Danis and Jennifer are here from Los Angeles! Yay!
....here in the Barnard/Whang household :)
Happy 31st birthday to my favorite person. Thanks for marrying me :)
We're back from our Scandinavian trip! Photos to follow... Meanwhile--
"The 53 Places to Go in 2008" according to the New York Times
This list is of course debatable (what were the criteria?), but at any rate, Prague is #14:
I don't know anything about these luxe hotels and fancy restaurants (or what they have to do with the Prague experience)... but you can stay with us anytime for free. And we'll even throw in some free beers. :)14. PRAGUE
The verdict is in. The Next Prague is ... Prague. Stag parties have moved on, bohemians have left for cheaper rents, and youth hostels are being squeezed by luxe hotels. Joining a new Mandarin Oriental next year is the Augustine, converted from a monastery and other buildings into a Rocco Forte hotel (prague.roccofortecollection.com), and the just-refurbished Hilton Prague Old Town (www.prague-oldtown.hilton.com), with a buzzing restaurant opened by Gordon Ramsay.
Leon and I have been here since yesterday and are having a great time. We're taking in all the wonderful Scandinavian design all around us. Tomorrow we are heading to Sweden, where we'll be spending a few days with our friends Matt and Lisa. We'll be back in Prague on Tuesday. More soon!
I know I have not been keeping up with my blogging duties lately, but overall it is for a good reason. I've been quite busy since returning from my trip to California, and I think we can all agree that this is a welcome development. Right before my US trip I took a job teaching English to businesspeople through an agency, and since returning from my trip I've also been acquiring a steady stream of private students, so my schedule is filling up. And I'm glad, except that it keeps me from getting at some of the creative projects (I know I seem neither creative nor productive, but I do have them) I had lined up for myself. But I am really happy to be past the funk I was in during my first few weeks in Prague, so I am not complaining at all.
I've accumulated a backlog of photos to go through and share from the past several weeks, but I don't think I will be getting to them any time soon, as tomorrow Leon and I are heading to Denmark and Sweden for a week. So instead, let me talk to you about one of my favorite things - CERAMICS.
To celebrate our first 100 days of being married (several weeks ago), Leon gave me these espresso cups:
I love the coupe, rimless shape of the saucers and how the cups are whimsically off-centered on the saucer (creating a little space for a spoon or sugar cube). They are from the Five Senses line by Kahla Porcelain (Germany), which I'm a big fan of. (It's also sold at Crate and Barrel, with the C&B imprint.) I know it may seem like a funny anniversary gift, but it only shows how well Leon knows me, including the fact that I have a thing for ceramics/pottery. It's true. Nothing gets me so excited as a trip to Heath Ceramics (my favorite). For me it's like going to the Barneys Warehouse Sale.
Since I can't buy big things, I buy little things. I recently thrifted
these cups here in Prague (for about 10 kc, or about 50 cents, each).
To me they look Scandinavian, but they are Czech:
I also got this cup (20 kc = about $1), also Czech made, at the same place, because I was intrigued by the illustration. What do you think is going on?
This wee pitcher/creamer (1 euro) is from a flea market in Amsterdam:
And this teeny plate (also 1 euro) - in CAL colors! - is from a potter's booth at a market in Florence - Robin and I each got one (hers, in a different color). I keep my rings, bobby pins, and such on it:
THE END.
So last Friday, Leon and I had a Thanksgiving party and invited all our (mostly Czech) friends in Prague. It was great. First, I really have to give an appreciation to the combo of Leon, Matt, and Lisa. Thank goodness for our visiting friends Matt and Lisa, who did not know what they had gotten themselves into when they decided to come for Thanksgiving weekend! Little did they know they had signed up for an entire day of physical and mental labor, equivalent to running a triathlon and a marathon back to back while carrying a turkey in each arm. They, and Leon, were awesome, though! You know me, always taking my sweet freaking time with everything - had we all been working at my pace, we probably would not have eaten until Sunday morning. But the three of them - especially LISA! - were totally on it all day long, and thanks to them, we actually had food ready when the guests showed up. Plus, all last week I was under the influence of jet lag, an eye infection (more on that later), and other ailments that I'm sure made me quite irritable to be around, and the three of them bore me patiently.
That said, the preparation (which took all day, as you might imagine), was a fun adventure in itself. The four of us - all, as it happens, relative newlyweds - collectively knew very little about cooking for Thanksgiving, so we figured it all out together clumsily, with one of us running to the internet to look up something every 15 minutes. We learned so much that day - how to make gravy! how to see if the turkey's done! how to toast bread for the stuffing! (We never did learn how to properly carve a turkey... something for next year!) I think I speak for all of us when I say that we now have a whole new appreciation for all those Thanksgiving meals prepared for us by our mothers (and grandmothers and aunts and uncles...) every year for all these years! Only to hear one of us kids say snottily, "Mom, the turkey's dry." So, moms and everyone: THANK YOU.
We tried to have as an authentically Thanksgiving-y menu as possible, so we had roast turkey (which was overdone - but we figured that only added to the authenticity), ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetable sides (a brussels sprouts dish and a cauliflower dish), salad, and a pumpkin pie which we ordered from a bakery. Our generous friends also brought wine, cheese, dessert, and snacks. And they all (bless their hearts) ate all the food lip-smackingly.
We even started to go around the room to have everyone say what they were thankful for. It petered out after a while, but later some of our friends told me that they had been too shy to say the things they were thankful for in front of everyone, and shared them with me.
The camera was out of my hands most of the night, thank you to whomever (Leon? Matt?) for taking pictures. More photos here.
Our friend Pepa also took some nice photos of the evening. They're here.
Americans, you've probably had your Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie and are deep in your trytophan-induced slumber already. We here in the Whang/Barnard household are just getting started. Since Thanksgiving is not a holiday here (for obvious reasons), we decided to celebrate it on Friday night. Tonight we'll be having about 20 guests (of mostly Czech friends) over for what we've promised to be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner - a meal I have never prepared, only watched my mom produce over the years. *fingers crossed!* Also this weekend, our American friends Matt and Lisa (who are currently living in Sweden) are visiting and staying with us - so I'm glad another couple pairs of Thanksgiving-experienced hands are here to help! The festivities begin at 6 p.m. It is now 8:00 a.m. Lots to do, people! Let the marathon begin!
