Got Ink?

Yes, I said ink. Printer ink to be exact. Because I need to print, copy and scan things while I'm here, I thought buying an inexpensive 3-in-on printer would be a good way to go. So, I went to the hypermart (Tesco), which has just everything you think you need and then some but in reality not everything you need, and bought an HP. Last week, I used up all my ink printing forms and whatnot that I needed for my research – materials to hand out to prospective research participants, surveys, etc. You may be wondering why I just didn't print one and send the rest through a copier, which I have access to at the office. The short answer is that I have something in color on the paperwork and I want it to stay that way in order to highlight that it is research and not part of the recruitment firm. Anyway, I went in search of ink and in search and in search and in search.

I went to the electronics store in the mall that has a pretty good selection of ink, including a number of HP and no #300. I went back to Tesco and no luck. So, I thought I would order it online from HP. I went to their website and finally found my ink and tried to order it. I could order it. I couldn't pay for it or have it delivered because it could only be delivered to an office or some sort and there was no easy way to pay in advance (ie. No credit card form). My next bright idea was to try to order it from amazon.co.uk. I found my ink but they can't ship 3^rd-party items of a certain type, including electronics and I guess ink is an electronic. So, I googled a bit and found a few places in Prague that do ink. I emailed one and later got a response that they do not have my cartridge number. But I found another site, that has my ink, that will ship it via Czech Post, that will let me pay by credit card. Could it be? I bit the bullet and put in a relatively large order, risking that I was doing it right but not wanting to risk having to do this too often. I had spent 2 hours online looking for ink that afternoon.

On Monday I received an email saying that my order had been shipped. Yesterday, I received that lovely little notice in my mailbox that I have a package to pick up. So, today, I trotted down to the post office again and received my little box full of inky goodness.

I thought purchasing a printer at a major supplier like Tesco, from a major brand like HP, would make finding the necessary accessories easy, or relatively easy. And when I mean that no one had the ink, they weren't just out. There wasn't even a blank spot where it should be. They don't carry it. On the up side, while I was waiting for my package to arrive, or to find out if I did this right, I popped into a photo and electronics store near the mall to see if they had my ink but although they don't they did tell me that they can order it. So, I have a solution. Not a simple one but a working one. Oh, the little things in life – it's things like this that allow me to waste an entire day doing nothing.

Good friend, good time

About a week ago, my friend Colleen came to visit from Vienna. We've known each other since she was a student at TAMU and I was an advisor but we haven't seen each other for about 6 years as she's been working in various parts of the world. Being so close, we couldn't resist the chance to visit. First on the agenda, Colleen would do Prague. It was perfect timing for me – although I was very busy, I was in need of seeing someone from home and so her visit was made even better for that. She arrived on Friday evening and after exploring Old Town a bit, we settled into a classic Czech restaurant, one of my favorites, U Knihovny. Although in the center of the tourist area, it's just off the beaten path so it's more of a local place and the prices are right and the food tasty.

Saturday morning we set out for the castle. I always forget how beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral is. I learned later that because it has an innovative system of buttresses, it has more windows than other gothic churches, letting in more light. We moved on to the Royal Palace and a small problem. How do we get to the Great Hall? Instead, all we could find was a new exhibit in the ground floor of the old palace. Since we bought the 2^nd ticket or the short tour, we think that in order to get access to the whole castle, we should have bought the most expensive ticket. Now, there are only 100 korunas (about $5) difference in the prices but what you get to see is very misleading on the descriptions. So, instead of enjoying what appears to be a very nice exhibit, we zoomed through looking for the way to the upper levels to no avail. I have to do some investigating before I take people through the castle again. A bit disgruntled, we moved on to St. George which is amazing. Over 1000 years old, it's simple but beautiful and well worth the visit. Finishing with the Golden Lane, I was just happy to see it so empty. I have been through in the summer when it is so full I feel like a cow in the chute and want to moo.

Although she lives in Vienna, Colleen was eager to see the cafes in Prague so we went on a short tour, stopping by the Café Orient (in the building of the Black Madonna), Obecní Dům or Municipal House, which I have always avoided as a huge tourist trap (probably because of the big letters advertising a tourist special painted on the windows!) but plan to visit later to tour the Art Nouveau lovliness, and Cafe Louvre for hot chocolate. We only actually sat and ordered at Cafe Louvre, just looking around at the others. In the meantime, we stopped by my favorite Prague pizza place, Pizzerie Kmotra (yes, I tried it and loved it but still laugh at some of the topping choices like smoked salmon, cucumber and shrimp). Colleen agreed with my assessment.

Sunday was the Jewish Quarter. I had not done this tour since my first visit in 2005 and was glad to do it again. It really is a nice museum, well organized and smartly done - to get into one, you have to buy the full ticket for 5 sites and then you can buy the 6th site separately. Everyone says that Prague has the best Jewish Museum in Central Europe and for good reason. Hitler ordered that this area be protected so that he would have something to show to the world of the great people (the irony here amazes me) that he destroyed. After the first two sites, we stopped for lunch.

Now the Jewish Quarter is one of the more expensive parts of the city for two reasons. First, it's a very touristy area. Second, a lot of the high-end shops are found on Pařížská street, like Cartier, Dior, etc. And Colleen wanted the classic Czech meal of vepřo-zeli-knedlík, or pork, sauerkraut and dumplings. We found a decently-priced place with a Švejk theme, which I loved, being a big fan of our bumbling soldier friend. I had smažený syr. Yummy!

After the Jewish Quarter we did more wandering around Old Town, and amazingly, every time we were near the Orloj, or Astronomical Clock, it was nowhere near the hour and Colleen missed the show! She just has to come back I guess. We ended our day at Café Slavia, happy to find a table in the window with a view of the castle. It was a great weekend with a good friend and we had such a good time we are planning more excursions in the area, so stay tuned!

Surviving fieldwork

So, I had a whole week of full activity in the office. To help you understand my life a bit, my research activities work in a cycle. Every month I have a week or two of recruitment and training activities to work at my "job." Then the rest of the time I am "free" to pursue my other research activities, like interviews. That is unless they need me at the office. Last week, we had 3 days of training and recruitment, then 1 day of training new instructors, which I had to prepare for. After about 6 months of relative inactivity, I had a very long week at the office, getting in early, staying late (not as late as some, though) all the while trying to learn my new responsibilities, understand what's going on around me when people are speaking Czech and trying to do a bit of research. By the end of the week, I was exhausted, mostly mentally. All in all, it went pretty well. I did my first survey and people actually filled it out. I introduced myself and invited people to sign up so that I could contact them about participating in my study and about 1/3 of the people did. Now I have to contact them and set up interviews!
It's kind of an odd way to do fieldwork, or at least I think it is, very sporadic. I can go days without doing anything directly related to my work but I think that will change now that I am getting people to participate. Although I am in my 3rd month here, I am only now beginning the fieldwork process.

American in Prague

Like millions of other Americans, I'm going to blog tonight about my feelings on such a day as the inauguration of yet another US president. I unfortunately missed much of the media hoopla; seriously. If I had not had to be at work today, I would have been glued to the television and computer. Yes, television. If I understood it correctly this morning, Czech TV was going to start broadcasting around 12:30 this afternoon, which is about 6:30am Eastern time. So, I had to be at work – scheduled event and I am the person who sets up the rooms for such events, not to mention who does all the other administration-type things, not to mention this particular event only happens once every 2 or 3 months. And then I had Czech class. So, at the end of a long day, I walked past one of the offices and heard the inauguration coverage on the computer. Our office shares space with a US business, so two Americans were watching the live streaming coverage. I entered, was offered a glass of wine and toasted a "new America."

One of my Czech colleagues came in to join us and we watched a bit. I got to see Aretha sing (but, please, lady – that hat? I am all for the fabulous hats but I would have done without the bedazzled look.) and Biden get sworn in (I was, I admit, so very underwhelmed by him. Let's hope that we can return to the good old days when the VP is good for nothing but launching ships and attending state funerals. But the bright side is that Biden is a good history teaching tool – okay, kids, what is incorrect about this statement: in 1929, FDR went on television to ease the people's fears.) And then we thought I'd have time to see Obama be sworn in (I had to leave at 6pm) but nope. The quartet, of very talented musicians (they didn't just pick these guys up from the street) and a very beautiful piece (I actually backtracked to listen to a bit more) but I missed the actual swearing in, anticipating seeing it on the internet at some point. I'm currently listening to CNN.com and am waiting for the replay of the speech. One of the comments that I did make while we watching the crowds was referring to the weather. Today is that cold day in DC when a black man becomes president…so there! Then I had to leave.

As I was walking across Old Town, a few thoughts crossed my mind. First, how can all of these people just be going about their daily business? As I crossed Wenceslas Square, I turned to look to the top and had a very tiny piece of my mind expecting to see crowds in celebration. The world is celebrating but where is everyone? The second thought is something that amazes me every 4 years and has hit home even more so this year as I live in Eastern Europe, a region that still has people freezing to death because of petty political squabbling and Russian power plays, a region that witnessed multiple crises and wars to decide who has power (yea, I know, I live in the world of the Velvet Divorce but still). We are, as Reverend "Saddleback" pointed out, celebrating the 44^th time that we have had a non-violent transfer of power in the US. That is pretty damn amazing. Even with after such vitriolic elections that we have had in the last 10 years, although less so this year, we peacefully hand over the keys to the White House…maybe not the 'Ws' but everything else….So, on a day when we finally prove that we can not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk as a great nation, on a day when the entire world is possibly regaining just a little bit more respect for us, I have a tear in my eye…I guess it's just a little speck of democracy.

Just an update.

If you're wondering what I'm up to, it's a mix between busy and lazy - or vegging out after being busy. It's been great, though. I've been energized to work but then exhausted so that I'm behind in my writing. What's new for an anthropologist, right? I should clarify that I've been "writing" as in my notebook has tons of notes but they just haven't made it to the computer, which means that they (or my other random thoughts) haven't made it to the blog lately. On the other hand, since I've been working, I haven't had much to say for the blog. Unless you really want to know about the awesome articles on gender and migration that I've been reading! Or all the American and British TV that I've been catching up on when my brain stops comprehending the scholarly stuff.

In other news, I'm learning my "job" - not sure if this has made it to the blog, so forgive me if it's a repeat - but I'm working (for free) part-time at the company where my research is based. It's a great set-up; I get not only observation, but also participation which is good since participant-observation is a keystone to Socialcultural Anthropology.

And I have finally started Czech class. It's small and all Czech all the time. After one class, I like the teacher, so I'm happy. I also have homework to finish this morning before class tonight.

But, my friend is coming from Vienna for the weekend so I'm really looking forward to showing off my adopted city. More next week...well, later next week. I am swamped until next Thursday - which also means I'll be missing all of the inauguration excitement. :(

Post Office Adventures

This week I had to go to the post office. I had two missions. To pay my phone bill and pick up a package. Yes, to pay my phone bill. You can pay all bills at the post office. There are two ways – you can either do a bank transfer or you can pay cash. This is so common, actually the preferred way, that bills come with the post office form attached and pre-printed with all necessary information, like the return slips you would send back with a check payment in the US. And, the day before, I had gotten that lovely little notice in my mailbox that I had a package to pick up. I had been expecting a box from home for over a week. Not knowing how long it would take, we were trying not to be anxious but were a bit. Too many tales of lost or stolen packages float around. Or stories of Czech postal workers who are too lazy to leave the slip in the mailbox if you aren't home to collect the package. I don't even know if they tried to bring it to me; I had been home all day and never heard a knock at the door. So, this is where the "adventure" begins. On the notice, it lists which post office to go to and the times it's open. Well, I had seen a post office near the tram stop about 2 stops before mine. I looked up the post office address on the map, saw that it was a block from the tram stop and assumed it was the one I was thinking of. So, I got off the tram at the stop, headed up the street and noticed that the street name was wrong. I needed Jisková and this was Podolská. Hmmm…I guess I didn't look at the map very well. So, I headed home.

Now by this time, I was getting cold. I had stopped by the grocery store first and had been waiting for and switching trams in about 20°F but since it has been so cold lately, and I was tired of going out in multiple layers, I decided to dress more for about 35°. I lost feeling in my toes at one point, and I wasn't outside that long. The good news is that I wasn't worried about the meat and cheese I had bought at the grocery store going rancid! So, back home, looked up the post office address again and my most recent assumption was found to be true – the post office that I needed was farther down the line. And, it was a longer walk from the tram stop. So, out again, still in the lighter weight coat. I hadn't really been down the line this far so it was nice to see a new area. It was a bit confusing though because in order to get across the street, which was oddly laid out, I had to use the underground walkway. So, when I came out, I wasn't sure which street I was on and got turned around for about a minute. But, I found the right street and easily found the post office about an 8 minute walk away.

Now, by this point, I was wondering what Mom had sent. I knew a few things that would be in the box – my sister Jill had asked if I needed anything so I naturally put in an order for a few items I either had left at home or couldn't find here. I should have put in a larger request. The box was the smaller of the US Priority Mail boxes but it had a lot of extra room. The best item was a little picture frame with a picture of my neice and nephew holding my cat – the humans look happy, the cat not so much! It is now happily placed on the shelf above my TV where I can see it all the time.

Anyway, back to actually retrieving the box…since my previous experiences at the post office have been a bit terrifying I came prepared. Because you can do so many things at the post office – send and receive mail, buy stamps, pay bills and other financial services – the bigger post offices will have an entire menu of options and you select the service you need and get a number from the machine and wait. Of course, these menus are only in English at the main post office which I visited for the first time a few weeks ago to mail a letter. Other times, I have gone in, hoping that I picked the right service to mail my postcards and then just handed them over the postal worker in the other side of the glass…the usually grumpy post worker. I guess there are some universals! The only time that I remember having a pleasant experience was when I was trying to ship a box home after spending the summer here. The postal worker was a young woman and I think she had fun trying to use her limited English and my limited Czech to get it all straightened out…How do you want it shipped? By lod'? (making ocean wave signs with her hands to indicate lod' means ship)

This latest trip was pretty uneventful, once I found the right location. I got in one line to pay my bill – it's a small office so no numbers needed. But I did have the proper terms written down so that I would know which service to select as even in the smaller ones, some windows only do certain services. Then I went to the window that deals with boxes – I believe sending and receiving - and was very happy to have my box slid through the little window to me. It was light, so I was lighthearted that I wouldn't have to lug a heavy box too far on slippery sidewalks – did I mention that we had snow last week and it's done the basic melt a little, refreeze a lot, just enough to make the parts that weren't shoveled a little treacherous?

So, I'm learning how to navigate the Czech postal service. I was happy that my box arrived in a relatively reasonable amount of time, intact, and the thought entered my mind that you can tell a lot about the development of a country by the quality and reliability of the postal service. I also had a little tug in the back of my mind telling me that by receiving a box, something that took a while to reach me, I really do live here, again, another sign that I'm not just residing here for a short time. I am living in Prague for a year. One of my life goals will be accomplished by the end of 2009. Now, if I come home truly speaking another language, that will be 2 goals. More on that next week after I start Czech lessons.

Pardon me, but do you have gas?

Headlines the last few days have me more interested in the business section than normal. "Russian gas supplies to Czech Republic halted," "Ukraine Says Russia Halts All Gas to Europe." Combined with the temperature that has stayed well below freezing since about Christmas, what does this mean for me? Well, according to these articles, nothing too serious. The Czechs have negotiated supplies from Norway and are using reserves. The temperature is supposed to get back to average, which is around the freezing mark for this time of year, so I should be okay – still needing heat but not as much as before. Plus, the articles also state that domestic customers would be priority over industrial. However, Slovakia has declared a state of emergency and other more eastern countries, as well as the Balkans are feeling the pinch. Essentially, there is a potential for serious shortages. As I remain concerned but not overly worried at this point, I feel that I am getting a very teeny, tiny example of what life is like when an outside political power has control over important resources like food and fuel. (No, don't worry, there is no food shortage, except in the area of Ranch salad dressing…which doesn't exist here but I don't think that's a political problem.)

If I understand the current situation, Putin is hard-lining a dispute with Ukraine over gas prices, partly due to a diminishing Russian economy (and a rise in gas prices would help there) and partly because Ukraine is trying to join NATO (so Putin is thinking, let's punish them for turning against us and going with the West). I can't even imagine what it must have been like when all important decisions, regarding essentially all aspects of my life, would have been controlled by the whims and desires of bureaucrats in Russia, or the Soviet Union. As an American, I have only worried about a loss of power due to acts of God (hurricanes, ice storms, etc) not the impulses of politicians. I have lived a charmed life. I know it. And I will probably never even feel the hardship of a loss of gas this winter. But, it's got me thinking. I have friends who work in parts of the world where they do not have electricity 24-hours a day, or not at all. I have to suffer the "hardship" of not having a clothes dryer.

On another side, going back to my comment about being under the control of the Russians, I am thinking of the political economy of Europe. With the Czech Republic assuming the EU Presidency last week, all eyes turned to Prague to see how Pres. Klaus would react. Apparently, he did what previous EU presidents have done: he remained neutral. How long that will last if the Czech supply is seriously threatened will remain to be seen. Currently, in the Society of the Anthropology of Europe, we are discussing the current relevancy of doing anthropology in Europe. No one seemed to seriously question working in the Soviet Bloc, either during or immediately after the Cold War. But now, we question if what we do here is still of "profound anthropological interest." I think this most current crisis with Russia, not to mention last summer's brief war with Georgia, is at minimum an argument that we are at least living through many of the same, or at least similar, political-economic conditions that we did, or those in Europe did, during the Cold War. However, what makes it even so more interesting today is the role of the EU as an antagonist of sorts for Russia. If we want to revert to older terminology, we can see the superpower nature that Russia, like it's former skin of the USSR, is currently exhibiting. Essentially, Russia still has a large impact on the region and although the political and economic blocks have shifted, we still have a wide range of topics to explore. I know that I have been simplifying the issue here, but it's just a few thoughts on a blog after all. However, for those of us who study globalization, current conditions in Europe are fascinating and exciting but hopefully not tragic.

New Year's post below

Things are a bit out of order because it took me some time to load the videos to youtube. Apparently the video feature on the camera is not the best for this format. But scroll down and see how I spent the holiday.

I’m cold and getting colder

You can easily see how cold it is in Prague by simply going to weather.com or any number of other weather or news sites. However, I thought I'd show you how cold it is and getting. Until about Christmas, the temperature has dipped down at night but hovered a bit above freezing (1-3° C or 33-36°F) during the day. I don't think that it has gotten above freezing the past week, and the next week predicts temps in the -11°C (16°F) range as a low. As for me, I'm just glad that I brought my giant coat with me. However, as the temperature decreases, the river freezes, or at least the edges. If you've been reading along, you know that I have an interest in the birds along the river. Well, as I was walking along the river yesterday morning, I snapped this picture. The birds were standing on the ice along the bank.

Farther along, I saw more of these birds perched on the pilings with just their feet in the water. I thought that it must be cold but then realized that in addition to their natural abilities to withstand the weather, since the water was not frozen it might actually be warmer than the air. Of course, I was never that interested in the biological sciences so I could be wrong.

And, yes, this is the southerner in me being shocked into reality by the cold of a real winter!

PS. I'm working on my New Year's post with pictures and videos of fireworks galore but am having trouble with the upload.

New Year’s celebrations in Prague – it ain’t over ‘til it’s over!

Happy New Year - Pour Feliciter 2009

New Year's Eve I met a few friends for the evening. We started with dinner, which is not as easy as it sounds. Not having plans, we had to try a number of different restaurants before we could find one with an empty table. Czechs are usually very big on reservations, but on New Year's Eve, not only tables but entire rooms and restaurants were reserved. Once we found a place, we decided to linger until closer to midnight because it was cold. It hasn't been above freezing here in a few days.

A little after 11pm, we headed out. I had voiced a request to be somewhere in the middle of it all for midnight, since I have never celebrated New Year's in an urban area. And, I had heard about the Czech love of pyrotechnics and fireworks. We decided to head to Staroměstské náměstí, Old Town Square, first. The Christmas booths are still up so it's not a big open space. But, the Orloj, Astronomical Clock, is there so a lot of people would want to be there for the show.

Now, normally, on the hour, the orloj does a little act. Saints pop out of windows, a cock crows, horns are blown, etc. And normally, on any hour of the day, you can see a large crowd in front of it. And just about every time you can observe the crowd going through the same motions and sounds of delight, ahhs, and chuckles at it ends. However, at midnight, nothing happens. Many people do not know this and so hundreds of people would be crowded around. We decided that we didn't want to be caught in that so we headed for the river for fireworks. The city's official fireworks would be on New Year's Day/Evening, but we knew that we'd see something.

Walking through the streets was, in a word, fun. From every direction we heard bangs and pops. People were buying small firecrackers from the tourist shops. Other shops were closed, which I had never seen before because they keep very long hours normally. The atmosphere was completely high-spirited. And it wasn't that crowded; we could easily move. When we got to the river, we saw that Charles Bridge was packed full of people, and since they are doing construction on it, it would be worse than normal. So, we headed down a side street until we found a spot on a short wall where we could stand. We were directly across from the castle and had a good view of a number of neighborhoods. On the river were a large number of party boats.

We got there about 10 minutes to midnight and fireworks were going on in all directions already. But at midnight, the big show from the party boats started. To our left, there was a good show near the Národní Divadlo (National Theater) and on our right was more from the Letná Park area. Not to mention the small fireworks shooting off all around us. I've posted some video on youtube if you want to see the videos - the other one is linked below. But you can see that that the "fireworks" setting on my camera has done a pretty good job.

After the show at the river, we headed to Wenceslas Square, the location of the Czech's "Boston Tea Party" as I heard one tourist saying into his video camera. We had heard the explosions coming from that area all evening and we knew what to expect when we got there. At the top of the square, near the National Museum, was a stage but by now the show was over. As we walked up the square we had to be careful where we walked. If we weren't watching where we went, we might walk into a bottle rocket or something else being shot. These older men were set up in the middle of an open space and just setting off bottle rockets.

As we continued our way up, we heard the whistles, pops and bangs of rockets and crackers being set off in all directions. The entire city was covered in a fog of smoke and smelled like firecrackers.

We ended our night early but we planned to gather again for show the next night.

New Year's Day is the anniversary of Czechoslovakia splitting, called the Velvet Divorce by many. This year January 1 is even more significant for these two countries; the Czech Republic starts its tenure as EU President and Slovakia changed to the euro. At 6pm, the city was putting on its annual fireworks show. I had been out all day with some friends, starting with Chris at church. Throughout the afternoon, we kept picking up more people, and usually people from different countries. By the time we found a spot on the river with a view of Letná Park, there were 7 of us – 2 American, 3 Slovakian, a Mexican and a Ukrainian. The show was kind of disappointing, although it lasted for 17 minutes. It was supposed to show the flags from a number of world countries and end with a rainbow. I got the rainbow at the end but the rest was really abstract. 2 things though I want to comment on. First, everyone was silent, just watching, with a little applause at the end. When I've watched fireworks in the US, people ooh and ahh when something big and/or pretty explodes. Not here. Second, we got a bonus. The fireworks were set up in a park, with trees so it wasn't surprising when we saw a number of small fires break out. Not everyone saw it so we felt that we got a 'bonus' feature to our evening.

In all, I had a great New Year's celebration, definitely one of the best I've ever had. I highly recommend Prague for New Year's vacations for anyone who likes fireworks. You definitely get your fill!