More Life in the Big City of Prague

It has been some time since I wrote about life in the Czech Republic so I will take keyboard in hand and let the words fly – or maybe crawl – onto the page as it is nearly 10:00 PM in Prague. What have we been doing the last few days you ask? Well…read on to find out.

Wednesday we worked on the apartment some more in the morning, we now have the computers back in the living room and out of the bedroom. John has bought enough extension cords to make the wiring look acceptable. The TV, digital cable box, wireless Internet box, phone chargers and camera chargers all sit neatly on our entertainment center with cables nearly hidden. The computers are still on our kitchen table which is in the living room as it is our only table. The electric to our bedside tables now is one long cord rather than three short ones. Liz (aka Phyllis) thinks I am crazy to pay so much attention to the cabling, but it is important to me. I also put up some hooks in the entry hall to hang our staples – shopping bags and backpacks.

Wednesday afternoon we went site seeing with a young teacher we met at the school, Rebeka, a most interesting and delightful person. She is one of those extraordinarily adventurous people who has traveled far and wide in her young life. She took us on a tour of Mala Strana district of Prague and in particular Prague Castle area. We road the metro, trams, walked and ambled over the Charles Bridge. In between these adventures we had coffee at Starbucks and Pizza at a lovely old restaurant. Rebeka came to CISP last January, but knows her way around Prague really well since she was a student at Charles University here for a year.

On a whim Wednesday night, we left home at 7:30 PM and hopped on the Metro to take a thirty minute trip to an Ikea store in a large shopping mall area. Shopping is just incredible here. The malls are great and numerous. The wealth here is much greater than anticipated. We did not buy much, but needed a good, small rug that would cover the cable TV and Internet cables that run from one wall across our bedroom door to the entertainment center. We also got a small carpet piece for the kitchen and a spatula. We did not get home until around 10:00 PM.

We also made a brief appearance at CISP and got our key and a brief tour by Rebeka and Eva. Eva is a great Czech employee of the school who is becoming invaluable in keeping things running. Yes, we did come here to do a job, but are taking some time to settle in.

Thursday was work at the school and a trip to another mall to look for as-yet-not-found items. Again this was a thirty minute metro ride as the new malls tend to be at the extreme ends of the Metro. We found a “Home Depot” like store and bought some supplies for home and school. We stopped at a McDonalds to use the WC before returning home and I had a bit of shock. I carefully looked at the door before entering and saw a person wearing pants. So I boldly opened the door and started to go in. However, since the bathroom turned out to be quite small, I was immediately confronted by a nice looking blond lady at the sink hand washing area of the WC. Operating in panic mode I immediately looked at the door exterior again and decided that I was correct and this was the men’s WC. She was actually washing the bottom parts of her naked son in the men’s sink. I thought, “this is unusual, but I will go with the flow.” Hence I boldly stepped into the urinal/toilet area of the bathroom and found that it was very small and there was a Czech man in there. So I just waited in the corner for him to finish so I could accomplish my purpose for entering. Then I exited only to find the lady still there. Now she was washing out a dirty diaper in the sink – not good from my point of view. I was rather taken aback but remembered that I had one little foil wrapped hand cleaning towel in my backpack, so I exited trying to look what I had just witnessed was a normal happening in my life.

Both Phyllis and I then exchanged the information that we were both hungry and decided to eat at this McDonalds. I had the Chicken Ming, fries and a diet Pepsi. Phyllis had the Beef Wong and an Urquel – something not found at USA McDonalds. We then journeyed home and I got busy with more work on arranging the apartment. Then bed and a good sleep.

It is now too late so today’s happenings will be reported tomorrow.

Disclaimer: this blog has not been proof read, read at own peril.