UNESCO names Iowa City, Iowa a "City of Literature"

My blog usually celebrates Prague. Today I want to celebrate a place I used to live because it just achieved a HUGE honor. I resided in Iowa City, Iowa for two years while I did my M.A. in library and information science. I loved every single minute of living there and regard my time there as two of the most enriching years of my life. Iowa City, Iowa shares a distinction with my hometown Ames, Iowa and another favorite town of Boulder, Colorado as having the most Ph.D.s per capita of any community in the U.S.

UNESCO has named Iowa City, Iowa, with a mere 63,000 people, as the world's third "City of Literature." What other cities have already achieved this distinction? Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia! Pretty good company, I'd say. UNESCO is creating a Creative Cities Network honoring and connecting centers for cinema, music, crafts and folk arts, design, media arts and gastronomy, as well as literature.

Iowa City is renowned for a culture that REVERES writing. It is no surprise to me that daughter #2 is on her way to becoming a journalist because in her kindergarten and first grade classes the Iowa City School System passionately passed on the joy of writing to students.

The whole town is obsessed with writing and book culture because the University of Iowa is home to the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Sooner or later, every famous writer in the world makes their way there to see what the mystique is all about. Lucky citizens are able to hear readings from great thinkers from all over the world, often in small intimate settings.

Like many of Iowa City residents who enjoyed the endless parade of writers through town, I attended more than my fair share of readings at Prairie Lights Bookstore. Prairie Lights' name was known throughout Iowa because each reading was broadcast to all farmers and small town folks across our rural state.

Iowa City took the job of creating new readers as a sacred task. Every child from all over the world in my married student housing courtyard had a wardrobe of three or four t-shirts celebrating the fact they had proudly finished the annual summer reading club. Kids who didn't participate had to ask themselves why they didn't get their free shirt because it sure seemed like everyone else had one for each year they had been in town. When thousands of kids go through the program, finding the funding for something like that takes support from the entire community. Do the math. It's expensive!

The Iowa City Public Library also mounted the first Banned Books Display I had ever seen. The one I remember that shocked me was "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. An Indian reservation library had found the portrayal of American Indians in the book offensive and attempted to remove it. Very simple displays like that can help show people that a book they consider important offends somebody else. When we protect everyone's right to read, we protect our own.

To continue that commitment to Intellectual Freedom, the local library started an annual Intellectual Freedom lecture and named it after a staff member who constantly prodded her institution on this issue. It's that kind of reaching beyond the day-to-day mission and teaching the community why censorship hurts their marketplace of ideas that brings this kind of recognition.

Congratulations Iowa City, Iowa and all of the important institutions and their staff members for this huge honor. Y'all deserve it! Link to the title to read the press release.

Scenes from a month of TEFL

November was a terrific month to come to Prague and take a TEFL course for many reasons. First, our class count was low. The month before was still high season and there were 20 students not ten. Secondly, we were in our school from 8 a.m. till after dark many days. Why not do it in November when we weren't missing any sunshine? If it was July or August, the entire city would beckon with beauty. This way we'll be settled in by summertime.

We all passed the course and begin teaching January 5th. Ian went home to Odessa and I moved out of student housing after finding a terrific flat. Jana and Gulnara helped me move to my new place by each dragging a big red suitcase through the metro, over cobblestones, and through lots of slush.

I'm a Praguian now, Prahan, Prawn? What do you call someone who calls Prague home?

Our first night in town
Adam (aka, The World's most fanatical Blazers fan),
Danielle, and myself

Gulnara, Anna, and Ian

Here we are trying our first Czech beer
at the Hungry or Thirsty Deer Pub
(I can never remember if the deer is hungry or thirsty -
probably both)

Ian says the Russian superstition is whomever sits
in the corner will never get married.
oops, too late

Last day of classes with my gal pals

Gulnara and me

Jana and Gulnara enjoying lunch in our school cafe

They made sooo much fun of me in the cafe one day
for being excited about my broccoli gratin
they took my picture with it -
but come on, doesn't it look like fantastic comfort food??

Great food + great friends = happiness

Yea! We're Done with Our TEFL Course!

St. Wenceslas Square was packed with
revelers - the energy downtown
was fantastic as we celebrated the
end of our studies

Three devils: Dannielle, Anna, and Adam

Having fun with Anna

Heaters help people enjoy
a sidewalk cafe
in the middle of December
in Old Town Square

Christmas Markets are scattered all around town
The most common offerings are kielbasa,
grilled corn-on-the-cob, hot wine, grog, and mead.

These beautiful children were definitely angels, not demons,
singing in exquisite harmony a song
by the famous Czech composer Smetana.

No photo can do this gorgeous tree justice.
It had shooting stars.

Adam, the photographer, knows how to make everyone laugh.

Anna and Justin

Yea! We're done!

Two reasons to celebrate on St. Mikalus Day

On the last day of my TEFL class, work was gladly interrupted for a visit from our own in-house St. Mikalus. I knew nothing of the Czech custom but a Czech friend told me this would be the first of many St. Mikaluses I would see that day. Czech children have been raised on stories of St. Mikalus and look forward to seeing him and performing a song or a poem for him before receiving their treat for being a good boy or girl that year.

Naughty children don't get candy. They receive potatoes or a lump of coal. And if they have been really, really naughty they are placed into the devil's sack and will be sent straight to hell.

It makes me laugh thinking about this because I really and truly remember worrying when I was a kid about whether or not I would get coal for Christmas. How about you?

Teenagers seem to have the most fun with this holiday. You can tell that many of them labored on their costumes for hours, carefully applying tin foil to their Mikalus staffs and cotton balls to their beards. Demons seemed to far outnumber angels. On the metro, they were all giggles in their costumes which of course made everyone else giggle too.

Here are a few of the angels and demons we saw along the way on St. Mikalus Day. In my next post, I'll share pics of our group in Old Town Square enjoying the spectacle of it all.

What do we build for "ourselves?"

I kept thinking about that phrase over the National Theatre in Prague. Narodni Sobe! My usher at the National Ballet told me it translated as "We Built it for Ourselves" or "We Built it for our Nation."

I love that idea. People coming together as a body politic to create something awe-inspiring, seemingly luxurious, and breathtakingly beautiful. I've been thinking since then about what we Americans are inspired to "build for ourselves." I can picture an American family saying it about a house: "we built this for ourselves." But I can't picture Americans saying it for something we've all built as a body politic.

So often, anyone proposing increasing taxes for some purpose in America is quickly demonized. Just looking at this Czech example, you can see that a century later, the cost of that theatre has been recouped over and over and over again. Most of the time, American people want their government buildings to be completely utilitarian without any kind of magic whatsoever. It might add to the cost. Additionally, Americans are all so different that it's hard for us as a nation to find something cultural that speaks to all of us.

What's an example of something we as a people back home in America have "built for ourselves?" Roads and practical stuff don't count. I'm asking for an example that seems like a cultural extravagance. It's a greater achievement because it's harder to agree on and fund.

"We Built This for Our Nation"

Yesterday's trip to the Ballet was fabulous. The National Theater was so very beautiful. I want to know everything about it.

Over the stage were the words in Czech, "Národní Sobe!" I asked the usher what it meant and she said she would translate it as "We Built This for Ourselves" or "We Built This For Our Nation." It's a beautiful thought, isn't it? One generation speaking to another.

My main floor seat could not have been better. I was so close I could smell the gunpowder of the gun and hear the squeak of ballet slippers. Next to me sat a proud mother of a ballerina. I realized one of the things I loved about this theatre is that it is human-sized. The last fine art theatre I had frequented in America, the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin, was cavernous.

No pictures were allowed. The gilt, the glamour, could I even capture it with my own photography? It was sooo beautiful. I cried.

Pavel Pišan was terrific in his role as Paris. His job was to be a slimy bad guy and he did seem like a slimy bad guy. I have no idea how he does that when his natural personality is the exact opposite! His features are so sharp he can communicate emotion easily across all those seats. Pavel has a perfect face for stage work.

Whenever I hear Prokofiev's famous big brass lines from this piece in the future I know it will conjure up this very special memory of hearing fantastic music in an exquisite setting showcasing world class ballet. It was a privilege to be there.

A Trip to the Ballet

I am so excited! One of my English students, Pavel Pisan, has invited me to see him dance in Romeo and Juliet today. Pavel, who lights up the whole room with his smile, plays the part of Paris. I don't know how to get to the National Theatre. In looking it up online I realize what an enormous treat I'm in for. Look at this building! It's breathtaking! This is going to be so fun to see. I think it's even more fun to know someone in the cast to cheer them on. Pinch me! I'm living in Prague and I"m going to the ballet in a magnificent setting!

You might also enjoy these three posts about Pavel's favorite cafes in Prague:

Pavel's Prague, Part I, Cafe Emporio

Pavel's Prague, Part II, Grand Cafe Orient

Pavel's Prague, Part III: Tonino Lamborghini 

The Czechs Need One More Freedom

I went to see the new Bond movie with Gulnara and Nhan, two new friends in Prague. When we went to the movie theater we were surprised to learn that we had been assigned specific seats to watch the movie!

The seats were close to the screen too. Much closer than we would have sat on our own. I didn't need to sit in the car with Bond to enjoy the opening scene. People of the Czech Republic unite! You deserve one more freedom. The freedom to sit wherever the heck you want in the movie theater.

Meet My Flatmate

Canadian Ian MacMillan on the Black Sea

My flatemate, Ian MacMillan, and I are sharing a flat for the one month we live in student housing while we take our TEFL course. Saturday, November 29th was his birthday so I decided to interview Ian to celebrate his 27 years of wisdom.

Where did you grow up?

Penticton, British Columbia, a city of 30,000 people. My dad was an immigrant from Scotland who originally moved to Australia where he met my Canadian mom. She was on vacation there. They settled in Penticton.

What’s your city known for?

An American movie from the 1960’s called “My American Cousin” was filmed in Penticton. They used our peach-shaped concession stand in the movie. We’re known as the peach city because peaches grow nearby.

Penticton is between two lakes. One lake is known as Okanogan Lake. The Loch Ness monster’s cousin, the Ogopogo, lives in Okanogan Lake. We even had a Japanese research team investigating it. They have a $1,000,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with evidence of the Ogopogo’s existence.

What connects the two lakes is “the channel.” People from outside always call it the “canal.” It’s not the ‘canal’ it’s the “channel” and you can float from one lake to the other.

We also have Ironman Canada, which is held in Penticton.

Why did you decide to go to Budapest, Hungary for graduate school?

I read an article in the Economist Magazine that said lots of new, private universities were opening in Eastern Europe that were innovative and different. That got me thinking about Europe.

A professor told my undergrad class in Canada if we were interested in history and thinking about graduate school we should go to Europe and see where the history took place.

Central European University had the best website of the universities I looked at.

Tell me about Central European University. How did it start? What is the mission of the university?

George Soros, a Jewish billionaire born in Hungary, started it in the early 1990s. He donated $700 million to get it off the ground. It’s the second largest endowment in Europe.

There were three campuses. One was in Prague, one was in Warsaw, and one was in Budapest. His mission was to create a university based on liberal democratic capitalist principles and to promote those principles in post-Communist countries. There is now just one campus in Budapest.

The higher reaches of the administration hire professors who innately believe in those principles and promote them to the students to create change in their home countries. They view each student as an agent of micro-change throughout the region. I’m not sure a university should have such an activist attitude.

What was your thesis about?

My thesis was on Scottish history and how the idea of liberty changed in the 18th century. Because of this change, Scottish nationalism did not develop. Scottish liberty had always been based on martial ability. People’s liberty was protected by the nobility.

In the 18th century, Scots went bankrupt. The Scots were starving and the British House of Commons ensured their liberty and gave them access to trade. Scotland went from being a feudal society to a modern society through commercial trade.

The Scots don’t have a “nation state” per se, is there Scottish nationalism today?

My opinion is Scots don’t need a nation state to know their Scottish.

The Opera House
in Odessa, Ukraine

Where do you live now and what is it like?

I normally live in Odessa, Ukraine, a city of 1,000,000. It’s a resort town on the Black Sea. It has a very beautiful opera house. The Odessans always say "we have the second most beautiful opera house. Everyone knows. The architect was the same one who did the Vienna Opera House and it's the most beautiful. We are second."

Odessans are known for their sense of humor. One of the biggest holidays there is April Fool’s Day. They have a big parade on that day. Their sense of humor isn’t for me. It’s too simplistic.

Ian and Sasha on the Danube

How did you end up in Odessa?

I met my wife in Budapest. We studied in the same program. She ignored me for a month. We started talking at a party. We didn’t talk the whole next week. We went to another party and started talking again. Then we went to a Halloween party together. She was dressed as a princess and I didn’t have a costume. I had my KGB shirt on which was good enough and very funny for everyone. We really started dating when I showed her pics of the Halloween party.

Sasha and I decided I should move to Odessa, her hometown. She is working on her Ph.D. in history there. People from Odessa love Odessa.

What is your job there?

I’m an English teacher in a private language school. My students are teenagers and adults. I usually teach adults one-on-one.

How have your studies about nationalism and language impacted your understanding of Ukrainians and Russians?

It made me understand both sides of the argument of “what is Ukraine.” Some Russians don’t think Ukraine is a country and doesn’t really have it’s own history.

Ukranians, like Slovaks, are known as a “non-historic” people because they didn’t have a kingdom of their own before becoming a nation state.

In Canada and America, our citizenship is self-defined. If we say we are a Canadian or an American and we have citizenship, we are. But a Russian or a Ukranian will always think of himself as defined by ethnicity not nationality. There is no difference for them between ethnicity and nationality.

A Russian passport for a Moscow native of Georgian parents would be stamped “nationality: Georgian.” A Slav who came to one of our countries would always be thought of by Russians as a Czech, or Russian, or Ukranian, not as an American or a Canadian.

We don't consider this ethnicity. Canadians think that a person who is of German descent who is born in Canada would never be thought of as German. He's Canadian. And a person who's lineage is East Indian born in Canada would never be thought of as East Indian; he’d be thought of as Canadian. Russians don’t think I’m from a ‘real’ country because I’m from a nation of immigrants. They would view me as Scottish, not Canadian, because that’s my heritage.

There isn’t necessarily pan-Slavism though, the way there is pan-Arabism or pan-Africanism.

Russians love Russia passionately, but they try to leave whenever possible.

What other cultures are known for their strong nationalism?

Serbs. Western Ukranians, they are militant about Ukrainian independence. Americans.

Why don’t Canadians inspire dislike around the world?

We stay out of the way. We’re culturally aware.
Americans are culturally tone-deaf.

What’s your favorite thing about Prague?

The Czech sense of humor. It’s very dark.

Different landscape views of the castle and other sites that I saw with Sasha.

Where else have you lived or taught English?

South Korea. My experience there was not very good. In a different time of my life, it would have been better. It’s for young people. Teachers work 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and then they party. And you have to teach kids. I don’t like kids. South Korean kids are not allowed to be kids because of the highly-competitive over-scheduled lives they have. In every class of older kids I taught, everyone knew someone who had committed suicide.

Why did you go to South Korea by yourself if you were already married?

I went there to make money. I received free airfare, a free apartment, and $2,700 a month plus overtime. I only had to pay for food. I worked there for four months and came home with $9,000 in savings.

Where else would you and your wife Sasha like to live?

We’d both like Scotland, Italy, France.

I would like to live in India. Maybe Dubai, if the money was good.

Sasha would like to live in Prague. She loved it here.

Thank you, Ian, for sharing your Canadian perspective.
I wish you and Sasha the best in your future travels.

I Don't Even Have to Explain this, do I?

I don't even have to explain this because you intuitively understand it, don't you? Would people from all over the world know which floor was the basement level in this elevator?

If this elevator existed in America, would someone using it need to speak English so they know that:
B stands for Basement,
LL stands for Lower Level,
L stands for Lobby,
and M stands for Mezzanine?

Have you ever seen a young person struggle to understand the concept of negative numbers? Wouldn't they have an easier time of it if this was their first interaction with -1?

Doesn't it make more sense that the ground floor is zero and then you add one each time you go up?

America, let's adopt this system. It's better.

My First Class of Students

Pre-intermediate students and teachers

Yea! This is me with my first class of students. They came in for two weeks to let new TEFL trainees practice on them! They were wonderful. May they all go out and use the past continuous tense with aplomb. That was my best lesson!

We can only do one thing at this moment: listen

Here is an example of the high level of culture I see in the Czech Republic. Every time staff arrive to open the little cafe near me I can hear them taking down the chairs and preparing for the shift with their favorite music playing loudly in the background.

What do they listen to? The same thing: the coloratura soprano aria from Mozart's Magic Flute opera. Occasionally I hear someone's passionate singing in accompaniment with some of the easier lines leading up to the soprano voice soaring. Sometimes the accompanying singing dies off though because the music is just so beautiful it demands our complete attention.

Thanksgiving With New Friends

A beautiful Thanksgiving table
at Sher and Jiři's place

Sher and Jiři

Sher and me

I don't think anyone could have felt more welcomed to the Czech Republic when they arrived than I did. My blogging buddies immediately made me feel at home. Sher from Czech Off the Beaten Path invited me to join her and her husband for a magical thanksgiving at their place.

Sher cooked her turkey in a combination convection oven/microwave, something I have never seen before. I don't know what a convection oven is but I enjoyed our conversation so much I forgot to look at it and see how it works. Dinner was fabulous and so was the company. I was sent home with leftovers, a book of Czech fairytales, another of Prague legends, and yet another of Prague history.

I Miss My President!

Černý Kennedy means "Black Kennedy" in Czech

The Obamas go to the White House

My new President was so inspiring on a daily basis during the campaign that I've gone through Obama withdrawal since moving to the Czech Republic. I miss hearing his constant 'commitment to excellence' on TV. Luckily, the campaign continues to email weekly videos and recent news updates so I can hear his views direct from him.

This week the campaign sent an 11-minute video of Obama announcing his new Council of Economic Advisers. The way President-Elect Obama is using email to directly interact with his millions of supporters is unprecedented. Being overseas, I appreciate it now even more than when I was home.

Unexpected Surprise Pleasures

An open iron gate by my metro stop...
I see a sculpture inside...
I want to see it up close.

A surprise...a courtyard
I didn't anticipate or think about courtyards here
I knew they existed somewhere

A hidden restaurant

With a fountain dormant for the season

Another beautiful restaurant setting
A hidden restaurant in America wouldn't last
Yet here it charms

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the American holiday Thanksgiving. I love the whole idea of Thanksgiving and think the idea of stopping to slow down and give thanks for the abundance around us is beautiful.

I also love that Thanksgiving is a flexible holiday. It's not just about our own families. If we are far from our families we can still create a beautiful holiday with the friends we are near. If we are able to be with our families, Americans reach out and invite the foreign exchange student or the out-of-state visitor to join them in celebration.

Today I'm grateful for:

the continued good health and constant love of my family

this amazing fantastic planet we get to explore

living in Prague, something I've looked forward to for years

the incredibly creativity of my fellow humans

that I'm not in charge and I can trust in that.

Why don't Americans Eat More Cabbage?

Every plate of food I'm presented with in Prague has cabbage on it somewhere.
Sometimes the cabbage is only the garnish, but the Czechs serve cabbage in dozens of delicious ways: as shredded warm red cabbage, in tangy side salads, or fried in pancakes.

In America, I can only think of three ways I ever eat cabbage: in cole slaw, on a Reuben sandwhich, or on a brat when I visit the University of Wisconsin. It probably doesn't amount to more than 1/8th of a cabbage head per year.

I don't know why we don't eat more of it. It's cheap and healthy. I have a theory why we're cabbage-challenged, but I'd like to hear yours.

A Czech Expat in America

Expats don't go only one way you know. There's a very proud Czech expatriate living in America who has a wonderful blog called Czechmate Diary: Small Bohemian Steps to World Domination. Tanja is tireless in finding Czech happenings, websites, andpeople from around the world and sharing them. I find stuff on her site that I haven't seen elsewhere. For example, the pungent story of the Bouncing Czech. I would only have read it because of Tanja!

I understand Czech culture better because she is always filtering American culture through her Czech lens and Czech culture through her new American lens. She has Czech recipes to try, a wonderful series of posts about what is better in America vs. the Czech Republic and vice versa and also guest posts from Czech-Americans with interesting stories. There's one called "Growing Up Cesky" by guest poster Jana that ran recently that was incredibly thought-provoking. I'm adding Czechmate Diary to my Czech Expat blogroll today. Link to her site through the title or through my links on the right. Enjoy!

Ladies Who Lunch

My virtual friend
and now
new 'real' friend Sherry

When I was contemplating moving to Prague, I was especially interested in the first-hand experiences of non-Czech people who were already here. That is what makes websites like Expat Blog Directory and Expat Women so helpful. If you want to read how expats in a particular country view their experience, you can find all sorts of blogs organized by country and quite often, organized down to the city level.

One of the blogs I found was Czech Off the Beaten Path written by Sher, an expatriate who had fallen in love with a Czech and moved here in 2006 to begin married life. Sher had two children in high school when she and Jiři met. Like me, she went through the whole transition of graduating them to college and downsizing her possessions for the big move to the Czech Republic. When I started following her blog, we discovered during those six months how similar our experiences were and became "virtual" friends.

Now here I am in Prague and we were finally getting to meet!

Sher took me to her favorite penzion for lunch. Named Penzion JaS, it was a genteel non-smoking spot near Dejvické, the last stop on the green line. She made me feel so welcome! Not only did she take me to lunch, she even presented me with a bottle of Bechkerovka, the "official" herbal spirit of the Czech Republic, attributed with all sorts of healing properties. I laughed because there could be no gift more "Czech!"

We gabbed non-stop and afterwards went for a short walk in the neighborhood there and enjoyed looking at Czech houses and yards. It's great to have a new American friend so far from home!

I admire how the Czechs
can get flowers to bloom
through mid-November.
How do they do that?

Mom, this picture is for you.
I knew you would be interested
in all decoration - indoor and out

Ladies who lunch, or is it:
Bloggers who brunch!

My First Czech Adventure Was Actually Vietnamese

One of the first things I wanted to do when I came to Prague was meet the two Prague bloggers who encouraged me as I planned my move across the globe. I think I started reading Michael Caroe Andersen's blog either from finding it on Al Tischler's blog (Al is a Minnesotan who worked at Radio Free Europe for a couple years - he wrote a terrific blog about Prague before moving back to America) or when Michael's blog was chosen "Expat Blog of the Month" by Expat Blog Directory in October 2007. I have links to some of my favorite Czech expat blogs on the right margin of my blog. Reading those blogs was really helpful and motivating as I planned my move.

Michael in front of a mysterious
statue meant to ward off evil spirits

Michael, who originally hails from Denmark, has a gift for inclusion and connecting people. He invited me to join a group of his friends who were off to see SAPA, the Vietnamese community that immigrant Vietnamese have created south of Prague. SAPA is famous for it's stalls of wholesale knock-off clothing merchandise for the various Vietnamese retailers around Prague, Asian food stalls, terrific inexpensive Vietnamese restaurants, even their own Vietnamese kindergarten.

Beautiful Bok Choy

Look at those long beans!
I want to experiment with cooking them.
The white blocks are fresh tofu.

Vietnamese delicacies

The best part?

Did you know that inside a chicken is a little egg production line with eggs in the making? These egg yolks taken from the inside of a chicken, before they form into full-formed eggs with shells are considered a real delicacy in countries like Vietnam and Russia because of their incredible richness. Who knew this was the best part? Not me.

There were also hundreds of fertilized duck eggs for sale in the stalls. In Vietnam, people enjoy these eggs so much people develop an opinion on when in the gestation they like to eat the egg because the fetus has developed to a certain stage by a certain day that is especially tasty. Some people like it after the tenth day, some the fifteenth, some longer. It’s all up to you.

Carp doesn't get any fresher

Frying fresh tofu

The fish in the bag were
still flopping -
Check out the knife he laid on the cardboard
for chopping off the tails and fins

Dragon fruit

Vietnamese Rice Bread

What do you see? Snakes? Bats? Octopi? Stingrays?

Our meal started with bravery. Dominic, the British organizer of our excursion, shared shots of “snakebite vodka.” I didn’t see the snake but I swear I saw a little hand in that bottle that could only have belonged to a bat! Being new to the country, I abstained. Who would want to chicken out at the last minute and spew bat juice all over one’s newest friends?

Nazdravi!

During lunch, we had one tasty Vietnamese dish after another, which we shared family style. Nickolai and his Japanese girlfriend taught me how to hold my chopsticks properly. Hold the bottom chopstick firmly. It doesn’t move. The top one is the one that does all the moving and if one grips it like a pen, it’s easy to pick things up with it.

Vietnamese and Chinese chopsticks are longer than Japanese chopsticks because it’s acceptable to reach across and pluck a choice morsel from the serving dish as you eat. No worries about Seinfeld “double dipping!” In Japan, that’s not acceptable to do. Therefore, Japanese chopsticks are shorter. By the end of the meal, my chopstick skills had evolved enough that I could pick up a solitary peanut with grace.

The people that "go"

Michael said, “You know how there are people who stay at home and people who go? These are the people that go.” Around the table we had the following nationalities represented: Danish, British, Czech, American, Dutch, Japanese, El Salvadorian, Albanian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Many had been expatriates in multiple places.

We ended our meal with Vietnamese coffee

brewed tableside by the individual cup.

I was touched that in a Vietnamese restaurant,

in a Czech city,
there was a bit of American inspiration
in the lobby.

Thank you, Michael and friends,
for my first Czech/Vietnamese adventure!