Letter from Prague

I am calling this a "letter from Prague" as when I wrote this blog, I was in rehearsal in Prague for a Philip Glass opera called " In the Penal Colony". Today`s rehearsal was in a shell of a factory and aptly named the "Fabrika". Everyone was late to the rehearsal so I realize that the Czechs ideas about punctuality are not as structured as the Germans. Peter the conductor asked me if I would like a coffee and I replied yes not realizing that it would be "Turkish" type in a glass and you had better wait a few minutes for the grounds to settle otherwise you will have a mouth full of what feels like sand. You had to be careful where you walked as there were puddles of water and other more dangerous debris. The three pictures show from top to bottom, the stage, public, and a break outside during the rehearsal.

I purposely did not bring my computer as I wanted to be free to study and work on the opera as well as intensively study Czech. The computer is like the TV...It sucks the interest out of the day and you simply waste time passively speaking. I was able to get slake my thirst for news by picking up newspapers in Czech as well as the Herald international Tribune...In the paper "Dnes" on Saturday the 27th of May was an article about Czechs being required to have visas to visit the States but the Poles are not. The writer of the article had a question and that was to do with "What do we need to do to get the preferred status of Poland"? One of the so called requirements is to be a member of the "Coalition of the Willing", in other words have more than 300 soldiers in Iraq. The Czechs have 100 soldiers in Iraq as well as soldiers in Afghanistan but this is not enough to grant a "no vias status". I also think that the amount of Polish relatives in the States compared with the little country of the Czech Republic and corresponding amount of relatives has as much to do with getting preferred status. Here is an article in the English language Prague Monitor about the situation. I cannot believe the Poles also are not guilty of overstaying their visit to America.