Q and A is going to have to wait, because I want to get some other thoughts down first. Namely, a list of things that I've noticed that are different here than in America. I just wanted to write them down before they become normal for me and I stop noticing them.
1. Lack of peanut butter. This is okay so far, but it may become not okay by December. Apparently most people hate it, though Elena says she doesn't mind it, it's just impossible to find. I guess Nutella will have to do for me for the next four months.
2. Lack of bags/disposables in general. When I went to the grocery store with Elena, she brought her own bag with her, and everyone else did the same-- I'm not even sure that there were paper or plastic bags. It's cool how they're sort of unconciously environmentally conscious.
3. To go along with that, there are no to go cups or to go anything, really. If you order something, you're meant to sit down and eat/drink it. I haven't seen anyone with a travel coffee mug, and nobody gets Doggy bags at restaurants. This morning I ate a banana while walking to my bus stop and even that earned me funny looks.
4. Everyone closes all doors all of the time. I noticed this first in my host family's house, and other people I've talked to agree. I think it's a way of keeping the heat inside the rooms instead of the middle of the house, but it feels odd to me.
5. If you've been to Prague you probably know that the rudest thing you can do is to leave on your shoes in a house. I didn't think that was too strange, but when I went out into the back yard of my house Elena made me change into other special backyard shoes. This is a bit excessive if you ask me. We also went to a movie theater today and learned that putting your feet on the seat in front of you is NOT allowed. It made for an uncomfortable viewing, since my feet were dangling the whole time.
6. When we had our huge lunch on Sunday, we had glasses at the table but we didn't drink anything until we had finished eating. After that, Simon got up and got a bottle of water and a bottle of wine, and we drank last. Dad, this reminded me of your family. Also, everyone ate REALLY quickly. I had two bites of soup, then looked up, and everyone else was done-- no exaggeration. Maybe this is just my family.
7. Everyone has a dog, and all of the dogs are huge. HUGE.
8. Water comes with bubbles, lightswitches are squares, there are no nutrition labels on anything, the shower heads are never attached. This last fact has caused some problems for me, since my family also doesn't have a shower curtain, and it is extremely difficult to not spray water all over.
Just wanted to get those down. Hope they're not too boring. Oh, and one more thing, I've had the following conversation about a million times:
Misc. Czech person: Where are you from?
Claire: Wisconsin.
Misc. Czech person (pretending to know where that is): Ahh, where in Wisconsin?
Claire: Madison
Misc. Czech person (excited): Oh, like Bridges Over Madison County?
Claire: Uh...no.
Misc. Czech person (dejected): Oh.
I think it's pretty funny but I have to find a way to soften the blow.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Jak se mate?
The title means “How are you?”, but one of the first things we learned here was to never ask that question unless you are looking for a true, complete answer. I’ve heard many anecdotes about people missing the metro because they carelessly queried a friend or neighbor. Apparently it’s also considered very rude to just answer positively; one of our lecturers said that the other day she said that she was “good” and her friend protested, “Donna, could you stop this attitude and tell me at least one bad thing that has happened!” The question and the explanation of both good and bad things going on is meant genuinely as a chance to bond through problems. I think it’s cool, and I’m warning you that I may adopt a similar attitude when I return.
This is in part an answer to the question “Are the people there friendly?” To put it simply, no, they are not. That’s not to say they’re not nice. Our first speakers have been about Czech people, assumptions, stereotypes, generalizations, and the truths and explanations behind these things. They often ask for our first impressions of the people, and the most frequently offered words are “unimpressed” “reserved” “skeptical”. It’s true, really. According to our lecturers, there is a notion that people don’t just go around being kind; you have to EARN a smile.
Again, that’s not to say that the people aren’t nice. Once you’re “in” their good graces, you’re really in. And they truly appreciate you not being a tourist and trying to actually learn their culture, especially the language. All of my teachers keep telling me that Czech people know that Czech is a hard language, so they’ll appreciate any attempt, and I’ve found this to be very true. Whenever I approach someone in Czech and first ask my question in the language before switching to English, they’re much more helpful. I think I really like this chutzpah. They are so proud of who they are and what their country is, and so resilient and strong as people.
This sort of relates to my main story of the day: my first experience getting lost. This morning, Jan and Elena took me on the bus and put me on a tram and then assumed I could get back. If you know me, you know that unless I DO something by myself, I have absolutely no clue where to begin. So, on my way back I found the right tram and got off at the right stop, but then everythign was totally blank. I couldn’t recognize anything, so I wasn’t sure whether I had gotten off at the right stop, and there are about 10 bus stops in the same area, so I was going around to all of them and crossing the street and it was raining and I simply couldn’t find my stop. I made sure I was in the right place, which I was, but I might as well have been in Warsaw. Did I mention that it was pouring and freezing? It was. I was determined to not call for help, so I kept wandering around. I tried to ask several people, but I couldn’t remember any Czech, either, so I was really floundering. Finally, I saw a guy watching me who clearly knew I was lost but wasn’t helping, so I got really angry and remembered my Czech and asked him. He was able to point me in the right direction (around a corner), so I made it home, but I was a bit nervous for awhile. It felt really good to get to the house.
Unrelated: I gave the family Jelly Bellies (the jellybeans) as part of a homestay gift, and Simon absolutely loves them. He’s read Harry Potter, but he’s never seen jellybeans, so he thinks they’re from the book. I told him that the book stole them from us, and he was very impressed. He also said that he thinks they taste just like they’re supposed to, though he didn’t know what “root beer” was.
I think next blog I’m going to try to answer questions people have asked me in emails, etc, so if you have any, comment or email me. Dobrou noc! (Goodnight!)
This is in part an answer to the question “Are the people there friendly?” To put it simply, no, they are not. That’s not to say they’re not nice. Our first speakers have been about Czech people, assumptions, stereotypes, generalizations, and the truths and explanations behind these things. They often ask for our first impressions of the people, and the most frequently offered words are “unimpressed” “reserved” “skeptical”. It’s true, really. According to our lecturers, there is a notion that people don’t just go around being kind; you have to EARN a smile.
Again, that’s not to say that the people aren’t nice. Once you’re “in” their good graces, you’re really in. And they truly appreciate you not being a tourist and trying to actually learn their culture, especially the language. All of my teachers keep telling me that Czech people know that Czech is a hard language, so they’ll appreciate any attempt, and I’ve found this to be very true. Whenever I approach someone in Czech and first ask my question in the language before switching to English, they’re much more helpful. I think I really like this chutzpah. They are so proud of who they are and what their country is, and so resilient and strong as people.
This sort of relates to my main story of the day: my first experience getting lost. This morning, Jan and Elena took me on the bus and put me on a tram and then assumed I could get back. If you know me, you know that unless I DO something by myself, I have absolutely no clue where to begin. So, on my way back I found the right tram and got off at the right stop, but then everythign was totally blank. I couldn’t recognize anything, so I wasn’t sure whether I had gotten off at the right stop, and there are about 10 bus stops in the same area, so I was going around to all of them and crossing the street and it was raining and I simply couldn’t find my stop. I made sure I was in the right place, which I was, but I might as well have been in Warsaw. Did I mention that it was pouring and freezing? It was. I was determined to not call for help, so I kept wandering around. I tried to ask several people, but I couldn’t remember any Czech, either, so I was really floundering. Finally, I saw a guy watching me who clearly knew I was lost but wasn’t helping, so I got really angry and remembered my Czech and asked him. He was able to point me in the right direction (around a corner), so I made it home, but I was a bit nervous for awhile. It felt really good to get to the house.
Unrelated: I gave the family Jelly Bellies (the jellybeans) as part of a homestay gift, and Simon absolutely loves them. He’s read Harry Potter, but he’s never seen jellybeans, so he thinks they’re from the book. I told him that the book stole them from us, and he was very impressed. He also said that he thinks they taste just like they’re supposed to, though he didn’t know what “root beer” was.
I think next blog I’m going to try to answer questions people have asked me in emails, etc, so if you have any, comment or email me. Dobrou noc! (Goodnight!)
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Room and Board and Monkey Business
Man, for you loyal blog-checkers, this is a sweet day. That's because it was also a sweet day for me, your loyal blog-writer. I just wanted to continue some thoughts about the house and fill you in on the rest of my host family.
The house is...well, like the city, it's rough around the edges but comfortable inside. Elena told me that she and Jan got married pre-revolution, so when there was Communism, and you weren't allowed to buy or sell property. Elena was divorced, and Jan didn't want to move in with the ex-husband (suprised?), so they had to search for a way to get around the rule. Jan's aunt had this house, which apparently was very run-down and pretty much a disaster, but they moved in anyway. Since then, they've been repairing it, but for a long time it was very difficult because they'd start a project and then all of a sudden run out of concrete (as in, the city/country would run out of concrete), or they would lack supplies altogether. Anyway, now it's pretty nice inside. The outside is rather ugly: it's very flat and not very interesting. There are two floors inside. The first has a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen complete with a washing machine and pantry. The second floor has my room, Simon's room, Jan and Elena's room, and a bathroom. Actually, my room also has a LOFT, but I'm saving that fact for it's own post (Morgan, on a sidenote, every staircase here is winding and beautiful-- you'd be in heaven). My favorite part of the first floor is a wall that's entirely bookshelves, all filled with books I can't read yet. There are a lot of plants inside, and the kitchen is Brimming with food, especially pears because (and here's the best part) in the back yard there are pear trees, apple trees, grapes, etc.! The back yard is absolutely GORGEOUS. In addition to the fruits, it also contains two adorable run-down sheds, a clothesline, and flowers (pictures will follow once I figure that out). In any case, I'm quite comfortable, and my host family is even lending me a laptop, which makes the rootbeer incident not quite so heartbreaking.
When I stopped working on the last post, it was because it was time for lunch. Now, this was a special lunch because two of the three older children were there, but it was absolutely ridiculous and everything was delicious. We started out with cabbage soup, which sounds gross but actually tastes nothing like cabbage, which was followed by what I'm told is a Hungarian dish of peppers stuffed with rice and mincemeat and stewed in this tomato soup mix. They were afraid I wouldn't like it, but I loved it, which makes me nervous about the stuff they think I will like! The peppers were accompanied by the dumplings we made this morning (I had two but the average was four), and all that was before a desert of pear pudding topped with two heaps of various fruit topped by homemade cream. This was all while drinking carbonated water and two glasses of wine. After all of that, Elena went out with a scissors and brought back bunches of the most delicious grapes I've ever tasted. It was like the normal grape flavor intensified times one hundred and enriced with berries or something. They also reminded me of gushers, because the skin fell off right away in your mouth and the inside was squishy liquid.
Before I forget, the other traditional Czech food I've eaten is garlic soup, which was surprisingly savory, and made me feel extra vampire-proof.
The last thing for today is my "extended family". One reason for the big lunch was that my 34-year-old host brother is leaving for Africa, where he will shoot two documentaries. Read that sentence again, because it's pretty cool. He's also gorgeous and he has a beautiful girlfriend. He's being paid by National Geographic. Just as a note, that used to be my dream job, so I am in awe. Perhaps cooler was my host sister, who is a singer-songwriter, and her husband, who is the lead singer for the band Monkey Business. It's a pop/funk band and they sing in English, and apparently they're a HUGE deal in the Czech Republic. Jan showed me a video of their concert, and it's legit-- they have lighting effects and sweet costumes and huge crowds. The music actually wasn't bad, either, so if you can access it, Czech it out (ha). They just released an album in Australia (I think. I could be wrotg about the location), so he's going touring now. Anyway, I thought it was all pretty exciting, even thought I felt pretty left out when they were all doing their family thing in Czech and I had no clue what was going on. One of the things I'm discovering is that everyone here does something artsy in addition to their regular work if not as their regular work, and I think that's really neat.
On that topic, tonight I went to this little play put on in a schoolroom. It was all in Czech, but it was so interesting to watch. It was mainly done in puppets (think Sound of Music, but there was also a guy playing the electric guitar to accompany them, and at times the puppeteers would play the oboe or sing. I am in a crazy place!
The house is...well, like the city, it's rough around the edges but comfortable inside. Elena told me that she and Jan got married pre-revolution, so when there was Communism, and you weren't allowed to buy or sell property. Elena was divorced, and Jan didn't want to move in with the ex-husband (suprised?), so they had to search for a way to get around the rule. Jan's aunt had this house, which apparently was very run-down and pretty much a disaster, but they moved in anyway. Since then, they've been repairing it, but for a long time it was very difficult because they'd start a project and then all of a sudden run out of concrete (as in, the city/country would run out of concrete), or they would lack supplies altogether. Anyway, now it's pretty nice inside. The outside is rather ugly: it's very flat and not very interesting. There are two floors inside. The first has a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen complete with a washing machine and pantry. The second floor has my room, Simon's room, Jan and Elena's room, and a bathroom. Actually, my room also has a LOFT, but I'm saving that fact for it's own post (Morgan, on a sidenote, every staircase here is winding and beautiful-- you'd be in heaven). My favorite part of the first floor is a wall that's entirely bookshelves, all filled with books I can't read yet. There are a lot of plants inside, and the kitchen is Brimming with food, especially pears because (and here's the best part) in the back yard there are pear trees, apple trees, grapes, etc.! The back yard is absolutely GORGEOUS. In addition to the fruits, it also contains two adorable run-down sheds, a clothesline, and flowers (pictures will follow once I figure that out). In any case, I'm quite comfortable, and my host family is even lending me a laptop, which makes the rootbeer incident not quite so heartbreaking.
When I stopped working on the last post, it was because it was time for lunch. Now, this was a special lunch because two of the three older children were there, but it was absolutely ridiculous and everything was delicious. We started out with cabbage soup, which sounds gross but actually tastes nothing like cabbage, which was followed by what I'm told is a Hungarian dish of peppers stuffed with rice and mincemeat and stewed in this tomato soup mix. They were afraid I wouldn't like it, but I loved it, which makes me nervous about the stuff they think I will like! The peppers were accompanied by the dumplings we made this morning (I had two but the average was four), and all that was before a desert of pear pudding topped with two heaps of various fruit topped by homemade cream. This was all while drinking carbonated water and two glasses of wine. After all of that, Elena went out with a scissors and brought back bunches of the most delicious grapes I've ever tasted. It was like the normal grape flavor intensified times one hundred and enriced with berries or something. They also reminded me of gushers, because the skin fell off right away in your mouth and the inside was squishy liquid.
Before I forget, the other traditional Czech food I've eaten is garlic soup, which was surprisingly savory, and made me feel extra vampire-proof.
The last thing for today is my "extended family". One reason for the big lunch was that my 34-year-old host brother is leaving for Africa, where he will shoot two documentaries. Read that sentence again, because it's pretty cool. He's also gorgeous and he has a beautiful girlfriend. He's being paid by National Geographic. Just as a note, that used to be my dream job, so I am in awe. Perhaps cooler was my host sister, who is a singer-songwriter, and her husband, who is the lead singer for the band Monkey Business. It's a pop/funk band and they sing in English, and apparently they're a HUGE deal in the Czech Republic. Jan showed me a video of their concert, and it's legit-- they have lighting effects and sweet costumes and huge crowds. The music actually wasn't bad, either, so if you can access it, Czech it out (ha). They just released an album in Australia (I think. I could be wrotg about the location), so he's going touring now. Anyway, I thought it was all pretty exciting, even thought I felt pretty left out when they were all doing their family thing in Czech and I had no clue what was going on. One of the things I'm discovering is that everyone here does something artsy in addition to their regular work if not as their regular work, and I think that's really neat.
On that topic, tonight I went to this little play put on in a schoolroom. It was all in Czech, but it was so interesting to watch. It was mainly done in puppets (think Sound of Music, but there was also a guy playing the electric guitar to accompany them, and at times the puppeteers would play the oboe or sing. I am in a crazy place!
Chytilovi
So much to say about everything but I simply must talk about my host family, who I am now living with. I don’t even know where to start about them, so I’ll begin with names. They are known as the family Chytlovi, so the father is Chytil and the mother is Chytilova. My host father, Jan-pronounced Yan and with the nickname Hosta- barely speaks any English, but he’s super cute. I think he’s in his upper 50s and he’s very smiley. When I told them that I was Czech, he said something about how all nice girls are Czech. They’ve had students stay with them before, and apparently Jan refused to learn English from them but my host mother said he understands a lot of it and that he might learn it from me because I’m a girl.
My host mother, Elena, is a hoot. She’s Slovakian, as she keeps reminding me, not Czech, and she’s a very take-charge do-what-she-wants tell-it-like-it-is lady. She’s very opinionated and I think her favorite word in English is idiots, which she’s used to describe the people who built her grocery store, the people who put up signs in Prague, and various other unknown entities. At the same time, she’s a total sweetheart, and she’s very concerned with how I am and whether I’m hungry or cold or need anything. This morning she suddenly asked if I wanted to learn how to make dumplings, which of course I did, and so she’s had me in the kitchen all morning. I now have all of the many secrets to make good dumplings, but there are so many that I don’t think I could ever reproduce them. They start with yeast, but it isn’t dry yeast like we have, it looks almost like a grey, dry version of butter. She had me try some and it tasted like very sour bread. She snacked on it the whole time, which I thought was so funny, because who eats straight yeast, but she insisted that it has a lot of vitamin B and is thus good for the skin. Elena is very interested in telling me about their life and why things are the way they are, and that always comes back to communism. For example, she talked about how she always stocks up on food because in the past they could only find one thing at a time, so they’re accustomed to buying a ton of it.
My host brother, Simon- pronounced She-moan – is 16 and a typical teenage boy. He has his eybrow pierced, which Elena said was his way of asserting his independence. He watched TV with me last night and I managed to get him to talk to me a little. He and Jan are always joking, which is really cute and I wish I understood more of it. Simon is constantly text messaging or on the computer, and his mom is always complaining about it. Tim, he reminds me of you. This morning, for example, Elena was yelling at him to bring down his laundry and he was grumpy about it, but he finally brought it down, and I felt like I was back in SP. Last night we were watching music videos and the Rhianna video came on and he laughed at her and said She’s so plastic, --sorry, I can’t find quotation marks or parentheses on this keyboard-- which he was using to mean fake. I thought it was interesting that he was so critical of her makeup, etc.
This morning at breakfast I felt like I was having breakfast at grandma Kostechka’s house—we had bread and meat and jam, and Elena didn’t sit down the whole time.
We’re about to eat lunch, and my older host siblings are here, gotta go!
My host mother, Elena, is a hoot. She’s Slovakian, as she keeps reminding me, not Czech, and she’s a very take-charge do-what-she-wants tell-it-like-it-is lady. She’s very opinionated and I think her favorite word in English is idiots, which she’s used to describe the people who built her grocery store, the people who put up signs in Prague, and various other unknown entities. At the same time, she’s a total sweetheart, and she’s very concerned with how I am and whether I’m hungry or cold or need anything. This morning she suddenly asked if I wanted to learn how to make dumplings, which of course I did, and so she’s had me in the kitchen all morning. I now have all of the many secrets to make good dumplings, but there are so many that I don’t think I could ever reproduce them. They start with yeast, but it isn’t dry yeast like we have, it looks almost like a grey, dry version of butter. She had me try some and it tasted like very sour bread. She snacked on it the whole time, which I thought was so funny, because who eats straight yeast, but she insisted that it has a lot of vitamin B and is thus good for the skin. Elena is very interested in telling me about their life and why things are the way they are, and that always comes back to communism. For example, she talked about how she always stocks up on food because in the past they could only find one thing at a time, so they’re accustomed to buying a ton of it.
My host brother, Simon- pronounced She-moan – is 16 and a typical teenage boy. He has his eybrow pierced, which Elena said was his way of asserting his independence. He watched TV with me last night and I managed to get him to talk to me a little. He and Jan are always joking, which is really cute and I wish I understood more of it. Simon is constantly text messaging or on the computer, and his mom is always complaining about it. Tim, he reminds me of you. This morning, for example, Elena was yelling at him to bring down his laundry and he was grumpy about it, but he finally brought it down, and I felt like I was back in SP. Last night we were watching music videos and the Rhianna video came on and he laughed at her and said She’s so plastic, --sorry, I can’t find quotation marks or parentheses on this keyboard-- which he was using to mean fake. I thought it was interesting that he was so critical of her makeup, etc.
This morning at breakfast I felt like I was having breakfast at grandma Kostechka’s house—we had bread and meat and jam, and Elena didn’t sit down the whole time.
We’re about to eat lunch, and my older host siblings are here, gotta go!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Pragueress!
Prague has me speechless already; I've only been here for about 24 hours and I have no idea where to begin. My first impression is that the city is very Cool. It definitely has rough edges, but it has a good heart, and for me, it seems very comfortable. The biggest shock this morning was finding that everything here really is written in Czech-- it was a shock to go into the Metro station after being in the airport, where everything was written in both English and Czech. It's pretty exciting, though, because it seems like we're going to learn Czech really quickly just out of necessity. Sara, our academic director, said that she learned the language "through osmosis," and she's fluent now. Today we went to our school site for the first time, but first we stopped in the cafe and pub underneath it. We all started to order drinks at the cafe, and Sara told us that the people there (and at the pub) were instructed to only speak to us in Czech. Needless to say, it was a bit difficult to order, but we got through it and it's so exciting to think that soon I'll understand the entire interaction and be confident that I'm really getting orange juice.
The place where we have our school is breathtaking. It is in what used to be an apartment, but it spans three floors and totals about ten rooms. All of the rooms are white and have high ceilings and big windows. The best part is a terrace off of the top floor that overlooks the city. Expect pictures soon. The worst part is that the computers there (which will be my main access to internet) have Czech keyboards, so things are all messed up. Funny thing is, I'm used to a messed up keyboard :-/. In any case, it's a sweet place to learn, complete with a library and lounge where we can work.
Today we were pretty touristy, probably the most touristy we will be on the trip. We must have been a hilarious site getting on the metro. There are two things I like about the metro. The first is the escalator down to the trains, which is about the length of six or seven normal escalators. The second is the wall of the tunnels. I'll have to put a picture up, but trust me, it's cool. We went on a walking tour of the city, then hung out at a pizzeria with a few Praguians ($5 to the first person who tells me what you're really supposed to call people from Prague.). It was really interesting to hear them talk about the city; they love it, but they kept saying, "We've lost it," meaning that the tourists and West has really taken it over. It was depressing, but really neat to see how passionately they felt about the city. In addition, they were almost all artists, and it was so so interesting to hear how they were using their art to sort of perpetuate the Prague that they love. One of them was a theater manager, and he invited us to his show that night-- a one-man Japanese modern dance. I went with another girl on the program, and it was wicked wild (I don't ever use the word "wicked", so that should show you how much I mean this). It was in a tiny theater, and we were clearly the only Americans there. Sometime ask me about the dance, it should be shared in person.
Agh, I did not do my first day here justice at all. Can you tell I'm pretty out of it? I'm still rather jet-lagged. It's midnight and I'm very tired but also very wide awake. I promise a more interesting post soon.
The place where we have our school is breathtaking. It is in what used to be an apartment, but it spans three floors and totals about ten rooms. All of the rooms are white and have high ceilings and big windows. The best part is a terrace off of the top floor that overlooks the city. Expect pictures soon. The worst part is that the computers there (which will be my main access to internet) have Czech keyboards, so things are all messed up. Funny thing is, I'm used to a messed up keyboard :-/. In any case, it's a sweet place to learn, complete with a library and lounge where we can work.
Today we were pretty touristy, probably the most touristy we will be on the trip. We must have been a hilarious site getting on the metro. There are two things I like about the metro. The first is the escalator down to the trains, which is about the length of six or seven normal escalators. The second is the wall of the tunnels. I'll have to put a picture up, but trust me, it's cool. We went on a walking tour of the city, then hung out at a pizzeria with a few Praguians ($5 to the first person who tells me what you're really supposed to call people from Prague.). It was really interesting to hear them talk about the city; they love it, but they kept saying, "We've lost it," meaning that the tourists and West has really taken it over. It was depressing, but really neat to see how passionately they felt about the city. In addition, they were almost all artists, and it was so so interesting to hear how they were using their art to sort of perpetuate the Prague that they love. One of them was a theater manager, and he invited us to his show that night-- a one-man Japanese modern dance. I went with another girl on the program, and it was wicked wild (I don't ever use the word "wicked", so that should show you how much I mean this). It was in a tiny theater, and we were clearly the only Americans there. Sometime ask me about the dance, it should be shared in person.
Agh, I did not do my first day here justice at all. Can you tell I'm pretty out of it? I'm still rather jet-lagged. It's midnight and I'm very tired but also very wide awake. I promise a more interesting post soon.
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