Yet another American movie that I saw for the first time in the Czech Republic: Blues Brothers.
I went to a lecture by Tania Le Moigne, the woman responsible for establishing Google in the Czech Republic. Seznam is the search engine/email provider that most Czechs use, and Le Moigne has a very interesting story about getting involved with google.cz. In her pre-Google days, she started a company that made board games for children. Her favorite is a manners-focused game called "Don't Pick Your Nose." She brought a copy of this game to one of her Google interviews and got the job, leading her to reflect that "It's good to do something different."
Some of her other interesting thoughts:
- "you don't have time for safe bets"
- "Google wanted to develop new programs for the Czech market; I told them that we needed to work on converting the programs we already had into Czech first. Why would I use a search engine that doesn't speak my language? That was first priority."
- "It's called an ecosystem. Interesting people know interesting people."
- "The weakness of Google is that it doesn't communicate with its users well. People don't know about all of the programs we offer."
Why was I at a business lecture? I'm not sure, but it was interesting.
These days have been filled with planning for my family's arrival, brainstorming and researching for my final projects, and keeping up with my homework. Somehow, though, I've found time for visiting breweries, making midnight brownies, and saw Harry Potter 7 (part 1).
So the experience of going to the movies in Prague...First thing to note is that seats are assigned. We picked a showing of HP7 in English with digital Czech subtitles and sat right up front. Not to give any spoilers (trying hard!) but the scenes with the ministry propaganda office, propaganda posters, and the constant uncertainty that comes with life during wartime impacted me much more that I think they would have if I had seen them before spending time in an ex-Soviet state. The movie had an intermission, which caught me off-guard. I still say Emma Watson is too beautiful to play Hermione, but oh well.
I'll leave off there to avoid real spoilers. Let it suffice to say that I definitely belong to that generation that grew up with the Harry Potter books on our bedside tables. Strange to think that it's all ending soon.
Suddenly it's the 19th and Cass is arriving tomorrow. Strange to think that all this will be ending soon too. Such strange seasons my life has.
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