posted
So, I've been living in Nove Mesto (new place, or new town) in Praha 1 (Prague's center) for about 4 months. I've been in two flats here, and I've had enough. I'm moving the Vicherode/Vyton, which is down the river about 2km south.
It's more than location however. I began looking for a place to move when one of my current flat mates showed up at the flat drunk as a skunk, screaming obscenities at the neighbors, and yelling "THIS IS MY &^($)$ FLAT!" Well. It's not hers. It belongs to a nice Czech woman who owns several high priced flats in Prague, and this woman, my flatmate, is a "freelance writer" who never makes any money, is 30 years old, and is horrible.
If any American here has ever lived in a European capital, then you know the type of person I'm about to describe very well. She hates this place. She got here two years ago, and believed at the time that moving here would automatically catapult her to the upper echelon of great American literaries. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Baldwin. She has a Paris complex, but doesn't speak a word of French, she believes she is God's gift the world of art and high culture, but has never made a dollar working as a writer, and she's a drunk. She whines and complains and shouts abuse at everyone and everything, and is the most obvious and ugly kind of pretentious do-nothing I've ever met.
But, I've never had a single argument with her, never disagreed with her, never challenged any of her stupidities in the whole time I've lived here. I've just sat and taken it. Listened to her whine and drone on about how terrible the city is and how everything has let her down, and I've just nodded and gone about my business. She hates me for it. She's been waiting for me to move out for a long time. So when I told the landlord I was leaving at the end of the week, she didn't say a single word about it, just "ok."
There seem to be a couple of categories of expats in this city. There are people like me, who are pretty new, just starting out, have few expectations of success, and are just looking to get by. There are those who are planning to treat their time here like a post college "semester abroad" who stay here a set amount of time, act accordingly, and then go home. There are those who come here and stay here for 3-5 years or more, and among these there are the ones who HATE HATE HATE it, and there are those who learn the language, make local friends, blend in, and move on with life.
I don't yet know which of these I am, but I'd like to hope there is something in my character that will keep me from becoming the angry expat- the person who has lived here like an anthropologist, collecting information on why Czech people suck, and why by extension the world is horrible. These people are also usually drunks, perpetually borrowing money from relatives, and seemingly dedicated to the Romantic notion that suffering in Europe is a fulfilling experience. Some of them have wealth from a previous career, or actually do well here, in which case they are kind of like rebels without a cause, hating their home countries, and also hating everywhere they've ever lived outside of home.
I started to get a sick sense of foreboding when the flatmate started using the word "American" as a pejorative addition to personal descriptions: "this AmERICAN guy," she says in her New Yorkish accent, as if the person being American is meaningful in some special way that I can understand. But then, this is a person who is bound to be miserable *everwhere* so the priority is to get yourself as far from wherever they are as you can, and stay there.
So I'm moving down the river. A good friend from Scotland has a room opening today, and I now have the keys, and have payed the deposit back to the previous tenant, a Czech guy. I bought his furniture also, so I am now a furniture owning resident of Prague (my legal residence is due to be approved pretty soon, btw).
It's beautiful as well. It's a big spacious flat with a huge kitchen- it's really sort of a town house, with a backyard (yes!) and a nice common area. There is a balcony with a view of Prague castle, which is literally 200M from the flat, and there is a walking path up the hill, with a fantastic view of the river. My room is on the street side with a view of the river and a train bridge, and the tram stop is 100M from the door, with access to most of my work sites in easy reach. The room is big and well furnished, with two beds (a queen and a single in the corner, which is very common for expat flats because people visit so often). It couldn't be much better than that in Prague. I'm very happy. Now I have to put all my clothes in a giant bag, and make two long trips on the metro with all of my stuff. Good times!
Posts: 79 | Registered: Jan 2009
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posted
Halfway moved. I took two bags and my guitar on the metro and trams a few hours ago. I am now exhausted, and I have to shlepp my backpack, bookbag, toiletries and some food on the next trip. I returned to NR at rushhour, and I don't see how I could get on the metro with my backpack right now, so I'll wait a few hours and take a late schedule train. The place I am moving to has this eastern european gothic beauty. Like it's alive but run-down at the same time.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: ...and I have to shlepp my backpack, bookbag, toiletries and some food on the next trip.
Congratulations on getting out of there! Your mention of backpack and bookbag has me wondering why we used to use those terms interchangeably when I was a kid.
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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good luck!
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