Field trip to Terezin  or stay in the dorm and write term paper for Czech Literature Class?  You decide.

“This is my golden opportunity to visit a concentration camp,” I say, with forced enthusiasm informed by a sense irony.

Memphis Earlene laughs in a  kindly way with just a hint of malice.

You can have the blues in Prague but they quickly turn into irony, informed by a history that includes the Thirty Years War, the extinction of the Jewish community, and 50  years of Soviet Occupation.

Scarlett reminds me there’s a third choice: shopping the Second Hand stores.

Only in Prague would a Second Hand store be called Revenge. That’s where she made me buy a retro cotton skirt with sequin trim.  Garish and girly, perfect for Scarlett, my fashion advisor, but I’d look silly in it.

“Au contraire,” says Scarlett, who knows five words of French and uses them whenever possible. “You can wear  it with irony.”

Irony, and a black t-shirt.