Prague Journal

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Among her other talents, Charlotte makes scones to die for. We had breakfast of scones and preserves and talked about lots of things, avoiding US politics for the most part. Since she’s lived here for many years and speaks the language fluently, she is a wealth of information. She explained my bank account charges and policies better than the tellers at the bank. She and Bruce are renovating an old building that will become 20 large apartments, so they are in the throes of financing and final permits. The plans look lovely. The building should be nearly finished before we leave next summer.
After years of e-mail correspondence, I finally met Mitchell Young, a past teacher and administrator at the Anglo American College in Prague. He and the former AAC President who was ousted earlier this year are setting up a new school, sponsored by the University of Northern Virginia, a small private school near Washington, D.C. The facilities are on the third floor of the YMCA building, a suite of several offices, some of which are being converted to classrooms. Unlike the AAC, UNV has money so there is nice furniture and a computer lab. Getting the university launched, however, was not so slick, since the Czech requirements for a business license require a bank account and the bank requires a business license in order to set up a commercial account, both of which are required for the building lease, and of course one needs an address in order to set up the bank account, and so on... Mitchell has been here since 1998, so he has lots of Kafkaesque stories to tell.
My day, on the other hand, went incredibly smoothly, with lots of little errands taken care of. First, I went to the shoe repair shop near the Powder Tower where I had brought my shoes to have the soles re-glued. The shoes were fine – they’ll now last several more months ($2 total). I brought Rick’s shoe that also had its sole coming apart, but the cobbler said that it could not be repaired because of the differences in the leather upper and the rubber sole that had separated. Undaunted, I went to the shoe repair stand near Tesco and asked there if the shoes could be repaired. The man there said that, for 80 CZK (about $3.50) he could fix it. I’ll find out tomorrow if his adhesive works.
On my normal way home, I stopped by the fruit market at Hradčanská and saw the most beautiful cauliflower, compelling me to buy it. One can always find cauliflower, onions, and potatoes. Today I also found some pears and oranges. Rick made omelets for dinner and we had strawberries (from yesterday’s outing) and ice cream for dessert. Not exactly roughing it. On the other hand, the International Herald Tribune observed that the US Dollar is back on its downward course, which makes living here increasingly more expensive.

posted by JWinn @ 10:21 PM