The tourists are back. Already. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but I’ve noticed a marked increase in the amount of people around and the amount of English (or other non-Czech language) I’m hearing. I’m a little annoyed by this for two reasons. The first is that everything is more crowded, which means I bump into people a lot. The second is that having tourists around seems to expose my own inadequacies as a non-Praguer. When they look confused, I too start feeling confused. When they stare at the man playing the accordian (whom I’ve passed almost daily), I start staring at the man with the accordian. And when they ask me for directions, there’s inevitably a dreadful pause while I try to translate the route as I know it (turn left at the funny building, go around the café where I first ate medovnik, take the funny little alleyway thing, etc) into something that they can understand (which I’ve had limited success with). It’s also unbelievable how startled I am when people make eye contact with me, let alone when they start talking to me, because honestly Praguers just don’t do it, so it always takes a moment before I can respond.
The mass of tourists (by the way, I do realize that I’m a tourist, I just feel a bit more knowledgeable than the newbies) currently seems to be British and Irish men who (and of course I’m generalizing) seem to view Prague as a playplace where you can get cheap beer. The other day one of these Irish blokes started talking to me and by the end had claimed to be heir to the Cadbury chocolate company. I sort of believe him, and this is officially an apology to my future children, whom I have now cheated out of a very sweet life by not making the most of this meeting.
Along with this, I've ended up in a few malls lately, which have proved that as I suspected, malls are the same everywhere. In fact, the Prague malls are perhaps more impressive "Churches of Consumers" (as my advisor joked) than the ones in the US (yes, even the mall of America). This is most likely because they are NEW, very very new, and now dazzling with Chrismas decor. The Christmas season is here with a vengeance. One of the strange things I've noticed to go along with this is that there are a lot more people begging on the streets. Over the last two months, I've only ever seen one man begging, always by the Charles Bridge. This past week, I've seen maybe ten men doing the same thing in various places. I'm not sure what to think about this. I guess it's smart business practice for them to be out when the tourists are around, but I do have to wonder what they're doing the rest of the time.
I’ve been home pretty early most nights this week, but last night I had a late interview (more on that in a second) and then went to a performance and stayed out afterwards. Whenever I’m not going to be back at the house for dinner, I send Elena a message, but for some reason last night I completely forgot. I finally remembered mid-play, so immediately afterwards I let her know (she had already sent me a message checking to make sure I was okay) that I’d be home late. I got back to the house at 1am, and she was still awake. She said, “Usually I would go to bed but I had a feeling tonight that I wanted to wait until you came back I apologized for keeping her up, but she brushed it off and made me drink tea and eat a pastry. I felt bad, but it was really sweet of her, and we had a good talk.
Like I said, last night I had a late interview. My advisor set up a meeting with a Roma TA, but we were trying to catch her at an event arranged by the school (which is not a special school, but is 90% Roma). When we got there they were about to start a dance performance, so I asked if we had time to watch. We did and watched the students do some dance numbers. It was really fun- they were all in awesome colorful dresses and clearly loved what they were doing. When it was done, there were refreshments, and then we tried to meet with the Roma TA. She was already leaving, so I ended up talking to her (with my advisor translating) for about five minutes outside without a coat while she and my advisor smoked (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that yet, but everyone smokes, and the pubs/restraunts are often pretty gross, air-wise). It wasn’t the most professional interview I’ve ever conducted, but she was nice and I got some good information. I guess I told that story in the hopes to illustrate what a crazy process this project is dragging me through. I just heard back from another contact who is currently in the hospital and told me that I can meet with her during visitors hours there. Nice, I guess, but strange.
Hm. I thought I had more to say but I guess that’s all for now. Hope you’re all well.
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