Catholic gospel

I went to church. It was funny. There was 'gospel choir' but it was only white people, so it did not look like anything on the movies. The lead singer had a beautiful voice and it was all really nice, but the old white ladies clapping and trying to dance were sooo funny. They looked so much out of place. Out of scope :)

We were both surprised how many people were in church. Rob said he always thought Catholics didn't really go to church except for Christmas and Easter. Surprise! The other weird thing is that almost EVERYBODY went to communion (if you're not catholic, you will probably not understand it). Like the catholic guild didn't existed here so strongly like at the old continent :) Need to investigate it more. And generally people seemed more happy and enjoying it.

But the one thing was the same everywhere I ever went to the catholic church: people being late :) I thought of our family and my mum always making us late when I was a kid and the embarrassment when u get in 15 minutes late and everybody is staring at you. Here at least they had man on each isle who would sit people, so they didn't have to spend a few minutes looking for seats and making even bigger mess.

However, it was a very nice experience. I still need to learn the mess in English, cause now I probably look like an idiot mumbling parts in English and parts in Polish.

New beginning

Uff, it's a new year, 2010. Finally. I was pretty tired of 2009, it was too eventful :) Now I need a rest, so please new year, be just nice and quiet. Enough weddings, movings to other continents and stuff like this. I wish for a quiet year, just settling down, making new friends and living healthier.

The new year started quite good. We went to Rob's colleague to watch fireworks at the Space Needle. They were really nice. Not quite Krakow nice, but pretty close. The people at the party were nice. But apparently I got a bit too drunk and embarrassed Rob :) I don't remember it :) I hope it wasn't that bad, especially that he was the only not drunk person there, so I hope the rest didn't take it too seriously. I hope they will talk to me in the future, cause they were really nice. And I'm in need of friends :)
Of course I wasn't planning on getting drunk, I was actually planning not to. But they offered shots and that's my secret love. Of course, it wasn't fernet or absolut, but Jägermeister. I only had 2 of those but then the killer came: vodka with blueberry liquor. It was delicious but dangerous. And then we had to drive for about 30 minutes. I get a bit carsick when I'm drunk so it was not fun. At least I had only like 5 cigarettes that evening, so woke up without a headache. And I'm quitting now :) Let's see how it goes. I decided to smoke only when drinking which would work much better that Prague, cause there it meant almost every might :)
Note to myself: do not get drunk with people who work with Rob during the first meeting; do not mix! and please forget about shots!
When we got home I got really depressed because all of my friends are in Prague, so Rob was making fun of me that we actually never spent New Year's Eve with our Prague friends. Oh well, I still miss you all.

On an unrelated note: they have wifi on the public transportation here! Specifically the buses that go from Seattle to Redmond. Awesome!!!
And I've gor Zbigniew Preisner music yesterday! I love it! Could not find it anywhere for a while but amazon had it in downloads :) So I didn't even have to wait for the delivery. It's so good! He is a genious! Now I apparently should start listening to classical music. Well, I'll try.

Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data.

Gdy chodzilam sobie po okolicy, to zobaczylam, ze sprzedaja niedaleko domy blizniaki. Takie, nieduze, 2-3 sypialnie. Nie znam zadnych szczegolow, ale wygladaja na dosc nowe. Cena mnie zaskoczyla: moja 4-letnia pensja tutaj. W Pradze najmniejsze mieszkanie gdzies na zadupiu w panelaku (bloku) kosztowaloby mnie 6,5-letnia pensje. Pomijajac, ze biore pod uwage ceny brutto, tam placilam 19% podatku dochodowego, a tutaj... o jej nie wiem, strasznie to skomplikowane. W kazdym razie sa tu 2 podatki: federalny i stanowy. W Washingtonie stanowy wynosi 0%. Ale tego federalnego nie moge sie doliczyc, strasznie to skomplikowane, nawet nie, ze w zaleznosci od dochodu sie placi rozny %. Tu sie placi 10% za kazdego dolara od 0 do 16,700$, potem 15% od kazdego dolara od 16,701 do 67,900$, 25% od 67,901$ do 137,050$ itd (dla malzenstw). Ojej, a myslalam ze u nas podatki skomplikowane.
Wniosek jest w kazdym razie taki, ze o wiele szybciej bedzie mnie stac na dom tutaj niz w Pradze.

Ptaszek ranny nieslychanie

I've been forced to get up between 5 and 6am every day here. First, I was jet lagged and also to meet with my european customers. I didn't think I would be able to do it but hey, it's amazing! I love it! I can be done with work at one o'clock! (theoretically). I think I will keep doing it, at least east coast hours to be able to either finish early or take a longer lunch break. I already have so many plans! I found a gym and a yoga place and a boot camp... The last one might be interesting. I really need to meet new people and it might be a good place. Oh, and I'm also going to take drawing classes. And we're both going to learn dancing :)
Sounds pretty amaing, I wonder how much I will actually do :) Let's hope for 3 things, that would be good enough.
And now I need a cup of strong coffee, otherwise I'll fall asleep. Yeah, still not used to this early getting up. And I had a long walk.... and Prague is asleep now, so time for me to bed :)

It's gonna be a good day

I went out shopping this morning. It wasn't raining. First thing I saw were huge mountains! They are so close. So beautiful and majestic. Filled with good feelings and energy, I decided to take a longer lunch break and go for a walk. It was a very good decision. I discovered how beautiful it is here: a path along the river, nice little parks, so green everywhere. It reminds me a bit of Sweden.
For the first day here I actually feel happy.

Resurrection?

A friend suggested that I should start a blog about the US. So maybe I should resurrect my old one. Who knows, maybe this time it will be interesting. All the different things I'll have to deal with in the US. It probably won't be very optimistic since I'm sure there will be lots of annoying stuff, but maybe I just think it now because I don't want to leave Prague.
Let's try and see if it works.
I wonder if anybody will read it. It don't really matter that much. At least if nobody will be reading, I may be completely honest and not afraid of offending anybody.
I guess that since I've started it in Sweden and continued in Prague, Seattle should also find it's way here.
Next post will answer the question why the hell I'm leaving the most beautiful city in the world to move to another continent, city I've never been to and don't really know much about, with a culture I'm not a huge fan of.
The short answer: love.
The long answer will come tomorrow (or maybe later today).

Have a supai

By the way, we are thinking about visiting Havasupi Tribe. Check it here. It is gorgeous!

Holiday planning

I wanted to be better and write more often but I guess it won't work. The US trip is planned. We're going in August to Utah and Arizona. I'm very excited especially about seeing the Grand Canyon. It's like the greatest natural attraction in the US. I only hope that Robi will be able to get his driving license in time (of course it just expired). I scheduled my visa appointment today so now it's waiting and planning.
I've been trying to make some decisions regarding wedding, but so far no results.

Oh, and I mentioned before that I wanted to go out of Prague. I hoped to go camping this weekend, except that today the weather got much worse and it's going to rain on the weekend :(

Tonight we're going to see 'The Happening" by Shamalamadingdong, hmmm... the guy that did Signs and Village. It's going to be scared, but Robie promised to protect me against the bad movie.

blue

Znowu jestem w zlym nastroju. Na prawde potrzebuje urlopu, wakacji, ucieczki z tej pracy i z tego miasta. Niestety, nikt sie nie moze na nic zdecydowac i nie mam pojecia, gdzie tego lata pojedziemy. Coraz bardziej wyglada na to, ze nigdzie.
Wczoraj spedzilam bardzo mily wieczor z dziewczynami (Sara & Sophie), ktory zostal popsuty jak tylko wrocilam do domu. I nawet nie wiem dlaczego. Jakies glupie wyrzuty... Ogolnie bez sensu.

I can always make you listen

I know that I kinda stopped writing but I was busy at work. Not any more, so I will try to catch up. If you will ever open this page again after such a long silence. We'll see.

So... let's start from the back.
Yesterday we went to a concert as a part of the Fringe Festival. It originated in Edinburgh but now it's organized in many other places, maybe even on the other side of the pond. So the concert. It was brilliant. If you will ever have a chance to see or hear Andi Neate, don't hesitate. It's been a while since I've been to such a good concert. I even bought two albums, which I usually don't do.
We have more shows, basically one every night until Sunday. It's fun and most importantly it's all in English so we can see some plays.

What else? We've been to Vienna. I enjoyed it a lot. Although the architecture is weird, because it was all build in the same time, so it's different than cities I'm used to. For example it doesn't have an old town (old meaning Middle Ages or similar). You can see some pics on my Facebooks, I might have put them also to the Photoblog, but to be honest I don't remember.

The work has been weird. I became friends with two girls (French and Swiss) which is nice but on the other hand I'm getting more and more fed up with my job. My manager always promises me change but nothing ever happens. So I may just wait trough the summer and find something new in the fall. It was a huge mistake that we didn't move this summer because we are both miserable at our jobs. But somebody missed a deadline... Maybe it was meant to be.

It's time to go home now. Keep your eyes open for the next post :) And write me sometimes.

Bezdez

I posted some pics from the trip to the castle last week. Check out my photo blog. And you can expect some more next week, since we're going to Vienna on Thursday.
Except for that I had the worst day in a long time. Anything more would be tmi. Enough is to say that I had stomach problems. And the reason is of course Sahra and Sophie, who I become friends recently. But they are just bad influence! And I love them, they are so much fun!

Pierwszy dlugi weekend

1.05: Festival Proti Rasismu na na Císařské louce
2.05: wycieczka na Hrad Bezděz
3.05: Iron Man + Plzeňský restaurant Anděl
4.05: Pierwszy dzien roku w sandalach; Zawody w skokach na koniach i ognisko, Divoká Šárka

Still alive

There's lots of stuff going on so I'm busy. Also at work. I am also considering stopping this blog. That's the two main reasons why there was nothing new here for some time now. It's been almost a month. Wow, it goes fast.
So... I saw some good bands, had a few nice parties, drunk some beers, ambled a bit and had some great conversations. I posted some pics from the last two weekends: one in Bratislava and the last one in Plzen. Enjoy!
I may write a little more, I may now. We will see.

Movies, movies, movies... and more movies!

I've got the tickets for Febio Fest! It's the biggest film festival in Prague and I'm really excited about it. They show a lot of very interesting movies, ones that you cannot normally see in cinemas, for example Asian or Easter European movies. And they all have English subtitles! So we can go together! It will be a hard week, I'm going to see two movies every day (part of it is work days).
We're also planning to go skiing tomorrow but there are some unpredicted issues. I guess we will see tomorrow morning but then there are two problems: I'm really lazy in the mornings and there's a big probability that I will simply not get up; and we may not be able to get on the bus. I hope we will go. I really want to go! Now I'm all about skiing but the winter is almost gone. Well, except for the fact that it's been snowing every day this week.

W marcu jak w garncu

The weather is just crazy. It was sunny when I woke up, snowing lightly when I left the apartment. When I got to Karlovo Namesti it was still snowing lightly. That's where I go trough a passage. It's small and short. But when I got to the other side of it, there was a snow storm. Crazy! And now it's sunny again.

The weekend was cool, with Coen brothers movies. We saw 'No Country For Old Men' which was good but pessimistic and 'Big Lebovsky' which was hilarious and more optimistic.

I also made Robi call his Mum because someone told me it was American Mother's Day. Well, it was not. She was happy but a bit surprised by early wishes. Oh well... I trust everything people tell me :)

Work is annoying as usual, but I suggested a small project so at least I have something to do. And something I kind of enjoy doing. I am also waiting for the answer regarding the other position but I doubt I get it. Regardless of what my boss told me, another person applied and he is good. Very good. Much better experience and more skills and languages than me. I guess I'm staying where I am.

I survived

I'm alive and in one piece. The mountains were gorgeous. Skiing was lots of fun and I love it. Now I only hope that the snow stays for a little longer so we have a chance to go again.

Winter

It's snowing. Seriously wtf? At least there is one advantage: one can ski. If one can. And I am going to be one of those lucky people who can!

New pics

I added pictures from the second day in Olomouc. In my photoblog. Enjoy :)

Good ol' Sweden

I went out with Lida and Olga V. last night. I haven't seen Olga for over 2 years! It was great to see her and discuss all the gossips about people from Sweden. Good fun! And some very interesting information! Fortunately, we were good girls so I don't have a hung over and my training went well (oh, I was preparing it for some time). Now I'm getting ready to leave and for spinning. Need some good exercise! And on Monday we're going skiing! I'm scared to death so keep your fingers crossed that I won't die. I have never skied. But I will have an instructor so hopefully it will go well.

BTW I'm on the Facebook now :) Don't hate me for that Robi :)

To answer your question...

No, I didn't get waisted. I spend the evening on the couch (and the armchair). I didn't do anything this weekend - the weather was awful. We had a hail storm on Saturday and rain all Sunday. So I stayed the whole weekend on the couch and read.