Prague Journal

Saturday, April 30, 2005.

I attended the afternoon sessions of the “Redefining Europe” conference at UNVA, most of which were extremely interesting. More interesting than the talks, however, was the discussion. The participants are from Poland, Cypress, Georgia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Turkey, Portugal, USA, Canada. Most are scholars, a few are students. All are extremely well educated.
This evening Rick and I went to a jazz concert at the Municipal House, performed by the Jazz Quartet Bohemia. The quartet consisted of a violin, piano, bass and drums, and they played familiar American tunes including Gerhswin and Duke Ellington. This concert was not in Smetana Hall, the large concert hall, but rather in the small hall downstairs near the American Café. The music was enjoyable, but smoother jazz than I would have liked on some of the compositions. The musicians were clearly classically-trained, so the musicianship was superb.
We chanced to meet Allan Carlson and his two children on the bus on our way home and stopped for a drink with them. Allan is president of the Howard Center in Rockford, Illinois, doing research on demographics and fertility rates. His daughter Sarah Eva is studying in Belgium and his son Anders is a PhD student in geology at Oregon State University. Allan had been invited to speak at the Prague Senate, which provided the opportunity for the three of them to meet for a holiday in Prague. It’s interesting how an innocent “where are you from?” to an obvious native-English speaker will mushroom into a longer conversation and, at times, a longer-term relationship.

posted by JWinn @ 10:31 PM