I’ve got to say, I’ve been so used to living in the states that I’ve encountered some major culture shock while being here.  I imagined that culture shock was going to happen, but I didn’t imagine it happening like this… being polite in the states is not what it means to be polite here!  I’ve had countless moments where I’ll wave when a car lets me pass by as a pedestrian, head nod kindly at a stranger walking by, or smile at a stranger and not received any gesture in return.  There is an autonomy about people’s lives here where it’s almost better to not make any sort of gesture to someone you don’t know.  It’s fascinating to me that people genuinely mind their own business.  It’s not rude, it’s not personal, it’s just the way people operate over here.  I’m still learning how to operate that way and respect this culture, because I’ve been trained in the American version of being polite.  An instructor that we got to learn from mentioned that this gap in culture norms is likely due to the Communist period of Prague’s history, where citizens just learned to stay to themselves in fear of getting spied on by the communist party.  That is so intriguing and makes me sensitive to the fact that I shouldn’t make any judgements on the way people conduct themselves.  There can be a wealth of history behind their behavior that I don’t even know.  After two weeks here, I might go home and have friends and family asking me when I am acting “stand-offish”.  At that point I’ll kindly refer them back to this blog hah!