Friendly Aside.
Just, by the way here… Have I mentioned yet how swelteringly warm it has been over the last week? Just, a kind of hot that we were entirely unprepared for?
No real complaints of course. Goodness though, when you have to walk up somewhere between 6 - 10 sets of stairs to get to class, the mild humidity and unexpected heat is entirely unwelcome.
Please understand, it has nothing on Sydney Summer/Spring/some of Autumn heat. Nothing at all, but it has so much on Sydney Winter, or at least the Winter we left behind… We keep telling people that it’s hotter here than it is in Australia at the moment, they don’t believe us, I am not surprised.
Although, as warm as it is here, this delightful European sunlight might as well be a complete nothing in the sky. A standard household light globe for all intents and purposes, just on an excessively large scale, and teasingly far away in the eyes of every moth that ever sees daylight.
What I mean is, it appears to produce little to no heat, only light.
The Australian sun, as most of you are very aware, I’m sure, not only produces excessive amounts of light (particularly in the morning) but also the kind of heat you expect to find in some inordinately giant, overpowered, industrial microwave. The sort of thing that might holocaust a Christmas roast in a matter of seconds.
So, we’ve gone from a place where cosmic rays can literally penetrate heavy cloud cover, and still razor the skin from your face in a matter of minutes - to a place where (I assume) you can stare directly into, blink a couple of times, and then your eyes will adjust, and everything is fine.
It’s a complicated world, obviously.
Now, what else is nice… Ah, going to the corner store/mini-market and picking up a pack of beer, or wine, for around the same price as a glass of the same stuff in a Sydney restaurant or pub.
This is seriously convenient. It’s also open until 11pm. This is extra convenient.
More? I am of the opinion that the Czechs, as a people, have a view of train-etiquette that is much in line with my own.
I am quiet, and you are quiet. I look around, and occasionally stare at you, you look around, and sometimes stare at me.
However, I don’t talk to you, and you don’t talk to me - unless of course, there is some overriding and incredibly important reason ( “Where did you get those deliciously tasteful headphones?” is just one example.
When it’s time to get off of a crowded train, as long as I know you’re there, I simply move out of your way without being asked - and if the situation is reversed, you move out of mine, even to the point of stepping off of the train, and back onto it afterwards.
Just a few points really, but it’s good to know that my normal train-behaviour, essentially makes me look like a local - now… if I could only work out how they know that I’m not…
