Lions and Tigers and Bears

“Statistics prove that you’ve one birthday, one birthday every year. But there are 364 unbirthdays, and that is why we are all gathered here.” ~Alice in Wonderland, Disney 1951

March 20, 2013
Well tonight was just filled with fear-conquering experiences.

To start off, I know it sounds ridiculous, but the idea of going to the birthday party scared me. I was touched that Thibaut had invited me, but his guest list was largely friends from back home and a few others he’d met at orientation. It was a nice offer, but I felt uncomfortable being part of the celebration.

And on Monday night as I told Bryan about the unease this invite was causing me, I instantly knew I had to go. It had been a few weeks since I did something that truly got me out of my comfort zone. Going to dinner with a group of strangers certainly qualified; so I decided to clear my usual schedule of blogging to join them. As soon as I did, I was excited. I feel silly for saying it, but going to the birthday party was going to push myself, and that’s what this trip had become all about…right?

Thibaut messaged everyone today on Facebook saying that the plan was to meet at the Winston Churchill statue by school at 7:30pm. I was working on some stuff for the blog—making notes about my interrupted nap and subsequent walk around Wenceslas Sqar—when I got a second message from him asking me if I wanted to ride into town with him to meet his other friends for the party tonight. I accepted the offer and went to meet him in the lobby.

When he came out, he was with Lourenco. “How are you?” Thibaut asked.

“I’m good,” I said, shaking hands with both of them. “Happy Birthday! Do you feel older?”

“No,” he laughed. “Twenty-four is not that important. Twenty-five will feel different because it is a quarter of a century.”

I’d never thought of it that way.

“We need to wait for my friend from Korea,” he said. Just a few seconds later, we were joined by a young Asian girl.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said.

“Is okay,” Thibaut said. “We can go now.”

As we walked outside, I introduced myself. “I’m Zach.”

“Seulki,” she said.

“Once more?” I asked.

“Seulki,” she repeated, laughing a litte.

“You’re going to have to help me with that,” I said.

“Se-ul-ki,” she said, breaking it down. “Try it.” I did. “That is correct,” she said. “You got it! It’s hard with American accent.”

I laughed.  “Someone actually told me last week that I have ‘the most American accent’ they’ve ever heard.’”

Thibaut agreed. “You do, but I think you have the best one. You sound like an American but is understandable too.”

We got on the 9, but a few stops later, the conductor came through and told us “Last stop, everyone off.” It appeared as though that tram was out of service for the evening, as it switched off its lights and pulled into an alley off to the side of the tracks.

“How was the club last night?” I asked Thibaut as we waited for another. He’d invited us to go with him to a French club the night before. I had declined since I was having dinner with Keiko.

“It was okay,” he said. “Not very French. Mostly international music and too many people.”

"Next week we are going to Asian party!” Seulki said. “You all should come!”

Another 9 came along soon and we rode it to school. Hopping off, we walked up to the Churchill statue where five or six more of Thibauts friends were waiting. The only one I recognized was Lee. Leo apparently had gone to Vienna for the week.

“I think we should go to Krakora Pub,” Lee said.

“Is there food there?” Lorenco asked.

“I don’t know,” Lee said. “But there’s beer and it’s cool.”

“Do you want to go there, Thibaut?” One of the French girls asked.

“It is fine,” he said. “Lead the way.”

As we walked up the side street, Lee fell back to talk to me. “How have you been?” he asked.

“I’ve been good, how about you.”

"Very good,” he said. “Do you have any trips planned?”

“I am going to Berlin this weekend,” I said. “My buddy has planned it.”

“Very cool,” He said.

“And then my biggest trip is Spain over Easter.”

“I went to Spain before I came to Prague!” he said. “It is beautiful. I fell in love with the city and I want to go back and see more.”

“I kind of screwed up,” I said. “I am working with a travel agent and I got a good deal on the hostel and a bunch of museum tours. All of the tours are on Friday, so I booked the hostel for Thursday night. I meant to buy a 7pm plane ticket, but I accidently bought a 7am plane ticket.”

He laughed. “That’s okay! It is a very easy city to get around. I went by myself around Barcelona and I didn’t have any trouble for the days I was there.”

Lee was the only one who knew how to get to the pub, and since he and I had been talking, we overshot it and missed the turn. He yelled up to the group and we all turned around. When we made the turn, Lourenco stopped to write down the name of the street. “Our friend Fillip will join us,” he said. “I have to text him directions.”

While I waited with him to get down the street name, I turned and took in the view of the city.

“Wow!” I said. “Look at that!” On the horizon was Prague Castle all lit-up. In the landscape between were the Astronomical Clock, Lady of Tyn Church, Wenceslas Square, and the Charles Bridge, also glowing in midnight splendor.

I tried to take a picture, but it was too dark and the images came out fuzzy. As I put away my camera, we noticed we had lost sight of the group up ahead.

Walking down the hill we found a bar about halfway down the block.

“Maybe this one?” Lourenco said. We stepped inside.

The entryway reeked of marijuana. There was a stairway going down into the pub. I followed Lourenco down and sure enough, we saw the group taking a seat. When we approached, Thibaut noticed there weren’t enough seats.

“Maybe we should move to that table guys.” He pointed at a larger table that could easily seat 20 or so people.

Relocating, I sat on the booth side of the table, between Lorenco and Seulki. Across from us were a French girl and another Korean boy. Thibaut, Lee, and the other two French girls sat on the other end of the table.

The waitress came right away to take drink orders. Most of the group ordered the bar’s home brewed beer (called Fenix---pronounced like “phoenix.”) There were a few who ordered the traditional Czech Pilsner. I ordered orange soda.

“You don’ t drink alcohol, right?” Lee asked from down the table.

“Nope,” I said.

“Are you Muslim?” the French girl across the table asked me.

“No!” I said, holding my little wooden cross out from around my neck. “Christian.”

“Oh,” she said. “So it’s not a religious thing?”

“No. I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with alcohol and, I personally don’t like the taste of it enough to drink it,” I said.

Everyone got a little quiet. Being sober is real buzz-kill at a birthday party.

“That is good!” The one French girl said.

“Is certainly healthier,” one girl added.

“And very moral,” someone else added.

It made me feel kind of good.

The menus were hanging on clipboards on the walls. When we took the one over our table down, it revealed a very odd painting. It appeared to be an oversized grey rabbit having very intimate relations with a disturbed sheep.

“What is that?” Thibaut said. I turned to look at it, as did everyone else.

“That is…weird,” one girl said.

“Is gross,” someone else added.

“It doesn’t happen in my country,” I added, and everyone laughed.

There were only three menus and they were all in Czech. Lourenco and I shared one but we couldn’t read it. It appeared as though they did four specials each day, and had a few entrees available all the time. We recognized that one of the specials was something made with chicken and another one was made with potatoes. Beyond that, it was all Greek—er, Czech—to us!

When the waitress came back to take our orders, she told us they had cheeseburgers as a special tonight. Everyone except for Seulki and I held up their hand to order one. She ordered something from the “salaty” (salad) section of the menu. I pointed to a random Czech dish under the “steaky” (beef) portion.

“I’m Jade,” the Korean boy across the table introduced himself.

“Zach,” I said. The French girl across from us also introduced herself, but I don’t recall her name.

“I have a birthday card,” one of the French girls sitting by Thibaut announced. “You can all write something. She passed it to Lourenco and I.

“Do you have a pen?” we asked each other at the same time. Everyone around the table laughed. The girl who had brought the card produced one for us.

“How old are you, Thibaut?” Jade asked.

“Twenty-four,” Thibaut said. “And you?”

“In Korea I am twenty-six,” Jade said. “Here I am twenty-four.”

“That must have been one heck of a plane ride,” I said. He laughed.

Suddenly, a door behind us opened. A rough looking woman—she was probably in her thirties, but her face and skin looked aged—came walking in. At first, we thought she was walking a dog on a leash. Animals in restaurants are quite common here.

In fact, she was walking a mountain lion!

“Oh my GOD!” one of the girls screamed and jumped across the table. The woman took the animal into a back room.

“I heard about this place!” I said. “Some of the buddies told me about a bar that has a puma walking around.”

We all got up and went out to the patio where the female puma was. Seulki made clicking sounds with her tongue, and the giant cat emerged on a platform high above.

On several fourteeners, I have worried about being stalked by a mountain lion. I had a teacher once tell me about a mountain lion that followed him for over three miles on a backpacking trip. They are intelligent creatures and I hope to never be confronted with one in the wild.

It watched us from its platform above us. There was a barbed wire fence between us and the animal, but it was not a completely secure looking fixture.

“How is it called in English?” Seulki asked me.

“Puma,” I said.

We all tried to take pictures but it was too dark and none of mine turned out. As we walked back to our table, we erupted into a conversation about the differences between a puma, a cougar, a jaguar, a leopard, a panther, and a cheetah. Some of them were obvious while others were less so.

“What is the difference between a puma and a cougar?” Thibaut asked me.

Without thinking, I responded, “One is a giant cat and the other is a creepy old woman.” As soon as I said the words, I realized they were probably out of place and out of line. Surprisingly, everyone laughed.

“You know what I mean by cougar?” I asked.

“Why yes,” Thibaut said. “It is slang for an old woman who dates younger men.”

That wasn’t something I expected to see cross cultures. I suppose American television is probably to thank for that contribution to the world.

We continued talking until our food arrived. Lourenco called Fillipe to tell him where we were. When he said, “We are at the pub with the wild beast,” Fillipe immediately knew our location. Beast was a good term for it to. When they took the male puma back out to the patio, I couldn’t believe how huge it was.

My food was the first to arrive. When it did, I got yet another surprise for the evening.  Two plates were set in front of me. One contained several slices of toast. The other was larger and contained six small piles of various spices, with a piece of meat in the middle. The meat was about the size of a hamburger patty, was completely uncooked, and had a raw egg cracked over the top of it.

“Oh!” Thibaut said. “Is like steak tartar.”

The look on my face must have been priceless. “You don’t like it?” one of the French girls said.

I tried to save face. “It’s not what I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?” Thibaut asked.

“More of a…something cooked,” I said. I really hadn’t had any expectation but this had never crossed my mind.

“We eat a lot of raw meat in Korea,” Seulki said.

“And in France,” Thibaut said.

“All you eat is raw meat,” Lourenco joked Thibaut. “And snails.” Everyone laughed.

“Well,” Thibaut said. “Try it!”

“Oh,” I said, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I can wait for you guys to get your food. Not like it’s going to get cold, right?”

They all laughed. “You don’t like it do you?” another girl asked.

“I’m excited to try it,” I said. I faked my best smile, but even I wasn’t convinced.

“You look nervous,” Seulki said.

Apparently looks aren’t that deceiving.

When everyone’s food came, there were more surprises all around. The cheeseburgers turned out to be made of chicken. Seulki’s salad, also turned out to be a pasta salad instead of a vegetable dish.

“Well,” Thibaut said. “Bon appetite!”

I hesitated a little as everyone around me started eating their burgers. I was surprised that they ate the sandwiches with a fork and knife. Lee was the only one who picked up the burger to eat it. I thought for a second, weighing my options.

I am more of a medium-rare kind of guy. I like my steak pink, but generally warm in the center. Being afraid of uncooked meat is rational, right? I mean there are all kinds of food borne illnesses right? Salmonella, Ecoli, tapeworms. These things are serious right? And I’m not in the US so if I get sick, I don’t know what I’d do. Plus, this thing is covered in blood. That’s just nasty.

At the same time, I had to chuckle. I had been scared about coming to this birthday party, and so far, it had turned out to be a lot of fun. I was scared the night I went to the club, and that turned out to be great. I had been scared of getting on an airplane just over a month ago and this trip had been so life changing.

Gingerly, I took a knife and cut a piece of the meat.

“You have to mix it in with the egg,” Thibaut said.

“I’m working up to that,” I said spreading the small slice I’d taken onto a piece of bread. Staring at it, for a few seconds, I felt my taste buds quake with fear. I raised it to my mouth and took a bite.

It was amazing! I couldn’t believe how rich and tender the flavor was.

“Wow!” I said. “That is really, really good!”

“You like it?” Thibaut said.

“I really like it!” I said.

I mixed the egg and meat together and tried a bite of both. It was even better! I mixed in some of the spices and each one made it better and better. The rich flavor was intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough of it. It did eventually become too much. I didn’t finish all of it, but it was only because I got too full. What I didn’t eat got passed around and several people tried a few bites.

After I finished eating, I admit, I got a bit antsy. The American in me figured that once the food was done and the plates were cleared, it was time to go. Apparently, this wasn’t the case. We all sat around talking.

And the conversation was great. We sort of broke off into two groups at the table. Thibaut, Lorenco, Seulki, Jade, Fillipe, and I were talking at one end, while Lee and the French girls were talking on the other end.

The group I was with asked me questions about different American accents. In a very politically incorrect fashion, I tried to mimic both a Northeastern and Southern accent. They told me the southern was the most entertaining. “You sound just like them,” Thibaut said. They also asked how British English was different and when I tried to demonstrate, they all said they were impressed.

I felt very awkward. Here I was with a group of strangers, doing impressions and funny voices. I would have been nervous back home to do this with my friends. But somehow it was fun. I couldn’t tell if I was being a rude American by hogging the conversation, but Seulki reassured me. “Your voice sounds just like the American tapes I used to listen to when I learned English,” she said. “I feel like I am studying English when I talk to you.”

“I was afraid to talk to Americans when I got here,” Fillipe said. “Since they speak English natively, I was afraid to make a mistake.”

“What is ‘ebonics’ in America?” Lorenco asked. “Don’t the people from Africa talk differently?”

That one was a bit harder to explain.

Changing subjects a bit later, Lorenco asked Jade, “How does it work like this in Korea? Two ages?”

“When a baby is born, they are one, because they have already been alive for one year inside the mother,” Jade explained. “Then on the first of the year, everyone turns a new age. So if you are born in December, you are born one and on January first, you become two. That is what happened to me.”

“Do you still celebrate a birthday?” I asked.

“Yes,” Jade said. “We celebrate the day we were born with our families on our birthday, our age just changes at the start of the year.”

“How old are you?” I asked Seulki.

“Twenty-two in Korea and twenty-one here,” she said. “And you?”

I chuckled. This conversation was becoming more and more fun each time I had it.

“How old do you think I am?” I asked. In the past weeks, I’d gotten guesses ranging from twenty-four to twenty-eight. No one had come within four years of my actual age.

“Twenty-six or twenty-seven?” she said.

“No,” the French girl across the table said. “He is probably thirty.”

That one made me feel a little old!

“I’m nineteen,” I said.

Seulki cackled with laughter and covered her mouth. The bar went quiet and everyone turned to look at us.

“Only nineteen?” she said.

“Yep,” I smiled.

“Why did you decide to study abroad?” Jade asked.

Before I could answer, the other part of the group stood up to leave.

“We are going to head back to the dorm,” Lee said.

“Do we want to stay here or go back?” Thibaut asked. “Or go into town?”

We all agreed we were ready to go back so we went up to the bar to pay. There was a little confusion splitting the bill, and mine was certainly the most expensive ($11 USD for the steak tartar and two orange sodas.)

Seulki, Jade, and I talked more walking back to the tram.

“Have you ever visited Asia?” Seulki asked.

“I haven’t,” I said. “I think it is next on my list. I hadn’t really been outside of the country before. I went to Canada and the Bahamas once, but after coming here, it doesn’t feel like those places count.”

They hadn’t heard of the Bahamas before, so I tried to describe it to them. They told me about how they had to prepare to come abroad and the extensive English training they had to go through.

“Talking to you feels like talking to the man who gave us the listening test,” Jade says. “I have to listen closely to what you say because your accent is so heavy.” We also talked about the weather quite a bit, comparing the drizzly days of Prague to the hot humidity of Seoul.

On the tram, the two of them took a seat in the back while Lourenco, Fillipe, and I stood by the door. We talked about music quite a bit, specifically American bands. They had recently heard the song “American Pie” in a pub but not the Don McLean version. They were disappointed by the original when they found it on YouTube and wanted to know if there was another version. I didn’t know of any famous covers but told them that one probably existed. I also told them about the two Portuguese songs I knew but they told me they were both from Brazil and not Portugal.

Back at the dorm, I felt very proud of myself. I’d gone to a social event that made me uncomfortable and had fun; I’d stared at a mountain lion with wide eyed wonder; and I’d eaten a dish that two months ago would have freaked me out!

Who says that everyday life can’t be an adventure!