Tomorrow is the move

Tomorrow is the move to our new flat. Our shipment of stuff from the US has arrived and is ready for delivery. They cannot however bring the large container truck down our street. So they are parking it a few blocks away and will use a smaller truck to shuttle the stuff. Once they arrive there they need to take it up 4 flights of stairs into our 2 floor apartment. They are sending 8-10 guys and hope to do it in one day. Until we get internet this may be the last post for a bit. It can take up to 2 weeks to get a hook up. I will try to post form work and put up an estimated time we will be back On-line. It should be with a much better provider then the one we have today.

Banking here

This week brought about yet another new adventure - I set up our CZ bank account. I had already asked around for some opinions of which bank to use and decided to go with eBanka as they are known to always have English speaking people at each branch. There is one in the square, about 2 blocks up from where I work, so I decided to try this one out. One of the people from my office called the bank and made an appointment for me. I went to the bank and asked for the person I was to meet...Sorry, they say, but that person is out today and a different person would now meet with me. Okay, upstairs I go and meet with a personal banker. He explained all the options for accounts and what the fees were. Unlike in the US, types of accounts and subsequent fees were not based on your minimum balance but instead it depends on how much money you deposit in a given month. Thus we have to put 30,000 CK (about 1,500 US) in the bank each month to get the best options. Fees are for wire transfers and for ATM withdrawals. There are no fees for eBanka ATM withdrawals...all others are 6.5 CK per use - this is about .31 cents, so it is less then they charge at a lot of ATMS in the states. Oh - here they are called BankoMats instead of ATMs, so you may be seeing that word in future entries. After about an hour of paperwork, we get to the part where I give them the money for initial deposit. I was curious to see what they did at this point since there were a few different ways to do this...with varying costs for me. We had brought some money with us to set up an account and get us by until I received my first paycheck from the Prague office. I gave him the US money and he thought for a minute then said, "Well, if we make yours a dual currency account it will cost about 11 kc for the first month and you can put both CZ and US Dollars in it. You can also transfer from one to the other for 1 KC. " This is actually far less than I had heard from anywhere for money conversion so was very pleased. Seemed like I had a smart, honest banker here. He is also the banker I can deal with from here forward and he gave me a card with all his contact info. I then picked out a Visa Bankcard which you pay for annually. It takes about a week to get the card. The banking system here is obviously very fee-focused . He then took me through the process to do online banking. This is very prevalent here as most people you need to do recurring payments with will give you a bank and an account number so you can do a direct deposit to them - very easy. So, online banking is very sophisticated and very focused on security here . This is what you have to do to get to your account online:

1. Go to the eBanka web site and pick a method of verification...I chose cell phone. There are two other options, one being an online calculator that you can pay a fee for :)
   
2. Put in your ID number ...this is like your user name and is strictly numeric, but it is not your account number.
   
3. Now you click a button that says verify. In less than 10 seconds, you receive an SMS text message to your cell phone with another 7 digit code.
   
4. Enter the code from your cell phone.
5. Now you can enter you PIN number on the site.
6. You are logged into your account.
   

You can now access everything...balances, transactions, etc. However if you need to make a payment or transfer funds or anything along those lines, you need to go through the whole process again for each transaction. Thus, if you accidentally left a browser window up and you are logged into your account, there is not really anything anyone can do with it.

Now that was all on Tuesday. On Friday I had to make a withdrawal from the bank to pay for the lease on our new flat. I went in the bank, up to the cash window,and I asked how to make a withdrawal. My personal banker was not in yet so I was on my own. The women spoke little English and finally got one of the other bankers to come over. He showed me the form, that of course was only in Czech, and helped me fill it out. It was pretty straight forward and I think I can fill it out next time if I have to - except for where you have to write the amount out in words. I still don't know the numbers in Czech. I say thank you and hand the slip to the teller. I figure I am home free at this point. She asks for my Passport... fine. Then she asks for my User ID that I use on the website...OK, fine, I give her that. My Cell rings...it's an SMS with another security number. The Teller hands me back the slip and points to a line on the form. I fill in the security code and hand the slip back. She types it in her terminal and looks pleased. A receipt spits out and I sign that. She then gives me my money and another receipt, this one stamped by the bank - Whew! So the banking over here is very, VERY secure which I like but there is certainly some inconvenience involved in this level of security :)

Getting my cell phone to work

Yes, our cell phones from Cingular work over here but obviously cost a fortune to use. So I localized my phone so I could use one of the local services for far less money. The process begins by going to a local cell provider store. I chose T-Mobil as they are the provider for the office phones and on platform calls should be cheap or free. I went with a few people from work so that I could have some translators with me. We walked into the shop and you push a button on a little machine that looks like a credit card machine printer. There are 2 buttons to choose from... one for prepaid and one for contract. I went with prepaid as we don't have an address yet. So the little printer spits out a ticket with a number on it. My number was 104. There are like 10 employees in the store at a center island, each with their own work area. Above each of their heads is a number from 1 to 10. Then, hanging from the ceiling above the ticket machine are a bunch of little LED boards with the numbers of the workstations. 104 popped up on the board next to number 8 and we went to that station. One of my co-workers took over at this point and explained I wanted a SIM card and the prepaid service. The attendant then took out a large sized box from under the counter filled numerous with little boxes...these little boxes were all SIM cards. I then got to sort through the boxes and pick my phone number. They put in the SIM card and it asked for an additional password; apparently places in the US lock their phones from working on other networks. The SIM card and prepaid credit cost me 400 Kč (slightly less than $20 US) for 400 Kč of credit - thus the SIM card is technically free. Quick conversion lesson - while it changes daily, it is approximately 22.80Kč = $1 US Dollar) From there, we went to a cell phone shop around the corner. The have techs there who will unlock phones & for another 400 Kc they had it unlocked it in about 20 minutes, loaded my new SIM, and it worked great...I didn't even lose my address book. Differences with this SIM is it makes you put in the pin for the card anytime the phone has lost power. I think there is a way to shut it off but I may keep it like this for the added security. I then went and looked for a power adapter to use with the charger for the phone. That did not go as smoothly. The one I found did not seem to work right and fried the charger. So, back to the cell phone shop I go and they had a 220v charger for my phone for like 180 Kč (remembering the above lesson, this works out to be about $8.66 US). This was actually less then what I paid for the faulty converter :( The funniest thing about spending all this time on my phone is that my call button does not work, nor does my volume or voice recognition dialing buttons...so this SIM will eventually make its way into Pam's cell phone and we will have to get hers unlocked & I have a phone on order through the office :)

Flat Hunting

This last week has been very, very busy. We have dedicated it to finding out permanent flat. We have focused mainly on Praha (Prague) 2...where we are now... and Praha 6, which lots of people recommend and say is more family oriented. I went and looked at one flat on Friday of last week - the kids were still not adjusted enough to partake in this yet. However, by this week we were able to look at some places and had appointments almost every day! Thursday was the busiest seeing some 6 or 7 flats in as many hours. We followed it up today looking at another 3. We were trying to find something that had space for all the stuff we shipped over and at least 3 bedrooms. We hoped to have our bedroom and the kids on the same level - this would be different from how the house was and what we would now prefer. This proved difficult as most of the larger flats we were looking at were attic spaces and would have 2 bedrooms on the second floor and one on the main floor or vice versa. We were also hoping for an extra room or two we could use as a study/guest room and one for a playroom. After all was said and done, we had about 4 flats of various layouts, locations, and prices that we could make work. One was brand new with beautiful views right near the center, another was in a villa in a more residential area, the third in Praha 2 with lots of space but the dreaded split level bedroom issue, and the last near a large green park, a metro stop, and a block from a largely commercial area. This last one also had more than enough space for us and all the bedrooms on the same floor. It is a little more dated and has no lift in the building but is very nice inside with lots of very nice features. We are negotiating a lease for this place now and hope to have it all sewn up by Monday or Tuesday. We also heard from the movers this past week and it seems our belongings will be here this coming week. A little earlier then we thought or hoped...but at least they made it !

Our Temporary Flat

Our temporary flat has worked well for us. It is a newly built Attic apartment. Although there were some signs that maybe one other tenant had been in before us, I think we are actually the first people to stay in it. It is not quite done yet, nor had anything been tested out properly, so it has not been without some challenges. First thing we had to deal with was the Satellite TV they had installed. We could not find a single channel on which they spoke English. They were mostly German with a few French thrown in. We tried to find anything kid-oriented and did find a Nickelodeon channel but it was German too and Alex would not watch it. Three days after we got here they replaced our TV with a larger one...they had just been waiting for it to come in. They also re-pointed the Satellite dish and reprogrammed our box. We now had over 500 channels at our disposal...maybe 250 English channels... from Sky TV. Of course as we surfed around we found about 6 channels we could watch - 4 that we would.. and the rest were complete junk. There are over 150 shopping networks,about 100 dating channels, 50 music video channels, tons of news channels in 4 or 5 different languages, and close to 100 adult channels in German. However, it is free so I guess you get what you pay for. There is one channel that Alex can watch that she has enjoyed and there are 3 channels Pam and I have been watching. This lack of TV has helped us get out more and spend more time together as a family - it has been very nice. Another issue we noticed right off the bat was that the gas stove top would not light on its own. After a run to the store for matches, I have been able to make some basic meals that involve boiling water or a fry pan. However, the oven remained a mystery until we were told it was not hooked up completely. Easter weekend brought about another major problem...we were in the kitchen and noticed water spots on the ceiling. Turns out the shower in the master bathroom has a major leak in it and needs to be completely rebuilt. So we have been taking our showers in the common bathroom which has a large tub with a sort of blocked off end and a hand-held shower head. This has proven to be a lack of convenience but functional. As mentioned previously, the oven does not work at all but there is a small microwave with a grill setting so you can make toast and such. Within 2 blocks of us there are maybe 15 restaurants and cafes, 3-4 small groceries, a great bakery with sandwiches, a butcher, a drugstore, maybe 4-5 small electronics stores and a few clothing stores. It is amazingly easy to get most of what you need very close to where you live. It is a nice change from the Wal-marts and super stores. We have also found maybe 5 playgrounds within a six block radius of where we are. Alex has had a great time going to the playgrounds and has given them each a number. She will say,"Oh are we going to park 5 today?" or "Remember that time at Park 6 when...." She has adapted well and now that she is healthy she is enjoying herself. (Click on either picture for more flat pictures)

Exploring Prague 6 and Letenské Park

Sunday April 1st we headed out to Prague 6. We wanted to see if we liked the area as a permanent location for us to live and also to explore Letenské park. We took the Metro out as far as we could go into Prague 6...which was Dejvicke... and then walked back to the park. The Metro dropped us off at this large rotary in the heart of Prague 6. There was also some sort of monument there but I could not read any of the writing on it to know what it was. It was definitely different from the area we are in in Prague 2. The streets are wider so on the whole it is lighter than the area where we are. There are still lots of shops on most of the first floors of old style buildings with the flats above, so no difference there other than the fact that the flats must get more light too. Out further from the center, a short distance from the Metro stop we got off at, are where the townhouse and home rentals begin. This was WNW of the way we were going so we did not get a chance to look at anything. However, public transportation is not as accessible in that area and for shopping and such you really would need a car. So after Pam made a quick call to the States, we headed off toward the park. The neighborhood seemed nice as we walked through it - I think we could certainly be happy living in this area but walking to the office would not be a regular thing as it is much further away. The park itself is huge. There is a large dirt area where I have seen several soccer games being played, as well as some wind surfing with large kites and three wheels skiffs. It was a beautiful day...sunny and in the 60's... so it was pretty crowded. The first thing we noticed was how popular roller blading is. There were lots of people taking advantage of the wide paved paths with bikes, blades and just walking. After walking for about 15 minutes we came across a playground area. Alex raced in and right over to a ride I don't think we will ever see in US parks. It was a Zip line running between too little buildings with sand in between. The buildings were maybe 45 feet a part and the cable was perhaps 7 or 8 feet off the ground. A child would jump from one building holding onto the cable runner with both hands and slide along as far as he/she could toward the other little house. Then they would drop off and, using a little tow string that hung down from the handles, pull it the rest of the way to the other house to the child waiting there. This continued back and forth in a very orderly way with children lined up in each house waiting their turn. I saw some children as young as I would say 2 using this with the help of a parent. While in line, I explained to Alex she had to hold on tight and not let go until the slider stopped. She said she understood but I had my doubts. A little girl in line behind her who was about the same age said something to Alex in Czech. Alex responded with "My name is Alex" in English and the little girl just giggled. I told her in Czech we did not speak Czech and this got us more giggles. I then pointed to Alex and said her name and then pointed to the little girl....more giggles. It was now Alex's turn on the zip line. A little boy handed me the tether line and I pulled up the T-Bar and picked up Alex with my other arm so she could reach it. She latched on and said she was ready. I let her go and ran along with her ready to catch her if she let go. She actually held on until it stopped moving and I had to then tell her it was now OK to let go. We pulled the T-Bar the rest of the way over and the next child took it. Alex seemed to really enjoy it but then she spied a sandbox and she was off. We played in the sandbox with a bunch of other kids and parents sharing the toys we found there. Every time I spoke to Alex I felt like my own voice was alien. Everyone around us was speaking Czech and our English words seemed very out of place. It was a very strange feeling. After playing in the sandbox we moved on to another section of the playground where Alex found a balance beam which she spent a long time on until she mastered it. We gave Alex a quick snack and moved on to the adult entertainment part of the park...the beer garden. Pam, Logan, and Alex went off to look for a rest room while I got in line for a couple beers. The line was not too bad and it moved along quickly. I got the beers (2 - 16 ounce cups) for about 2.50 US and caught up with everyone else at another sandbox and a small playground next to all the picnic tables for the beer garden. This whole area is on a very high ridge lookout into the heart of the oldest part of the city. It is an amazingly beautiful spot. Alex was playing with a little girl in the sandbox and took her shovel. The little girl started to cry and her mom came over. Pam went over to make Alex give back the shovel and the woman said in English "Don't worry about it she has two." Pam talked to the woman for a while and found that she had moved to Prague a few years ago from Virginia with her husband who was Czech . It was nice to have run into someone we could chat with. Pam then found an empty bench on the end of the row and fed Logan while Alex played on these huge ceramic brightly colored animals. We then walked out of the park and down to another Metro station that took us back into the town square where the Monster offices are. We gave up on finding someplace cool to take the kids to eat and went into a KFC and grabbed something quick. We walked home from there stopping to take some pictures at Sv. Ludmila, the large Catholic church just a couple blocks from out flat. (Click either of the pictures to see all the pictures from the day)

Our second day out (Havličkovy Park)

On Saturday the 31st we headed out for more park exploration. There is another large park a few blocks form our current flat called Havličkovy. This park had a very nice new playground including a fenced small soccer/basketball area. The sandbox was very large and proved to be Alex's favorite spot. There is a very large stone building being renovated in the park itself. It will most likely be a restaurant and potentially some flats as well. The terrace around the back of the building is huge and has some amazing views looking down into the city. I was only able to take some pictures from the gate as the construction had it pretty well blocked off for the renovation. Someone had hung a few soda bottle bird feeders up in the park that were getting some great use. The park has a large section of a ridge planted with grape vines. It will be interesting to see what happens with these as the seasons progress. We walked back from the park and stopped in at a cafe (Zanzibar) 2 blocks from our house for lunch. It was very nice and one of the waitresses spoke English which made it easy. They serve breakfast all day and have a very large selection...however, we did learn that a pancake is actually a crepe - which did not make Alex very happy since she expected them to be the same as Daddy's Sunday Brunch version. After lunch we went back to our flat and Alex took a nap. After her nap we went out again a another nice little playground a couple blocks away. This was very new and was actually built in the space that is the green clearing in the link above . Alex played there for about an hour and a half before it started to really cool off and we headed home. (Click the image above to see more pictures)

First Trip out all together (Riegrovy Park)

So Friday the 30th we made our first trip out as a family. We headed over to a park that was near some flats we had been looking at. The park is called Riegrovy and it is very large. It has a beer garden/restaurant, lots of open green space with paved paths, and a children's playground. There is also an indoor swimming pool and an outside track. We got there late in the evening and were only able to use the playground for about a half hour before they locked it up. It seemed silly though that it got locked up at all since the fence around the playground was only 3.5 feet tall and the kids were climbing over and back at will. What made us laugh most was that people started leaving as soon as we arrived. This continued until we were basically the only ones left. At this point a woman came over, started in Czech then quickly realized we did not understand a word she was saying, changed over to (limited) English and told us that the park was closing for the night. It was very nice of her to do this but made us realize that we really needed some Czech language & reading skills...even if it is just the basics! As you can see in the pictures (Click the picture above to see all the pictures from the trip) the cherry blossoms are out already here. There are some fantastic views of the city from the park as well. On the way back we stopped at an Albert Grocery store. It is a very large chain of stores here and they can be found all over the city. One thing of note is they charge 5 Crowns (a little less then 25 cents) per plastic bag at checkout. Also, there are no baggers at any of the supermarkets. Most people bring their own bag(s) with them. We have been carrying small backpacks and load these up when we go to the store. They even have little packing areas after the checkout line where people have space to pack their bags before leaving the store. There are some pictures of the houses around the park and the street out in front of the Albert store as well.

Alex still sick

Well, Alex spent our first week here trying to get over her bad cold. This pretty much kept us in the flat the first couple of days with only a few trips out by Pam or myself to the local shops to get groceries and such. Seems so strange that we can get to the store and back with the groceries in the time it used to take to get in the car and just drive to the supermarket. After the first few days, we were all stir crazy and just had to get some fresh air...the park trips deserve an entry all to themselves. I made one trip into the office to check in and see what was going on. It is about a 20 minute walk. I will try to keep up the walking and avoid the ease of the public transportation until maybe I've lost 30 or so pounds. Of course the beer may offset the exercise ;) We will see.

What do you mean our flat is gone......

Once the van starts moving our relocation guide tells us that she has some bad news. The apartment we thought we were moving to is no longer available. However, she says she has set up another place as a back-up that she thinks will work out. We ask if it has three bedrooms, she says yes; Does it have 2 Bathrooms? Again she says yes. Okay, so our hopes are up that perhaps it will be alright. We get to the flat and find it is 2 bedrooms...not 3, and one bathroom that has a toilet and one room with a bath in it. So we tell her this is not going to work for us as we need to have separate rooms for the kids because they are on very different schedules and they have enough to deal with without messing around with trying to share a room or putting someone in the Living Room (which would wreak havoc on everyone's schedules). We pile back into the van and are told that they looked really hard but could not find anything else. We then ask to be put up in a hotel at least for the day so we can rest up. It is now about 11 am Prague time on the 27th. After spending some time on the phone as we drive around they are unable to find us a suite or even 2 connected rooms for us to stay in. I am ready to lose it at this point, Pam is close to tears, the kids are still sleeping, and we are questioning why we ever did this in the first place. So I ask to be driven to where our offices are so I can talk to our HR people there about the situation. Miraculously, as I return to the car I am told that there is some place to go look at that will be perfect for us. As we drive, new 'offers' are continuing to pour in just in case this one doesn't work out after all. We are trying anything and everything...furnished, unfurnished, 30 days, longer options...we just want a place to crash! The temp furnished place they show us is great and is 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths and 2 floors. It is not as near to the park as the other places we had seen but otherwise it is perfect. We looked at 3 other long term places and have an idea of what is out there for long term stuff. After looking at the last long term place we go back to the short term one and unload and wake up Alex. It is now 4:30 Pm on the 27th. The flat is on a quiet street off of a major street within easy walking distance to the office and only 2 blocks from a major Tram and Subway station. It is the 4th and 5th floors of the building with the top floor having a few sloping ceilings as it is the attic. The place is brand new and we are the first people to stay here. It is fully outfitted with Ikea everything. A couple other challenges awaited us...the gas range had not been fully hooked up and we needed matches to use it. Pam went out and managed to get a box of matches at a nearby smoke shop and I got some water, milk, Coke and pasta to make a quick dinner and provide us some basics for the fridge. There was no Internet connection...takes a week or so to get that taken care of...and there is no phone. Pam used her cell to contact our relocation agent regarding the missing luggage...after a follow up inquiry, our missing bag showed up at around 7:30pm. We were now finally all moved in...to our temporary location. There is some nervous aspect to the fact that we will be going through a lot of this again as we try to find a permanent residence for our stay in Prague, however we at least ended the day with a place to call home, basic amenities, and beds to crash on. We are at 37 záhřebská in Vinohrady Praha 2.