Today we had to meet in the T.V. room in the basement of the dorms for class at 11am. We talked for a bit about Prague and the history of Czechoslovakia becoming the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 and how oppression has effected the people here. I am getting a sense of American bias because some of the other students in my class (there are only 9 of us) keep asking why the Czech people are so quiet, and I would counter with, well why are you being so loud? I don't want to judge people but I can definitely side with a culture that it on the quiet-side. On Saturday our dorm-leader Julia came up to me and said "You're the quiet one, aren't you". A bit later, the program leader, Susan, came up and said "You must be the quiet one". I was just walking and taking pictures and listening to music that was being played all around, I guess I don't find it necessary to talk all the time, especially not very loudly.
Anyway, the movie we watched in class today was "Closely Watched Trains" by Jiri Menzel, the title is sometimes translated to "Closely Observed Trains". It is from 1966 and won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060802/ It was apparently a metaphor for communist occupation, even though it was set during WWII and only talked about Germans. I didn't really see the metaphor, but the more I look into the author's background (he was part of an underground literary group and he wrote the novel the movie was based on in 1965) the more I guess I can see it. Oh well!
Today I am going to go to The Globe Bookstore, http://www.globebookstore.cz/ and there is an open mic night at 8pm so I guess I'll see how that is. I also want to buy a pair of shoes...
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