Prague Blague!

--I added some pictures of Krakow to the posts below, in case anyone is interested in checking them out--

I am not getting much better at doing the shorter, more frequent posting thing, but this will have to do. 

I have been in Prague for a little over a week. In stark contrast to the small and very randomly decorated apartment I stayed in with a friend from my program and our TA (both of whom I adore, so no complaints there) during my stay in Krakow, the ten days I have in Prague are spent in a home stay. I am here with 5 other students (the family sort of moved out, more to come on them) and we got very very lucky with the location of the apartment; we are only about a 7 minute walk away from the Old Town Square. 

We are staying with the Czech home-stay coordinator Betty, so on our first night here Iveta, my program director, came with us to work some things out with Betty and do some translating for us. Besides having a famous father who had just received a marble desk in his honor (I don't know, you'll have to ask the Czech's why a marble desk is a cool memorial), her mother lives in an attached apartment and is a play write. Betty has two daughters in their early twenties, one who is the "good daughter" and one who, according to Iveta, has a new interest every year--this year it's outdoor sports--as well as a new topic of study--acting now. Betty also has a man friend whose description was long an complicated. Iveta first described him to us as her partner Hansy but Betty protested so he was re-described as her assistant, but that got resistance too. Betty responded, Iveta translated, "not partner, lover. Or assistant. It depends." This was promptly followed up by one of Betty' daughters who said, "no no! He's her bed assistant." Moving on from his definition in relation to Betty, Iveta explained that he is an anarchist which was, of course, immediately countered by one of the daughters because "Isn't anarchy supposed to be about groups? Well, Hansy doesn't have friends." Anyways, anarchist or not, Iveta said we shouldn't be surprised if we see a man around. Betty looks like she is probably in her mid fifties and based on her daughters' ages that seems like it is likely an accurate estimate. So we wake up the next morning and see the infamous partner, lover, assistant, bed assistant Hansy--oh, who, by the way, has apparently been living mostly out of his backpack for the seven years they have been together--and Hansy has long blond hair, a beard to match, and can't be much older than 35...go Betty! So Hansy is the one who has been feeding us breakfast and reading a couple of my classmates astrological signs. 

The apartment itself is beautiful. It is full of pictures and paintings and there are collages of Klimt paintings and beautiful paper on every door and covering a lot of the storage boxes. They also have a cat. When the cat is around you can't let it sit near the open window. Why? Because it has jumped out of the window down 3 floors twice, duh! This cat also just walks around the apartment all day and all night yelling. Literally yelling. Or at least talking very loudly. Meows are fine, but I very deliberately chose talking because it sounds exactly like a human. 

The Old Town Square

As for Prague itself, the city is unbelievably beautiful and there are, probably for this reason, five million tourists everywhere all the time. But once you look over the tourists heads, the buildings are so old and detailed it's easy to forget you're surrounded by non-Czech people (until you run into them because you're looking up instead of where you're walking). Prague is the most rushed of all the places we visit and I am definitely feeling it. Tomorrow is our last day here and I feel like I have so much more to do in the city. But any time I feel a little sad about what I am missing because of all the lectures, seminars and reading, I think about how cool it is that when I stop to get a cup of coffee on my way to class I am doing it in Prague!

I kick started my stay in Prague with a Pilsner and some Judith Butler.

This is a famous old clock in the Old Town Square. Every hour starting at about a quarter til the top of the hour, 200-500 people gather around the clock and watch as some little doors open and some small man-dolls poke out and twirl around. 

These are the little apostles who come out and twirl

And it all ends with a man in yellow and red playing a trumpet. 

Finally, of course, Prague in all it's beauty.

Second Week in Krakow

This is a bit delayed and it is being confirmed, affirmed, and reaffirmed that I am very skilled at not updating. But I am going to keep trying to get better. I am in Prague right now, but first some updates about my second week in Krakow. 

On Thursday, we took the three hour train from Krakow to Warsaw in the morning and came back in the evening. For a round trip and a long day with lots of room for things to suck, it was a smooth day and very worth the trip. We had both of our lectures in the Federation for Women's Health and Family Planning, which is the only pro-choice organization in all of Poland. Our first lecture was from the director of the Federation. Abortion in Poland is only legal under three circumstances: when the woman's life or health is endangered by the continuation of pregnancy, when the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act, or when the fetus is seriously malformed. Unfortunately, even in cases that fall under one of these three circumstances, getting a legal abortion in Poland is terrifyingly difficult. For example, our first lecturer told us about a woman who had very poor eye sight and the doctors told her that if she had her child she was likely to become almost fully blind. But even with the first doctor's permission, when she went to receive the abortion, the second doctor convinced her not to go through with it, tore up the first doctors permission slip, and she is now nearly blind as the first doctor predicted. So, yeah, abortion in Poland, woah. The second lecture we had in Warsaw was from a Trans activist. The issues he talked about were a bit complicated and quite embedded in an understanding of queer theory, but it was a really cool lecture because it wasn't frequent in Poland that we walked away feeling empowered and optimistic, but he brought a very difficult issue to a place that was in fact empowering and excitingly new. 


I ended my stay in Krakow on Friday by interviewing a feminist economist who teaches at the university. We each have to complete our own independent research and I am (in a very brief description) looking at maternity and paternity leave policies coloration to how care is gendered in cultural understandings and representations of parents. So this professor is in the middle of writing a book (although is on a break because she is currently, and ironically, on maternity leave herself) about care work in Poland. I met her at her house and we talked for a good hour and a half and she gave some great resources and we really hit it off. Part of our connection has to do with a really random coincidence. While I was waiting for her to begin the interview, I saw an OSU beer opener on a set of keys on their kitchen table. It turns out that she and her husband lived in Columbus for two years while he was in grad school. So we talked about Ohio and Columbus and how happy she was that she didn't end up taking a teaching job at Bowling Green. They also love mountains and have been to Glacier National Park five times. What I am really trying to say here is that they should maybe consider adopting me (sorry Mom and Dad) because we have so many overlaps. Maybe I could just be adopted as a cousin. 

On my walk to class

The square

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Rainy Days in Krakow

(I wrote this a week ago, but didn't get it posted because of internet problems. Some photos from Krakow and stories from the last week will come soon).

I have been in Krakow for a week now and had only two rain-free days. It's much harder to explore the city because of the rain and cold, but also feels very appropriate for the location--somehow bright and sunny don't immediately make me think about Poland. Luckily, Polish food is perfect for these rainy days and 50 degree weather and I have been enjoying peirogis and borscht. There are these great places in the city called Milk Bars (or bar mleczny), which are really inexpensive restaurants left over from communism. Speaking of communism, the 20th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity, the Polish trade union that brought freedom from communism to Poland in 1989, is going on now and there have been lots of big bands playing in the square wearing goofy outfits and hats with big, red feathers. 

Rainy Krakow

Despite the rain, I have been enjoying the city a lot. It is easy to navigate and small enough to walk most places. We are located right outside the city center, which makes it very is to run into town for meals. The dorm in Granada didn't have a kitchen so living in apartments was highly anticipated, but everything is so inexpensive here and Poland isn't on the Euro so the exchange rate is fantastic, so it's much more reasonable to eat out. Not only is the food less expensive, but even the non-Polish food is delicious. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants as well (again, it has to do with meat rationing during communism), which was surprising but very welcome since the food is extremely well prepared and seasoned and served very hot and fresh (reason #43 why Krakow is the perfect European vacation destination for the extended Barcus family, the Jewish district being #42). Even though this post would suggest otherwise, I have also done things besides eat in Krakow. We have had some really interesting lectures from locals, including one about gender in art before and after communism, one on domestic violence, and another on Jewish life in Poland. Tomorrow we are hearing about LGBT issues, which should be really interesting because Poland tends to be pretty homophobic in general (the 95% of the population identifying as Catholic doesn't do big things for gay rights movements). 

 Last Friday was a really long day. My group took a trip to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The whole time it all felt very surreal and all too real at the same time. No matter how much we learn about the Holocaust in middle school, there is just no way to be sufficiently prepared for the experience of standing in the middle of a gas chamber. The sadness that fills the room was overwhelmingly present and is so far removed from the staggering statistical accounts; the heavy weight of grief and mourning just sits in the walls and in the air. A lot of the group very much felt like it was too much, some were very surprised by the intensity of the feelings they experienced, and a large number were also very ready to leave for good by the end of the day. As hard and tiring as the day was, I can't say that I had the same experience. I would want to go back tomorrow or even within the next few years, but I can imagine going again. It seems like such an important way to recognize the horrific past and join in the grieving.

Hands down the most important part of the day for me came at the end. After our tour guide left us to have some time at Birkenau, I sat by the memorial that was built in the 1960s that is situated at the back end of the camp. There was a group of a Israeli women standing in a circle in front of the memorial. Simply sitting by the circle was a moment of solace. The women were being lead by three male cantors. I do not have a strong sense of my own place within the Jewish religion, instead I find my Jewish identity much more within the cultural and in relation to others. Because of this, much of the day for me was spent thinking about my position in the camps. The sight of the cantor's yarmulkes, brown beards, and rounded bellies grounded and comforted me and I felt very present and positioned. I sat watching this group for about five minutes the cantor with a guitar began leading the women in song. I sat on the stoop of the memorial, in between two gas chambers that were destroyed by the Nazi's four days before the liberation of camp, facing the barracks, some still in tact and some with only the brick chimneys left. After a few minutes, the lead cantor lead the group out of the circle formation and they walked in a line down the train tracks that divide the women and men's side and were the tracks that shepherded in the train cars full of people. As they walked down the tracks, the melody of their song and poetry of the Hebrew words grew more and more distant until all that was left was the sight of this line of people.