Made it to Prague!
Been in Prague for about a week now and it's absolutely gorgeous.
Since my last post, I've spent a week attending classes at the famous Humboldt University in Berlin, drinking a mug of beer at a mini-oktoberfest, traveling by train from Berlin to Prague, and attending lectures at Prague's oldest NGO (Gender Studies http://www.genderstudies.cz/) and the reason for the possibility to now study gender studies in major Czech universities.
Last Wednesday (September 25), we had a lecture at Humboldt given by Bertram Schirr called Unified Resistance, Divided Visions. It was about the hierarchical gender order in East Germany, its counter discourses, and post "Revolution"
disputes. One interesting point I thought he brought up was the idea of women in the GDR (German Democratic Republic - East Germany during socialist rule) having a "double-edged struggle." There was an expectation for women to both maintain their labor roles in the workforce, but also to maintain their nuclear family roles and reproduce for the continuation of the nation-state. This obviously made it hard for women to perform their best in both spheres (public and private) because they had to spread themselves thin in each area of work. Bertram explained how this encouraged female stereotypes because family/"female work" became devalued to providing support for men's work.
After his lecture, I had lunch at the same cafe as the day before (delicious lentil soup) and went back to HU for lecture number 2 by Eveline Kilian. Her lecture was about Queer Theory in Germany and had a big focus on Judith Butler, a famous feminist philosopher and queer theorist from the States. I think that almost any time gender studies are discussed, Judith Butler's name will almost undoubtedly be mentioned and/or praised. Butler coined the term "gender performativity" in her book, Gender Trouble, which explains gender as a performance, meaning it is the outcome of the repetition of gender roles, as opposed to being an effect of a single person's specific gender actions. Eveline was a wonderful lecturer and really had interesting things to say about queer theory, gender vs. identity categories/any kind of norm/heteronormativity (critical of binary gender order and heterosexual matrix), and good old Judy Butler. A problem that was brought up at the end of her lecture was the mainstreaming of queer aka "homonormativity". We talked about how you cannot have inclusion without still having some sort of exclusion. No matter how much more "inclusive" something becomes, there will still be something that is excluded, simply by nature of the terms. One example of homonormativity is the growing acceptance of gay marriage. If an area makes gay marriage legal, it is nice for those who want to get married or for those who want to be monogamous, but anyone else is still excluded and thus misses out on all of the legal benefits offered by marriage. Also, the simple act of playing into the norm of marriage being the main goal of everyone goes against the idea of "queering norms," so gay marriage isn't really queer. It's normative. I think. I'm sure I totally messed all of that up but that's how I understand it.
Also, we talked about how queer is an infinite movement. So, is there ever an end goal? Can queer people ever be satisfied? We discussed how to be queer is to be in love with the struggle and with the idea that a person doesn't have to be stuck in a world that might not be his or her* world. It can always be queered if it's not what he or she* wants. This might become problematic/confusing, though, because what happens if society somehow adopts a well-functioning democracy that actually works for everyone (as far-fetched as that seems)? Is it unethical, then, to queer it? When does the movement reach its goal and when is queering ever unnecessary? Food for thought, I suppose.
*Tangent regarding the use of "their/they" vs. "his or her/he or she": I've been going through an internal struggle as both an English major/avid grammar enthusiast as well as a trans ally who doesn't want to succumb to the gender binary of there only being a "he" or a "she" option when speaking/writing. I was taught long ago that when writing, I shouldn't use second person (i.e. "the idea that you don't have to be stuck in a world that might not be your world") and I also shouldn't just say "they" when referring to a singular noun (i.e. "the idea that one doesn't have to be stuck in a world that might not be their world"). Being on this gender-studies-focused trip, I am constantly reminded that there aren't just "he" and "she" terms to describe a single person. There are multiple genders. Some trans* people actually prefer the pronoun "they." This is making it hard for me to write/speak in a grammatically correct manner, while simultaneously trying to fight the gender binary. skfhwwefkhweencnshjwelasjalkjsfhtkw struggles.
Anywho.
Last Thursday the 26th, we had two lectures again (one morning and one afternoon) but both were given by the same two people, Urmila Goel and Kathleen Heft. Urimla was the one who conducted the white privilege workshop we had a few weeks prior. The morning lecture was about Issues in Critical Racism Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies in Germany. We talked about how Germans don't use the term "race" to describe someone's ethnicity because it is connected with the Holocaust and it also is just more of a word that describes dogs and stuff. It's like if we in America were to talk about a person'e breed. Very dehumanizing. I think this is one reason that Critical Racism Theory in Germany is a precarious field of study. If one can't say the word race, how is he or she supposed to talk about race theory? The afternoon lecture was about Privileging the West and Constructing the German. The part of the lecture about privileging the west focused on discrimination of the "East" both in terms of East Germany as well as East Europe. The lecture about Constructing the German was about Infanticide in Germany and how infanticides that are classified as "East German" have been associated with assumed consequences of the GDR abortion policy or GDR-induced social deviance from implicit (West) German norm. Although infanticides are a nation-wide practice, they are linked to E. Germany.
Friday the 27th, we had a lecture in the morning from Konstanze Hanitzsche called Perpetrators and Victims - Debates in German Discourse of Remembrance. It was about how the media can influence people's memories. We watched clips from the movie The Reader with Kate Winslett which I want to watch all of at some point, if anyone wants to have a movie date with me <3. In the afternoon we had a lecture with Iveta about our Germany Situated Feminisms section. A big topic was language. We talked about the connotations with the word "race" in German and about the gendered language of German. It's interesting because gender was in language before gender was related to sex. Perhaps this is why the German word for "door" is feminine (die Tuur) - I'm pretty sure there aren't any sexually female characteristics of a door. English is such an androgynous language, which is appropriate since it is the global language for Women's and Gender Studies.
Friday night Adrianne and I went back to Laura Merritt's apartment, to sit in on her weekly meetings with people who like to chat about feminist issues. Laura was the woman from the first week of Berlin who was an ex sex-worker and who now offers information on prostitution/her brothel. The language barrier was difficult when trying to be involved in the discussion, but at the end I got to hand out my surveys to some people there, so that was very very helpful. Then Adrianne and I went back to my apartment because my hostmoms, Marie and Sue, were having a dinner party with all of their friends and invited Hannah, me, Adrianne, and Joy to join in (Adrianne and Joy were also technically in the homestay of Marie and Sue, but in a separate flat down the street, more on their own). That was sooo nice and they made very good food for us including a delicious vegan pumpkin stew, tabbouleh and couscous, and a marvelous chocolate mousse made by Marie's adorable mom, Claudine. It was really nice getting to meet Marie and Sue's friends. Marie's mom and Sue's mom were being adorable bonding with each other so of course I had to document:
Since my last post, I've spent a week attending classes at the famous Humboldt University in Berlin, drinking a mug of beer at a mini-oktoberfest, traveling by train from Berlin to Prague, and attending lectures at Prague's oldest NGO (Gender Studies http://www.genderstudies.cz/) and the reason for the possibility to now study gender studies in major Czech universities.
Last Wednesday (September 25), we had a lecture at Humboldt given by Bertram Schirr called Unified Resistance, Divided Visions. It was about the hierarchical gender order in East Germany, its counter discourses, and post "Revolution"
disputes. One interesting point I thought he brought up was the idea of women in the GDR (German Democratic Republic - East Germany during socialist rule) having a "double-edged struggle." There was an expectation for women to both maintain their labor roles in the workforce, but also to maintain their nuclear family roles and reproduce for the continuation of the nation-state. This obviously made it hard for women to perform their best in both spheres (public and private) because they had to spread themselves thin in each area of work. Bertram explained how this encouraged female stereotypes because family/"female work" became devalued to providing support for men's work.
After his lecture, I had lunch at the same cafe as the day before (delicious lentil soup) and went back to HU for lecture number 2 by Eveline Kilian. Her lecture was about Queer Theory in Germany and had a big focus on Judith Butler, a famous feminist philosopher and queer theorist from the States. I think that almost any time gender studies are discussed, Judith Butler's name will almost undoubtedly be mentioned and/or praised. Butler coined the term "gender performativity" in her book, Gender Trouble, which explains gender as a performance, meaning it is the outcome of the repetition of gender roles, as opposed to being an effect of a single person's specific gender actions. Eveline was a wonderful lecturer and really had interesting things to say about queer theory, gender vs. identity categories/any kind of norm/heteronormativity (critical of binary gender order and heterosexual matrix), and good old Judy Butler. A problem that was brought up at the end of her lecture was the mainstreaming of queer aka "homonormativity". We talked about how you cannot have inclusion without still having some sort of exclusion. No matter how much more "inclusive" something becomes, there will still be something that is excluded, simply by nature of the terms. One example of homonormativity is the growing acceptance of gay marriage. If an area makes gay marriage legal, it is nice for those who want to get married or for those who want to be monogamous, but anyone else is still excluded and thus misses out on all of the legal benefits offered by marriage. Also, the simple act of playing into the norm of marriage being the main goal of everyone goes against the idea of "queering norms," so gay marriage isn't really queer. It's normative. I think. I'm sure I totally messed all of that up but that's how I understand it.
Also, we talked about how queer is an infinite movement. So, is there ever an end goal? Can queer people ever be satisfied? We discussed how to be queer is to be in love with the struggle and with the idea that a person doesn't have to be stuck in a world that might not be his or her* world. It can always be queered if it's not what he or she* wants. This might become problematic/confusing, though, because what happens if society somehow adopts a well-functioning democracy that actually works for everyone (as far-fetched as that seems)? Is it unethical, then, to queer it? When does the movement reach its goal and when is queering ever unnecessary? Food for thought, I suppose.
*Tangent regarding the use of "their/they" vs. "his or her/he or she": I've been going through an internal struggle as both an English major/avid grammar enthusiast as well as a trans ally who doesn't want to succumb to the gender binary of there only being a "he" or a "she" option when speaking/writing. I was taught long ago that when writing, I shouldn't use second person (i.e. "the idea that you don't have to be stuck in a world that might not be your world") and I also shouldn't just say "they" when referring to a singular noun (i.e. "the idea that one doesn't have to be stuck in a world that might not be their world"). Being on this gender-studies-focused trip, I am constantly reminded that there aren't just "he" and "she" terms to describe a single person. There are multiple genders. Some trans* people actually prefer the pronoun "they." This is making it hard for me to write/speak in a grammatically correct manner, while simultaneously trying to fight the gender binary. skfhwwefkhweencnshjwelasjalkjsfhtkw struggles.
Anywho.
Last Thursday the 26th, we had two lectures again (one morning and one afternoon) but both were given by the same two people, Urmila Goel and Kathleen Heft. Urimla was the one who conducted the white privilege workshop we had a few weeks prior. The morning lecture was about Issues in Critical Racism Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies in Germany. We talked about how Germans don't use the term "race" to describe someone's ethnicity because it is connected with the Holocaust and it also is just more of a word that describes dogs and stuff. It's like if we in America were to talk about a person'e breed. Very dehumanizing. I think this is one reason that Critical Racism Theory in Germany is a precarious field of study. If one can't say the word race, how is he or she supposed to talk about race theory? The afternoon lecture was about Privileging the West and Constructing the German. The part of the lecture about privileging the west focused on discrimination of the "East" both in terms of East Germany as well as East Europe. The lecture about Constructing the German was about Infanticide in Germany and how infanticides that are classified as "East German" have been associated with assumed consequences of the GDR abortion policy or GDR-induced social deviance from implicit (West) German norm. Although infanticides are a nation-wide practice, they are linked to E. Germany.
Friday the 27th, we had a lecture in the morning from Konstanze Hanitzsche called Perpetrators and Victims - Debates in German Discourse of Remembrance. It was about how the media can influence people's memories. We watched clips from the movie The Reader with Kate Winslett which I want to watch all of at some point, if anyone wants to have a movie date with me <3. In the afternoon we had a lecture with Iveta about our Germany Situated Feminisms section. A big topic was language. We talked about the connotations with the word "race" in German and about the gendered language of German. It's interesting because gender was in language before gender was related to sex. Perhaps this is why the German word for "door" is feminine (die Tuur) - I'm pretty sure there aren't any sexually female characteristics of a door. English is such an androgynous language, which is appropriate since it is the global language for Women's and Gender Studies.
Friday night Adrianne and I went back to Laura Merritt's apartment, to sit in on her weekly meetings with people who like to chat about feminist issues. Laura was the woman from the first week of Berlin who was an ex sex-worker and who now offers information on prostitution/her brothel. The language barrier was difficult when trying to be involved in the discussion, but at the end I got to hand out my surveys to some people there, so that was very very helpful. Then Adrianne and I went back to my apartment because my hostmoms, Marie and Sue, were having a dinner party with all of their friends and invited Hannah, me, Adrianne, and Joy to join in (Adrianne and Joy were also technically in the homestay of Marie and Sue, but in a separate flat down the street, more on their own). That was sooo nice and they made very good food for us including a delicious vegan pumpkin stew, tabbouleh and couscous, and a marvelous chocolate mousse made by Marie's adorable mom, Claudine. It was really nice getting to meet Marie and Sue's friends. Marie's mom and Sue's mom were being adorable bonding with each other so of course I had to document:
That’s Sue standing in the corner. Also such a gem. After dinner, Hannah and I went out to meet up with her friend from school who was in Berlin for the week, Chris, and his friend, Sadaf. The four of us met Michelle at a bar where Ipek was DJing that night. I just really love when Ipek DJs because it’s so so so fun to dance. After the bar closed, Ipek took all of us around to check out different bars around the area, most of which we just peeked in and then left. Not really sure why we didn’t stay at some of them, but we just followed Ipek wherever she went. Ended up at a place called Rose’s which was an awesome, small, crowded bar with pink shag carpet covering the walls. We stayed there for a loooong time and chatted with a guy from the States for a little bit who I think had just moved to Berlin a little bit ago with his small (I think like 4 years old) daughter. We ended up talking to him about yeast infections for a little and then headed home at about 6:30 am. It was an overall good night I’d say.
Saturday morning a bunch of people went to Baad Sarrow, which is a place with a bunch of hot springs where you just sit in them and soak up all of the good vitaminy water and it’s supposed to like heal you of your toxins or something. I remember learning about them in my German 101 class. I didn’t go, but it sounded nice! I just hung around the house all day Saturday. Went on a run when I woke up, showered, and then went to a vegan café a few blocks away from our homestay. I really wish I would have gone there more often during our Berlin stay because the people there were really nice, it was an awesome atmosphere, it had good wifi and good coffee/goodies, and I just really liked it there.
Saturday morning a bunch of people went to Baad Sarrow, which is a place with a bunch of hot springs where you just sit in them and soak up all of the good vitaminy water and it’s supposed to like heal you of your toxins or something. I remember learning about them in my German 101 class. I didn’t go, but it sounded nice! I just hung around the house all day Saturday. Went on a run when I woke up, showered, and then went to a vegan café a few blocks away from our homestay. I really wish I would have gone there more often during our Berlin stay because the people there were really nice, it was an awesome atmosphere, it had good wifi and good coffee/goodies, and I just really liked it there.
I got a cookie and a latte and was very happy. When I got home, Hannah was back from the springs and she said they were very nice. Then her friend Chris came over with Sadaf to our place and we all just kinda hung out before going out to another Ipek DJ party. This one was even cooler because it was at this club place that apparently has this party once a month, and every time they have it it’s the biggest party of the month. Ipek totally killed it yet again. I think she played (spun?) from 2am to about 7:30. Really good time.
Ipek doing DJ stuff
Sunday morning I went on a run, showered, and met up with Hannah, Chris, and Sadaf at the Mauer Park flea market. Another gorgeous day for the flea market but we didn’t get to stay very long because we had a scheduled end-of-Berlin picnic for the students/Iveta/Lauren, Ipek, and the hosts. It was precious. Also fun and also delicious picnic food. Not all of the hosts could make it (Marie and Sue both had to work ) but it was still nice. We ended up staying in that park for a while, until we couldn’t bear the sunny cold any longer. Then a few of us went to a café in Kreuzberg and had some delicious vanilla chai lattes.
Sunday night, Sharon and I really wanted to make up for the fact that we were in Germany during Oktoberfest and didn’t make it, so we went to Berlin’s smaller version of Oktoberfest! It was Sharon, Michelle, Hannah, Chris, Sadaf, and me. We all went and bought huge mugs of overpriced beer. It was great.
Sunday night, Sharon and I really wanted to make up for the fact that we were in Germany during Oktoberfest and didn’t make it, so we went to Berlin’s smaller version of Oktoberfest! It was Sharon, Michelle, Hannah, Chris, Sadaf, and me. We all went and bought huge mugs of overpriced beer. It was great.
Then we went to the inside part and danced to a bunch of German songs with middle aged drunk parents, which was a blast. Lots of middle-aged table dancing and middle-aged line dancing. Super authentic German mocktoberfest experience and I’m really glad we went.
Monday was travel day :( :( :(. Packing was no biggie at all. I’m actually really proud of myself for how easily I fit everything in my suitcase and bag and how time-efficiently I did so. I even had time to send my postcards and pick up some flowers/card as a goodbye gift to our host mommas. Schubert, our hostcat, liked them too:
Monday was travel day :( :( :(. Packing was no biggie at all. I’m actually really proud of myself for how easily I fit everything in my suitcase and bag and how time-efficiently I did so. I even had time to send my postcards and pick up some flowers/card as a goodbye gift to our host mommas. Schubert, our hostcat, liked them too:
Saying goodbye to Marie and Sue was of course sad, but they’re such sweethearts and we exchanged emails so I plan to keep in touch with them and I also told them I’d see them soon so I guess that means I have to return to Berlin in the future. Shoot. The real struggle of travel day was during the travel part. I was transporting my suitcase/bag to the subway station which was always a short, easy walk when I did it every day for class and had a mere backpack containing a single notebook. This time had an overwhelmingly heavy suitcase with small, crooked wheels to roll along the cobblestoned sidewalks for multiple blocks. Eventually my suitcase couldn’t take the stress anymore and my handle-thing broke! Like the long handle that extends upward, making transportation a typically easier process. So that’s a bummer. Had to like bend over/squat and push-roll the suitcase on all four wheels the rest of the way. I was a mess and probably a sight to see/really entertaining for all who watched me struggle. You’re welcome, Berlin. It all worked out, though, and we all made it on the train to Prague!
I sat in a cubby thing with Val and Iveta and had an absolutely lovely time. Val played us some of her ukulele to pass time, Kris and Kate came and sat with us for a short time, during which Iveta told us all about her crazy experiences during her solo roadtrip across the United States in her twenties. Like it was novel-worthy. We all told her that she has to write all of this stuff down but she said she doesn’t want to. I might just write it myself because it really is incredible and must be documented and shared with the good people of the world. They deserve to hear it, ya know? Then they all started talking about gun control and having an educated, intellectual, political discussion/argument that was very riveting and interesting, but I must have zoned out because I fell asleep and woke up a while later after the convo topic had changed to the beautiful scenery that we were passing. It really was beautiful.
THEN WE ARRIVED!!! We were picked up at the train station by our hosts. I’m living with Allie and Joy at a beautiful flat in central Prague (Praha 2, right by Wenceslas square) with our hostmom, Marketta, our hostdad, Slavek, and their calico, twenty-year-old cat, Iggy. I don’t like Iggy.
I sat in a cubby thing with Val and Iveta and had an absolutely lovely time. Val played us some of her ukulele to pass time, Kris and Kate came and sat with us for a short time, during which Iveta told us all about her crazy experiences during her solo roadtrip across the United States in her twenties. Like it was novel-worthy. We all told her that she has to write all of this stuff down but she said she doesn’t want to. I might just write it myself because it really is incredible and must be documented and shared with the good people of the world. They deserve to hear it, ya know? Then they all started talking about gun control and having an educated, intellectual, political discussion/argument that was very riveting and interesting, but I must have zoned out because I fell asleep and woke up a while later after the convo topic had changed to the beautiful scenery that we were passing. It really was beautiful.
THEN WE ARRIVED!!! We were picked up at the train station by our hosts. I’m living with Allie and Joy at a beautiful flat in central Prague (Praha 2, right by Wenceslas square) with our hostmom, Marketta, our hostdad, Slavek, and their calico, twenty-year-old cat, Iggy. I don’t like Iggy.
Purposefully annoying me AS I'm trying to write this post for you guys honestly she's all of our worst enemy I swear
She’s really old and skinny and at first seems nice and cuddly when she jumps up onto your lap, but then she reveals her true sinister nature and takes your hand that you were petting her with and holds it with both of her paws/all of her claws, and looks at it and hisses as if your hand is the root of all evil and the only way to salvage the rest of humanity is to hiss and claw-grip/puncture in the meanest way a cat can do so. I miss Schubert. On the upside: the flat is absolutely perfect. Absolutely. Perfect. Like straight out of Pinterest except it was decorated by Slavek so it’s not even like it can be compared to Pinterest because Slavek’s older than Pinterest and he’s just creative on his own, without the help of other people’s boards or websites. His is pure inner creativity that couldn’t be conjured with the help of any outside sources (that’s right, not even Sally’s “My future apartment <3” board) like Pinterest.
At the train station, we were greeted by Marketta, her daughter, Valeria (I think she’s 23), and Valeria’s boyfriend, Matthew. Luckily, Matthew brought his car and could drive us home so that I didn’t have to squat-push my broken suitcase across any more cobblestone. Matthew’s kindness even extended past his possession of a car (if you can imagine such a benevolent human being), and he proceeded to carry each of our suitcases up the 5 flights of stairs. Talk about a keeper. After we somewhat settled down from our initial infatuation with the flat’s décor, we picked rooms. Allie and I are sharing the two –person room and Joy has the single to herself, but we usually all three hang out in Allie’s and my room. Soooo so so nice. Like the room even smells nice constantly. It’s like walking into a pile of fresh laundry every day coming home from class. The weird part is that the rooms are so simple and crisp and clean and white-ish and in no way cluttered, but you can tell how much of a collector Marketta is. There are little trinkets and knick knacks everywhere, but not in a hoarder-ish way. They’re all displayed in a strategically decorative way that is so very aesthetically pleasing and impressive to me. Like there are a bunch of perfume bottles and hats and jewelry strewn about the flat, but in a way where they’re all on display, not just being stored. There are hints of doll collections in some places, but I don’t think it’s at a creepy level, at least that I’ve noticed at this point in time. Well. Some might be creepy to some people but I think it’s cool. For example, the doll eye ball that hangs in the place where a peep-hole might normally position itself on the front door. Or the other doll eye ball that replaces a mirror in the bathroom above the sink (as if it’s suggesting that you don’t need to look at yourself, this eye ball is doing that for you! So thoughtful of that eye ball). Or the small Barbie-ish doll head that sits in one of the hard-boiled egg holders (of which there is also a small collection).
Then Marketta, Valeria, and Matthew prepared dinner for us. AMAZING. Marketta is apparently a really awesome cook. She made us this wonderful soup and chicken pie-ish thing. So delicious. After dinner, Valeria and Matthew left (I guess went to Matthew’s? I think Valeria usually lives at home but is sacrificing her room for us this month so I guess she’s living at Matthew’s for now), and Joy, Allie, and I sat and chatted with Marketta for a very long time. Marketta is a big talker. It was wonderful, though, she has so many stories and experiences to share. I could listen to her forever. She told us about some of her careers. I think she started out as a nurse, then did some food writing with her sister who has many published cookbooks (and who also translates Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks – mad cred), and now she is a medical journalist for a popular magazine which she explained as being a magazine that sort of explains medical issues in laymen’s terms. She said that basically doctors and experts will give Marketta information about certain medical topics, and Marketta will “translate” the information to be digestible to the public in an article for this magazine. So so cool and interesting and like I could totally see myself doing something like that (maybe not medical topics, but I like the idea of being fed information that I can put into words that are appealing and digestible to readers – not actually having to think up subject matter, but still getting to write creatively maybe? Idk. Sounds cool).
Then she talked about her husband, Slavek, who was unfortunately at work that night but was really excited to meet us. Slavek apparently has done everything under the creative sun. He’s been a photographer (some of his pieces are hung around the flat and they’re absolutely stunning), a tech support/stage manager guy for a theater, then somewhere in the midst of that also did some design for like posters advertising concerts (the example “Lady Gaga” was given) as well as CD cover designs, and now he actually acts in two theaters in Prague (also doing some travelling for shows). This past week I think he was working on two separate plays, one at each theater that he works at, so he was super busy all the time. Apparently, a few months ago, he was doing stage work and he was on some ladder or scaffolding or something and fell from pretty high up and had to get surgery. The impressive part was that that didn’t happen too long ago and he’s already back working again and is very lively and sprite. I got to meet him briefly that night when he came home super late, right when I was getting ready for bed. Joy pretty accurately described him as looking like a marionette. Kinda tall, pretty lanky, gray hair, bold facial features/eyebrows, wears really stylish outfits and has a booming deep loud voice. He immediately apologized for not knowing much English but I was like no way dude I’m in your country I should apologize! Except I didn’t call him dude because that would be disrespectful. Anyway, he’s wonderful. And so is Marketta. Lovely lovely host parents and I couldn’t be happier.
Tuesday, we had a tour of the city. It was a good tour, but so so cold. One of our stops on the tour was actually one of the theaters where Slavek works. He and Marketta both told us that he would take us there later this week with free tickets to see a play! Super excited for that. After the tour, we came home and had dinner with Marketta again. Another delicious dish. She really is an amazing cook. And she actually told us not to do our dishes because she likes to do all of the dishes herself because she says it helps her fingers and hands, after sitting at a desk and typing all day. I have a feeling it might also be a control thing. My mom likes the dishes done a certain way sometimes, too. Such a bummer because I really don’t think there is anything I like doing more than my dishes (totally kidding. I am always ecstatic to let someone else do my dishes, especially if it makes them happy. Props to mom and Marketta!!!!!). After dinner, we went on a quest to find a café with wifi because our homestay just borrows wifi from the neighbors, so it’s not very reliable, especially when multiple people are trying to use it. Mega bummer because I don’t like having to go somewhere else just to check my email or the weather or something (and facebook, but I suppose that’s not a necessity). BUT guess where we chose to go! Starbucks. The actual root of all evil. Not only were we going to a corporate café, but to an American corporate café, while in the Czech Republic. And not just any American corporate café - Starbucks. The lowest of lows when it comes to coffee. I’m like thanks Starbucks, but I can burn my own cheap Robusta beans….. (*lofty condescending barista-y eye roll*). I really just hate how obsessed everyone is with Starbucks and that I can’t even escape it when I’m in a different country. Alas, Starbucks has won this battle, though, because they have really good wifi and are open late. Marketta said she ordered wifi, though, and it should work in a couple days (!).
Wednesday, we had our first class in Prague! We will be having all of our lectures at the Gender Studies place that I mentioned earlier. This lecture was given by Karolina Ryvolova about Roma Women and gender roles. The Roma are a racialized group in Prague (sometimes interchangeably referred to as gypsies) who apparently have an extremely patriarchal community. In the afternoon, we went to Jirina Siklova’s flat in a different part of Prague, to listen to her talk about her experience as a dissident and as the “mother of Czech feminism.” Really cool. She was the one who started the Gender Studies department in Prague. She’s really old now and has a very thick accent, so it was kind of hard to understand everything she was saying, but she was such a peach. She offered us tea and showed us around her flat (where she would secretly host dissident meetings before the Gender Studies place was opened). Marketta knows her children and grandchildren, and had told us about Jirina’s trademark red lipstick. Sure enough, her lips were stained red when we showed up to her apartment, just like we expected. So great.
Thursday, our TA, Lauren facilitated class in the morning. It was about film and the different ways filmmakers portray women, positions of power, scary ideas, etc. We watched a bunch of clips (Carrie, Lost Highway, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, The Semiotics of the Kitchen, Work of Art – by Chris and Greg of Falling in Love with Chris and Greg, and some shorts filmed by Laurens friends, like one called “Oooo Mojitos” which everyone should watch right now) and analyzed them to accompany our readings by Mulvey, Hooks, and MacCormack from the night before. Good class. Got me in the movie-watching mood (more specifically the scary-movie-watching mood, more specifically all of Carrie because I haven’t seen it and I know I need to). So props to Lauren. Thursday afternoon, our lecture was by Nina Bosnicova, who is part of the Gender Studies department. Her lecture was about Women and Men in the Czech Society, Labor Market, and Social Infrastructure. A lot of this lecture was about Czech society under communist/socialist rule. This era was negative for the women’s movement because feminism was seen as unnecessary because “everyone is equal.” Now that Communist rule has ended in the Czech Republic (btw - it ended as a result of a peaceful revolution by students. WE CAN CHANGE STUFF, YOU GUYS it's possible. Also, after the revolution, a world-renowned playwright/the Eastern Bloc's most famous dissident, Vaclav Havel, was elected president of Czechoslovakia which is pretty dope. Another btw - the revolution became known as the Velvet Revolution both because of it's peaceful nature and because Havel was a big Velvet Underground fan. So really just a lot of cool stuff happening in Eastern Europe at the end of the 80s), women are rather anti-feminist. There is sort of a backlash because under Communism, everything was public, even family, so people now find solace in traditional gender roles, where they can have a private life. This is all super interesting to me and will be verrrry helpful in my research project to finally get some feedback that is somewhat different than what I've been getting a lot of lately. I'm interested to interview and distribute surveys here because I think that I'll get some interesting, very non-western results. We also talked about early childhood education and maternity leave. Apparently, there is a law here that allows for 3 to 4 years of parental leave (paid leave, but not that much - women would still be dependent on husband) where employers are required to save the spot of a new parent for 3 to 4 years and then that parent is guaranteed the same spot they had when they return. Of course this might cause some discrimination from employers if they're thinking of hiring a young woman, but don't want her to leave because of children.
After class on Thursday, some of us went to a bar around the corner with our "rent-a-friend" Christina. Iveta said that in past years, students have complained about not knowing things (especially queer themed) to do socially in Prague, so Iveta started hiring a young, queer, anarchist-circle girl to show/tell us of stuff to do around the city. Funny concept but I suppose it works! I ordered a hot wine at the bar and it was delightful. I can't wait to try to make it at home. It was a mug of hot red wine with oranges and lemons in it as well as some cloves and a cinnamon stick. They gave me sugar to put in it too. So so yummy and warm and pretty much the Fall season in a cup.
Friday, we had a lecture by Irina Konecna about Human Trafficking in CR. It was basically a lot of the same stuff we've been talking about in every country about human trafficking, but it was good to hear how it worked in the Czech Republic. In the afternoon, we finished up some of the film lecture that we didn't get to finish with Lauren the day before, about the readings that were assigned. Then we moved on to discuss Foucault. We were assigned to read the first 35 pages of Michel Foucault's book, The History of Sexuality; Volume 1: An Introduction. I've never read Foucault, but apparently he's just a jack of all trades and was very ahead of his time with this book. He's very interdisciplinary because people were talking about having encountered him in history classes, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, WGS, science, etc etc etc. I could delve into a summary of what we talked about, but it was a lot. I'm also still not sure if I understand it all correctly. BUT I do know that I took pretty good notes, so if anyone's really interested, hmu ;) or there's also Sparknotes.com which always has good analyses. Or just read some g-darn Foucault ugh fine you can borrow the book if you really want.
After class, I went on a run around the area where our flat is. Still not sure if I like the area in terms of running. it's confusing because the streets aren't set up in a grid format AND the entire time I'm either going uphill or downhill. Running uphill is okay for me, but downhill is just awkward and fast and I know I'm gonna fall on my face soon enough.
Friday night, Iveta took us all across the Charles bridge, which is a really touristy but beautiful bridge that leads to more of Prague including the beautiful castle that we climbed the brutal, grueling hill (jk wasn't that bad) to get to. Really awesome sights and even awesome-r gargoyles.
Then Marketta, Valeria, and Matthew prepared dinner for us. AMAZING. Marketta is apparently a really awesome cook. She made us this wonderful soup and chicken pie-ish thing. So delicious. After dinner, Valeria and Matthew left (I guess went to Matthew’s? I think Valeria usually lives at home but is sacrificing her room for us this month so I guess she’s living at Matthew’s for now), and Joy, Allie, and I sat and chatted with Marketta for a very long time. Marketta is a big talker. It was wonderful, though, she has so many stories and experiences to share. I could listen to her forever. She told us about some of her careers. I think she started out as a nurse, then did some food writing with her sister who has many published cookbooks (and who also translates Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks – mad cred), and now she is a medical journalist for a popular magazine which she explained as being a magazine that sort of explains medical issues in laymen’s terms. She said that basically doctors and experts will give Marketta information about certain medical topics, and Marketta will “translate” the information to be digestible to the public in an article for this magazine. So so cool and interesting and like I could totally see myself doing something like that (maybe not medical topics, but I like the idea of being fed information that I can put into words that are appealing and digestible to readers – not actually having to think up subject matter, but still getting to write creatively maybe? Idk. Sounds cool).
Then she talked about her husband, Slavek, who was unfortunately at work that night but was really excited to meet us. Slavek apparently has done everything under the creative sun. He’s been a photographer (some of his pieces are hung around the flat and they’re absolutely stunning), a tech support/stage manager guy for a theater, then somewhere in the midst of that also did some design for like posters advertising concerts (the example “Lady Gaga” was given) as well as CD cover designs, and now he actually acts in two theaters in Prague (also doing some travelling for shows). This past week I think he was working on two separate plays, one at each theater that he works at, so he was super busy all the time. Apparently, a few months ago, he was doing stage work and he was on some ladder or scaffolding or something and fell from pretty high up and had to get surgery. The impressive part was that that didn’t happen too long ago and he’s already back working again and is very lively and sprite. I got to meet him briefly that night when he came home super late, right when I was getting ready for bed. Joy pretty accurately described him as looking like a marionette. Kinda tall, pretty lanky, gray hair, bold facial features/eyebrows, wears really stylish outfits and has a booming deep loud voice. He immediately apologized for not knowing much English but I was like no way dude I’m in your country I should apologize! Except I didn’t call him dude because that would be disrespectful. Anyway, he’s wonderful. And so is Marketta. Lovely lovely host parents and I couldn’t be happier.
Tuesday, we had a tour of the city. It was a good tour, but so so cold. One of our stops on the tour was actually one of the theaters where Slavek works. He and Marketta both told us that he would take us there later this week with free tickets to see a play! Super excited for that. After the tour, we came home and had dinner with Marketta again. Another delicious dish. She really is an amazing cook. And she actually told us not to do our dishes because she likes to do all of the dishes herself because she says it helps her fingers and hands, after sitting at a desk and typing all day. I have a feeling it might also be a control thing. My mom likes the dishes done a certain way sometimes, too. Such a bummer because I really don’t think there is anything I like doing more than my dishes (totally kidding. I am always ecstatic to let someone else do my dishes, especially if it makes them happy. Props to mom and Marketta!!!!!). After dinner, we went on a quest to find a café with wifi because our homestay just borrows wifi from the neighbors, so it’s not very reliable, especially when multiple people are trying to use it. Mega bummer because I don’t like having to go somewhere else just to check my email or the weather or something (and facebook, but I suppose that’s not a necessity). BUT guess where we chose to go! Starbucks. The actual root of all evil. Not only were we going to a corporate café, but to an American corporate café, while in the Czech Republic. And not just any American corporate café - Starbucks. The lowest of lows when it comes to coffee. I’m like thanks Starbucks, but I can burn my own cheap Robusta beans….. (*lofty condescending barista-y eye roll*). I really just hate how obsessed everyone is with Starbucks and that I can’t even escape it when I’m in a different country. Alas, Starbucks has won this battle, though, because they have really good wifi and are open late. Marketta said she ordered wifi, though, and it should work in a couple days (!).
Wednesday, we had our first class in Prague! We will be having all of our lectures at the Gender Studies place that I mentioned earlier. This lecture was given by Karolina Ryvolova about Roma Women and gender roles. The Roma are a racialized group in Prague (sometimes interchangeably referred to as gypsies) who apparently have an extremely patriarchal community. In the afternoon, we went to Jirina Siklova’s flat in a different part of Prague, to listen to her talk about her experience as a dissident and as the “mother of Czech feminism.” Really cool. She was the one who started the Gender Studies department in Prague. She’s really old now and has a very thick accent, so it was kind of hard to understand everything she was saying, but she was such a peach. She offered us tea and showed us around her flat (where she would secretly host dissident meetings before the Gender Studies place was opened). Marketta knows her children and grandchildren, and had told us about Jirina’s trademark red lipstick. Sure enough, her lips were stained red when we showed up to her apartment, just like we expected. So great.
Thursday, our TA, Lauren facilitated class in the morning. It was about film and the different ways filmmakers portray women, positions of power, scary ideas, etc. We watched a bunch of clips (Carrie, Lost Highway, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, The Semiotics of the Kitchen, Work of Art – by Chris and Greg of Falling in Love with Chris and Greg, and some shorts filmed by Laurens friends, like one called “Oooo Mojitos” which everyone should watch right now) and analyzed them to accompany our readings by Mulvey, Hooks, and MacCormack from the night before. Good class. Got me in the movie-watching mood (more specifically the scary-movie-watching mood, more specifically all of Carrie because I haven’t seen it and I know I need to). So props to Lauren. Thursday afternoon, our lecture was by Nina Bosnicova, who is part of the Gender Studies department. Her lecture was about Women and Men in the Czech Society, Labor Market, and Social Infrastructure. A lot of this lecture was about Czech society under communist/socialist rule. This era was negative for the women’s movement because feminism was seen as unnecessary because “everyone is equal.” Now that Communist rule has ended in the Czech Republic (btw - it ended as a result of a peaceful revolution by students. WE CAN CHANGE STUFF, YOU GUYS it's possible. Also, after the revolution, a world-renowned playwright/the Eastern Bloc's most famous dissident, Vaclav Havel, was elected president of Czechoslovakia which is pretty dope. Another btw - the revolution became known as the Velvet Revolution both because of it's peaceful nature and because Havel was a big Velvet Underground fan. So really just a lot of cool stuff happening in Eastern Europe at the end of the 80s), women are rather anti-feminist. There is sort of a backlash because under Communism, everything was public, even family, so people now find solace in traditional gender roles, where they can have a private life. This is all super interesting to me and will be verrrry helpful in my research project to finally get some feedback that is somewhat different than what I've been getting a lot of lately. I'm interested to interview and distribute surveys here because I think that I'll get some interesting, very non-western results. We also talked about early childhood education and maternity leave. Apparently, there is a law here that allows for 3 to 4 years of parental leave (paid leave, but not that much - women would still be dependent on husband) where employers are required to save the spot of a new parent for 3 to 4 years and then that parent is guaranteed the same spot they had when they return. Of course this might cause some discrimination from employers if they're thinking of hiring a young woman, but don't want her to leave because of children.
After class on Thursday, some of us went to a bar around the corner with our "rent-a-friend" Christina. Iveta said that in past years, students have complained about not knowing things (especially queer themed) to do socially in Prague, so Iveta started hiring a young, queer, anarchist-circle girl to show/tell us of stuff to do around the city. Funny concept but I suppose it works! I ordered a hot wine at the bar and it was delightful. I can't wait to try to make it at home. It was a mug of hot red wine with oranges and lemons in it as well as some cloves and a cinnamon stick. They gave me sugar to put in it too. So so yummy and warm and pretty much the Fall season in a cup.
Friday, we had a lecture by Irina Konecna about Human Trafficking in CR. It was basically a lot of the same stuff we've been talking about in every country about human trafficking, but it was good to hear how it worked in the Czech Republic. In the afternoon, we finished up some of the film lecture that we didn't get to finish with Lauren the day before, about the readings that were assigned. Then we moved on to discuss Foucault. We were assigned to read the first 35 pages of Michel Foucault's book, The History of Sexuality; Volume 1: An Introduction. I've never read Foucault, but apparently he's just a jack of all trades and was very ahead of his time with this book. He's very interdisciplinary because people were talking about having encountered him in history classes, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, WGS, science, etc etc etc. I could delve into a summary of what we talked about, but it was a lot. I'm also still not sure if I understand it all correctly. BUT I do know that I took pretty good notes, so if anyone's really interested, hmu ;) or there's also Sparknotes.com which always has good analyses. Or just read some g-darn Foucault ugh fine you can borrow the book if you really want.
After class, I went on a run around the area where our flat is. Still not sure if I like the area in terms of running. it's confusing because the streets aren't set up in a grid format AND the entire time I'm either going uphill or downhill. Running uphill is okay for me, but downhill is just awkward and fast and I know I'm gonna fall on my face soon enough.
Friday night, Iveta took us all across the Charles bridge, which is a really touristy but beautiful bridge that leads to more of Prague including the beautiful castle that we climbed the brutal, grueling hill (jk wasn't that bad) to get to. Really awesome sights and even awesome-r gargoyles.
After seeing the beautiful views, some of us ate some tradish Czech food at a restaurant on the way down the hill. I got some beef dish with knedliky (bread dumplings) and of course, more hot wine. Perfect. After that, Allie, Joy, Val, Lauren, and I went to Val and Lauren's apartment and hung out and chatted and just had a nice little night in with each other.
Saturday, I went on another run, still didn't find a good route, and showered before Allie, Joy, and I went back to our beloved Starbucks to do some wifi work/read more Foucault. Saturday night, Lauren made us all a vegan feast at Iveta's, which was delicious and getting to see Iveta's huge apartment was fun. We ended up having a ukulele sing-along-sesh where we sang some classic Ingrid Michaelson as well as some T-Pain and Brittney Spears. Ya know, the traditional uke tunes. Then some people arm wrestled and called it a night. A few of us went to some bars and talked about going dancing but never actually did.
Sunday, I was so lazy all day and it was awesome. Did some Foucaulting, some napping, some facetiming with mom and Louise, as well as some attempt at tackling this blog update. HA lol that it's taken me so long.
Today (Monday), we had a lecture by Zdenek Sloboda about LGBTQI in the Czech Republic. In the afternoon, we had another seminar with Iveta about the next few Foucault chapters we were assigned. Really good discussion. After class, I came home, worked on this post until dinner time, ate dinner/chatted with Marketta forever, then came to Starbucks to post it. Really long again WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF. sry luv u all bye <3 <3
Tomorrow we're going to another city a few hours away in the CR, Olomouc, home of Palacky University, aka Iveta's alma mater (raise the roof). Should be a blast TOOTLES! jk here in Czech we say ahoj (pronounced ahoy - ya know. like pirates <3)
xx
Saturday, I went on another run, still didn't find a good route, and showered before Allie, Joy, and I went back to our beloved Starbucks to do some wifi work/read more Foucault. Saturday night, Lauren made us all a vegan feast at Iveta's, which was delicious and getting to see Iveta's huge apartment was fun. We ended up having a ukulele sing-along-sesh where we sang some classic Ingrid Michaelson as well as some T-Pain and Brittney Spears. Ya know, the traditional uke tunes. Then some people arm wrestled and called it a night. A few of us went to some bars and talked about going dancing but never actually did.
Sunday, I was so lazy all day and it was awesome. Did some Foucaulting, some napping, some facetiming with mom and Louise, as well as some attempt at tackling this blog update. HA lol that it's taken me so long.
Today (Monday), we had a lecture by Zdenek Sloboda about LGBTQI in the Czech Republic. In the afternoon, we had another seminar with Iveta about the next few Foucault chapters we were assigned. Really good discussion. After class, I came home, worked on this post until dinner time, ate dinner/chatted with Marketta forever, then came to Starbucks to post it. Really long again WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF. sry luv u all bye <3 <3
Tomorrow we're going to another city a few hours away in the CR, Olomouc, home of Palacky University, aka Iveta's alma mater (raise the roof). Should be a blast TOOTLES! jk here in Czech we say ahoj (pronounced ahoy - ya know. like pirates <3)
xx
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