Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mask-making...first day in Debolin

So today has been absolutely insane!!! I keep having to remind myself that I am in a small town in southern Bohemia. I am in a group with Ivy, Lauren, Alex, and Miriam. We got here yesterday by the train…it took about 3.5 hours, and we had to change twice. We were really nervous about missing our train, because we weren’t totally sure about the transfers. It was really funny, because at one station we went in to ask what platform we needed to go to, and the women didn’t speak English, but she motioned to the speakers. So they played the train information in English just for us. But we got here fine!

We are staying at a ceramics studio in a small town called Debolin. The village has about 300 people in it. I’m still not quite sure how the studio was started, but it’s fairly new. It also doubles as a bed and breakfast type thing (penzion), and each room has its own special theme. They are all really beautiful. Last night after we got here, we met Romana who is the owner of the studio. She doesn’t speak a whole lot of English, so she invited 3 of her friends here that are from Slovakia. They are Philip, Barbara, and Barbara. They are all the same age as us, which is nice. So we went to dinner at the Motorest (…the only restaurant in town), and had some traditional Czech cuisine. I had gulash, which was great! :D And of course, dumplings.

Today we had a bounteous breakfast, and then went on a walk of Debolin…which didn’t take very long. Apparently it used to be part of the Sudetanland, and there’s a street down the middle that split the town in two. One part was German, and the other side was Czech. After WWII, all of the Germans were expelled, and the village had kind of a rebirth. The Masopust festival was banned under Communism, so it didn’t really make a comeback until after the Revolution in 1989. It will be interesting to see how much this studio has affected the comeback of such a traditional Czech celebration. It will also be interesting to see how the village people view the studio. The people that started it aren’t from here, so I don’t know if they’re seen as outsiders, or if they’ve been accepted since they’ve been bringing back traditional Czech values.

After talking with Barbara, Barbara, and Philip, it’s definitely cool to get a different view on Masopust, and on Czech culture. They were angered by the way that Slovakia is depicted in Eurotrip and in Hostel (neither of which I’ve seen)…as a backwards nation that still hasn’t come out from the Communist era…and that hasn’t come into the 20th century. And the misconception that it’s still a part of the Czech Republic (i.e. Czechoslovakia). I’m sure it’s extremely frustrating to have people disregard your nationhood and your culture…way to go America for doing such a great job at that. All 3 of them are extremely intelligent…majoring in Marketing and Management and Communications. They also know like 5 different languages (…which is also pretty much everyone here…and makes me feel extremely ignorant).

Today was definitely sweet though. After our walk, we came back to the studio and took a tour of the whole building. The stuff they make here is amazing! Apparently Romana, the owner, can make 200 ceramic mugs in 8 hours!!! The normal rate is like 50 per 8 hours. Crazy! But we molded clay masks for our characters for the parade tomorrow. I’m going to be a bird. We then went to lunch at the Motorest again…and had dumplings and beef with whipped cream and cranberry sauce. After that, we picked out our costumes all afternoon. It was like playing dress-up…only with the most crazy and colorful clothes I’ve ever seen. I actually sewed ribbons on my shirt to look like feathers (…both my roomies would be proud…Janelle for my sewing abilities; and Mo for my ceramics endeavors). We literally were trying on costumes all afternoon. We then started doing paper mache type stuff to do sort of casting on the clay mold. Tomorrow we will paint the masks. Again, we ate dinner at the Motorest (…I had brambory…which is “pushed” potatoes with chives…it was amazing!). We came back and finished our masks…and I kept having to remind myself that I was in a ceramics studio, with 3 Slovaks, 2 Czechs, and 4 Americans, listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, making masks, for an ancient traditional Czech celebration….crazy, I know!

I’m excited for the parade tomorrow. We will go to every house in the village and sing Czech songs and dance, etc. And then they give us "spirits. " Apparently people will start at 8 a.m…we won’t even be up by then! :D