If only that little metal box in our flat worked well...

“Television stations around the world are devising programmes where members are either forced to live together in a small house or endure extreme conditions or tasks.

Now Czech state television has come up with perhaps the most unusual contestants to date: gorillas.” (Gorilla Reality Show from Prague Zoo)

More about showbiz, James Bond is coming. They are coming to shoot the new 007 movie in Prague, in a week maybe. Not that we know or care who this Daniel Craig is, but Aruna (who also contributed us the Gorilla news above, thanks again) suggested that we go try to be in 007 and that me be “random Chinese tourist”. The idea sounds cool, but the character... Grrr.

Consolidation of Friday night planning and random thoughts…

Pavel: "Hellooo trainees,
well I am thinking about putting together a foosball game tomorrow evening. Well it would be at my place where I live. There is a cellar where I have foosball table, it is kinda nice place for play and drink. I am not looking for any great players, I just want to play for fun."

Jenny: "Guys we need a foosball table in Andel. So here's the plan for tomorrow night:
1. Bring enough strong guys;
2. Bring enough alcohol;
3. Hammer Pavel;
4. Take the table
…"

Raphael: "I think you forgot something Jenny: the stairs up to our place.
If it were not for those, we would have executed on this plan long ago..."

Jenny: "How about rent it to Hlubina so they make their money and we get a place for it and free food and drinks?"

Raphael: “Now you're thinking!
But wait, that would mean that we would have dinner and drinks down there every night for free, instead of cooking at home. That would result in many drunken foosball games, after which we would be completely exhausted and couldn't be expected to ascend those terrible stairs.
They'd have to provide accomodation for us down there as well."

Pavel: "I dont like the plan.
…
maybe I should think again about inviting you"

Jenny: “Too late.”

Pavel: “Damn!”

Jenny: “I thought you knew about Andelers’ reputation. We are evil.”

Pavel: “nope, I thought that you are kinda nice guys”

Jenny: “Welcome to the real world.”

Upcoming movie releases in the Czech Republic

Can’t wait…

Reading delight in Andel

- From the package of the Finnish chocolate that our half-Andeler-half-guest Aruna brought us from her trip to Finland:

"Delicious chocolate made of real milk..."

Note: It reminded me of what The Sneeze said about food product: "There aren't too many products that feel the need to reassure you that they are, in fact, "food." Already not a good sign."

- From the head page of the Portuguese-Czech dictionary in our library:

"It is winter. A small sparrow is flying during the forest and he is terribly cold! Suddenly he falls on the ground and is dying because of the cold. The cow shits on him and save his life. He is warm. A fox is running around and eat him. And the conclusion? 1. Not everybody who shits on you is your enemy; 2. and who get you from the shit your friend!"

Note: Apparently some ex-Andeler was practicing his/her English translation skills here. Good work, message clearly delivered… True.

- From Mike’s entry in our guestbook (which so far remains my favorite entry in the book):

"Andel is futsking cool, including the Groovy Duck. All hosts across the land should take this supreme palace as the premier example of royal guest treatment and overall excellence."

Note: Thanks Mix for the comment. I realized that people who read this from the guestbook would already know the top of excellence of Andel, so I figured I should post this for future visitors and the hosts across the land. I have to admit that the good thing – in fact I'd rather call it the silver lining of the cloud – of being a friend of this King of all POSes is that he invites visitors to your house which is a caravanserai (like his own) and tells the world what you don't eat so the nomadic guests introduced by him can treat you to nice meals without any of those included. We enjoyed the shisha Mike brought and the curry Joyce cooked. And again thanks to Digs Joyce is very well educated about signing guest books and almost brainwashed to believe that "the curse" will befall her if she doesn't sign. Futsking dobře.

So the “hottest” guy in this flat is back to his beloved good old Bay Area, with sunshine...

...the questions remain:

Who's going to show us the unstoppable ironing technique...
Who's going to send us funny website links like The Sneeze or Black People Love us when we are bored to tears at work...
Who's going to tell us all the TV show or movie lines which makes you wonder how big this guy's hard drive is in his head...
Who's going to play me "vegetarian" music...
Who's going to cook me vegetarian sauce pasta and keep me company reading in the kitchen...
Who's going to play rummy with me and have his ass kicked in the cold night at our Common Room (aka “the fridge”)...
Who.




Bon voyage, Jeremy. We love you. You'll be very much missed. See you in our reunion, and I'm sure you'll have a very successful career by that time, now, only if you take my advice seriously and put this photo on your CV. I guarantee you a fancy job with that.

Another Player Down

Hey all, just a note to say goodbye. I am leaving this fair flat and city for warmer, higher-income pastures back home. If it comes as a surprise to you just know that it was not an easy decision. I just wanted to get it over with quickly if I was going to do it. So there you go. If you want to read more

click here

I love everyone I've met and hope to see some of you again where ever we might be.

FAREWELL, I LOVE YOU ALL!!

- Jeremy

NYE

Supporting Jeremy’s statement about us having a great new year holiday bumming around Prague, here are some solid evidence, highlighting:

12/30/2005 Tram Party

People who didn’t make it to the tram party, you won’t have a second chance.  This was officially the last tram party in Prague’s history.  They are canceling it for next year, and most probably forever.  We made it to witness, actually be part of, the end of Prague’s tram party era.  We’d been behaving for the whole night, we didn’t break any windows or chairs, didn’t puke on the tram, nor did anyone pee on the tram, but we still couldn’t make it stay.

12/31/2005 Dinner at Usadu – Maxi Majito

12/31/2005 – 01/01/2006 Petrin Hill – Welcoming the new year

Check out another group photo on Danka’s blog)
I’ve never done this before – standing in the snow up the hill, having the whole town in front of you, and watching fireworks coming up from every corner of the town…  The city is on fire!  It was apparently useless to try to catch the stunning scene with snapshots.  I used the rest of my camera storage to take a couple of minutes of video clip.  Those who want to see it, let me know.

01/01/2006 Petrin Hill – Snow fight
It started with Andelers vs Brazilians, then turned out to be Brazilians vs the rest of the world, and ended up with a hit-whoever-in-sight random fight.  We were soaked wet, but hey, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

Thank you our superstar Danka for organizing everything!

Andel is not only about drinking, we are professionals as well

Cell phone rang, no number displayed – two possibilities: a) parents calling from home with calling card, but they never called at this time of the day, so it should be b) Jeremy whose company blocks all outgoing call number display.

“Hello?”
“Hello!  Is it Jenny Hu?”
“Yes, ‘tis.”
“This is Jeremy Casey calling from XXX, and I’d like to introduce the new XX conference we are organizing in Tokyo, Japan…”
…
My boss happened to walk by and hear me saying, “Then what if I wanna turn up as a keynote speaker?”  The whole office looked confused.
…
“Great.  If you are really interested, I’ll send you the proposal at 4 pm today.”
“Cool.  See you at home tonight.”

Background of the story: Andeler Jeremy works in the conference sales department and his job involves phoning CEOs, which is the major reason why he has to sleep at 10:30 pm every night, just to make sure he has this kick-ass (or kiss-ass?) sexy voice during the day.  He’s been doing that for at least a month, and Andeler Jenny didn’t really believe it.  So in order to check if his unstoppable sleep-enough-for-sweet-voice technique really works, I requested several times that Jeremy call me from work with his “working voice” without being found out by his boss.  And oh damn, Jezza did sound COOL!  However yesterday he actually broke his 10:30 pm bedtime rule and didn’t go to bed until midnight.  So,

Moral of the story: To sleep enough for good voice is bullshit, you just need to iron as much as Jeremy to get a hot voice as his.

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between this posting and any future requests to Jeremy for jobs pertaining to phone calls are absolutely coincidental.  For best result, hang up your phone now and stop calling him unless you are really keen in the conference in Tokyo.

New Intern Tips: Top 5 Most Useful Czech Websites

So it's 2006 and a wave of new AIESEC trainees interns will soon be arriving. With that in mind, here's my Top 5 Most Useful Websites for Newcomers to Prague.

1. Expats.cz. Get in the know! This website offers a treasure trove of information for expats in Prague. Whether you're trying to choose a bank, find a language exchange partner, or if you're just-trying-to-find-some-damn-peanut-butter-in-this-god-forsaken-city this website is for you. Check out the articles and forums for tonnes of useful info.
   
2. Mapy.cz. Get oriented! Mapy.cz is a Czech website that offers a service similar to Google Maps. Here you can type in "Lidicka 37, Praha 5" and find out what amentities will be located within walking distance of your new home. Hint: it's a lot!
   
3. Seznam Slovnik. Get language skills! Seznam Slovnik is one of several online Czech-English dictionaries. The suggested word feature on this website can save a lot of frustration.
   
4. Ceske Drahy. Get out of Prague! When the sight of Prague Castle and Old Town Square starts getting old, it's time to start exploring the rest of the Czech Republic. Check out the national train system's website for fare and timetable info.
   
5. Yahoo Groups. Get connected! This is perhaps the most important website on this list. Join the Praha_Trainees group at Yahoo Groups to ensure that you don't miss the party coming up on Friday night!
   

Have your own opinion? Please add your suggestions in the comments!

My Christmas and New Year's in Prague

It's my first holiday season outside the US. I had a great time visiting Berlin for Christmas and bumming around Prague for New Years. As with most holiday weekends, the Andel flat has been crowded with a flurry of guests. I'm always amazed by how many geographically disparate people seem to come together at times like these. We had a big group of Brazilians and Germans staying this weekend. The only strange thing was the Brazilians all knew each other in different ways through Aiesec, but most of them came from different locations had no idea they would be in Prague at Andel together. I don't need to tell you how excited they were to see each other.

I had a great holiday, but it never feels complete without your family around and I miss them as I'm sure most of us nomads do. For more pictures and specifics about my holiday, check the link here to my personal blog.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

- Jeremy

Also, Happy Birthday to Erik who turns 25 today. Here's to your next quarter century!