Chilling at the laundromat. Sorry about how blurry the pic is. When I advertise the trip, I talk about the chance to see palaces, fortresses, museums, and so on. I talk about the ability to learn to function successfully in a foreign country (props to Hannah and AJ for taking us home yesterday--and a reminder--if you know nothing else about the public transit system, you can still get home--as long as you know the name of the stop you want to end up at). But one of the things that makes this trip different than a vacation is the intentional effort to get a feel for what ordinary life is for in the places we visit. Certainly we visit tourist sites. But we also try to eat in neighborhood restaurants, walk around in residential and suburban neighborhoods and observe carefully the people we see (not nearly as much PDA this trip. Not sure what that means, exactly). We'd have to do laundry anyway (at least I hope so--men are always somewhat unpredictable). But there's something to be said for doing it alongside Czechs (or Brits--the other laundromat I typically use is in London) and getting a feel for what it looks like to perform such an ordinary task. It's the reason I encourage students to eat out of the grocery store--yes, you save a bit of money and probably eat healthier--but you also get a feel for ordinary life most tourists never get. And, while we take public transit for budgetary reasons, doing so gives you a feel for the city that you'd never get if you were locked up in a tour bus and driven from place to place. And it's a good reason to walk as much as we do (the high point of our trip, according to Marcus' app, was 12 miles in a day. Lot's of gelato being consumed to replenish our energy). Finally--Jake--Marcus did Hannah's laundry. As I recall, you managed to get the Megans and Randyn to do yours. Guess being the oldest does mean being the wisest.
