Prague Journal

Tuesday, September 7, 2005.

Still no internet connection this morning. Mrs. Halova, our landlady, came around 10:30 a.m. as scheduled, and brought extra linens and, as a gift to us, an linen apron. She graciously called Český Telecom to enquire about our internet account and was told that they were adding capacity in our area and that we should be connected in two weeks. So much for the “urgent” notation on our account. They did tell her that they would give us a dialup connection by this afternoon, but of course that did not happen. It sounds like they want us to set up separate dialup account, which we won’t need if we get the broadband to work.
We raced downtown to meet Miloš at noon at the ČSOB Bank on Wenceslas Square to open a bank account. The account costs 200 Czk (roughly $8) to set up and has a 40 Czk fee each month. The ATM card, which should be available to us in two weeks, is also 200 Czk, and each ATM transaction is 5 Czk. Fulbright will deposit my stipend in American dollars, so there is a deposit transaction fee as well. If I want to transfer money directly from this bank to my landlady’s account at CNB, there is a transfer fee. We’ll probably opt for manual withdrawals and walk down the street to deposit our rent in her account as we did last time.
We made a pilgrimage to several bookstores and newsstands (for English-language newspapers and magazines) and then to Tesco where we picked up some cookware that we can use in the oven and microwave and other small kitchen items. A brief trip to the grocery store, mostly for pastries for tonight’s dessert. Regardless of Rick’s diet, he can hardly pass up fresh Czech breads and pastries (they are wonderful).
Checking e-mail once again at the Laundry Kings internet café reveals no urgent messages – lots of unfiltered junk – but the stack of files from research colleagues to download and print is growing. A note from Radim reveals that he is as perplexed as we are about the dialup problems. Obviously, our modem is working; the problem is on the receiving end.
We received real mail today – mostly change-of-address confirmations and our credit card bill, and also the Fulbright orientation schedule from Hana Rambouskova and a holiday letter from some dear Denver friends – so it feels like we are nearly settled.

posted by JWinn @ 7:35 PM