Occasionally, we went out at night. We sat in cafes, got together and watched popular American television Nate had downloaded onto his computer, drink wine in dimly-lit bars or dine on fine foods in new restaurants we’d discovered. Renata only had a cable modem, which was connected via USB cable to her own crappy Czech-brand laptop. In order to connect it to mine, I had to disconnect the cable, restart the modem and have the IP address reconfigure to my computer. After I was done, I had to unplug the cable, restart the modem once more, and plug the cable back into Renata’s computer so that when she wanted to use the internet, there wouldn’t be a problem. I always felt bad doing this, like I was stealing her internet, a creature of privileged, American habit, so I’d tote my laptop around Vinohrady looking for places that had free wifi, or allowed wifi as long as you purchased something to drink. Lots of places that advertised wifi didn’t even have it, or shut it off by a certain time, or had it but it wasn’t working. I’d be too embarrassed to use my Czech in hopes of some clarification, so I’d sit in these places for hours, nursing a glass of wine or a pint of beer, pretending to use my laptop for work.
