At Home in Strasnice, Prague 10

We are learning Czech, and I want to teach you about the letter c.  A plain old c sounds like ts.  So our new home is in Strasnitse.  If we put a little hat, or hachek over the c, it sounds like ch.  But ch doesn't sound like ch; it sounds like a hard H.  Remember The Princess Bride, when the Spaniard said "Hello, my name is Emilio Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die."  He said "hello" with a hard h - almost like he was getting ready to spit.  Bread in Czech is Chleb, with the hard H sound.  When I asked for shleb or "ch"leb, they looked at me like I was from Mars.  I have a very bad accent, I guess.  So forget all about Strasnice, and just say we live in Prague 10.  It'll do, even on envelopes.
   We found an apartment we thought we could live in, but it was unfurnished.  We just couldn't imagine the difficulties of finding furniture and schlepping it up to a third floor walk-up.  We found another, a bit small, but furnished, in a remote part of the city.  But we were all set to take it, high fiving each other and everything.  We just wanted to be extra, extra sure, so we went to look at one more place.  And found our home.
   It is on the east side of Prague, a little further out than the expensive "ExPat" neighborhood of Vinohrady.

We are at the blue circle.  The green metro line is just north of us.  The tram line is just south.  But we are on a small, one-way street with little traffic.  There is an open field behind us, but we were warned a new house will be built there over the next 18 months.  That's why we could afford this nice place.  

Our house has the brown roof and white walls.  We are on the upper floor, just under the roof, and have views out three sides of the house.  

Did I forget to tell Bart not to take pictures of my back?  This is taken from our balcony.  We get a great breeze, and hear many birds singing, mainly Mockingbirds.  They sound very pretty.

bedroom - bed almost down to the floor, and almost as hard.  I ordered a memory foam topper from Amazon.DE in Germany.

This is a panoramic shot Bart took with the kitchen in the middle, door on the left to the dining room, door on the right to a walk-in pantry.  

The living room.  Views out over the balcony.  There is a smaller balcony off the bedroom.  Just to the left of this shot is a working fireplace.  We never thought we could afford anything this nice, but we shall see how we feel when the new house construction begins next door!

We moved in on Saturday, May 19.  We were exhausted.  Bart carried 4 suitcases weighing over 45 pounds each down 4 flights of stairs (23 steps to each flight), and then back up another flight to the new apartment.  We hired a van to help with transport because we couldn't imagine getting all that plus small boxes and my bike here on public transport.  The van only cost about $35, which was worth it.  There is a grocery store about 5 blocks away, near the Metro station (Skalka).  We are also near bars, restaurants, and other shops, but none on our actual street, which is nice and quiet.  The landlady lives downstairs, and her 35-40 year old son lives upstairs, and that's it.  

Now in August I'm editing this post to add more pictures, including the construction going on next door in what was originally a lovely open field with small trees, the Fire Dept offices across the main street down where we pick up the tram, a tram schedule for the #22 (we also catch the #26 here), a sunset, and a cement high rise down at the next tram stop that has a Potraviny (minimart) we have shopped at.  

Almost Homeless!

me at Lucerna Mall by the statue of Duke Wenceslaus riding an upside down horse, hanging from the ceiling.  David Czerny did the statue, and many other famous ones around Prague that we can't wait to see (moving Kafka Head, Pissing Men, Pink Russian Tank, Babies Crawling up a Tower.  He liked to provoke controversy.  Oy.

The panic has begun.  Our student housing apartment contract ends May 20, and we haven't found a new place to live.  We checked out a place way out of town yesterday, but it was on the 4th floor again, no elevator, and road construction going on out the window, so no tram, just a crammed, stinky bus.  No thanks.  Plus the living room couch didn't fold out into a bed for company.

Every day we've been trying to see some new sight.  Yesterday it was the Old Town Square.  There is a very famous Astronomical Clock there, but it is under scaffolding for repair work right now.  We admired the statue in the middle of Jan Huss, who started the Hussite movement, breaking off from Catholic problems with inequality and greed before Martin Luther did.  Then we had a tour of St. Nicholas, the Hussite Church on the square.  It is supposed to have awesome acoustics, and there are classical music concerts there at 5 and 8 pm most days.

We tried grocery shopping.  I wanted crackers to go with the lovely cheese I've gotten at the Farmer's Market.  No luck.  I can get rice cakes, or Wasa crackers, or Pringles.  I showed the grocery clerk the word for cracker in my dictionary: suchar.  She brought me to sucr - sugar.  sigh.  It is hard to shop with all the words in Czech, and few pictures of what is in the container.  Most soup is dry, and in packets, not cans.  There is almost no coffee creamer, and definitely none with flavors.  I found two glass jars with something resembling spaghetti sauce.  We couldn't find dill pickles. And these people love pickles!  Bart found some bread sticks that looked crunchy.  Meh, they were so-so, a bit soft, and had fennel in them.  We will switch to baguettes.  The only sliced bread is stale from the get go, and called "toasting" bread.  Most bread is rye.  It comes wrapped in paper.  Cheese is also wrapped in paper.  This apartment has a "kitchenette," so we aren't doing much cooking anyway.

We were really hoping for a cheap apartment, but it is hard to find, as prices have been soaring in the past year.  We will end up with 800-900 per month for a one bedroom with a kitchenette, or kitchen, furnished, but probably walking up a few flights of stairs.  We will have to pay 1 or 2 months deposit, plus a full month's rent to the realtor for their commission, plus first month's rent. I'm still job hunting.  But the man who runs/owns The Language House says I'll make more money for my teaching online to Chinese students through VIPKids.  That is fine.  But I don't have many students, and right now the wifi is too slow to connect to the Skype-like classroom they use so the student and I can see each other while I teach.  I'm afraid to schedule classes, and then have connection problems and get fired.

I got a bank account, but we are having an awful time getting money transferred into it from our US bank.  We are using an app called TransferWise that doesn't charge a commission, but the whole process is complicated.  We need to hurry up and get cash to put down on an apartment.  If we have to pull it all from ATMs, we pay commission, get a poor exchange rate, and can only pull about $300 per day.

I'm very nervous about pick pockets.  So in addition to the backpack I wear, I have a belt pack under my blouse with money, credit cards, id and my public transport pass.  Bart has been wearing cargo shorts with his important things in the Velcro pockets.  I begged him to stop wearing his cell phone on a clip attached to his belt, for all to see.  I have my cell phone in my hand at all times, mostly so I can figure out where we are going.  I got an app called Moovit that tells which tram, bus or train to take, how many stops, and then buzzes to tell you get off at the next stop.  Then it fails totally to tell you which direction to walk, and you go up and down the street trying to figure out whether the little blue dot that represents you is walking along the dotted line or away from it.  I'm sure we look like crazy fools walking along staring at our phones.  Bart says too much typing noise - I must be blogging you all to death.  I'm taking him to the Charles Bridge and Farmer's Market early tomorrow morning, so good night.  I'll add pictures later.  I have to get them off the "icloud" and downloaded onto the computer before I can link them here.

Statue of Duke Wenceslaus, a symbol of Czech Nationalism, who did more than I can tell here.  He was canonized as a saint, and kings would kneel before his tomb to be crowned.  Locals like to say "I'll meet you under the horse's …. (tail)"

This is an "AntiToilet" to keep homeless people and everyone else from soiling the base of the statue.  They are also along the sidewalks in places to keep us all away from likely nooks and crannies.

This is a huge open area, where hundreds of thousands gathered in 1989 when they convinced the Communists to leave.  It was called the Velvet Revolution, as it was peaceful.  The Berlin Wall had just come down.  Masses of Czechs and Slovaks gathered here night after night, jangling their keys to show they wanted to be unlocked from their chains.  

Behind the statue is the National Museum, meant to show the world that the Czechs had their own culture and heritage and deserved their own nation.  Under the Hapsburgs their language was not allowed, and only peasants spoke it.  They had to work to get it back.  There are Soviet bullet holes in the columns from the 1968 Crackdown.  

In commemoration of the history of Czechia these 20 panels tell what happened from 1348 - 1918 (The Historical Eights) 

This is a memorial to two young men who burned themselves to death in 1969to protest the 1968 crackdown by Russian Communists.  One was named Jan Palach, and he is still a national hero. The Velvet Revolution was on the 20th Anniversary of his death.

We had ice cream at a spot the locals love, and ate it here in the Franciscan Gardens, where it is said many lovers meet.  

Statue of Wild Nymphs!

Allen and Anna in Kutna Hora at the BONE CHURCH

I see I didn't do a post on Kutna Hora, which is crazy, because it was so awesome.  Since Allen and Anna flew to Prague with me after my week visiting them in Morpeth, they stayed the long weekend and went exploring with me.  I think I wore out one pair of shoes.  Friday, April 20, we took a train east to Kutna Hora to see the Sedlec Ossuary and two other churches.  btw, the letter c in Czech is pronounced as a ts.  So Sedlec is pronounced sedlets.
Back in the days of King Arthur, and the Crusades, a monk travelled to Israel, and came back to KH with dirt he had scooped up on Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.  He sprinkled it in the cemetery, and suddenly everyone wanted to be buried there, go figure.
The city was in Bohemia until after WWI.  There were wars, plagues, and invasions.  So there were plenty of bones piling up in the graveyard.  So to make room for more burials, old bodies were exhumed, and the bones put in the church underground.  Now there are 4 enormous piles of bones in the corners, a huge chandelier of bones, in the center, containing at least one of every bone in the human body, and garlands of skulls draping the vault.  There is also a coat of arms executed in bones.  Allen and Anna took lots of pictures, and here are a few.

This place is one of the most-visited in the country.  I know lots of my family members want to see it.  We had a traditional Czech big meal at lunch up by St. Barbara's Cathedral, and took pictures looking out over the countryside.  I would love to live there for a month or so.
The town center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I'm hoping to visit more of those, and start a collection.  We also went through the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, and Allen and Anna went up the free floating staircase to see the flying buttresses from above.  It is an important Gothic Czech building started in around 1300, but I don't know much about that stuff.  The Sedlec Abbey was begun in 1142 by Cistercian monks, but burned down in 1421 by Hussites (protestants).  Ever the Catholic/Protestant fighting.
We walked from the train station to this latter church and the Ossuary, then took a bus into town and walked again to St. Barbara's up on the hilltop.

Settling In?

I've had 1 week of classes at The Language House, and then 1 week of making arrangements so we can stay.  I had 2 job interviews last week, one in person for EDUA, and one online for TAL in China.
Sad to say, the wifi here is too slow for me to teach VIPKids, so I have to wait until we move to our more permanent apartment.  At the EDUA interview (to teach small groups of adults part time), I mentioned we would consider moving to Brno to live.  It is smaller than Prague, with fewer tourists, and supposedly just as lovely.  But it is over 3 hours away, so our guests would want to find a place to stay in Prague for part of the visit.  We could rent an AirBnB and stay with them, to show them around.  Or we could just stay here in Prague, move more to the outskirts, and I would commute in to work.  EDUA will get back to me this coming week.
Here is the church in front of the EDUA school building:

After my interview I took a tram across the river to a very touristy area to see the Vrtba Gardens.  It was hard to find!!! I found the tower of St. Nicholas Church, but am waiting for Bart to see it with me.  Here are pictures of me and Vrtba Garden, still in my purple interview outfit.  

Bart arrives tomorrow.  I can't wait to have him here to go on adventures with me.  I'm lonely.  My classmates are great, but very busy still taking their classes.  There is a Marathon in downtown Prague today, and if Bart had been here I would have gone.  But I didn't want to deal with the train and big crowds all on my own today.  I still might go to the local soccer game tonight at 5.  It's just down the hill on Husinecka street by the tram stop I use.  Last week the game there was very loud and sounded like fun.  I live in a neighborhood called Prague 3, or Zizkov.  The local team is playing, and they are in the 2nd level of national teams.  Their season ends this month.  I wonder how early I have to arrive to get a seat.  Or maybe it is sold out.
Yesterday I went to the Vinohrady Farmer's Market.  It's only a half mile away, but all uphill.  I took the 135 bus and then the green line train to get there, and then walked home afterward, all downhill.  Vinohrady has a lot of expats, and is an expensive but beautiful place to live.  I found an apartment for rent just beyond it, in the next neighborhood out, that looks very promising.  But I won't make a decision until I have a job.  I need to send out more resumes.

Friday night students from the March TLH class invited our April class to meet up at 6 pm at Letna Beer Garden.  I met some new people, and saw several of my classmates.  One asked where I had been this week, and I explained that I just did a 1 week refresher course, but am invited to sit in on other lectures, and may come in this next week.  Letna was very nice, and I definitely want to go again with Bart.
I have an app called Moovit that helps me figure out how to use public transport to get around, and it sent me to a stop on my side of the Vltava river, and then walk across a bridge and up a big, big hill to get to Letna.  To get home, I asked Nolan from the March group if there was a better stop I could catch the tram from to get home.  He sent me in the opposite direction, and I found a #26 tram right by a huge arena where a soccer (I'm going to start saying football, fyi) match was going on.  The crowd sounded like a monster, swelling up to roar all together.  I'd love to go see a match there, too, but not on my own.  I've heard these European football matches can have very rowdy fans, and it might be dangerous.  Czechs love their football, and hockey too.  Personally, I want to see tennis and bike racing.  Like the Tour de France.
My left hip and knee have been wonky, and I'm walking in pain most of the time.  But I take Aleve, and try to get in 10,000 steps a day.  Just save me from the hills!  Today I'm heading out to a peaceful, nature-filled cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried.  Someone from the March TLH course lives near there, and says it is a lovely place to go for a walk.
I'm working on my bullet journal of Czech places, and adding lists of museums, castles, towers, cemeteries, etc. that I want to see.  How awesome is it to have enough time in a city to see more than the top 5-10 attractions?  I watched a YouTube video last night on top places in the Czech Republic to see, and several are out near Brno.  That sounds hopeful.  I've also been watching more videos of reincarnation, a special interest of mine.
Two Sundays I went to mass, in Czech.  Last Sunday I watched Tim VanHeest's sermon videotaped on Facebook from the Thompson's Lake Church.  I don't really want to go back to mass without a missal showing the Czech words, so I can follow along.  I wanted to go to the Infant of Prague church today at noon, where the mass is in English, but because of the Marathon, there is no public transport downtown.  I looked for a Dutch Reformed church here, but no luck.  I could go to Church of England, Baptist, or Lutheran and hear a service in English.  Maybe next week, with Bart.