Phone

We are now cell phone owners.

After doing a bunch of reading on the English language website for the company (Telefonica O2) that bought out the national phone company, I went with our friend Jan (by the way, this is a man, pronounced like "yawn") to buy phone and internet service. We took a number and waited.

When our turn came, we talked about internet access. The fellow did not speak English so Jan translated. From my reading, I understood that they had 8 Mb/s WiFi that a person could get for 750 Kč ($42) per month or 650 Kč ($37.68) if they also bought a phone plan. Since it did not state it was DSL or mention requiring a landline (which are not in everyone's house), I believed it was essentially buying access to a great city-wide WiFi network.

When I got there, they told me I was wrong. It is DSL and we have no landline. So, our option with them is to buy their mobile internet access at 750 Kč ($42) per month plus 1890 Kč ($109.57) for the receiver. This would get us a 3 Mb/s connection with a 10GB/month maximum data transfer. Or we can keep connecting to wireless networks where the opportunity presents itself. We're sticking with the latter option for the moment.

Then phone. We were going to buy a plan, but being foreigners without a permanent address (I wonder if they consider our neighbors' addresses permanent), we could only buy a prepaid SIM card. Now you all know all about cell phones, so I won't bore you with the details (as if I haven't already) - all of which were new to me. Suffice it to say that I bought a number, but no phone at that point.

The problem with the phones is that everything (except food, public transportation, entrance to cultural events, medical care, and walking) is much more expensive here than in the U.S. So, I walked away contemplating whether the buy the cheapest phone ($60), or something more expensive and plan to take it back with us, or find somebody's cast off, or buy a U.S. phone and ask somebody to mail it to us. We finally settled on buy the cheapest. We also decided to get a second number and use a friends extra phone so we can touch base when we need to.

So, I went back to the phone store alone. When my number came up I walked up the young woman who said something - in Czech. I used my favorite phrase "Ne mluvim české." (I don't speak Czech). I always want to follow it up with, "but we can do this," except I don't know the words. So, I told her in my limited Czech, "I want phone, " and pointed to the SIM card offer in their brochure. I told her I want !300 Kč! of credit on it. I asked if it is still "two times the crowns" meaning double credit (yesterday was the last day of the offer).

Then, I needed to ask for a phone, but I didn't know how to say cheapest. I should have asked Kristine before leaving. Fortunately, I knew the price, so I said, "I want telephone, Nokia, 995 crowns." The whole room waited in suspense as I struggled to say 995 (deviet stoh devact piet - which I am sure is not quite correct). She brought me the phone. I paid her the money. And everyone went home happy.

The next trick was using the phone with all the instructions in Czech. Suffice it to say, we got our first cell phone call last night.

Church

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Ephesians 2:19

We went to church for the first time here today. It was very nice.

We woke up to a bright and sunny, yet cool morning which made for a very pleasant stroll to the church. The congregation rents a space in a building in the downtown just north of the main square. The colorful buildings were beautiful in the sun and the normally bustling downtown was peaceful.

We met few people on the streets at 8:30 a.m. The Czech Republic is the second most atheist country in Europe (after Estonia). Only about 20% of the inhabitants express a belief in God. It's rather sad in that respect. Christianity has a long and illustrious history here. Some of the more notable figures include:

• Saints Cyril and Methodius and Cyril who (are generally credited with, but were not the first to have) brought Christianity to the land and developed a written language for the translation of the Bible and other texts in the 9th century.
  
• Saint Adalbert who was a 10th century Bishop of Prague and martyr.
  
• Jan Hus who was a late 14th centure Catholic reformer that opposed indulgences and crusades and was eventually burned at the stake for heresy. He is considered a national hero (despite the fact that most Christians in the Czech Republic are Catholics).
• John of Nepomuk who was a 14th century martyr.
  
• and many others (this was not meant to be about Czech religious history, but I got caught up in reading about it).

Anyway, on our nice walk along the cobblestone streets to the chapel, the big Catholic Church bells started ringing. The chiming echoed through the narrow streets in a most joyous way.

The branch in České Buďejovice is small. There is the Branch President (who served a mission in Utah) and his wife (who served a mission in the Czech Republic) and their three children (12, 8, and 2), our friends Jan (who served a mission in Great Britain), Jana, and their three children (11, 8, 5), five other individuals, four missionaries (all Americans) and the five of us.

We gave the talks in sacrament meeting. Kristine did hers in Czech; the branch president translated for the rest of us (though I did my best to read a couple of scriptures in Czech). It was a nice meeting.

Afterwards, Silas bounded off to primary with Lucy. Caleb joined the adults for Sunday School. They did not have a Deacons Quorum until now. We had good discussions in our class and Lucy said she can't wait to go back to primary next week. We felt the Holy Spirit and left with a brighter outlook.

I love that, in keeping with Paul's words to the Ephesians, we can go nearly anywhere in the world and instantly be treated like brothers and sisters.

Divči Kamen

We took our first little trip out of town on Friday to a beautiful ruined castle called Divči Kamen.

We took the train from České Buďejovice to the village of Třisov. Silas was excited to take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine. So he cried when our train was red and not blue. We convinced him that Thomas had other work and we would be riding on James (thank goodness Lucy knew the names). Although only about 13 km (8 miles) as the crow flies, the train stops at many small villages on its windy route and takes a total of about 45 minutes. It's nice country with wooded hilltops, quaint villages, and streams in the valleys.

From Třisov we hiked the 1.5 km to the castle ruins. This was along a dirt trail, perfect for trail running, but not with a toddler. Silas did a big, Pete Rose style slide. Descending from the ridge opposite the castle, the woods opened and the castle ruins became visible. Kristine shot the photo below where the castle came into view (more photos are available by clicking the link below the photo).

From Divci Kamen

The Gothic style castle was built between 1350-1360. It is nicely situated at the confluence of Křemežský stream with the Vltava River. Sitting on a tall formation of schist, it is constructed from somewhat rough-hewn blocks of the same rock cemented together. I was amazed to learn that it typically held a keeper and nine soldiers only getting a maximum of 24 soldiers during the height of local wars. The castle was abandoned in the early 16th century and went to ruin.

This is one of my favorite places to visit. I would rather go without children and on a moonlit night as there is a certain romantic feeling about the place.

-Peter

Banking

The following post is about setting up a bank account. Boring. Unless, of course, you are thinking of setting up a bank account in the Czech Republic. Then the information may prove useful. Whenever we post such dull, but practical information, it will carry the label "practical."

There are two money questions that we faced (once we knew we could actually save enough to pay the bills): 1) How to pay the rent, 2) How to get money from the American bank to us in CR.

A few months ago we started studying how money is transferred between people here. We had always used cash and knew that credit cards are very commonly used, but would a phone company or the landlord take a wad of bills each month? It turns out that instead of checks, people fill out a form at the bank (or online) authorizing the bank to transfer funds from their account to the payee. It seemed we would need to get money into a bank.

There are four common ways to get money from bank in US to bank in CR:

1. Cash - take it out as cash and carry it along.
Why? No withdrawal or money transfer fees.
Why not? Too risky (imagine the look on the face of the pickpocket), fee for bank deposit

2. Travelers' Cheques
Why? Safe, simple system that we understand, changing them is never as easy as they would have you believe and it results in good stories
Why not? Costly (2% of purchase), fee for bank deposit

3. ATM
Why? Safe, simple system that we understand
Why not? Fee ranging from $3-7 per transaction, fee for bank deposit, you don't know what the exchange rate is until after the transaction (though they say they are typically good rates)

4. Wire Transfer
Why? Safe, money then available in bank
Why not? Large fee for transfer (up to $100), complicated

Although an ATM would be cheaper, we chose to go with the wire transfer because of the security. Part of what we have had to adjust to is the idea that we will have to pay to get our money.

Interesting thing about wire transfer - it has to be initiated in person by one of the account owners. We overcame that by adding someone to our account. Jerry seems like a nice enough fellow, was right there behind us in line at the bank, and was willing to be added to our account.

Well, which bank in CR? That was easy. Our friends have a friend that manages a branch for Ceska Sporitelna here in town. This is one of the most ubiquitous banks in the country. Most importantly, a connection to someone who can get things done is worth a lot no matter which continent you are standing on.

So, we went to the bank and opened an account. Had our friend Jan (who served a mission in London and is fluent in english) not accompanied us, this would have been difficult. As it turned out, we worked directly with the manager and it was smooth. Our only difficulty was when he asked how much we wanted to deposit to open the account. We pulled out a stack containing over $1,000. This branch, however, was not outfitted to change money. Between Jan (director of the mental health unit at a hospital) and us we scraped together 200 Czech Crowns (about $11.75) and opened the account.

We now have no fee ATM withdrawals, no fee check card, internet banking, the ability to pay the rent, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing our money is safe with this guy named Jerry, a large number of operatives between the US and here, and the staff at the local branch.

Reality

Well, it's real. We're here. What have we done?!

It was hard to remember yesterday why we decided to move here. We spent the day mostly in the apartment moving furniture and putting things away. We were still tired from the travel, it was hot, and Silas was super crabby. And then there are all these little things that they do differently here - like using removable keys as the handle on closet doors (Silas likes to take them).

To top it off, Kristine and I went to the Czech Foreign Police to register and provide the proof we need to extend the visas. They'll be happy to consider extending the visas if we fill out the five page application (for each of us) and pay another fee. Oh, and then we do need to translate our proof of insurance letter (not told that before), but we did not need to send a bunch of information we had sent (even though we were told we had to and it cost us $17 for each express overnight mailing). It would be a lot easier to deal with this all if I had any reasonable chance of someday understanding what everyone is saying.

We did finally enjoy a visit to Otokar Premysla Square downtown and made plans to get out the next day.

The next day began at 2:30 a.m. when Kristine opened the washroom door to find Caleb and me talking. Thirty seconds later Lucy exited her bedroom. Our sleep is still all screwed up.

I imagine we have a tough couple of days ahead of us still. Dealing with banking and getting a phone today. Ongoing angst over coexisting in tight quarters. Then the start of school on Tuesday.

- Peter

We Made It

We made it across the big pond. We're travel weary, yet energized at the same time.Arrival at our new home on Havlickova Street with all our possessions
(astute observers may notice one less suitcase than when we left).

Saying Goodbye

These last two weeks have been one of the sweetest times in my life.

We've been saying goodbye to friends, family, church mates, and co-workers. We expected some heartfelt farewells, but I am struck by the tenderness of feelings people have expressed.

I had thought to list out some of the special moments, but I realize the significance of the hugs, the warmth in the handshakes, the look in the eyes, and the words of honor, love and encouragement are well beyond my ability to convey in writing. Please know that these acts are greatly appreciated.

I do, however, want to put in a plug for Token BBQ in Mapleton. Tony treated us to our last great American meal before leaving.

As for my own feelings, I am surprised at what has surfaced. In saying goodbye to folks I knew I liked, I realized how much I love them. How deep my affection is for these people who make our lives so rich. At the same time, I have experienced not a shred of sadness or regret over leaving. And this seems right. It seems to be how love ought to feel. A warm fire that lends courage to the heart.

- Peter

Leaving home with everything we'll take to the Czech Republic (minus the van).

What Are You Going To Do There?

The question that we are asked most frequently is, "What are you going to do there?" I appreciate this question because the first thing I ask a person after meeting them is, "What do you do?" Who we are is defined by how we fill our days. So, here is what we plan to do for the next nine months.

As a family our main goals are to learn the Czech language and help out the small LDS congregation in Ceske Budejovice. The latter will be a joy, the former will be torture. Our understanding is that the branch in Ceske Budejovice consists of a couple of families. In particular we hope that adding our kids to the primary and youth organizations will be helpful.

Kristine is a professional mother in the US and, thank goodness, there are no visa restrictions on that. So much of what she does here (teaching kids, changing diapers, cooking, managing finances, cleaning, buying groceries, keeping in touch with friends and relatives, visiting the school, etc.), she will do there. In addition she will research her family history more thoroughly. Her dad's father's parents were from Jimramov and Konikov near Policka in Moravia (the eastern part of the Czech Republic). Also, several people who heard we are coming have asked if she would put together an english class.

Caleb will be going to public school. This will be a big adjustment as he has previously been homeschooled and it will be a new language. He will take violin lessons at a music school and fencing at a sword fighting school. He is also planning a bike trip to the Austrian Alps with his dad.

Lucy will also be in public school. Although offered the opportunity to take voice or recorder lessons and to take fencing, she is not ready to commit to anything. School will be interesting. We have assured the kids that they should feel okay about failing miserably in their classes. Clearly, they cannot be expected to do well in history if they don't understand the language. In addition to Czech, we hope they will learn empathy for the immigrant kids in their classes here.

Silas will learn Czech, get potty trained, and go on long walks with his dad along the Vltava River.

The hardest thing I will be doing is not having a job. In my mini-retirement, I have two things I want to work on: writing and training for Adventure Racing. I like to tell stories, so this will allow me some time to put them down on paper. As for what I will write, I have three projects floating around in my brain: a fantasy novel, writing down the stories the kids and I used to tell at bedtime, and a self help book on developing self discipline (it will be really good if I can just get myself to sit down and write it). As far as adventure racing goes, the Czechs are as in to orienteering (one of the main components of adventure racing) as anyone in the world and I will have time each day to run and bike.

Most of all, we are just going to live there. We'll buy our bread and walk to church and say hi to our neighbors. But, because regular life will be mixed with new and strange details, we will pay closer attention to it and take joy in it.

- Peter

Visas Arrived!?!?!?!?

Our visas arrived on August 10th.....! It took awhile to figure out whether or not that was good news.

An envelope from the Czech Consulate arrived in the mail Monday. Kristine excitedly gathered the kids around and dialed my number at work. She read the text on the visa while the voice message system gave its message. The visa declared that we would be allowed to stay in the country from September 1, 2009 to January 28, 2010. Her message simply stated, "Uh, call home when you get in."

When I got in at the end of the day I called to ask if she needed me to do anything before I got home. She said in a dull voice, "No, you better just come home."

Oh boy, I thought, we got the visas and she is just sounding unhappy to not let on! I got on my bike. Or, maybe we got a letter saying they rejected us. I pedaled harder. Or, maybe things did not go well for my mom who had surgery that day. I frantically whipped through intersections. My brain raced with the good or bad news that might await me.

At home, Lucy met me at the door and asked if I had heard the good news - we got our visas. Shoot, I thought, relieved, there goes Kristine's surprise. I found Kristine upstairs, crying. She quickly explained the visa date issue (thankfully, all went very well for my mom).

Sixty days. All that time chasing documents, writing explanations, translating, getting notaries to sign, mailing and the money in the application and mailings. All that to get sixty more days than if we just waltzed in as tourists. Five months instead of the full year we requested and no explanation. We weren't even sure if we would be able to enter the country since the visa did not kick in until September 1 and we would arrive on August 25.

I was firmly in denial. A typo, I reasoned, a simple typo. On all five visas? Cut and paste, no doubt.

We did all we could, sent emails to our contact at the consulate, let our friends in Ceske Budejovice know, and prayed.

On Tuesday, Kristine spoke with someone at the Czech Consulate and found out that entering on the 25th would not be a problem because we could enter as tourists. Great relief. Also, we could use the remainder of the 90 day (out of 180 days) max tourist time following the visa expiration. Furthermore, according to changes in the rules for the Schengen Area on a handy page on the American Embassy website, we would maybe be able to then start our next 180 day period that would allow us to spend 3 months as tourists in the Czech Republic. Clear?

On Wednesday, we got word from our friends that the Czech Foreign Police had concerns about our proof that we could access our funds and that it would be a straightforward thing to get the visa extended when we arrive there and can talk through it with them.

In the end, we got our visas.

How We Came to Move to the Czech Republic...

Our adventure began in the Minnesota winter of 2007. I was in my cube at the office when my phone rang. “Mn/DOT design, this is Peter.” “Hi Honey. Life's short. Carpe Diem! let's move to Europe!” “Okay!”

There was a bit more discussion, then I went back to work. We started talking earnestly that night about the possibility of moving our family of five overseas. We had daydreamed about this before, but never with the same kind of energy.

Living in Europe was not a far out idea for us. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and had served missions prior to getting married. Kristine served in (what was then) Czechoslovakia. I served in the Argentina Resistencia Mission in the northern parts of Argentina. Kristine had visited the Czech Republic an additional three times already, most recently in 2005 with our two older children, Caleb and Lucy.

So, we knew we could handle living most anywhere, but needed to figure out how to make a living. We wanted to be in our new country long enough to really live there, not just be tourists. However, we also didn't want to up and leave our home forever. Finally, we didn't want to move for a couple of years because our youngest, Silas, had just been born in October 2006. The challenge then was to find employment in a foreign country for just one year, but not starting until two years out.

We started looking into the British Isles, Spain and the Czech Republic. I speak the language in the first two. Kristine speaks Czech, plus we have friends there from our previous excursions. We searched the web for the next several weeks trying to figure out where I could get a job and how we could make this work.

We were soon daunted. Immigration laws are rather complicated and I had my head into training for a big 12-hour Adventure Race. Silas wasn't even close to sleeping through the night so Kristine was perpetually sleep deprived. Then there was the whole problem of getting an employer to commit to hiring you for a job two years out. We laid the idea aside and focused on other things.

The idea wouldn't go away though and in June we were starting to get serious. On July 1, 2007 we held a family council. We determined that we could save enough in two years to allow us to live in the Czech Republic for 11 months. We resolved as a family to do what it would take to cut our expenses. I would still look for employment, but our plans would not entirely depend on it.

I immediately started telling everyone about our plans. Am I glad I did! As time went on, the whole idea seemed more and more outrageous. I was going to leave my job, pack up my wife and three kids, and live in a land where I didn't know the words to sell somebody a loaf of bread? I couldn't back out though. Once I had told people that we were doing it, not just thinking about it, my credibility rested on following through with this.

Already two years from departure, I asked my employers at the Minnesota Department of Transportation to grant me a one year leave of absence starting in the summer of 2009. They said they'd get back to me.

I manage highway design projects during the early stages of project development (scoping and preliminary design). I had some big projects. Hwy. 60 was a four-lane expansion over about 10 miles from Bigelow to Worthington, Minnesota. Hwy. 169 in Saint Peter was intended to add medians for pedestrian safety in downtown and deal with the deteriorating pavement (either as a mill and overlay or as a reconstruction). Hwy. 14 New Ulm to North Mankato was a four-lane expansion for which we were preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. All super cool projects, but none of them funded. So I expected it would be no big deal to hand these over to someone else while I was gone.

In Spring 2008, out of the blue, the Hwy. 60 project was identified for special funding by the Minnesota State Legislature. Suddenly, we needed to have the first project ready to go by March 2010. That included finishing the preliminary design, buying right of way, and preparing final plans.

This became the next big challenge to our decision. Hwy. 60 was my baby. Could I walk away during the most exciting time in its development?

Well, I could have postponed the trip to 2012 after the last of the three Hwy. 60 projects was let, but then Caleb would be 15 turning 16, Lucy would be a teenager. No, there are always important things to divert us away from our dreams. That's what this had become. It was no mere idea, but a major purpose around which our lives were revolving. We would go.

In late 2008 I reiterated my need to know if I would be granted a leave of absence. At our house the debate raged. I was ready to quit if they didn't grant the leave. As the economy melted down, however, the mother of my three kids was not willing to take such a risk.

For me this was big. I couldn't let "the man" tell me what to do. If I caved on this how could I look people in the eye.

We learned to not talk about it. We waited.

Meanwhile, the federal stimulus package passed and, out of the blue again, my Hwy. 169 Saint Peter project was going to be built in the summer of 2009 as a design-build. I was working my tail off and loving it. The combination of these two projects getting funded was a great blessing. A year in the Czech Republic was going to cost more than I had thought. Fortunately, I get paid for my time and was able to make a little extra money.

In the midst of all this work, we put a deadline on the leave of absence, February 2, 2009. The day approached. The day came. The day ended. At 4:31 p.m. I went to my manager's office to get the final answer. He was expecting me. He informed me that my leave would be granted. We shook on it. We were off to the Czech Republic.

Now we really set to work. What to do about the house? Need to get a visa. Need an apartment there. A bank. School for the kids.

Things really started to fall into place then. Some friends who are grad students in Mankato agreed to house sit for us. Our friends in Ceske Budejovice (the city to which we decided to move) found us an apartment about half a block from their house. The public school said they would take the older kids. We found a violin school for Caleb. A too-perfect-to-be-luck encounter at the bank helped resolve money transfer concerns. We found plane tickets at a reasonable price (but it meant shortening the trip to nine months). Only the visa remained.

And it still remains. We fly to the Czech Republic on August 24th. We will either have received visas from the Czech government allowing us to stay for up to a year, or we will be moving to the British Isles in late November for three months, after which we would return to the Czech Republic.


- Peter