Veprove Karma!

Let me introduce you to Tom and Svetlana.
I met Svetlana in one of my English classes. Let me be clear. I am not the professional that my wife is... and I get paid a lot less. But the true worth of the few classes I teach is the friends we have made. Svetlana invited our family over one day for a typical Czech meal. It turns out that she and Tom are both doctors and have a great appreciation for wine tasting. We sat down for lunch at their house and the next thing we knew it was 9 pm. Needless to say, we hit it off with these people.

But now let us recall the true winter activities in Moravia... Balls. Yes yes, you perhaps have read the prior blog regarding Czech prom night. But let me assure you, there are Ball's for adults as well.

Here we are with Tom and Sivitlana and another couple at the official Town Ball.
But of course we are in the Czech Republic and so we must not only drink some wine or beer, but we must partake of some homemade slivovice. Everyone has their own flask. Below Heidi shows her respect to the custom.
Before...
After...
Not a preferred drink for Heidi. Why is Mark not having any? "He must be driver tonight." NO! We walked home.

Now the dancing can begin. Hmm.... looks a lil blurry. Can it be the slivovice already?
There, the lights off. better.
OK, the above was Moravske Budejovice's Town sponsored ball. But Tom and Svetlana invited us to a second Ball sponsored by their children's school. Now I'm not sure, but I will assume it is held to raise money. Either way, there were no kids.

See here? This is a classroom where jr and missy learn their alphabet. It has been turned into a bar. See the blackboard. See it converted into drink menu. Good ole Blackboard.

We were invited to have tequila shots... several I believe. I would like to take a moment and confirm what everyone already knows... what I already knew. Tequila... at least the basic stuff... not a good idea. Ever.

Now, as we made our way to our table, we passed those prizes that one might win. This is very typical at Czech balls. Always a raffle.

Hmmm. Some fruit, some bread, some dry goods, some pig heads and leather briefcase....
PIG HEAD!?
Yep... Two actually. ...Two lucky winners get a pig head.

Now let me stop a moment. It would appear that the camera lost all the other interesting pictures of the evening and somehow only captured the pig head theme. Strange camera.
For those of you not delighted by such novelties, you may choose not to continue on this journey.

Oh, I had to get a close up.
So, one regular and the other smoked.
Yes, the lighter one is munching on parsely.
Good piggy!
Those are school lunch trays btw. What else are you going to put a pig head on?
Oh, and I'm pretty sure that at this point Heidi thinks they aren't real.

Well, I must get in on this raffle!
I've never won the lotto... but then I've never played. But when a smoked pork head is at stake, the gambler comes out!

Fate was with me that day, my friends!
No, I couldn't win the lotto if I tried. But I have pork Karma!

Now I must be honest, some other guy won it... and Tom traded him a bottle of wine for it. After all, what am I going to do with a pig head? I mean really, the novelty of winning one at a Czech ball is too much to pass up. But what to do with it? So it might be said that it was some relief that I didn't actually win. But then Tom, in his duty to give me the most Czech-like experience I can, made sure I "win" anyway.

What?
What is he saying?
Tequila... that's to blame.
Yes yes, That is me holding and us posing with a pig head.

But still, what are we to do now?
Tom had a plan... we were to come over on Sunday and have soup... made from my prize.

Svetlana making preparations...
Here is Tom in his kitchen trying to cut the head in half... as the pot is simply too small... or the head too big.
It's not really working.

No fear... we can fix that right up!
Nothing like an axe!
...or a hatchet!
Nice work!

Hmmm.... no pics of soup. It was very nice. I won't order it again though. We actually ate the meat out of the skull. No, I didn't eat the brains... though some do. I don't know what parts we ate, but it was definitely pork. The hot dog parts... that's what we ate.

Look here... some pictures of their sun room.
This is where we ate. All their screens are down.

Here is Heidi on the other side.
Going out on a limb here. We've seen some great houses here...some not so great. I want one of these. Love it... best room ever!

OK, one last ball to exploit. This time it's a Fireman's ball in the village of Pavlice.
This time I know the band... "Duha" ...so I'm on the inside.
Here is the band's table. Pavel and Jirka
and below... someone and Ladia
Got to get a close up
That is fried pork fat. They like it salty. Who doesn't!
Goes well with Pivo (beer)

The band plays... in case you didn't believe me.
Now, I want to draw your attention to the left side of the photo. There is a table. I said it was a ball. So this means there is a raffle. Here is a bad close up.

Just several things I want to cover in closing... The white bottles are pork fat. Yes, you can win pork fat. ...and if you're lucky, there was also (but not pictured here) a porn magazine.