Welcome, one and all! It's been an eventful few days as one might expect... moving to the Czech Republic has definitely been an 'experience'! But first things first, I'm settled in my new flat which I really like, and I'm happy. Tired, and slightly confused, but happy. So that's good.
The bus journey was remarkably uneventful - it was very sad saying goodbye to the parents and I even shed a tear or two (those who know my hard-nosed side, yes there is a soft centre under there somewhere) but once the bus was on its way I settled down to 19 hours of reading, music, movies and general solitude despite sharing airspace with 50 others for the duration. Yes, the bus between London and Praha is surprisingly popular! I thought it was just nutters like me...
Arriving at 5am, bleary-eyed and most definitely not bushy-tailed, I was greeted by Chris Randell, my soon-to-be Senior Leader at EISP (but moreover hopefully my fellow Prague-surviving buddy, we can keep work and social separate, right?!) It was so lovely to see a friendly face at the bus station - we had met before, you see, during the Volcanic Ash saga - and he helped me transport my bags to his place where I was provided with coffee, breakfast and far-too-intelligent-for-that-time-of-morning conversation. His flat is gorgeous - hopefully a taste of things to come for mine?
Once showered and refreshed, we walked to Korunni, my address. Luckily we live very close to each other, so we can lean on each other in times of need! In fact, almost all the new EISP staff are living in Vinohrady which is my area of town, so we should have a good support and social network going soon. We found my address in the middle of a POURING rain storm (allegedly the first rain Prague has seen for weeks, it must be my curse) and thus began the Great Key Obtaining Saga of August 3rd 2010.
According to my contact at EISP, the key would be left 'at a nearby fruit and veg shop' for me to collect. Hmmmm, why did I ever think that would work. The shop transpired to be the Ovoce-Zelenina (fruit and veg - literally named) shop at the bottom of my building. So far, so good. In we merrily went with our much-practised 'mluvite anglicky?' hoping to at once dazzle the assistant with our attempt to use the local lingo, and achieve key-related success. Not so. She simply cowered like a frightened rabbit in the face of our Czech language prowess, and proceeded to rattle off a stream of incomprehensible (to us) Vietnamese. Yes, Vietnamese. Had it been French, German, Spanish, Italian, English or even rudimentary Japanese, we might have coped between us. But no. She did offer me some cigarettes, though, which was nice.
Hmm, what to do? Back out into the pouring rain we went, having formed the genius plan of getting the number for EISP and phoning to see if they knew anything about the whereabouts of the keys. So picture Chris and I, wearing shorts and waterproofs, huddling outside various cafes trying to surreptitiously use their free wi-fi to access the EISP website on Chris's phone, to find the number and then call the school office. Eventually, surprisingly, and after many shop fronts, it worked! The school receptionist was fabulous and very reassuring, telling me simply to return to the shop and she would speak to the lady and tell her what was what.
In Vietnamese? I hear you ask. Why, no, in Czech. Which the poor shop lady obviously still didn't understand. Which resulted in her hilariously running out into the street, grabbing some poor 18 year old Czech passer-by and thrusting my phone in his face, while Chris and I are doing speaking actions with our hands, to try to help him understand what the heck was going on! Bemusedly he talked to my school receptionist and between them they established ( I think) that this was not going to work.
Finally the receptionist decided that she'd phone my original contact, he who was meant to leave the keys at the shop, but I was to be warned that he is on holiday and may not answer the phone. Happy(ier) with this, Chris and I repaired to the cafe in which I presently sit, ordered drinks and waited.
To cut a very long story slightly shorter, it turned out that an email had been sent to my OLD email account (despite me telling the school to send my NEW address round as the old one was now defunct) explaining that...
...very simply...
... I was to ring the doorbell of the landlady who lives in the flat above, and she would come down and let me in.
To sum up, you know you're living in the Czech Republic when the simplest simplest task becomes bewilderingly complicated, and somehow you have but a part of the information required for a successful outcome.
Anyway, all's well that ends well, landlady is lovely, flat is great and here are some pictures. More to come soon about the delights of setting up internet/phone, electric and gas! (Bet you can't wait for that!!!)
Love to all x
Haha, great first story on entering Prague/Praha, however messy, confusing and downright silly it may seem... It will still seem the same later, just slightly less annoying, especially with (90p) beer and a friend or two. ;-)
ReplyDeleteGot the blog set up on my blog reader thingy, so I wont miss a thing! (Also tweeted about it, so you may get some lovely twitter based people on here ;-) )