So, yeah, last night we were watching the Travel Channel (hey, it’s in English and it’s one of the only channels that is SAFE to watch after 11pm). They were doing a Globe Trekker “compilation” show of the best stuff to buy in different places. I found myself saying things like, “You can buy that same thing cheaper in this other city,” or “That must be an old show because that’s not what that city looks like anymore,” and my favorite, “That’s NOT how you say it! It’s Izmilovski! And last time I was there you didn’t have to pay to get in!” Yeah, we find ourselves correcting a LOT of their pronunciations of various words. :)

It reminded me of the castle incident. I flew back to America for 2 weeks last April. While there I had dinner with 2 gals that I graduated with, and whom I hadn’t seen in 15 years. We had planned it, so they asked me to bring pictures. When we were flipping through, I showed them a picture of Pernštejn Castle in Czech… to which I commented, “This is my favorite castle.” They looked at each other and jokingly said, “As opposed to the other castles you go to… right? I guess they just weren’t good enough.” Of course they were joking, but I started to think there was something wrong with me…

There’s this show called “Biking through Easter Europe” (also on the Travel Channel) where this really arrogant Brit is riding a motorcycle through Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. His popular thing to say is, “I’ve seen this a million times, I’ve been here a million times!” So my question is, “Then why can’t you pronounce the name of the city you’re in at least well enough for me, who used to LIVE there, to figure out what city you’re even talking about?!” Then it hit me… we really are NOT normal people!

Eh, normal is boring.

Need to hit a new country… haven’t been anywhere new in almost 3 years!