Praha

You have to enjoy a place where beer is cheaper than water. At most places here, beer is about $1.50 for .5L and water is probably $2 for .2L. It seems almost irresponsible to not drink beer at a meal because it's much cheaper. I can't help but wonder what sort of effect this has on alcoholism, but for my short visit things are great.

In fact, some things here are just much cheaper than at home. A restaurant meal is usually somewhere between $5-10, with much less tip. Other things seem to be about the same as at home (clothes, electronics, etc,) but considering it's Europe, it's amazing. There are a huge numbe of Americans living here, both students studying abroad and ex-pats, and you can see why.

The city itself is beautiful. It's built around a bend in the Vltava river, with a huge castle overlooking things from a hill. Our apartment is half a block from the modern main square, and very close to the historical old city center. The buildings are ornate and very interesting, despite the cities communist years. It's very easy to get lost in the small, cobble stoned streets in the middle of the city, but that's part of the fun.

The language is a major obstacle because it's not really related to any other European languages that I have any experience with, but I'm starting to get the hang things.

I'm here with my family to visit my sister before she comes home from her study abroad semester. Our German family friends drove here to meet us, too, so we've been wandering around the city with all eight of us. It's hard having so many people to please (including a 6 year old) but it's over on Sunday so I'm trying to make the most of it.

Wednesday I took the bus out into the outskirts of the city to meet up with a local ultimate club, the Terrible Monkeys. It was basically how Concord described continental Ultimate. No one really plays in college. Instead, the city has 4-5 co-ed clubs that are more clubs than club teams in the American sense. There were a few good players, but most of the players were pretty novice. I got the sense that their throwing ability was more developed than their offensive system, so it had a more pick up mentality.

We did some tough conditioning work, with some agility/quickness stuff with cones and a much-too-long 3 man mark exercise that I'm still sore from (2x4minutes). I matched up on the coach, Jerry, most of the time and he was fast and tough to cover. I was disappointed we didn't get to scrimmage very much, but I got a good workout in and I'm glad I went out. I also traded my old Anomaly jersey for an old Monkeys jersey. It might be a bit small, but I think it's more interesting.

It's supposed to rain heavily today, so I think we're going to go to a museum or figure out something else to do indoors. No rain, yet, though, and the weather reports seem to have been consistently worn about predicting rain this week, so there's still hope.

I get back to LAX at 2 PM on Monday. Spring league is at 4. Can I play? Will my playing after 24 hours of traveling actualy benefit my team?

Also, college nationals are this weekend in Columbus. I'm following about 20 people on twitter that should be updating live from the fields. I'm feeling some pangs of jealousy for everyone that gets to be there, and I keep thinking about the Tide and Arizona games at regionals. We were 2 points away from the game-to-go, to play against a team that we'd blown a lead on twice. If that isn't motivation for next year, I don't know what is.

Anyway, good luck to BLU and the Hellions!