The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

I stole the subject from the Mr. T Experience.

The weather is perfect. Its snowing, and its not even cold! I almost didnt wear a coat, because its warm enough and so I wouldnt have to deal with the coat ladies, but it always gets colder here. For some reason, the mornings are warmer than the afternoons. It stopped snowing for now, but at least there is snow on the ground again.

Snow is typical of the layers here in Prague. There is snow, but then you dig past that, and you are at cobblestone. Then, did past that, and youll probably find yourself in a centuries old synagogue. Keep digging, and you will find yourself in the core of the earth, which is very much like the Charles Bridge, the philosophical core of Prague. Keep digging and you will find yourself in Australia, just like all the Australian expats who find themselves here. Layers, man. Prague is all about layers.

Okay, that was my poor imitation of Nicoles brilliant entry about the layers in Prague. Shes been here for less than a month, and already she can articulate this city better than most of the people whove lived here all their lives, Kundera included. They probably speak Czech better and know how to get around, but they dont know Prague like Nicole. Man, that was easily the second best entry here on Prague Blague. The first would definitely have to be Nicoles "PS" about how great I am to live with. Here I am writing about soccer playing Chimpanzees who drink beer, and Nicole is laying out the very essence of Prague while dashing off emails and reading Kundera and having symbolic sex dreams and learning ballroom dancing all at once! Shes a talent, that one.

So now I am going to try to be all sophisticated too, and write about the opera, that thing I went to after writing my last entry. I got all dressed up in a full suit and tie (thanks to Thift City and Nicoles grandpa), though my shoes had to be my tattered New Balances, since I must have decided that dress shoes would take up too much precious cargo. What a sight I was in the library before the opera! Half the people here had never seen anyone look half-way decent. They must have thought I was some sort of alien.

I got in for free, thanks to Nicoles program. Hannah and Kelly and all them signed up and then skipped out, leaving all these extra tickets for me and the students who didnt sign up. And boy, am I glad I got in for free! I mean, it was great. It was operatic and beautiful, and how art should truly be, it made me smarter and more cultured, and all that. But now I see why everone hates opera. It truly is boring. I know, I know, boredom is a state of mind, and its always your own fault if you are ever bored. But that doesnt give you an excuse to be as boring as you want and then place the blame on everyone else if they want to leave. Being boring is not a virtue in itself, even if it has positive consequences, like forcing people to turn inside their minds for entertainment, and think new thoughts, and have ideas, and so on. I definitely thought a lot during this opera, so for that I thank it.

This opera was Dvoržaks Rusalka, based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale that inspired The Little Mermaid. And now this is my first problem with opera. It is supposed to be adult and mature, yet it is almost always based on a kids story or a childish myth, and has nothing to do with adult problems, or real tragedies. Operatic singing is very passionate and expressive, but its wasted if its about how the moon is out over the ocean, or how poor pale Rusalka is doomed because she wants to be a human and she is destined to be a sea nymph. Just like in kids stories, the characters here fall in love right away for no reason, and out of love for no reason too. This was explained more than shown. Like Roger Ebert has said about many movies, Rusalka talked about what was going to happen, it happened just as talked about, and then they talked about what happened. Which makes me wonder why Žednek felt compelled to tell us the entire plot beforehand. The opera itself tells us the entire plot in the beginning!

The only other opera I saw was based on Hansel and Gretel, called Babes in the Woods. Another kids story presented in a format that only adults are patient and silly enough to tolerate. I feel like operas could be good. I like listening to Verdi, actually, so maybe those are actually about something real. I feel like the form has potential, but I kept comparing Rusalka to Rhys-Joe productions past and future, and in every way it came up short. The blocking was horrible. There were minutes at a time where one person would be on stage alone, hardly moving. There were also minutes at a time when the same line of dialogue would stay on the screen ("Alas, Alas, Alas, poor, pale Rusalka!"), which makes me think maybe the translation was bad. The music was fine to listen to, but it wasnt enough. Maybe the form is too suffucating. Then again, I saw The Magic Flute with Joe, and I guess that was an opera, even though it was good.

I started reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being last night. Everyone is in love with this friggin book, and I want to see what all the screaming is about. Back in the fall of 2001, I gave it a shot, but even though its really short and easy to read, I lost interest. I thought there was too much sex. I wanted more Russian tanks and less romance. Later I talked to this guy (Nathan Aloysius) who said that he had read the book before he ever got in a serious relationship, and didnt get it at all. Then, äfter hed gone out with Sara Rimensnyder, he tried again, and loved it.

Now, Ive never gone out with Sara Rimensnyder, but she is a good friend of mine, even though she never responds to my emails. Also, I have some experience with serious relationships now, I am in Prague where the novel is set, Nicole has a copy I can read for free, and she loved it, so I was pretty much primed to like it. Im on about page 80 now. Even though its about 2 fifths plot and 3 fifths author explaining the essence of the characters and of life, its pretty riveting. Now this book could be a good opera.

I really dont understand what I didnt like about it before. Guess I just thought that Tomas was out of his mind with all his philandering, and I didnt care what happened to him or his wife and lovers. Old never been in a relationship before me would have hated to admit it, but maybe I had a few things to learn about life before I could understand this short double spaced huge type book. Who knows, maybe Id even appreciate Brothers Karamazov better if I read it again. I tried to get Hannah to buy that one from an English language bookstore, hoping she would hate it and let me borrow it, but no luck. At least Ill get to read all of Nicoles Kundera and Kafka books.

This time in Prague is enough to kind of make me want to be a student again. Nicole made the good point that I could take correspondance classes to finish my degree, which had never even occurred to me before (Id heard that at UT you have to take your last couple of semesters there, but maybe thats wrong). Im really bad in structured classrooms, but Im pretty good at self-paced classes. Actually, the best was the winter semester I took at Richland College. That packed an entire semester of class into three weeks. You were only supposed to take one class because it was so intensive, but I took two, and then all I had time to do was go to class and do homework. It was Dallas, so there werent too many distractions anyway.

But you all want to hear about Prague. Its dark out now, which is unfortunate. I need to start waking up earlier. Now that my pillows are against the wall, I can sleep again, but I do too much of that. Expats.cz and Prague.tv have no jobs to speak of. I looked up a bunch of hostels, since they might hire someone who only speaks English and has no skills. Ill try that tomorrow. I wish I knew whether or not I am going to find a job here, because if I am not, I dont want to waste time looking. I mentioned the phrase "Bohužel, nemluvim Česky," and she thought it was hilarious that I was taught to say "unfortunately I dont speak Czech," instead of just "I dont speak Czech." Now that I speak perfect Czech, the point is moot now. Tomorrow, Im afraid Ill have to miss the naked drawing class to go to the Brothers Karamazov play. I am currently loving living with Nicole. Turns out my brother may not be able to come to Prague, which is horribly dissapointing. The walk back from the opera last night was very idyllic, with swans, and snow, and castles and bridges. I made Nicole about 20 pounds of potato salad, which I wont touch, because Im afraid white potatoes are what made me sick. I need to go shopping and start cooking creatively again. I think I might be kicked off the computer soon. Three cheers for Prague!