My friend called me 3 weeks ago to tell me that she´s going to ski in Austria with her 2 colleagues and if I want to go with them. It took me one week to decide. I wasn´t sure if I wanted to spend all my money that I finally managed to save. If I didn´t go to Italy before Christmas then it would be no brainer but since I was already skiing in the Alps this winter, second trip felt like a little luxury to me. But then I wrote the little summary of 2009 in here and realize that traveling is really worth it, plus I really love skiing so I finally called my friend and agreed.
Plus the price wasn´t that bad since we went with their business cars so we didn´t have to pay for gas and the apartment we stayed in was really cheap cos it was an apartment of one of the colleague´s brother-in-law. So that was neat. Skipass was the most expensive part.
We stayed in Altenmarkt im Pongau which is like 60km far from Salzburg and 3 km from Flachau, which is one of the more popular ski resort in Austria. Hermann Maier was born there and almost everything is named after him. And it´s about 6-7 hours long car ride from Prague. We arrived to Altenmarkt around 9.p.m. I liked the apartment we stayed in. It was very small but pretty and new.

Now the skiing itself. I have to say I was kind of disappointed. I don´t remember the last time I experienced so badly prepared slopes.  Not what I was expecting from highly rated resort in the Alps. The first day was really crazy, there were bumps on the slope everywhere. It literally looked like slope prepared for ski moguls, the acrobatic skiing. It sure isn´t my discipline. I like to make turns when I want to, not where I have to. That´s no fun. So I suffered the first morning, got used to it a little in the afternoon. My thighs got it really hard, though.
The second day was way better, it was sunny, but the bumps started to appear in the afternoon again. And Saturday was really bad. It was snowing, cloudy and foggy. The slopes not prepared whatsoever. It was like if you went down any hill covered in snow. I couldn´t even see my ski since they sank under the snow. I guess Austrians never heard of snowcats before. *shakeshead*. It was magic that we didn´t break anything. (we saw lots of people that did!). Since this resort is so popular it was really crowded and in these conditions it was very dangerous. We only lasted for 3 hours, there wasn´t really a point to ski longer. So we stopped for a lunch and then went to relax in a pool. That was cool. We stayed for a while and then we moved to the saunas. There were several types of saunas in there and it looked really nice. We stayed there for 3 hours just saunaing and relaxing.
I and my friend opted to not go skiing the last day. I feared that it would be as bad as the day before so we sent the guys alone and cleaned the apartment in the meantime so we could leave early and arrive home in some manageable hour.

The colleagues of my friend were fine, but since they all work for the same company they talked about it a lot. I know now a lot about a pharmaceutic industry. The guys were nice and all but I didn´t feel like I was the perfect fit.

Part of the magic in going to the mountains in the winter is the snow. But when you go to the mountains and your own town is covered is snow for so long that you are already fed up with it, it takes from the magic a bit. The Czech rep. is completely covered in snow, even the lowlands are under the snow for 30 days in row. Thats´s very unusual. So I didn´t have the „wow, I´m in the mountains and it´s snowing“ moment this time. Plus another sad thing, It was 6 degrees colder in Prague when we got back than it was in the Alps. What´s wrong with the world?

 I´m glad I went though, at least I got to know a new ski resort in the Alps and am more convinced than ever that skiing in Italy is the best.

Statistics:
Thursday 4.2. - used 13 lifts, went 26 km on ski
Friday 5.2. - used 12 lifts, went 31 km
Starutday 6.2. - in 3 hours used 8 lifts, went 19 km

We went to see it this Saturday. They´ve been playing it since 2006. I bought my mom tickets 2 years ago for her Name day but the show was canceled on the day we were supposed to go, so this was our second try.
They play it in this beautiful renovated Musical Theater Karlin. I used to go there very very often but then it was flooded during the big floods in 2002 and they had renovated it till 2006 and I´ve never been there since. This Saturday was the first time. They really did the theater a honor and put it in the original shape. They built some more modern stuff around it but the stage and auditorium are still the beautiful old self. Lets hope the water will never ruin it agian.

The first act was funnier and the second act was too much Hitler but I liked it as a whole. Though I don´t think it´s worth of 12 Tony´s. I guess it was a slow year on Broadway or something.lol
My mom was laughing out laud all the time and my dad liked it too and that made me happy.

As I said I visited the festival of short movies again on Friday. The cinema was full of eager students and I realized how much I miss atmosphere of festivals.  We organized a big international theater festival Encounter every year at Uni and the festival week was always such a exciting time. So on Friday I felt student-ish again and it felt good.

Selection of the movies was more versatile this time, from funny, sweet to dark and depressing.

We´ve seen:

• Edgar – Very sweet german movie about a retired widower who doesn´t know what to do with his life when he has no hobbies and no one needs him. He’s bored. But Edgar finds an unexpected solution to his problem in the supermarket.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
•  Echo – very weird and depressing polish movie about two boys who have murdered a young girl. Through crime reconstruction and meeting the family of the victim they now have to relive the brutal crime they committed and confront the feelings they felt and still feel.                                                                                                                                                                                                        
•  The History of Aviation – this hungarian movie felt really random to me. It was set in 1905 in Normandy. It´s end of picnic and the whole family is looking for a little girl. The director was in the cinema and introduced the movie himself.
   
•  Moon’s Palace – very interesting spanish movie. A dark story about a mother writing a letter about how her son jumped of off the window. It had an interesting camera.                                                                                                                                                                           
•  Tenner – story about difficult teenager who´s killing his time by vandalizing the corner store. He lives with his eccentric, pot-smoking grandpa. But things may be more complicated after all. Interesting change of the story at the end.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
•  Good Advice – sweet story with funny ending.  It is the early 1980’s. Ten-year-old Rasmus is tired of his parents never listening to him and decides to run away from home. His mother is pregnant again so  before he leaves he records a cassette tape for his unborn broader with different advice on how to handle life with his parents.

 There was an award ceremony on Saturday. No movie I´ve seen won an award.

• Of Best Intentions – A movie from Ireland. It was a story about five people, whose best intentions had disastrous consequences. They introduced us all 5 characters very quickly and then led them all together in one big smash. The camera and music, the whole atmoshpere of the movie was so cool. Loved it.                                                                                                                                                           
• Edward´s Turmoil – a movie about 13 years old boy who gets kind of an epilepsy attack every time someone around him says a swear word. He´s stuck with his foul mouthed grandpa for a day and he forces him to swear. It has a pretty funny and morbid end. Loved this short movie.                                                                                              
• City Paradise – this one was half animated and half acted. Very interesting atmosphere. It´s about a Japan girl who arrives to London to learn english. She accidentally discovers a mysterious, secret underground city, inhabited by friendly little aliens.                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• Caporal Crevette – a movie about a boy who played with his soldiers toys really believing it´s the real thing. The courageous Caporal Crevette is parachuted in the middle of the jungle to carry out a vital and extremely dangerous mission – take control of a fiercely defended Soviet stronghold.                                                                                                                                                                                            
• Instead of Abracadabra – this one was hilarious sweden movie about a loser magician in his 20s who lives with his parents and who always injures his volunteers. I think this movie was the longest. It ended with a big magician show at his father 60th birthday party and the parents are afraid who he will injure now. Very funny.                                                                                                      
• King Crab Attack – this one was drawn as a hollywood trailer, full of cliches and exaggeration. How the hero saves the world from mutated king crabs. Funny.

New year, new movies and it all started with Sherlock Holmes. I really like Sherlock, I had a period a few years back when I read all his books and stories. I still remember how scared I was while reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, all the dark, misty marhslands. That´s my favorite one.
Also I grew up watching lots of british adaptations which were kind of slow and dry and always followed the original. Sherlock for me is a classic british gentleman with just weird hobbies. And now you enter the new hollywood movie. After I saw the trailer a few weeks back I was little taken aback, it really wasn´t what I was expecting but was curious to see it.

 My friend stated that the important thing for people to enjoy this movie was to forget the fact that they were watching Sherlock Holmes and I think she couldn´t say it better. It´s so true. It´s kind of funny action movie with jovial, cute, manic lead character. But Sherlock Holmes? Not really.
I wish they didn´t choose to tell a story about black magic. I guess they wanted to bring some mysteriousness in to it but I don´t think it worked. The whole story was explained very quickly in one sentence at the end and good luck in understanding the movie if you missed it.

I can´t believe I ´ve managed to update my LJ for a year now. When I started with LJ I just wanted to try it out and I´m surprised that I made myself to update on every cultural event I´ve attended, even though I had to force myself couple of times. I´m really good at not finishing my „projects“. I hope I´ll be a good girl this year, too. I wouldn´t remember half of it if I didn´t write it down here.

 When I look back at 2009 I don´t think it was my lucky year, especially the beginning, everything that could go wrong went wrong, started with some problems with my apartment and ended with my whole purse being stolen. It cost me lots of money to replace all my cards, cellphone and my poor iPod. Also my notebook broke this year, I had to buy a new one and it kind of got me in to red numbers on my account. Some bad things happened at work too, which will have consequences this year, but I´ll see about that.
And apparently I also lost my only male friend. He´s got a girlfriend and I haven´t seen him for half a year now. He was my theater/cinema buddy and we hanged out like 3 times a week, watching movies and Gilmore girls. I miss it. We write each other emails but it´s not the same.
The worst thing that happened this year was the death of Ben, my dog. I terribly miss him and I still want to cry every time I think about him. I have moments when I forget that he´s not with us and get all excited when I here some noises at my parents house that sounds like dog´s nails clapping against the floor tiles or when my mom calls me and I hear dog barfing in the background (though it´s not our Ben but our neighbor's dog, also called Ben). And I still don´t close my bedroom doors at night. My parents don´t want another dog now, if ever, and I don´t know anyone in Prague who has a dog so my life is dog-less now and for me, that´s not a fun life to have.

 I´m not whining about my life I know it´s pretty good considering the world crises, illnesses and things like that. The paragraph wasn´t supposed to be me complaining, I was just stating the bad facts that happend.

 And now the positive things. The only good things I remember from last year are all connected to traveling. I guess my life would be pretty boring without it. Luckily I love love to travel so I make sure I´ll see some other countries every year. These things make me happy. This year it was trip to Slovakia and the skiing in Italy.

 I´m saving the best part for the end. NEW YORK and meeting my internet friends and LAUREN GRAHAM. That was my money well spent.lol It was one of the most fun and craziest weeks in my life. Flying alone to NY and meeting my FF friends, seeing Guys and Dolls 4x, being all excited about seeing Lauren together. It was fun to share this experience with someone as crazy as myself and exploring NY with them.Meeting and talking to Lauren still seems like one big amazing dream. Luckily I have pictures and videos to prove that it actually happened. This one week saved the whole year.

 And here goes list of all the movies and theaters I saw this year.

Movies

• Burn after reading *****
• Valkyrie ***
• Yes Man **
• Revolutionary Road ****
• Doubt ****
• He´s just not that into you ****
• The Answer Man (in NY) ****
• Slumdog millionaire *****
• Angels and Demons ****
• New in Town *
• Ice Age 3 ***
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ****
• Inglorious Basterds *****
• Proposal **
• District 9 ****
• Julie and Julia ***
• The Ugly Truth  ***
• Protector (czech film) ***
• The Brothers Bloom ***
• Michael Jackson - This is it ****
• 2012 ***
• Law Abiding Citizen ***
• 3 Seasons in Hell (czech film) ****
• Whip it! ****
• The Couples Retreat **

• Servant of Two Masters
• The Complete work of William Shakespeare in 120 minutes
• Les Misérables
• Park Your Car in Harvard Yard
• Richard III.
• The Cremator
• Guys and Dolls
• Billy Elliot
• Evita
• The School for Wives
• Long Day´s Journey into Night
• The Bartered Bride
• Mozart!
• Kudykam
• Maureen can´t stop to wonder

Holidays are behind and I want to post about them a little.

I was looking forward to Christmas for a long time but after our trip to Italy I kind of couldn´t go back in to the right mood. It didn´t help that I had cramps in my stomach on Christmas day and my parents had a little spat so the day was completely off. As always my grandparents and uncle were invited to spend the evening with us. They always eat at their house and come right after. This year we were kind of late so they came before our dinner. So we sat in the kitchen, eating quickly while my grandparents sat in the living room. It was awkward. Plus the potato salad was sour for some reason. Christmas dinner is supposed to be the best dinner of the year…oh,well. I got really cool presents, though, so I can´t complain about that. Then my dad and uncle were drinking a lot and I don´t like drunk people so I went to my room. Not really what I was hoping for. The best time was when we went to visit my uncle and aunt the next day. My cousin´s baby boy is so cute that you can help but smile when looking at him. And I´m not a baby person, so that says a lot.
 
Where Christmas was lacking the New Year compensated. I was back in Prague and my friends from Germany came over on 30th. It was great to see them again. Last time they were here was on my birthday in summer. We didn´t have any big plans how to spend the New Year eve. We were thinking about going to some club but it´s always over-priced on that night so we stayed at my place. I´m proud that I made some yummy spreads on a bread and everyone liked it. Maybe I´m not such a lost case after all.lol We watched The Blind side movie, played games, sang crazily, played with Nadine puppet. It was nice. We went out little before midnight to watch the fireworks. There´s one little park not far from my place where you can overlook the whole Prague. It had a nice view. We took a champagne bottle with us and toasted there. We were giggling and jumping around the place. When we hit my couch at 2 a.m. again we thought we could watch The Ugly truth but the minute the movie started we all fell asleep, except for Con who stayed up till the end laughing alone, poor her.lol. We moved to our respective beds at 4a.m.lol
 
We slept pretty long the next day, Con and Kat even till 3.pm. Crazy. We went to see Prague official fireworks which were starting at 6.p.m. Apparently the whole city decided to go there. I´ve never seen Prague so crowded before. All the trams were full, we couldn´t get into them. We had to change our route and I thought we wouldn´t make it on time. The firework was shoot from a boat from middle of the Vltava river. We went to Letna, trying to find some free spot with a view. So many people everywhere. The fireworks were beautiful, though. It was done to fit a music which was playing pretty loud all over the center. Some operas and with Beethoven´s Ode to Joy at the end. It was fun to watch the whole crowd to get through the narrow streets of Prague on the way back. The mass of people was moving slowly so we felt like we were in some demonstration.lol

And then we went ice-skating. Woohoo. It was evening skating so there wasn´t too many people, so it was fun. I wish I could skate better but I can hold my own.lol Our legs hurt really soon, though.Lazy us. We went back to my place and watched Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. It was way better than I expected. We laughed a lot and had a good time. Wish Lauren´s character was more in it.
 
We also managed to see two movies in the cinema. The Whip it! and The Couples Retreat.
I really liked Whip it! even thought I didn´t know the roller derby. I was like „Is this a real sport or did they make it up for the movie?“.lol. I like the atmosphere of the movie. I think this kind of movie can be either really good or really bad. Luckily for this movie it was the first. I think Ellen Page had a lot to do with it. She was very believable, I like her.
Well, and the Couples Retreat was kind of fun. Nothing to think about hard. I didn´t expect anything big from it, but I was in the mood to see something like that and I like some of the actors in it so why not. Nothing to remember, though.
 When the girls left on Sunday I was left alone in very messy apartment with booze leftovers. Anyone wants to come to help me with the drinks?

Let 2010 bring lots of nice moments.

I went to ski to Italy the week before christmas and it was amazing. I went with my dad, it was his present for his 50th birthday from me and my mom. We both enjoy skiing immensely (it´s the only sport I´m good at.lol) and we haven´t been in the Alps for some time so it seemed to be a great present.

 I learned to ski when I was 11 and my parents sent me to a week long winter skiing camp. Lots of my friends from Nymburk went that year so it was fun. But I remember my dad trying to teach me to ski since I was really little but I wasn´t interested and since apparently I was a spoiled brat (everybody says so.lol) he gave up.

Nevertheless the camp was fun and I learned the basics of skiing and I went again the next year. When I was 13 we went to a week long ski training with my elementary school. Every school has these mandatory trainings. I posted about them here. Still, I wasn´t that great skier at that time. Skiing for one week a year isn´t really enough time for improving. There was another mandatory training during my first year of high school. I don´t know why are these trainings so important. Like everybody in Czech Republic has to know how to ski and ballroom dance?lol (we have „mandatory“ curses for that too, I suffered through one, but at least I can waltz and polka.lol)

My first time skiing in Alps, Italy, was during my second year of high school. Me and my friend found a poster in the hall about a trip to Italy and that everybody who wanted to go could sign up. So we did. I was pretty nervous about it cos I still wasn´t sure about my skiing at the time. I felt like „omg, Alps, I will kill myself there“. Turned out be the the time when I went from the beginner to advance skier. I tried to keep up with my faster friend and so I had to learn to really ski. We went to Passo Tonale in Val di Sol and we stayed in a church.haha. And since then I can´t say enough great things about skiing in Italy. There´s always sun and blue sky, perfectly prepared slopes, no queues for lifts, handsome guys and great food. What could be better? We went again next year.
And another year I went alone with my dad. He wanted to experience it since I was talking about it all excited. We went to Cavalese in Val di Fiemme. And the next year we went to Passo Tonale again. I tried snowboard there. Our guide tried to teach me for one day but one day is not enough so I don´t remember anything, only how much my body hurt.lol. I´ll stay with the ski.The Next year we went to ski in the Alps in Austria, West Dachstein. Skiing was good but nothing can be compared to skiing in Italy to me.

We haven´t been in Alps since then. We always try to go ski in the Giant Mountains in Czech Republic for a day on weekends but it´s 2,5 hours long ride there and then back and it´s really tiring. I knew my dad was really missing some good skiing so I thought the skiing trip would be an appropriate gift. He was really surprised when he opened it, though he was grumbling a little as why do we have to go in December thinking that it would be cloudy and no sun. Luckily the trip turned out to be nothing but perfect. My ski equipment really ran out of date so after 10 years I bought everything new. New ski, ski boots, ski jacket and ski pants. Now I´m ready to take a loan.lol but it was worth it. I was little nervous about my new ski because I hadn´t have carvings before. But I didn´t recognize any big changes while skiing, just that they are twice as heavy.lol

 We went to a little mountain village Arabba for 5 days. The town is part of the Sella Ronda circuit and we couldn´t choose a better place to ski. The Sella Ronda is the most famous skitour in the Dolomites. You ski around the Sella massif, go through 4 famous valleys - Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Val di Fassa and Arabba, without removing your ski . You can go clockwise or anticlockwise, starting from any of the four valleys. One way is 40 km and it takes about 5 hours to go around. And it´s so exciting cos you don´t have to ski up and down one slope the whole day but you ski around the massive and you use different lift and slope everytime. All these valleys are famous for the ski championship (we even saw one race) so it was exciting to be there. And the scenery was oh-so-amazing. I was in my element. It was freeeeezing , -18C/ -0,4F but it was sunny and the sky was blue, exactly what we wished for.

Arabba has also a great access to Marmolada, the highest mountain of the Dolomites, has 3343m, so we went there one day. You can also ski on the top and it was really great. You ski up there and the whole world is below you. I had a hard time to focus on the skiing cos I was enjoying the view so much. Arabba is also part of the Dolomity Superski area and the skipasses are fun. You enter your skipass number on the Superski website and it tells you how many km did you ski and where did you ski. Turned out that in 4 days we went 131 km on ski and used 70 lifts

And of course I had pizza, cappuccino, spaghetti, tiramisu and tried the yummy bombardino.

It was really a fabulous trip, mine and my dad´s only wish was to stay there longer.

 LOVES THE DOLOMITES.

Before a big schism at my work my boss asked me to accompany him to the two different evening events. I´m not paid for it and it means to be at work from the morning till the night but I like it. It means to see some new different things. The things you only read about or see on TV so it is interesting.

The First thing he asked me to attend was an opening of exhibition about czech filmmaker Karel Zeman in the honor of the upcoming 50^th International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín. The opening was held in Hybernia Theater and the event was attended by 150 guests, including some czech celebrities which was kind of exciting. Since the festival takes place in Moravia we were treated some moravian goodies to eat and drink, such as good wine and cakes.
There were given some speeches at the beginning, including one of my boss. Then there was a song from upcoming czech musical Baron Munchausen sung. We stayed for like a 3 hours, just mingling and drinking wine. I should improve my chit-chatting abilities. I´m not good at talking about nothing to people I don´t know.

The second event was a concert in occasion of 18th anniversary of independence of Kazakhstan.  My boss was invited by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The concert was held in Rudolfinum, which is czech main concert hall (the home of Czech philharmonic orchestra) so I had to dress up a lot. I so need a new wardrobe for events like this.

The concert was played by Kazakh state chamber orchestra “Academy of soloists” conducted by Marius Stravinsky. The main artists was  violinist Aiman Musahodzhayeva. They played world classic music as well as some Kazakhstan music.

After the concert there was a big party with lots of fancy food. I don´t care about fancy food, caviar and such so I found myself a cake table. The tiny cakes were delicious. There were lots of politicians and businessmen everywhere. Even a head of our Parliament, Mr. Vlcek, was there. He was giving a speech and then he chatted with my boss for a while so I shook my hand with him. Cool. My boss knew a lot of people there so we were constantly greeting someone. One guy asked me if I was my boss´girlfriend.lol My boss was in quite a good mood so it was a nice evening.

Everything is different now, though. I have a new office, new responsibilities. Even though I have the same boss I don´t think he´ll ask me to go somewhere with him anytime soon. Just when I bought a new dress...

P!nk is amazing. Did you know it? She really is. I attended her concert last week and I´m still full of it. I can´t say one bad thing about it. It was really an exceptional show.

I wasn´t any big fan of her, I had only knew and liked her biggest hits but I thought her concert could be fun. When I finally decided that I want to see it I found out that the concert was sold out, though. Sold out 2,5 months before the actual concert. That´s a good score. So I kind of gave up on the idea but then I saw tickets on czech „eBay type“ site for a reasonable price so I immediately snapped them. (funny coincidence - the seller works exactly 50m from my office).

The concerts had several different parts, the crazy „running around“ numbers, then she just sat with the band on the front stage, playing guitar, wearing t-shirt and jeans a singing kind of acoustic. I really liked this part. She played Dear Mr. President, Trouble, I don´t believe you…. Like that.

She played 4 covers, Babe, I´m gonna leave you by Led Zeppelin, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, the AC/DC and Queen´s Bohemian Rhapsody. The Rhapsody was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Great band, great singing, they really did Queen an honor. I know one guy who went to the Queen with Paul Rodgers concert last year and he said that the P!nk version was way better. I really had chills during this number.

At the beginning we meet Hana who is a famous actress and her husband Emil, a broadcast journalist. Beginning of the war and the occupation changes their lives upside down. Hana is a jew and she falls from top of her career down to the bottom of a social ladder. Emil becomes a head of Prague radio station what broadcasts Nazi propaganda in order to protect his Jewish wife. However, as the Nazi rule over Czechoslovakia calls for more and more collaboration, his relationship with his wife spirals downward.
He starts to cheat on Hana and one day when he´s leaving his lover in the morning and is late to the work he borrows a bike which is standing on the sidewalk and rides it to the work. But it is the same day (June 4 1942) when SS Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated and one of the offender left the crime scene on a bike. Fatal contact with seemingly unimportant object starts dreadful ride where Emil gets his self-respect back at the end. But it´s too late for his marriage. This movie doesn´t have a good ending at all.