It was so good catching up with this group last night. "BC", before Covid, we used to meet up at the pub for lad's night, sometimes with Štěpánka, every four to six weeks. I can't even remember the last time we actually all made it for a beer. During Covid we did have a few virtual pub nights but that's just not the same. Meeting up in person just felt like being back to normal.
I received a couple of birthday cards in the mail today. My folks mailed their card from Arizona on 12 July and my aunt and uncle mailed there's from California on 14 July. Two weeks isn't that bad. During Covid mail was taking much longer because there were so few flights between the USA and Euroland.
I spent the last three days at work in a workshop. I wasn't really thrilled about spending three fulls days in a workshop because this meant that I would then need to spend at least a few hours each night working just so that I would not face a mountain of work when I returned. I also wasn't thrilled about having to spend my birthday yesterday in this workshop.
To top it all off, I knew the facilitator. She and I don't see eye-to-eye on anything so spending three days with her wasn't my idea of a good time. The saving grace is that I work with some great people and our Kyndryl Deutsche Bank team is awesome.
It was time to refresh my work computer and I had the choice to stay with a Mac or switch over to a Lenovo laptop using Windows. Well, I'm such a jablečný kluk, an Apple guy, now that I didn't even consider switching back to a Windows operating system. Kyndryl provided me with a new MacBook Air. There's just one big problem. They issued me a laptop with an American keyboard.
I can't use an American keyboard. It may seem funny to some people but my muscle memory has changed and now I touch type with a Czech keyboard. I struggle anytime I have to use an American or German keyboard because I'm so used to Czech keyboard now. It's not just the QWERTZ vs QWERTY thing but all of the punctuation characters are in different spots and I also type using Czech accented letters.
The fix was to order keyboard stickers. I went into settings as set up a Czech keyboard and now I'm going to place stickers on the keys. Even when touch typing, I occasionally glance at the keyboard to get my bearings and I want the keyboard to match my language setting.
It's been a while since I received a care package from the USA. I'm not complaining mind you. The cost to mail a care parcel from the USA has increased to $77 and now there's VAT due on everything. After more than a decade here I'm just not as dependent on getting things from back home. If there's something that I really need I can find in locally or at least on Amazon. Of course there are some things that I can't find. I can't remember the last time that I had Rocky Road ice cream and it's not like I can have ice cream mailed to me.
I was working from home today when the postman buzzed my door. I was surprised because I hadn't ordered anything but here was a box from my sister in California. I had to pay 120 Kč ($5.40) for VAT due which I could pay with my iPhone. It's still two weeks until my birthday so I should wait until then to open up my presents. I do know that there's a box of corn muffin mix and according to the custom's form there should be some socks. I can't wait to see what all she sent me.
Yes! I'm now down 33 kg (72,75 lbs). I wrote before that it's been a long five plus years to lose this much weight. Since it has been gradual, not many people noticed the first 35-40 lbs, especially with everyone working from home during Covid. Everyone seems to notice the last 30ish lbs. I've even lost so much weight that a colleague asked if my cancer was back.
I've had to order buy some new clothes because nothing fit right any more. Just another 2 kg (4.4 lbs) still to lose. Fingers crossed.
Today is 13 years in Czechland. 13 years!?! A lot has happened since my ten year party three years ago. The last couple of years especially seems kind of blur, in no small part, due to Covid.
Coming to Czechland is still one of the best decisions that I ever made. Although, I am starting to have a bit of an identity issue. I was born and raised in California and, truth be told, deep down, I'll always be a bit of a California boy.
When I was 24, I went to Atlanta for a two-week vacation and ended up staying there for 13 years. When I lived in Atlanta and someone asked me where I'm from, the obvious answer was that I'm from California.
While I've been here when people have asked me where I'm from, then the answer has been that I'm from Atlanta. As of tomorrow I will have lived in Brno longer than I lived in Atlanta so am I really still from Atlanta? Perhaps the answer to where I'm from defaults back to California.
A friend of mine asked that "when I think of home" what pops in to my mind? When I think of back home, then California pops into my mine. But, honestly if I think of home, (and not of back home) then Brno is what pops into my mind which doesn't exactly help. I can't say that I'm from Brno. That would be weird. Plus, people would assume that I'm either making a joke or that I actually have Czech citizenship.
Another friend mentioned that his kids were Moravian because they were born in Brno. I've lived in Brno longer than his kids have been alive so does that make me more or less Moravian than the kids? I don't think so.
However, once I finally get Czech citizenship, the government will issue me a new Czech birth certificate and the place of birth will be the address where I submit my application. So whenever I finally do become Czech, my new birth certificate will state that I was born in Moravia. I guess when that day comes I will officially be a government-certified Brňák. But that seems a way off because I still need to sort out my paperwork so that I can finally apply for Czech citizenship.
Now that I've lived here for 13 years, I suppose that I'm now a Czech teenager. Well sort of, I guess. At the very least I can wish myself a Happy Czech-iversary!!
Tomorrow is the beginning of Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The EU has a Green Deal goal of climate neutrality by 2050. This means that action is required now as 20% of the EU's CO² emissions comes from road transportation. The European Commission has proposed that as of 2035, all new cars and vans should yield zero emissions. It's been approved by the European Parliament. The finalisation of the new rules will be negotiated during the Czech EU presidency.
Škoda is the largest employer in Czechland. All of the company's Czech plants already make electric cars or components. In 2019, it introduced the Citigo-e iV, its first electric car. By 2030, Škoda wants 50-70% market share of all-electric car sales in Europe.
On 1 July 2022, Czechland assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The presidency rotates every six months, and France has held it for the last six months, and after the Czechs it will go to Sweden.
The role is to set the agenda of the Council of the EU, lead its meetings, act as the broker between all of the individual interests of the member states while representing the council in negotiations with the European Commission, the European Parliament and external partners.
This will be the second time that the country has held the presidency. The first time was from 1 January until 30 June 2009, right before I moved to Czechia.
So Petr Fiala, the Czech Prime Minister, will be in charge of the EU for the next six months. The top five priorities, which are pretty closely linked are:
It was announced last month that the presidency's slogan will be "Europe as a task: rethink, rebuild, reposer." The "Europe as a task" comes from a speech that former president Václav Havel once made in Germany.
Here's a short video I found out on YouTube about the upcoming transition.
One of the criticisms of the upcoming Czech presidency is that there are at least five Czech minister that won't be able to lead meetings in English. I don't really get what the minor uproar is all about. Only the European Commission has English, French, and German as its working languages. The EU has 24 official languages, of which Czech is one of them, so if any of the ministers don't feel comfortable using English then they can use an interpreter.
Ukraine and Georgia were on track to apply in 2024 but the war has fast tracked their applications.
Joining the EU is not an easy thing to do and it takes years. Türkiye applied in 1999, North Macedonia in 2005, Montenegro in 2010, Serbia in 2012, and Albania in 2014.
Slovakia applied on 27 June 1995 and Czechland appleid on 17 January 1996. Both joined on 1 May 2004. So over eight years and neither country had Russian troops occupying part of their territories.
What's really significant is that Finland and Sweden have now both officially applied to join NATO. While both countries are part of the the Partnership for Peace programme, both countries have long histories of neutrality. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has really changed things.
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