Czech bureaucracy

I have been granted permanent residency in the Czech Republic

Certificate of Permanent Residence © Ricky Yates

As I wrote in my earlier blog post entitled, ‘Czech bureaucracy – yet again‘, on Monday 30^th October 2017, I submitted my application for permanent residency in the Czech Republic at the offices of the Czech Ministry of the Interior (MOI) in Ústí nad Labem. I was informed then, that the authorities now had up to sixty days to consider my application before coming to a decision. Once a decision was made, I would receive a phone call, summoning me back to the MOI office.

Last Friday morning, exactly forty days after submitting my application, my phone rang. It was from a number unknown to my phone and the caller spoke in Czech. Fortunately, the one word I did understand in the caller’s first sentence was, ‘Ústí’. ‘Ministry of the Interior’ I said in English, and received a clear ‘Ano‘ in reply. The caller’s next sentence included ‘Pondelí nebo úterý‘ which I understood correctly as telling me to come to the MOI office once more on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Therefore on Monday 11^th December, I drove to Ústí nad Labem, arriving at the MOI offices just before 10.00, following a struggle to find a legal place to park. After receiving the phone call on the previous Friday, I had promptly phoned Barbora from the voluntary ‘Centre for Integration‘ and she had assured me that on Monday morning, she would be at the same desk where I had first met her, and would be happy to help me once again. Her smiling face greeted me, as soon as I put my head around the door!

Barbora donned her coat, and we headed out the door and around the corner, back into the same building, to reach the section that deals with EU nationals. We pressed the button for a numbered ticket which was 516. As the electronic display board showed 505 as the most recent number to be called, together with the number of people in the waiting room, I knew I was going to be waiting for some time. So Barbora headed back to her normal station, telling me to call her on her mobile once it became closer to the time when I would be summoned.

Fortunately, I had come prepared for a long wait. Having received my new ‘Church Book & Desk Diary’ for 2018, the previous evening – thank you Paul Shorten 🙂 , I spent the first hour of my waiting time, transferring into it, all those things in the forward planner of the 2017 edition. It certainly occupied the time!

When 515 was called, I rang Barbora and, within a few minutes of her arrival, 516 appeared on the electronic display board, summoning us to counter 11. My heart sank when I saw that we had to deal with the same very officious lady I’d had on my first visit on 23^rd October. But this time she was far more amenable, probably helped by it being Monday morning rather than late Monday afternoon 😉

After Barbora had explained in Czech, that I was responding to a phone call the previous Friday, telling me to return to the MOI office, the lady found me on her computer system and then got my file out of the cupboard. I was presented with an A4 sheet, duly signed and stamped, declaring that I have been granted, ‘Permanent Residency’. I was then required to surrender my forty day old certificate of ‘Temporary Residence’ for which I received an official receipt.

Having confirmed, amongst much laughter, that the address of my home is Stará Oleška 44 – the laughter being because ‘forty-four’ is so difficult to pronounce in Czech – I end up nearly spitting my teeth out when trying to say it; the lady then proceeded to produce my ‘Permanent residence card for a European Union citizen’ that you see in the photographs at the head of this post.

It is a passport style document which includes one of the photographs I submitted with my application. It has both my British passport number and my Czech Rodné císlo, and declares my registered address as being Stará Oleška 44. Most importantly, it declares that I have Trivalý pobyt – Permanent residence. Interestingly, I have Trivalý pobyt – Ostatní – Permanent residence – Other 🙂 I presume this is because I am retired.

This document is now valid for the next ten years. However, I was firmly told that I must inform the MOI if, in the future, I change my address or obtain a new passport. Echoes of my previous misdemeanour 😉

As well as securing my status, having this document will be a great asset in my future dealings with Czech officialdom. Changing the registered address of the ‘Carly’ and then renewing my driving licence in February 2018, are two tasks that lie ahead. But I did enjoy producing it as my ID for the first time today, when recovering a letter from the Post Office in Markvartice that I needed to sign for.

Finally, whilst I do have issues with Czech bureaucracy, there is one very positive comment with which I want to finish this post. For the issue of my ‘Permanent residence card for a European Union citizen’, I was charged absolutely nothing. It stands in stark contrast to the £128.00 I had to pay to obtain my new British passport eighteen months ago.

Czech bureaucracy – yet again!

A few months after arriving in the Czech Republic, Sybille and I, aided by an agency, successfully registered with the Czech Foreign Police. Our respective passports were stamped granting us ‘Temporary residence’ that was ‘neomezený‘ – ‘unlimited’ or ‘forever’. As I have pointed out many times since, temporary residence that is unlimited, is a contradiction in terms!

We were also issued with flimsy paper certificates of temporary residence, which most importantly, also showed our official registered address as being the Chaplaincy Flat in Prague 6. Shortly afterwards, we were also each issued with a ‘Rodné císlo‘, social security number. You can read about how we managed to achieve this in two early posts on this blog, here and here.

Fast forward to 2017 and my current British passport, together with that flimsy paper certificate of temporary residence, have been accepted as proof of my ID and Czech residency, during the whole process of purchasing my new home in Stará Oleška. The house is now registered in my name with the Katastrální úrad pro Ústecký kraj and I’ve paid CZK 40,000 in property transfer tax to the Czech state 🙁

I was waiting until I received my property registration document from the Katastrál, before seeking to change my registered address and apply for ‘permanent residence’, (I’m entitled to apply now I’ve lived in the Czech Republic for more than five years), because I knew I would need it to prove I have the right to live at Stará Oleška 44. But where did the Katastrál send it? Not to Stará Oleška 44 but to the Chaplaincy Flat in Prague, because that is my registered address with the Czech state! They also sent it by registered mail to be signed for, meaning I needed a combination of a long arm and long pen to do so 🙁

I had been given to understand by those who have had more recent dealings with the Czech Foreign Police, that they had become a little more user friendly than they were back in early 2009. Now more prosaically entitled ‘Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic’ (MOI), they even have a website in English! And the six page application form is in Czech and English though they do say, not unreasonably, that it must be completed in Czech. I have therefore learned a few new Czech words such as ‘duchodce‘, which is what I now am, a ‘retired person’ or ‘pensioner’ 🙂

Therefore on Monday 23rd October, armed with a carefully completed application form, two passport sized photographs, a notarised copy of the property registration document from the Katastrál, my certificate of temporary residence and my current passport, I set off for my nearest MOI Office, located in Ústí nad Labem. Realising that the stamp granting me ‘Temporary residence’ that is ‘neomezený‘, was in my previous, now expired passport, I dug it out of one of the yet to be unpacked boxes upstairs, and took that along with me too.

When I arrived at the MOI office, immediately inside the door was a young lady, (who I now know as Barbora), sitting at a desk with a laptop computer in front of her. I explained in Czech, that I was British and spoke limited Czech. She responded that it wasn’t a problem as she spoke English. I explained that I had come to apply for permanent residence in my newly purchased home and she offered to go through my application form, to see if I had completed it correctly.

As Barbora went through my form, she noted that my first Christian name was ‘Warwick’ – (for those who don’t know, ‘Ricky’ is my diminutive). ‘Was this the same as Warwick Castle’, she asked, as she had been an Erasmus student for a year at nearby Coventry University. I replied that it was the same and that she should note my place of birth – Coventry – slightly further down the form. Call it a ‘coincidence’ or a ‘God-incidence’ but it was quite remarkable.

Other than a couple of little additions, Barbora assured me I’d completed the form correctly and had brought all the necessary additional documentation that I needed. As I am an EU citizen, I was to go out the door, around the corner and into the same building through a different doorway, take a numbered ticket, and wait there until my number was called.

Barbora also gave me her business card to which she added her mobile phone number. If I had any problems, especially with language, I could call on that number. It was only when looking at the business card that I realised she is from a voluntary organisation, seeking to help foreigners integrate in the Czech Republic. No – the Czech Ministry of the Interior have still not become that user-friendly, as I was about to discover.

After an hour-long wait, and being the last person sitting in the waiting room, my number was finally called. Unfortunately, the lady at desk 12, was rather officious right from the beginning. I was her last customer for the day and I think she was very keen to get home. I presented my completed application form, pointing to the box indicating that I was applying for permanent residency. When I eventually twigged that she first wanted to see my ID, I presented my current passport, my certificate of temporary residence and my previous expired passport, in order to show continuity.

This is when the fun started 🙁 There were two problems with my application which therefore made it impossible for it to be dealt with that afternoon. Firstly, the passport number on my certificate of temporary residence did not agree with that of my current British passport. I had committed the serious offence of failing to tell the MOI in July 2016, that I now had a new passport, an offence for which I could be fined!

Secondly, I was applying to do two separate things. I was applying for permanent residency, but I was also applying to change my registered address. The application form for permanent residency was fine. However, I also needed to fill out a second identical form with exactly the same information, in order to apply to change my registered address.

All this was confirmed to me after I got Barbora to speak to the officious lady at desk 12, on my mobile phone. I was also given a slip of paper with a fixed appointment to return on Monday 30^th October at 13.30, armed with my identically completed second application form, to resume battle with the Czech MOI. Barbora also confirmed that she was available that day and kindly agreed to accompany me.

My appointment(s) for Monday 30th October 2017

On Monday 30^th October, I met with Barbora and together we went to the EU citizens section of the MOI offices, waiting for appointment 209 to appear on the display screen in the waiting room. Promptly at 13.30 it did so, calling us desk 11. I was very pleased that we had a different lady to deal with, rather than the very officious one of the previous Monday. This one later even complimented me on how well I had filled out my application forms 🙂

Firstly, I had to present my current British passport so that its number could be recorded. For my serious sin of omission, that of failing to previously report my obtaining a new passport, I was fined CZK 200 which I paid in cash on the spot. Bearing in mind that two other expat friends had previously told me they had also made the same mistake and had each been fined CZK 500, I felt I got off quite lightly. Maybe it was because I am now a duchodce 😉

After that transaction was completed, and a receipt issued for my CZK 200 fine, I then had to present my completed application form to change my registered address. I was surprised that I wasn’t required to handover the notarised copy of the property registration document I’d brought with me. Instead, the lady accessed the computer of the Katastrál office which confirmed my ownership of Stará Oleška 44 and therefore my right to live there.

I was then required to formerly surrender my nearly nine year old flimsy paper certificate of temporary residence for which I received a formal printed receipt. In its place, I was presented with a new flimsy paper certificate of temporary residence showing my new registered address as Stará Oleška 44. But irony of ironies, it doesn’t show my current British passport number – that section has been left blank! I can only presume that it is because my new certificate does have my Rodné císlo recorded, by which the Czech state can identify me. It hadn’t been allocated when the previous certificate was issued.

Finally, I then was able to present my second identically completed application form, along with my two passport size photographs, to apply to be granted permanent residence in the Czech Republic. I was formerly told that the MOI now had up to sixty days to consider my application and decide whether or not to grant me permanent residence. Once a decision has been made, I will be summoned back to the MOI office in Ústí nad Labem.

If granted, I will then have to surrender my brand new certificate of temporary residence. In its place will be given a photo ID card showing me to be a permanent resident of the Czech Republic. Watch this space!

As we were leaving the building, I asked Barbora why the slip of paper I had been given the previous week, had three numbers on it? The explanation? Officially I had three appointments – one to change my passport number, one to change my registered address, and one to apply for permanent residency! As I first wrote back in March 2009, I love the Czech Republic but NOT Czech bureaucracy!

Another insight into Czech life and culture

The rocks and forests of the Czech countryside © Ricky Yates

Yesterday, I officiated at the burial of ashes of two people, a husband and wife, into the family grave. Whilst this is something I would quite regularly do when Rector of a group of North Oxfordshire villages, this was the first time of doing so in just over six years of ministry here in the Czech Republic. I have also only conducted four funerals during that time, a reflection of the predominantly young age of the English-speaking expatriate population resident here.

However, although I conducted yesterday’s graveside service in English, it was very much a Czech occasion and was an illustration of several aspects of Czech life and culture. And because I want to protect the privacy of the family, I hope readers will forgive me for not referring to people or exact locations by name.

The existing family grave is located in the massive Olšanské Cemetery that lies in the Prague suburb of Žižkov. Whilst the cemetery is well-maintained by the local authority, like so much of Czech officialdom, it is not managed to encourage the practice of religious faith. Two things illustrated this.

The first was the attitude of the two cemetery staff who were present when we arrived at the grave. Whilst the grave had been opened and the appropriate hole dug, in true Czech bureaucratic style, the only thing that mattered to them was thoroughly checking the paperwork brought by the next of kin, the son of the deceased. Once they were convinced that the paperwork was in order, they just left us to it with a, ‘we’ll be back later to fill in’.

The second was the complete lack of provision for me. There was no chapel or vestry where I could robe & leave my belongings securely. Instead, aided by the eldest grandson of the deceased, who kindly held various things for me, I robed standing alongside a bench adjacent to a path running behind the family grave.

I have previously written about the Czech love of flowers which helps to keep innumerable flower shops and stalls in business. This love was very clearly in evidence with every family member arriving with a bunch of fresh flowers to lay on the grave. And I mean everybody, right down to the six great-grandchildren of the deceased.

However, it was what followed the graveside service which struck me as being so much part of Czech culture. The service was at 11.00 in the morning, so afterwards, everyone who attended was invited back to lunch. But lunch was not at the family flat in Mala Strana where I’d met the next of kin the previous day. Nor was it at a restaurant, not so far from the cemetery. No – we were all transported over thirty kilometres out of Prague into the Bohemian countryside, to a large three storey house – the family chalupa.

The house was built in the early 1930s, in a time that is now always referred to as ‘the First Republic’, when Czechoslovakia was an independent state between 1918-1938. The deceased couple were responsible for having it built.

The history of the house reflects the history of the nation. During the Second World War, when the country was occupied by the Nazis, there was a German military base nearby, so the house was commandeered to house a senior Nazi military officer. Then, following the communist coup of February 1948, the family were confined to the basement whilst the two floors above were occupied by others. Even after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the subsequent restitution of property laws, the family allowed a remaining ‘tenant’ to live in part of the house, until her death in the mid 1990s.

The son of the deceased gave a speech in which he recalled his childhood weekends and summer holidays, spent living in the basement and sleeping in a wooden ‘summer house’ in the garden. They were memorable times, despite the deprivation of the communist era.

And although he and his parents escaped to Switzerland in 1968, when he was in his late teens, and he, along with his wife and three of their four children, now live in England, this house in the Bohemian countryside is still the family home. Here, where his elderly uncle still lives, is where the soul of the family resides and was the only place where the lives of his late parents, who both lived into their nineties, could be properly celebrated.

The story of this family, could be told with some variations, by so many Czech families. The story also reflects the psyche of the wider Czech nation – that deep down Czech people believe that the soul of the nation is found in the forests, rivers and lakes of the Czech countryside. Even whilst we were eating our lunch yesterday, Má vlast, ‘My Country’ or ‘My Fatherland’ by Bedrich Smetana, was being played in the sitting room, music that encapsulates that very concept.

How to be Czech in 10 easy steps – revisited

0.5 of a litre of Gambrinus Czech beer © Ricky Yates — Half a litre of Gambrinus Czech beer © Ricky Yates

Ten months ago, I published a blog post entitled ‘How to be Czech in 10 easy steps‘, based on my experience at that time, of having lived as a cizinec / foreigner in the Czech Republic for nearly four and a half years. To my utter amazement, this post almost immediately went viral. It resulted in the blog getting 2040 visits on 20th February 2013, the day after it was published, and 1034 visits the following day. It took another three weeks before the daily visitor numbers returned to the more normal figure of around fifty.

I found the main reason for this sudden upsurge of visitor numbers in the social media buttons at the end of the post. The number of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on Facebook rapidly rose from zero, to nearly one thousand, together with numerous ‘tweets’ on Twitter, and ‘shares’ on Google+. The post also got highly rated for some time, on the social news and entertainment website, ‘reddit‘.

Since visitor numbers to my blog returned to more normal levels in mid-March, ‘How to be Czech in 10 easy steps’ has still remained as one of the most popular landing pages for new visitors to the blog. This has coincided with a gradual rise in Facebook ‘likes’ and ‘shares’, to around 1,100.

Then, in the past ten days, ‘How to be Czech in 10 easy steps’, has suddenly gone viral once again. From my blog having 47 visitors on 4th December, it suddenly shot up to 641 visitors the next day, and peaked at 1301 on 7th December. Yesterday, the visitor total was still nearly ten times the normal figure at 422. Once again it has been thanks to publicity, via social media, of this particular post. Even whilst drafting this new post, the number of Facebook ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ it has received, broke through the 2100 barrier!

The original post also attracted 77 comments. I think I am right in saying that this is the largest number of comments on any of the 252 posts here on my blog. In view of the recent upsurge, I suspect there would have been more comments, except for the policy I adopted more than two years ago, of not allowing comments on posts that are more than three months old, in an attempt to help reduce the number of spam comments I have to delete every day. However, real comments are most welcome on this new post 🙂

I really enjoyed reading and replying to all the comments, the original post received. In particular, I appreciated the many English-speaking Czechs, who could recognise what I was describing and were able to laugh and smile about themselves. There were several commenters who thanked me for being positive, rather than negative, about Czech people and their culture. This was always my intention. As I’ve written previously on this blog, I enjoy living here. The main thing I take issue with are the absurdities of Czech bureaucracy, which I know many Czech people get frustrated with too! I have no time for foreigners who constantly complain about living in the Czech Republic. There is a simple answer to their problem – go back to your home country!

Inevitably, there were several additional suggestions as to things I should also have included in my original post. With my first point, ‘Drink beer’, I should really have also added ‘or Kofola’. Kofola is a communist era product that was a substitute for Coca-Cola or Pepsi, which has enjoyed a nostalgic resurgence in recent years. Point 8, ‘Get a dog’, should really have been extended to, ‘or a cat’. And as part of point 7, going out into ‘the nature’, the important autumnal activity of ‘mushrooming’, should certainly have been highlighted.

Inevitably, ever since writing the original post in February, I have been on the look out to observe further examples that confirm what I wrote. I have to say that they are rarely hard to find 🙂 This particularly applies to point 3 of my original blog post, ‘Dress Czech’.

As I wrote there, ‘In the Czech Republic, you will frequently see a mother and her daughter out walking together, with the daughter pushing a buggy containing her new-born infant. You will then often notice that there is a competition between mother and the new grandma, as to which one has the shorter hemline’.

Two weeks ago, Sybille & I paid our regular Saturday morning visit to the Farmers Market at Vítezné námestí. Afterwards, we stopped off at Bar-Restaurace U topolu, for lunch. Soon after we sat down in the Bar-Restaurant, a three-generation family group came in. There was a toddler in a buggy being pushed by the child’s mother who would have been in her late twenties/early thirties. Behind them came the mother’s parents – grandparents of the toddler. Whilst the mother was in jeans and trainers, the relatively new grandmother was wearing knee-high boots, black tights, and a skirt that finished several centimetres above her knees!

A few days later, we were in another of our favourite haunts, Restaurace Pod Juliskou, when another family group came in and sat on the table next to us, this time without a young child. There was the daughter, again either late twenties or early thirties, together with her parents. Whilst the daughter was wearing what I call the Czech female winter look – spray-on jeans tucked into knee-high boots, together with serious heels, her mother was in a thigh-high woollen mini-dress, teamed with black patent leather knee-high boots!

A week last Tuesday, I attended a follow-up appointment with my dermatologist at Vojenská nemocnice, the Military Hospital, for treatment of another basal cell carcinoma, the commonest and least dangerous form of skin cancer, from which I periodically suffer. In the good Czech fashion of beginning work early in the day, my appointment was for 08.00. I duly arrived at 07.55 to check-in, to be greeted by a receptionist in a short red top that revealed part of her midriff and a serious amount of cleavage. It was a look that her boyfriend or husband would have enjoyed whilst sharing a romantic evening dinner, but not what I really wanted to see at 08.00 in the morning, before having my face attacked with liquid nitrogen!

Also in the past week, whilst leaving the metro and heading towards the escalator, a lady walked straight into me because she was trying read a whole series of notes, whilst walking along at the same time. Point 9 of my original post applies!

Therefore, in view of the continued high level of interest in my observations of how to be Czech, I am working on expanding the original post into a book. I started on the project in August when I took a week of my annual leave and tried to use the time to write. I am hoping to resume writing when I try and take a few days off as my post-Christmas break. In the meantime, there might have to be slightly fewer posts here on my blog 🙂

Update January 2014

In total breach of copyright, Prásk! the online tabloid newspaper belonging to the TV Nova Group, have published an abbreviated and very badly translated version of the original post – a complete act of plagiarism.

Russell

One of the things I really enjoy about this blog is when people respond to what I’ve written and leave a genuine comment. I say ‘genuine comment’ for, despite using a CAPTCHA Code, I still have to delete between twenty and fifty ‘spam comments’ each day, whilst approving and replying to the small number of genuine ones. I am also well aware that having to decipher and then enter the CAPTCHA Code, is what puts off many genuine people from ever leaving a comment in the first place.

Most of the small number of people who comment here regularly, are friends who are already known to me. But there are several others who I only know online. These are people who, in a variety of ways, have found my blog and are interested in some of the things I write about and have kindly taken the trouble to say so. They sometimes throw greater light on a particular issue or, occasionally choose to disagree with me 🙂 A big ‘Thank you’, to all of you.

Recently, it was a great pleasure to finally get to meet one of them in person – Russell. He is one of those people who has until now, only been an occasional but very articulate commenter here, someone with whom I’ve exchanged a few emails, and more recently has interacted with me on Facebook. With his permission, this is the story of how, more than two and a half years after Russell first left a comment here, we finally met together in Prague.

Russell first left a comment on this post in January 2011. In his comment he explained that whilst he lives in England, his mother is Czech and his maternal grandmother still lives in Prague. As his comment was most observant and thoughtful, with an excellent use of vocabulary – for example, ‘paradoxically’, I assumed this had been written by someone in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. I was therefore absolutely amazed to discover soon afterwards, that when he posted that first comment, Russell was just a few days short of his sixteenth birthday!

In July 2011 when he was on his annual visit to Prague and staying with his grandmother, Russell tried to meet up with me by coming to St. Clement’s Church one Sunday morning. Unfortunately, he had not checked our Church website, to discover it was a Sunday when I was on annual leave!

In the past twelve months, Russell has posted several more comments here, particularly when I’ve written about political issues such as the Presidential elections in both the USA and the Czech Republic. I very much admire him for not being afraid to respond and challenge the comments of several right-wing Republicans on my post about the re-election of President Obama. More recently, he also contributed to the considerable debate engendered by my post about ‘Getting over the ová‘, as well as like me, expressing his appreciation of the Czech rail network.

Knowing that this year, Russell would be eighteen, I got in contact with him by email, to ascertain when he would be visiting Prague, so we could finally meet up and talk, whilst enjoying one or two glasses of Czech beer together. In reply, Russell suggested that, not only should we meet, but also that we should walk part of the Šárka Valley together, something he knew I enjoyed doing, from reading my blog. So it was that on Monday 26th August, we finally met.

Martina, Russell's mother, with me at Bar-Restaurace Na Staré Fare © Russell Roe — Martina, Russell’s mother, with me at Bar-Restaurace Na Staré Fare © Russell Roe

Not only did I meet Russell, I also got to meet his mother Martina, and his younger brother Martin. Together, we walked part of the red route from the Divorka Šárka bus and tram stop, to the top of the Baba ridge, above where the Chaplaincy Flat is situated. Before descending down to the Podbaba bus and tram stop so Russell and his family could return to the home of Russell’s grandmother, we all enjoyed a drink together at Bar Restaurace na Staré Fare, where both of the photographs on this post were taken. I was surprised but pleased to discover that the first part of the route that we walked, was totally new to all three of them!

A week later, after Martina and Martin had returned to the UK, Russell and I met up a again, and this time we walked the longer part of the red route, around the other side of the Šárka Valley. We then descended to another of my favourite Bar-Restaurants – U topolu, where we enjoyed a meal and a beer together. For some unknown reason, I didn’t take any photographs on our second walk.

I discovered from my conversations with Russell, how proud he is of his Czech heritage, despite having lived all his life in the UK, with only regular visits to the Czech Republic for a few weeks each year. He is now the proud owner of a Czech ID card, having successfully overcome the intricacies of Czech bureaucracy in order to obtain one. He enjoys that it declares him to have been born in Brno, Czech Republic, when he was actually born in Brighton, England 😉 Part of his reasoning for obtaining a Czech ID card, is that it allows him to travel anywhere in Europe and is vastly cheaper to obtain than a British passport. Czechs are noted for being thrifty, a characteristic that Russell has clearly inherited from his mother 🙂

On our walks, Russell and I had some interesting theological conversations. He describes himself as an agnostic, another very Czech characteristic 🙂 But he is very open to listen to the opinion of others, even if he in the end, disagrees with them. As with his comments on my blog, he is highly articulate in expressing his opinions.

Having done very well in obtaining his International Baccalaureate, Russell has just started undergraduate studies at Exeter University, in politics and philosophy. I look forward to hearing of his progress, and to meeting him again when he is next in Prague. In the meantime Russell – please continue to visit my blog and leave your comments. They are and will be, highly appreciated by me.