Yesterday I recieved two packages...one from home and one from Germany. I can't tell you what it's like to get something from home. So completely surreal. In the package from Germany was my camera charger, which I left in Berlin in early July resulting in a loss of thousands of would-have-been taken photos over the last three month. Regardless, I have the charger now and my digital life is back online. Hooray! Some clothes arrived in the package from home. Very strange to remember in cloth, bits of a life lived elsewhere.
Today I took the morning bus 7:40 to Liberec where I hopped in a car to drive to a company in česka lípa. Richard, director of Swallow schools of English drove me to teach a 'pitch' lesson in order to see if the company wanted to permanently hire Swallow. We drove through a brilliant fall scape and I saw more of the Czech countryside than I ever have. Unbelieveably brilliant organge, red, brown, carmel colored leaves....long rolling hills and countryside covered in old castles and churches. Almost every hill it seemed, had some remains from ancient times. Richard told me about cross country skiiing in the winter, and how well marked all of the trails are. How all you need is a thermos and you can ski all day, explore in the woods with no danger of getting lost as long as you follow groomed trails.
I'm excited to be here...falling asleep on the bus back from Liberec, my mind wandered off to the sound of murmuring Czech, the mystery language and some kind of triumphant orchestral crackling stereo...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Running Away from Bush
I don't know why I was suprised that this question was one of the first that came up in class today as soon as I opened the discussion to my students. Pavel, mid thirties and Fillip, coworkers installing wifi antennas around their town, broached the subject.
'All we talked about last class with Dan was the Iraq war'. they told me.
They asked in particular about the upcoming Presidential elections. They asked about why the Clinton scandal was such a big deal in the USA. They asked about the differences between Republicans and Democrats.
Earlier this weekend, sitting at a sports pub with Dan, our first few moments alone...he remarked
'It seems like you really don't like your country..why? Why don't you want to go back?'
'I don't know. I just don't.' I mumbled.
But the probing questions from my students made me feel ill. 'Running away from George Bush?'
And I realize, in a way..yes I am running away from George Bush. After swallowing indie media reports like no tomorrow for the entirety of 2006 and half of 2007..I remember the nauseated feeling I had. The hopeless, helpless, suffocating feeling that I could do nothing in my country. That no one in my country could do anything. When I was in Western Europe, this was a much more popular question. Here in, what I've learned is CENTRAL EUROPE, I have managed to escape the probe.
I realized today, in a very minor way, that I cannot escape Bush. I cannot escape politics in my country. I can stop paying attention. I can surround myself with people who aren't directly relating to American politics, who don't vote. But I will inevitably reflect my country in the countries I visit. And they will always ask me about what is happening in America.
Today, I can't handle it. It makes me furious. I envy my Canadian colleague. I envy my Austrailian colleague. I feel hot and heavy and shameful.
Dan says 'the longer you stay away, the harder it is to go home.' I think I know what he means, although I know I have no practical idea. He tells me other things like:
'Culture shock is when you can't stop thinking how stupidly things are done here and how much better they are handled at home'
He also tells me that after a while, 5 or 6 years, I will be able to see redemptive aspects of my homeland. Today, I can't imagine it's the case.I imagine this beginning as forging a distance the will forever grow. People have asked. I have found so many travelers who are running away from something or to something...a failed relationship, lack of work, social stigma in their own countries, the search for a better life. I have had difficulty explaining my motivation. Today I realized that a very large part of me is running away from the political situation in the US. because I feel desperate and helpless and pessimistic that things will only get worse.
'All we talked about last class with Dan was the Iraq war'. they told me.
They asked in particular about the upcoming Presidential elections. They asked about why the Clinton scandal was such a big deal in the USA. They asked about the differences between Republicans and Democrats.
Earlier this weekend, sitting at a sports pub with Dan, our first few moments alone...he remarked
'It seems like you really don't like your country..why? Why don't you want to go back?'
'I don't know. I just don't.' I mumbled.
But the probing questions from my students made me feel ill. 'Running away from George Bush?'
And I realize, in a way..yes I am running away from George Bush. After swallowing indie media reports like no tomorrow for the entirety of 2006 and half of 2007..I remember the nauseated feeling I had. The hopeless, helpless, suffocating feeling that I could do nothing in my country. That no one in my country could do anything. When I was in Western Europe, this was a much more popular question. Here in, what I've learned is CENTRAL EUROPE, I have managed to escape the probe.
I realized today, in a very minor way, that I cannot escape Bush. I cannot escape politics in my country. I can stop paying attention. I can surround myself with people who aren't directly relating to American politics, who don't vote. But I will inevitably reflect my country in the countries I visit. And they will always ask me about what is happening in America.
Today, I can't handle it. It makes me furious. I envy my Canadian colleague. I envy my Austrailian colleague. I feel hot and heavy and shameful.
Dan says 'the longer you stay away, the harder it is to go home.' I think I know what he means, although I know I have no practical idea. He tells me other things like:
'Culture shock is when you can't stop thinking how stupidly things are done here and how much better they are handled at home'
He also tells me that after a while, 5 or 6 years, I will be able to see redemptive aspects of my homeland. Today, I can't imagine it's the case.I imagine this beginning as forging a distance the will forever grow. People have asked. I have found so many travelers who are running away from something or to something...a failed relationship, lack of work, social stigma in their own countries, the search for a better life. I have had difficulty explaining my motivation. Today I realized that a very large part of me is running away from the political situation in the US. because I feel desperate and helpless and pessimistic that things will only get worse.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Premier Post
I suppose this is one of the best ways to keep people who care to know, care to read, or simply care to surf in their free time, updated as to happenings of my insignifigant mundane banal life in Mlada Boleslav. Care to read on? Life in Mlada is starting out slow, as it does in any city where you know no one, it just so happens, I can barely communicate with the population as well, which doesn't help.
Today I opened my first bank account in the Czech Republic, which leaves me with the distinct impression that I am a 'real' person. I have started a paper trail here, including work visa doccuments, business liscence and now...a bank account. The bank was strangely decorated, straight from the 80's with a large plastic/glass/gold sculpture in the middle of the foyer. Behind the receptionists desk was an electronically rotating file cabinet system. That's right folks, no computer records here. Thank god they have on-line banking. Supposedly, the CR has outrageous banking fees, but of course, none of this information was legible...all of the pamphlets were in Czech...didn't stop me from signing on the dotted line.
Standing in line to make my first deposit, I realized, I really should practice my numbers. This could get hairy. My czech teacher's name is Clara. She's a landscaper who learned English living in the UK with her husband doing commercial landscaping. She's tall and has long dark hair, clear skin and a huge smile for me whenever I try to use my new czech vocabulary. Turnov is her home town, 15 km from here...I wish she would take me home for the weekend. I'm already getting stir crazy thinking about it.
more soon...I might actually retro-post from some of my travel journals over the last 4 months..we'll see how motivated I am.
Today I opened my first bank account in the Czech Republic, which leaves me with the distinct impression that I am a 'real' person. I have started a paper trail here, including work visa doccuments, business liscence and now...a bank account. The bank was strangely decorated, straight from the 80's with a large plastic/glass/gold sculpture in the middle of the foyer. Behind the receptionists desk was an electronically rotating file cabinet system. That's right folks, no computer records here. Thank god they have on-line banking. Supposedly, the CR has outrageous banking fees, but of course, none of this information was legible...all of the pamphlets were in Czech...didn't stop me from signing on the dotted line.
Standing in line to make my first deposit, I realized, I really should practice my numbers. This could get hairy. My czech teacher's name is Clara. She's a landscaper who learned English living in the UK with her husband doing commercial landscaping. She's tall and has long dark hair, clear skin and a huge smile for me whenever I try to use my new czech vocabulary. Turnov is her home town, 15 km from here...I wish she would take me home for the weekend. I'm already getting stir crazy thinking about it.
more soon...I might actually retro-post from some of my travel journals over the last 4 months..we'll see how motivated I am.
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