What's At Stake: Fragile Prosperity

Marcus Mabry, a writer for the New York Times, who came to this area of the world 20 years ago as an exchange student, recently visited Budapest and was astonished at it's transformation. He put together an incredibly beautiful slide show of what's at stake and what has been accomplished since the end of communism. The slide show and article that accompany it are about Budapest, but the story could just as easily be about Prague. It's the same kind of magnificence. Click on my title to read the article and see the slide show.

Happy Blog Birthday to Me!

One year ago I started this blog to help me go through the emotional journey of graduating my youngest child from high school, downsizing and potentially selling my home, and moving across the world from the American Midwest to Prague, Czech Republic.

My home in America

One year ago, I was living a very American mom lifestyle in a 3 bedroom/3 bath suburban home with one child at university and another in her senior year at high school. I only went places by car. I didn't yet know how to blog. I didn't yet know how to Twitter. I didn't yet know how to couchsurf.

I was mowing the lawn once a week. I read somewhere that not having a lawn to mow anymore frees up 30 hours a year. Hallelujah! I still own the house and the magnificent blackberry tree that goes with it. Currently, I have it rented out to some terrific people.

At the beginning of my blogging journey, I was working on what to do with all of my "stuff." I don't think of myself as particularly attached to possessions but once a lifetime of them have built up, the task of thoughtfully going through each and every one and making a decision about what to do with each one is overwhelming.

Fortunately, I found this fantastic book that helped me go through the process in an incredibly empowering way. It's called "When Organizing Isn't Enough: Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life" by Julie Morgenstern. Wow, did that book help me. I didn't waste any years in procrastination before starting. All of those posts are under the label SHED. They used to be the most-read part of my blog.

My children have thrived on their own. Each of them are attending their university of choice and living their own dream. They're loving life and they haven't needed their mother stateside to do it.

Pinch me!

And where am I now? I'm living in Prague!!! In the six months since I moved here, I've found great students, great friends, a great neighborhood, a great flat, a great flatmate, and a great church community. I feel like I'm living my values 100%. Life is awesome!

My property maintenance consists of cleaning my apartment every other week when it's my turn. That takes about two hours max.

I no longer have to worry about oil changes, or tires, or brakes. That frees up even more time. Using public transportation has been a Godsend. In six months, I've lost twenty pounds because I'm walking to and from metro and tram stops rather than merely to the driveway. I have zero worries about traffic - imagine how stress-free that makes life.

Even the stress of having a rotten president has gone away! Hallelujah!

Over a year of blogging, I've written 226 posts. I've had 4,200 visitors and 10,000 page hits. My blog was chosen as Expat Blog of the Month (thank you Julian!) in December of 2008. Now that I'm actually living here in Prague my readership keeps growing about 5% a month. If this were a business that would be an outstanding rate of growth. But it's not, it's just for fun.

And fun it has been. Blogging has helped me focus, focus, focus on achieving my dream of moving to Prague to learn about this beautiful city and the wonderful people of the Czech Republic. Thank you for reading and being part of the conversation!

Save or Splurge on Prague

The New York Times just published a "Save or Splurge" guide to ten different European cities. I've included a link to Prague's section in my title. Most of the places they recommended are new to me with the exception of the Aria Hotel. Just based on having a wander around the lobby and the music library, it looks every inch as cool as they describe.

Something Better Than Valentine's Day

Yes, yes, I know ladies, you're looking at my headline with befuddlement and asking "what could be better than Valentine's Day?"

The Czechs would tell you that what's better than Valentine's Day is their day for lovers, May Day.


In recent years, the insensitive business forces of globalization have used the fact that our world is getting more and more interconnected to try and export typically American holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day to the Czech Republic. It would never occur to me that a successful business could be made from selling people stuff for holidays not their own. That doesn't stop corporations from trying.

But they Czechs say they don't need Valentine's Day. May Day is their day for lovers. Indeed, the whole month of May is "the month for lovers." The Czech tradition is that lovers must kiss under a blossoming tree on May 1st. In Prague, they have an entire hill overlooking the city, called Petrin Hill, filled with blossoming trees that are just starting to peak.

What I love about the tradition is it is the same for students and moguls alike. It isn't about spending money. It's about spending time together. It's human. Not corporate.

So while it's easy to think yet another romantic holiday would be harmless on anyone's calendar, how would all you American ladies feel if the Czechs tried to sell you on the idea of celebrating Easter their way: with these crazy pomlazkas (braided willow branches) that are used to beat women's behinds until they hand over a colored egg! Not quite ready to adopt that idea, are we?

Watching Obama Land in Prague

Grant P., a fellow expat in Prague, watched Obama come into Prague on Air Force One. This is a mere stock photo of Air Force One. Grant's video is great! Check out his post by clicking on my title.

Prague in Photos

My friend Michael, writing at Blogging Gelle, created a wonderful photo essay entitled "A Sunday Walk in Prague II." If you haven't seen it yet, take a look.

What I especially enjoyed about it was his first 'photo walk' of about a year ago was sooooooo inspiring to me as I planned my journey to Prague and thought about living here. Now I live here and I know most of the places in his essay! How cool is that?

Click on my title to see his work.

"We are here because enough people ignored the voices who told them that the world could not change!"

What's Latin for "they came, they saw, they charmed?" That's what President and Mrs. Obama did when he spoke to the Czech people on April 5th, 2009 on a hazy Sunday morning at Hradcany Namesti (Prague Castle Square).

Beginning with Czech history from Chicago (something well-known to Czech people and hardly known outside of Chicago within America), President Obama shared his Chicago roots in a way that charmed the Czechs and Americans like me in the audience. He honored Czech people for things they love about themselves and by extension, that Czechs teach foreigners to love about them as well: their humor, their high level of culture, their "unconquerable spirit despite empires rising and falling, and the "revolutions ... led in arts and sciences, politics, and poetry. "

My very favorite part of the speech was one I did not expect. When he was establishing connection with his Czech audience, President Obama talked about the improbability of him serving the United States as President and of Czech people being free to live their lives in democracy:

"We are here today because enough people ignored the voices who told them that the world could not change."

What a perfect thing to say to a nation of skeptics who don't believe that democracy will change anything, who don't believe that corruption can ever end, and that don't believe their politicians will stop arguing and start governing. President Obama was asking Czechs to believe. It was easily the most moving part of his speech.

He was asking them to recognize their own power as citizens and visionaries if they organize and work for and believe in change. After all, it was their first democratically-elected President, President Vaclav Havel, who proved that "moral leadership is more important than any weapon." Believe, Czech people, believe!

He did not come here to argue the merits of the proposed missile defense system to the Czech people. He aimed much bigger than that. He came to propose a nuclear-free world. Now if any other politician proposed such a thing in a speech, I have to admit, I would roll my eyes that he expected me to believe such a Pollyanna vision is possible. But if there is anything I have learned about my President is that he accomplishes things that others might not even dream up. This is a man who had his credit card denied trying to get into the Democratic convention in 2000 in Los Angelas just so he could attend and eight years later was the nominee of his party. I'm not discounting the possibility that he could actually do it.

He broke the whole idea of eliminating nuclear weapons down to manageable short-term goals, any one of which would be an accomplishment in it's own right. Godspeed, Mr. President.

He even labeled the Czech Republic as a being in the heart of Central Europe, not Eastern Europe! Americans labelling the Czech Republic as "Eastern Europe" drives Czech people crazy. We Yanks can't help it, we still have that Iron Curtain line in our heads. When I talk to Czech friends my age, I realize they do too. It is a new generation, born in freedom, that has a new reality. Major charm points, President Obama. Thanks for coming to the Czech Republic!

There are great photos of President and Mrs. Obama in Prague on the White House blog dated April 9, 2009 at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog.