Prague Journal

Monday, October 04, 2004

The morning started out easy enough, with a trip to the Fulbright office for me – to file my lease for rental expense reimbursements and check on the status of my first payment – and a trip to Charles University to talk about mathematics with Ales for Rick.
It’s actually quite easy not having a car here. I love riding the tram – one sees so much of the city without having to worry about navigating crowds and cars. Unlike Athens, dogs are allowed on buses and trams, especially small dogs in people’s arms. Large dogs are usually muzzled. All dogs are on leashes.
My next errand was to withdraw money from my bank account so I could deposit my rent payment to my landlady’s account in another bank. Naturally, the cash desk at the branch closest to me was closed (that much I could read, the reason or possible permanence of this situation I could not).
The Czech banks have changed quite a lot since we were here seven years ago. There are no deposit or withdrawal slips stacked on tables as before. Everything is computerized. There are ATM machines on the ground floor. There are guards on the main floors, but one doesn’t have to show a passport just to enter the building. There are still lines, but now there is an electronic numbering system that puts people in appropriate queues. At my first attempt to withdraw money from my new account, I pushed the wrong button, the one that said “personal accounts,” and ended up waiting much longer than needed and then ended up at the wrong window. Of course, I would have saved an hour in line and an hour going to and from downtown had I remembered to bring my passport with me to the bank in the first place. Only slightly worse for wear, I went again and this time found a button that said something about cash transactions, which transferred me to an additional screen that had a button marked “deposits and withdrawals,” so the waiting time was much shorter.
When I got to the appropriate teller window, I explained what I wanted to do, presented my bank card and passport, and was given cash and a receipt. I didn’t even have to go into the secure room to get my money; I was given cash right at the counter – a one-step process! The next transaction, only a block away, similarly required no form to fill out on my part. I simply presented the appropriate account number and cash and was given a receipt verifying that the funds had been deposited into the right account.
The statement that greeted me when I got home was not so simple. The itemized statement listed (1) my initial deposit on the 7th of September to open the account, (2) a fee for opening the account, (3) the Fulbright deposit (in US dollars) for my initial grant payment, (4) a small fee for this deposit, (5) the monthly management fee for printing and sending the September statement, and (6) an $8 charge for my ATM card (which I have yet to receive), and (7) a charge for the “personal handover of Personal Identification Number" (which I don’t quite understand), all of which was converted from Crowns to dollars at a surprisingly abysmal exchange rate. My withdrawal this afternoon will also incur an additional fee, but less than an ATM transaction.
Vladimir, a computer science graduate student of our friend Frank (referred by Radim), came to our flat to troubleshoot our broadband connection this evening. The main problem, it seems was initializing the modem since it had been set to Radim’s account and password. All this had to be done internally – between my computer and the modem – in such a way that I would never have discovered the proper screen, partly because that part of the manual was in Czech, but also because it exceeds my technical capabilities. The next step was configuring the wireless router. After 2 ½ hours of trying to encrypt the router so as to secure our system, Vladimir gave up. So, we are connected – all is up and running smoothly – but a savvy computer science geek could tap into our system if he/she had patience and inclination. At this point, I’m not particularly worried. (Rick and I are the youngest residents we’ve seen within 100 meters of our flat.)
So now Rick and I can each use our computers – and the phone – at the same time. And we have (relatively) high-speed connections that don’t rack up per-minute charges (we’ll see if we keep within our allotted transmission amount). There are still a few things that we can’t do remotely, but we’re feeling very high-tech right now.

posted by JWinn @ 10:39 PM