Prague Journal

Wednesday, May 4, 2005.

I left on the 6:30am bus for Brno, to give two lectures at the University of Technology. Ralph, a Fulbright engineering professor from Penn State Erie, met me at the bus terminal in Brno at 9am and escorted me to the new classroom building to meet Anna, for whom I would be giving a lecture at 11am. Anna is teaching an Ethics and Social Responsibility class in English to students from France, Germany, Finland, Poland and Wales as part of the Socrates Erasmus program (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), the European Commission’s educational program for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. This was the first class I’ve taught here for non-Czech students, and also the first where the expected language of instruction was English! The students were quite engaged and the discussion lively.
The afternoon class, in another building, was for engineering students. Ralph teaches a class (in English to Czechs) entitled Product Realization and Entrepreneurship and has been talking about turning ideas into business opportunities, so he asked me to talk about creating a business. I used some of the “secrets of great teams” he had given me from one of his previous lectures to talk about “team myths” and the difference between a team and a company.
After his class, I was given a brief tour of the baroque-style Cartesian monastery building in Kralovo Pole that has been home to the engineering school since 1963. This building is the oldest preserved monastery in Moravia, connected by chapels on both sides. I was particularly interested in the offices that had at one time been a cloister, with slots in the thick walls to allow food to be given to the monks who wished to remain in solitude with no human interaction. Other significant points of interest are the painting “Dance of Death” on the front vault arch in the staircase to the first floor, the turrets that are now lovely curved office or library spaces, and the cellar which is set up as a pub-style gathering place.
It rained most of the day in Brno and was still raining in Prague when I arrived at the bus terminal at 7:30pm. I had hoped for more of Monday’s warm, dry weather, but the forecast for the next several days is a return to cooler temperatures and more rain.

posted by JWinn @ 10:07 PM