The Czech National Sport

After 3 days filled with mindless wandering, directed map reading, useless seminars, and excessive drinking, orientation just finished. Today was day 1 of 2 weeks of intensive language study. As bad as I thought this would be before I got to Prague, upon arrival, I realized that in fact everyone does not know English. Few people - if any - actually do. So this morning, after a sound, restful, non-alcoholic sleep, I was somewhat excited to learn something other than 'cheers' and 'beer.' That was before class started. My group consisted of eight other students and what must have been a Soviet elementary school instructor prior to the fall of communism. My instructor is about as tall as she is wide, and seemed like she could make a funeral seem cheerful by comparison. After 15 minutes, I nearly expected her to pull out a yardstick and smack someone on the wrist for an incorrect response (which was the only type from everyone all class). After an hour and a half, I felt like I had been hit with a dump truck of information. I think the worst part about the Czech language is how similar the syntax is to western European languages. The problem with this is that it clicks perfectly, and thus is incredibly frustrating when I can't pronounce a single sound. After returning from our 15 minute recess, our hobbit instructor piled another hour and a half of confusion on us. I was so grateful to learn that today was a half day, even though we weren't given the opportunity for lunch until about 330.
When we got back to our flat, Dillon tried teaching me to play frisbee in the park aroun the block. As an avid ultimate and frolf player, he had to deal with many runs into the trees. I did understand how the Pied Piper must have felt in his day, however. Someone had told me yesterday that the Czech people replaced kids with dogs; I think it may be true.
In the park, there may have been 5 or so kids, but there were in excess of 20 dogs within 100 yards of us. If this was in the US, this would have been totally fun, however, the Czech dogs are given much more freedom. This means that no one uses leashes, and people only pick up dog crap if they see it done near them. As we threw the frisbee back and forth, we had at least one dog running between us at all times. Dogs also decide to introduce themselves to each other here by biting necks; which is totally fine and all with me, so long as they aren't doing that while trying to grab the frisbee from my hand too. Cats are just smarter animals.
I also learned yesterday that the Czechs don't play pool or anything at bars or anywhere; they play foosball. They play lots of foosball, and they are nasty. Having a table in our flat, Dillon and I challenged Yarda to a game yesterday, but after it was 5-0 and he was playing one-handed, he stopped keeping score. To be fair to us, it's our first times really playing, and he's above average as far as Czech players go he claims. To be fair to Czech players, 1 of the guys on the program played in a bar against a Czech guy and quit when all he could do was ricochet the ball; he couldn't hit the ball back because the guy was hitting it so hard. Since our slaughter, we have played a few games both days. Even though our games are close, Dillon usually ends up on top. I think I can beat most Americans by now though.
The other real thing that I learned today was how much Prague loves American 80's music. It might be all of Europe, so I'll report on that at a later date if I find out. Most bars and many cafes play tons of it, and its always on TV. I've had so much time to type this because I have been just watching 80's music videos all evening. Since I'm done laughing at that, however, I think I'm going to sign off now.