My New Bedmate

I spent the past weekend in Utery, a village in western Bohemia, with my former tutor Štěpanka and her fourteen-year-old son Michael. Štěpanka and I got acquainted two years ago in Pittsburgh when she was there doing research on fellowship and Bob Donorummo at REES persuaded her to give me Czech lessons; fortunately we got along very well and enjoyed such activities as visiting Falling Water, going to Thanksgiving at Kristen's place, and figuring out what kind of product could best be employed to unclog the drains in Štěpanka's sublet apartment. And in turn, I enjoy visiting Utery and having a change of pace from urban life. Utery is situated in a sort of valley surrounded by rather steep wooded hills which are very agreeable to hike and bike in (although I have not been good at remembering to photograph the scenery).
On this visit to Utery, I made the acquaintance of a new member of the household, Vegetka. Vegetka rapidly became passionately attached to me and insisted on sleeping with me, to which I assented with pleasure. Calypso Spots may feel jealous that I allowed Vegetka to sleep in my bed rather than merely functioning as a living alarm clock, but I will say that Vegetka wants only attention and showed no desire to chew on anything on the bed, although she was so excited by my cell phone that it gave up the struggle to stay on the bed and went flying. Thus far, Czech cats have taken a strong liking to me, which is more than some Fulbright students can say. Or rather, Hubert says that his roommate's cat seems to like him just fine but doesn't grasp that he doesn't like claws dug into his flesh.