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Prague by manu_cz
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Here´s a simple example of what´s wrong here. The dark side of the Erasmus experience, if you want. Ana and me need an English grammar book for our proficiency course. We have searched for it in some bookstores but failed. So we go to the Rectorate where the Central Library is supposed to be. "No Central Library," says a German-like guy at reception. He gives me a phone and a number. "I´ve lived through this before," I think while I dial information. A metallic distant voice (like from Mars or something) informs me that we must go to the library in the second Faculty of Ed. in Rett. Street. OK.
At reception in Rett. they don´t speak English. They offer me another phone. No thanks. Enough calls for today. I ask a bookworm-looking guy. He points politely at a dark narrow hall and says, "But you need to fill some papers before taking books." Ok, no problem. Long queue; we stand in as cheerfully as possible though. Ana types the name of the book in a computer. Bad luck. There is only an old edition. Hmm… Well, let´s try. We ask for it, and they send us to the Reading Room. In the Reading Room a tall pale guy helps us to find it. Finally he says the book is not here. We must go to the first Faculty of Ed. and take it from the library´s English department. "Tomorrow we´ll try, ok Manu?" Ok.
Next day. We ask for the library in reception, first Faculty of Ed. etc. The man can´t speak English so he sends us to an Info Point in the Computers Room. Here they tell us where the library is, and when we finally get in we find the same guy as yesterday in the Reading Room, second Faculty of Ed. etc. "Glad to see you again." We get the book but he tells us it´s not the borrowing kind. Let´s photocopy it, then. Nope! He says we need "something" before. So we go again to the Info Point. They explain us that we have to put money in our Student Cards. "Ok. How much?" I plead trying to see light at the end of the tunnel. "Not here. In the Faculty of Arts." So let´s see: we have to go to the Faculty of Arts. Then ask there for the place where this putting money in cards is made. Next, find the place and do the thing. After that, come here again. Take the book. Make copies. Return the book. Say thanks. And maybe everything is worthless cause the book is an old edition and probably the text has changed. "Bye, bye," says Ana, "do whatever you want cause I don´t give a shit." I think it´s the right attitude; however I feel today particularly strong-willed, so I decide to go back to the library to copy it by myself, while repeating in a nietzschean style "I´m not a foreign student, I´m dynamite." And anyway, it´s only two pages.
I come in and tell the man, "Thank you very much, but it´s difficult to make copies, so here I go." He really feels sorry and suggests some alternatives. I refuse them all cause they seem to lead me again to tortuous and endless processes. Finally he proposes to make a photo with his digital camera and email it to me. I think it´s absurd, but I´m getting dizzy so say yes. He takes his camera, adjusts carefully tone, light and contrast, selects the most suitable mode and let´s go. "I expect not all the book haha." I chuckle, open the book and say "here." We look like surgeons in the emergency ward. He shoots. One. Two. Three. Four. Then he downloads the photos in his computer, picks up the clearest ones, and modifies size and position. "Fine, thanks," I say, "fine, thanks." Finally he sends the stuff to my address. I thank him again for his kindness and effort. "Just don´t tell this to anyone," this tall pale guy says, grinning and holding his camera like in a Fujifilm advert.
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