The Visitor (Part 1)

"We all tend to measure our worth by what we DO -the actions we take. We also highly value what we SAY. However, the greatest impact we have on our family, our friends, and our world is our kindness and love. A bowl of soup served with love is a greater gift than a steak dinner served brusquely.” ~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

March 19, 2013
The day started with the clanging sound of the cleaning crew crashing into our kitchen. Once a month, the private contractors who run the dorm get to come in and inspect the rooms. In exchange for this inconvenience, they clean the kitchen, bathroom, washroom, and floors. We’d gotten a note last night that today was our day for cleaning.

I rolled over and slept through most of the process, having stayed up entirely too late—even by my standards—the night before blogging and reading. I slept till I absolutely had to get up for class. When I did, I noticed that the room was remarkably cleaner. I also noticed our hot plate cooker was gone?

“Ante? Where’s the cooker?” I asked.

“They took it,” he said.

“Why?” I asked. He handed me a note.

Apparently, the hotplate was supposed to have a nob on it to control the temperature—would have been nice to know a month ago. They cleaning staff had discovered that ours didn’t and reported it as broken. As a result, they had seized it for being unsafe and if we want one back, we have to pay 180 crowns for a new one.

A few of the Czech students had warned us about this. Apparently, the exchange students are often targets for making repairs. Since all of the leases we signed upon move in were in Czech, we didn’t know that one of the forms was to report any damages. Therefore, anything that was damaged is assumed our fault. Since the university won’t release our transcripts until we pay for damages…we are at their mercy on this one.

In the end, 180 crowns basically breaks down to $2 USD per person. Bjorn suggests we don’t pay it on principle but I think burning pasta on a functional hot plate will be an exciting new experience.

The rest of the day was pretty interesting. We had a great presentation in marketing class on European generations and demographics (more on this in a later post.) I also started my first intensive class on International HR Management (more on this too.) But the highlight of the day was having dinner with Keiko—my first visitor from the States.

I first met Keiko last semester. She was my Intro to Management professor at my home university, and at the time we met, I only knew her by her professional title of Dr. K. Over the course of the semester, I spent a great deal of time in her office. With traveling back and forth for work with Boy Scouts, as well as being fairly preoccupied with my Dad’s SCUBA accident, Keiko was unbelievably helpful and sympathetic. A fellow SCUBA diver—SCUBA instructor actually—we shared diving stories as well as stories about the book she was writing.

Being from Japan, she had done extensive research on Japanese business practices, specifically of companies that had been around for 600+ years. Ethical business practices were Keiko’s focus. She is the only professor at the university who teaches the “Business Ethics” class. While at times her students have accused her of being socialist, she firmly believe in finding green and ethical ways to produce products and make money.

One of the ethical issues she presented to our class was a case study (at the time it was a current event in the news) of a college in Vermont, who owned two oxen as the school’s mascots. The school was very big in self-sustainability and used the oxen for agricultural work on a farm that supplied the school with fruits and vegetables for the dining halls. The animals were featured at school events (sporting events, graduations, etc.) They had names and were characterized across campus. When the oxen reached an age where they were no longer able to perform the agricultural work on the school’s farm. It was decided that they would be slaughtered and turned into hamburger meat…for the school’s dining hall.

Keiko got outraged! She even sent them a letter. In class, however, she led a very fair discussion about the pros and cons of the situation. On one hand, slaughtering the animals and using them as planned fit with the school’s mission of being self-sustaining. It also reduced costs for the school, by allowing the money allocated for food purchases to be redirected to other academic areas. On the other hand, it felt morally wrong to feed the students the school mascots. Students had written blog and Facebook posts that it was like eating a pet or a member of the family.

Two other options had been presented. A farmer had offered to purchase the animals from the school and house them at his own expense so that they could still appear at school functions. Additionally, the meat processing company had offered to purchase the animals and ship the meat out across the country so it wasn’t consumed by the students.

In the end, Keiko’s letter and the outcries of the community went mostly in vain. The oxen were slaughtered on scheduled, and the school’s hamburger consumption dropped exponentially.

About midway through the semester, Keiko stopped me in the hall. I was on my way to my finance class but she said she wanted to talk to me. She told me, “I wish I was your graduation advisor. I have a feeling that you will change the world. My feelings are never wrong.” Needless to say, some paperwork was filed that afternoon, and I was transferred from Dr. Thomas’s advising group to Keiko’s. That was the point she let me start calling her Keiko.

Keiko was in Prague for three days this week, teaching an intensified version of her Business Ethics class to a Czech group of students. She had taught here once before (last semester) and had actually been a great help in giving me info to prepare for my time at the university here.

I’d gotten an email from her back on Sunday and we’d agreed to meet for dinner tonight. When my HR class got out, I went downstairs to meet her by the café in the Paradise Building. As soon as I came down the final flight of stairs, I saw her standing outside the café wearing a long purple coat and carrying a rolling briefcase.

“Hi!” She said as I walked up. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” I said. “How are you.”

“Hello Keiko,” a voice from behind me said. I turned. It was Ryan, the other student from my university who was studying in Prague this semester.

“Oh you both got here at the same time,” Keiko said. “I wanted to treat you both to dinner.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“That’s a lot to ask, Keiko,” Ryan said.

“Yes, I’m sure. I am excited to see two of my favorite students,” she said. “Where do you want to go?”

We both shrugged. “How much time do you have?” she asked.

“I am free all night,” I said.

“I have a couple hours,” Ryan said.

“Well let’s head into town and see what we find,” she said.

We walked down the steps and out of the building.

“I expected to find you both crying and missing home,” she said. “How are you doing being away so long?”

We both said we were doing okay.

“I go back and forth,” I said. “I haven’t wanted to go home yet, but I do have some nights when I miss people and freak out a little bit.”

“It’s the longest I’ve been away from home,” Ryan said. “But I feel like there’s just a ton to do here so I’ve never been bored.”

“How was your flight over?” I asked.

“It was good,” she said. “I got in last night, and I feel so jet lagged.”

“I’ve been here for a month and I still feel jet lagged,” I said.

“Me too,” Ryan said. “I feel like I sleep all day.”

We walked out the tram station and waited for the 9. Ryan offered to carry Keiko’s rolling briefcase, but she declined.

“Do you want to try Czech food?” Ryan asked Keiko. “Or did you have some while you were here last time?”

“I don’t think I want to,” Keiko said. “I am kind of vegetarian so I don’t like to eat it.”

“We could catch the 26,” I said. “My friend works at an Italian restaurant.”

“Italian is good,” she said.

“Sounds good to me,” Ryan said.

We caught the 26. As we rode along, Keiko asked me how my Dad was doing and was pleased to hear he was doing so well.

It again took me a few extra twists and turns to find the restaurant. As we walked, Keiko told us about a conference she had attended in Orlando the week before.

“You will never believe it,” she said. “There was a street performer with an alligator who had duct-taped the alligator’s mouth shut and was letting tourists sit on it for photos. I walked up to him and told him ‘that alligator does not like having people sit on him. It is very cruel way to treat an animal.’ He got right in my face and told me ‘you don’t know nothing about alligators, woman.’ It was not even grammatically correct.

"You will never believe what I said,” she continued. “I never say this, but I was so mad I said, ‘I am a professor and I do not appreciate being spoken to that way.’ And he said, ‘What kind of professor; a professor of idiots?’ I was so mad, but when I told my kids about it, they told me not to get in situations like that. They think I am too dangerous when I share my opinions but I think I have to be the voice for the voiceless sometimes.”

When we found the restaurant, it was very crowded. The waitress asked us how many and directed us upstairs to a table that was reserved for a party later that evening. Both of them ordered water, and I got Mirinda. Keiko asked for sparkling, but Ryan said he really doesn’t like the carbonated taste.

The lighting was quite dim. Keiko put on her glasses, but still asked Ryan for help reading the menu. I also squinted and decided on the shrimp dish I’d had before. When the waiter came, Keiko said she wanted the same thing and asked us for help ordering it.

“He speaks good English,” Keiko pointed out when the waiter left.

“It’s funny,” I said. “He’s waited on me before and he spoke Czech the last time.”

“He must have heard us talking and knew we were Americans,” Ryan guessed.

“You know,” Keiko said. “I was once touring some Korean students around town back home and I took them to a traditional Japanese restaurant. In Japan, they drink miso soup like we drink tea. They just pick the whole bowl up and drink it. Well when they brought the soup, they put a spoon in my bowl and no one else’s. They said the way I talked they didn’t think I was real Japanese, but they knew the students were.”

Ryan and I each shared experiences we’d had in Prague. “Everything is just so laid back,” Ryan said. “Things get frustrating but you just have to say ‘it’s just Czech’ and smile about it. I’ve also made some really good friends with the Scandinavians. They are awesome.”

“I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with different cultures too,” I said. “And I have to tell you Keiko, you are definitely not a socialist.”

She laughed and relayed the story to Ryan about the student who vehemently accused her of proselyting her political beliefs in class last semester. “Everyone thinks the US is so unethical and unregulated,” I said. “It is so not true. The US is a lot better at regulating business and protecting people than most of the cultures I’ve talked to.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” Ryan said. “There doesn’t seem to be much religious influence here either. The morals are just different.”

“I sensed that last time I was here,” Keiko said. “In US we don’t think religion matters but it really shapes our entire culture in America. Our values are so much from religion that without them, everything feels different.”

“I also have to tell you Keiko, and I hope you aren’t offended by this, but I heard an American student ask a Chinese student what is difference between a Chinese person and a Japanese person.”

She laughed and laughed. Ryan chuckled too. “The Americans seem to be the rudest group of people here,” he said. “And certainly the worst educated.”

“You two are good ambassadors for our country,” Keiko said.

When our food came, Keiko commented on how small the portions were. I relayed to her the conversation that I’d had in the tavern in Kutna Hora about foods. GM foods were of particular interest to her.

“I just read a study,” she said. “A company has taken the gene from a flounder fish that allows it to survive without oxygen for so long and put it in tomatoes. It lets the plants be stored in un-oxygenated environments. Now do you think fruit grown without oxygen is healthy for people? We have no science to know what it does to us.”

“All the fruits and vegetables taste so much better here,” Ryan said.

I agreed. “The meat too. Back home, I’m allergic to shellfish,” I said. “I’ve been eating it in small portions here and not having any trouble with it.”

“Shellfish in the US is so unhealthy,” she said. “I shouldn’t say this while we are eating shrimp, but Taiwan shrimp that are shipped to the US are raised on a supplement that consists mostly of pig poop. The bacteria that get into the shrimp aren’t bad for us directly, but their side effects are still unknown because our digestive systems can’t process it.”

“We really don’t know a lot about science,” Ryan said.

“It’s true,” I said. “If you think about what we know with DNA and outer space and so many other things…everything we ‘know’ comes down very much to the best tested theories rather than hard evidence.”

“I think too many things in our world happen with no explanation to put all our faith in science,” Keiko said. “People always say there must have been something you just didn’t see or didn’t know, but I think there are forces in our universe we can’t explain.”

“And what fun would a universe be if we knew everything about it?” I joked.

“Exactly!” she said.

We continued chatting about the different cultures we’d encountered and the “ah-ha moments” we’d had. Keiko shared with us about her family. I remembered her telling me before that she had a grandchild but I couldn’t remember if it was a boy or a girl. When I asked, “How is your grandson?” I guessed wrong…her granddaughter however was doing very well.

“I finished my book too!” she said.

“Very cool!” I said.

“What’s it about?” Ryan asked.

“It is about empathy in business and finding ways to motivate people,” she said. “I coauthored it so only some chapters are by me, but it comes out in stores in July 1.”

We both agreed that was very cool.