eating like a european...

i pointed out to the REU students at lunch on monday that you can tell if someone is european or american by how they hold their knife and fork... the students were amazed that it was true... then some of the czech students overheard and were amazed it was true too!

americans generally eat with our fork in our right hand. (as do europeans). however, when we need to use a knife, we put our fork in our left, cut with our knives in our right hands, then put the knife on the plate and put the fork back in the right hand. europeans, when they need to use knives, keep the knife in the right hand, fork in the left and eat lefthandedly while still holding their knives. amusing, but true... at least in eastern europe.

it's entertaining to see how many things we, as americans, do that make us stick out as different even when we try to be calm and non-sticking-out. here's another one..

the other night jan told me he had read all my online mass emails from my semester in budapest... and thought it was funny that i had written then that i had to teach myself not to smile at strangers since no one else did it. he commented, that that is a true observation and the further north you go in europe the more personal space people give one another and the less likely they are to say hi even to their friends. sarah asked him then, "so when you see a stranger smiling at you in the street, what do you think?"... jan started laughing and then replied "ah well, i guess i think 'well, surely that is an american!'"... go figure.

after talks all morning, jan and josef took melissa, sarah, arjun, sam, and me to the prague jewish quarter. when i was here in 2002 the group of us hired an english tour guide of the area so i learned a lot more that time, BUT there was horrible flooding this year, so of note, i got to see the pinkas synagogue not full of water and looking beautiful this time... our trip was short though... we visited the highlights then hurried off again... yesterday prague had a high of 93 degrees... when their usual average high temperature is 73 degrees this week of the year, they're not so much equipped with central air 90% of places you go... or fans... so you just swelter... jan thinks that yesterday's high was a record high in all time in prague for the past century. i'd believe it. even though it's around where it was in jersey all summer weather wise, without a/c or fans, it makes a big difference.

on the way back from the synagogues, jan pointed out a garden to us... here you are wandering the crooked old cobblestone streets of prague, when if you know the right door to go through, there are often whole blocks that are empty in the middle and filled with ornate gardens... the gardens sarah and i visited yesterday were of that variety too... you just have to know where to look. very european and very cool.

as far as g-ma stuff, i talked to my mom last night and got some more details. my mom had been in pittsburgh all last week and said grandma was quiet, but pleasant and responsive and generally happy to be around and smile and listen, but that she somehow just looked radiant. on wednesday, she was apparently completely unresponsive for the last 11 hours she was in the hospital instead of her nursing home... at some point wednesday afternoon her iv fell out and wouldn't go back in so they went to take her to get a triport put in, and on the way to that procedure she apparently took a long and sighing breath and just didn't breathe anymore... so she went very calmly and peacefully. i spent 2 hours just thinking and writing down memories last night until it was late enough to try to call people in the states... that was good for me.

now, the first conference we were here for finished today. there is another one tomorrow and sunday that more rutgers people should arrive for today (including two grad students: bill and mike, who i know reasonably well)... across the cafeteria at lunch today i saw deszo miklos and zoltan furedi... miklos is the hungarian director of bsm, and furedi was one of my professors in bsm 3 years ago; he's a really famous research mathematician. there will be many more of the hungarian mathematicians around this weekend, but the one i'm most looking forward to hearing is vera sos... she is a hungarian woman mathematician who has published and been best of friends with some of the very best other hungarian mathematicians of all time (laszlo lovasz, paul erdos, etc.)... for a field that's extremely skewed to men, though not as much as it once was, she's an extremely big name in combinatorics and has been for a long time. i'm excited that i get to hear her.

jan wants to take us out of prague to see a castle tomorrow... however our plans will quickly be adjusted depending on when sos speaks... we shall see...

dinner then back to the dorm to hopefully figure out a way to not be sweaty... it's sooo digustingly hot around here today.

done rambling.

i like europe :)