Hello all! Welcome to my Blague!
I am currently on Darmouth’s Geography Foreign Study Program (FSP) in the capital of the Czech Republic- Prague. I hope to record here my thoughts, observations, and experiences of life in the city and its environs. This will serve two purposes: to make me a little more critical and aware of my experience here, and to share my time here with friends and family who frequently complain that I don’t do enough sharing of myself.
Before we start, let me make a few disclaimers: even though I will try to make this comprehendible, please don’t expect proper grammar, syntax, or punctuation. Or even spelling. This is me shooting from the hip, and what I post here will be very, very raw (See? I just used very- TWICE). So everything is straight from the horse’s mouth, and this horse wants you to know that he don’t speak English none too good. Plus, being in a Slavic country has made my English (or should I say anglicky?) even worse. So far: “I like use internet, please” or “Is this for deaf peoples?”
A second disclaimer: I am a very ‘positioned’ person, as we say in Geography. I readily admit that I am a product of my background and the social structures that I grew up in- being a white, American male gives me a very specific conception and take on the world and it definitely will influence what I write here: not only how I say things, but what things I choose to discuss in detail or exclude all together. Part of the way I process information is to notice a particular aspect of a person or a place and then treat them as if they were reduced to that single aspect; in a way (and to use more social science speak) ‘essentializing’ them. I try to be aware of this as much as possible, although I admit that I will never be free of it. Instead I try to engage my position as much as I can and discuss how it shapes my thoughts and language. I will also strive to show the complicated nature of things, working against this essentialization- which is what contemporary Geography is all about.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: I’m not an asshole … or at least I’m fairly sure that I’m not. Know that I try to be aware of what I’m saying and what it implicates but (as cliché as it sounds) I’m not perfect. So if you find something that rubs you the wrong way, please let me know. And please send me your thoughts on this how ‘postionality/ essentialization’ issue in general.
Consider yourself warned.
Now, Prague! Praha! Prag! [Insert Cyrillic alphabet spelling here]! I arrived at 6PM on Friday night after weathering a 5 hour layover in Heathrow- or should I say the Great Mall of Britain? No wonder when the ‘Open Skies’ agreement was announced the only country that opposed was the UK. Why? Because they like trapping people in their gigantic air-mall and squeezing money out of them while they wait on the over-congested airport to clear up. I bought 100ml of soup and a doughy baguette for 17 USD before coming to my senses. But at long last I landed in Prague- 3 hours delayed. I made it past immigration and customs no problem to find a very devoted Charles University student still waiting for me, despite all of the delays. Her name was Kara … or at least it sounded a lot like Kara. Kara spoke fluent, even colloquial English and helped me to navigate the efficient public transport system to the Žižkov neighborhood- which she had mixed feelings about. Professor Wright has a more rosy description of it as an ‘up and coming district’. The architecture is an odd-mix of industrial revolution buildings and drab, socialist housing blocks. The Žižkov TV tower dominates the skyline (pictures coming soon). Our street has everything from a Cabaret to a pet shop to a death metal club to a very nice supermarket.
Kara dropped me at Stella Apartments (yes- Professor Sneddon has already told us to use A Streetcar Named Desire as a mnemonic device) which has a bright salmon façade. Our apartments are so nicely furnished and remarkably comfortable. The night I arrived, I found several of my trip-mates making pasta primavera and we had our first of many home-cooked meals.
The next day several of us ventured in to Old Town to find it clogged with drunken (mostly German) tourists. That night was a big soccer match-up between the Czech Republic and Germany and people were fairly rowdy. It’s also the start of Easter festival and in Old Town square things looked very … Eastery. We enjoyed our first traditional Czech meal for lunch- I had goulash, which is beef in a very rich sauce, accompanied by two patato pancakes and three large slices of white bread. Tasty, but heavy. We then visited St. Thomas church for a glimpse of nauseatingly gaudy Baroque architecture, and then Prague Castle for a glimpse of a more refined Gothic style in the incredible St. Vitus. You’re probably so interested to see what these beautiful buildings look like. But for those of you who know me well, you won’t be at all surprised to learn that I forgot my camera at home. I know, I know. But I’m here for two and a half months! I’ll take plenty of pictures soon. So please spare me the sarcastic, didactic e-mails … (this mean you, Dad).
That night we went out with other Czech students from Charles and watched the soccer match from a posh desert bar in New Town (which by ‘new’ they mean dating from the 14th century). One of the students was a Slovak and he provided an interesting characterization of the relationship between Czechs and Slovaks: ‘as like brothers’. Together through childhood, but recently forced to go their separate way in adulthood, there is a rivalry between them- but a very good natured one. If I were to go on to flush the picture out, I would say that the Czech brother got the better end of the stick- he is more urban, well-dressed, and drives a fancy car. The Slovak brother is more rural, didn’t get as much attention as his other brother, and is having a hard time getting started. They love each other very much, and have profound mutual respect; but they both recognize that it’s time they did things their own way.
Well, if the Czechs and Slovaks are close but very independent brothers, that would make Germany the belligerent neighbor. Or at least that’s the impression I got from yesterday. As my group of trip-mates and I toured Wenceslas Square a series of explosions went off not too far from where we were standing. My initial reaction was either ‘terrorist attack’ or ‘local festival’. However, it seemed that the foreigners were the only ones excited by the explosions; the Czechs knew what was going on and dealt with it in a very hum-drum way. Evidently a few German fans, in anticipation of the game, had set of some heavy duty fire-crackers in the hopes of getting people riled up about the game- and also, I guess, to say ‘Screw You’ to the Czechs. The riot police were soon out in full force, pursuing the exploders, and thus ended my first experience of European ‘football’ hooliganism. I’m sure that if you delved into the history of cultural relations between Czechs and Germans you could find plenty of evidence of how this disturbance makes sense given their past- but initially I was a little shocked and disturbed that someone would choose such a method to get people excited about a soccer game. But no one was hurt and the only damage seemed to be a garbage can and some poor woman’s display of Czech Easter egg shells.
Later on, at the desert bar, there were a group of German high school students watching the game with us. They seemed very quiet, almost reserved in the way they watched the game. It helped give me perspective to see the game not as a chance for hooliganism and belligerence but a match of sport between two nation-states. Sports matches say a lot about identity, sovereignty, and conflict- but my thinker is all done thunk out.
Anyways, Germany was obviously the better team and outplayed the Czechs in almost every aspect of the match. But it was a good game nonetheless with the final score at 2-1, the Germans victorious, the Czechs, as one student simply put it, “sad”. Not devastated, gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair agony, but simply “sad”.
Today, I’ve holed myself up up in a coffee shop on the border of New Town/ Old Town to catch up on communication and write out this lengthy tome of a post. Hope it wasn’t too hard to take. I’ll write more soon!
