"Look at my Face"

June  25th

Fast forward a few days. Today we took a trip to Petřín Hill with one of our history teachers. One of the first things of interest that we saw was the monument to the victims of Communism which I found to be very interesting. Upon initially seeing it, I assumed it was a reference to how Communism destroys people and takes away one's individuality, therefore depriving one of one's "person-hood", which is one possible meaning of the monument if read front to back. In addition, the steep and demanding stairs that we had to climb to reach the monument were meant to symbolize the struggles of Communism. However, I learned that there could be another interpretation of the monument of read back to front: Communism strengthens and unites people, making one complete human and one complete nation. Therefore, this monument can be read in a number of different ways, depending on what one wishes to see in the structures. 

Monument to Victims of Communism

Upon climbing Petřín Hill, we sat and had an informational "lecture", more like a low-down, on Czech culture. Therefore, here are the highlights of what I learned:

• Beer Culture
• Czech people are very proud of their beer making and consumption
• on average, a Czech person consumes 1 liter of beer a day
• Czech pubs are meant to be like 2nd homes, therefore they are often stylish and induce "sameness" : one often sits at the same table, at the same time each day, and orders the same thing. Apparently this idea of "sameness" is a reoccurring theme in Czech culture/nature
• Religious Life
• 78% of the Czech population does not have any religious ties
• that said, they are not a country of atheists. Identifying oneself as atheist means actually taking time to ponder over the issue. In common, supposed lazy, Czech nature, they never took the time to think about the topic of religion
• Family Life
• 65% of marriages end in divorce because people choose to focus on their own interests and needs, therefore divorce instead of living in a "distant" marriage, and marriage is not considered a religious occurrence-merely a social one 
• 1/3 of kids are born into cohabitating couples, as opposed to married couples
• (I found this surprising because divorce is still seen as very taboo and as a failure in the US, and having a child out of wedlock is still looked down upon, even if the couple is cohabitating. Therefore, I was surprised that the Czech Republic would be more liberal on these concepts.)
• The Czech population is dying out due to the average birth rate being 1.7 children per family, therefore not being able to replace the dying out population
• there are more dogs in the Czech Republic than children, since dogs (and cars) are often used as status symbols to create individuality (This would explain the large amount of dogs that we see everywhere)
• Food
• Czech people are apparently one of the fattest people in Europe
• Czech food is often very bland, fatty, meant only to fill one's stomach, and consists of boiled meat, dumplings, potatoes, and boat loads of sauce
• Random
• Czech people are not fond of tourists, and since Prague is usually a 1-day tourist stop, Czech employees do not feel like they must be nice to tourists since they are not trying to establish regular customers
• 65% of visitors come for the "cheap beer", #3 reason for coming is to see the sights, and #2 is prostitution (still confused whether it is to become a prostitute or to hire one...)

(Quote of the Day author- Caroline)