first, our host kate. always ready for a laugh and a huge conversationalist, both marte and myself felt right at home the moment we walked up to the looming mass of grey concrete and brick that is her apartment building and she popped her head out of her window to shout a ''hello'' to us down below. with convertible couches, a designated storage space, room in the refrigerator, and our own copy of the house key, it was challenging to not feel instantly at home, and of course we did. sheets, blankets, pillows - everything was provided, and with a cup of tea in hand we sat down for a long, get-to-know-you chat. she works for an it company, and had recently been to the us for a conference. we chatted about boston, new york, san diego, jon stewart, and stephen colbert for the large part of that first night.
in the following days, we say kate at least once or twice. usually she was just getting up when we were heading out the door (since her company is based in the us, she has a large amount of flexibility with her hours, usually working some from home and going into work after lunch) but we also often caught her in the evenings as well. she was always interested to hear how our days were turning out and quick to offer us advice and guidance as well as her wonderfully outspoken opinions!
we found her through the couchsurfing online community, and it was an awesome experience. everyone who doesn't yet know about it should check it out at www.couchsurfing.org
one of the biggest advantages was her insight into the culture of the county and the aftermath of communism, which i mentioned before. i realized, as kate was talking one morning, that the czech republic was the first post-communist country i had visited, and i was at times surprised and at other times not to see how prominent the fingerprints of that time still exist, exactly twenty years later. for one, there seemed to be very little nationalism, in terms of pride in the country's history and even awareness of the sort of stories we heard on walking tours and in the guide books. kate explained that soviet education was more about the greater soviet union with an emphasis on communist themes rather than the individualism of then czechoslovakia versus romania, ukraine, bulgaria, etc. similarly, people themselves rarely speak out in public, often avert their eyes on streets and in trams, and only the younger generation, born after the fall of communism really display that gregarious impudence characteristic of youth.
another thing quite shocking to hear is that, growing up, kate was taught in school that jews did not exist. under a completely areligious government policy, judaism and other faiths were taught as sort of relics of the past rather than active influences. she knew about franz kafka, the famous czech writer, but only recently learned he was jewish. when we made a point to visit the memorial of the czechoslovak jews who died in world war ii, she sort of regarded us with a look of quizzical bemusement.
no facet of life has been unaffected, it seems. while people got married very early under communism because having a family moved you higher on the housing list, now most people delay marriage until their late twenties or early thirties because there is greater access to other things like traveling, work, university, etc. the first mortgages are appearing and many people cannot afford to buy homes or flats because their salaries haven't changed that much but the prices set by private industry have. so many fascinating tidbits that cracked open a whole new aspect of czech life and culture.
i definitely didn't see everything - sometimes because of the weather, other times because we didn't want to pay the cost of admission, and in the end, because four days really isn't enough. still, as i said to both marte and kate, i think we both saw enough to know that we would very much like to come back...
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