The metro and the Czech language

As I’m getting here and there by metro most of the time, I thought about devoting it a small entry J

It is very conveninent that we live near I.P. Pavlova, as I probably mentioned before, where Metro and tram stop regulary, the metro even in about 2 minute intervals. So theres no need for hurry to catch it, because you can simply take the next one!

Seeing that we were already wondering about the subway announcements on our last school trip to Prague, I will share what I found by chance on one of the expat websites

(Martin and me were already guessing, they might say ‘Oh no, another 200 tourists just boarded the train. please be aware…’ )

In fact, once on the train, the following announcements can be heard:

1. Name of the station where the train is currently stopped, e.g.

“Můstek”

2. Warning:

“Ukončete prosím výstup a nástup, dveře se zavírají.”

(Please finish exiting and boarding the train, the doors are closing.)

3. Name of the following station (e.g. Muzeum) followed, if applicable, by ‘Transfer to line A/B/C’:

“Příští stanice: Muzeum”

“Přestup na linku A/B/C.”

Who would have thought it translates as such a boring pronouncement

One thing that I’m really not used to, is going into a country, where people speak a language I don’t understand a word of. I was trying to learn some Czech, but its difficult and time consuming, and when you’re used to understand sentences, be able to use verbs, its disappointing if you apply yourself, just to know basic 10-15 expressions.

First it was funny to guess how a sentence might split up in words, as the Czech always stress the first syllable, but then you don’t only want to be able to repeat, you want to understand a word or two

I decided to get into food-related-words first, which probably wasn’t a bad choice. Still if martin and me go to a restaurant with Czech menu only, we order something we don’t know what it is. Take lunch on Thursday for example: I desperately needed French fries so I went for the only dish with hranolky on it: Argentinska something with hranolky.

Not bad thought, but also not what I had chosen I’d known that it was not an Argentinean steak but some small pieces of meat, accompanied by a strange sauce.

Same when Tobi and I went to that vegetarian restaurant (‘Today we go for vegetarian, because you like it so much!’ ; I really needed meat that evening…) .

They had some pictures, so Tobi chose from these and I tried to get the Korean waitress translate some words. She even offered to ring her son, but we chose to have a good guess again. It was nice in the end; still we didn’t work out what was deep fried on Tobis plate. Tasted like fish, but in a vegetarian restaurant…

I might go on to learn some more expressions in the park later, I printed out a good overview, 6 pages, that should be feasible, before it’s too late, and I’m going back home

Concerning the new blog, it is no longer possible to get email messages whenever I write a new entry, but you can subscribe to rss feed and add it to you iGoogle or other RSS- Readers. Then the new message, or part of it, is automatically fetched to that site, and youre always up to date J

Tags: food, language, Prague, transport

Arrival 5th May

On Monday morning I set off to Prague fort he 2 months internship at DHL Vendor management Prague.
Only a few words to the flight: extraordinary, as Ingo (my uncle) arranged for me to sit next to the pilot and have a look round the cockpit, even stay during the landing. I know fly with a better feeling, knowing how everything works, before it was rather a mysterious thing, hoping to land alive
40 minutes Taxi drive to the office was unproblematic, the taxi wasn’t even overcharged, as it happens often to Prague tourists. But I didn’t come as turist, rather what people nowadays call expatriate, coming to live and work for a longer period.
At reception I was asking for my ‘contact person’ which happened to be in Darmstadt, but never mind I met my former boss who introduced me to Hana from Controlling that I will be working with in June, and a lady, asking for me to handover the keys for my apartment.
Hana showed me round and introduced me to the vendor management colleagues, and I picked up my second bag that Andreas took to Prague earlier the morning. My colleagues are mainly female (male boss..) and its nice to hang around with them chatting, even though they are not into technical stuff , and hardly know anything about computers
I finished early and took a taxi, which was in fact a ‘limusine service’( don’t know the difference, but the driver insisted on being a limousine service driver) to my apartment. It’s a bit up the hil from I.P Pavlova, near Namesti Miru, so convenient for both metro lines red and green. The apartment is really nice, after all I’m glad I have it, and chose to not choose the apartment myself thus not to be responsible for provision and payment etc. (all done by Iva, whose job is to relocate expatriates the whole day, we seem to have lots of them).

It turned out that she might have booked the apartment only till 4. June, not July, so I might have to move, which I will happily do, as I now know theres only 3 houses the company has for rent, and Martins apartment also is conveniently placed, a bit closer to red line metro, and with many nice restaurants round. He also has a balcony and a remote control for the gate to enter the house
I’d really have to smile if after all Iva messed up the dates, renting an apartment can be so complicated
The bed is small as expected on a separate floor, but theres a couch that sleeps two people.
Unfortunately the street is paved the way you hear passing every single car.

Important people you may want to remember the name of (I’ll use them in the texts):

During the afternoon I’m settling in, going round in Vinorhady quarter, to a shopping center to get some food (not too much choice, not comparable to holiday- French-supermarkets  )
Getting a Metro ticket was fairly difficult as the rude lady wanted to sell me 1, 2, 3 or 5 days but not a monthly ticket, that is as expensive as the 5 day tourist one.
Feels bad if you don’t speak a word of the language everybody else does.
Thought she cheated on me because she wouldn’t accept my student id, thus not giving me half price. But never mind, I get transport payed by the company
In the evening martin comes over for chatting and to drink my first Staropramen (Czech Beer), he lives down the road (very hilly here).

Tags: people, Prague, transport, work