Tea!

Wandered around today. Went to this tea house in Wenceslas Square. It was very meditative and hippy-dippy. Loved it! There were these cushions that you could sit on so that you were basically sitting close to the ground. I had chai, but I know I will have to branch out the next time I go. I can't only get my favorite chai when there are so many other teas on the menu! Here's the website for it: http://tea.cz/cajovna/

Then, Shara and I wandered over to the Museum of Communism. It was a really interesting experience. The museum wasn't that big--but it was well done. It portrayed the Czech expereince with communism. I felt like a lot of the stuff I was reading overlapped a lot with the books I read for the Hannah Arendt seminar I took in 2006. She and the museum both talked about the ways that the society used fear as well as a nebulous, constantly changing target for this fear as a way of controlling the society. There were some amazing pictures of the tanks rolling into Prague in 1968. But there were some equally amazing photos of the people gathering in Old Town Square to protest in 1989. So, these major sights have been the place where major historical events have taken place.

Tonight in Old Town Square there was a concert. A huge stage went up virtually overnight amongst the old buildings and I was able to see about three groups tonight. Shara and I were remarking on the fact that the beer was still cheap (at U.S. concerts they take you for all you're worth!). And the people weren't making this huge mess by throwing stuff everywhere. Also, people were remarkably quiet, even though the square was packed! I keep noticing that about Prague. In restaurants, on the street, on the boat ride I went on last night, it's quiet! I feel like if I were amongst a bunch of Americans on a boat where there was a bar and buffet the din would be quite loud!

Anyway, tomorrow I meet with Bret Lott at 9 a.m. over coffee in a paneteria near school before class to go over what he thought of my story and to reflect on how the workshop went last week. I realized I haven't even talked about the experience of workshopping my story last week. I will have to do that. For now, suffice it to say I found it very helpful, and, the best advice Bret gave to me last week was --go back to your original impulse to write the story, whatever it was. (For me it was an image of this woman rather spacily walking around town, so much so that she was truly in a zone that was perhaps hard for others to figure out...)
So, he said go back to that impulse and try to peel back the layers of that and write from there. There are parts of my story that feel contrived and sort of like I am just having the characters do stuff to do stuff. I agree with him on that...and I also remember that when I was writing the story, I was sort of obsessed with this idea of having plot--which I now know is a no-no. Plot will come. So, I was giving the characters all of these things to do that might lead to some kind of action. But, really, I think the thing to do (and the hardest thing, at that)--is to write, and to wait and see where the character leads on her own...This takes a sort of patience and sort of release of ego--a getting out of one's way...that is my challenge...It is sssssllllooowww! but, it is where the true action is at!