teaching in the land of hockey and beer: Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is essentially the polar opposite of Indonesia:

The language is extremely difficult, hockey prevails over football, there are 4 distinct seasons (though I could quite happily do without the arctic style winter),  they are the second least religious country in Europe with just over 19% claiming to follow a religion on the 2011 census, the population of the entire country is less than that of Jakarta, the air is clean, litter is sparse and pork graces every menu. In short, I couldn't have found a more opposite country if I had tried.

I live in Liberec, a small city of around 100,000 situated about an hour north of Prague at the base of a small mountain range. My main goal in finding my next home after Indonesia was to be surrounded by the colour green, and not just in packaging floating down the river but in the form of trees and grass, to be surrounded by air that wasn't doing permanent damage to my respiratory system. (When I came home from Jakarta one of my best friends asked me 'So...is this your voice now?' I honestly hadn't noticed a difference but the general consensus seemed to be that I now had a rather unhealthy rasp.) So you can imagine my delight at ending up here surrounded by forest, mountains and a nice little reservoir where you can drink beers in the sun.

Everything that I longed for while in Indonesia was nestled here in a quaint little country with some questionable traditions. And luckily for me, unlike most European countries the Czech Republic doesn't require you to be EU to work here. So through the process of elimination they quickly raced to the top of the list of possible destinations.

It wasn't hard to fall in love with the Czech Republic what with it's medieval towns and picturesque landscape, Czechs on the other hand take their time. The main difference between Indonesia and Czech Republic is the people. Indonesians made you love them straight away with bright smiles and gentle gestures, Czechs on the other hand want you to win them over, they're not going to like you just because you're there, they need convincing that you are in fact a likable person, but once convinced they are some of the loveliest most generous people you will have the pleasure of meeting. So don't bother feeling dejected if your service doesn't come with a smile, no ones does.

Teaching contracts here usually run for a regular school year (September to June) and the monthly wage is around $1000 depending on who you work for. Unlike (most of) Asia, here your accommodation is not included (I share a flat with 2 American girls and we each pay around $200/mth including bills - the first year I was here the company I am working for helped me organize my accomdation, the second year my co-worker/friend, Petra, helped me find a new flat), grocery bills are usually around $20/week and eating out tends to be between $5-10 (depending on whether it's lunch or dinner since most restaurants have a cheaper lunch menu), beer is legitimately cheaper than water - and runs at about $1.25 at restaurants and $0.50 at the shop I can count on one hand the amount of times I have not ordered beer with my meal since I moved here.

A main selling point for me was the fact that Liberec has a Czech Extraliga (ELH) hockey team, which living up to my national stereotype was important for me after a year and a half in South East Asia where hockey plays a non-existent role. Not only is it quality hockey here but going to a game usually costs around $15 (including a delicious klobása, 3 beers and a ticket about 6 rows from the ice), that kind of price would buy you a six pack and an evening on your couch at home.

I am quickly approaching my departure date and with only 8 weeks left here I can genuinely say I am going to miss it. A. LOT. I have made some amazing friends here and in July will be celebrating one of my best friend's weddings, which will be bittersweet since it will also mark the end of my time here. I have been inside a church decorated with bones (Kostnice Sedlec), seen a ridiculous amount of live hockey, walked through some of the most impressive rock formations I have ever laid eyes on (Adršpach-Teplice Skály) starred in a dubious maternity photo shoot, done wine tours in Moravia and will spend next weekend at a beer spa where you legitimately bathe in beer while drinking beer, and that's only to name a few of the amazing things I have done/experienced here. When I came to Europe for the first time in 2003 I left having fallen in love with the Czech Republic, little to my knowledge 8 years later I would move here and fall in love with it all over again.



 Photos from top to bottom: looking out over the Prague Christmas Markets from the Old Town Hall Tower, a view of Prague, the reservoir in Liberec, 'The Mayor and his Wife' at Adršpach-Teplice Skály, the lake at Adršpach-Teplice Skály and Kostnice Sedlec (Sedlec Ossuary) in Kutna Horá

You're moving where? Honestly. I don't know. (Oct 2010)

Well I suppose it's update time since when I left no one knew how long I was going for or for that matter where I was going - honestly I didn't even know...in fact I didn't know anything until Tuesday - as in yesterday. Before that I was very much on the brink of coming home, but alas randomness was (and probably still is) in my favour and so I will stay in Europe, but not even close to where I thought I was potentially going. And so the (lengthy) story goes...

What I really wanted was to live in the UK, which clearly the world did not want, from the moment I sent out my application for an Ancestry Visa, all hell broke loose. I had to make a trip to Vancouver, postpone my flight, have my fingerprints taken, assemble 1000 documents, train a monkey to do kung fu and pay ridiculous sums of money only to be rejected on the basis of applying with the 'wrong birth certificates'. Not that I sent someone elses, because that would be odd, but in Canada we (apparently) have two different birth certificates, a short form (the card that can't be laminated so mine is wrapped in Saran Wrap and Scotch Tape) and an elusive long form birth ceritifate that no one tells you about until you really need it. So I applied for mine and sent an appeal to the UK Border Agency.

Unsure of how long this would take, I rang up the Appeal Centre to get an estimate, the response?

'6 to 8 months.'

REALLY? 6-8 months? I could have a premature baby in that time. Clearly this entire operation is being run by the Government, because who else would take the gestation period of a reindeer to look at a piece of paper and determine that THEY had in fact issued it. To top it all off Visa Services doesn't have a phone number. Not just they are unlisted. They simply do not have a phone. Apparently they are operating in some sort of pre-Alexander Bell era where it is ok to only respond via telegraphs and carrier pigeons.

So my choices were: postpone my flight until an undetermined date and not make my goal of reaching 25 countries by the time I turned 25 (which at this point was a week and a half away and I only needed 2 more countries to make it) and pay an additional £100 or I could say stuff it and go, reach my goal and see what happened.

My decision was made on Thursday and Monday I set off for Seattle. Upon arrival in the UK I was detained at Immigration and put in a little roped off square of shame which was mostly filled with refugees, criminals...and me, all because of my as of yet failed application for a UK visa, when they finally let me go, 2 hours later, I had to run to the train and then to the bus, which I very nearly missed, to get to Leeds where I would visit my friend Charlie & her family.

My week in Leeds was fabulous, Charlie's family was wonderful, I got to go to a wedding, visit York and eat at a Jamie Oliver restaurant. The only downfalls during that week were that my visa card was 'comprimised' and then cancelled, followed by the buttons on my phone refusing to work (which ultimately means I am carrying around a phone to look cool...one step further than Visa Services I might add).

A couple days in to my England trip I received an email from my mum saying that Visa Services had overturned the decision on my appeal and just needed me to send my passport to Ottawa...well that was all well and good except I needed it to fly to Denmark so I could go to Sweden (where I would stay with another friend and visit both Denmark and Sweden completing my 25 by 25 goal), and so I assumed (wrongly) that I would just send my passport back to Canada after I arrived in Sweden, they'd put the pretty little visa in it and then I'd be off to the UK to work.

I was separated from my passport for exactly one month.

At some point during that month they decided to tell me (which was very kind of them since they didn't find it in their interest to correspond with me very often) that I couldn't have the visa because I was outside of Canada.

Fine. Whatever. I give up, just send me my passport back.

But due to the fact that they operate with the speed and efficiency that one can only expect from a government agency I did not hear back about my passport until Monday morning. As in Monday October 19th (I sent it to them on September 22).

At this point I couldn't find a country where I could get a visa without returning to Canada and I was quickly running out of money because Sweden is expensive, like $21 for a dish towel expensive. So I decided that it was time to get over it and go home.

But, life had different plans for me....

Last Thursday I got an email in my junk box about a job in the Czech Republic teaching Kindergarden (I had signed up months ago to receive updates regarding job postings for Europe, but as of yet, none that I could actually apply for) so I figured 'why not?' and sent in my resume.

The next day I got an email saying that I was one of their favourite applicants (they actually wrote that. Favourite.)  so if I could please complete a two page application form and make a small (humiliating) video clip of me introducing vocabulary to children (that I don't have) and post it on YouTube (where the whole world could view it) they would set me up for an interview via skype.

I did everything they asked and sent it all Monday morning. Interviewed with them Monday afternoon and was offered a job on Tuesday. They asked me to start ASAP so my mum FedExed my passport to me and booked my flight (I couldn't because of the whole visa card drama. She's pretty great like that.) So I fly Friday morning for Prague! What? Seriously. I know. I am moving to a city called Liberec (which I had never heard of until yesterday) but it has a hockey team and I'll be working at a Kindergarten.

And so this next part of what can only be described as an adventure begins! It will probably take me awhile to motivate myself to sit down and write a long update such as this one...and half of you probably didn't even make it to the end because it is closer to a short novel than an appropriated lengthed update...but a sequel will come eventually.