AND IT'S ONLY MONDAY!

Today was a biggie for the Parkers in Prague. First, Jeff's "Big Boss", Heinz, is in town from Germany. So there was lots of buzz at work. Second, Ella and I started our day with a trip to the doctor. (Don't worry! Nothing is wrong! Just the one-year check up.) Jeff set us up with an appointment with Dr. Zitek, the same pediatrician our landlord uses for his children. Dr. Zitek is Czech, of course, and speaks French as a second language, and English as maybe a third language...although who really knows how many other languages he speaks. I was looking forward to trying to speak French...I haven't had much practice in recent years. But I found with the early morning effect (our appointment was at 8:30 and it took about 40 minutes to meander our way there via metro and foot) and the confusion of focusing on another foreign language lately (Czech), I was hopeless! My tongue got all twisted up and I could barely remember "Elle s'appelle Ella". Bottomline: we spoke English. Good news is Ella is in good health!

But the really cool thing that Ella and I did today was go to a parade. Letní Letná started today. It is a circus at Letná Park. A humans-only circus...kind of like Cirque de Soleil...but much smaller. I had read about Letní Letná in The Prague Post, a weekly English newspaper we subscribe to, and saw that they were kicking off the festivities with a parade at 3pm. The first trick was figuring out where to go. The paper said the parade was starting at the Klementium and finishing at Staré Město (Old Town Square). Turns out the Klementium is a huge complex very near the Charles Bridge that we have walked by many times but not REALLY noticed. Ella and I didn't even leave the flat until 2pm so I figured the parade route would be packed...not that I knew the parade route...only the start and finish. I decided to head for the Klementium and get the best spot I could, not knowing which streets would be blocked off, etc. Well, at about 2:40 we walked right into the center of the Klementium and joined the performers as they prepared for the parade. It was really cool! Ella actually slept through about 20 minutes of hardcore drumming and general whooping it up!



Ella woke up as the parade was underway. I found us a spot in the tunnel/archway that the parade passed through as it left the Klementium. We were so close it felt like we were in the parade...and then we were! We just marched along behind the parade...actually there were two policemen on motorcycles and two large white rabbits driving a truck BEHIND us! No streets were blocked off...it was generally a free-for-all! (I kind of felt like I was back in India, taking part in Caesar and Sarita's wedding parade. I think those who were there will see the similarity in the videos!) We wound our way to Staré Město where we watched the true paraders fade into the maze of streets. After all this excitement, Ella and I needed a banana break and we were about to head for home when the parade returned to the square!



And then Ella really got into the dancing!



(Yes, I know there will be booger comments. I am prepared. But where will Ella be when these videos come back to haunt her at 16?)

Whew! I'm exhausted! And happy!
Maylia

PS We're pretty excited to have figured out a way to include video in the blog. Hope it works for everyone.