Eating

First Up, An Institution
We took a short walk towards downtown to Cafe Louvre, a legendary Prague eatery and pool hall. A list of former dining luminaries hangs just inside the front door. This was Albert Einstein's regular spot when he was a professor in Prague. It's an old-world place with wooden floors, period paintings and an antique newspaper rack that probably outdates the place. First shock - there was a non-smoking room. The Czech Republic is in the EU but they still let folks smoke indoors.

Prague - The Changes

They Tend Toward the Capitalistic...
The last time I was in Prague was '91, the summer after grad school. I bribed my way in for $10 when my Eurail Pass wasn't accepted. I changed $20 US dollars on the way in and still had Czech currency four days later on my way out. There were no western corporations, there were no crowds of tourists. Just a beautiful city dating back to the middle ages and citizens who were as interested to talk to me as I was to talk to them. Now? There's a McDonalds every 100 feet. There are so many tourists it's hard to find a Czech. The Czechs that you do find are selling you something, anything - that's what they do now - work the tourist trade.

Prague - Day One

Checking into the Hotel
We took a cab from the airport and never in a million years would I have expected the cab driver to be listening to country music. I mean the real stuff: Merle Haggard, Glenn Campbell, etc. Prague has a country music radio station. You cannot make this stuff up. Our hotel is just a tad outside downtown in an area called Nove Mesto (which means New Town in Czech.) We're in one of those artsy hotels that are becoming so popular around the world. There is funky furniture and silver ball lights and swirly sculptures made of dyed leaves of some sort.

Get Your Passport Ready.....

We're Off to Prague.....
Puffin and I leave tonight at 6pm and will return to Frog-ville on Sunday night. I last went to Prague in 1991, if I remember correctly. It was super-cheap then. I remember spending about $20 total in 3 days. It won't be that way now, but I'm sure it's still as beautiful as ever.

Houston, We Have Liftoff....

I Got an End Date, Kinda-Sorta
In mid-January I will be travelling much less to Paris. I negotiated my way out using an "aging parents" story. See, both of you are getting old and forgetful and crazy in your old age, so I need to be back in NY to assist you. Worked like a charm. I will continue to work on the project, just from NY rather than from Paris. I did tell them I would come over for a few weeks every couple of months (just to build up frequent flyer miles, of course.)

If there is a Hell, I will be going straight there some day. Best part about it? I had my boss call them and use the story (by the way, he's in on it - the story, that is.)

Nobody's Irreplaceable

Computers Are Taking Over
With the sudden departure of my Mandarin teacher I turned to Rosetta Stone, a computerized language teacher. I'd heard good things about the product but after using it for a week I'm really impressed. I've learned more in a week than I learned in five sessions with my teacher. It works pretty simply - it forces you to learn the language using context. It never translates anything into English. In this screen, the correct answer is the one on the upper right "The eggs are blue." I'm learning to understand, read characters and even speak. It comes with a headphone and mic that you talk into and if you mis-pronounce you get a loud NO buzz. Obviously, I have a personal NO buzz - the Pingles herself.

I'm halfway through lesson one. So far I've learned simple things like "The girls are drinking water" and "The men are swimming." Slowly but surely they add in more and more, building you up over time. I know it's working - today we ate at Chez Xu and I followed Pingles asking for sweet "doh hua" and the lady telling her they were out of it. Simple things - but it feels good to be making some progress.

Dear Air France....

Kiss My Behind!
I flew a different airline back to Paris today: Open Skies, which is affiliated with British Airways in some way. For less money you get a lot more room, a seat that goes completely flat and you fly into Orly, which is the smaller airport south of Paris. I slept like a pig, flew through customs, got my luggage quickly and got into town in a flash. What took me so long to find these guys??

I can't wait to go to work and let the British consultants know how much better they are than the French - they love that stuff.

Lazy Rainy Day

No Better Type of Sunday
It's cool and rainy in Brooklyn today which is fine by me. I'm enjoying sitting in my apartment, reading the Sunday NY Times, waiting for the Giants game. I haven't done much exciting since I've been back. I'm enjoying the simple things: eating bagels for breakfast, walking around my neighborhood, working as little as possible. Geppie was supposed to visit this weekend but canceled at the last second due to his mom getting sick.

Taking the Scenic Route

To Golf Practice...
It was epic. Four modes of transportation, traversing 9 Arondissements. Just to go to the driving range. Why? Why not. It's Saturday and I had nothing better to do. Besides, I got to ride a Paris tram, which I'd not done before. Click on the map for a closer look.

The Vagaries of Coffee Pricing

Someone Help Me...
I always order my coffee the same exact way: "un cafe creme, s'il vous plait." That's how I like it, that's the phrase I know - it never varies. What does vary, however, is the price and the quality. Strangely, both can vary significantly in the same restaurant from one day to the next. There's a cafe nearby that generally makes a good, cheap cup. There's an old couple who run the place and they sometimes have their dog there, roaming around. Last Monday, while playing hooky, I got a cafe creme there for 1.20 Euros. I made a mental note, things are rarely so cheap here.

Today, for some reason, they were exactly triple in price and weren't as well-made. So, what could account for this? Monday vs Saturday? Drinking at the coffee bar vs drinking at a table? The old man who served me Monday vs the young guy who served me today? No idea. I have learned that the price of things vary if you order them to go vs sit in the restaurant. However, in this case, I will probably never know. Just another variation on a theme: things are overly complicated and confusing here. A restaurant should charge one price for a cup of coffee, whether I order it on Monday or Saturday, whether I take it away, drink it there at the bar or pour it over the head of some overdressed Parisian sitting nearby in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

Hooky, American Style

A How To, Step by Step
Today is Labor Day, but obviously not in Paris. My French colleagues never miss one of their own holidays, but expect me to work on both mine and theirs. I wasn't having it - I simply rebelled. Right after I woke up, I sent in an email about feeling ill and went back to sleep. I'm an expert at hooky - pay attention. First things first, quick shower? No, never - no showering while you play hooky, that's bad luck.

So Much for Mandarin Class....

My Teacher Has Fled.....
We kept missing each other, she'd be in Beijing or Id' be in Singapore - but I always looked forward to the continuation of my Mandarin classes. Well, as oft happens to young ladies, her boyfriend broke her heart and she immediately returned to China, tears in her wake.

She explained all to me in email in her broken English. Will she come back? Is she already back? Who knows. One thing is for sure - no Mandarin classes in my immediate future. Time to look for a new teacher.

How The Other Half Lives.....

Much Better Than I, For Sure
One of our colleagues invited us over to her new apartment for dinner. She moved here from Moscow to work on the project. Apparently Moscow is way more expensive than Paris. She is constantly amazed at how cheap things are in Paris. So, she probably brought her considerable Russian salary with her. Her apartment is on an inside courtyard with a small yard and fountain.

One of Those Strange Things

Or, Just Different....
Every day when I get to work the place is a mess. Unlike in the US, where the cleaning crew comes in at night to clean up the office, here in France they clean during working hours. Matter of fact, I usually beat them to work. I throw away my morning coffee cup on top of yesterday's trash. They arrive around 9am and clean as you are working. You have to pick up the stuff on your desk so they can wipe it down. You have to pick up your feet as they swab the deck. You do this whether you are on the phone or in the middle of a meeting.

It's only a minor annoyance but things like this make me wonder why. This is similar to other experiences I've had. Restaurants open their doors at 9am for breakfast and take your order but nothing is prepped, so you wait forever for your food. Well, what do you expect when the cooks arrived at 9am, or sometimes later? First explanation that pops to mind is that the French are lazy, but that's an emotional reaction, not an analysis. Second explanation - workers rights are paramount in France. Why should the cleaning crews and restaurant workers come in earlier than the rest of us? Equality hand in hand with inefficiency. Of course, there are exceptions. There would be an uprising if, upon arriving at the boulangerie for the morning baguette, Parisians found the bakers pouring the flour into the mixing bowls.