Through Expat's Eyes

The other day I was on a tram and the tourist couple in front of me were arguing in English about being on the correct tram in the correct direction. Not wanting to listen to them nitpick at one another until the end of my journey, I asked if there was something I could do to help them.

Born in Northern Ireland, brought up in Lancashire and educated in Wales. A ten-year resident of Prague.

When I arrived in Prague in the middle of the summer last year I knew one word in Czech: Pivo. I owe that bit of knowledge to a multiplayer quiz app on my phone called “Intellect.” Like so many other questions I had answered this one incorrectly, yet the answer stuck with me.

For an American living in Prague the holiday season can be somewhat unfamiliar. The amateur Christmas light competition isn't as fierce, Ježíšek delivers the presents, and the food of choice is carp. I still don't quite understand why, but I have come to enjoy this underrated river fish.

I have never been much of a traveler. Paris (where I was born and lived for 28 years) is big enough to live your entire life there.

As a relative newbie living in Prague for only three months, I’m still wide-eyed, bushy tailed and soaking everything in. In a swift generalisation, I have to admit that I’m still romancing about my new location and on going integration into my new surroundings.

Eight years have passed since I chose to live in the Czech Republic. I still chisel away at the intricacies of Czech language and have learned to live with the irritation of being virtually deaf and mute in most social occasions. I have taught English until I am blue in the face and in most cases conclude that Czech people find learning a new language as hard as I do. Where is the magic spray that can be squirted into a conversation and everything will be understood, dream on…

My adventure in Prague started last January when I took my first steps out of the airport, hidden under my jacket at -19 ºC. Thirty minutes after landing I had my first surprise and it wasn’t a “Welcome Mr. Soto”… A metro without barriers?

Half a year ago, I arrived in Prague, a city that comes out from a fairy tale, a city that I have long been yearning to come to.