witnessed a big birthday party (celebrating three people birthdays together). For this not to be all, quite heavy snowfall during whole evening changed these parts of Prague into snow kingdom :). To be honest I've not seen that much snow this whole winter...
Evening was not beginning as expected, doorman was quite reluctant to allow entering the building because we didn't even know exact room, where are friends are living. But after all, these details were overcome and all fun could have started. Not exactly, some minor image changes were necessary as entry fee (you'll probably notice not overly natural colours on our heads ;) ).
Lots of people were promising good fun for whole evening/night. Important part of these events is the unpacking of presents. Laughter was unstoppable ;). Then music started, accompanied by dancing (or chatting, depended on people's preferences). With some fantastic wine and other stuff, there was nothing to stop us ;). This is how the party should look like!

Once more: happy birthday, friends!