Jak se mám? (How's it going with me?)

So, I haven't talked much about how things are going for me. In a word, life is a bowl of cherries. Okay, cheesy. But, it's cherry season and my friend Hanka gave me a very large bag full. They are yummy! I believe the first time that I was introduced to cherries as a fresh fruit, I spent the afternoon drinking with a Slovakian woman in her backyard, back when I lived in DC. Anyway, things are going well. The only downside right now is that all of my American friends are leaving. Chris and Gail left last week. Kari leaves in a few weeks. Laura leaves in early July. But then I start Czech summer school...again. Yep, I putting myself not only into an intensive Czech language course in July, I am putting myself into a self-imposed boot camp. I plan to only speak english, listen to english, etc when necessary. Like communicating with people back home, english with my language partners, research when necessary. You'd think that is what I have been doing but no, I've been relying on english in a lot of places, especially socially. So, we'll see how it will go.

The research is going well, I think. I had a bit of a dry spell, not really getting much interest in response to my recruitment efforts in March and April but May was awesome! And I'm making some good connections. I did 3 interviews last week, when I had gone 3 weeks with no interviews so I'm really happy. In the meantime, I worked and helped with the trainings like Basic Life Support pictured here. I still have some serious gaps in my data but I can focus on trying to get that now. I'm concentrating on the idea of freedom of mobility as a key theme. Regardless what I find, I'll have some good stuff to write up :)

One thing that keeps coming up though is how I find Prague - most of the Czechs I meet ask me. I have a pretty standard answer: It's good. I think of Prague as another city that I know and have lived in, much like Houston (okay, never technically lived there but...) or Washington, DC. But it's the Czech people that I have more fun describing. So many people come here and complain about the Czech people, how rude they are. Well, first, Czechs are well-known for having impolite if not surly waitstaff, postal workers and other service people, which are the people that most tourists interact with. But, in their defense, this city of 1.7 million sees over 1 million tourists every year and the tourists that come here are, in my opinion, really annoying. They come because Prague is one of the cities that you must see while on a European tour. Check it off the list of places. And, not being on the euro, it's still cheaper than more Western parts of Europe...I mean Western geographically, not culturally, so please don't throw eggs at me ;) But in my view, Czechs are really friendly people. For example, these guys, we met at a music festival near Olomouc a few years ago...they were more than happy to share their homemade gin...of course, the next day I went partially blind in one eye....Granted, there are plenty of people that just can't be bothered with strangers or people that aren't part of their group - well, there is still a sense of privacy and some would even argue a socialist legacy of protection. Or, they are just busy people. But, when someone does open up, it's great! I have people inviting me to their homes, visits to the cities where they live or come from, taking a 2-hour train to Prague just for an interview...I think that Czechs just want to be cautious sometimes about their relationships, who they want to let into their lives, how much they want to let an outsider in, really, no real difference than most people. So, by generalizing, I'm trying to breakdown the bad stereotype, prove it wrong by my own experiences. And, I have to admit, I hate the tourists, too, and get irritated that I have to wade through crowds of people just live my daily life. That said, I need to finish this and head to the grocery store to possibly get yelled at by some disgruntled cashier.

So, in closing, things are going well. I have people to visit this summer, some short traveling to do, and then preparing for the parental visit in August. I think the next 5 months are going to fly.