Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Czechia: A Long Preparation
A Long Preparation My preparation for most of my fly in-fly out trips was often as little as 24 hours and typically 2-6 weeks. My first trip to Czechia was different. I prepared for that trip in general for 15 years: 1976-1991. First, in grad school, I took a couple semesters of Czech language instruction but had to stop for Cold War reasons best discussed in a different kind of book. So, my Czech went on hold quite early and for a very long time while still at a rather low level of proficiency. I also took courses for a certificate in East European Studies and in one course got deep into “discovery” related to Czechoslovakia. I was particularly interested in the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia (known militarily as Operation Danube) in 1968 that followed the Prague Spring, when Dubcek was beginning to bring greater freedoms into the country (Williams, 1997), but I had to stop sharing some of the discovery for the same Cold War reasons best discussed in a different k...