Goodbyes and a wedding "party"

Today I met with Petr Hadrava for a final time. I caught a ride to the Prague branch with the director and secretary of the Astronomical Institute. While there I gave Petr an explanation of a paper I had written for an independent study in College regarding Drosophila fruit fly researchers. There had been talk that I would give this to the Natural History and History of Science departments, but that didn't come together, so my audience was just Petr. Considering that my paper was somewhat about evalutating the careers of scientists, Petr felt that it was relevant to the debate going on in the Czech Republic, on how to justify which science programs to fund and which to let dry up.
During this time, I got an invitation from one of the women at the institute to come join a party celebrating her recent marriage. She had just returned from her honeymoon and the Astronomers were having a get together to see pictures of the wedding, give her gifts, and generally celebrate. I assumed that Petr and the Ondrejov people would be there, but I was surprised to see that I knew absolutely nobody in the room. I was touched by how welcoming these people were, to invite me, a stranger, to this get together. They had wine and traditional Czech Wedding Cakes, small round pastries with a fruit and cheese filling. They were delicious, a fact that stands even though I hadn't eaten in 7 hours and probably would have eaten a ream of paper.
Before I left to catch the metro, Petr presented me with a small booklet he had prepared that was from the 2006 International Astronomers Union Conference, which was held in Prague. It was actually the invitation they had sent out, a small illustrated booklet of a poem written by the Czech writer Jan Neruda, from his "cosmic songs." The poem was about frogs learning astronomy; the founders of the Ondrejov observatory, the Fric brothers, had adopted the frog as a symbol for their astronomical pursuits, due to this poem.

I have been deeply touched by my hosts here and though I am excited for my travels ahead, will miss being hosted in Bohemia. Of course, I still have a little bit of partying to do before I leave for good ...