all i can think of now is the crack stack although apparently thats nice.
one interesting opportunity this trip has granted me is the chance to talk to people who have lived through or right after the communist era. It's very strange at first listening to someone talk about the reality of what I've only ever read about in history text books. They have quite interesting things to say too. Being American even if i disagree with it I have a the very villianized and onesided view of communism handed down to me by history and the news. The general consensus I get though was that it was tough, difficult at times and bad but it wasn't necessarily all bad or as bad as we think, life still went on. Most people still wish they had free healthcare and it was nice to have a guaranteed salary, and at least in the Ukraine drug where never a serious problem till after the fall of the U.S.S.R.. Of course a lot of it still sucked too, the czech republic was ruled by an idiotic puppet government that took its cues from Moscow for example. A ukrainian guy told me something that summed it all up quite well to me. He said during the communist era you'd go into the store and there was only one brand of eggs or bread or milk, now you walk into a market and there are like 10 brands of milk and eggs and bread and thats nice all but is it really necessarily?
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