Hi. My narrative essay of the Czech Republic is just below so have fun! :)
-Narrative Essay
1-25-03
My name is Tam Nguyen and I am 32 years old. I used to be an architect in The United States, but that greatly changed three days ago. After my firm went belly up and no bank would give me a loan, I decided to go to a shady loan shark who my cousin’s friend’s brother’s co-worker recommended. After losing most the money to an identity theft, I couldn’t pay back the loan shark. Unfortunately, this man was no sympathetic softy and sent his gang after me. I don’t know what he was going to do to me, but I decided to pack my bags and get out of the country until the heat hopefully died down. I knew I couldn’t run to Canada or Mexico because those were too obvious locations. My random mind took me on a plane with the rest of the money halfway around the world to The Czech Republic, which would cost me $773. The Czech Republic is land-locked in Central Europe with a population of 10,346,000 people. It is east and south of Germany West and south of Poland and south of Austria and Slovakia. Once I reached The Czech Republic yesterday, I saw that the gang that had been chasing me in the States had now followed me halfway across the world. I guess the loan shark really did care about $800,000. So I ran off and hid before they spotted me and knew the adventure was just beginning.
All I packed was one, small suitcase of a weeks worth of clothes and my violin because I decided to play on street corners as a way to earn a temporary street corner. Being I was exceptionally good, I was hoping to earn enough for a day’s worth of food and housing. Even though the Czechs are known for their many violinists, hopefully I would stand out from the rest. I was also very fortunate to learn Czech (which is evidently the official language of The Czech Republic) as a child. So I start off my day after sleeping on a bench in Prague. With a couple of Korunas(the money in The Czech Republic) I had, I bought a piece of coffee cake at a cafe where the people stand up at tall counters and eat. Across the street from the capitol building of Prague, I decided to set up my little music spot. The Czech Republic has a Parliamentary democracy and the current president is Vaclav Klaus. The Prime Minister is Vladimir Spidla and the parliament is broken into two chambers, The Senate and The Chamber of Deputies. They also have a Judicial Branch, which they are trying to put more into force with the escalating crime rate. I really never was into politics. After three hours of playing and moving my location to the Prague Castle, my hands were extremely tired. But I was able to make enough to eat a decent lunch and stay in an inn. Just then, I saw one of the loan shark’s gang members because they are easy to spot in their shades, black leather trench coats...and shining knife hilts. Uh-oh.
I soon dashed off before he could see me and just ran as fast I can through the streets bustling with tourists. I stopped running on The Charles Bridge and lost the gang. As it was reaching noon, I decided to go to a nearby pub to have lunch because the running made me famished. When I was there, I decided to converse with a man next to me at the bar. I gave him a Dobry den and handshake, and we started to talk about our lives. Although most Czechs are reserved and talk little to strangers, this man was very sociable. After I told him my little story, he began to tell me his. His name was Tomas and he worked in a steel mill. His wife was a professional egg-painter and although Easter wasn’t for a couple of months, eggs painted by hand take an extremely long time to make. He then described Easter in the Czech Republic. It was a mix of Christian rituals and pre-Christian rituals. Celebrating the first week of spring, the traditional Czechs would bathe in springs and decorated branches with beautiful eggs. This would symbolize rejuvenation of the springtime. Along with spring, it is the beginning of a new Christian season and religious rituals are practiced as well. When my order of fruit dumplings arrived, I said Dekuji or thank you to the bartender and he replied Prosim. Tomas had ordered the typical lunch of a Czech, which was quite large. He had pork, a variety of pickled vegetables, rice in a heavy sauce and rye bread. It seems the staple food of the country would be meat as the Germans have. He thought my order was extremely strange being I was having a dessert for lunch. Afterwards, I had the supposed best beer in the world and it really was great. He then paid the check for both of us, which extremely generous and counted the total with his fingers starting with his thumb instead of the index finger. I then said Tesimne (pleased to meet you) and goodbye (Na schledanou), he said the same and we shook hands. I then took the bus (a reliable source of transportation to the 50% of people who do not own cars) to my inn to sleep for countless hours because I was exhausted from the jetlag and sprint.
1-26-03
I went to mass this morning and had communion outside which was a unique characteristic from the western way of in the center of the pew rows. Also, the mass didn’t go into the spirituality of religion. It was as if the people only went because of former Catholic traditions before communist rule. Although 39% of the people are Catholic and Catholicism is the main religion, another 39% are atheists. The many years of propaganda has made them lose all religious background and lost the faith of the youth. I decided to take a nice stroll through Old Town Square. A crowd had formed around Old Town Hall and I decided to see what the entire hubbub was. It seems they were watching a surreal clock with two faces. I asked one of the locals and he explained that clock on top shows the time and the clock on the bottom shows the day and the saints statuettes circle the day clock every hour. There was also an astrological clock, but it was not accurate. Nikolaus von Kaaden, who designed the clock in 1410, made the clock for the pure whimsy of the strange timepiece and not only shows the time, but the romanticism of the city of Prague. As I walked down a street in Prague, I saw a few marzipan candies and cards in the shape of pigs. This must have been the unsold trinket from New Years. A time when people will give out these pigs for good luck. I thought it was irrelevant to the theme of New Years entirely, but it is the Czech custom. Right there, a gang member saw me and was chasing me at full speed. I then took off and jumped on a streetcar, which still exist in major streets, in my mad rush and he still was catching up to me. As he approached to the point where he could grab me, I gave him a hard whack with my suitcase on his head. Reaching a train station, I jumped off the street car and rolled a couple of feet before I picked myself up and began playing my heart out in a small corner of the street. After earning the money I needed for my real vacation, I took off on the train. Next stop, Karlovy Vary.
1-27-03
On the train today, I watched as Prague slowly disappeared. 70% of people live in urban cities and seeing the empty mountains and countryside was a nice change. I watched and saw the mines that have been mining anything from coal, iron, zinc and even uranium. I also saw barren land from fallen timber from over harvesting. There wasn’t much agriculture even with all the fertile land because after communist rule, it was hard to determine who owned what land and the small farmers who do own land usually share it with a company to make a living instead of stay self-sufficient. I thought I was out of the woods with the loan sharks crew, but once again, all five of them came after me. I opened the door of the train and jumped out onto the roof in my flurry. As they all followed me, I began running from car to car until I came to the caboose. Right when I thought it was over and the five men were staring at only me, through a miracle, I slipped and fell flat on the top of the car. A tunnel then made the gang scramble to the river flowing by and that was the end I ever saw stupid goonies. I then went back in the train and saw I could now go home right after a quick visit to Karlovy Vary.
In Karlovy Vary, I stayed at the famous spa resort to have relaxing, hot spring waters of the area. The Czech Republic is known for its tourism, which is where a large part of the economy comes from. This is why the per capita GNP of The Czech Republic is 2,730, pretty good for a country that just left communism. My nice little break before going back to the United States. I had a great experience that could have been better if my purpose was more leisurely, but that can wait for another year. These three days seem to have flied by and they would have been better if I had money to actually explore the rest of the Czech Republic that I never saw like the many castles and scenic views. I hope I can come back another time to finish my experience in this interesting and wonderful country of both the new and the old.
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