New Wonderful Acquisition

So you see here the beast that will be blazing down the streets of Kralupy at a million miles an hour, whizzing here and there, taking corners at speeds unknown to man. Wow, the bike just is thirsty for speed as you can see... :) I like it. I hope that it will work :) It's my new bike if you haven't figured out. It's not really new, it's really old, and the previous owner was an old grandma, so hopefully it will freakin rock out for me just like i'm sure it did for her :)

The tires are flat, so i need to get a pump, then i can ride that hog.

The Strangeness of English on My Front Doorstep

So... last night was probably, quite easily, the strangest evening I've spent in Kralupy in a year and a half, and I would bet that nothing like it would ever happen again, and it was only a matter of an hour. But it was quite strange. You be the judge. So.. here's the story:
At 630pm, while I was in the middle of talking to one of my good friends on Skype, I get a ring on my doorbell. I figure it's somebody who accidentaly rang mine instead of my neighbor's, which happens all the time, since my neighbor is the keeper of the school. So... I was right, and I open the door and the guy starts talking to me. He firsts asks for my neighbor, and i tell him that i'm not him and i'll get him. He says "Wait, maybe you can help... do you speak English well?" I am a little confused at this and wonder if I understood him correctly (since my Czech isn't so good still). And I kinda slowly say "well... yea". I wonder if this guy knows me or something. And then he keeps talking. He tells me that this guy who is with him speaks english and doesn't speak czech and that he is looking for the principal of my school. (I'm still confused cuz i don't know how this guy knows my prinicipal if he doesn't speak czech). So... the Czech guy continues and tells me that since i speak English well (maybe better than he thought), I can translate for the other guy whatever he wants and help him. And I said again "Uh... ok". And then he says "Great, so talk to him". And I say "Ok" and turn to the other guy who is small and all bundled up and has a beard and looks quite homeless. And after a few seconds, he asks (in English finally) "You speak English?" I say again "yea" and the other guy leaves and I'm left to solve the situation. So... apparently, there's this guy, he's actually Italian and he has been biking around Europe or God knows where, for a year or so and he heard about my principal and wanted to sleep at his place. And after an hour of calling everyone I knew to get his number, I couldn't get ahold of him. Bad luck. I was still quite in shock how this strange English speaker had found his way to my doorstep, so he just kept talking and talking and talking. About Italy, travelling, Russians, The Brothers Karamasov, war, love, life, America, etc... And I wasn't speaking so much. I really couldn't. He wouldn't let me get a word in edge-wise. It took him 20 minutes for me to tell him that I wasn't Czech. So... unfortunately, under the conditions with which i live, I couldn't accomodate him either. But I didn't feel horribly bad about it because he made some comments about America (and after a bad day of already talking about America, which isn't somethign I like to do in the first place, I didn't feel like hearing him talk my ear off all evening when I have the fullest of full days on Friday.) So Toto finally left after he had equated himself to Ivan from The Brothers Karamazov which great explanation, and had even pinpointed me to Anyosha (because apparently I CAN'T be Ivan, cuz HE'S Ivan, but it's probably that i COULD be Dmitri). The best of luck to the guy. And apparently he even had literature which he hands out. Before he left, he left me with this little bit of wisdom on a small piece of paper from The Brothers Karamazov which apparently he gives to people he meets:
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself as well as for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love..." And also on the little note is a picture of two people on those two-person bikes, you know.
Hm... so insightful and quite important to the conversation we were having. Some people are just lonely I guess and can never be understood, or they just need someone who is a good listener to listen to them for hours upon hours, and unfortunately, I wasn't one of those people... Maybe next time. I was happy to get back to my normal life safely inside my own apartment though. Interesting. Give me some responses here. Should I have listened to his stories all night? Or did I do a bad thing by letting him go on his way? I'm curious how you think you'd have handled the situation. :)

How to Explain the Life of a Drifter

As we come and as we go, we continue on the path that we have chosen. Do we know why we've chosen it? Sometimes. Do we have any idea of what really kind of repercussions could reveal themselves because of our innate wisdom? Probably not. As I have been here, over 4000 miles away from where i'd called home for 20 years, I have found myself trying to find some kind of stability in my life. Something to grasp as to lead me into the next stage of my life. Some kind of "settlement" if you will. I've been around... almost everywhere in "The West", and yet there're thousands that have done more than I, people I've met who seem to just want to see the world and live 6 months here, 4 months there, then move on... It's fun to see different places and I enjoy it. I'm not sayin that I'm not gonna go anywhere else fun and exotic and interesting. But... after spending no more than 3 years in one place for the last 8 years, I've wondered if I could find some kind of settlement. And not just that, but what it would look like. Everywhere I go, I meet people that are important to me, and I really don't desire to keep moving someplace new and meeting new people and getting new friends, and then leaving them just to do it all over again. It's difficult, and I think I'd like to have my try at something new. But in this case, it doesn't mean a new place, a new environment, a new culture... it means the same place, the same environment, the same culture, the same friends, the same everything, and really see what that does for me. When will I do this? Good question. Where will I do this? Even better question. I left America seeking something new and something unamerican... and i found it... the question is, when'll I start to miss what I'd desired to leave for so long? There seems to be a lot for me to think over. Good thing is, is that I have a bit of time to figure it all out. And I feel I'll need every last bit of that time. So... we'll see... that's really all i can say for now. And after everywhere I've been, after every culture i've seen and gotten a glimpse of, if you'd ask me one thing that i'd learned, I'd tell you this: "Culture doesn't define the person, and the the person vice versa. The person defines the person, and the culture, the culture." Now for many of you, you won't really understand what it means... so i advise you to just think about it for a bit. There's no hidden religious message, or any other for that matter. It is what it is. And that's the random insight from a drifter...

The End of an Era and a Good Satiating Benji Story :)

As the leaves change from dark brown into compost... I've come to find the true inner being of what it means to see life in the eyes of a scavenger.... well... maybe scavenger isn't the best word... actually maybe that whole statement doesn't really apply to anything that i'm going to say, but it just sounded like a good starting point. I have finally completed the final round of Graduating Students' Dances, and boy did it end with a bang. It was really a lot of fun. Maybe the best dance I've been to (by the way, this was officially my 9th Graduating Student's Dance (Maturitni Ples in Czech). It came with the absense of one of my good friends and ex-roommie, Mike, who departed from his 3-4 week sebaticle to Kralupy earlier this week. And the night started and I was talking and laughing with lots of friends, English teachers, and graduating students. In the raffle, I won a wonderful graduation exam prep book for math ( i reluctantly am going to give it to one of my students who will likely get more out of it than i will). These dances are quite different than things in the US. Firstly, It's lots of family members present and just everyone who wants to come, can come. So... it's starts off with the presentation of sashes (theyre kinda like the miss america sashes, but they are just to distinguish the graduating students). This part is maybe my favorite part because it's just so emotional for me. The students (who have been at this schoold for 8 YEARS!) are leaving. It's so sad for me and to imagine it just is a lot for me and it's just so great. Oh yea they are also getting coins thrown at them during this process, which goes to their end of the year party. So... it's great, then they clean the floor and then's the student/teacher dance, which is usually some classic dance, but luckily it was just a normal slow dance, which was awesome. And it was really a great dance i had. And so things go on, and it was just a lot of fun. It's really difficult to describe everything so that you would really grasp the amount of enjoyment that was had by myself. It's really one of the best things of the year here, and it's great to experience. Anyways, just imagine one of the best nights of your life, and that's what happens in Kralupy 3 or 4 times a year :) And as I sat with a student, as we watched the sun start to make it's presence known, I realized that this moment, this night, has gone quicker than any other night of my life i believe and I was quite sad to see it go. But.. who knows, hopefully there will be more experiences like this in my future.... I hope so, and I hope you can experience something like it also. But nonetheless, the evening ended and I had to make the trek home to my poor doggie who had had a full night's rest and wanted to go and have fun and all i wanted was to go to bed. But he was good for me for a few hours which was enough i think

The next story happened a few weeks ago which involved Benji and the BigBad Bear of Kralupy. So... when i take Benji for walks, he always loves these and he's tryin to get me to go faster and faster and i have to always tell him to slow down and just have fun. But then one day, we were walking and this lady was going into her house and the gate was open and her huge mammoth beardog got out and he's probably liek 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide and he just walked casually over to me and Benji and then all of a sudden he just tried to eat Benji whole, head first. He started eating Benji and he tried to best to fend him off, but the other dog was just too much for him, and the beardog's owner was about the same size as the beardog, so she didn't help much, so it took me about 20 seconds to actually get in there and actually pick him up and walk away, and you wouldn't think that it was Benji after that. Benji was walking so slow and he was so quiet and a different dog after that. Now he's the same ol dog he's always been, but everytime we go walking we walk by this place and everytime, Benji always run to the other side of the street as to not approach and disturb the Beardog of Kralupy. It was quite a sight to behold and I am surprised that Benji still has a head, and actually came out without any injuries... just to his ego that he's not the head hancho (is that the correct spelling? I've never actually written this word before) anymore. But all is well and good times have been had by all. Til next time, we'll keep the good times a rollin. Peace

There's Magic In His Eyes

Day in and day out, I tend to wake up to the squealin of my pooch sad and lonely. Some days it's earlier than others, but it's definitely always before my alarm clock strikes the lucky time of 630ish (usually it's about 430), and thus i take the little dude in the living room and he sleeps on another chair and i on the couch for the remaining "sleepy" hours of the morning. Sometimes i just stare at the little mut and just think "what can he possibly be thinking" Why is he always trying to put something in his mouth that he shouldn't have, and then why does he go and get it again right after i tell him no! Ugh... it was the best of times, it was the worst of time... Why did i get a dog again? :) always snoring, barkin, pissin, disrespect, you name it, the list goes on and on. But he's actually really cool and i love the little guy. We have fun daily and he keeps me company a lot of the time. Right now... with the absence of anyone really really important in my life, like physically in my life, (don't take it personally anyone, i just mean like family or some special lady) I see this little 4 legged "thing" as the center of my universe :) ok.... so maybe not quite so, but he's a pretty dang important little dude. Maybe sometimes I don't like him droolin all over me or jumpin on my sometimes, and maybe after some thoughts that this dog is too crazy for me... I think I'm quite satisfied with the decision I've made. And... it's true... maybe he isn't the smartest dog. But I think he's still quite clever. Sure he wants to kill all the other dogs he sees on our walks, but he gives so much love and always wants to be close to you. And if he's not, then he's sad. And I really don't understand the people that really don't like him. I know some people (without names) and it pisses me off a bit. I'm gonna leave it at that, just know that it peeves me to great heights. He sleeps a lot and really doesn't cause many problems. But of course if you're hangin out for the first time with The Man, then expect your leg to get humped time and time again. But there's light at the end of the tunnel, cuz if you hang out enough, then he realized that you aren't gonna be his toy. So... but seriously... just look at that cute little guy. He's had a rough history and he deserves to enjoy life a little bit. I hope to be able to show him a good little life and hopefully he'll be able to teach me a bunch of different things also. :) Hope you have a nice day. Talk to you soon.