"It's snowing on my potato chips."

So a lot of stuff happened over the past few days.

First: Czech intensive started. It's essentially four and a half hours of nothing but Czech every day, which sounds horrific and can be at times especially when we're taught words without vowels, but I really like the other people and the teacher doesn't seem to think that I'm too stupid. I also feel a lot more comfortable now that I can identify words around the city (dům knihy)and not sound completely retarded when I try to order something. I've also perfected a scowl so people think I'm Czech. In fact, when I'm not in a large group, more people speak to me in rapid Czech than English, so points for the fact that I'm kind of blending in.

Second: I SAW LINDA EDER LIVE. It's not like I wore out my copy of the concept cast recording of The Scarlet Pimpernel when I was younger or anything, or that I watched her version of "Man of La Mancha" from My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies a grand total of four thousand times, so seeing her (and meeting her) was no big deal. Not at all. I don't know what work she had done, but she looks great.

PBS was filming a concert special called "Halleluiah Broadway" at this old church in the Jewish Quarter, so Stephanie and I went and took advantage of the free tickets and open bar. I think every American in Europe was at the concert but really, who else would turn out for a show that included Godpsell and Joseph medleys? Only Americans. I sucked it up at the end and went to talk to her, and the picture is heinous and I'm sure I sounded outrageously stupid but it was outrageously cool.

Third: I saw my first opera last night at the National Theatre, Rusalka by Dvořák. I knew it was essentially The Little Mermaid but it was really that plus orgies and death. So, yeah, typical opera. I wasn't too under-dressed in my jeans and basic black everything so I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy new clothes. I'm not a huge fan of Czech opera (to quote Amadeus, "Italian is the proper language for opera. All educated people agree on that.") but all the performers were supremely talented and it was very cool to see a very modern production such as Rusalka. I can't wait until the Mozart operas start at the Estates Theatre, where he premiered Don Giovanni in the 18th century. Thank God for subtitles too or else I would've been totally lost. I don't know if the translation was screwed up or something but there were some pretty hilarious lines sung repeatedly: "I have a beautiful body" (over and over and over) and then my personal favorite, sung by the King Triton character: "My realm is very lovely and there are plenty of goldfish."

Fourth: So the attempt to finally make it to Chapeau Rouge was a complete bust. I was going out with some of the girls from my Czech class, but at midnight, the trams change routes and it gets very confusing. We kind of completely miss Old Town Square (but not for lack of trying) and wind up, oddly enough, at Dejvická, where, coincidentally, the other group of American students live. So around 1 a.m., not knowing anywhere else to go, we crash their dorm, which is an absolute palace compared to ours. THEY HAVE A BAR DOWNSTAIRS. It was absurd. Around 2 a.m. we vacate the premises with the promise that the 51 tram will take us to Old Town but, um, we're heading toward the western edge of the city and that's not where we need to be going. I finally ask two police officers at the back of the tram for directions in not-completely-terrible Czech and they point us in the right direction, which requires a transfer back in the center of town that we just BARELY caught.

Fifth: Today was finally laundry day. The Kolej, in all its Soviet splendor, was notorious for bad laundry facilities, but holy shit, this went to a whole new level. I had to sign up for a time (7 a.m. after getting to bed at 4) so I went into the room, could not figure out the machines for the life of me, and had to drag the lovely Katie out of bed to help me figure it out. Of course the machines have no writing on them, only vague and confusing little symbols, so we had no idea what we were doing. Things didn't wash, the dryer didn't work, and five hours later, I'm sitting with a laundry bag of damp clothes on my bed.

Now for my G/B/S, which I'm going to try to make a feature of on this blog because this trip is all about being productive and not whining too much.

Good: I have clean underwear.
Bad: It took 5 hours and a lot of broken, badly mangled Czech to get.
Solution: LAUNDROMAT.

Oh, there was also a TON of snow last night and I didn't fall! Gold star.

Up next: MUNICH. Deutschland Deutschland Deutschland. JA.