Why oh why?

Why did I stop updating this?

Oh right, I got super depressed about being in Prague, hated life, and gave up on everyone in this sinful city. For a while I was really feeling alone here - Beliza had gone, Haykel and I broke up (hey, it was an intense couple of months!), and work was really sucking. Every day I felt like I was getting beaten down there with no light at the end of the tunnel.

But, a lot has happened since then.

1. I went to Spain! Mom came to Prague to visit in July for a few days, then we took off to Barcelona and Madrid together for about 12 days. It was amazing, and I was soooo happy to see her.
2. Tara visited!! My best friend in the whole world - we really tore up both Prague AND Berlin. The pictures prove it.
3. Shannon and Bethany visited. Another great couple of weeks.
4. I got a new job - I have a really long and important-sounding title. I'm only a couple weeks into the new position but I already love it, and my days seem and feel brighter.
6. I went to Pittsburgh for Shannon's wedding! I was the maid of honor, and it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony and reception. It was a huge success - congratulations again Shannon and Ted :)
7. Maira came to visit - another insane week.

It makes sense that right after Maira left, I got sick. I was exhausted from all of the fantastic visits and a weekend in bed really did me some good. I'm already over my cold (I swear this is due to not taking medicine - I swear by this - your body knows how to heal itself!)

Beliza is coming to visit in a week. Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm going for Mexican food with some friends. I'm dating a new guy (still casual, but definitely fun). Saturday we're having a party at my place for Elena's birthday. Sunday might be Czech lunch and Ikea day with Katy.

Life is good again.

Life goes on

Life here keeps getting crazier.

Since my last post I...
1. Got a boyfriend
2. Broke up with boyfriend (well, the other way around actually)
3. cried a lot and got really homesick and depressed
4. Felt better again
5. Read a couple books
6. lamented Karma Lounge closing, but I'm happy at the same time because it will end my contact with the Tunisians

It's been a very dramatic month and I'm happy to say that it's winding down. Work is normal, nothing especially good or bad. I've decided that once I fulfill my time here I'll be heading on back to the other side of the ocean for sure, though I don't know where, yet. It will depend what Ariba has for me, I guess, if anything.

All I know is that the problems I had back home were nothing like the crazy, immoral, psycho problems I have here, and I miss the non-crazy life. I don't like Europe, and I really just want to go home and move to Texas with Tara and go cumbia dancing every night.

Katy is talking about going home to Atlanta soon. All my good friends are leaving. I really think that if she goes, I'll fall into a serious funk and just stop leaving my apartment all together for anything other than work and groceries.

Maybe my crystal really is broken. I should have forked over the $300 when I had the chance.

Geez, melodramatic much? I need to shut up.

Today is the day!

Today is the day my new Tunisian friends are coming to my place for dinner :) I bought speakers and a blender (to make hummus) just for the purpose of today being awesome. I really love cooking for people. And.. I get to see Haykel :) This bubble might burst quickly but I figure there's no harm in enjoying it now.

Also, it's Easter. So if you celebrate it, Happy Easter. :)


Beliza came over last night and we had an awesome night in. And I got a ton of new movies from her. Hey-o!

Up and up

I have this bad habit of only writing when things are slow, usually when I'm kind of down. Well, it's been a hectic few weeks and things have been just super. So even though it's 11:53pm, I have a terrible cough and sore throat, and I'm dying to go to bed, I thought it would be nice to do a little update.

So what's new? Wow.. good question. Well work is fine, same old thing. Beliza resigned from Ariba for June, so that is sad news for me but happy for her. I think it's okay, we'll still visit of course. Katy and Derrick are staying, and that makes me REALLY happy. Things were kind of down for them for a while. Derrick found a job (actually working in the same hotel as Katy) and they're both feeling good about everything now, which is great. I'd really lose it without them here.

I can't remember if I ever got to write about this, but I have a new regular hangout - it's a spot in the old town where they have live Arabic music every Saturday, bellydancers on Fridays, great music all the time. I made friends there the first night I went with Katy and Derrick, and then last night I saw them again (well, Badr and Roger anyway). I'm really jumping around here, though...

Well let's start here. About a month ago I was out with Katy and Derrick. We went to Chapeau Rouge, and while it was supposed to be good music, it sucked. So we left after 10 mins. We were continuing onto some other place when Katy got a work call. So we stopped. Just as I was getting tired of waiting, along came a guy singing Amr Diab and walking with a friend. I knew the song and being in a silly mood I started to sing with him. So we got excited that we were both Arabs and he said, "Hey, want to come to an Arabic party???" I said, of course I do, stranger!

Well unfortunately he turned out to be not such a good guy, and stopped to buy some cocaine along the way from one of the street Nigerians. But the point is, he took us to a place I'd never have found in a million years. As soon as we got there, people started talking to us, and we ended up at Bombay with the friends we made. I've been going back at least once per weekend since then.

So let's fast forward to last weekend when I was there with Diana and Beliza. We met a couple of guys, and Diana and I went to Bombay after for dancing and saw them there as well. So we made a plan that I never thought would get carried out for the following sunday - a Tunisian dinner, hosted by them.

Cue birthday week. Thursday was the real day. I went for drinks with Diana, Beli, Jose, and Henrique after work, and then Diana and I went to the Afghani restaurant - our favorite restaurant in all of Prague.

Friday, Katy and Derrick along with Petr, Denisa, and Denisa's friend Mustafa came over. We drank and played Mario.. nothing too eventful here.

Saturday I went to see two movies in Febio Fest with Beliza. The first one was called Amreeka, the story of a Palestinian woman who goes to live in the US with her son. It was FANTASTIC. The second movie was from Chile and really didn't impress me at all. We hurried home, got ready to go out, and then went to Karavanseraj for dinner. Delicious food. Then we went to the Arab spot :)

Everyone was there.. the guys from the week before, Badr, Roger, and then the people with me were Beliza, Elena, Rique and Ramona. We had a really great time mixing and talking to people, then we went to Bombay after for a little while.

Sunday I went to Diana's to make baklawa for - da da daaaa - the Tunisian dinner!! Diana was kind enough to let me use her oven. We got to their place around 7pm or so. The guys were just the sweetest things in the world. It's four of them living together, and they made the most lovely dinner and evening for us. After the amazing food (cooked by Adnen, a chef!) they put on an Arabic movie, got the shisha going (I don't smoke but I love the smell:), and we sat around laughing and BSing until around 11:30pm when we realized - hey - we have to work tomorrow :)

So here I am. It's technically Tuesday now. Already I can't wait for Sunday because we have another dinner with them planned (as of just tonight), this time hosted and cooked by yours truly :-D

It's gonna be so much fun!!

All in all, a very successful 27th birthday (my second birthday spent in Prague now!).

Love to everyone -

Dr. Czechová

I realize I haven't updated for a long time. Reasons for this are that 1. mothing especially exciting has happened, and 2. if I did write in the last few weeks, it would have been depressing, as I've been under a lot of stress, to the point of getting physical symptoms of stress. This brings me to today's story: Dr. Czechová.


Over the last month or so, I've been suffering from headaches, tension in my jaw that won't go away, and sheer mental exhaustion - I can't pay attention when people speak to me, I space out frequently, I'm seriously just a mess. Everyone kept telling me, take a couple days off from work and just stay home and sleep. Did I listen? No. Should I have? Yes.

On Saturday night as I was walking to the tram stop from Akropolis, I got a sharp pain in my right leg. I could barely walk or put any pressure on the leg. I managed to get home just fine, as I was near the tram stop when it happened and I found a taxi to get me to my building from the tram stop in Andel. I figured, just rest, it will be better tomorrow.

I woke up on Sunday with the same leg pain, but now an even worse pain in the side/middle of my back. It felt like I pulled a muscle, though I have no idea how I could have done so. Again, I figured, just rest, do some stretches, it will go away. Sunday night it wasn't better at all - I started to worry, and to play it safe, texted my boss to let him know I might not be in, as I couldn't even walk, just hobble. I ended up staying home yesterday (Monday). I said to myself, if it wasn't better today, I'd go see the doctor. When I woke up it still hurt, so I called off work and made an appointment for 11:30am. Took a taxi and arrived right on time.

"Ms. Douglas?"
"Yes."
I follow the woman to the examination room.
"Do you speak Czech?"
"No..."
"Ah, my English is not well." (Maybe her English should have been seeing the doctor?)
"It's okay."
"So tell me what is problem?"
I told her the story, starting with Saturday night through the morning. I explained that my leg was feeling better but my back muscle was still bothering me, still in this weird "spasm" phase.

"Ah, so show me where is pain."
I point on my back to where it is.
She punches me in the muscle. "Is it pain?"
"No, it's only when I move in certain ways. Walking is painful for it, because of the way the muscle moves I think."
"Ah, so I should think it is problem with your spine."
"My spine? I really don't think so. It really feels like a muscle."
"So is problem with your kidneys, yes? Strip me your shirt, please."
....okay. So I strip her my shirt.
"Lie on table. Is this pain? Is this pain? Is this pain?" while moving my leg in all different directions.
"No, my leg is better, it's my back muscle that hurts."
"Ah, your lower back! Yes."
"No, it's in the middle, on my right side, like I showed you."
"Okay, so I don't know what is problem. I give you pill for pain. If next week it is still pain, return to me and I will take your blood."

.....okay. I left feeling dejected and unexamined, as she barely touched my back to see where the pain was. I asked if the prescription was at least for a muscle relaxer, since it's in that jerky phase that's very painful, and a muscle relaxer would let it RELAX and heal, but no. This is just for the pain. "Muscle relaxer will make you sleepy." So? I'M NOT AT WORK TODAY, IF YOU DIDN'T NOTICE.

Anyway, I didn't feel like talking to her anymore so I left. The weather was lovely today and it felt good to be outside. Of course my leg started hurting on the way home, but only minimally.

I'm going to go lie down, I think it's back to the grind for me tomorrow.

21 before 12 - in what world does it make sense?

It makes sense in ARIBA world, if we're talking about how many auctions I watched before what hour!! FML today.

Work is driving me insane. The only thing that's keeping me going is that tomorrow is FRIDAY and the weekend is almost here. The sucky thing is that all my favorite people to hang out with are either busy/working/out of town this weekend, so it might be a boring one. I don't care so much, I could use a boring weekend. I have a small date tomorrow that I'm not putting too many bets on, but at least it's something to do. It's always good to prepare yourself to be surprised.

We have this Ariba interal website - I like to say that it's the Ariba version of Facebook - where you can write a blog. I love writing, and blogging, apparently... so I think I might want to write a blog for the site. I don't know why, when I have as much work and stress as I do, that I'd want to add MORE work to my pile, but it's something I think I might actually enjoy. I saw that several people in our company write about new and exciting ideas, new product features, Sourcing tips, etc. Since I can't contribute on any of that, what do I know? The product! And I know what users call us about all the time.

So, what I'm thinking is, why not start a blog with a weekly FAQ or tip about Ariba Sourcing? I wrote to the site manager and he LOVES the idea and is really egging me to do it now, so I think I might. I guess I probably have to consult my manager first to make sure it's okay.

Anyway, THIS blog is not supposed to be work-related. So I will change the subject.

I went to the cinema with Beliza tonight. We saw "Imaginarium of Dr. Panassus" and boy was it cool. I have to admit that I'm not quite sure I understood everything, but I really liked it anyway. 10,000x better than Sherlock Holmes, which was a pretty big disappointment. (There's no reason to compare the two other than they're the two most recent movies I saw). I'm dying to see Shutter Island, it will be out soon here.

I guess that's it. I miss Pittsburgh less this week. I think it's because I'm too busy to feel feelings.

Weekend and Nostalgia

I always feel the need to stress that I am happy in Prague, even though I talk about how much I miss Pittsburgh. Ever since I got back from my Christmas holidays, I have felt so nostalgic for home, and all of the special things that you can only buy/say/do in Pittsburgh.

So, here is a list of 20 things that I miss about my life back home:
1. Primanti's
2. Chatting with strangers
3. Qdoba (okay, so this one isn't just Pittsburgh, but I still wish there were some way for Maira to inter-office mail me a fajita ranchera burrito and some chips&queso)
4. Sunday night salsa, and being dead tired all day Monday yet completely regret-free
5. Working with the people in the Pittsburgh office
6. Pittsburghese
7. Not being around people who like to remind me how Europe (and Europeans) is superior to the U.S. in every way, shape, and form
8. Speaking English everywhere, and being able to ask questions in shops and restaurants (i.e. can I change the dumplings for french fries, do you have any Frank's Red Hot for my pizza, can I please have a bottle of Heinz Ketchup with that)
9. Frank's Red Hot
10. Heinz Ketchup
11. Red Devil sauce
12. Mom's cooking (nothing specific, just everything)
13. Driving a car (more specifically, not having to carry heavy bags of groceries up a hill covered in ice while the cold wind blows so hard, numbing my hands, that I can't feel if I'm holding the bags anymore or not, then carrying the bags up three flights of stairs)
14. Weeknight TV nights with mom
15. Saturday mall trips with Tara and/or Ashley
16. Sunday visits at Dad's house
17. Driving around listening to music with Tara
18. Maira in general
19. Firehouse nights followed by Fathead's days
20. Shopping constantly


Now that that's out of the way, I will talk a bit about my weekend. On Friday after work I went with Beliza and Elena to the Argentinian restaurant to have a glass of wine. Well, one glass of wine turned into two glasses, then it turned into dinner, and I got home around 9:45pm. By that time, Katy figured I didn't want to go out, so we called off our plans for the night which really didn't bother me, as I was tired and it was insanely cold outside.

Saturday I slept all day. There is nothing to tell here because all I did was sleep on and off and watch episodes of True Blood on my computer. Plus I ate. Sooo interesting this day. :)

At night though, Katy, Derrick, and Denisa came over. We girls got ready together, we did a little Becherovka-style pregaming, and then headed out to Radost for the night. Met a nice Irish guy and his American friend and hung out with them a bit, danced a lot, goofed around, then ended up dancing with a guy from Cote d'Ivoire for about an hour, around 4am or so. Danced till about 5, hung out until about 5:30am, then finally arrived home around 6:30am. I got into bed at 7 and slept until about 1pm on Sunday, and forced myself to stay awake all day so I could be tired at night. I busied myself cleaning the apartment (landlord is coming over today) and cooking a nice dinner, watching some movies, reading. At night I called Tara and then my mom and talked for about an hour total - that part was awesome. I really miss them both.

All in all it was a relaxing weekend. I woke up today about 5 minutes before my alarm feeling completely rested. Definitely a good start for a Monday :)