Transition....

We spent the next two days in a city that greeted us with scorching humid weather and loads of tourists, visiting the Jewish Quarter and seeking out last souvenirs. We took a walk to a local park that featured the largest equestrian statue in the world, a stunning behemoth example of Soviet realism using the traditional Czech hero Zizkov to apply in its own glorification of peasantry. Then I left for the train station and took a very scenic (and noisy) ride south to Humpolec, to visit my friend David Festa, while my family prepared to leave the following day. David lives with his wife and two young sons who I communicate to in a jumbled mess of English, Czech, tickling, and incomprehensible sounds, and even have them repeating some Japanese words from time to time such as “konnichiwa” and “genki”, though they really need some work with “sayonara.” Maybe minimal pairs, or…

David lives in a house built by his grandparents, who both live downstairs, and his parents live around the corner, so it is an area rich in Festas, or as they say in Czech, Festoves (the plural name form has a different ending, as does the female—for example, newspapers refer to Sharon Stoneova or Julia Robertsova). I have been eating some great food here the past couple days! I’ll be here through the week and then will visit my friend Cathrin who lives outside of Munich. I’ll then serve a ten day Vipassana meditation course in Switzerland and sit a Satipattana course in Italy before returning home via England.