Až Dneska

Thursday, October 7^th, 7:02 PM

  My mind is worn out. Dr. Popelka invited me to visit a couple of courses this afternoon at the Univerity, so I spent about four hours trying to comprehend spoken academic Czech. It went better for the first course than the second – it was about the development of nationalities in the Czech lands, and the professor was a character. She was also quite apologetic about her lack of a perfect knowledge of my language, which seems to occur quite often here. In some ways, it's very strange – it never seems to occur to them that I ought be the one apologizing for being here in the Czech Republic and not knowing the language well enough. In any case, it was at the least a good language exercise, and I was actually surprised at how much I grasped. I'm definitely still at the 'passive consumption' stage of learning, but improvement is improvement.

  I'm beginning to think that my bed is mythical. It's been three weeks, and it remains floating tantalizingly just beyond tomorrow. I would be more upset about this if I didn't have something to sleep on, but I would much prefer to be sleeping on a real bed or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. I think it would help me get up in the morning to get a good night's sleep and thus not feel like I'd gotten beaten with a bag full of oranges in the night.

  The archives are going all right. The commute is a little irritating – it's about forty minutes by tram, which would be fine if I had something to occupy my time. Ironically, though, I have nothing to read. Perhaps I ought patronize a bookstore tomorrow. I'm particularly excited about my copy of Lingaea Lexikon, which lets me instantly translate most anything without an internet connection. If I hadn't lost track of Antonio, I'd write him a thank-you note for hooking me up with it. I think it'll save me an incredible amount of time over the course of the year.

  It seems like I'm settling in a little bit more, which one would perhaps expect. I still spend most of my time inside my own head, but just getting out and doing things generates its own momentum, and there are a few good people around to spend time with. Movies have taken on a much more considerable value in my life than usual – I've actually watched several movies by myself, and a number of others with company. Recent acquisitions include Rudé Horko, perhaps better known to the Anglophone world as Red Heat, starring Schwarzenegger and John Belushi. For two dollars. It was a steal. The discount movie market here is actually really compelling – I wish we had it's like in the States. JoEllen hadn't seen Eurotrip, which I immediately understood to be the travesty that it was, and we have since corrected that lack. I myself saw Robin Hood: Men in Tights for the first time courtesy of Rachel. It may be that when I conclude this I'll pop something else in for a spin. Like I said, my mind is mush at this point. But hey, since the Archive is closed on Fridays, it's the weekend now! Nothing compared to Rachel's weekend, but three days should be enough for me. Udržím balce!