This note is inevitable. First the basics:
Following the Second World War the Communist party took power in 1946 and fell in 1989. In 1993 Czechoslovakia became separate to form the Czech Republic.
One of the first things I noticed here was that the people are generally cold. It's not like in the States where people smile, wave, ask how you are, etc. Nothing like that at all. It’s a good day if I get a smile from someone on the street on in a shop. Also, at this little supermarket down the street the security guy follows me around all the time. As if I’m going to steal bread or something. I might just so he will have a legit reason to follow me.
People drive huge expensive cars here. Not like other European cities I’ve ventured too.
On the metro, tram, or bus people do not look at each other except for a quick glance here and there. Heads down, either reading or looking at the floor. Me? I’m like lalala look at that dog! Or I wish I could read that Czech newspaper…
What am I getting too? All of these behaviors and practices can be directly related to communism.
People don't make eye contact with each other on public transportation because if they got caught doing it during communist times they were mostly likely thrown off. You were supposed to go to work and go home.
The cars are overindulgence. They had crappy cars during communism without the opportunity to buy something new or nicer. The parents also tend to overindulge their kids now. Which proves trouble for us teachers.
Every Monday after school I used to go to this really intense bank with crazy security to have conversations with a banker. He’s a really cool guy and I get paid to sit and chat with him for an hour. He tells me all kinds of stories and I have learned so much from him. I don't think he realizes the value of his conversations with me.
The thing is that the people here freely talk about communist times. They hated it. They protested it. In 1969, a university student lit himself on fire in the middle of the city to protest communism. It inspired a whole rise of suicides by other university students. The fact that they killed themselves by choice in order to protest a government is astounding.
In 1989, a bunch of students were protesting communism and the police trapped them on a street and continued to beat each person.
Vaclav Havel was the first post-communist president and also a patron of my school. He’s a hero here. This country is amazing. Sure I get annoyed when people aren't friendly and I have to dodge Porsche Cayennes, but I have to look back at the bigger picture.
The Czech people make light out of their past by using a lot of dark satire about Russians. I generally just laugh, take my beer from the Czech waitress that somehow carries 11 pints of Pilsner, raise my pivo (beer) and say Na zdraví (to health).
2 comments:
who cares if people don't say hi or ask how you are? usually, when people ask how you are here, they are only doing it to make themselves look polite and i feel its a waste of breath to even have to answer. i would love to be in a country where people dont bother you with stupid questions, especially when they dont even care about the answer you are going to give. so rachel, who cares? don't let that crap bother you. now lets go get drunk!
Ah drunkenness - that stage of life where pre- (or lack of) pre-frontal cortex development is evident!
Rachel's noticing of how things are different may not bother her - it's an awareness, a paying attention to the details that will serve her well. One of the things I think we can learn from living overseas is just how chauvinistic we really are - we view things through our very conditioned culture-specific lens, and tend to judge from that position. Seeing how we do this (and eventually learning to see that there is no right or wrong way, just the way things are for that culture) can be a learning and growth experience in many ways.
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