Beer Country

To start off with, in case you were wondering, I have a horrible horrible cough. Excluding my horrible cough, it has been a good week. My classes do not seem too difficult (and with any luck will seem more interesting in future weeks). The weather is beautiful. I actually went out without my coat today, which is a first for Prague. Not including the time I have spent sleeping or reading in hopes that rest will cure my cough, everything since my last post has been very fun and we have had some amusing little experiences that are a wonderful part of the abroad experience.
Amusing experience #1: Kelsey and I are attempting to get on an exceptionally full metro. I decide (since we have just discussed in our Czech and American Culture class how Europeans have a much smaller concept of personal space and tend to bump into one another far more often) that I will just sort of push my way onto the train. I turn around to see that Kelsey is standing outside with a somewhat worried expression on her face. A man next to me looks at Kelsey, then at me (as I say her name), then back at Kelsey and promptly reaches out of the train, puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her forcefully on the train, pushing a bunch of people farther onto the train in the process, right before the doors shut. I said "dekuju" (thank you) and promptly started to laugh.
Amusing Experience #2: Kelsey and I are checking out at the grocery store (Albert). The food costs 335 crowns, Kelsey gives the woman a 1000 and then 35 in coins so that she doesn't have to give her a bunch of coins. We both turn to put the groceries in bags (there is not such thing as a bag boy in the Czech Republic) and then Kelsey turns back, expecting her change. The woman has already started checking another person out behind us, and has not give Kelsey her change. Kelsey gets her attention and there ensues a fabulous Czech-American conversation in which no one understands anyone else. We unfortunately have not learned the word for 1,000 and so have no idea how to communicate to her what happened. She repeats the same question over and over (either how much did we give her or how much do we need back) apparently expecting us to spontaneously learn Czech. The result of this problem is that a manager comes over and they have to take out the till and count ALL of the money, to find out how much over they are and give Kelsey her money. So Kelsey and I stand awkwardly waiting while these two women talk back in forth in Czech (and I get the feeling that this has happened to this particular cashier on more than one occasion). When all is said and done, Kelsey gets her money back and we leave.

Amusing Experience #3: We went to Pilsn yesterday, home of Pilsner Urquell beer, and took a tour of the brewery. The tour itself was quite amusing, as they did not really show us any of the current brewery, but rather a lot of the out of use things. My favorite part was their exhibit of the three ingredients of beer (malt, water, and hops). In the malt room they had a bunch of malt on the floor and some fake waving grain (and by fake I mean posters of grain that waved back and forth). The water room was basically a fake wall of rock with water running down it. And the hops room has some hops in it (it looks like the alfalfa pellets we used to feed to our guinea pig). At the end of the tour they do a tasting. Now, apparently they require that you be the legal drinking age of your home country to taste the beer, so we told them we were from Canada (shame on us, I know). When we were down in the cellar for the tasting this group of Chinese men asked us where we were from (we said Canada) and responded excitedly "We are from China!" and then asked to take a picture with us.
So those are my amusing tidbits for now.
xxx