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Street Prophets Friday: A Very Werey Christmas [1]

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Date: 2022-12-23

‘Tis that time of year again: lights and music, spices and butter, breaded carp and potato salad. Tradition! Being a transplanted critter, I’ve expanded my collection of traditions by embracing a different culture. New foods, new music … and yet the traditions of my stateside childhood are interwoven.

One of my favorite seasonal traditions is attending a choral concert. Our friend Lucie sings in an amateur chorus and they took part in a concert featuring many old Czech carols and Jakub Jan Ryba’s Christmas Mass.

Christmas concert in Bethlehem Chapel, Prague

Here’s a video from the YouTubes featuring The Kühn Children's Chorus:

I’ve seen that particular chorus in concert before and I picked this version of the mass because I’m pretty sure at least a couple of the professional soloists sang at the concert I attended a couple weeks ago.

I like the Bethlehem Chapel. It’s a space frequently used for college graduation ceremonies and is perhaps most famous for being a space where Jan Hus preached and advocated for church reformation back in the early days of the 15th century. The murals in my photo depict scenes from his life— and execution, burned alive for heresy. Thanks for stirring the pot, Honza. I do appreciate a good reformist.

Traditionally I’ll make at least one trip downtown with friends or family during this holiday season. It’s a chance to see the decorations and perhaps sample some treats, maybe discover a little corner we’d never noticed before.

This was one of those corners. Mrs the Werelynx, Fabulous Mother-In-Law and I had lunch at a little restaurant that spanned both sides of this pretty little courtyard.

The tourists were back in force on Old Town Square. We made a quick circuit of the place, bought a couple trinkets at market stalls set up by charities and made our escape.

We actually got some snow in Prague in the last couple of weeks. Supposed to be wet and warm this weekend, so a white Christmas will be evading us this year. I think it got up to just over 50 degrees Fahrenheit today.

Earlier in the month I was treated to quiet scenes like this on my way to and from my evening lessons.

Then last Thursday half of my face decided to misbehave. I think I might have been experiencing a bit of food allergy-related swelling when one of my facial nerves stopped working. I’m basically lacking the ability to move any of the surface muscles used in mimicry and making expressions on the right side of my face. Supposedly, the nerve responsible goes through a tight hole in the skull and an infection, swelling or edema in the area can easily pinch the nerve causing ignorant little, hairy lads like myself to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to be checked out by a doctor. Facial paralysis is surely a sign of stroke— okay, so I don’t have any of the other possible symptoms— still …

Friday, after noticing no improvement, I walked down to the clinic to see my doctor. She felt it was just my facial nerve, but thought it best to call for an ambulance to take me in to see a neurologist.

While waiting for the ambulance, one of the nurses made a stab at starting an I.V. Oh well, she needs practice. Glad to help.

Got a ride in an ambulance. The paramedic agreed with my doctor’s diagnosis and after a failed stab of his own managed to start an I.V. I was starting to feel a bit pin-cushiony. On the way to the hospital, he and I had a nice, if somewhat lopsided on my side, conversation about his travels in America back around the time the millennium turned. He asked me if I missed peanut butter and I informed him of the ready availability of the stuff here these days and he talked nostalgically of discovering Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and how he had found them for sale here. Again I had the upper hand. Yes, I said, we’ve even got white chocolate ones (Mrs the Werelynx had included a few mini-cups as Saint Nicolas stocking stuffing).

My visit to the emergency room went rather smoothly. Quickly examined by a nurse, talked to a doctor, within an hour I’d seen the neurologist and was scheduled to have a CT scan. Heard a lot about my neighbors behind curtains in other beds. There was a very nervous old man on my right and a young man with a terminal illness on my left. An old woman with trouble breathing in the corner across from the panicked guy. The young fellow left after awhile to be replaced by an octogenarian who had delayed going in after a nasty fall because she was the primary caregiver for her husband, who has dementia. I felt a little guilty, but there were plenty of staff on hand for everyone to have excellent individual attention. All told, complete with a ride on the CT bed, I was there for just over 3 hours. The neurologist asked if I’d consider getting a test which would require me to spend the night in the hospital, but I wanted to get home. After she wrote up her report and discussed treatment going forward, the nurse unhooked me and checked my blood pressure one final time then got the emergency room’s own report of my admittance. I walked out to the bus stop. On my way home, I stopped by a pharmacy to pick up some corticoids, antibiotics (price I pay for not staying the night), a couple mineral supplements and some capsules to protect my stomach from the worse side effects of the corticoids.

My insurance covered everything but about $25 of the pharmacy bill. And yeah, I’ve got very basic, no frills, Czech health insurance. Fussed over by 3 doctors, 4 nurses, 3 paramedics, 1 orderly, 1 Ct technician for about 4 hours— cheap at any price.

Y’know, the paramedic didn’t ask me if I miss the USA, just if there were things that I missed. I sure don’t miss being semi-employed and unable to afford health insurance.

One of my traditions. Each year I make a triple or quadruple batch of my mother’s sugar cookie dough and use it, as she did, for rolling out and cutting Christmas cookies. I took her cookbook and the family cookie cutters with me to Prague and now I make the dough, roll it out and my sons join me in cutting out the cookies. You might be curious about the arrowhead collection on the wall there. Those were made by an old college buddy of mine back in Wisconsin. I try to visit him and his family whenever we make the big leap across the pond.

Saint Vitus Cathedral of Prague Castle in the center on the horizon. A bit of wintry grey drizzle downtown.

Monday I called around to get started on a course of physical rehab to perhaps help get my beautiful smile back. This was the most painful part of the whole experience. The place closest to my home was booked solid until the end of January. The kind receptionist recommended a few other places in the area and I struck out at all of them. While going down the list of rehabilitation clinics within walking distance, I accidentally called back in to my local spot and had a laugh with the receptionist as we recognized each other’s voices. She told me not give up, to try further afield and rattled off a couple more names for me to try. One bit and asked me to come in to register with them in person. Which I did after lunch. It was downtown, about a half hour away via public transportation. I was offered my first session that evening.

Still a touch of snow on the tower of the Manes Gallery

Icy cobble sidewalks. Not recommended. Icy snow slush on the edges far safer. Temps dropped in the evening and the drizzle turned to ice. I sort of ‘took a knee’ getting out of the bus on the way home, but avoided a proper fall.

Nice session, a rather intricate facial massage mostly, with a physical therapist who was probably not much older than #1 Son. I’ve got a bunch of fairly comical exercises to do. Yes, it’s mostly silly at this point. The therapist himself admitted that we’re mostly working to keep the muscles in condition over a period of what could be months. We’re not going to be unblocking the nerve, that should sort itself out eventually. At any rate, I’ve got hours of entertainment ahead of me.

Tiny perk of going to a clinic in the evening when the main door will be closed when your visit ends: you go out through the courtyard. Not a very interesting courtyard, but I enjoy these peeks behind the scenes at what the blocks of buildings downtown are hiding in their hearts.

Early for an appointment, wandering the neighborhood, discovering little cul-de-sacs.

Wednesday I had a second session and walked along the river, taking the long way home, stopping by a couple of my favorite little street vendors to get little gift or two for the woman putting up with my half botoxed mug. Facial nerve paralysis— really reduces wrinkles.

It had been a couple years since I saw the nutria (coypu) downtown. There was an adult keeping half an eye open while three little furry babies explored the riverbank. Invasive species, not a fan, but they sure are cute.

The drizzle turned to rain on Wednesday and, taking advantage of the fair-weather nature of some of the tourists, enjoyed an uncrowded walk across Charles Bridge (home to one of those vendors I mentioned earlier).

It’s the season of the carp tubs. Fried breaded carp is a Czech Christmas dinner tradition. Stands like this popped up all over the country this week.

I hopped out and bought our carp yesterday. Just had the guys at our local carp stand scoop me out one just under 3 kilos and whack it on the head a couple times with a mallet, slit its throat and bleed it a bit. Took care of the rest myself at home. Nothing weirder than walking home with nearly 7 pounds of fish flopping in a plastic bag, but they did a thorough job this time. Not a problem really though, I’ve killed carp before. The things a fuzzy lad will do to assimilate.

Last night I boiled the head (without the gills of course) and tail portions to make soup stock for Saturday’s dinner. This morning I made the dough for the traditional Czech Christmas braided pastry. Just took it out of the oven an hour or two ago. A success it seems. I keep fiddling with the recipe. Got a recipe from a friend and tried to sort of combine it with the one we had been using.

Hmm, maybe more on that in the comments eventually.

Speaking of which, this is an open thread.

Wishing you all the best as we begin stretching days and close out another year. May there be better times ahead for us to frolic in.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/23/2143468/-Street-Prophets-Friday-A-Very-Werey-Christmas

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