Yesterday evening, a small group of students and I participated in a local Czech photography club meet up, which sent us searching the streets of Prague at dusk for some photo-worthy moments. Eventually we found ourselves strolling along the scenic Vltava River, which was packed with pedestrians just after sunset. It was Tuesday night social hour, and there was no shortage of characters to photograph.

Again, it’s an everyday human interaction that catches my eye first. As we approached a slope that met the river below, we noticed a crowd of swans had formed around a young couple. It soon became obvious that the two were feeding the bird bits of rohlíky, a Czech staple bread that you can pick up at almost any grocery store in the city. The swans seemed to offer a delicate—rather than desperate—approach to consuming the pair’s offerings, unlike typical American pigeons or ducks. How European of them.

I love that feeding birds is a fascination of people across the globe. Though there have been times where I’ve struggled to relate to the starkly different customs of Czech people, ever so small commonalities like these remind me that we all share one human nature. I’m grateful that even tiny universals can serve a bigger purpose.