And once again the weekend is over.
I had a wonderful time. The first Feast Friday went over very well. Ten of us met in the dorm lobby and departed to a restaurant called Divadelní sklep Nekonečno (Cellar Theater Infinity). Luckily two of the ten knew enough Czech to help the rest of us order dinner. The restaurant itself was beautiful - all dark blue with back-lighted pictures from various plays and theater productions. The ceiling was a blanket of little lights like stars. I'm a sucker for little lights.
After dinner, which seemed to last for hours, we moved on to a little "pub" called The Hobit. It's a smoker's den of sorts with a Lord of the Rings theme. Coming down a curved staircase into foggy rooms filled with young people, Foosball tables, and 90s music, our hopes were high. Maybe too high, however, because the owner came to take our order and was unbelievably wasted - and possibly disliked foreigners. It quickly became one of those experiences that is funny in retrospect, but you wouldn't be too eager to repeat. I decided it was just the place to try Absinthe for the first time though, and that turned out to be a good choice.
The thing about Absinthe is that there's this big mythology about it - but it's all pretty much bullshit. While it's not going to get you high, it does taste delicious. It's anise flavored - so it tastes a lot like candy or something. Some of the girls ordered "punch" which looked like regular iced tea but was warm with fruit in it, served in a big pitcher. After The Hobit the group split and so we headed to another bar down the road. It was just a regular Starobrno place, common around the city, but my friend asked if I wanted to do shots of Becherovka with him - a very tasty Czech liquor that's like pumpkin pie. I'm still developing my Euro Alcohol Tolerance however, and after the shots I couldn't even finish my beer. The night came to a close and we walked back to Vinarska a fairly happy, albeit sleepy, bunch.
On Saturday E - a girl from Germany who I met the night before at dinner - suggested we go to the Cinema Mundi festival. It's a cinema festival that's been going on for a couple weeks. We decided to see When We Leave, a movie about Turks in Germany (Germany's largest minority) and the struggle of a Turkish woman who loves her family as much as she fears them. Despite being promised English subtitles, there weren't any, but luckily (for me, and maybe only me!) Ellen was able to translate in whispers as the film progressed. A quarter way through, the film simply cut out, but was restored in due time. I couldn't help but think what a disaster this would have been in the US. At least one person would have shouted an obscenity, and who knows how many would have marched out asking for their money back. But everyone sat very quietly, in the dark, and just waited. It was kind of nice, like they knew it was going to be okay.
Two people I met this weekend, E and M, really fascinated me. E is studying Central European language and culture and M is doing a lot of fancy engineering things I don't really understand, but sound amazing. E and I talked about the natural transformation of culture and language; how these are not and have never been static entities and holding on so desperately to "the way things were" is futile because everything is influenced by something else. There is no such thing as purity when it comes to our identities. M talked about losing his grandmother just two weeks ago, and how he was unable to see her for the past 8 years because of the conflict in Gaza. We talked about health care and college and measurements of intelligence - it was refreshing. I mean, I love escapism as much as the next person and a good smoke never hurt anybody, but combine intellectuals with substances and it's beyond powerful...I'm still looking forward to a game of Drunken Chess...
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