Category: Prague Expat Life

Two days after President Obama’s re-election

Prague on the Vltava River © Ricky Yates

For better or worse, I am part of social media. I write this blog and I am on Facebook. Yesterday via Facebook, I received a barrage of posts from my American ‘friends’ regarding the outcome of their Presidential and Congressional elections held on Tuesday 6th November 2012. One person, (you know who you are 🙂 ), posted over fifty times between my going to bed late in the evening of Tuesday 6th November and logging on again mid-morning the next day!

The vast majority of these ‘friends’ were expressing a mixture of joy, relief or satisfaction at the election result – often a mixture of all three. But a small minority, mostly ‘friends’ of American ‘friends’ of mine now living here in Prague, were in utter despair at the result and were threatening to leave the USA and come and live here in Europe, in particular here in the Czech Republic. This unplanned blog post is specifically for them.

As I understand it, these right-wing Republicans are concerned about a number of issues. One these is what they believe to be ‘uncontrolled immigration’ into the USA by non-American citizens who they think have no right to live within their country. Yet these self-same people are now proposing to emigrate from the USA, to another country. Have they ever given any thought as to why another country might actually want to receive them as immigrants?

Whilst via this blog, I have been very supportive of American citizens who have come to the Czech Republic at the invitation of Czech companies and businesses and have then experienced visa and work permit problems, it does not mean that, just because you are an American, you have the right to live and work in this or someone else’s country.

In recent times, I have heard various complaints from Americans and other non-EU citizens, who have come to the Czech Republic on a three month Schengen tourist visa, started working here, and only then have begun to apply for a long-term visa and work permit. Their concern is that, by the time they have completed the paperwork for a long-term visa and work permit, travelled to Bratislava, Vienna or Berlin to lodge their application, their three-month tourist visas will have expired before Czech bureaucracy has successfully issued them with necessary paperwork.

Can any American citizen tell me what the attitude would be to a foreign national who arrived in the USA on a tourist visa, started working, and then applied for a ‘green card’? I think I know the answer to my question! Therefore, why should rules, similar to those that apply to immigrants to the USA, not also apply to American citizens seeking to live and work in another country?

Another major dislike of these self-same individuals is what his supporters would see as one of President Obama’s major achievements during the first four years of his presidency – the provision of health care for all, denounced by his opponents as ‘Obamacare’ or ‘socialised medicine’. I am well aware that the package eventually passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, is far from perfect. But it remains beyond the comprehension of most Europeans as to why the supposedly richest nation in the world has not until now, provided universal healthcare for all of its citizens and that a large vocal group actually object to such provision.

Therefore may I inform all those Americans thinking of leaving the USA and moving to Europe in order to escape ‘Obamacare’, that all twenty seven members of the European Union provide universal healthcare for all of their citizens. Yes it costs money – my Church Treasurer often points out that of all the money that leaves our Church bank account at the end of each month to pay me, only about half of it ends up in my bank account. Because from that sum is deducted employer and employee contributions to social security and health insurance as well as my income tax. But if I need to consult my GP or need a major operation in a hospital, all I have to do is pay 30 Kc (£1.00 or US$1.50) – all the rest is covered. As an online friend recently pointed out, if you are looking for a country that doesn’t have universal health care, why not try living in Eritrea!

One topic that didn’t arise in the campaigns of either of the Republican or Democratic candidates for the American Presidency is that of gun control. Neither candidate wanted to challenge the power and influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA). But if you want to come and live in Europe, don’t try and bring your weapons with you unless you think you can show very good reasons for having them. Just citing the second amendment to the US constitution will fall on deaf ears 🙂 By the way – the murder rate in Europe is about one quarter to one seventh of that in the USA. I wonder why?

I could go on by pointing out many other things that conservative Americans might find objectionable should they try to escape their own country and seek to move here. For example, in the Czech Republic, you will regularly see women openly breastfeeding in public. You cannot ask for them to be arrested as there is no law requiring women to go and hide in a public toilet in order to feed their babies in the manner that God intended. In case you hadn’t ever realised, unlike guns and violence, a woman’s nipple has never killed anyone.

This post is not meant to be anti-American but rather an attempt to challenge some of the frankly absurd comments I’ve seen and read this past 48 hours. To use two well known American expressions – ‘get real’ and ‘go figure’.

Liberec

Liberec Town Hall © Ricky Yates

The city of Liberec is situated 110 km north-east of Prague, quite close to the border of the Czech Republic with both Germany and Poland. Known in German as Reichenberg, it lies within the former Sudetenland and had a majority German-speaking population until the vast majority were expelled in 1945-6, at the end of the Second World War.

We paid our first visit to Liberec on my day-off four weeks ago, Monday 8th October. The chief reason for our trip was to visit Liberec Zoo, which is home to a pair of rare White Bengal Tigers, who earlier this year, successfully produced three tiger cubs.

Liberec Zoo is located in a leafy suburb east of the city centre. It has the distinction of being the oldest zoo in the Czech Republic, having been founded in 1919, well before Prague Zoo which was founded in 1931. On the day we visited, there were remarkably few other visitors, and nearly all of them seemed to be German 🙂 It was also noticeable that once any member of the local population realised we were not Czech, we got spoken back to in German!

Whilst we did get to see the white tiger cubs, it was near impossible to get a decent photograph of them. But Sybille did get this photograph below of their mother.

White Bengal Tiger © Sybille Yates
Sign in four languages © Ricky Yates

Just outside the building housing the White Tigers and their cubs was this sign. Friends on Facebook will have seen my photograph already as I posted it there the same day as I took it. As I entitled it then;

“In Deutschland wird englisch gesprochen, aber in Großbritannien sprechen wir deutsch – In Germany we speak English, but in Great Britain we speak German.”

And yes – both the English and German texts are in need of considerable improvement. The English text seems to imply that the White Tigers are being bred in the collection box 🙂 It reminds me of a line from a letter written by a lady to her employer explaining her absence from work – “This is to advise you that I have given birth to twins in the enclosed envelope” 😉

Meerkats in Liberec Zoo © Ricky Yates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many other interesting animals and birds to see elsewhere in the zoo including these delightful meerkats.

Later in the afternoon, we drove from the zoo to the centre of the city, parked the car, and set out to explore on foot. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Liberec was a very prosperous city, home to a thriving textile industry resulting in it being known as the ‘Manchester of Bohemia’. Some of the city’s most significant buildings date from that time including the Town Hall featured in the photograph at the beginning of this post and the F.X. Šalda Theatre pictured below.

F.X. Šalda Theatre, Liberec © Ricky Yates

Both the Town Hall and the Theatre are situated on the main city square, Námestí Dr. E. Beneše. Here are some more attractive buildings on another side of the same square.

Attractive buildings on one side of Námestí Dr. E. Beneše, Liberec © Ricky Yates
Valdštýnské domky (Czech) or Waldsteinhäuser (German) dating from 1678-81 © Ricky Yates

However, the origins of Liberec can be traced back to at least the fourteenth century. These half-timbered houses are some of the earliest remaining buildings still standing within the city and date from 1678-81. They are known as Valdštýnské domky (Czech) or Waldsteinhäuser (German).

Memorial to the victims of the Soviet invasion of August 1968 © Ricky Yates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjacent to the Town Hall is this reminder of more recent history. It is a memorial to those Liberec citizens who died trying to resist the Soviet invasion of August 1968. Most were killed being run over by tanks, hence this memorial, presumably erected since the Velvet Revolution of December 1989, is in the form of caterpillar tracks that are found on tanks. The reversed imprint of the victims names on the lower half of the memorial, bears an uncanny resemblance to writing using the Cyrillic alphabet, the alphabet with which Russian is written.

An even more recent edition to the landscape of Námestí Dr. E. Beneše are these three cats. I had to wait sometime to get this photograph because so many children were busy either  jumping on or sitting on them!

Three cats in Liberec © Ricky Yates

Reformation Day – 31st October
The Stadtkirche St Marien from the town square in Wittenberg © Ricky Yates

Today is Reformation Day / Reformationstag, marking the occasion on 31st October 1517, when Martin Luther sent a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeberg, protesting about the sale of indulgences and enclosing a document setting out his disputation with Roman Catholic teaching and practice of that time, which has become known as ‘The 95 Theses’. According to tradition – though now disputed by some scholars, he also pinned these ’95 Theses’ to the door of the Schlosskirche /Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Today is a public holiday in several of the German Länder / States, celebrating this event which is seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Many Churches of the Lutheran tradition hold special services though sometimes these are transferred back to the previous Sunday, known as ‘Reformation Sunday’. The Church of England also remembers today, ‘Martin Luther – Church Reformer’, as part of its calendar.

This post arises out of two things. The first of these is to be a positive antidote to the celebration of Halloween to which I have a great aversion. Why do parents encourage their children to do silly things today that they spend the other 364 days of the year, actively discouraging them from doing???? And sadly, some people use today to celebrate that which is basically evil, rather than celebrating all that is good.

My second reason is that last week, Sybille and I, spent a most enjoyable few days in Berlin about which I will blog here in due course. On our return journey to Prague on Friday 26th October, we made a slight detour and visited the town of Wittenberg. I am rather behind with my blogging – observant readers will notice that my previous post was written and posted four weeks after the events described – but I felt that the coinciding of our Wittenberg visit with today, was a blogging opportunity not to be missed 🙂

The tower of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg with the inscription ‘Ein feste Burg’ © Ricky Yates

Wittenberg – now officially called Lutherstadt Wittenberg, lies about 100 kilometres south-west of Berlin. Its location within the former East Germany meant that for over forty years, it was a rather difficult place to visit. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the town has recovered and major work is under-way, to ensure it looks its very best for the celebrations planned to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

Within Wittenberg there are two Churches connected to Martin Luther. The Stadtkirche St Marien is where he preached his famous eight Lenten sermons in 1522 and where he married the former nun, Katerina von Bora the following year. This Church is undergoing major renovation work at present costing 7.5 million Euros. It is rather surrounded by other buildings as well as scaffolding and therefore somewhat difficult to photograph.

The Schlosskirche is also undergoing renovation works but at least I was able to get this photograph of the Church’s tower. Inscribed on it are the opening line of Luther’s most famous hymn, ‘Ein feste Burg‘ – ‘A safe stronghold’. This is where Luther is traditionally understood to have pinned his ’95 Theses’ to the Church door. It is also where he is buried.

 

The bronze doors of the Schlosskirche with the Latin text of Luther’s 95 Theses © Ricky Yates

The original portal to the Schlosskirche was destroyed by fire in in 1760. In 1858, these bronze doors with the text of the 95 Theses in Latin, were installed. There is a German translation on one of the walls of the nave inside the Church.

Statue of Martin Luther in the town square of Wittenberg © Ricky Yates

A cardboard cut-out of Martin Luther © Ricky Yates

Martin Luther is to be seen everywhere within Wittenberg. His statue has centre stage within the main square. But he is is also to be found elsewhere within the town 🙂 I spotted this example on the right, outside a gift shop.

Wittenberg Town Hall with the statue of Martin Luther © Ricky Yates

The 2012 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod at Attica, near Athens

 
 
The sun rising over the Aegean Sea at Attica © Ricky Yates

Once a year, the clergy of the Anglican Chaplaincies scattered across Central & Eastern Europe, together with elected lay representatives of their congregations, meet together as the Eastern Archdeaconry Synod. This year’s synod meeting took place at the Cabo Verde Hotel in Attica, just outside of Athens, between Thursday 27th – Sunday 30th September.

This was the fifth Eastern Archdeaconry Synod meeting that I have attended. In the week prior to moving to Prague in September 2008, Sybille and I attended as observers, the Synod meeting held that year in Corfu. You can read about all the subsequent Synod meetings here on my blog. They were in Izmir in 2009, Vienna in 2010, and Bucharest in 2011.

Because of the very scattered nature of our Archdeaconry, synod meetings can only realistically be held once a year and have to be residential. They consist of a mixture of worship, Bible Study, talks and discussions. There is always also some input from the host country and this year we heard about the work the Greek Orthodox Church is doing, assisted by St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Athens, to provide welfare services to those suffering from the current economic crisis that has hit Greece so hard in recent times.

Jack Noonan with Bishop Geoffrey © Ricky Yates

During the Synod meeting, a Eucharist was celebrated by Archdeacon Patrick Curran, to mark the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels on 29th September. Within the service, our Diocesan Bishop Rt Rev’d Dr Geoffrey Rowell, licensed Jack Noonan as a Reader to serve the Chaplaincy of St. Clement’s, Prague in the Czech Republic.

Jack is an Irishman, originally from Cork, who has owned a flat in Prague for many years. Following taking early retirement from teaching just over five years ago, he moved to live permanently in the Czech Republic. As a licensed Reader, Jack will work alongside me, assisting both at St. Clement’s and in our recently established satellite congregation in Brno.

The licensing marked the culmination of a process that began more than two years ago, when a meeting of the Prague Church Council on 1st May 2010, agreed to support Jack being put forward for consideration for training as a Reader. Bishop Geoffrey was actually present at that meeting on his first visit to Prague since I became Chaplain four years ago.

Bishop Geoffrey has since taken a personal interest in Jack’s progress, frequently suggesting books which might further aid his studies. Therefore both Jack and I were very pleased that he was able to license Jack in person rather than by delegation to the Archdeacon or to me. Jack is also now in his third year as one of our two lay reps on the Archdeaconry Synod and is therefore well known by many of the other Synod members who were most supportive of him on this very special occasion.

From l to r, Jack Noonan, Bishop Geoffrey, myself, Archdeacon Patrick Curran © Ricky Yates
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Athens © Ricky Yates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Synod concluded with all the participants joining the congregation of St. Paul’s, Athens, for their regular Sunday Morning Eucharist at which Bishop Geoffrey was the celebrant and preacher. After the service, which lasted nearly two hours 🙂 , we enjoyed a sandwich lunch under warm sunny skies, sitting in the grounds surrounding the Church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Acropolis seen from the Acropolis Museum © Nikki Hertford

On Sunday afternoon, many of us including myself, enjoyed a most informative guided tour of the relatively recently opened Acropolis Museum, giving a wonderful insight into more than two thousand years of Greek history and culture. From the top floor of the museum, there is a superb view of the Acropolis itself which is currently undergoing major renovation work.

Canon Meurig Williams & Jack Noonan – two thirds of the Celtic Fringe © Ricky Yates

As always, the most valuable part of Archdeaconry Synod meetings is the opportunity to talk and share fellowship with other members of our scattered Anglican congregations over a coffee, glass of wine or even something slightly stronger 🙂 Here is the Bishop’s Chaplain, Canon Meurig Williams, glass of red wine in hand, deep in conversation with Jack Noonan who has a ‘wee dram’ immediately to his left 😉 Putting these two together with the Prague Church Treasurer Gordon McDonald Truefitt, who was attending his first synod meeting since his election as our second lay rep, and you really did have a gathering of the Celtic Fringe 🙂

Not being able to get a seat on one of the few direct Prague- Athens flights, I flew both ways via Geneva on Swiss airlines. My return trip on the morning of Monday 1st October, gave me this amazing view of Mt Blanc.

Mt Blanc © Ricky Yates

How to be a successful expat

Enjoying Czech beer in Letna Beer Garden, Prague © Ricky Yates

Just over four years ago, on 19th September 2008, Sybille and I arrived in Prague to begin a new chapter in our life together – a Brit and a German living as an expatriate married couple in the Czech Republic. This blog, which I started writing and publishing just over four months later, is as I state in, About me – including two photos, ‘….my attempt to reflect on ministering to English-speakers from a variety of backgrounds and countries, and living as an expat myself in this fascinating city and country’.

As this fourth anniversary of our expatriate existence recently approached, I started reflecting on what makes for living successfully in another country that is not your own. This post is the result of those reflections, written out of our own personal experience and also out of listening to and observing other English-speaking expats who have crossed my path here in Prague these past four years.

As I’ve been reflecting these recent weeks, the words of the well-known ‘Prayer of Serenity’ have come to mind as being an excellent summation of the correct attitude to adopt when seeking to make a success of expat living.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Let me explain in greater detail what I mean.

When Czech people get talking to Sybille and I and discover that we are not tourists but actually live here, their next question is nearly always, “Do you like living in the Czech Republic?” Our reply is always very positive, with two exceptions – how far away we are from the sea and our difficulties with the Czech language. But these are two things that we knew about before we ever moved to Prague and are things that we cannot change – we must and do accept them.

It is no use moving to another country and expecting it to be exactly like your own country that you’ve just left. Whilst there is nothing wrong in being proud of where you originate from, you cannot expect your city or country of adoption to replicate everything that you previously enjoyed in your home city and country. Nor can you expect everything you were able to purchase in the shops back in your home country, to be freely available in the shops and supermarkets of your new country of residence.

Friends and family before coming to visit us in Prague, often ask whether there is anything they can bring from the UK that we cannot get here. The reality is that, having Tesco supermarkets and several branches of Marks & Spencer, means most items any Brit might want, can be obtained here without too much difficulty. And to be a successful expat should and does mean learning to live without certain things that you previously always regarded as essential, or finding and accepting something else as a suitable substitute.

Likewise, for better or worse, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and Starbucks, all have numerous outlets here – there is hardly a lack of familiar globalised fast food and drink. Yet I do hear occasional complaints about the absence of a certain chain of ice cream parlours or the inability to buy ‘dunking chocolate donuts’ from a particular store. If life really is impossible without having ready access to such things, don’t even start considering leaving home in the first place. Learn to accept the things you cannot change.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I do write about all the things I enjoy by living in Prague and the wider Czech Republic. But I also do on occasions, complain about certain things that I don’t like. Seeking to be true to the third line of the Prayer of Serenity, ‘courage to change the things I can’, I do so because they are things that I believe can and should be changed.

One of my regular themes is the many impenetrable and absurd aspects of Czech bureaucracy that I often encounter. Most Czech people I talk with agree with me wholeheartedly about this matter! Associated with this issue, is the way Sybille and I are treated sometimes by the various Czech authorities, simply because we are foreigners.

The Czech Republic has benefited enormously, economically and in many other ways, since it became part of the EU in May 2004. But with the benefits come also responsibilities, one of which is to treat nationals of other EU member states in exactly the same way as their own citizens. So I will continue to highlight occasions when that doesn’t happen because it is something that both needs and has to change.

Of course, there are times when it isn’t worth making a fuss or it is easier to find a way of sidestepping the problem. That is when one really needs, ‘wisdom to know the difference’. And I don’t always get that right. But I am grateful for friends who have offered their wisdom in helping me deal with certain issues so that I hopefully have learned when to challenge and when to just accept that it is something I cannot change.

There are two other issues that are important to recognise and consider if you want to make the expat life a success. The first is the frequency with which you pay return visits to your country of origin. The second is what effort you make as an English-speaker, to learn to speak the language of your adopted country.

In the four years we have lived in the Czech Republic, I have been back to the UK just three times. As far as I am concerned, Prague is my home for the immediate future. When we have holidays, we normally take advantage of our location and further explore the Czech Republic or near neighbouring countries.

Whilst visiting ‘home’ once or possibly twice a year, is not unreasonable, going there nearly every other weekend as I’ve known some Brits do from here in Prague, totally defeats any reason for living and working abroad in the first place. It gives very little opportunity to get to know and settle into the culture and way of life of where you are supposedly living and working. Those who do this, usually return to their home countries on a permanent basis, in a relatively short space of time.

Whilst Sybille and I believe we have made a success of our expat life, the one area where we know we have all but failed is with the Czech language. For to really settle in another country, you do need to be able to speak the language of the people. Whilst we can read a Czech menu, place our order in a bar-restaurant, and see simple signs and understand what they mean, there is no way we can yet have a meaningful conversation in Czech.

There are numerous reasons for our failure in this area. My job is to minister to English-speakers living here. Sybille works on the internet either in English or her native German. Between us, we have the two languages that many Czech people can speak. Older educated Czechs often speak German and when visiting parts of the country nearer the German or Austrian border, German is widely spoken. Most younger educated Czechs speak English and welcome the opportunity to improve it with a native speaker. And Czech is horribly difficult – what other language has four genders and seven cases?

As always, I welcome feedback, especially from other expats or former expats. And please also forgive some of my more vague generalisations in this post – as I originally compiled it over a month ago, there were some specific examples. But I took the wise advice of my best critic & edited them out 🙂