rats roll across the pavement here

Rainbow greetings to all from the wild east ! It has only taken me 17 days to settle back into my little nest. After a twelve hour bus drive with one Yetti, one plastic box filled with chilli con carne a la mama and having the whole five back seats to myself to lie out on i can only say it was a luxury ride. We were greeted by Prague orange skies in the early morning and it was rather lovely. I then dashed off to my flat to find that all my plants were still alive thanks to my flatmate, but i had no time to small chat as i had to rush off to a little village 20 km from Prague to do a puppetshow in a breadbox (ofcourse) with my accordeon musician friend theatre partner. It was a sunny and warm day and we were greeted by lots of green trees, dancing celtic ladies, sausages, ceramicstands, traditional blown glasses, woodcarvers,beer and more musicians.We huddled into a little tent that was meant only for all the performing artists to prepare and as my accordeon player was unscrewing his instrument to deblock some chords i was eating a fresh figue from Turkey that he had given me and then also some belgian chocolate which i had given him. It was a good exchange and soon enough we were out of the tent and ready to go onto the little grass to do our thing but the organizer put a microphone into my hands and i started speaking very loud czech ( i think that was the loudest i have ever spoken in this language !)
The show went well , despite my two month absence from speaking czech, thankfully my musician was there who saved me a few times with a few words, cheers ! We then went with the flow, got our pay for the day and went to drink a beer in the shade of a tree where there were lots of kids climbing in it from all sides, it really did look like the tree of life. We met some other nice musicians and spent the afternoon in sunny indian summer bliss.
When we got back to the city we went our seperate ways and i went to meet some other goodfriends and was spoilt to a delicious evening meal, we caught up on summerstories and had a lovely evning,Eventhough i was extremely tired from the whole travel and day i still decided to go and meet some other friends at a party somewere in the outskirts of Praha and there i was , completely pooped surrounded by all these czech people singing beutiful folk songs with a violin , guitar, accordeon, cello and flute. I hardly knew anyone but that didnt matter and there was a fire going as well in a little container in the middle of everyone.And there were lots of pear and apple trees around us.
Somehow i got back home and it was already sunday and it was again sunny and i relaxed in ultimate style, strolling through sunday streets of Prague and having lunch with Yetti under sun shady trees. We ended the day with friends, cheese, wine and watched the film "24 hour Party people " which was quite amusing and a few Allen Partridge sketches.
The next day i went to enroll in my brand new school and for some strange reason i had a million butterfliies in my stomach.Yes i was nervous , but it went well , we had to sit in this strange wooden aula where the seats and tables are stuck together in a staircase architecture. All the teachers then went on to say important things like how to extinguish a fire and the differences between the different ones. I also learnt that i had to enroll in atleast one sport and could choose between swimming, basketball, running , gymnastics, hockey or volleyball. I chose basketball reminiscant of my youth but then i remembered how the fingers can sometimes be put into danger with this sport, and my hands will be my tool for the next six years! ( i hope longer too )
After that we went to meet our personal tutors and we sat in the sunshine cracking walnuts open with a little hammer and eating them talking of what we would be doing as work up until christmas. Apperently we will have an egyptian week but im not sure if i should take this literally and turn up next week wrapped up in bandages. Or maybe i could wrap up my paintings...mmmmm i will have to ponder about this a bit longer. In any case the day passed very fast and i was quite tired from all the nerves.But no time to waste, I rushed home to prepare to go to the Slovakian high Tatras ( thats mountains for you and me ) with one Yetti, sleepingbag, tent, knife, food and lots of courage to face the wild bears.
We had one week before the shool really started so we thought we would enjoy the last of the indian summer and the light was amazing as we travelled by train at midnight arriving early morning to the pale yet bright mountains shining.
I was slightly taken aback at how beautiful it was ! pale pinks and light oranges and soft lime greens
We walked around the mountain village and found a good wooden pub where they served brilliant Slovakian food and we stayed there three hours preparing ourselves mentally and physically for our long treck through the high Tatras.
Eventually we rolled out and caught a bus through breathtaking green views and got off and started to walk.
And we walked for three days up and down along foresty hills , then rocky pebbles and the air was really fresh and clean
and wherever you looked there were amazing colours. The moss growing on the back and blue rocks was electric salamander green ! And there was a deep green of the forests around us with an occasional bright red tree sticking out like a light house.
Yellows and oranges and purple flowers everywhere. After sleeping in our little tent in freezing temperatures amongst the mountains and forest bears( i heard them growling in the we reached our highest point which was 1984 metres ! and it was brilliant ! We then slowly descended to a magic lake which was a dark turqouise colour and i thought of you all as we sat at the edge amongst the red trees. It had something of Japan yet still it felt very unigue to Slovakia. This is a country i would definately want to return to. I reccomend it to you all !
On the way back to Czechistan we stopped off at Yettis birthplace and met up with the oldies, friends and family and went for yet again breathtaking walks through very windy hills and after two hours we arrived at his local pub ( thats what they call a short walk! ) Anyway i warmed myself up with some local liquors and after singing and chatting we ended up in the local disco and there they played the song by Karel Gott that i posted before and i swear we were King and Queen of disco !
I wish you could have seen me, I made yet another complete fool of myself but i had fun.
The next day we went cycling but being a lowland native i found it quite challenging to get up the steep steep eastern hills.
I grumbled a bit but when the road went down hill i enjoyed it thoroughly, weeeeeeee ! I felt like i was paragliding through air. And then we really did have to go back to the city of Prague to prepare for the official school inauguration
which is a story in itself :
we were told to come dressed smartly and there i entered the main room where all the important people and professors were sitting on a sort of podium with golden chains hanging round their necks and then the national czech anthem started playing from big loudspeakers and everyone stood up so i did too and then after the tune we sat down and the director read out from a paper that we promise to be good and faithfull students and promise to work hard and then one by one they read out our names and we had to go to the front and place our right hand in the peace shape infront of this large golden staff that had a golden ball with a lion on top of it and say " i promise "
I was a bit dazzled by all the gold and i think i stood there a bit too long as the guy holding the staff said i could go now, so i went to shake hands with the director and he told me "congratulations" and gave me my student book identity called an index, then i had to sign something and then i was told i could sit down. And that was it ! All those nerves for that, oh and i think i blushed a bit as well just to add a bit of colour to the whole event.
Now i must get some beauty sleep as i start drawing life model at nine tomorrow morning. Oh and the rat thing happened yesterday in my street as i was walking along a little rat crossed my path and did a rolley polley infront of my eyes, amazing ! I send you both lots of love. Will write soon! Hugs and mountain courage! Peace sistar Three