Pilouse

This is the view out my bedroom window. On the right is a lovely white "hospoda" called Pilouse. It is one of the neighborhood pubs I frequent here in Hronov. A couple of weeks after I arrived, I spent an evening out on the patio at Pilouse, getting to know some people who are now the main characters in my Czech adventures. I thought you might like to meet them:



This is Eva. She is my neighbor, living 2 floors below me in our little building. She lived in England for about 5 years, first going there to be an au pair when she was 18. She stayed for two years, came back to the Czech Republic for about 6 months, and then returned to England because she wasn't ready to give up her life there. Her English is fantastic, and she's been a huge help to me here. Half of the friends I have now are because of her.



Here are Gudas (in the middle) and Jidas (on the right). All the men here have nicknames because there seem to be only about 12 names that are really used for boys here. Gudas' real name is Leos. He's 36 and he lived in the U.S. for about 6 months in 1997. His English is pretty good, and he and Jidas have an English lesson every week as they try to improve. Jidas ("Judas" in Czech--his real name is Jiri) is 40 and hasn't ever lived in an English-speaking country. He really likes English-language music though, and hopes that speaking English will allow him to travel more and maybe get a better job someday.



This is Joska (Josef), Helena, and Honza (Jan). Joska works with Eva (as does Gudas) and doesn't speak much English. He is, however, hilarious. On this particular evening, the discussion was largely focused on the fact that Joska, Helena, and Petka were headed to Turkey in a couple of days and Joska was petrified of the airplane because it was going to be his first flight and he felt sure there was a good chance he would die. Helena is Joska's girlfriend. She is a nurse and massage-therapist, and her mom is the doctor I went to when I got really sick. Honza lives in Nachod and is more on the fringe of the group. I'm still not sure what his story is.



This is Petka (Petr), smoking one of probably a million cigarettes I have had the pleasure of experiencing since my arrival here. Petka doesn't speak much English either, although he can quote a lot of English-language songs. When I finally left the group on this particular evening to go home to bed, he called out, "I just called to say I love you!" Thanks, Petka!



Finally, in a not great photo, here you can see Monika in between Petka and Joska. Monika is Jidas' girlfriend. I didn't think she spoke any English until another night at Pilouse a few months later when we were able to talk a bit. It's kind of a common phenomenon here: people will say that they don't speak any English, but what they really mean is that they don't know very much and are not at all confident enough to speak to a native-speaker. Once they feel more comfortable around you, you discover that they actually know quite a bit of English.

So, that's one part of my group of friends here in Hronov. The one important person missing here is Petra, the crazy Canadian, so I will make it a point to get a photo of her soon.