Clarifications, and some Shakes musings

Some clarifications, just to make sure you all don't think I'm incredibly lonely and desolate after that first post. Yes, the first week in the bookstore was a little long, but I am actually enjoying myself here quite a bit. I have gotten into the routine of running every morning (don't expect me to run a marathon or anything when I get back, but yeah, I run everyday) and have spent next to nothing on food, favoring the grocery store to eating out. I am getting more and more creative with my lack of refrigeration, though it has been sad not having eggs or milk or yogurt or meat or... yeah I really need a fridge. But other than that, things are good.

I use my German all the time here, owing to the fact that most of the German tourists who come in assume that I speak German and immediately start blabbering away, which is great, because I can understand them! Unfortunately, the Czechs who come in also assume I can speak Czech and immediately start blabbering away, which is NOT as great. I have, however, gotten really good at asking "Mluvite Anglicky?" to which the general response is a laugh and look of utter surprise that a girl working in the CZ can't speak the language worth a lick. One woman, after being informed of my lack of language skills, gasped and said "but you look Czech!" then laughed and said, "I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but you do!" I told her I'll take it as a compliment and we ended up chatting for quite a while. Just this morning, another old lady shook her head after being asked if she speaks English, but then perked up when I countered with my usual "oder vielleicht sprechen Sie Deutsch?" (or perhaps do you speak German?) and we then continued auf Deutsch. She told me that my German was very good and asked if I was Dutch. Haha. Nope.

Perhaps my most entertaining "lost in translation" moment was last week when an old man came bounding in the store and started gesticulating wildly. He was speaking in Czech, or what I thought was Czech. I reply with my normal "Mluvite anglicky?" but the man looks at me quizzically, continues talking and gesturing at the books on the counter. "English? Do you speak English? Deutsch? Koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" I try in a few other languages... "No, no, no" he replies. He manages to say "book","Cesky Krumlov" or something close to it, and continues to gesture with two fingers downward as if to say "here, I want a book about this place." Ahhh, I think, he wants a travel guide for Cesky Krumlov, so bring him over to the travel guide section and pick up the guide in Czech. "Is this one good?" I ask. "NO NO NO!" he says again, and this time I pick up something that sounds remotely like "Russian." Ahhhhhh, I think again. He's not speaking Czech, he's speaking Russian, no wonder he can't understand my Czech. This time I lead him to the guide written in Russian, which he finally approves of, then quickly disappears out the door without buying it. As soon as he's out on the street, he starts yelling for his wife, or sister, or whoever, and goes hollering through the streets of Krumlov (I can hear him as he's going around in search for his wife). In the meantime, a nice man from Kansas comes in and I help him find "The Good Soldier Svejk." Easy enough, we sell about a copy a week of that book (written by a famous czech author). As he's paying, back in comes the old Russian, accompanied by 2 other women and another old man. They bombard the counter, two guides in hand now, and are each talking at me in Russian, gesturing and waving the guides around. The Kansan (yup, I looked that up) looked at the Russians, laughed, told me "good luck with them!" and headed out the door.

First they motioned with their money, so I told them how much the guides cost. Or rather, I pointed to where it was written on the book. 149 crowns. "NO NO NO!" the ladies said, and kept saying "2 books! 2 books!" and one grabbed a piece of paper and pen, and wrote "130x2" on it. "Yes?" she asked. "No," I replied. I am NOT giving you those books for 130 crowns each.

This is a bookstore, I think, not a market. You cannot haggle the price of books. However, the four Russians in front of me seemed to think differently. Many cries of "YES YES YES" and "NO NO NO" were exchanged, and finally the other old man, who'd been standing quietly behind the others, says "Iz two bookes, come on..." which I couldn't refuse, so I wrote down "140x2" on the piece of paper. they seemed to be happy with this discount, (a 9 crown discount per book is about 40 cents... really?) and they finally paid and left.

There is also a Czech man who calls at least twice a week, and each day we have the same confused conversation over and over again. He mumbles "Hello? Hello?" into the phone and rambles on in Czech after I continue to tell him I can't understand. Our conversations are always about 1 part Czech, 1 part German, and 1 part English, with a large dash of confusion thrown in for good measure. I managed to get across that on the weekends the girl who works here knows Czech, but he has continued to call this week, so we'll see when he finally gives up...