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.