I’m in Prague right now, struggling to learn a few basic terms like “please” and “thank you” and “I really need some coffee” and failing. I think one of the books I brought with me said that Czech is one of the most phonetic languages, which is great, but I’m hung up on the phonetics.

Děkuji

S dovolením

Nerozumím

I’m too jetlagged to grab a full night’s sleep, so I’m up in the middle of the night with CNN/Sky/BBC on in the background. They’re cycling through the same Mumbai updates, how many Americans have died, whether the bombers were British (they say no), what this means for the cricket teams. Bloomberg has something on about tanked economy. Rai’s got a documentary on about Native Americans. TV5 Monde is covering Mumbai – earlier, it was an arts documentary. Sky News is calling the Mumbai situation “India’s 9/11.”

The German channel has an infomercial for ProActiv. One of these channels, maybe a local channel, is showing images of topless women.

I have a browser open to FGT, the webby lovechild I’ve formed with Kasia that we’ll launch just after the holidays (can’t wait). I have a copy of New York Magazine on the bedside table open to the article on the burlesque venue The Box (online here), and I’m pretty intrigued by what’s happening there. I’m meeting up with a friend later who’s in Prague to shoot Czech models for a Latin American sex magazine. Sex is on my mind; reminders of death and mortality drone loudly in the background. What I should be doing is going over these Czech flash cards.

Děkuji. That’s “thank you.” I’m going to repeat that expression over and over with the hope that it’ll stick before dawn.