10 stories, one page

Here is the news, possibly in chronological order.

I fucked up my ankle last week. I'm actually not sure how I did this - obviously it has to do with skateboarding, but there wasn't really a particular moment when it all went wrong. I just woke up one morning and started limping profusely around the city. So I've been trying to be good and stay off of it for awhile. Strange this is, when I went out on my skateboard the other day, it actually made my ankle feel better.

I've been having bouts of sort-of-insomnia - basically, it's 4 am, I know I have to be up at 9 the next morning, and I can't sleep. This I find annoying, especially around 8 am when I'm very ready to sleep (like right now), but it would be totally useless to do so. I try not to get into the "waiting it out" zone - this makes time just drag and drag. However, there's not much I'm good for after having been up all night. Preparing for another day of strange discombobulation.

I cooked thai food for Radko and a few of his friends. Thai food is always an adventure - even when you have the right ingredients, it's a wonderfully chaotic cuisine to cook (fish sauce? sugar. fish sauce. fish sauce. fish sauce.), and when improvising, it can be kind of harrowing. I have picked up something new, though - when dealing with pad thai, screw authenticity. White sugar and a few caps of rice vinegar beat out tamarind and palm sugar by a mile. If anyone's thinking of a belated birthday present to send me, send kaffir lime leaves and some fresh thai basil.

I had a small, victorious moment in the supermarket the other day - I understood perfectly an exchange someone else was having. An old woman was at the cashier, and the cashier picked up a magazine and asked "to Prejete si kupovat?" (would you like to buy this?) And I understood! Ok, so it's a small victory, but one has to take these as they come; every native english speaker I've talked to seems to have given up on the Czech language. I see my classmate Julianna become more and more frustrated, and it's kind of heart-breaking.

Here is a small, economic difference: in Prague, they make you pay for condiments. Milk for your coffee? 5 crowns. A bag from the supermarket? 6 crowns. This, I feel, actually makes a good deal of sense, although the milk thing is kind of annoying. This making sense is offset by the fact that no one seems to be able to adequately explain how one should tip. Trust me, I've asked - I get answers like "Well, if you've bought 4 beers, you don't need to tip. But if you've bought 1 or 2, maybe give them 10 crowns." From what I've seen, I tip like a drunken sailor in relation to others - and this is tipping about 50 cents on a 6 dollar bar bill. Ah, to hell with it.

I bought Tom Waits tickets for Amsterdam, which I am looking forward to - I get the feeling this could be coming up on the last tour for the man. It was fun to watch mobs of Waits fans utterly destroy the Royal Theatre's web site. Although it was also nerve-wracking; at one point it looked like I had utterly failed to secure tickets, and it made me want to cry. There's gotta be a better way of distributing tickets that are (rightly) price far below "market value" - it's like watching the laws of supply and demand go way out of wack, like seagulls diving for bread. And then the scalpers turn around and re-sell the tickets for twice the price.

I was roomed with a girl in a hostel in London, an Aussie girl - of the age where everything is funny and stupid. It's a good age, if I remember, right before the really disconcerting details set in. Our running joke was that we couldn't remember each other's names; "I'll always remember you, what's her name." Here's where friendster + web log + whatever could be so cool - especially if integrated with a cell phone - you'd be able to look up everyone you ever met. Although I imagine this would come with its own set of problems. Still.

I have met an American worth talking to and hanging out with. This may not be stop-the-presses news for you all, but it's a novelty for me. North Carolinan guy who talks with a british accent and lives in Prague.