A New Fulbright Semester
Your Prague correspondent has continued to have a hectic schedule, which ought to die down for the next week or so, as the Fulbright midyear conference is coming up and everyone has to come up with some sort of presentation. There is some uncertainty just what is wanted, but those of us who do research will probably come up with some sort of introductory, yet relatively scholarly, talks about our topics. Of course, some of us will already know exactly what others are going to say; I’ve already read a draft of Dawn’s talk and have a pretty good idea what Jesse will say.
This midyear conference, to be held in Moravia, is a joint effort of the Czech and Slovak Fulbright groups, and includes both grantees who are spending the entire academic year and those who are just now arriving. Since my grant is Fulbright-Hays rather than Fulbright, my attendance is optional, but it is always a good idea to do presentations on one’s research, and I assume the conference will be enjoyable overall.
With the influx of new grantees, none of whom will get more than a couple of hours’ worth of orientation at the conference, and whose past experience in the Czech Republic might be nil, it seemed only reasonable that we should do something to welcome them. This ended up being a Friday night dinner at my place.
Naturally, not all of the continuing or incoming grantees could come, but we still managed to have a full house (my apartment is not all that large). I was not in an adventurous mode in the kitchen this time, so I settled for a reprise of leek and potato soup with yet more roasted vegetables. Dawn had leftover taco fixings from her birthday party, so we also had tacos, and Megan attempted to make hummus without benefit of a food processor (it tasted perfectly fine, it merely had an unusual texture). Alex supplied an aromatic Czech rum for grog. And, while we didn’t force our new companions to bring anything, we didn’t refuse their kind offerings.
A fine time was had by all, and we’ve now made the acquaintance of Susan, Peg and her husband Russ, and Nathan. David, whom we met at the December meeting, also came, and Kelly attempted to come but ran into difficulties, so we’ll have to meet him later.
Afterwards, Alex persuaded Megan and me that we should go find her friend Tom and go to Palác Akropolis, a club in Žižkov. Tom claimed that he had been there when it had good reggae bands, but there was nothing of the sort on Friday. The recorded music did not impress any of us greatly, so before long Megan and I gave up on this form of entertainment and caught a cab back to my place, where we regarded the pile of dishes with great distaste.
This midyear conference, to be held in Moravia, is a joint effort of the Czech and Slovak Fulbright groups, and includes both grantees who are spending the entire academic year and those who are just now arriving. Since my grant is Fulbright-Hays rather than Fulbright, my attendance is optional, but it is always a good idea to do presentations on one’s research, and I assume the conference will be enjoyable overall.
With the influx of new grantees, none of whom will get more than a couple of hours’ worth of orientation at the conference, and whose past experience in the Czech Republic might be nil, it seemed only reasonable that we should do something to welcome them. This ended up being a Friday night dinner at my place.
Naturally, not all of the continuing or incoming grantees could come, but we still managed to have a full house (my apartment is not all that large). I was not in an adventurous mode in the kitchen this time, so I settled for a reprise of leek and potato soup with yet more roasted vegetables. Dawn had leftover taco fixings from her birthday party, so we also had tacos, and Megan attempted to make hummus without benefit of a food processor (it tasted perfectly fine, it merely had an unusual texture). Alex supplied an aromatic Czech rum for grog. And, while we didn’t force our new companions to bring anything, we didn’t refuse their kind offerings.
A fine time was had by all, and we’ve now made the acquaintance of Susan, Peg and her husband Russ, and Nathan. David, whom we met at the December meeting, also came, and Kelly attempted to come but ran into difficulties, so we’ll have to meet him later.
Afterwards, Alex persuaded Megan and me that we should go find her friend Tom and go to Palác Akropolis, a club in Žižkov. Tom claimed that he had been there when it had good reggae bands, but there was nothing of the sort on Friday. The recorded music did not impress any of us greatly, so before long Megan and I gave up on this form of entertainment and caught a cab back to my place, where we regarded the pile of dishes with great distaste.
posted by Karla at 9:12 AM
2 Comments:
I think I've been to Akropolis before and I certainly don't remember any reggae. In fact I don't remember any space for a band or dancing at all...
Julia's blog refers to going to see Jaromír Nohavica at Akropolis a few days ago. When we were there it looked like we were in rooms surrounding what I suspect to be a large theater. Tom thought Sunday was reggae night but who knows if that's true. There was a poster up for Jablkon.
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