People

We've been here for two weeks now. There are a great many things I would have liked to have written by now. The problem is that I want to write the definitive post on a variety of topics. Well, that's gonna take some time and the initial impressions are going to fade as things become more familiar. So, I am going to blast a bunch of posts to capture those impressions.

The first thing I noticed, once out of the taxi and on the street, is that people do not say hello in the streets. Caleb likes this because it relieves him of the pressure of deciding whether or not to acknowledge the existence of older people. For a guy who has spent nearly 40 years as a Minnesotan, however, this is disturbing. We reckon this is a consequence of hundreds of years of Hapsburg rule, then Nazi occupation, then Communist oppression.

Once you have interacted with a person it is socially acceptable to great them with a Dobry Den (good day) in the street and people are very friendly. The children in school have been incredibly helpful with Caleb and Lucy.

Czech women are very good looking (I can say this because of my wife's Czech heritage). Even as they get older, they retain nice legs no doubt because of all the walking. As they get older, they also tend to go with more radical (red, purple, pumpkin orange) hair colors.

There is a lot of variety in hair color, height, and size among the Czechs.

There are immigrants from throughout Europe here. There are some southeast Asian immigrants - not so many as in Prague. I've only met one African immigrant.

Folks seem to value their free time. The pace of life is a bit more relaxed. I haven't figured out standard work hours yet. In the evenings though, there are a lot of people in the parks, swimming in the river, biking, walking, etc. There are flowers everywhere. Lots of people garden in containers in town or have gardens on the edges of town.

Peter