No Shirt, No Shoes? Come Right On In!

Last week was all about boobs. Yes, I said it...boobs.

It all started on Wednesday afternoon. There I sat with my two students, both girls about my age, working on a vocabulary lesson. Sort of a "find the one that doesn't belong activity". We got through the whole exercise with no problems and then came to #10. The words were 'gaffe' 'faux pas' 'boob' and some other word that had nothing to do with the first three. The only word they knew was "faux pas" so I had to explain the other two to them. Gaffe -a mistake, blunder, blah blah blah. And then on to boob. Boob? I've never used the word "boob" in my life to refer to anything other than, well, a boob. So I struggled through the PC definition and then said "Ok look - so the most common use of that word in American English is to talk about these" and pointed to mine. They laughed and laughed. It was only fitting since in the previous lesson I had to point out a difference in British and American English when Marta said "Hold on - I'll go to my office and get a rubber" and then returned with an eraser.

So then on to Thursday. It was a very long day. I usually only have two classes on Thursday but had picked up a few substitions for extra money. I had plans to meet Anya, one of my flatmates, for a drink at our neighborhood Irish pub on my way home from class at about 8pm. Now this is the SAME pub we went to last Thursday night so I expected that it would have the same basic atmosphere as last time. How silly of me! I got there first, sat down and began looking over the menu...not noticing anything out of the ordinary. The waitress came over and asked for my drink order in Czech and, as I looked up to give it to her, I came face to...er...nipple with her bare chest! She was topless!?!!? All of the other waitresses were wearing shirts. Did she just forget? Was it laundry day? Now she did have a piece of fabric across her back with two sleeves attached. Not showing her arms...so modest of her. Despite the somewhat shady atmosphere, the spaghetti was excellent!

It has to be over, right? Oh no. Friday. More boob. I had about 30 minutes to kill before class so I went for a walk and came across Kavarna Cirkus (Circus Cafe). PERFECT! A nice relaxing spot where I can have a cup of tea and make my grocery list. I noticed an odd ramp at the entrance but didn't really think much of it...I just thought ramps at cafe entrances would be the next addition to the long list of things I don't understand in this country. I walked up the ramp, opened the door and BAM...you guessed it - boobs. Evidently, Kavarna Cirkus is a coffeeshop for women to come breastfeed their babies while their other children run wild. The ramp was for strollers...makes total sense now! I wasn't going to let a few snacking babies stop me - I sat down in the corner and enjoyed my tea, all the while deflecting curious, somewhat annoyed stares from the La Leche League. Single, childless women need tea too, dammit!

And Saturday I went to a strip club.



kidding.