If you own a dog and walk the streets, use those bags!

I guess I'll continue my ranting about things that have been getting on my nerves recently. The last few days I've noticed side walks have become minefields with dog doodoo. If you aren't careful, you'll be trekking around town with poo on your soles. What's up with Prague dog owners? Do they have no shame? All those posts with doggie bags have a purpose. So, use them. It's a simple common courtesy people.

The State of the Union comes on at 3 am here. Too bad, but I don't think I have that kind of stamina. On the other hand, this afternoon I rsvp-d for a superbowl party on Sunday. I can't believe the Giants actually made it. I think I was in highschool the last time they played in the superbowl. The thing is that it starts at midnight and will probably go through 4 am. I even volunteered to bring chocolate chip cookies or brownies. We all have choices to make. I just hope it's a good game.

You know you're not in Kansas anymore...

When you get off the metro at Mustek on Wenceslas Square in Prague and find a guy sitting on the steps with his right leg jean-pant pulled up exposing his hairy skin and a needle in one hand. Perhaps I've lived a sheltered existence in the United States, but I've never seen anyone shoot up with heroine until tonight. And, the thing that really bothers me is that I keep sensing drug deals at certain street corners and I've arrived either right before or right after a few young people on the street were shooting up. Seems to me this is getting out of hand. I'm one of the most naive people around and I'm on to it. It bugs the heck out of me that drugs are so prevalent and it doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything about it. I definitely wish the local government were a bit more hands on with some of these social issues. The only thing I've seen happen since I arrived is that it is now illegal for prostitutes to frequent certain areas of town. It's all about baby steps - I guess.

What else is new? I'm almost certain my fate is to end up like Dana Reeves: non-smoker contracting lung cancer. The no smoking ban has not yet reached this area of Europe and I'm finding the second hand smoke a major challenge to deal with. In fact, I feel like my throat is coated with soot. Yes, I'm in quite the mood.

So tonight I went to my first Czech hockey game in the new Sazka arena, which was built to host the 2004 World Championship. I saw Praha Slavia take on Pardubice (another Czech town). Slavia won 5-2. It was pretty cool overall. The Czechs have a great sense of humor. Throughout the game there were funny moments with the jumbotron in the ceiling. The guy manning the camera would pick out people in the audience, use their face and put a cartoon body (e.g., a body builder) over the rest. Sometimes he used the face of a famous person (e.g., Gorbachev or Pamela Anderson) and superimposed it over a person in the stands. Then they had a "Kiss Me" screen. The camera guy again found some entertaining couples to put on the jumbotron screen and 9 out 10 smooched. One couple included a small boy and girl probably no more than 10. They were cute! Oh, least I forget, there of course is some sensual element of sports. Every period 4 women in sports bras and tiny shorts skated onto the rink to clean up the ice near the goal. Why do scantly clad women show up everywhere in sports? Please tell me... I don't need to see them. I just don't get it.

As for the hockey, according to a resident expert sitting next to me, Jim, a Czech emigre from Edminton, the players skated well, but their play was a bit boring. I enjoyed it just the same. Oh, and of course, there was the FC Slavia fans sitting in the section to our immediate left. They made the evening all the more entertaining with their drum and chants.

Well, that's it for now folks. I'm trying to get to bed earlier. Tonight could be a new beginning. We shall see.

Oh, this is a picture of my street corner. If you haven't heard. I live on Polska street (Polish street). No polish jokes accepted!

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? And here's a hand, my trusty friend And gie's a hand o' thine We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet For auld lang syne --

So what do these verses mean? I'm sure you wonder every New Year's Eve. I always have... From what my Google search turned up, one definitition is "times gone by." It is an old Scottish tune from the 1700s, whose transcription from Robert Burns gained it notariety.

Time definitely passes swiftly. Who knew that December 21, 2006, I'd be leaving Prague for Arlington, VA, and that December 3, 2007, I'd be leaving Washington, DC, for Prague.

I just got in from a crazy night of unregulated fireworks. Let me tell you. Living overseas definitely helps one develop a appreciation for certain aspects of home. One at the top of my list is regulated fireworks. Fire and humans are a scary mix! In Prague, if you happen to be out on the streets on Sylwestr as they call it here, you darn well better be alert. I nearly had my legs taken out by a wandering firecracker skimming the asphalt surface at the park I chose for my view of the city fireworks. Imagine if you will fireworks going off all over the city on behalf of the municipality and simultaneously locals shooting off their own fireworks and smashing bottles of empty alcohol. Add to this picture, young parents and inebriated adults teaching their even younger children and friends how to light firecrackers. All I can say that tonight was successful. No one in our party of 10 or so people was injured. I don't care if you call me an old fart. I like my hands, all my fingers, both feet, and all my toes. I also cherish my eyes and the sight they provide.

Tonight was a blessing. I had dinner for 5 or six friends, mainly new friends from church and work. I cooked up a new recipe of chicken apple curry, broccoli with garlic, salad with the best balsamic vinegar dressing I've made yet, and blue cheese and lekvar (plum marmelade) on sunflower seed bread. Oh, and I made my best yet chocolate chip cookies. I think perhaps I've saved the image of American cuisine. Rest assured... with me feeding foreign masses overseas, people are gradually coming to realize we Americans appreciate a good meal AND I'm not talking about McDonalds.

I had a ball cooking. I streamed NPR and caught a number of good shows, including "Wait, wait, don't tell me" with Chris Palmer, Valerie Plame, Michael Moore, and the NPR Baghdad correspondent, as well as "Talk of the Nation" which focused on a book called "Intern" or something like that. It is about an Indian-American doctor now working in a NYC teaching hospital and his reflections on his years as a medical student and resident coming through the system. Being a big sister of a Duke medical student, I was all ears. Modern technology definitely makes it a whole lot easier to be outside one's normal comfort zone.

It was a strange mix of old and new in my kitchen tonight: the familiar, exhilarating smell of freshly chopped garlic, the deep melodic voice of Carl Kasell, yellow-orange curry, authentic French blue cheese, and povidle (Austrian Ger)/povidla(Czech)/lekvar (Slovak) (i.e., plum jam) on toast. Everything went off quite well, despite my mistaking "Parizska Slehacka" for creme fraiche. To be honest, I still don't know what Parizska Slehacka is. I thought I couldn't go wrong buying something that literally means Paris creme. Unfortunately, as I was about to pour it into my curry, I realized it was brown and chocolate flavored. Even with this little mishap, the food was more than edible - it was tasty and I'm more than satisfied.

Ringing in the new year with several new acquaintances I've known less than a few weeks was interesting. We had a merry group of Americans, Indonesians, Malaysians, Thai, Czech and Indian. It was great fun to build on friendships I started a year ago, too. Of course, at various moments of the night my thoughts were on yester years singing all the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne (it will take you like 10 full minutes!), making fondue, playing electronic catch phrase, and Jordana impersonating Anna Nicole Smith. Oh, and how can I forget passing around the "exercise ball." To my Calvert gang friends if you are reading - no one will replace you.

I'll continue to think of those happy times as I set out to create new memories. Old habits die hard - and some, well, they never quite die. And now, I'll always remember nearly getting my legs burned off by a passing firecracker on the eve of 2008, Imelda sporting her cute knit hat, Charlie an American attorney from Kansas with a passion to fight sex trafficking -- sporting a white button down with a black vest and jeans -- who received a new year's eve note from a neighbor asking if he knows Johnny Cash, eating Indonesian pandan-flavored cake (and suddenly remembering pandan is a flavor common to the Philippines), and trying to explain who on earth Valerie Plame is to several Malay and Indonesian friends. That is just a few of tonight's afterthoughts.

I spoke to my friend Fal on Sunday and she encouraged me to put exactly how I feel here. So, here it is: missing you all dearly.

Happy New Year, my friends! I look forward to the stories and adventures that will enfold in 2008.