There is no place like home…/ Neni nad domov….

What does it feel like to have Czech parents but being brought up in a foreign country? The good thing is that you will learn Czech from your parents: they will read you Czech fairy tales, tell Czech stories and teach you  Czech grammar so that you would not forget your Czech heritage. But how would the outside environment accept you? Is it a smooth transition or a hard rocky road to overcome? Karin Gandalicova was one of those kids. Her parents emigrated to Switzerland during communism and that is where Karin was also born. Later her whole family moved to Germany. What Karin remembers the most from the 1st grade was the feeling of shame. Not only she would get ridiculed because of her unusual last name but also  because her mom – used to the Czech ways – would order her to wear slippers at school so that her feet feel more comfortable. Well, that wasn’t the custom in German schools and she also paid for it by being mocked from the other kids like there was no tomorrow. They would gossip about her when her parents put her to ballet classes or when the whole family left for vacation. “Where do these immigrants get money to pay for these things?” they would say behind her back. It was hard to wake up every morning knowing that people think of her as someone who is inferior to them.

Just one month after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 was the Gandalovic family on their way to their long lost homeland. To her parents the new, free Czechoslovakia was a fairytale land; to Karin it was a strange, dirty-looking place where everyone had to stand in line for everything. But little by little Karin got used to the new environment and – thanks to her parents – she did not have to deal with any language barrier as she spoke fluently Czech. After she graduated from a German University Karin decided to continue hers studies and to get her law degree from the Charles University in Prague. She was excited about living on her own in a city like Prague. However, before she could do that, there was a lot of paperwork that had to be done. Her parents were hoping that their old Czech friends would help her out with it but they would just turn their back on her ( “..a typical side of the Czech nature..” ads Karin’s mom). After all of the bureaucratic mess was done with Karin could finally start her studies in Prague. However excited she was though, her positive feelings were quite suppressed by her first impressions of the Czech studying environment. The feelings of shame that she experienced as a little girl in the German schools now came back in a different way in the Czech schools! Since she had a tiny Czech accent and did not know every little slang word, the other Czech students labeled her as the “foreign girl” or  the “weirdo”. Karin was also surprised that no one was really interested in her past, what she did in Germany, what she studied there..nothing. The only thing they cared about was that she was “German” and concluded that she must be also very rich. Her “friends”  just simply assumed that Karin would pay for everything whenever they went out or she would “lend” them money without any real payback in the near future. To her dismay she realized that not only she felt like a foreigner in Germany but also in Czech.

In spite of all of those difficulties, Karin now loves living in Prague. Thanks to her intelligence, outgoing personality, and good looks she did manage to get the well deserved respect from others. She finally found her home, she finally feels like she belongs somewhere – her heart belongs to Prague now (and she can finally wear slippers to school without being made fun of!).

For the CZECH VERSION please click here. Thanks!

Source: www.cesky-dialog.net/clanek.php?idcl=840&aidci=