Once a New Yorker, Always a New Yorker's Small-Talk

As for epiphanies, I am not sure that I’ve experienced anything too major lately. Broadly comparing my experience in the small program here in Prague to that of gigantic New York is that the kids you hang out with outside of class also happen to be your classmates, partly out of necessity.  This was a nice throwback to high school, and I think I might even prefer this over the usual mere ‘good acquaintance’ relationship shared with peers.

I suppose the most important realizations, albeit trite, is that time is short –– I feel like myself and the other students felt we had forever to get around to doing certain things here and we put it off until time was/is nearly running out.  There are a few quintessential experiences that I haven’t done because I figured I would no doubt do so later, such as walk across scenic Charles Bridge (I’ve only been on either end) or see the graffiti’d Lennon Wall – though I honestly feel like I’ve heard so much about the latter and seen so many Facebook photos of the former that I essentially know what the experience will be like. In that sense, also, there are so many similarities between European cities: Berlin has copious amounts of graffiti as it is, and how would the Lennon Wall compare to its East Side Gallery, anyway? Cesky Krumlov, an old Bohemian medieval city that I visited back in February (feels like a lifetime ago) has a number of smaller footbridges flanked by saintly statues, simply smaller versions of Prague’s bridge.

Another epiphany: as much as Manhattan’s cement sidewalks and stone buildings are, its nice to live around greenery. Washington Square Park has trees and flowerbeds, but Prague’s streets are lined with many lilac bushes have that given the air an aroma that undeniably announces spring – one that is forever associated with a beautiful arboretum near where I grew up in Boston.  I love it.

Lastly: get two or more present or former New Yorkers talking, and within minutes, the conversation will turn to real estate.  Doesn’t matter where you are, it’s going to happen. Last weekend I was doing some last minute clothing shopping in “proletarian Zizkov” for some summertime wear – arriving in January is tough! – and walked into a small vintage shop, Bohemian Retro, where the well-dressed proprietor greeted my friend and I in passable Czech. Finally, overhearing our English, he struck up a conversation in English. Turns out, he’s from the first generation of punk musicians in the city, he originally came from Florida, and has been here for 20 years, etc. He also dropped a hint that he owns a sweet apartment right on Saint Mark’s Place where he used to live.  On Monday, we went to visit the provocative artist David Cerny, and he explained that one of his best known sculptures, the giant babies that adorn Zizkov’s TV tower, came from a dream likely inspired by “weird sex in Alphabet City” where he lived for a time in the 1990s before getting dissatisfied with SoHo’s required chummyness. Thinking he might return, he kept subletting it for a while, but wants to stay in Prague for the time being.

[My photo from the first of our many Osadni Soccer Sunday football matches on the large pitch next to the dorm. Exemplary of our hanging-out-beyond-class culture.]