Getting locked outside of your own apartment In Prague: It can happen.

I don’t expect a lot in life to come easy. After the toilet-gate at my previous apartment In Prague I thought I was ready for anything the Czech Republic threw my way. I forgot there was one last problem it could actually throw at me, hindering my ability to get in my apartment!

Apartment number three was by far the best apartment I have lived in thus far. For starters it was MUCH bigger. It had an actual living room with couches and a TV that didn’t work. A book shelf with more devices that didn’t work. A stereo that my roommates didn’t think worked till I plugged it in an outlet and holy cow it worked! Full kitchen but the dish dryer didn’t work. A full bathroom with two mirrors and tub with shower rod. Funny story about that, there were no curtains and the tub backed up quite easily so you had to be quick. But I really liked that place! It was charming and felt like an actual home rather than a hotel room.
As I was in the process of moving in, my new roommates warned me of an escalating problem with the door. It had a tendency to lock and stay locked even when you tried to open it with the key. We found that when closing the door you would need to keep the key in until the door was completely shut. Then turn the key and slowly take it out. If you didn’t do this, you or the next person trying to get in would not be able to unlock the door and would need to pray someone was in the house to let you in. So we all agreed to be careful and mindful about shutting the door. It was bound to back fire.

One night my roommates decided to have a girls night out. We invited some girlfriends over for pre-drinks (saves money) before hitting the town. After consuming a decent amount of drinks before heading out we ended up at a dance club while running into more friends and became separated from each other which isn’t out of the ordinary. Several hours past midnight I decided I was done for the night. One, because I was tired and two because a group of Brazilian guys kept cornering me and were trying to make out with my neck. I went home with one of my roommates and a friend. As my roommate and I approached our door all we could think about was sleep. We get to the door, and it won’t open. I try again and nothing. I start repeating a mantra of, “no, no,no,no,no” over and over while trying again. My roommate suggests maybe our third roommate is here and asleep and forgot about the door so we text her. Nothing. We try again, nothing. Next logical step was banging on the door while shouting “Sarah!!!” over and over. Still nothing. It is clear we are not getting in our apartment tonight. And it’s 3am so all we care about is sleep. We call our friend who lives close by and ask if we can crash. We walk over while the reality of being locked out of our apartment sinks in. Our landlord won’t respond till Monday at the earliest. It was Saturday night (morning). All our medications and legal documents were in the apartment. It was also on the 4th floor so we couldn’t easily get in through the window. We get to our friends house with the look of defeat on our faces. She only had one bed so we squished onto to it. The last thing that was said was my roommate tiredly exclaiming, “All I can think about is ways to scale the wall to our window”.

I spent the whole night dreaming of different ways I could break into our apartment. One was climbing to one of our windows from the front of the building since they are never locked. Another was seeing if we could get into our neighbor's house so we could jump from their deck to ours even though it was covered in barbed wire. Another was simply breaking the damn door. Though this door was like a typical hotel door and had no door knob. I still reasoned any door can be broken. I am from the East Bay in California after all! We could find somebody with the screw driver and un-hinge it, kick it, key it, Anything!!
So we wake up after spending half the night sharing a bed meant for one person and what do you know; our roommate WAS in the house! She had completely passed out. She had a friend over who left during the night and not knowing the sacred door rules, slammed it. She felt very bad but I told her I would be more mad about the situation if a wasn’t so damn happy that we were not locked out.
After this incident I always took great care in closing the door. I also took a deep breath every time I had to open it to get in wondering, “Will this be the time I get royally screwed?”

Oh, the humanity!

I am starting this new page...with an old entry.During the Summer of 2010 I lived in the amazing city of Prague. Loved it and wouldn't change a second of it. I'll often be telling stories from that time. But there were some times when I experienced what it means to be living in a foreign country as opposed to being a tourist passing by. This entry is one of the best example's...I give you:

Broken toilet:

While the Czech Republic is in no way a poor or undeveloped country, there are moments where I am reminded that this is a country only 20 years into capitalism and western development. For example in the race to catch up to west in communication, cell phones were made the norm and everyone has one. But, there are no landlines as they just skipped it all together. They also don’t have dryers here so you just hang all your clothes to dry. Which in the summer isn’t all that bad.I am not looking forward to the winter however. And while the food is good, they are very simple in flavor. The Czechs KNOW how to cook any type of meat, just haven’t got around to learning different ways to spice it up. They are also somewhere between 2-20 years behind in fashion. Clogs shoes are everywhere. Polo shirts that were not cool 5 years ago and still aren’t are all the rage. And occasionally I see someone who looks like they came out of 1995.
But I was REALLY reminded of where I live yesterday. In the morning my friend informed me that the toilet was not flushing at all. The buttons we are supposed to use to flush were useless. So I went downstairs to the real estate company office that owns the building to tell them. The lady told me that both on site tech guys were on holiday until the end of the week (Both, at the same time!). She asked if I knew anybody who fixes toilets in the CR and I looked at her thinking, “I can’t order a sandwich without messing up, how would I know to ask for my toilet to be fixed”. She must have read my mind because she laughed and said she would contact someone. That someone was NOT a plumber. Though a very nice man, he came in with a screwdriver and pliers. He spoke no English and after 10 minutes he left and didn’t come back for about 20. The he came back with my real estate person to translate. The problem, he didn’t bring the right screwdriver. His solution was to, “Use a bucket if you need to go, when I fix it I will dump the waste from the bucket into the toilet.” I stared at him and said, “Um yeah, I will find another toilet to go into, thanks”. After they left I stared at my roommate and said, “Did they really just suggest we go in a fucking bucket!!”

He came back a couple of hours later and fixed it. We were pleased and said thank you. Two days later In the middle of the night, it broke again. To say that night was uncomfortable is an understatement. The next morning I went back down and told the people it was broken again. They send back the same man (still sure he wasn’t a plumber and just a friend of the lady who worked downstairs). He fixed it and went on his merry way. Saturday morning…guess what happened? It broke again! Since it was the weekend (Czechs don’t work on weekends...ever) We had to make do the old fashioned way. Fill up a bucket of water (from the bidet, respectively) and keep pouring in the toilet to manually flush.

So to sum up the rest of the week, he came back fixed it. Only for it to break 24 hours later. Fixed. It broke on the weekend when there was no one to fix it. It is fixed now and looking good. I have just become very well acquainted with the KFC around the corner for using their bathroom daily.

Welcome!

As I caught up with my oldest friend a few weeks back I had a mini revelation about where I wanted to go to in life. As we were talking about upcoming events in both of our lives, I was kind of jumping all around the map in what I wanted to do. Basically it came down to two things: music and traveling. Two things I can say I am passionate about. After rambling about it for several minutes my friend looked at me and said, "Jaz! What's your dream job!?" So I just said, “If I could choose a dream job, It would be to be able to write about music and travel”. And it felt..right. It felt like if I could make a life for myself that lets me enjoy those two things and be able to get by I would be truly happy. And I haven’t felt that way about a statement involving my future ever. So I am putting it out into the universe. And taking steps to work towards that goal starting tonight. First thing I need to do; get actual ideas. What do I want to write about? Second, get better at writing! Brush up on grammar, editing, all that shit. Start looking at all venues for first time writers...etc. So this ladies and gents is the start of a new chapter of my life. Writing about what I love and hoping to share with others. It will be a long road with many gambles and leap of faiths. But I am excited! Stay tuned!