you say hockey, i say hokaj

did you know the hockey world championship finals are tomorrow? if you are in the U.S., the correct answer to this question is 'no.' unless, of course, you are a die-hard hockey fan and have been seriously jonesing for a hockey fix with your precious nhl out of commission this year.

for the first time in who knows how many years, the world teams are not suffering as their best players remain in the U.S. to play for their moneyed teams--fulfilling contracts and the like as they battle for the stanley cup. nope, this year the gang's all here.

the joke here is that babies are born with skates on their feet, hockey is so much a part of the national fabric. but it seems to be wearing thin these days as i ask students if they play hockey or skate. the answer is usually a sullen 'no.' oh yes, i forgot--playing hockey means wrenching yourself away from your computer screen.

anyway, when hockey championship season rolls around, you will find czechs filling local pubs and bars, cheering for their mostly expatriate sons--who only seem to find their ways back to playing in the czech red, white and blue when the worlds or olympics are at stake.

i live in a huge panelak--one of those big communist-built hulks of a concrete building whose walls (prefab) are so, well, crappy, that when i am awakened at 7am by someone drilling five floors down and two entrances over it feels like it's next to my head. those times when i'm home watching hockey i can be away from the tv with the sound off and still know when a goal has been scored by the shouting echoing through the building.

czech played U.S.A. (why do i capitalize that? who knows? love of motherland?) thursday afternoon in the semi-final round. i was on my way to a graduation party in the countryside with a bunch of czech students and some of their teachers. on the bus ride there someone got a text message with the score 1-0 in favor of the U.S. and suddenly, as one, all heads whipped around to me. i don't play hockey! i protested. the rest of the afternoon i had to keep repeating 'today i am czech' so that no one would kill me and eat me as one of the more drunk teachers suggested. fortunately for me the czech players pulled off a mirrored game to last year's against the U.S.

that was here in prague, at the new arena (built by sazka, the company with gambling centers around the country. doesn't that seem odd and sort of a conflict of interest?). the score was tied at 0 even after overtime and the U.S. team won in the penalty shootout round. very disappointing and my students really didn't believe me when i said i was cheering for czech. they believed me this year when i joined in their 'kdo neskace neni czech: hop, hop, hop' (whoever isn't jumping isn't czech: jump, jump, jump) cheer as the czechs won in the penalty shootout round this time. whew. i escaped with my life--barely, it seems.

so i have had no problem telling czech friends that i am much more interested in a czech victory than an american one, not least of all because i don't think many folks in the U.S. even know it's happening. and here? well, i'm sure there will be video screens set up in old town square for the gold-medal game tomorrow night. i was there in 1998 when czech beat russia for the gold at nagano, so i think it would be right for me to be there again. i'm hoping czech pulls out a victory against canada as they did against sweden in vienna tonight. national pride doesn't show up too often here, but it does where hockey is concerned.