Prague Journal

Tuesday, March 8, 2005.

I took the morning to run leftover errands from yesterday (rent payment deposit, car rental reservations, etc), attend the Tuesday morning Czech class at VŠE, and chat briefly with Eva and Martin. In the afternoon, Matt and I went to the International School of Prague (ISP), where he attended sixth grade seven years ago. The only teacher of his who is still there is Tony Ackerman, the music teacher, who has been there for 20 years! The school is celebrating its 55th year this year, having started in one small room in the American Embassy in 1948, moving to its new facility in 1997. When Matt attended, there were about 450 students. This year it’s close to 680. Next year they will be at capacity with over 700 students. They now have an IB (International Baccalaureate) program, due to the increasing student/parent demand and to the competitiveness of college admissions. Perhaps the biggest change we witnessed was the increased security. We had to get “visitor” badges and be escorted past security. In other words, we couldn’t have just gone to look around, we needed to have a specific reason/person to be there. In all other respects, the school looks the same. Once past the guard at the front desk, everyone is very friendly and the students and many teachers linger at the school long after the last class ends.
This evening we took Matt to dinner at the Opera Garden restaurant before seeing Dvořák’s “Dimitrij” at the State Opera. The opera is in Czech, of course, but there were English “overtitles” so we could follow the lyrics. The story is based “on the turbulent times in Russia around 1600, about a self-proclaimed sovereign, a simple man of the people who managed to elevate himself to the tsarist throne and was resolved to lead the Russian people out of horrible chaos and misery through his courage and his wisdom as a statesman… a continuation of the story of Pushkin’s and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godenov … based on historical reality.” The set and costumes were splendid, with lots of pageantry and a revolving stage that made the evil plotting particularly sinister.

posted by JWinn @ 11:22 PM