My students are all adults working professionals and cover a wide age range. I have some students in the 20's, 30's 40's and 50's. They all have allowed me to gain insight into the Czech culture.
One of my students is a director at the airport. He is a geophysicist with a law degree. Highly intelligent! We often have conversations about communism. 20 years ago Prague was still communist. not that long ago. So Richard and I were talking about travel during communism. It was easy to get permission from the government to travel, but because of his profession he was able to travel from time to time. He said that one of the things that bothers him about travel nowadays is the queues. He said there is a queue for everything and everyone and all this does is delay travel times. He said during communism there was ONE line and you got in it and waited your turn.
He said nowadays there is plenty of discussion about what travelers want to go through the x-rays regardless of the posted policy, he says I respect the rights of others but now these rights impede my right for speedy travel. He said that during communism that if you disputed the posted sign you were taken out of the line and put at the end...if you still had something to say you were escorted out of the airport and you were not allowed to travel that day! HAHAHA! I nearly peed my pants when he was telling me this story. He said when you got on the plane there was NO discussion about window, middle or aisle seat...you walked on to the plane in a single file line and sat at the seat that you came to in line! Can you imagine that happening in the US? Not likely. Maybe I am a socialist at heart because I kind of like that idea!
