For the first year I lived in Prague, I found myself blushing whenever I glimpsed a bare body. Between the communal gym showers, topless sunbathing and popular therapeutic spas, it occurred more often than I expected. Although I didn’t think I was a prude, I was used to more privacy and less exposed flesh in similar situations in America.

In my fitness center’s locker room, I wrapped myself into a towel (a habit leftover from adolescent gym class days) before I shed my underclothes and donned my workout gear. When it was time to use the communal shower, I soaped up quickly and didn’t make eye-contact with anyone. I was envious of all the Czech teenagers and women who showered luxuriously, dried their hair wearing only their underpants, and chatted with their locker mates either partially or fully in the nude.

During the summer months, my cheeks got red when I passed the topless sun bathers at Prague’s large outdoor swimming pool in Podolí. Although I had seen them on the beaches in Nice and Cannes, I categorized it as something that locals did, but not someone like me. In my mind, sun bathing without your top was something you’d do only in your own backyard. Doing it in public seemed like exhibitionism. When I did a double take after seeing bare-breasted mothers chasing children on the beach in Croatia, I realized again how culturally ingrained my idea of nudity was.

That summer I often spent weekend afternoons with my then-new Czech boyfriend Radek at one of the lakes near Prague. When he asked me why I never took off my top, I tried to explain, but my argument that it just isn’t typically done in America fell flat. When I confessed that I was too shy, he raised his eyebrows in confusion. I began to question myself as well.

When we traveled to Croatia, I decided to be brave. We camped out on a deserted beach and when the sun came up, Radek jumped into the water without his swimming suit. I followed him. Although I was shyer once the beach was abuzz with bathers, I did manage to enjoy the experience once I managed to suppress my cultural self-consciousness.

The following winter while on a ski vacation with friends in the Alps, we visited a thermal spa. Although I’d swum nude in Croatia and occasionally sunbathed topless at lakes in the Czech Republic, I had never been naked in public in front of anyone that I actually knew (except Radek). I began work myself into a bad mood, which was ridiculous because after a long day of skiing, I had looked forward to relaxing in the mineral waters and sauna. So, I donned a smile, stripped down and tried to remember Radek’s advice that the worst thing to be is self-conscious. Once we were in the hot sauna, I was able to relax and even forget (a little) about being naked. People of all ages were there, and it was clear that everyone had only one idea in mind - to relax.

After living in Prague for a year and a half, when we moved back to America, I realized I had to readjust my ideas of what was appropriate. Our fitness center had a curtained area for changing as well as individual shower stalls. Even then, many people that I knew arrived in gym clothes and put off showering until they returned home. Changing clothes on a beach required finding a changing room, instead of just stripping down lakeside like we’d done in the Czech Republic. And although we saw a few women sunbathing with their tops untied, no one was actually topless.

Before having children, it didn't occur to me that these cultural differences would also cross-over to breastfeeding. While the breastfeeding trend is currently heavily promoted by medical professionals in both countries, it is only in America, with our long-history of Puritanism that breast-feeding, specifically in public places, is a hotly debated topic.

In August 2006, BabyTalk, a free parenting magazine published in the US, ran on its cover a picture of a baby nursing a bare breast. The magazine received more than 700 letters and incited a public debate about the appropriateness of breastfeeding in public. In an Associated Press response by Jocelyn Noveck entitled, “Strong reaction to public feeding revealed,” Noveck wrote that Americans are “squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast.” She also cited a 2004 survey where only 43 % of respondents believed women should have the right to breastfeed in public. Even women who breastfed for their baby’s health didn’t believe their husbands or sons should have to see it.

Living back in the Czech Republic in the fall of 2006, I used the magazine cover as well as Noveck's article as fodder for discussion in my English class at the K2 mother’s center. All my students were mothers and most, if not all, had nursed their children. Aside from being aghast that a mother’s right to nurse in public could ever be denied, they were also genuinely surprised that many American women would be reluctant to nurse in public. Breastfeeding in the Czech Republic is considered normal and natural and women are encouraged to feed their babies whenever necessary.

I’ve also noticed that where children are concerned when temperatures get warm, the fewer clothes the better is the general rule in the Czech Republic. On a hot summer day in the Třebešín park in Prague’s Malešice neighborhood, the small, shaded wading pool overflows with tiny splashing bodies. Although there are more than twenty bodies in the water, I spot just a handful of swimming suits. Most of the children splash naked and a few wear swim bottoms. Anna Lee is the only child sporting a full one-piece complete with ruffled skirt.

We’ve encountered similar situations at the local pools and when she took swim lessons, the other mothers would always comment on Anna’s full swim suit. Most of their sons and daughters wore very tiny swim bottoms. Trying to wriggle Anna in and out of her bathing suit for emergency bathroom runs made me wish she had on only bottoms, but she’s proud of her suits with ruffles. She’s gone swimming naked a few times at her aunt’s pool, and I’m sure this summer will bring more of occasions for swimming with (and without) her suit. If the Czech attitude rubs off, maybe she can grow up being a little less-self conscious of her naked body than I was of mine when I first moved to Prague.