Lynne from A Malaysian Abroad agreed to interview me, in what is in the blogosphere often called a “meme”. So here it comes, my first ever meme…
But first, what is actually a “meme”? Wikipedia explains meme more scientifically, whilst The Daily Meme has more an internet/ blog specific approach. So, in a nutshell: A meme, in the blogosphere, is a task that wanders from blog, evolving with the time, as the same task, here answering/ posing questions, is done by very different people. But enough bubble-bubble, here my answers to Lynnes’ questions:
1. Tell us about how you came to be an expat in Prague: where are you from, originally, and how did you end up in Prague? How different is Prague from your home country? How long will you be there? Do you know what your next destination might be?
Yikes!!! I thought the meme was about answering 5 questions and not 5×5 
Ok, lets see, we, hubby and I moved to Prague from the UK because of his work. We will stay here for several years and our next destination is unknown to us. I myself am German (hubby is a Brit) and I have lived, before I married, in Spain. Prague and the Czech Republic strike me actually as very similar to my birth-country Germany, food, culture, attitude and especially the bureaucrazy seem utterly familiar. ;-(
2. You’ve mentioned that one of your resolutions of 2009 is to Learn More Czech. How tough or easy is it to be in Prague without a good command of Czech? Apart from the basic polite phrases you know, how else do you communicate with the locals? Do they understand English?
It is actually quite easy to get here by without speaking proper Czech, Prague is a tourist destination, what means that a lot of things are translated into, at least, English. A lot of the younger people speak some English and some of the older ones have some German. So you can get by, but I personally think that when living in a country one should make an effort to learn the language. As for “how else do you communicate with the locals?” Non-verbal communication, especially a big, huge smile helps a lot.
3. What’s the story behind the name you blog with: “hospitalera”?
That is the easy one I used to volunteer on the Camino de Santiago in the refuges and albergues, i.e. places that give hospitality to pilgrims, such a person is called “hospitalera/o” depending on the gender in Spanish. As I made my first steps on the www I needed a nickname and hospitalera was the then logical choice to make, at least for me it seemed logical;-)
4. Tell us more about your favourite castle in Scotland (that’s a fantastic picture, btw!): where is it located, what is its history, and why is that particular one your favourite?
Huch??? That is not even on this blog, that is on my posterous How did you come across that? Thanks for the compliments, btw. OK, here for everybody to see:
Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland
It is my favourite castle because it is an absolute dream to photograph, I never was inside but I have dozens of images of it, it changes so much with the light, the camera angle, the lens you choose, it is a photographers dream castle, challenging and rewarding at the same time. Oh, and it is also one of my most successful images in my portfolio as a microstock contributor.
5. What did you want to be when you were 6 years old? How different is that from what you studied in college and/or what you’re doing now, job-wise? How do you feel about the difference/similarity?
I honestly don’t think there was only one thing I wanted to do as a child, I think I wanted to do so much and some of this I have achieved. I always wanted to travel, to observe and to know the “why?” behind things and thanks to God, I had and have the opportunity to do most of this now. I didn’t become a full-time traveller but I live now in my 4th country and travel extensively with hubby during vacations/ holidays. And I can always travel via the internet and learn new things, meet new people and visit different spaces and opinions.
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Thank you Lynne for asking me all of these and if you, my blog readers want you can also check out Lynnes’ other blog Life after work
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You want to get in on the fun? You can be a part of it by following a few simple steps:
- Leave a comment on this post and ask me to interview you.
- I’ll respond within 1-5 days with 5 questions directed to you (only 5 and relevant to your blog, promised
- Answer the questions on your own blog and link back to this post.
- Invite others to participate by re-posting these steps.
- Once you’ve posted your interview, tell me and I’ll post a link to it here on my blog. Like I did with commenting on Lynnes’ original meme post .
