Marilyn Helms
April 08, 2008 04:27 pm
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Part III
The Becherers had seen the baker on television where he was previewed on a Czech travel and food program. We purchased three long pastries – cream, apple and poppy seed. He doesn’t sell drinks and there is no place to sit. We put the strudels into a bag Pat had learned to carry with her for such purchases. It was still raining when we boarded the tram to St. Wenceslas Square. For lunch we had a local variety of a grilled hot dog from a local stand. Other options were four thin small sausages served on a partially-split hamburger bun with lots of their pale, creamy mustard.
A vegetarian choice is a fried cheese sandwich with mustard. On the main shopping street we stopped in Debenhams, a United Kingdom-based department store to compare merchandise and prices. Along the walk we tried a slice of pizza from a store window as we made our way to the National Museum which features zoological displays. This was the first Monday of the month and a free admission day for tourists. The museum was crowded and we waited in line for the coat check and left our bag of strudels along with our coats, scarves, hats, gloves, and umbrellas. A special exhibition “Feet through Time” featuring people’s feet in motion, in action, on the moon and other venues. After touring all the museum galleries of animals, insects, and reptiles, we walked down the square and stopped for coffee to warm up. We took the metro to the apartment and worked on setting up the wireless internet router and read the USA Today newspaper we purchased in town.
Coffee has helped us survive the damp and cold and we have noticed none of the cafes were non-smoking and none serve any low-fat items or skim milk. They offer two sizes of hot drinks and the hot chocolate is a melted chocolate bar in milk and much sweeter than we expected. The Czechs have a fondness for sugar and two packs seem to be the standard even with small cups of espresso. The older buildings have been fitted for Wi-fi and the restaurants on the main street have walk-up windows. Flower shops are plentiful as are news stands and kiosks at the metro stations selling a variety of food items and even household goods. The restaurant menus list food in sizes. We asked if the salad was large enough to share and the waitress said confidently it was 500 kg. Our knowledge of the metric system is lacking, and we still did not really understand the size of the portion. It is helpful though to list portion size on the menu so diners can compare servings and value.
The Czech Republic has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004, but they are not required to use the Euro currency. Our friends were reading a book, “For the Love of Prague” by Gene Deitch that was recommended by a Czech professor. The book’s Web site is www.fortheloveofprague.com and the book highlights the changes in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism.
Part IV
Our hosts Rich and Pat left early for Pat’s dental appointment for a crown and root canal. She had an unfortunate problem with a tooth while in Prague and the Fulbright Commission helped her locate a good local dentist. She was impressed with the small camera the dentist used to project a picture of her mouth onto a television screen and felt the care and technology was as good if not better than her U.S. experiences.
We met our friends after the dental appointment at St. Wenceslas Square at one of the many McDonald’s along the route and walked to the old town square and waited for the famous astronomical clock to chime the hour. The clock has an astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details, The Walk of the Apostles which is an hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. It was built in the early 1400s by a clockmaker and professor of mathematics and astronomy at Charles University. One of the various legends about the clock is the clockmaker had his eyes burned by the Old Town Councilors so he would never be able to construct a similar clock in another city. The clockmaker asked his apprentice to take him to the clock, which he damaged so it could not be repaired for many years.
We walked thru the specialty shops in the area and arrived at the small Jewish cemetery. We toured the synagogue with names of the dead on the wall and toured grave sites. The cemetery is in the Jewish Quarter in the Old Town and was used from 1478 until 1786. The numbers of grave stones and numbers of people buried there are unconfirmed because of the many layers of tombs contained in a single grave; however it has been estimated there are approximately 12,000 people buried in the small cemetery.
We had soup and split a pizza in a pizzeria and did more shopping as we made our way to the Charles Bridge. It was extremely cold, but clear. Rich tried to buy an extra large size sweatshirt, but they were too small for Americans. We stopped at the only Starbuck’s in Prague (one in a new mall was closed due to a recent fire in the electrical system.) We talked to Erik the district manager. He had trained in Seattle, Washington for three months and talked to us about their joint venture in AmRest in Central and Eastern Europe, who also has ventures with Yum Brands for KFC, Pizza Hut and Burger King (see their Web site at www.amrest.pl/eng/). We enjoyed talking to him about his experiences and he mentioned a Starbucks would be opening inside the new “Noble and Barnes” being built in Prague.
We walked to the train for a ride home where we regrouped and Skyped the U.S. before leaving for dinner at a Thai restaurant at a nearby mall. At the mall, we bought a few grocery items at the downstairs Albert’s grocery and rode the metro – just two stops away. We checked a few Web sites for tourist information and wrote a few post cards to mail to the U.S.
Part V
The following day I was up early to accompany Rich to his second college assignment - The Czech University of Life Sciences at the Agriculture Campus located across town at the end of the subway stop and accessed by a bus from there. Rich was lecturing on the importance of creativity in new venture creation. After his lecture, we showed a DVD case of a British start-up company entering the growth stage of their formation. He had prepared discussion questions. We divided the class into small groups and sat with each group to discuss the case. I enjoyed meeting the international students from all over Europe. They seemed to enjoy the brainstorming exercises. Their class project is to develop a viable business idea. Rich asked me to work after class with a group of Czech students who were considering a wedding/party/events planning venture.
At the college, I met several administrators and Dr. Becherer’s office mate. Rich has a large class, but when it started there were only 20 students enrolled. The class has grown to 43 students. They have heard about the visiting American professor and many are interested in starting their own companies in the future. He is doing a six week series but the course has grown as people seem to be adding late. Students do not seem to buy textbooks. Students are here from all over the EU in an ERASMUS program where they can attend classes throughout the EU. Thus the language of instruction is English and since the fall of communism in 1989 the English instruction in Czech Rep is growing and improving.
Rich’s office mate is working on her dissertation in the forestry school which is called the “faculty of forestry.” Students seem to be arriving late and a bit unorganized. Under communism the Czech citizens learned Czech, German, Russian, now English is prevalent as is studying Spanish.
The office mate mentioned she traveled to Portugal and traveled in the area to nearby Bohemia to visit family. When funds are available she would like to travel to the U.S. She and her husband just bought a used car and they will have to move outside the city to afford a home.
Rich’s case assignment for the day was copied wrong and we had to make new copies for his class and he enlisted a bright Czech student to help him access his PowerPoint slides on his flash drive. The words are in Czech and we could not find the icon for “my computer.” A tech person set up a large speaker allowing him to show a DVD case. The PowerPoint slides seem to be a necessity since students vary in their language fluency and do not have books. The country does not seem to honor copyright laws and many students and faculty freely copy portions of books to distribute. In the bookstore it seems course packets or small bound materials have been prepared by the faculty and are available for student purchase for their classes.
Part VI
Each classroom has a sink in the corner for hand washing. The room has a ceiling mounted projector and computer at the faculty’s station. There is also a camera in the corner of the room, perhaps for security. Rich had about 25 students though 43 are on the roll. The class is from 10:30 to 12:45 p.m. and Rich is teaching part of an existing class and another visiting professor will teach using a simulator business game. A white board located at the front of the class has faint grid lines to keep your writing straight.
At the break, we bought small brick red plastic cups of coffee from a machine for 9 crown or about 50 cents. There are four colored bins for recycling in the room. I could not tell where to put my plastic cup because only Czech words were written on the blue, green, yellow, and red bins. Luckily one of our graduate students assisted me. Students bought filled buns from the downstairs cafeteria and ate them during the break. Most of these MBA students have a class immediately following this one.
Hooks are one the side of the wall for coats and all restaurants have hooks and most places including the university and museums have coat check areas. This is very different from the south (U.S.) where we seldom wear heavy coats since we use cars as our primary transportation.
This campus allows dogs on campus and in some faculty offices. In some classes, students can bring well behaved dogs to class on a leash. Some dogs wear a basket style muzzle. Several of the students look tired from a night of fun. They brought small notebooks to class but few if any took notes. The white board at the front of the class is small but opens wide to reveal a black board. Square chalk sticks were provided in a plastic basket on the desk. All lights are the florescent coils for energy saving properties. The tables and chairs are Danish style furniture with a light wood finish. Large windows with blinds were at the side of the room. There was a bulletin board for posting announcements and a fire extinguisher on the wall. Students seemed to like the case on entrepreneurship but were reluctant to talk to the entire class, fearing their English was not good. They were more talkative in the smaller groups, though.
Our spouses met us for lunch in the cafeteria. It was typical cafeteria food but subsidized by the university so it was a good value for students and faculty alike. They displayed six hot lunch plate choices with a number beside each — chicken leg and creamed potatoes; fried fish with tarter sauce and potatoes; spaghetti; and other dishes we didn’t recognize. Once you made a selection, you walked to a station in the cafeteria with the same number to retrieve your lunch. There was also a pasta bar and salad bar. Hot tea is free as well. I had cabbage and carrot salads (that were weighed) and bread. Rich’s fried fish turned out to be pork, but it was still served with tarter sauce which seems to be a very popular condiment.
After the quick and not so tasty lunch, we stopped by a small ground floor shop and sampled several varieties of local candy: wafer layers and chocolate and white chocolate candy bars and M&M-type candies. We tried some pizza flavored chips, but after one taste decided they were not our favorite.
Part VII
We sat on a bench in the office hall while we waited for Rich to print his test for next week. A nice employee stopped and tried to help us and invited us to her pension planning seminar. We told her we were visitors and she gave us all a card. She was wearing a tweed skirt suit and short high heeled boots. Women are stylish in heels and jeans. Men dress typical to the U.S. style of clothing.
We took the bus and train back to the apartment to change clothes and walked to the old town to view the John Lennon freedom wall. The graffiti wall with a head of Lennon is and remains popular both before and after fall of communism. It stresses peace and freedom. Under communism, the government tried to paint over the wall. There are lots of poems and writing on the wall. People seem to relish the freedom of expression and there is much graffiti in Prague today.
We stopped in an area art gallery and then rode several stops on the tram for our reserved 5 p.m. tour of Staropramen brewery (Web site at www.staropramen.com/english/). Beer is very popular in Czech Republic. The manufacturing process is typical and the tour and video was interesting and luckily both were in English. The tour was very crowded. Looking at their exterior storage tanks, we noticed it had begun to snow.
We tried a Tex-Mex restaurant (recommend in one of our many guide books) called Buffalo Bills and had chips, salsa, guacamole and typical fajitas and really enjoyed them. We went back to the apartment for hot chocolate (from the U.S.) and Skyped several friends and family. We are enjoying the Internet and the application of calling the U.S. using the VOIP technology. The amazing benefit of this technology is that computer to computer calls are free and there is a modest charge for computer to land line or cell phone calls of less than three cents per minute. After our calls, we prepared for the next day’s bus trip to Terezin.
We were up early for the day trip to Terezin, the former staging city for Czech Jews, particularly the elderly before they were sent to concentration camps. We toured two museums and saw a thirty minute video about the history of this fortress city. The museums showed life in the ghettos as well as Jewish art, music and literature that thrived even under the hash camp conditions. The city was chosen due to its history as a walled fortress city from the past. When it became a prison, Czech residents were moved from the city.
We took PB&J sandwiches for our snack since food was scarce in the small city. People have moved back today but the town is not progressive. It was a depressing but interesting visit. We toured the cemetery where many Jews who did not survive the harsh conditions in Terezin are buried.
We found the bus stop and rode an hour bus back to Prague. We continued back to the agricultural school to tour their technology classes with the ERASMUS students. One of their key programs is an on-campus brewery. Agricultural students grow the hops and grains and technology students run the manufacturing and quality control operations. The beer is sold in the four cafeterias on campus. We had a tour with the technology professor and attended a reception for the students. We talked to several groups of students from Portugal and Russia who are in the ERASMUS program (see http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html). We left the university and had dinner at an Italian pizza parlor on the way home where we had pizza and salads.
Part VIII
On our last full day in Prague, my husband and I set out to visit with a pest control chemical supplier and distributor my husband had located through a professional organization. They’d returned his e-mail and agreed to meet with him. I went along to learn more about local business practices. We were met at the metro stop by the web designer of DDD Service (see http://www.dddservisopava.cz/eng/index1.php) who is also the son of the owner. We rode with him in his vehicle to the office and warehouse complex. There we met with one of the four owners and also one of their chemical manufacturers who also owns his own pest control company. We had a two hour meeting and toured their facility offices and warehouses.
There are no termites in the Czech Republic but they do have woodworm, a type of wood-destroying beetle. Rodents are their number one pests and they do have problems with bedbugs. They were the first company to sell chemicals in the Czech market. Their competitors are smaller. They provide training for the companies purchasing their products. There are approximately 200 pest control firms in the Czech Republic and most are very small. The largest firm has only 10 employees.
They received a cell phone call from one of their best customers (who is also a chemical manufacturer of rodent baits). His vehicle had quit in a busy intersection and he was stranded. One of the men left to pick him us. We learned one of the owners we were meeting with was trained as a veterinarian. He discussed other pest problems and the various chemical regulations required by the EU. He mentioned the Green Party protested the use of glue traps for rodent control. Their company is diversified and distributes weed control products along with agricultural products. The agricultural products are new. They acquired a former competitor and this added the agricultural products. Their largest market is for public health and disinfection and cleaning/sanitation of buildings. They have ten employees in the Czech Republic, two in Slovakia and four in Latvia. Mr. Placky the veterinarian serves as company director. Another owner has international business expertise and is active in the EU professional organization. Another owner specializes in sales and delivers products to customers in the Czech Republic and nearby Slovakia. The fourth owner has expertise in manufacturing some of their bait products. They mentioned the U.S. seems to be five years ahead of them in products and technology. Some of the chemical products that have been banned for use in the U.S. are still available in the Czech Republic. Some of their local products are banned in other parts of the European Union and can only be sold in Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovak. They mentioned the EU is developing a system of chemical registration & biocides much like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They do not sell their products elsewhere because it is lengthy and expensive to register active ingredients and there is much paperwork for registration with perhaps limited market potential for the product. They do note Czech citizens will not need a visa to travel to the U.S. after 2008.
Part IX
They gave us a bug collection and we gave them gifts from the U.S. We took several photos and they wanted copies for their newsletter. It was interesting to see the similarities in the products and procedures. We talked about the changes and operational differences in a private for-profit company (which they became in 1992). During communism, the owners worked for the government and treated buildings and apartments for pests.
We were driven back to the metro and stopped at the enclosed mall for lunch at the food court. We returned to the apartment to change clothes. Our friend was still having pain in her tooth and was waiting for a call from the dentist. We headed off to the old town on Tram 22 that stopped by the apartment. We recognized the Charles Bridge and got off the tram walked through old town and back to the astronomical clock. We took many photos on the sunny and much warmer day. We walked to St. Wenceslas Square and had coffee inside the British-owned Marks & Spenser’s Department store. We shopped in several stores. Later we had a donut that looked great but was not very sweet. At 5 pm we boarded the west bound No. 10 trams for an hour-long ride and city tour. The travel guide recommended taking one of the trams to see the city and to see how people lived in the communist style apartments. We got off at the end of the line and walked across the track & rode the tram back to our stop and back at the apartment. We walked to dinner at a nearby Mediterranean restaurant and enjoyed hummus, tatziki, falafel, and some great soups. After a long wait for dinner we walked back to the apartment to pack for home. We left at 8 a.m. for the airport and our 10 hour flight to the U.S. We used some Czech crowns for a cappuccino and fresh orange juice in the airport and exchanged the rest of our Czech crowns for U.S. dollars after we did not see any tempting last minute trinkets in the airport gift shops. Most shops displayed the famous dark red Czech garnets and the amber jewelry the country is famous for. We did buy a newspaper to read on the plane. The airport KFC restaurant was doing a great fried chicken business at 8 a.m.
Final Observations
We talked about our observations of Prague. I had visited the city in 1992 and it was interesting to see the progress and signs of business growth since that time. We were struck by all the graffiti all over Prague which we are told is a symbol of their social expression — something not possible under communism. We were also surprised at the number of dogs on the streets. Under communism, meat was scarce for the Czech population and pets were expensive to feed. Today they are very popular. They seem very well trained and walk beside their owners, even without a leash. They ride on trains and metro cars too.
The American fast foods, particularly chicken and hamburgers are extremely popular. When guests visit another country, at some time during the trip they stop into one of their local restaurants. Americans seem to be found at McDonald’s and British tourists seem to congregate in the coffee shops of their own department store of Marks and Spenser’s and Debenhams.
The honor system is unique on the trams and subways. At pharmacies, there are no products displayed on shelves but are behind glass cases that must be opened by the staff. Some pharmacies are open 24 hours and serve customers through a walk-up window.
We were typically served water and coffee in glasses and mugs in offices and other businesses. No one used paper or Styrofoam cups or plastic utensils or plates. Even at the modern looking shopping malls, they had only small stores and no typical large anchor department stores. Their movie cinema was typical with popcorn and soft drinks and mostly current American movies (with Czech subtitles).
As in other parts of Europe, people shop daily for fruit and bread. Breads do not contain preservatives and typically must be eaten the same day. The cobblestone streets are quaint and we were impressed with the great, inexpensive public transportation system. I enjoyed seeing the entrepreneurship at the various kiosks at the subway stops.
From our guide books we learned much about the famous people from Prague. For example, we did not realize that Einstein studied at Charles University in Prague. Also the famous writer Franz Kafka (who wrote “The Metamorphosis”) was from Prague. I bought the book at the airport in Prague and enjoyed reading it on the plane home.
The Czech Republic is one of the few bargains in Europe. Because they have not yet transitioned from the Czech crown to the Euro currency, prices are high, but nothing like the prices in the rest of Europe.
Marilyn Helms is a business professor at Dalton State College.
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