Friday, July 11, 2014

Prague Blog #5 – The problem with the discount hotel…

        
In case you were wondering, I am writing this after midnight Prague time.  “Why are you writing your blog after midnight?”  You ask. (Or, maybe you’re not asking but I’ll tell you anyway…after all it’s my blog.)  :)    The problem with staying at a hotel that is geared towards student groups….Students!

Okay, so yeah, I’m a teacher (and they would be part of my target audience for the books I’m writing) but that doesn’t mean I want to hear high school students away from supervising adults having get-togethers in the hallway around midnight.  Even with my jet-lagness, they woke me up.  Grrrrrr.    I tried to call the front desk but I think someone must have complained first because the sounds started fading before I got ahold of anyone.  At that point it hit me that my hotel room reminded me of a dorm room. (It also hit me that I'm the grumpy old-person that doesn't like being waken by teens.)

I guess the only benefit to waking up again was that I was able to “finish” The Castle.   I had given up earlier and decided to go to sleep when I started dozing off.  Have any of you had that experience where you are reading something but are really sleepy and your dream collides with the story? *Crickets chirping*  No?  Well, uh, neither have I.  I certainly didn’t dream about vampires trying to get to the castle in Kafka’s novel….      Anyway, I’m just hoping I’m not called on to respond to that portion of the book since it is a bit fuzzy.  I have a feeling that I would be reliving the episode of Friends where Rachal is called on to discuss a book she hadn’t read and mentions Jane Eyre being ahead of its time with robots.  Hmm, I may have to reread that portion. 

Dinner was really yummy this evening.  It was back at my old hotel and was some sort of meat and bread dumplings with an incredible sauce.  One of our tour guides joked that he hoped we liked that combination of food because we’d probably have a lot of it.  We realized that we had no vegetables and no fruit at all.  I think I’ll try to head to my trio of food places again tomorrow to try the salad place that I found since I haven't really had one since being here.  (Yesterday a lady at the food court knew I was American without me really saying anything when I asked for still water or "no gas."  She said all the Americans ask for it but no one else really does.)

The other tour guide (from here) reminded us to be careful on all the cobbled-stoned sidewalks since Americans are used to such smooth sidewalks and she didn't think we'd appreciate the Eastern European hospitals if we got hurt.  Both of the guides seem like they have a great sense of humor...or at least I think she was joking...  Tomorrow (well, technically today for me) we have a half-day of class and a half-day of touring Prague.  The professors really seemed to know everyone, including us newbies that joined this summer.  The MFA has several different options for completely the program.  My plan is to do the summers-only option.


I plan on posting my writing-related learning on my other blog: http://wannabewriterblog.blogspot.com  and keep this one focused on the more day-to-day experiences while abroad.  So, after tomorrow, feel free to look over there if you want to know more of the learnin’ I’m doin’ while here. 

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