We Finally found a Home!

Its October first and since our last blog on the 26th of September, loads has happened. When we got back on the 26th it was midnight and we took a bus to the metro, hoping that the metro was still running. We got there and it was closed. So we went upstairs to see if there was a bus that was going in our direction. We got on a bus that looked like it did. Jack has been an Amazing rand partner ( he has an AMAZING sense of where he is and where he is going at all times). This time, his sense was too strong because when the bus took a right instead of a left, he thought it was going in the opposite direction so we got off. It actually just detoured for about 40 seconds and then went back our way. So we walked home, but it definitely was close enough where I wasn’t talking about him under my breath ☺. I had my first day of school, which was more of an orientation, and I found out that my classes actually start some time next week. Jack took a long walk across the Charles Bridge up into the Orchards behind St. Vitise Church and found himself at the back of the German Embassy where he stopped to document, as he loves doing, where he ended up.
So once we returned we were back to the grind of finding a place. We must have emailed about 50 places, but this time of year is like September in Canada where it is just ridiculously hard to get a place because classes are starting. I was not expecting to be going through the same thing twice in two months ( in Canada and Prague). We saw some cute places and some really horrible places. We went to one where the building was about 200 years old and everything was deteriorated. We went into the rooms and they were charging between 8500 Korunas to 10500 Korunas(500-650 USD) for places that had a hotplate for a kitchen, unfurnished, no washer dryer and about the size of a really dirty kitchen table at home. It was a joke, right? No, it wasn’t. So finally we met Renee via email. Her current roommate had just up and left while she was at Octoberfest and also took all of her rent money. She needed someone to move in as soon as possible. When we responded she said that she might have to break her lease and go home to Wisconsin because she couldn’t afford another 650 that month. We were pretty bummed because the way she sounded and the way she described the apartment was great, so we sent our condolences and moved on. At this point we have stayed at David quite a long time, and we really wanted to find place. The next day Renee wrote us back and said she had figured out a way to pay for rent and that we could come by and see it. Jack and I were so excited. We tried not to get our hopes up, but we also were kind of desperate. So we got to Renee’s on the morning of the 30th of September. We met Renee and she was very cool. Then we went to the apartment and it was BY FAR the nicest, biggest and cleanest apartment. Us leaving in December was news to her and this might have been a problem, but she wanted to stay in the apartment bad enough, so once we got back to David’s, she emailed us with good news that we found a new home. So we hung out with David that afternoon and cooked dinner for him one last time. He really was awesome for putting us up this whole time. Thank you so much David!
We moved in that night. We took the metro and tram at rush hour…. That was a nerve-wracking, but luckily it wasn’t horrible.

Our New Room!

October 1st

We woke up in our king size bed ☺ and then went to work. We started cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. I must say we had a “Ruthie black out” moment. We would have made momma Ruthie proud. Then we set off to accomplish several errands. The first was to get our bus passes for the 90 days. The line was about 60 people deep ( which was better than 200 a couple days ago). So finally we got to the front and asked the attendant if she spoke English… she shook her head. We were really worried because all the document were in Czech, but luckily my school had given me all the information for my documents. So Jack memorized where he had to write what and filled out his portion. Finally after about 20 minutes of silent gesturing we got our bus passes. IT WAS SO EXCITING. Its funny how accomplished you feel when you do something so small in a country where you don’t speak the language.

Above is the super long escalators for the Metro

So then we went off to the Czech police immigration center where we walked up to the second floor. Oh my goodness I just about had a heart attack. There were about 300 people in disarray and all foreign nationals from who knows where in Europe. There was no line anywhere and there were instructions in Czech and Russian maybe. There were numbers at the stalls but we had no idea a. How to get a number and b. what area we should even go to. There was an information center, so we immediately went to it. Right when I met with the guy I said :”Hi!” and he immediately responded sarcastically “HI”. I asked he he spoke English and he responded with shrugged shoulders and “BYE”. The woman behind me spoke a little English so se translated for me. I asked where I could register with the police. The woman translating for him said that I had to have registered within 3 days of arrival, so I would be fined 5000 CZK (300 USD). My mouth dropped. She was smirking in her eyes and I took a second. “ You’re joking…” I said, and then I looked at him and said the same thing. They started to laugh. Then they said that I was going to have to come in on Monday morning at 4 am and stand in line to get a number and expect to be there all day. As I was about to leave discouraged, he asked me for my passport. He saw that I was American. “ Why didn’t you tell me you were American, you go up to the 3rd floor. I thanked them and we went up to the 3rd floor. I waited about 30 minutes and we met two nice Israeli guys there. Finally I went up to my stall. The woman also did not speak English and I had not caught her on a good day evidently as she shoved paperwork towards me and told me to come back when I was finished. I filled it out with the help of our new Israeli friend who spoke Czech and went back. As she was about to grant my registration, she saw my address and said NO! I was so confused, “what do you mean no?” “ NO NO NO NO” while she is harshly underlining my address, hands me a new piece of paper and says NO!!!!. I told her I didn’t understand, and she responded saying she wasn’t my interpreter. I had obviously pissed her off so I stood up and, completely baffled, walked out. I finally figured out that my address that I had submitted for my visa didn’t match up with the address I was now living in, so I needed to complete a new address form. I have never seen someone get so angry though. “This is typical of Czech people” we have heard from several others. They are a little cold. They don’t smile at you and they don’t say hello or how are you unless they have to (in a grocery store.) Anyways I have to get that figured out and go back. Hopefully I don’t have her again. Anyways, that’s all we have for now. We just have to buy some sheets and art supplies. Hey, At least we found housing! The Tunnel that we took to get to the Police Station

A sweet stencil that we saw and documented for C-Dub!

The View from the Charles Bridge!












-Nico