Party in Praha

“May today be all you need it to be. May the peace of God and the freshness of the Holy Spirit rest in your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight, and conquer all your fears. May God manifest himself today in ways you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer, and your prayers answered. I pray that faith enters a new height for you; I pray that your territory is enlarged. I pray for peace, healing, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, true and undying love for God. Amen” ~Devotional from my chuch's e-mail service

Feb 19, 2013 (continued)

I once again made mashed potatoes for dinner. They were easy and tasty, but I was really starting to crave some meat (or at least protein.) I felt like I’d become a vegetarian. The last time I’d had meat had been Friday at the castle. That meant that for the past four days, all I had eaten was oatmeal and potatoes. This wasn’t going to work for four months.

Luckily, I discovered I had some lunch meat left in the fridge that hadn’t expired yet. I couldn’t read the label, but like a feral animal, I tore into the package and started eating it. It tasted wonderful! I ate the remaining six slices while I waited for the potatoes to finish boiling.

After I’d cleaned up dinner, I waited for Ivana to come pick me up. I didn’t know where this club was, so she had offered to get me there. While I waited, I realized how nervous I was. After all, I am “boring” and clubbing has always been outside my comfort zone. I jotted down my thoughts while I waited. Regardless of how I felt, I wanted to go. I figured there was a chance I might even enjoy myself. After all, when I had been Lodge Chief for the Boy Scouts, one of the things we tried to do was create a “club” atmosphere for our new member orientation.

As I was writing the post, I got an email devotional from my church. I laughed as I opened. “This better be something about fear,” I prayed silently. Sure enough, the second line of the prayer addressed fear. In fact, the whole prayer spoke to how I felt: wanting to be free from fear to see something new. I smiled a little, letting out a quiet, “Thanks God.”

Just as I finished writing, there was a knock at my door. I answered it. It was Lad’ka.

“Hello,” she smiled. “I can come it?”

“Sure,” I said, pulling the door open. She stepped into the room.

“You guys have nice rooms over here,” she said. Lad’ka lives in the dorm building across the courtyard.

I went back into my bedroom to get my jacket. “Oh we have time,” Lad’ka said. “We meet Kevin at 10:00 and then go meet Ivana and boyfriend at train station at 10:30. Ivana and Suzanna have to,” she searched for the word. “Prepare themselves?” she said, not sure if that was right.

“That makes sense,” I said.

“You have lots of books on Prague,” she said, seeing the small stack I had next to my bed.

“I do,” I said. “I’ve been trying to read about stuff before I go see it.”

“You have map too?” I showed her the maps I had, both of the tram system and of the city.

“This area here,” she said pointing to a small section south of Prague. “Is called Vysehrad. Is castle famous for,” she paused. “How you say it? The myth or the legend about discovery of Prague.”

I knew what she had meant. I had read the legend that told of a princess who had found the city of Prague, giving it the Czech name “Praha” which in Slavic languages means “Threshold.”

“Very cool!” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “We can go there sometime. Is very beautiful.”

“That would be great!” I said. “I really want to start travelling but I don’t know how to get out of Prague or where I would stay if I went somewhere.”

“Is easy to get out of Prague,” she said. “You can even do day trips to Germany or Austria.”

“Really?” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “Dresden is beautiful city and only take two hour to get to. But don’t go on Sunday. Germany is not open on Sundays.”

We laughed and studied more maps. “Is fun seeing Prague with you guys,” she said. “I feel like tourist in my city. Normally I just like, ‘oh is the Charles Bridge’ but I see things when I go with you guys that I don’t normally see.”

When it got to be 10:00, we went upstairs to get Kevin. “I don’t think he’s on this floor,” I said. “I think we have to go around and use the other staircase.

We did. On the other side of the building, the second floor was already partying. Exchange students were walking around with a beer in each hand. Some carried flasks of vodka, while others were downing bottles of red wine.

We knocked on Kevin’s door but there was no answer. “He’s probably not in there,” someone called to us. “Check down the hall in the party room.”

We went to the party room and asked if Kevin was in there. One guy went in and looked around but didn’t see him.

“Looking for Kevin?” a voice asked us in an Australian accent. “He’s my roommate. I’ll let you in and we’ll see if we can find him.”

We went into Kevin’s dorm and could hear the shower running. His roommate ducked into the wash room and confirmed that he was taking a shower. We waited in the kitchen and shared horror stories about cooking in the dorms. Apparently everyone shared my carbohydrate frustration and we all wished we could find a way to cook more meat.

While we were waiting I realized I forgot my tram card down in my room. I ran back downstairs real quick and grabbed it. Shuffling some stuff around in my pockets so that I wouldn’t have to worry about losing anything, I went back to meet Lad’ka and Kevin. I found them in the lobby but as we left, I realized I’d forgetten my ID. By Czech law, we have to either carry our passport or our residence ID, so I ran back to grab it again.

As we walked out to the tram we all slipped several times on the black ice that had formed. I confessed once again my fears about going to the club. I’d already told Lad’ka when we’d been looking at the maps but it weighed on my mind and made normal conversation rather difficult.

“Do not be nervous,” she said in her thick Czech accent. “You will be fine. I promise.”

Waiting for the tram we talked more about the alcohol in the club. After the previous weeks party, everyone seemed pretty resolved not to drink nearly as much.

“You’re sure you aren’t going to drink?” Kevin asked me.

“I’m sure,” I said. “I’ve seen enough issues with alcohol in my life, and I don’t like the taste of it enough to drink it, I’m just not going to.” They both seemed to admire what I said, but I think they also thought it was a bit strange.

When we got on the tram, Lad’ka started explain how the night time tram schedule worked. Fewer tram lines ran at night and they had different numbers. There were more buses at night, but they weren’t nearly as frequent as the trams were during the day. Lad’ka had copied down a few different routes we could take to get home. All of them would take between 35 and 45 minutes and required a few transfers.

“Don’t worry, when you go home, I will show you this again,” she said.

When we got to the main train station, we got off the 9. Ivana, Lubos, Suzanna, and Samuel were waiting.

“I am sorry your card did not work,” Ivana told me.

“It’s ok,” I said. “I’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

We caught the 26 to the stop for the club. Apparently we got off one station to early, but it was a short walk to get there. As we walked, I took note of various buildings and landmarks so that I could get back on my own if I needed to.

The exchange students had all been given tickets as part of our student fees to get into each of the N2N parties. Ivana, Lubos, Suzanna, and Lad’ka all had to pay.

“Do not be scared,” Lad’ka told me as we waited in line. My face must have been giving me away.

After they paid their fee and we showed our tickets, we had to go through a security frisking. This search was much more thorough and invasive than the one at Heathrow had been. The one guard who searched Lad’ka took her pepper spray which frustrated her for her walk home.

The initial room we went into was for checking coats. It was dark with blue flood lights shining up the walls and onto the ceilings. We checked our coats and I took note of a sign that said “If you lose coat check ticket, you MUST wait until club closes at 5:30am to find your jacket. No exceptions!!!”

I tucked my claim ticket into a deep pocket of my pants. Ivana suggest we go find the toilet before we enter the club room so we all went to find one. As we walked around the room, a woman came up to us and handed us little cellophane wrapped packages. We each took one.

“Don’t eat it!” Lad’ka cautioned. “Is like candy, but gives you energy.” Amphetamines? I threw mine in the trash.

 I waited outside the bathroom while the group went in to relieve themselves. When everyone was back, we walked into the main room.

The initial room was a balcony overlooking the dance floor. The “theme” of this party was Czechs & Slovaks, but from what I could tell, the only decorating was done with the lights (which were red, silver, and blue—the national colors of the Czech Republic.) Jennifer Lopez’s song “On the Floor” was playing and the bass was cranked up to chest-pounding levels.

We walked around the balcony a little before deciding to go downstairs. There was no one dancing yet, so Ivana suggested we immediately go back upstairs. “Usually, there are more people here,” Lad’ka said.

Back upstairs we found a little niche on the balcony with a few white couches to sit on. We’d lost Kevin at the bar, but the rest of us took a seat. Samuel and Suzanna sat on one couch. Ivana, Lubos, and Lad’ka sat on the one perpendicular to them. I sat on the next one down, next to Lad’ka.

Over the loud music, we talked quite a bit. Lad’ka asked me questions about my life back home and I asked about hers. We talked about our parents, our siblings, and our pets. She was graduating this spring and I asked what she was going to do with her degree. She wasn’t sure yet.

To communicate over the music wasn’t a problem for me because I am so used to talking with my hands. I’ve noticed however in Europe that this was not the case. I decided to find out more.

Showing her a thumbs-up, I asked Lad’ka, “Do you ever do this here?”

“This?” she said, and put her thumb up too. “Yes.”

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means like good,” she said.

“How about this?” I asked, showing an “OK” sign with my pointer finger and my thumb.

“I do not know this?” she said confused. She tried to wrestle her fingers into the formation but the muscle memory clearly wasn’t there.

“Back home it means OK,” I explained.

“OK?” she clarified. She finally got it and smiled. “OK!” Suzanna later informed me that it was a vulgar gesture across most of Europe so next time I see Lad’ka I’ll have to let her know (Suzanna did tell me that “the middle finger rules the world” and its connotation is universal.)

Kevin eventually found us. “Are you sure you aren’t going to drink?” he asked me.

“Positive,” I said with a smile. Lad’ka and I were at this point the only ones not drinking.

“I’ll keep asking you, just to ask you, but no pressure,” he said.

The crowd was getting louder of the music. “I wonder how it looks down there,” I said.

“You want to see it?” Lad’ka asked. We walked over and looked over the balcony down to the dance floor. Sure enough, it was packed with people all dancing and enjoying themselves. Thus far, all of the music had pretty much been American pop and most people seemed to know the lyrics to each song.

On the stage by the DJ, a chugging contest had broken out. People were lining up to challenge each other to drink a pint of beer through a straw.

“You get very drunk when you use a,” Lad’ka searched for the word making a tube-like hand gesture.

"Straw,” I offered.

“The thing you drink from?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “When you drink from straw.”

After a few minutes we went back to the others on the couch. Lad’ka went to get a beer and I sat surveying the room. Checking my watch, I was surprised it was already midnight. Oddly enough, I was having a good time. The atmosphere was fun and the people were all very friendly. I felt foolish for every feeling nervous about coming!

Over in the corner of the couches, Samuel and Kevin were debating about smoking inside. The room was smokey, and Samuel was enjoying a cigarette, but it was not by any means the worst environment we’d been in.

Ivana moved over on the couch and talked with me. She told me about the various people from around the world that she’s met as a waitress. “The Americans really are my favorite,” she said. “They are always polite and they smile a lot and thank me. They seem to want to try the culture at least.” This surprised me because it was so contradictory to what I’d observed in the past 11 days.

When Ivana and Lubos got up to go get some more wine, I moved down on the couch and sat next to Suzanna. “Do you want to taste the beer?” Suzanna asked.

“I really don’t like it,” I said.

“It’s lighter here,” she said.

I conceded. “I’ll try a taste.”

I held her glass up to my lips and took in a mouthful. “Hey! Hey!” Kevin said, and Samuel clapped his approval. It burned the inside of my mouth and I had to gag to get it down.

I smiled a little as I set the glass down. “Is good, no?” Kevin asked.

I shook my head and stuck out my tongue. “No. Is not good.”

“You are the devil woman,” Samuel said to Suzanna. “You made poor nice boy try beer.”

When Ivana and Lubos returned, Ivana sat down next to me. “I like this music better after I’ve had some wine,” she joked. The music was still mostly American and the few foreign songs they played I recognized from back home with my friends.

“I use to be rap girl,” Ivana admitted. “I was hard core when I was younger. But next week’s party is Canadian. I hope they play Celine Dion. I love the movie Titanic! Was favorite movie of my childhood.”

We laughed. “I think Leo and Kate both could have fit on the bed board in the end,” I said.

“They could have!” she agreed, getting all excited. Apparently this too was a belief that was shared across cultures.

“I made him try beer while you were gone,” Suzanna told Ivana.

“You like it?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “It’s too strong.”

“Beer is too strong?” Lubos asked. “Vodka and rum are stronger than beer.”

“Maybe you like wine,” Ivana suggested. “You want to taste mine?”

I again took a small mouthful. Once again, gagging it down, it burned all the way to my stomach. My sinuses felt like they were exploding as I swallowed it. “I don’t like wine,” I said and everyone laughed.

“We still need to dance!” Ivana said.

“I’m not very good at dancing,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “All that matters is you have fun.”

As they finished their drinks, Lubos explained to me different types of alcohol, including some so strong they are only legal in the Czech Republic. Once all the beers and wine were finished, we made our way down to the dance floor.

It was a wall of people. No one seemed very coordinated in their movements but they were just shuffling along to the beat of the music. We watched for a few seconds trying to find a path into the action. Suzanna and Samuel lead the way and we started in. The song died down but another one started up. I recognized the beat. It was a French song called “Ma Cherie” and my friends and I listen to it quite a bit back home.

As it started to play, Ivana took my hand and pulled me further into the floor. “Just start dancing!” she said. As she held my hands and swayed my arms back and forth, I started shuffling my feet to match her rhythm. Once we were moving to a beat, Ivana raised my one arm so that I could twirl her. After the first cue, I did it on my own a few more times and we laughed.

When “Ma Cherie” came to an end, I let her go so she could dance with Lubos. Suzanna, Samuel, and Lad’ka were dancing in a circle and I joined them. Kevin appeared out of the crowd and asked me, “So what do you think?”

“Do I look as awkward as I feel?” I asked.

He laughed. “Not at all!”

The song “Scream & Shout” came on and everyone started singing along. I got a little excited and started fist bumping along with the crowd.

When the song came to an end, I noticed that Kevin and Lad’ka were gone. There went my info on how to get home.

“We are going to get drinks,” Samuel said. “Do you want anything?”

“No I’m good,” I said.

“I’m sure you are,” he laughed.

I followed him and Suzanna anyways. Suzanna bought a round of shots while I went back and sat at the couches we’d been at earlier. While I waited, Ivana and Lubos came over and sat down. Checking my watch, I saw that it was 10 minutes till 2am. It was a 45 minute trek home and I had a 9am class tomorrow. I decided to call it a night.

It took a little effort to communicate to the group that I was ready to leave. They had some difficulty understanding that they did not have to leave and I was ok going on my own. Before I left, Ivana helped me find Lad’ka who tore her paper in half so that I would have the station names and transfers to get home.

Ivana and Lad’ka both gave me hugs and wished me luck. “Text me when you get home so I know you ok,” Ivana said. “And call if you have problems.” I promised I would.

And with that, I began my 2am adventure across Prague.