discoteca

Sitting in a series of interlinked all-brick underground pubs, surrounded by new friends from Australia and Alabama and enjoying the Czech-pride Pilsner Urquell, a girl from another table kitty-corner to us leaned over, which sparked the beginning of our first authentic local experience.

A 22 year-old University student in diplomacy who spoke very clear English and Spanish, I complimented her many times on her language, though she was very self-conscious and struggled to receive the encouragement, but was quick to mention that Americans were very lazy because the majority of us only know one language.

She was very complimentary of American personalities, asking why I was smiling so much and nice to them. She didn’t fully comprehend the concept of being open and friendly—she mentioned that Czech people are often stereotyped as very cold and impersonal; though that has not been my experience.

I responded that life is about people.

(Based on my experience in Belgium, I could easily pin the country down as unpleasant and an anti-American place, but that would be a fool’s choice. We had a negative experience with one person, which temporarily changed our mindset of the city.)

Discouraged with her studies and career-outlook, she and had dreamed of being an international diplomat, but many people had been crushing her aspirations, convincing her that she didn’t have what it takes, the ideologies of former communist rule still evident in her mindset.

(The tagline for the Communist museum in Praha reads “Dream. Reality. Nightmare.”)

While she had her complaints on her visit to the U.S.—the inefficiency of America’s nearly all-auto travel model (we have yet to use a car in Europe), the dirtiness of New York City, the sun in Phoenix and the debauchery of Las Vegas—she ultimately envied its freedom, saying, “You can do anything you want.”

I responded, whether in ignorance or blind idealism, that I believe she could do the same. I told my new Czech friend of a quote I recently heard that said, “Everything I ever did that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.” The book The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson basically delivers a similar message with a focus on God-given dreams.

We talked about the power of outside forces on our lives—whether its religion, politics, stereotypes, education, family, friends, social oppression—and how that relates to the way we live day-to-day. The big question is this: can we choose to live in the way we’d like to live despite outside circumstances?

On a macro-level, I recognize that many things are outside of our control, many things are within our control. In most cases, we can choose to accept imprisonment, or we can live our lives freely.

This quality was famously personified through the biblical characters of Job and Paul, the first lost everything to the Devil’s scheming, yet refused to disrespect God, and Paul, who wrote in the ancient text about plenty and abundance, yet his hope in the redemptive work of Jesus in the world kept him content, even while in chains.

In the end, we accepted her invitation to look for a disco for some dancing. I asked for techno graces and assured them that my dance skills are limited (with the exception of the “YMCA” and “Chicken Dance” at wedding celebrations).

Her friends were just as friendly: a very beautiful and sweet girl-next-door brunette, a blonde firecracker with a red dress who informed us that she would prefer to be addressed as “The Boss,” but later resigned from the title after the second disco was empty, their male friend from Ecuador who was confused by my travel partner’s use of Spanglish, and a petit Czech girl who spoke little English, but was animated and full of energy.

With translation help via the blonde firecracker, the girl who spoke little English asked me why I came to Prague, to which I responded that “It’s very beautiful,” which it is. Looking disgusted by my cliché, she said some words I didn’t understand which were loosely translated into, “Everyone says that. Not good enough. Try again,” to which I responded with intricate details of the sites, the amazing view from Prague Castle and the ancient feel of the Charles Bridge.

That seemed to satisfy.

We ended the evening looking for a disco, traveling to four different places, all of which were closed, and we realized that what we were looking for was exactly what we had at the underground pub—enlightening conversation.