Prosim, Pivo a Brambora

Today I finally ate at the cafeteria!! We have tried to eat there before, except you have to go to the dorms near the University downtown to put money on your card. We were practically kicked out last time. . somewhat traumatic. We found our way to the downtown office and coaxed a nice Czech student to translate to the lunch lady what we needed done.

The system at the cafeteria is really efficient. Each day, they have like 5 or 6 meals available. They only make a certain number of each meal, so you have to select which meal you would prefer at a kiosk prior to getting in line. You can even select your meal the day before, in order to ensure you will get the meal you want. Otherwise, the good meals are sold out, and you end up with rice and mystery meat. I had something like a chicken nugget sandwich with chocolate milk and a banana. Meals cost on average like $1.50.

I had signed up for a Czech "buddy," last week. We finally met up last night. We went to a really interesting pub. It only had four tables. The structure was like a small cavern with brick walls. Each table had it's own candle, but it was otherwise very dark. A place for revolutionary meetings and dark deeds.

My buddy's name is Jirka (Sherka). He has almost completed his degree in Philosophy and Film making. He studied abroad last semester in Amsterdam. He said that he really enjoyed it, and it impressed upon him how important international relations are. He is very interested in American music and film. He said in his e-mail, he was told that I was a guy. He knew that I was a girl however, from my name, because he had seen Natural Born Killers. I thought that was funny. His father also drives trains for a living! I told him that our fathers should hang out. . but I don't think my dad speaks any Czech or Russian, so this would be difficult.

*Jordan - Jirka says that there are specific film classes at Palacky for religious filmmakers. He said there are several really great Russian religious filmmakers who made films even though the communist regime forbade it. I'll get their names later.

Czech is a really difficult language to pick up. As I am typing on a computer set to English key strokes, I can't add all the appropriate accent marks. As none of you read Czech though, I don't think it will matter.

Prosim = Please, How can I help you?, Hello. . etc.
Pivo = beer
Brambora = potatoes
Dobry den = formal way to say hello
Dobry rano = formal way to say good morning
Kolik stoji. . = how much is. . .
Ja jsem Mallory = I am Mallory
To je nesmysl = that is nonsense

1. jeden, jedna, jedno (changes gender)
2. dva, dve, dve
3. tri
4. ctyri
5. pet
6. sest
7. sedm
8. osm
9. devet
10. deset

Most adjectives change endings depending on what you're talking about. This makes saying pretty much anything really difficult. Usually the stem of the words stay the same, but not in all cases. I can't wait to get to Austria and Germany to try out a language I know a little better!

Well I have to go to the travel agent to book my Egypt trip. . more later!