New Things in Brno

I've been in Czechland for just over 13 years now.  Sometimes people are surprised that I've lived in the country this long.  The typical understanding is the foreigners (expats) come and eventually foreigners leave.   

The other thing that often surprises people is that the whole time I've only lived in Brno.  My entire Czechland adventure has taken place here in Moravia.  I love this city.  There's always something going on here or something new to discover.

Yesterday, I took the day off and Kája and I spent the day together.  Here's three "new" things I found in the city.

1.  The BRNO sign by the town hall.  It isn't exactly new but I hadn't seen it yet.  

2.  Štetl Fest is coming in September.  It's a multi-genre festival of Jewish culture and history.  It's the largest festival of Jewish culture in the country.  I assume that it's in participation with the coming MEHRIN Moravian Jewish Museum but that's just my assumption.

Štetl comes from the Yiddish word for a "small town."  Usually it refers to a small town with a large strong Jewish presence.  

3.  Brno has an Embassy of Independent Belarusian Culture.  Back in 2020, I know that Brno supported the protestors in Belarus.  But with everything going on at the time with Covid, I missed that the embassy opened on 17 November 2020.

It's not a traditional embassy.  It was set up by the Centre for Experimental Theatre and it focuses on informing the public about what's going on in Belarus and supporting cultural activities.

It's probably even more important to understand what's going on there now given that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed the country to be a staging ground and launching point for Russian's invasion of Ukraine.

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Scary Movie Night

Vašek and Honza organised an outdoor movie night yesterday at the cottage.  Everyone showed up early to grill out on the roof and wait for it to get dark enough to watch the movie.  

This was the first friend event for Kája and I to show up to as a couple.  Everyone made him feel welcome and we had a great time.

Then there was the film.  The boys wanted a scary movie so we ended up watching The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.  It's a 2021 horror movie from the USA.  The catch is that we watched it Czech.  In Czech the film is V zajetí démonů 3: Na Ďáblův příkaz.  

While we watched the Czech language version, here's the movie trailer that I found out on YouTube in English with Czech subtitles.

Munchkin Visit

Claudia and Tünde came for a visit so I got to spend some godfather time with the munchkin.  

We had a few movie nights including a Harry Potter & sushi night.  

Another night we headed out to Ikea for a bit of shopping and some Swedish meatballs.  

It was fun getting to spend some time with the chicas.  On Thursday night, we headed over to the park at the observatory to see the planets.  The Moon is back on display with the Earth, Mars, and this time with Venus.

It's still new but I recently started seeing someone.  We're just starting to introduce each other to our friends.  Karel joined us for an hour at the park and Tünde was very excited that she, and Claudia, got to be the first people who've met him.  They seemed to approve so that's a plus.  Let's see how things go but on Friday we headed to Prague for the weekend and had a good time.

Finally a Meet Up

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.  

A Couple of Birthday Cards

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.

3 Day Workshop

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.

Keyboard Stickers

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.

Pre-Birthday Care Package

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.

Down 33 kg

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.

13 Years in Czechland

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!!