Week 45-48 of 2024 (Year in Review) – NOVEMBER + Reflecting on Being in the Czech Republic for 12 Years

Been thinking a lot about this whole life adventure this blog is named for lately, which is something I do obviously quite a lot, maybe too much. But I think, now, after twelve years of living here, for right now I’ve made peace with the fact that this, this right here, the adventure that I named this blog after thinking it was just, well, an adventure is actually my honest-to-god real life. It took me twelve years to get to this realization or at least feel it fully. I’ve lived in Ceske Budejovice in this flat longer than in any one residence in my entire life. It’s getting real. This town, well, is my home, honestly. One of them, anyway, but I can’t imagine a life going forward with everything that is laid out on the table without some strong connection to this country; the one I somewhat randomly landed in in November 2012 on a train from Berlin and just never left. (The fact that it’s all chronicled here is even wilder!)

I’ve become a fully-formed, self-made Third Culture Kid. I don’t really feel like I fit in per se with some of my American breathern, which is okay because it sometimes feels like I never fit in quite that way, even as a child. Always looking toward The Other. Another place, a different language, a different type of cuisine, lifestyle, what have you. That said, I don’t (yet) fit in with the Czechs completely, either. Not being fluent in the local language will continue to be a barrier until I am. But instead, we are something in the middle. A mix of adopted Czech cultural behaviors with (some) American preferences and a penchant for Czenglish words. The only people who really get this are maybe other Czechs who know English or other expats.

Can you really go back home again? Figuratively, no; not completely, but that’s something you make peace with as a traveller anyway. Literally speaking, I’d like to sometime but the list of things that I am concerned about gets longer by the day. The idea of even repatriating is very jarring for both of us. We have been gone so long that it would be such a great life upheaval and lifestyle change to move back even to my progressive home state. Going from never driving to needing to drive every day. Readjusting to the very American work ethic and what is demanded of us. The distances between things, the sprawl, the consumeristic lifestyles. “We have become American Dream drop-outs”, I told Alex last month. We rejected it from trying to pick up the pieces in the Obama-era recession, everything we thought post-college life was going to be (but wasn’t) and knew we have only one life to live and no room for regrets. I definitely don’t regret going or moving abroad long-term in the least! What a life-changing move and endlessly interesting social experiment.

If you convert our salaries to USD, it’s poverty-level. However, this same salary is perfectly standard here in the Czech Republic and you can live well enough on it, especially if you take into account the costs we aren’t paying for (ginormous doctor and dentist bills, car payments and gas, for starters). The middle class is much broader here and most people enjoy very similar standards of living, vs. such extremes between rich and poor you’ll see in the West. When going abroad, you just get resourceful. This is where my inherent frugality gets to shine. American friends kindly support what we’re doing without being able to understand why we would do that. (And a very select few people really get it, maybe wish they could do the same) Cheers to you all you get it 😉

I wonder and worry sometimes about what older age or retirement would look like for me but there has never been a doubt in my mind that I am doing the best thing now for our family. To live in a friendly and neighborly walkable city and see familiar faces every day. Truly, every day. To have weekends and time off together very often and a two-and-a-half year maternity leave, state-supported, to spend with my son and give him a strong basis of English language and strong relationship foundation before he goes to a Czech-speaking preschool. To feel valued in our workplaces everyday and treated well (we seem to have both really lucked out and love our jobs). To pop over to cities like Prague or Vienna when we feel like it (which admittedly is less these days but dare I say it’s because we’re more content where we are? Or our child keeps us busy enough? A combination?). To have friendships of all different kinds that I value here (although different than ones back home). Not to mention the climate and mostly abundant sunshine?

I never dreamed I would be living in the Czech Republic for such a huge chunk of my life (and getting bigger) but I think I feel okay with that now. Even as an ocean-loving island girl who misses seeing her favorite bands’ live shows.

Going forward…

We are planning to be here at least through M’s preschool years and see how it goes. We will keep trying to slowly but surely improve our A2 level (pre-intermediate) Czech language to our goal of B1 (intermediate). Even though I have less free time right now than I think I ever have had in my life, I find I can understand more and more; things I would never think possible twelve years ago.

However, one change I think I am ready to make is I would love to transition my every-other-year visits back to the USA to annual visits if the powers that be allow. After twelve years of adventuring, we still have destinations we’d like to travel to within Europe but it’s becoming less urgent as spending time and connecting with American family and friends after being gone for so long seems more urgent. To keep in good touch with everyone and everything, not to mention for our little one’s sake and learning about the country of his citizenship (it’s weird I can’t even really say “birth country” or “home country”). Annual transatlantic travel seems expensive and the idea of longhauls with a toddler (I’m talking a ten hour flight, here) is not for the faint of heart but it’s something I am considering. As I feel so at home here, every summer my heart is also pulled more there, like a magnet that’s getting stronger. We’ll see how it all pans out in the new year.

November was a lovely month! The last of the warm weather took us right up until Halloween and come All Saint’s Day it was like everyone knew we were turning towards cold, dark and late fall and the wind, cold and rain came right on cue. My mother visited us for two weeks in the middle of the month which was so wonderful, just doing daily life things and ending her time here with a weekend in Vienna to visit the Christmas markets, eat great food and just generally enjoy life. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner together at our place before she left and we were lucky enough to go to a second Thanksgiving at the end of the month. Feeling so, so thankful and grateful for everything and all the wonderful people in my life this past month.