Beer, Fans, and Political Dissension

NOTE: I wrote this post on the bus to Vienna yesterday, but the Wi-Fi crapped out before I had a chance to publish it. Check back on Monday for stories from Vienna (trust me, there are some good ones)!

Well, I survived my first week of classes in Praha. Overall, things went really well and I think I've finally settled on a schedule. I think. Despite my goal of settling down now that classes have begun, I still went out a lot this week. I think once I start to have homework, it'll be a different story. I did feel lame staying in on Wednesday night, which is THE party night here in Praha, but I had a 9 AM class with Jan Urban and I didn't feel like being hungover for it. Plus, thanks to my new tabletop fan and a little help from Dr. Procter and Nurse Gamble, I had a full night's sleep for this first time since coming here. WOOOO.

Buying the fan was a little adventure. I need white noise to sleep, and when I went into the local electronic store to get a fan, I was gretting with "How can I help you?" in close to perfect English. OK, I'm thinking, this'll be easy. So I ask for a fan, and he nods vigorously and disappears into the back. He comes out five minutes later with three blow dryers in his arms and says "Fan!" I tried to tell him that no, those are in fact NOT fans, but he didn't understand my pantomime version of wind. Eventually the manager came over and told me to go to this other place that sells home electronics. So I follow his vague instructions ("It's about... ahhh... two streets up? Maybe three. Then take left, go 200 meters down. I think yes it is there. Maybe right.") and find this other place, which is a miracle because it is literally a one room shop with no signs outside.

So I go inside and exchange "Dobry dens" with the old woman behind the counter. She's smiling, which is unusual for Czech people. Then I say "Anglicky?" (Engligh?), because I do not know how to say fan in Czech. Instantly, she stops smiling and says "No." in the most serious way possible. Awesome. I managed to buy a fan through pointing and grunting, but it really woke me up to the fact that I'm relying on English too much. Nolan let me steal a copy of his "Learn Czech" CD, so I'm going to start listening to that.

Let's talk about Jan Urban. I took his class, Modern Dissent, on Holley's strong (read: she threatened me) recommendation, and let it be known that I am so glad I listened to her. The man is a god. He's got this Indiana Jones vibe to him that is just so cool. Why? Oh, I don't know, maybe because he was a founding member of the revolutionary party that overthrew the communist regime in 1989. Maybe because he's written books exposing the corruption of the current Czech government. Maybe because in our first class, he had to take a phone call, and when he got off he turned to us and said "It's fun dealing with blackmail." He told us on the first day that life as a dissenter was nothing like the movies and we should just forget about Hollywood, but somehow I can't help but expect that at some point and assassin is going to crash through the window in the middle of class and they're going to have an epic fight. I can dream, can't I?

The second class was even more intense than the first. For those who don't know, the Czech Republic is in a state of political turmoil right now. The President, Vaclav Klaus, thinks that the constitutional court has too much power and is trying to seriously curb their authority. Elections are this fall, so many people think this is a power play to try to stay in office. Anyways, Jan is friends with the attorney who is attempting to expose the President's motives, and he was set to argue the case on Thursday. Well, he had been getting death threats this week, so Jan was harboring him. So we're sitting in class on Thursday when his phone rings. He picked it up, had a conversation in Czech, and then hung up. He then proceeded to tell us that someone had just tried to run his friend off the road as he was driving to the courthouse. Crazy, right?!?

It's weird to think that this kind of stuff still happens. I know there are those who think that the US government is like this, taking out political opponents with subterfuge and sabotage, but you're never this close to it. It's all well and good to joke about assassins interrupting class, but this was god damn real life. Watching the color just drain from his face as his friend told him what happened was a huge reality check for us. He was a little teary-eyed after that, and who could blame him? I mean, here we are, 20 years after his tireless efforts helped overthrow the Communist regime, and shit like that is still going on in a supposedly democratic government.

Well, as serious as that was, it didn't stop us from going out last night. We started at Pivovarsky Dum, this AMAZING microbrewery that I think has the best beer in Prague. After 2 or 3 or 4 beers there, we managed to talk our way into Beer Factory without paying the cover charge. Beer Factory is my new favorite place. It's a club and a bar, but the coolest part is that all the tables have beer taps in the middle and they keep track of how much beer you drink via a computer. But they also have a running tally on a big wall screen of which tables have drunk the most. It's like a carnival game for adults, although I'm hardly one of those.

And now, as I write this, I'm sitting on a bus headed to Vienna for the weekend. The Czech countryside is beautiful by the way. There's a guy sitting three rows up from me who smells so bad it's making my eyes water. Oh, Europe. Alexis, Aditi and I are staying with my cousin Kathy who lives in Vienna and works at the UN. It promises to be a fun time, filled with gelato, apfelstrudel, and wine. Plus, it'll be nice having a fun someone there who speaks the language to guide us around.