A Prague State of Mind

A view across the river of the Palace and Cathedral

     Back in May of this year, 2019, my colleague, Kristina Kaufman, and I were selected to lead this year’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management International Experience Trip which takes place every Spring Break in March. For the past several years, our Dean, Wes Lindahl, has organized these trips that included such wonderful locales such as Vietnam, Barcelona, Istanbul, Costa Rica, Brazil, and others. I was fortunate enough to be parts of the trips to Costa Rica and Brazil. Professor Kaufman and I were delighted to be running the trip for 2019. At my suggestion, we chose Prague. It is a city everyone, that has been there, raves about. It was someplace I have not been to and always wanted to go. Plus, Dean Lindahl had met with an agency that specializes in university tours such as our International Experience Trip. The group, International Study Programs (ISP), is actually based in Prague. How serendipitous was that?
     Shortly thereafter, Professor Kaufman, our newest and youngest professor, resigned for

Clock Tower in the Main Square

personal reasons. That was sad for both of us as she was really looking forward to working together and planning the trip. Another professor stepped in but only as a second professor on the trip. Essentially, I was on my own. So, I secured a marketing student as an intern to help advertise and market the trip. Lisa Poletto, the marketing student, was magnificent. She made flyers and had me in videos. We were excited. I thought we would break participation records. Come on, Prague sells itself. For sure, I thought we would easily surpass the ten folks needed to justify the trip.
     Well… as usual, I overestimated my salesmanship. Even with the excellent help of Lisa, we ended up with hearty crew of seven of us, including me, that made the trip. I am the only professor on the trip. I have the good fortune, however, to be with six wonderful people. Four are graduate students, Mike, Melissa, Donna, and Johana. Donna’s friend Vita joined and lastly, Max is an alum of both SBNM and the North Park Seminary. Max and Donna have been on several of these trips. The three of us were in Sao Paulo last year. Bottomline, we are all adults, self-sufficient, and responsible so, in essence, there is very little to manage. We are an easy and congenial group. Our agency, ISP, has set-up everything. We all have an app on our phones with our itinerary, background on the country and culture, a write-up of each place we are visiting, and suggestions of what to do on our free time. Their app is like a travel guide.
     Prague? We have been here two days and it has not disappointed. Often when you hear

Cobblestone Streets everywhere,
some are quite narrow.

other rant and rave about a place, you get there and are let down a bit. This is not the case here. Like Buenos Aires, it is a city of cupolas. It is not a huge city. It is very easy to get around by walking, public transportation, and Uber. It is old Europe. Many buildings have been here for centuries and are in beautiful shape, left unscathed from the ravages of World War II. The newer buildings are two hundred years old. The city is clean and orderly. It has become a tourist haven, but one only feels that in the main tourist sites. Otherwise, you just get into the pace of life here which, refreshingly, seems to be a step slower than we are used to.
     We took a tour of the city on our first morning here. It was a brisk spring day that got increasingly windy as we approached the river beautiful Vitava river that divides the city in two. In a word, Prague is magnificent. It is so different and steeped in history than we are used to and eye-opening in that regard. I suppose that if one lived here, one would perhaps

Symphony Hall

take eventually get used to the old world feel and history and take it for granted. I wondered how people from Prague feel when they visit an American city like Chicago? I felt, more so than normal, that I should hole up in a café, sip coffee, and write deep thoughts. It is after all the city of Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, and Vaclav Havel.

Melissa, Max, Johana, Mike, Vita, Donna and
our tour guides Teresa and Katerina