Prague Journal

Friday, February 25, 2005.

I was up early and so was Eva. Her revisions were waiting for me in my e-mail inbox, along with several other “urgent” messages. I only had time to print out what she had done – and what I had done last night – to read on the tram on the way to her office. I also used the tramride to read the material for the case presentation that I was scheduled to give for Martin’s class at 11:00.
I arrived at VŠE at 10:30, and Ondra was waiting to set up the video camera in the classroom. Staňa, Veena, and Eva came to the class as well. Staňa and Veena participated in the discussion; Eva observed the students (and me). There were about 14 students in attendance, and the discussion was lively with all except three students participating in the discussion. Some had excellent English; most had halting English but obviously good comprehension and good ideas to share. All in all, it was a successful class – judging by the students involvement and comments I received afterward. I was especially pleased to hear Eva and Staňa’s compliments!
Immediately after the class, Eva and I went to her office and set to work on our revisions. She had done much more than I had thought, so we were in much better shape to put nearly-finishing touches on the manuscript and send it today (the submission deadline is the 28th of February, but I leave town early tomorrow morning). We worked until 2:30, at which point I headed home – stopping only at the bakery to pick up a cake for this evening’s dessert – to do further editing (a bit of formatting and English-language tweaking), which I barely got finished –and sent—at 5:30. I was out the door to Shabbat services at 5:45, caught the 5:46 bus, ran to catch the metro (subway) and was in the Spanish Synagogue in record time, arriving by 6:15. Whew!
The service was lovely – and crowded – as usual. There were about 50 people, 16 of whom are students doing a semester of study in Prague as part of a CET program. CET Academic Programs is a private study abroad organization based in Washington, D.C. that has been designing and administering educational programs abroad since 1982. They offer study abroad programs in Vietnam, China, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The programs specialize in integrating students into the society in which they are living by taking them on local outings and to cultural lectures and programs. CET currently sends more than 400 American students abroad annually.
After the service, Rick and I had dinner with Howard and Marketa at their flat. Marketa prepared a spectacular salad and baked chicken, Howard uncorked some nice Chardonnay, and we had a relaxing meal. After dessert (I had bought a fresh-fruit cake and Marketa whipped some cottage-cheese and cream), we looked at the photos they had taken on their recent trip to South Africa. The photos were dazzling, and brought back memories of our trip there seven years ago.
Back home, I’m copying files, printing stuff I need to take with me on the train tomorrow, and packing my suitcase (and writing this blog entry). I need to leave at 6am to meet Veena at the train station. Howard suggested that I call a cab instead of taking the tram, which would save – at most – a half hour. It never occurred tome to call a cab. The tram is much more reliable! Unless I oversleep, I’ll surely get to the train station on time.

posted by JWinn @ 11:17 PM