Skutečně

(Translation: Real Life)

Real life (aka school) is actually great. I know that I sound like a nerd, but classes here are actually very interesting and borderline fun. Since I have mostly been hanging out in cafes and doing my reading for my classes the last few days, I don't really have much to share. Therefore, this seems like an excellent opportunity to talk about my classes.

Class #1 is Tuesday mornings, and it's called Contemporary Central European Politics: Transformation of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in Comparative Perspective. My professor is currently working on his PhD in political science, and is all of maybe 24. The first day of class we all thought that he was a student. He is slightly self conscious about his English, but he's pretty funny so class is interesting. For example, our first class he had us discuss what had surprised us about the Czech Republic, and several of us who have watched some Czech movies said that their humor surprised us. He proceeded to tell us a couple of jokes that sum up Czech humor, known as black humor, perfectly. For example, his first joke: What is the difference between black humor and morbid humor? Black humor is ten kids in one container, and morbid humor is one kid in ten containers. We all sat there a little bit stunned that he had just said that while he laughed at our reactions. Anyway, in terms of the class it is very interesting because it deals mostly with the political transition after the Velvet Revolution. I actually had to do a presentation today on our first reading. We read the first chapter of Ladislav Holy's The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. I really liked it because I felt that it explained so much of why Czech people are the way they are. Anyway, the professor is great and the subject is very interesting, so I really enjoy this class.

Tuesday nights I have Class #2, Contemporary Central European Politics. (I know, sounds just like the other class.) I really like this class as well, just not as much as the other one. This class barely gives homework which earns it bonus points, but this professor defines "contemporary" as since WWI, so we are learning the political histories of Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia. This professor is about 65/70 and looks like a grandfather. He talks about "pivo" (beer) a lot, and is taking us on a class trip to a pub next week. The class isn't as interesting as my morning class, but he tries so hard to make it interesting so that in itself is amusing. He tries to play it off as we are at the time period in history that we are learning, and he assigns half the class a role. For example, tonight we were learning about the Communist coup in 1948, and he made half of the class ministers in the Czech cabinet and at the end told them if they had lived or not.

I have two more classes tomorrow, and I am going to wait to tell you about them until I've had a second class of each. Overall though my classes are so much more interesting than I had been expecting. Maybe it is hearing first hand experiences or being in the place where they are taught, but learning about these topics doesn't feel like a chore.

A great part of all of this is that it is a school night, yet we hit up some local establishments tonight. The BEST part of all of this is that tomorrow if Friday. Don't hate me.