Resolutions for 2018

Havlíčkovy Sady, a large urban park near my apartment.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and didn't spend too much of it worrying about whether the US President is losing his mind and might accidentally order a nuclear attack on a Korean restuarant somewhere. What an age we live in! /end inspid political commentary

Anyway, a new year is here, and with it come new opportunities. New Year's Resolutions aren't really a common practice here in Czechia, but I thought I would make some anyway. In particular, I want to make some about my new home city, and about life abroad. I may also have hopes of losing a little weight, exercising more, and all the usual, but those are universal--the resolutions below are of the "Prague-centric" variety.

Resolution #1: Learn some Czech. Some is obviously a nice, vague, catch-all word, so let me put a stronger marker down: by 2019, I want to be a high A1 level Czech speaker. A1 speakers

• Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
• Can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people they know and things they have.
• Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Right now, I can't really do any of this. So, resolution made.

Resolution #2: Visit 5 new countries. In my life, I have really only been to 5 countries: The US, Canada, Guatemala, Great Britain, and Czechia. Technically, with my quick trip to Berlin and my layover in Oslo on my way to Europe, I have visited 7, but I don't really count either of those as a proper visit. In Oslo, I never got out of the airport area, and I was only in Berlin for about 3 hours. Clearly, these don't count. So, I wil visit 5 (or more) countries I have never visited before, ideally having at least one meal, and visiting more than one location. So, no airport layovers allowed--and no, passing through on the train won't count, either. Right now, my top 5 picks are Germany (properly this time), Austria, Itlay, Greece, and France, but who knows? Maybe I'll see what Oslo is like aside from it's lovely airport! We'll come back next year and see how this went.

Resolution #3: Visit 5 places within Czechia. So far, I haven't visited a single place in the Czech Republic that doesn't have a Praha zip code. There are any number of destinations for day trips or short weekends away, from Brno, Czechia's 2nd city with a population about that of Tampa, to Karlovy Vary, a spa town that once saw Beethoven and Goethe walking together down the streets. Bus tickets to these towns cost about about 75 minutes worth of teaching--so, not something I can afford to do wily-nilly, but easily doable once in a while. This year, I will make sure I do.

Resolution #4: Pick a favorite museum/attraction in Prague.. Having lived in Washington, DC for many years, I had feelings about almost every museum, memorial, monument, and tourist trap in the greater metro area. Some, like the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, were personal favorites that I would pop into whenever possible. Others, like the Air & Space Museum, were child-ridden nightmares of sound and fury signifying nothing, places to be avoided at all costs. With very few exceptions, I haven't visited any of Prague's numerous sites more than once, and there are many I have yet to visit at all. Moreover, most of the ones I have visited still feel utterly new and strange to me. By the end of this year, I hope to find my Prague version of the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden--my favorite historic or cultural place to go and feel at home. Of course, I will have to visit many places, and revisit, and revisit, so this resolution may trickle in 2019...which I'm totally okay with.

Resolution #5: Pick a favorite park. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't entirely hate nature. Rather, I just prefer to be able to have a pleasant meal and a nice shower afer encountering it. Urban parks, therefore, are quite close to my heart, and many of my favorite city experiences are actually of city parks. Prague has almost 200 city parks, so I couldn't be happier. I can start doing my initial reconnaisance and comparisons now, but come Spring, I'll really be able to start seeing which of Prague's many lovely parks are the best. Watch this space.

Did you make any travel resolutions for 2018? I would love to hear about them in the comments! Anyone coming to Prague? Let me know, and we can meet for coffee and explore a park or a museum!

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