Globalization

Coming back from the U.S. to Slovakia I couldn’t have not noticed that our part of the world is more and more globalized / Americanized. The meals in the restaurants are bigger, the take out boxes in which you can take your leftovers are becoming popular, the people are carrying their coffee in the morning in plastic cups a la Starbucks and of course the people are getting “bigger”. I thought that all these things were typical for Americans but I was wrong! Moreover, globalization has affected jobs in the areas you would have never expected!

In August I traveled to Prague. I made a stop on the interstate and went to the little communist looking restaurant. Even the menu appeared to be from those times! However, the best of the best was the bathroom. There was a lady sitting in front of the door and collecting money for using WC. I was surprised because it had been a while since I saw the “toilet lady”! It reminded me the movies with working singing people and combine-harvesters. But again I was wrong. There was nothing old about this scene. A group of Spanish tourists came and after they found out that the toilets were not for free they seemed to be lost. It was evident that they didn’t have Czech coins. One of them asked the toilet lady: “Euros?” And the toilet lady without any hesitations and with a perfect accent answered: “Veinte cinco centimos!”

I couldn’t believe it! Then I realized that it doesn’t really matter where you live and what kind of job you do whether you are sitting behind the desk or in front (or even on) the toilet globalization will get you anyway!