Long expected and prepared caller school with Vic Ceder that at least I was looking forward to as a kid started in April 2010. It should have been a fantastic week and at the beginning nobody had an idea that this would really be 14 interesting days for our family. Vic flew in on Thursday April 4 at 5:30 pm, at the time when Medvedev was flying out and Obama stayed at the Castle and then at the US embassy. Because of it the police closed the roundabout and Europe Street.
I did not want to risk anything and started for the airport three hours ahead of time and went through Kralupy. The trip took an hour and was completely without problems. Side effect of this trip is the knowledge that next time when we go to the airport in a rush hour, we should go through Kralupy. This will guarantee our arrival time. It takes at least an hour to go through Prague in a rush hour, sometimes more.
Vic’s airplane landed ten minutes early and everything went fine, so Vic really showed up in the arrivals at 5:30 pm. He did not recognize me for the first few seconds, since he remembered me with more hair :-)
On the way back we had a lively talk in which I tried to prepare Vic for the things to come. I well understood that some school participants will try one joke after another, so I tried to explain our national character. Unbelievable thing was that I was helped by a story that happened a day before in connection with the presidents’ visit. The Loreta Square was completely empty, no cars in sight, FBI sharpshooters on the roofs with their Russian counterparts, everybody waiting for the car convoy, and all of the sudden there were some surveyors, who decided to take advantage of car absence, coming to the intersection to make measurements. Police wanted to kick them out, but they could not, since they had a valid permit. This can happen only in this country. When I was telling this to Vic, he understood where he got to, and I surprisingly had a feeling that he started liking it.
Otherwise we did not do much on this Thursday. He was tired and hungry after the 24 hour flight. Basically he would just rest, but then he saw DVD with MacGyver show on my desk and we had entertainment right away.
Friday before lunch we went downtown. We started on Wenceslas Square, went through Old Town Square, and across Charles Bridge all the way to the Castle. We went through the Castle and gardens, but we did not visit the Cathedral – it was closed. So far all our visitors had enough after this walk, not so Vic. When we presented him a choice to go home or see some more of sights, he picked up the sights. It made sense, since according to the original plan he only had one day for the Prague sightseeing. So we continued to Petřín Lookout Tower, where he went up all the stairs to the top and then back down. Then he really had enough, so we took the cable car down and went home. Then in the evening we watched MacGyver and Walker, The Texas Ranger. He did not know him! Would you believe it?
Not all was so rosy on Friday. Lenka went to doctor’s with little Robin and the doctor said that he needed to eat more - be breast fed more, and also fed on top of that. So we decided that Lenka will stay home with him over the weekend, and if the check up goes well on Monday, they will catch up with us then.
So, on Saturday I went with Vic only. We checked in, Vic went to sleep (Robin way pretty wild just before morning), and I spread registration papers down in the lunchroom. Then started the first surprise out of many the boarding house prepared for us. We agreed to have lunch between noon and 2 pm, so I arranged with the lady manager that the first group of lunches will be at 12:30 for those, who are there then, and the second will be prepared at 1:30 for the rest. Some time later we could hear a cook screaming in the kitchen that she can fuck it, what the hell we all think, that she will not serve the lunch for two hours, and why we can, damn it, eat all at the same time... She screamed for ten minutes.
Surprisingly everybody showed up before quarter to one, so we ate all together. Tomáš Machalíků came last (originally he should have shown up at 11), so we set up the school and were ready to start at two.
The school was great on its own; it was completely different than the previous ones. Partially that was due to chosen topics, but mostly it was due to Vic’s knowledge and personality. International participants, Thomas Köder and Uwe Themann, contributed to the good spirits. Also Lenka with little Robin showed up at the end, so everything was OK. Although she had to feed the baby every two hours, poor girl.
Unfortunately, the school had also some negatives. As always in school, this year a few "good friends" decided that it would be a great fun to force me into things that I was not interested in. They were not interested in my goals either, and what I wanted to take away from the school, so by Wednesday I had almost enough.
Another problem was the boarding house. Although they promised me heaven and earth before, during the event almost everything was a problem. First there was not enough food. When I protested the manager told me angrily that I wanted “light food”. Luckily, this improved, but the final meal that we paid extra for, was a joke. Completely incomprehensible was behavior of the bar personnel. Although they knew that we had a break every day from 10:30, the bar was always closed with exception of one day. They absolutely did not care, that we would buy drinks and that they lost money in the result. They also behaved nonsensically during evenings. They closed at eight, so we had the after party in the school.
Nonetheless, everything has to end, so this weird school ended also. What it gave us: we have tried that we could travel with our little Robin. He does not mind strangers, or being in a dance hall. He can sleep in an unknown environment. I took away several valuable observations and I know what I need to work on now. This is mainly tracking of four key people on the dance floor and in my head. Also I have an idea to improve my program – beyond a flash call the whole formation including dancers will flash. It will help me to learn to set a specific formation fast in a way Ross Howell does (also Vic, as he did nor forget to mention :-) ). What did the school take away? I again made sure that as far as accommodation and food is concerned it does not make sense to try to save money. All I had to do was to pay a little more and we could have the school in the Park hotel with all comforts. I am not going to make this mistake again. Well, if there is going to be next time, since I have a feeling that behavior of those “good friends” distanced me again from the Czech square dancing environment so much that I do not have an appetite to do anything for them at the moment.
See the caller school pictures
here.
And then there was Friday April the 16th. We came home from the school, shrug it all off a little, Vic took some rest, and all of the sudden Tomáš Machalík called and asked whether everything was OK, and whether we did not hear some bad news. So I said no, and jokingly added that the only bad news could be that the airport closed. And that is exactly what happened. On Wednesday there was a volcano eruption in Iceland, eruption ashes got real high where airplanes fly, and all air traffic above Europe stopped. Vic took it heroically, since he thought at the time that if he would not be able to fly away on Saturday, he would on Sunday. So I showed him Skype, so he could call home at least. (Note that the guy did not know Walker or Skype; I do not understand, how he could live :-) )
In the evening we went to the Convention, and I called A1 from nine. At the same time Doug and Benitto had Basic and Mainstream and offered Vic to call with them. Vic told me that he would take a tip or two, so we agreed that he could do one A1 with me afterwards. But he liked it there so much that we did not get to it.
Friday night we found out that Vic was not going to fly earlier than Sunday, so it was for sure that he was going to spend Saturday with us. In the morning I went to the CSCTA meeting, and had another A1 from 12:30. Lenka with Vic showed up shortly after the beginning, and Lenka came after me to the stage and told me something unbelievable: “Do not forget to invite Vic to the stage, he is really looking forward to it.” That would not definitely happen in Germany. I finished the tip, invited Vic to the stage and we did the next one together. Then we alternated until the end of the block. Vic must be spreading some aura around himself, since when I was standing there it was the first time when I could remember three quadrilles together. This A1 went fairly well. Jitka from Prachatice then wrote this about it:
Whoa!!! That was a great event!!! Who did not go should be sorry, since it was fantastic, and who slept after lunch, and did not go to A1 with David and Vic, should be sorry, too.
Something like this makes you feel good. See the Convention pictures here.
Afternoon was beautifully sunny, so right after the A1 block we went for a walk to Prague. This time to Vyšehrad. After we went through it we got a sweet snack at the Wenceslas Square and went to Hard Rock Café (Vic wanted to buy a gift there) and to the Chocolate Museum. He was looking forward to it, but was terribly disappointed. Reportedly they did not have any chocolate, only candy. The more he was happy that in Palladium there was a store with the right caller’s chocolate. I bought one there too, and maybe there is something to the fact that it picks you up, and you do not need coffee that way. I will have to keep testing it.
On Saturday night we knew that Vic would not probably flay away so easily. Therefore we decided to take the airport offer to take a free tours for the time the airport was closed (personally I felt that this was a requirement of duty free stores, since they would stay empty otherwise). On the top of that we could join duty with pleasure and visit the Lufthansa offices.
We started at about ten. The tour was starting within few minutes, so we went there first. At check-in they checked our documents and booked us for a fictitious flight to Paris. Funny was that they booked so many people for this that the computer started protesting that a plane could not take that many people. The check-in girls handled this with elegance – they filled in the number of people with negative sign. :-) I really would like to meet the guy, who programmed it.
Past the safety check point they told us as the first thing that the tour would start in 15 minutes and that we could visit the local stores in the meantime :-). So, we visited a few, but did not buy anything. The tour looked like the one that we took with Lenka before. The difference was that we started in Terminal 2, they showed us more of the airport equipment, and theoretically we could look into two planes. We were interested in the cockpit, but so were another hundreds of people, so we thought that we would not stand in such a huge line.
We went through the arrivals hall instead and went to the Lufthansa office. We came at the right time; several minutes after our arrival there was a large line behind us. Ladies behind the counter were fairly nervous and grumpy (probably a lack of flight attendant training). On the other hand this is understandable, since everybody was blaming them for the volcano. When our turn came Vic forgot that he is American and started behaving like an English gentleman. He politely asked what he should do, got some nonsense answer (like watch Internet and then do something). Vic did not take this as an answer, so the lady booked him preliminarily for Friday. Vic thanked her at great length, expressed understanding for her hard work, and wished her a smooth rest of the day and no-flight time. Then we left.
We went to get a pizza somewhere in Dejvice, since we wanted to go to the
Public Transport Museum in Strašnice. Originally Vic wanted to visit the
Technical Museum; unfortunately it is closed until fall. But street cars and buses were fine, too. One of the guides was really obliging and took us to a locked section, where we also saw the original Russian underground train and several other locomotives. Vic liked it a lot and said that this was his best
Prague experience.
On Monday morning I worked (you know, you need to find out what happened during your vacation last week, and what needs to be fixed quickly), and in the afternoon we went to the National Museum. Evening was interesting because of C1 dancing; Vic was calling. Standard was fairly high, Vic kept the difficulty right past the quadrille capability, and gradually increased it during the evening.
Tuesday I traveled south after a long time and took everybody with me. Unfortunately we did not get out of the apartment before eight, which was comparatively late, and due to the Prague traffic we did not get to České Budějovice before eleven. Lenka had a rendezvous with her friends and I and Vic had lunch and then went for arranged visit to the Hluboká Castle. The guide Jitka did it thoroughly and Vic did not see only the second floor, but also servant quarters, cellars, stove for castle heating and the kitchen. He loved it, they don’t have this in America.
Then I had to go to work. I took Vic with me, he had a computer and was ready to do something. But at the end he only played games. I had three meetings, got some work done, and could go back to Prague. It was a hard day and I even skipped the Rotary Club.
Wednesday afternoon we went to Kutná Hora where we saw the mint and the charnel house. We did not manage to see the Mining Museum, unfortunately.
Vic wanted to stay home on Thursday, immersed himself in work, so I spent the day creating added value. At the same time in the evening we found out that the Vic’s flight was on, so this was our last evening together. We spent it partly by watching MacGyver, partially by calling into the computer, and partially over my article about breathing. Vic presented himself as a high roller and gave me a full version of his program as thanks to us taking care of him so nicely. Now I will spend month finding out what it can do :-). So far we tried only the checker pusher. If you know how to communicate an idea to the program, then it really can do more than SD. So we played together with Vic and created sequences.
On Friday we got up at three in the morning, picked up the stuff, I took Vic to the airport and that was the end of our unexpected fortnight adventure.
Picture from travels with Vic are
here.
