December 1993

Dear everyone,

It looks like we've really hit on a good one this time, but, darn it all, we deserve it.  If you remember, in our last Christmas note, we mentioned that we were on the way to Kinshasa, Zaire, for a new adventure.  Well, it turned out to be a short adventure -- only six weeks -- and then we were sent home when it looked like it was too dangerous to stay.  We really liked Kinshasa, and we feel sorry for the Zairoise, but it's just not the kind of place to make any long term commitments.  When the bullets started to come through the roofs on the campus of the school, we knew our days there were numbered.  So, we returned to South Carolina to a life of ease and luxury, confident that we would be paid for the rest of the school year as our contracts so emphatically promised.  Thus, we took a cruise to Bermuda, dashed down to Florida as often as we felt, rented a cottage in the Smokey Mountains, and ate out with alacrity, chortling in our beer suds over our good fortune.  Little did we know that, by May, we were to receive a letter saying that the school was running out of money and was curtailing all non-essential spending, such as our pay checks.  We were not amused, as you can imagine, but there was nothing we could do since legal proceedings would have cost more than they would have brought in.  So much for the sanctity of contracts, but thank God for credit cards.

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and we did end up well indeed, even if we will spend most of this year paying off our bills.  We are now in Prague, Czech Republic, and we are delighted to be here.  Sharon is the high school librarian and junior high art teacher, and I'm the middle school principal and admissions director at the International School of Prague, a rapidly growing institution of some 380 students and a great place in which to work.  We live in a delightful neighborhood of stately houses, exuberant gardens, and narrow, winding streets, right next to forest areas and perfect for evening walks when the weather permits, which is not now, by the way, since the first snows have fallen.

As a city, Prague is one of the great surprises of Europe.  It's a municipality of incredible contrasts, an architectural student's dream.  At every turn in the Center, one trips over Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern, Post-Modern, Functionalist, and Cubist buildings.  Of course, years of communist rule also gave the suburbs rows and rows of hideous prefabricated apartment complexes.  What they lack in comfort, they amply make up in bad taste.  It was as if all the refined and perceptive architects in the country had been banished from the country for 4 decades.  But we don't really have to deal with such things since we live, work and sightsee in magnificent surroundings.

The city's restaurants and entertainment opportunities will take us years to fully exploit.  Luckily, Prague is still one of the few bargains left on this continent, and we regularly ("regularly" = 4-5 times per week!) go out to dinner for only $10 - $15 for two with drinks.  Bottles of good wine can still be had for $1.00, and food in grocery stores and at the street stalls is equally reasonable.  Public transport is efficient and cheap (14 cents per ride), which makes taking one's car downtown an exercise in fiscal irresponsibility.  Another advantage to Prague is that it is in the true heart of Europe, with many travel opportunities nearby.  In the last month, we have traveled to Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands on business/pleasure trips, and Sharon has gone mountain climbing in the German mountains with her students.  Fortunately, we have a school calendar with plenty of vacations left to exploit other nearby wonders.

The only downside we have found in this new adventure is the Czech language, which is about as daunting a linguistic roadblock as we have ever encountered.  The language is drowning in consonants, causing one's tongue to droop from consonant abuse.  Even their word for ice cream is abominable:  zmrzlina.  A local joke goes like this:  A Czech man's eyesight was failing so he decided to see an optometrist.  The doctor showed the patient a standard eye chart that displayed the letters C V K P N W X C Z Y and asked if he could read it.  "Read it?" the Czech replied, "I know him!"  The pronunciation is as bad as the spelling.  One letter requires a person to trill an "R" as in Spanish while saying "zzhhhh" at the same time.  Normal humans cannot make that sound.

So, that's this year's update on our doings.  What's ahead?  We'll be traveling around Europe the rest of this year when we have off, with a return to the States most likely in the summer, but nothing is for sure until we do it.  One thing we are certain of is that this is not Ouagadougou, and it is a place to visit so if you have the time and the bucks for a ticket, do not hesitate to call on us; we've got great guest facilities, but tell us ahead of time because our guest room reservations are filling up fast!