Prague Journal

Wednesday, April 6, 2005.

Most of my morning was spent struggling to figure out our taxes – even though we don’t need to file yet – but I didn’t have time to go back to the embassy to talk with the tax lady again. I may try tomorrow. Meanwhile, back at DU, I still haven’t gotten any reimbursements for my conference travel, since I paid by cash and Marilyn is questioning the validity of the receipts.
Adding to the money issues is the fact that I’m still paying an arm and a leg for our internet connection, even though the prices have gone down and Český Telecom offered me a lower rate over a month ago, which still hasn’t taken effect. And, according to Mrs. Halova, we may not want the lower rate anyway since they claim I’ll be charged a hefty penalty if I cancel within 12 months. Money seems to be the topic of the day. Our evening discussions with Bruce also focused on money – banks here take an inordinate time to approve (and to execute) loans and the charges are extremely high. Mrs. Halova gets a fairly good deal on her personal account because she is a CNB employee, but she still has to have a separate account at a different bank for the rent transactions, which are considered strictly business and need a different setup. We both shook our heads at the amount we pay for simple ATM and deposit or withdrawal transactions. Czech bank charges are the highest in all of Europe. It does not exaggerate our impressions to say that we have found the European banking industry to be genuinely user-hostile. For an American, the situation is vexing because of the sharp contrast with prevailing attitudes in the States.
Karen, who is here as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to work on her dissertation from the University of Minnesota, had asked to meet for coffee this afternoon. We had intended to get together a while ago, so I was glad to have an opportunity to talk with her about her research on gender issues here. She’s been here for over a year, intends to stay another 10 months, and has had an opportunity to meet with a lot of interesting people, including some of the women I now know from the Sociological Institute at the Academy of Sciences. Karen’s husband is teaching English here and is quite happy about living in Prague, so her only real time-urgency is satisfying her dissertation committee.
Charlotte is out of town – in Chicago visiting her mother – so Rick and I took Bruce to dinner at Ambiente on Celetna, which serves mostly Italian cuisine. For what we got, the prices are reasonable, since the food and service are very good. We only had the table until 8pm, so we walked Bruce and Rick’s favorite ice-cream parlor “Cream and Dream” for dessert. Cream and Dream is a favorite of many of our friends here, for obvious reasons: the ice cream is terrific and the assortment of flavors makes for difficult, but interesting, choices.

posted by JWinn @ 10:11 PM