The Metro

The public transit system here is great. It is clean and on time and runs frequently. The only complaint is the stroller/handicap access. There are some stops that have elevators down to the metro but not all. I was a little intimidated by this in the beginning. How was I going to get the two kids down to the metro with the stroller if I didn't have an elevator?? Well, after being here a month I have mastered this problem. When in Prague do as the Prague women do...grab on to the stroller with child strapped in and pick it up and carry it down the stairs! Luckily most stops don't have more than 15 stairs before you get to the escalator.

Eastern European look...

Throughout my life I have heard repeated that I look like I'm of Eastern European descent. I never understood it since I didn't think I looked like the people that I thought of as Eastern European. Now that I am here I understand what people meant. I do have a lot of similar features. The biggest one that I notice is the eyes. In the U.S. there are not that many people with the same green eyes as mine but here there are so many people with beautiful vibrant green eyes.

Tea

I have decided to take up tea drinking. I had never been a big fan of tea before but after going to our landlord's for tea on Christmas I am giving it another try. I had said to Jason before we went to our landlord's apartment that I guess I was going to have to drink the tea since I would be rude to go to someone's house for tea and not drink any. To my surprise I actually liked the taste of the tea. Since I acctually liked it I have decided to try all different kinds of tea to see what I like. There is a tea shop around the corner from our apartment so I went there and bought a few different types of tea... black, green, rooibos and herbal/fruit. I also bought some tea at the Tesco hypermarket (like a walmart supercenter). Tesco is a British company and that is why, I assume, they have a huge tea section. There was 1/2 an aisle devoted to tea! It has been fun trying the different types of teas. It adds a little flavor to my drinking choices here. They do have soda here but the only diet is coca-cola lite which I'm not a big fan of (besides I'm not a big soda drinker anyway). I did find one sugar free powder mix but I haven't tried it yet.

Warm Welcome (and rum)

Our Christmas was a quiet family day overall since it was just the four of us. However, we were invited for 4:30 tea at the home of our landlords, Marie and Josef Pekarek. They have the second floor of the building next to ours. From previous readings on Czech customs we took our shoes off as soon as we entered. While this would seem logical in any country it is often overlooked in the U.S. yet apparently a given here. They had a wonderful spread of breads, cookies and other treats set out on a table by the sofa. To the girls' delight they also had small presents for each of the girls under their Christmas tree for them to open. With our tea I was offered a spot of rum. I had never heard of rum with tea and didn't even realize rum was a drink common to Czechs. To be polite, that's the only reason of course, I accepted; tea and rum are wonderful combination it turns out. With continuous encouragement to eat all their remaining food I tried to consume as much bread and cookies as I could manage.

Josef speaks relatively good English and Marie's is not quite as strong; on occasion she and Jospeh would work something out in a mix of Czech and English before they would continue a conversation. We chatted a lot about the kids, my work and began chatting about their apartment; a large wonderfully decorated apartment. There were many beautiful paintings on the walls, mostly of nature scenes. Those were all originals handed down through Marie's family. We learned at this time that Marie's grandparents had built the two buildings they now own. While I was curious to ask what happened with the buildings with the entry, and in 1989, removal of communists from power, that's a subject we can discuss at another tea.

One of the reasons I selected this apartment was that Josef and Marie was so kind, so eager to help, and seemed to take so much pride in the apartments they owned. In spending more time with them we realized that they are good people who seem to take an interest in our lives and adore our children. Having such a warm Christmas welcome from our landlords, I should just say neighbors, certainly helps us feel at home here.

Note on the rum: after Googling Czech rum while writing this post I found that rum tuzernsky is a very common Czech product, with history dating back to a traditional mid-19th century product from the Austrio-Hungarian Empire. It is referred to as tuzernsky, loosely translated as domestic, rum to distinguish it from Caribbean rums, real Rum, made from distilled sugar-cane. Rum tuzernsky, also referred to as Tea Rum, is made from potatoes or sugar beets with added rum flavor.

It is SNOWING!!!

YAY! We finally have snow. It didn't snow a lot but enough to cover the streets. I'm sure it will melt tomorrow but we enjoyed watching the snow fall. Ali was really obsessed with looking out the window once we showed her the snow.

Where's the Snow?

Christmas came and went and we still haven't seen any snow here in Prague. We've rarely seen the temperature below 0 celsius. Granted, Prague does not get a great deal of snow but our lack of snow combined with a lack of snow back at our old home, New Hampshire, is a bit unusual.

Since people keep asking what the weather is normally like here let's do a quick Boston to Prague weather comparison. Overall, Prague has a more mild climate, lending to fewer extremes than Boston. Prague's average winter temperature is about 4 degrees (farenheit) warmer than Boston. In the summer Prague stays about 7 degrees cooler and is less humid. Prague gets less precipitation year-round, with winter being the driest season so I suppose I shouldn't expect much snow. However, Prague is cloudier, averaging 2-3 hours fewer sunlight per day.

For the meteorologically minded, you can find more details here:
Boston - http://tinyurl.com/y9zhz5
Prague - http://tinyurl.com/yhh4fe

Movie set, castle and more...

I had another great run today. I ran up to the castle and through Hradcanske Namesti (Castle Square) which leads you to one of the entrances to the castle.

Hradcanske Namesti has a great view of Prague.

I took the steps down from the castle

and continued down into the Mala Strana area

and back up to Letna Park (sorry no pic of Letna this time) and home.

The elevation changes a lot. The highest point is 884ft and the lowest is 624ft so there are some good hills in the run. The coolest thing about this run though was that I came upon a movie set! I have no idea what movie but I had to wait 2 minutes while they shot the scene and then I could continue through with my run. Jason, Sofia, Ali and I walked my run route later today as well so I was able to take these pictures. They were still shooting the movie when we went although it was a different scene from when I was running (or at least a different sequence since it appeared they were shooting the stunt when we walked through).

Christmas in Prague

Christmas is a very important holiday in the Czech Republic and Prague changes a lot starting in December. There are Christmas trees up throughout the city and in some of the major city squares there are lit Christmas trees and long rows of booths selling local goods, trinkets, roasted chestnuts, sausages, mulled wine, etc. There are Christmas lights on lamposts or on store fronts throughout the city. Our street, removed from down-town Prague, has some Christmas lights and on some days there has been Christmas music playing from speakers on the lamp posts.

Tonight we went into Old Town Square with the girls. Old Town Square is an amazing site at any time of year because of the amazing history and architecture in the square. During the Christmas season, with the rows of vendors, throngs of people and the enormous Christmas tree covered in flashing lights, it's the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit. Perhaps the best sight tonight was standing in front of the Christmas tree, listening to the children's choir singing Chrismas songs on the stage, and then seeing the floodlit Tyn Church, built over six hundred years ago, towering over the square.

In search of baking products

I'm not sure what the czech people use to bake cookies but it isn't molasses or brown sugar. Our landlady made us traditional Czech cookies for christmas and they were awesome but I want to make our traditional cookies...chocolate chip, molasses, peanut butter blossoms. Anyway, I finally found a place that sells brown sugar. I took the 3/4 mile walk (one way) there today and picked up some light brown sugar and dark brown sugar. I'm a little unsure about the dark brown sugar since it is REALLY dark so I think it might have a higher molasses content then what we normally think of as dark brown sugar. I also bought some treacle which I believe is what the British call molasses. They don't have chocolate chips here so I have bought chocolate bars and I will break them into bits. Baking powder and baking soda come in little packets that contain about a tablespoon each. I have found nutmeg (Muškátový ořech) and cinnamon (Skořice) but I am still on the lookout for ginger (Zázvor). These too come in packets rather than jars. We will see how my cookies turn out. I will be making them in small batches since our oven is tiny. Jason and I got a good laugh over the size of the oven. We can't even fit the roasting pan we brought in the oven!

Pancakes or light scones??

I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. The english instructions on the package were for "light scones". It is funny how things get translated. I wonder if they call pancakes "light scones" in England. Most packages here do not have english instructions. I didn't realize it had them when I bought the package. I saw the picture of the pancakes on the box and decided I would wing it. I'm sure they came out much better since I had the directions. The girls really enjoyed them. I had one and it was very filling!

Amazing kids...

There are two things that are happening now that have been amazing me. The first is that Sofia has really taken to working on puzzles. She has a puzzle for ages 3+ that has 30 pieces that she puts together all by herself. I just think that is really impressive (although I do recognize that could just be me being a proud mom). The second thing is that Ali insists on climbing the stairs by herself. We live on the 3rd floor (in the U.S. this would be the fourth floor). By the top she is huffing a little but she still just wants to do it herself. It takes her forever so some days I just pick her up and deal with the screaming but other days I just let her do it herself. It is just impressive to me that at 18 months old she climbs up so many steps by herself.

More settling in

We had all of our IKEA stuff delivered on Sunday. Jason set up the desk and bookcase on Sunday. I set up the coat rack on Sunday and the kitchen table on Monday. We have a rug down in the kids room and in the livingroom. The movers came back yesterday and removed all the empty boxes. We are finally starting to look like we live here. The apartment doesn't echo as much anymore either which is nice. The hardwood floors are great but with no rugs and limited furnishings it was very echo-y (especially with the girls running around!). We have to put a few boxes in the basement storage since we brought some things that we won't use. We brought all our tupperware which we don't need. We will use some but with our refridgerator being 1/2 the size of the one in the U.S. there just isn't space to use all our tupperware. We brought all three potty seats but we only have 1 toilet. We have to store the girls' car seats since we will only use those when we travel. We also have to store all the luggage we came over here with since we will only use that when we travel as well. Once all that stuff is moved into the storage room then we will be done with the move in process.

drying clothes

The rain is becoming my nemesis. I don't mind the rain in general. It hasn't really rained hard here since we have been here and it hasn't rained for full days. It often rains at night or early morning and then moves on. When it comes to drying my clothe, however, the rain is not my friend. We don't have a clothes dryer so I hang all our laundry either outside on the line or in the laundry closet. I have more space outside so I use that when I can. It seems that the rain is laughing at me. I will hang our clothes and they will be nearly dry and then we will get a light shower. I either have to figure out when it is going to rain or just accept that I hang clothes outside until they are nearly dry and then bring them inside to finish drying.

Today's outing: Post office and Ikea

So Jason, Sofia, Ali and I made the trip out to Ikea today. It was a looooong day! We started our trip at 10:30 with a trip to the post office to pick up a letter and package. The czech post office is different than the post office in the US. Here you have to wait in different lines depending on what you are doing. We started waiting in one line for a registered letter. After finally getting to the window we had to wait for them to find the letter. Yes, find it! There really didn't seem to be any method to how they organize...they looked in one bin and then another and then another and finally came up with it. After that we had to go to a different line and wait to get our package. By the time we walked to the post office got both our letter and package and walked back to our apartment it was 11:30. We then headed to the metro to go to Ikea. Kids are grumpy. Sofia seemed tired, not sure why. Ali was tired b/c she didn't want to sleep for her morning nap. Jason and I figure what the heck, it will be fine. Let's go! We get on the metro and make the long trip out to Ikea. Sixteen metro stops later we get off the train and onto the Ikea bus for the 5 minute drive over to Ikea. At this point we are still gung-ho. We enter Ikea.....ummm where do we go?? (this would probably be easier if we had ever been to an Ikea in the States.)How do we get into the main part of the store?? We decide to get in the elevator since people seemed to be going upstairs and we had the stroller with us and a shopping cart. The doors open and here we are in Ikea!! Now what do we do?? Jason found these pamphlet things with little pencils next to them and we follow the picture directions. We stroll around searching for a bookcase, desk, kitchen table, bathroom trolley, and rugs. At this point Sofia is hungry and so are we so we head to the cafeteria. We eat a decent lunch and continue with our shopping. We decided on a bookcase fairly quickly and wrote down the information we think we need to write down in our little pamphlet. We find a desk we like but it is out of stock. Oh well, we weren't coming back anytime soon so we found another one. We move on and find the cart for the bathroom and the table for the kitchen. We went around and around the store looking for rugs but couldn't find them. We finally gave up and decided to call it quits for the day. How the heck do we get downstairs and who do we give our pamphlet to?? Well, we went for the elevator again since that really seemed our only option. The elevator brought us downstairs but opened on the opposite side from were we orignally entered the building and put us in a whole new section of Ikea. This is great! I pick up a couple baking dished since we left ours behind in the States. We continue strolling and there are the rugs!! yay!! Now what the heck do we do? There is nothing to write down and it looks like we are suppose to take them with us. I decided to search out help. Luckily I found someone who spoke English very well. He explained what we needed to do to get the rugs and the rest of the items we wanted to purchase. We now need a big trolley to put everything on. We go in search of the trolley. We finally find them. Ali is not happy at this point b/c she had pooped so I put her on the floor and changed her. Not ideal but I couldn't fathom trying to find the baby changing room that I saw upon entering Ikea. Now with Ali having a clean diaper and a trolley in hand we went and picked up the rugs we wanted and entered in the warehouse section of Ikea. Now what? How do we find the things we want? An Ikea worker saw the lost look on my face and asked to help. He explained the numbers we had written down on the pamphlet corresponded to aisle numbers and item numbers within those aisles. Ahhhh the light goes on..this is easy now. We start finding everything we want to buy. Things are going well then I hear "mommy I have to pee". great! I leave Jason with our two bags of random stuff and two trolley's and take sofia, Ali and the stroller to find a bathroom. I asked a worker but he didn't know what I was talking about. (I am now going to learn how to ask for the water closet in czech.) I found another mom and asked her. She didn't speak any English but she of course new what I needed. We found our way to the potty and Sofia went with out incident. We made our way back to Jason who had found everything and was in the checkout. After the checkout we head to the transport desk to have all our stuff shipped to us. Yay! we are finished and can head home. We finally get home at 6:30. It was a long day but at least now we will have all our stuff tomorrow and we will know what we are doing the next time we go to Ikea.

Running

I had a GREAT run today. I ran 2+ miles and it really felt good. I only stopped twice. Once to pick up Watson's poop (I try to be a good dog owner) and another to briefly look out over the city. Other than that I ran the entire time. It really was a "Rocky" moment for me. When I got home and continued the run up to our apartment I felt like Rocky running the steps in Phili! I know it is silly but I really was bursting with happiness and accomplishment.

Mluvíte anglicky?

Do you speak English?

Czech is a very difficult language to learn but Mary and I are slowly learning some basics. The first things we learned were, of course, "hello", "goodbye", "please" and "thank you". Beyond that we quickly mastered the phrases "Do you speak English?" and "I don't speak Czech". I now prefer the slightly more impressive sounding "I speak only a little Czech".

While you can get by speaking only English we realized very quickly that the level of English spoken varies based on touristy areas or types of people working at a shop or service being visited. Outside the city downtown, like our neighborhhood which is a very local, family-oriented area, there is very little English spoken. Restaurants in touristy areas generally speak some English but workers at the Post Office seem not to. Some non-touristed shops, like computer stores generally speak very good English, I assume because the employees are typically young and recently attended university.

We intend to learn as much Czech as we can manage. I will be taking Czech lessons through work and we'll figure out some lessons for Mary. What we have found, is that in the vast majority of cases, even if we can't communicate in English, people do sincerely appreciate our efforts to be polite - saying hello when we enter shops, asking nicely if they speak english, explaining we speak very little Czech, saying please and thank you, and good bye on our way out - and will smile and make every effort to help us.

Running Stromovka

As a follow-up to Mary's running post I found a great place to run this morning, Stromovka. It's one of the two large parks near our apartment. Well, I shouldn't say found since we knew this park was there when we chose our apartment location but Mary finally figured out how to get into it (the entrance nearest us is a bit hidden) yesterday so this morning I took Watson for a run there.

To enter Stromovka you have to down a bit of a hill so the park itself is set well below the street level which makes it feel very secluded. It's a large park with a good mix of wooded and open areas that has a series of paved and dirt paths, the paved ones being fully lit. We even found online some measured trail distances to help plan runs in the park (http://www.stromovka.cz/files/stromovka_beh.pdf).

It's just under a mile to the start of the trails and from that western entrance you can easily follow a 3 or 5 km route through the park. Of course with the number of trails there are endless options. I have been bringing Watson for runs and have to keep him on-leash in busier areas but let him off as soon as we got in the park and he ran along with me and played a bit off on his own. Watson needs and loves his time to run on his own so it's great for him. It's a great destination for runs of three miles and up so I imagine I will be heading there quite often.

Running

With the move to prague all of our gym equipment including the elliptical runner have been moved to my parents house. I thought about joining a gym but I just don't have the time to spend getting to and from the gym. After living with Graham and Beth (and seeing them run) I decided to take up running (in addition to the couple miles a day that I walk). I have tried running in the past and I just couldn't do it. I know it was mostly mental but I would cramp up and not be able to breathe and I would get dizzy. It was not a pretty site. I decided to give it another try and really made the decision that I was going to keep running until it felt good. I started running last week and have been running every other day. It has gone surprisingly well. The first day I ran/walked about a mile. The second run was about a mile but I ran for more of the time. The third run was 2 miles with about a mile and a half of it running. This morning I ran in the rain. (I am dedicated to this!) I ended up doing about a 2.5 mile loop. I say "ended up" because I got lost! I figured I was kind of going in the right direction but I never found the park I was looking for. I finally came to a street and saw a store that I recognized. Needless to say it was nowhere near where I thought I was but at least I knew how to get home. I ran the majority of the time too so I am feeling proud of myself. I guess the 5 days a week on the elliptical has paid off.

Children at play

We have been enjoying the playgrounds in Prague. There are four within walking distance of our apartment (at least 4 that I have found). The other day we met a little czech girl named Christy. It was fascinating to watch the kids play. Christy is 3 years old so a perfect playmate for Sofia. Christy kept speaking to me in Czech so I had to tell her mom that I don't speak czech (which I said in czech since her mom didn't speak English either.) Christy, being a typical 3 year old, didn't care and just kept talking to me in czech. Sofia and Christy started to play together. Sofia would go down the slide while Christy waited at the bottom acting as a gate at the end of the slide. As Sofia would approach the end of the slide Christy would lift her arm as though she were raising a gate. They both thought that was very funny. Sofia then started to act as a gate for Christy. Then they played in the sand pit together. It was great to watch to kids play together and have fun even though they couldn't speak the same language. Apparently kids have a language of their own.

Interesting things

Milk can be bought warm or cold. I know, warm?? Yes, apparently this is how it is done. I remembered this from our trip to France so I wasn't surprised but Jason didn't remember. You also don't buy milk in gallon containers. It comes in 1 liter containers. It only lasts for about 3 days once it is opened. It actually smells like milk though. I was surprised how much more it smelled like milk than the milk in the US.

Fruits and vegetables tend to be smaller here. I'm not sure why that is but they are very tastey.

Bread and Carbohydrates are not a big thing here. There is no long cookie aisle and to find crackers has proven elusive to me. I'm sure they have crackers but it must be a very small section of the store. I found some the other day but they are not like our wheat thins. The other day we were downtown and decided on just grabbing a sausage for lunch. We order sausage for us and a hot dog for the girls. The only difference between the hotdog and the sausage order was that the hotdog came with a roll. The "hotdog" was a sausage. Our sausage was served as a sausage so you just pick it up and eat it with no roll.

Every day life

Jason has started work and the girls and I are settling into everyday life. While somethings are different a lot is still the same. We eat, play, read, go to the playground, go to the grocery store, do the laundry, clean the house. How we do them is a little different.

We walk to the playground now. I have found 4 playgrounds so far that we can walk to. We also walked up to Prague Castle the other day. It is about a 10 minute walk. Sofia was so excited to see a real castle (so was I).

We go to the grocery store every day since we can only get as much as I can carry back to the apartment. There is a big (not like Stop & shop but like a small town grocery) grocery store that is about a 10 min walk and there are a bunch of smaller shops along our street. Sometimes I go to the big store ad sometimes I just go to the small shops. One of the things that is interesting is that there is a store called the Drogerie. It is a store that basically sells cleaning products....kitchen, bath etc as well as shampoo, conditioner soap. Some also sells hair coloring and perfumes. People must clean a lot around here though because there are a LOT of Drogerie shops.

The Laudry takes a little time to get done since the washer is smaller and we have no dryer. Jason originally thought it was a wasjer/dryer combo but it isn't. It is just a washer so I have to hang the clothes on the clothes line that is off our balcony. I don't mind hanging the laundry but it would be nice if it would dry longer. I am learning to be more aware of rain though since a couple times my almost dry laundry got rained on. I'm also starting to use fabric softener since without drying the clothes in a clothes drier they are pretty stiff. I'm hoping the fabric softener will take care of that. The only other downside of not having a drier is that I don't get the fabric shrink on my pants that makes them fit me. I guess I will have to go by new pants.

The dentist...

Since Jason posted about our flight over here I will just add a few more things.

The last few weeks were busy getting everything ready. We packed up and moved to Grham and Beth's house in the beginning of November. With everything that still had to be done I was back up in NH almost everyday. Once of the main reasons was getting my teeth taken care of. I had my teeth cleaned as part of my normal dental care back in september. During that appoitment they found a fracture in my tooth. They said, no problem we will just crown it. So I went in for them to drill my tooth down to crown it. I had the more junior guy who apparently is not very good. After about 10 shots of novacaine I was still feeling a lot of pain when he would drill. An hour of pain and he tells me, take amoxicillin and come back in a week. In addition to the amoxicillin, I had to take a valium before the next appointment. Go back for the next appointment and still the novacaine isn't working..he drills while I clench my whole body against the pain. They drill enough to put the temporary crown on. I wait a week with the temporary which has still left my tooth in pain. They then attach the real crown but only with temporary glue to make sure it feels ok. Of couse, it didn't! Now I had to go back for a root canal. Luckily root canals are done by the senior guy. I go and see him and he tells me that a root canal won't help me and that the tooth should be pulled. At this point, time is running short. I get squeezed in by the oral surgeon to pull my tooth, a coupl edays later with stitches still in and my faces bruised I went back to the dentist to get fit for the bridge. A few more trips back to the dentist and the final bridge went in my mouth 2 days before we stepped on the plane. So far everything as been ok with it. There is a little sensitivity but I'm hoping that will go away over time. If you thought it was long to read about the issues you should have lived through it!

Mr. Proper

Mary picked up some cleaning products at the store this afternoon and one has a picture of a familiar looking bald guy labeled Mr. Proper. At the heart of it all the things people need and the way people function are not so different here but all the little differences like that are very entertaining.

Internet and Phone

UPC, the local cable company, set up our internet yesterday so we have high-speed internet access now which is great. That also means we've got our "phone" (VOIP) active. Feel free to connect with us via Skype or the 401 phone number Mary emailed at before we left.

Watson made it!

continuation of the revisit of our departure day for Prague...

At 2pm on Friday, Prague time of course, I left with Misa (the relocation assistant) and our driver for the cargo center at the airport to pick up Watson.

Quick aside from the sleep department: we went to bad a little after midnight on Wednesday night (last minute preparations), waking up shortly after 6am, went to the airport, waited, flew for 7 hours, sat in the airport in Germay for two hours, flew an hour and arrived in Prague at 9am local time, so now at 2pm we're about 26 hours since our short night sleep before the flight.

Misa hadn't done this thing either so neither of us really knew what to do but she is Czech so at least we had the language issue settled. First stop was at the cargo terminal to check on Watson. Turns out his flight was delayed an hour so we had some waiting to do. An hour or so later, we had killed some time by briefly detouring to the new mall built near the airport so I could see that, a woman told us Watson had arrived and gave us papers to bring to the veterinary clinic at the cargo center.

Back in the car and a bit of driving around the cargo area to find the poorly marked office, followed by a short wait had us in the vet's office. There were was signing and stamping of documents, I parted with more money and we were given documents to bring back to the cargo office and to the customs house to pay any required fees.

Back in the car to the cargo terminal office I had to pay some additional fees. Misa had asked previously I was supposed to owe 600 Kr (about $27). I was told I owed 1200 Kr. The explanation was that it was doubled because the pet was delivered alive. I was unaware this was an option and feel quite lucky I didn't mistakenly miss a check-box on a form saying "Deliver animal alive." I, of course, handed over the money. In all honesty the cargo operation in Prague was much better than Boston so I can't complain too much.

Back in the car, more driving to place much harder to find than the vet's we were in customs about half an hour before closing. Ten minutes trying to figure out the computer system to generate a waiting number (we were the only ones in line) and we were in front of a customs official. More stamping, more signing, more money, more documents to bring to the next stop.

Back in the car to finally get Watson! We pulled into the vet clinic and buzzed the door. After confirming that no, we were not there to pick up the fish we showed our documents and finally, after about three hours of this process Watson came out in his crate. He slowly began the tail wagging and when the door to his crate was opened he was a tornado of happy fur. The well placed lawn nearby provided Watson some (extended) relief and we were in the car headed back to our apartment.

The whole process had, in my head, a long list of items to be checked off a list: get to airport, drop off Watson, board plane, fly to Frankfurt, layover, fly to Prague, get bags, find driver, get to apartment, get Watson. Once those things were done we'd really be in Prague. And so here we are.

Departure Day, Part 3

continuation of the revisit of our departure day for Prague...

Drop-off at the airport, check-in, security and boarding all went very smoothly. Mary's parents saw us off at the airport. Once on-board we got the kids situated in their car seats and were ready to go. Mary and packed a lot of snacks and new toys for the kids and much of it was needed. Sofia was well behaved and fell asleep towards the end of the food-service and didn't wake until I picked her out of her seat at Frankfurt. Ali required a lot of maintenance and Mary was sitting next to Ali so that was tough for her. After a while Ali fell asleep on Mary but awoke early and required a lot of attention. The layover in Frankfurt was fine; the kids did well considering their lack of sleep and our one hour hop to Prague was easy.

Arriving in Prague, we got through immigration easily, our bags were some of the first off the plane and our driver was waiting as expected right outside customs. It was a tight fit getting the bags in the car but we managed and the girls fell asleep for the 20 minute ride to the apartment. The team of people we were to meet to do the handover of the apartment were all on hand: the couple who own the building, their son, my relocation assistant, the realtor and some woman I never could identify. It was an oddly long process with everyone discussing documents in the living room for upwards of 20 minutes before I had to sign anything. Everyone slowly filed out and we were now in our new home.

Departure Day: Part 2

continuation of the revisit of our departure day for Prague...

The first sign that getting Watson on his way to Prague might be challenging was that after a bit of hunting for the right door at the cargo terminal I realized it was the door marked Authorized Personnel Only with a tiny printed piece of paper taped to the window saying Lufthansa Cargo.

At the counter I was separated from the employees by counter to ceiling plexiglass with a tiny little pass-through that made it impossible to hear anything being said on the other side - consumer-friendly it was not. They had our reservation but needed to spend another 15-20 minutes getting all the rate information even though I had it all in an email from my reservation. Then they had to figure out what documents were needed. After some running around by employees and flipping through manuals I was told we didn't have all requirements met. We had contacted the US Agriculture Department and Czech embassy so we were confident yet therefore confused by their opinions. Our relief came when I heard the utterance behind the counter "Oh, you're not going to London? Where are you going again?" After more page turning in the manual, turns out had the right permits to get to Prague.

After a bit more time and effort I handed over about $1200 in cash (don't ask, I don't want to talk about it) and Watson was put in his crate and ready for departure.

Departure Day: Part 1

I figured we might as well go back and provide a little info on how the trip over actually went so we can get that out of the way before moving to experiences here. Aside from the fact that we were negotiating items that came back from the inspection right up until the minute we walked out the door our loading of luggage and drive to the airport were uneventful. First stop: Lufthansa cargo to drop Watson off...

Catching Up

The last month has been so hectic that we never really had time to write so here's a quick recap. Early in November we had goods packed to be shipped via boat to Prague. Later the next week a different moving company came to pack up goods to be moved to Mary's parent's basement. Somewhere in there we received, negotatiated and accepted an offer on the house. The eve of our goods being moved to storage we moved to Graham and Beth's house to begin our stay there. Shortly thereafter we sold the Camry and rented a car for me to drive. We later switched the rental to a mini-van to tote ourselves, the kids, Watson, and our bags to Rhode Island and then Maine around Thanksgiving. The following week we sold the Highlander. During this time we continued to complete other tasks preparing for our departure including paying off final bills, signing the lease for our Prague apartment, completing visa and work permit documents, finalizing Watson's required permits, enduring Mary's dental work (she may write more later), returning license plates, picking up medical files, etc.

We're Here!

Sorry to those who have checked the blog for the delay, we are here! Flights went fine and kids, Watson and luggage arrived without damage. We got our internet in the apartment this afternoon and the stuff we shipped from the US will arrive tomorrow.

So far everything is going well; mostly just basic settling in at this stage. We'll both be posting regularly now that we have our internet connection so keep checking back and we'll try to share the experience with everyone.

Here we go...

We've been too busy lately to post much of anything but today is departure day. Our flight to Prague leaves at 4:40 this afternoon. Once we're settled in we'll be posting regularly on our experiences in Prague. See you around!

Getting closer

We have moved out of our house and in with my brother-in-law and his family. Things are very hectic. The kids are having fun playing with their cousins. It is great that they will get such a large dose of each other since they won't see each other for a while after this. I have begun the process of making all the address changes and canceling services. It is nice to finally be able to cross things off my to do list. This week is going to be the most hectic with things to do but I'm hoping most things will be done after this week.

Here Boy

Watson is now booked on a flight to Prague. He's on the Boston to Frankfurt plane with us but from Frankfurt to Prague he needs to go on the next flight because apparently the connection time (2+ hours) is not long enough. Apparently they move the live animals to a special area to check them and (so they say) take them out of their crates briefly before boarding them on the next flight.

Like so many of these relocation steps it's become a bit more complicated than seems necessary. I had originally booked him through Luftahansa directly onto our flight but was warned that the total weight, dog and crate, can't exceed 90 lbs. I knew it would be close but underestimated the crate weight, which turned out to be 30 lbs. Added to Watson's 75-80lbs. means I have to book through Lufthansa Cargo. This ocurred a couple weeks back but the people at Cargo said the system only holds bookings for 30 days so I had to call back on Nov 3rd.

Long story short, he's on the flight now through Lufthansa Cargo (at about triple the cost) so he'll be in Prague just a couple hours behind us.

Now we trying to verify we understand all the pet laws properly regarding necessary shots, microchip, paperwork, etc. required to get him through customs. We thought we had all it all figured out but Mary now has an email pending to clarify a few things since the Czech embassy couldn't really answer our questions. We'll get him in one way or another...

Czech list...

HAHAHAH....ok I had to get that title out there. I know it is silly and childish but it still makes me laugh. As Jason said we have made out list of things to do and have posted it on the refridgerator. The last week has been stressful for me but I am feeling better since I can now visually see what needs to be completed. While it is a pain to have to be out of our house so early it will be nice b/c then we can move ahead with completing a lot of things on our list.

I have been running around picking up all our medical records (including the dogs) so that we will have a copy of everything with us. It is amazing how much they charge to get a copy of records. They charge $15 for the first 30 pages and then 50 cents a page after that! Oh well, just anothe rcost to this adventure. Watson is going in next week to get microchipped and to get whatever shot updates he needs. The girls are getting their flu shots next week. I got my updated Tetnus and flu shot a couple weeks ago. I hate tetnus! My arm hurt for a week but I guess it is worth it. I'm trying to get my teeth fixed before we go. I had to get a crown put on since I have a fracture in my tooth. Apparently it goes below the gum line too. So, I have the crown put on temporarily so that I can see how it feels. If my tooth still hurts they are going to have to do a root canal and then permanantly attached the crown. It is amazing how much you have to get done to move to another country so that you can try to avoid going to any doctors while there. Which is kind of silly but it makes us feel more comfortable.

We have figured out our schedule for Thanksgiving week finally. So for anyone who wants to see us this is where we will be. Jason is going to be working Monday and Tuesday. We will go to RI on Wednesday morning and then to Maine on Thursday morning. We would go to RI sooner but since everyone there will be working it just doesn't make any sense.

Watson has been doing great with his training which definitely makes me feel better about bringing him to Prague. I was able to let him off leash while at the farm and he would listen to me. He was sometimes slow on the come but he never ran away. To help him pick up the pace on "come" we have order an electronic collar for him. Hopefully that will help him realize that we are always in control and always alpha. He did graduate from his training program and the trainer was very impressed with how well Watson had done (and how well Jason and I have doen with working with Watson on the training.)

To Do Lists

We have a calendar and long To Do list on the refrigerator now and while we seem to be adding things daily I think we're still still progressing nicely on getting things ready for the big day.

The packing and shipping planning is moving along well: we have estimates for the pack and shipping to Prague and are getting the estimate this morning for moving our storage items to Rhode Island to store at Mary's parents. We should get the moves scheduled this afternoon or tomorrow, probably for early next week. Once that's done we'll have an empty house and then really feel like our family move is just around the corner.

I just received an updated copy of the lease, in English and Czech; the original version didn't explicitly state we were allowed to have a dog so I had to get that corrected. I am getting a few other questions answered but that will likely get signed and returned today or tomorrow so that will be set.

Translations

American to European translations to help with the previous post:

Praha = Prague
flat = apartment
ground floor = first floor therefore...
third floor = fourth floor
lift = elevator
w.c. = toilet
garden = yard
1 sq. meter = 10.76 sq. feet

The Flat

About our Praha flat: its a 110 m^2 flat on the third floor (without a lift) in a classic Prague style building. We're located a short distance north of the Vltava from the old city center. The flat has a large entryway with all rooms leading from this main room. I'm still not sure what exactly we do with this main entry area as its rather large. There is a living room, eat-in-kitchen and two bedrooms off the entry room, as well as two storage closets, the bath and the W.C. The main bedroom opens into the entry-way as well as the living room. The kitchen has a small balcony overlooking the garden and small area for parking behind the building. The floors are all nice hard-wood parquet floors and while the kitchen isn't new its relatively updated and in good shape.

Entering the main door to the building puts you really in the stone driveway as the main door is a small door cut into two larger doors that could open to let a car through. Through a doorway the stairs to our flat are wide, deep stone stairs that really make you feel like you're in a much older building.

The neighborhood is a quiet family-oriented area about half-way between the two nearest metro stops. So in about 3 minutes we could be on the metro and from there it's about 10 minutes to the old city center, which requires just another 1-2 minutes walk to the office. Below our building on the ground floor is a health food store and around the corner there are a few small shops: bakery, butcher, restaurant, fruit & vegetable stand and a small market. I'm excited to have these small little shops so close to explore and not always be shopping in a giant supermarket. I learned there is also a very well known children's theatre that does plays with marionettes; the kids will probably enjoy that.

Arches

Ok, I admit that in my 17th day in Prague (including previous trips) I finally caved and ate McDonalds. It's sad in a way but at the same time it is true that when tired and in a hurry isometimes you just can't help it, even (or especially) when in a foreign country. Last night I was worn from all the apartment hunting and wanted to get something quickly. The McDonalds is half-way along the very short office to hotel walk so I wandered in and got a McCountry. What is a McCountry you ask? Well, when I ordered it I had no idea; I just hadn't heard of it before so figured it was a good choice. Turns out its two pork patties with a Big Mac-like special sauce on it. It wasn't bad...it was still McDonalds so I was still left with the kinda-full, kinda-nauseous feeling but it removed the hunger which was the goal.

Flat Found

We have a place to live in Prague! After viewing over a dozen flats over two days I have found a place. Going into the search there were two areas Mary and I thought we would want to be in: Vinohrady (south of the city center) and Bubenec (across the Vltava to the north from city center). Before arrival and in the first day or two of being here I felt Vinohrady was best but after viewing more of Bubenec it had a better feel: seems to be more family oriented and a bit slower paced, yet is within walking distance to two big parks and Prague Castle as well as being only 10-15 minutes by metro to the office.

Perhaps when I have more energy I'll talk more about the flat and the decision process...now I'm just worn out from all the driving and walking and decision making. However, it is relieving to have found a place and I'm very excited about where we'll be living.

Pre-Move Trip Day 4

This is day four of the pre-move trip to Prague. The main goal of this trip is to get a flat for us. Right now I am scheduled to spend Monday and Tuesday mornings being driven around the city with Michaela, the relocation specialist, to look at 18 available flats in different parts of the city. In preparation for that I have been spending most of my non-work time (I actually still have to do some work while I'm here) walking around areas of the city that we're looking for flats in. I am trying to get a feel for what areas seem nice, how long it takes to get to the center or parks from different locations and to take pictures of areas so Mary can see what parts of the city look like. I have been putting the photos up on our smug mug site and added location info to all the pictures so they appear on a map of Prague which is very cool; check it out: http://maps.smugmug.com/?feedType=geoAlbum&Data=1996479

Let the Hunt Begin

I leave tomorrow for Prague to begin the work transition and do our apartment search. I got an email this morning containing listings for 11 available units meeting our criteria. From that we have four we definitely want to view and another three that are low probability maybes. I havent scheduled the viewings yet but the plan is to do two half-days of flat viewings between this Thursday and next Tuesday. I fly out tomorrow afternoon and will be in the office before noon Wednesday (Prague time).

Oh, and yes I did have to buy some new toiletries to meet the under 3oz per container with all containers fitting in a 1 qt zip lock bag safety standard...

Who's coordinating my coordinators?

The structure of the relocation team is shaping up nicely. First there's Michelle, the relocation coordinator who is my main contact for the relocation. It seems Michele is primarily responsible for coordinating two key coordinators: the moving coordinator and the home finding and settling in coordinator. Debbie, the moving coordinator contacted me today and as result I will be hearing from two other people Debbie is coordinating: the coordinators for two moving companies who will suvey our house and provide a bid on shipping our belongings. Nehmi is the home finding/settling in coordinator. She's in Budapest so she is actually coordinating the work of another woman, Michaela, who is in Prague and will take me on flat (no time like the present to shift from apartment to flat) viewings and help with that process.

It's a bit overwhelming that all of these people have been presented to me in the last 24 hours but they all seem experienced and I finally have the feeling that there are actually the right people in place to get this thing done.

Securing an apartment

Jason will be heading to Prague next week to start working with his new team and to secure our apartment. I can't believe that it is already October! I have been slowly packing the house up and throwing out a lot of things. It will be nice to know what kind of apartment we will have so that I can really start to think about what we need to bring. Obviously what we bring depends on if we get a furnished/ semi-furnished or an unfurnished apartment. They all have their pros and cons. We recently bought the powershot sd600 camera so Jason will take that with him and send me back pics of the apartment options. At least that way I can have a little input in tha apartment search. Jason is going to have to check walking/metro connection times between work/home, grocery store/home, and parks/home to decide on where we want to live. It will be interesting.

As I said in the last post that I often wonder about what they have in Prague and what they don't. I recently learned they don't have Peanut Butter! I wonder if they have Nutella? I don't eat much peanut butter but I would love to have an excuse to eat more Nutella. hhaha.

We are MOVING!!!

We have made the decision to move to Prague!! It is a little weird and unbelievable but true. We met with a realtor last week and put the house on the market. Hopefully it will sell quickly so that we don't have to worry about it when we are in Prague. The house is now incredibly neat. This takes up a lot of my time now since the girls like to spread their toys out throughout the house. It is nice to have the house in "showable" condition though since now I can relax a little. It feels like the calm before the storm now. Don't worry though, I like storms! :)

As Jason said before we have managed to throw out a lot of stuff. I feel bad for our garbage and recycling people every week with all the trash that is out there. We have made a lot of runs to the dump as well. Good thing we decided to move since it forced us to get rid of a lot of trash.

Jason is probably going to fly to Prague in the middle of October to secure our apartment as well as deal with how to set up utilities and set up a bank account. We don't know if we will end up with a furnished or unfurnished apartment. It will be nice to get that settled so that we know what needs to be packed for storage and what will come with us. It will also be nice to know where in the city we will be. We are going to look in Praha 2, 6, & 7. Praha 2 is more in the city with a more hip/trendy feel while Praha 6 & 7 are across the Vlatva River. Praha 6 has a lot of expat families which could be good for me and the girls but we want to be very close to the metro so that Jason will have a 10 minute commute to work. That limits where we can be in Praha 6. Praha 7 is next to Praha 6 and is really in the mix for that reason. There are parks readily accessible from all locations. I study the maps we have all the time to see where things are but then I just laugh b/c I really have no reference since I've never been to Prague.

I also have moments of wonder everyday. I wonder.....do they have American Cheese? What about chicken nuggets? Ziploc bags? etc. I know things are going to be different and that is exciting and I know that there will be everyday things that they won't have there and I just wonder what those everyday things are.

Getting Closer

Well, two months after the relocation question was raised I now have most of the information needed for the family to make a final decision. There are few questions I need answered but overall it looks like everything is falling into place.

We have begun the hideous process of going through the house and separating things into four groups: trash, for sale, storage and Prague. A lot of things that moved with us four years ago has ended up in the trash group so I guess we weren't too selective that time around. We'll be meeting with a realtor soon to get the house selling process going.

None of this seems real at all now but in the next week I'll likely be setting a rough time frame with the company regarding the actual transfer to Prague; right now it looks like November/December, which is right around the corner.

Say What?!

Yes, it is entirely possible that Mary and I will be selling the house and the cars, putting our other possesions in storage and moving to Prague with Sofia, Ali and Watson.

It's amazing how a few casual conversations with Mary grew into some enticing thoughts about amazing new life experiences. Well, after a couple conversations with my boss I am now waiting for details on what a relocation package to Prague would look like. A month ago I couldn't have imagined this was possibly the next adventure in our lives.