Alright, so all of you are probably wondering why in my “Prague blog” I never talk about Prague. Well, the truth is, I am pretty far behind. Everything that I have talked about so far happened within my first 2 weeks of traveling, before I settled in to Prague. I have been traveling for over 2 months now. But, no need to worry, I am going to switch gears a bit by changing the format of my blog––I will cover more ground in fewer words and you can get up to speed with the most exciting and interesting parts of my experience. Instead of day by day write ups I am going to cover topics that sum up my overall impressions. I can’t think of any logical order to follow, so I will just cover whatever topic I feel like writing about that day. But if you have any special requests or questions just post them to the blog and I will try to respond by tackling that topic next. The feedback will encourage me to write, so please feel free to ask questions!
The first topic I want to discuss is my impression of Czech people. I’ll start by saying that Czech people are very different than people in the U.S. The time Czech people spent under Communist rule wore down their ability to trust people. When walking down the street, even in the small neighborhoods, people either avoid eye contact and any type of interaction or they stare you down with a sharp face that says “don’t mess with me.” I realized how much it affects my mood. The simple act of people in the U.S. smiling and saying hello as you pass them on the street is sometimes enough to bump me out of whatever funk I am in, but here, that never happens. Beyond their facial expression is there body language and clothing. Women in particular wear tight black pants, spiky high heals, and big pouffy jackets. They stand firm with their hands on their hip, sometimes even with their hands in fists, although I may have only seen the fists once and let that skew my perception.
The men do not seem as prominent in the street scene, but if you watch people long enough they’re behavior surfaces. They seem quietly disrespectful and a bit demanding. However, I have been told one very good thing about Czech people, which resonated with me quite a bit. Czech people are not fake, they do not pretend to be nice, they do not pretend to like you, when they do show affection or act kindly to you it is genuine. Also, once they get to know you and build up trust for you, they will do just about anything for you. This is the downside of many people from the U.S. Everyone is friendly, everyone is nice at first, it is assumed, but even after you feel close and think you deserve someones trust and time, they often disappoint you. I don’t mean to sound depressing, I just mean to note that there are ups and downs of each culture. I don’t think I will get close enough with any Czech people to take advantage of their genuine personality, but it is nice to know, and the smiling Americans are something to look forward to when coming home.
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