Granted
So we take things for granted. You do, I do. It's part of life. And when these things change, our notion of "granted" is thrown off. For instance...
Daylight Savings Time
DST, as far as I know, is an American thing. Hammering this concept home was that Congress, this year, passed a law affecting when we change our clocks. So I knew that the time changed in the US this past weekend. But no change here, since it's an American thing.
So my alarm goes off Monday morning at 7, as I programmed it to, so that I could take my time getting ready and get to my 9am lesson. I get on the tram at 8:30, and halfway to the lesson, I see the clock on the tram says 7:45, not 8:45. I check my cell phone. It says 8:45. This adds to my confusion, since every cell phone I have ever owned has its time sent to it by the local tower it is currently connected to. I get to the company where the lesson is, to find the door locked, the lights off, and no one inside. "Huh," I think. "Maybe it really is an hour earlier."
So I meander to the cafeteria in the building to get my Zapecena Houska (delicious breakfast sammich) and see the clock on the wall there concurs with my cell phone, that it's 9:00 AM, and it's time for the lesson.
Now, the people behind the counter speak less English than I do Czech. Fortunately, I knew the word for 8 (osm). So we were able to communicate that it really was 8, and that, cell phones here have their own clocks, not regulated by any outside forces. And, the Czechs have DST too. Ahhhh, Monday mornings.
And so began my week.
Public Transportation Routes
On my way to my Friday morning lesson, I walked out to the tram I have taken about a dozen times. After a few stops, I didn't recognize the territory.
Can anyone tell me why a tram - or any form of public transportation - with identical numbers will have different routes? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the tram number? Seems to me there ought to be one tram number per route. But hey, that's me. I'm funny that way.
So I get off the tram and look at the station list. My destination was nowhere to be found. Ok.... well, I still had plenty of time before my lesson. I take the tram back in the opposite direction to a central metro stop. Wonderful. Looking on the 4 trams I know go to my desired destination, I see it located on none of them. Zero. Hmmmm.
I metro to another centrally-located station, and look at the tram station list there. No dice, my destination isn't listed there either. It turns out they're doing construction on several of the lines, so many stations are now unreachable via tram. Hmmmm.
To replace the 5 missing stations, they have added one bus. Hmmmm.
Needless to say, all this running around turned into a cancelled lesson (the student had to end his lesson at 8:30 am, regardless of when it started, so it became pointless to continue the public transportation runaround).
And so began my weekend.
Timely follow-ups
We get annoyed (and rightfully so) in America about public service companies who say "we'll be there between 12 and 5 on Friday" and then show up at 11am, or at 6pm. Yet the Czech version of this makes the cable company look like atomic clock engineers. Ordering DSL for our flat a couple weeks ago, I was told the DSL modem, which is to arrive via the mail, was to arrive at the end of last week. Well, I'm in a pub as I type this, because "the end of last week" has turned into "oh, it'll be there next week, definitely." as reported by the company this morning. So, with any luck, I'll have DSL in my apartment by Christmas.
Also, FedEx informed me they had attempted to deliver a package. I called them, as stated on their note, to arrange for a delivery when I'd be home. Saying "11 o'clock", they said they'd be there between 11 and 12:30. However, I arrived home at 10:15 to find a note they had already been there that day. Hmmm. Fortunately, calling and (politely) yelling at them got them to come back at 2 that day.
While statements in earlier posts about acclimatizing to life here are truthful and accurate, I am still not used to the "time references have no meaning" aspect of the culture.
So clearly, schedules have not been my friend this week. It's going to be an adjustment when I return to the States. "Oh, you REALLY meant 12PM Monday? I thought you meant 2PM Thursday when you said Monday noon."
On a brighter note, I have held several classes over the past couple weeks, asking students to elaborate on their views of life under Communism, and their lives since it fell here. Truly fascinating results. I will collect those thoughts in a coherent manner and post them soon.
DST, as far as I know, is an American thing. Hammering this concept home was that Congress, this year, passed a law affecting when we change our clocks. So I knew that the time changed in the US this past weekend. But no change here, since it's an American thing.
So my alarm goes off Monday morning at 7, as I programmed it to, so that I could take my time getting ready and get to my 9am lesson. I get on the tram at 8:30, and halfway to the lesson, I see the clock on the tram says 7:45, not 8:45. I check my cell phone. It says 8:45. This adds to my confusion, since every cell phone I have ever owned has its time sent to it by the local tower it is currently connected to. I get to the company where the lesson is, to find the door locked, the lights off, and no one inside. "Huh," I think. "Maybe it really is an hour earlier."
So I meander to the cafeteria in the building to get my Zapecena Houska (delicious breakfast sammich) and see the clock on the wall there concurs with my cell phone, that it's 9:00 AM, and it's time for the lesson.
Now, the people behind the counter speak less English than I do Czech. Fortunately, I knew the word for 8 (osm). So we were able to communicate that it really was 8, and that, cell phones here have their own clocks, not regulated by any outside forces. And, the Czechs have DST too. Ahhhh, Monday mornings.
And so began my week.
On my way to my Friday morning lesson, I walked out to the tram I have taken about a dozen times. After a few stops, I didn't recognize the territory.
Can anyone tell me why a tram - or any form of public transportation - with identical numbers will have different routes? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the tram number? Seems to me there ought to be one tram number per route. But hey, that's me. I'm funny that way.
So I get off the tram and look at the station list. My destination was nowhere to be found. Ok.... well, I still had plenty of time before my lesson. I take the tram back in the opposite direction to a central metro stop. Wonderful. Looking on the 4 trams I know go to my desired destination, I see it located on none of them. Zero. Hmmmm.
I metro to another centrally-located station, and look at the tram station list there. No dice, my destination isn't listed there either. It turns out they're doing construction on several of the lines, so many stations are now unreachable via tram. Hmmmm.
To replace the 5 missing stations, they have added one bus. Hmmmm.
Needless to say, all this running around turned into a cancelled lesson (the student had to end his lesson at 8:30 am, regardless of when it started, so it became pointless to continue the public transportation runaround).
And so began my weekend.
We get annoyed (and rightfully so) in America about public service companies who say "we'll be there between 12 and 5 on Friday" and then show up at 11am, or at 6pm. Yet the Czech version of this makes the cable company look like atomic clock engineers. Ordering DSL for our flat a couple weeks ago, I was told the DSL modem, which is to arrive via the mail, was to arrive at the end of last week. Well, I'm in a pub as I type this, because "the end of last week" has turned into "oh, it'll be there next week, definitely." as reported by the company this morning. So, with any luck, I'll have DSL in my apartment by Christmas.
Also, FedEx informed me they had attempted to deliver a package. I called them, as stated on their note, to arrange for a delivery when I'd be home. Saying "11 o'clock", they said they'd be there between 11 and 12:30. However, I arrived home at 10:15 to find a note they had already been there that day. Hmmm. Fortunately, calling and (politely) yelling at them got them to come back at 2 that day.
While statements in earlier posts about acclimatizing to life here are truthful and accurate, I am still not used to the "time references have no meaning" aspect of the culture.
So clearly, schedules have not been my friend this week. It's going to be an adjustment when I return to the States. "Oh, you REALLY meant 12PM Monday? I thought you meant 2PM Thursday when you said Monday noon."
On a brighter note, I have held several classes over the past couple weeks, asking students to elaborate on their views of life under Communism, and their lives since it fell here. Truly fascinating results. I will collect those thoughts in a coherent manner and post them soon.
posted by David at 2:38 PM
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