The Grey Pen Goings

Navigation through a World that's Wild at Heart and Weird on Top.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Flip-Flat

After three weeks in my new flat I decided to move. Now, if you remember the ghosts of blog entries past, you will remember that I was also itching to get out of my last flat as well—that one was different though, one that was set up for me through the Caledonian School and so out of my parameters. This one I found.

It’s funny because you’d think that if you have the cash you’d get the flat you want here in Prague. Not so in the expat community. Almost every flat is sent through expats.cz and any room you’re looking at puts you up against 10 to 15 other flatseekers. Not exactly an enviable position. So when I found a room I pounced on it.

All the details about this flat are top-notch: insanely close to Wenceslas Square; huge room; a dryer; a balcony. I saw all this and went hook line and sinker for the room. It was a whopper.

But it never settled in me. Even though my room was gigantic I felt trapped in it—the biggest drawback to the room is that I had to go through either of my roommates’ rooms to get to mine, something that played havoc on my psyche in the mornings. I rise early, regardless of the time I went to sleep. These guys, my roommates, well…

There are several categories of people who come to teach English in Prague:

1. Lovers: They move for a long-term relationship, or they move to find a long-term relationship, or they move cause they’re looking to bang a lot of Czechs.
2. Retirees: explanatory, I feel, though a strange lot.
3. Twenty-Somethings: Gap year? Meaning of life? Anything, to anyone? We’re young and open to anything and maybe not ready for commitment.
4. Partiers: Why teach English in Prague? Um, cause you can get your ass fucked up for dirt cheap in Prague? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAmen.

So, guess which group my roommates fell into? Not one night passed without a joint and some brew-dogs. The kitchen was a nightmare, and they ate out so often as to never put anything more than a Mars bar in the refrigerator. One roommate, though 24 and a very smart guy, might be lucky to make it to 30 the way he goes at life: a pack-a-day man, beers, X sometimes, lots of booze—he wakes up everyday coughing and spluttering so hard you think a lung might fall out.

The bottom line is that these guys are cool but they like to party any chance they can. And they’re dirty (buying toilet paper fell directly on me, which is kind of messed up when you think about it—do they just not shit? I hate using the acronym, but my feelings are best summed up by WTF?). And I can’t do this in Prague. It’s SO, SO EASY to do nothing but get drunk every night in Prague. But that’s not why I came here.

Another new teacher, Tom, was living in a flat on the edge of Vinohrady that had a room. It’s nowhere near as nice as what I’ve got, but it’ll do, pig, it’ll do. Tom seems like exactly the roommate I need: mild-mannered, into chess and films and environmental science, interested in learning. It’ll be much more quiet if a little longer journey out there. My new landlady is so nice she baked apple strudels for her entire building. Holla.

In a certain way this whole minor fiasco marks all the scary things about moving to a place like Prague to teach English. How can you tell if someone is cool enough to live with in such a quick time? How can you tell if any of these people can be trusted? What are you doing here, and is that what you’re supposed to be doing?

Things will settle down. They have to. Or I, unfortunately, will explode.

1 Comments:

  • At 6:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Very interesting site. Last few month I'm thinking about invest in Prague property, because it is best time to do it. The Prague property market has and continues to see overwhelming demand from both foreign and local investors. And who wouldn't like to own a property in this fairytale city that pulls at your heart strings and attracts major foreign investors on the basis of economics.

     

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