The pros and cons of living in Prague

Last week I met my friend Pnina in the Beit Midrash of the JCC to start what we plan to be a regular once-a-week chavruta for the study of Mishna (we started with Kiddushin, which will be a much needed chazarah (revising) of my last year´s class of Mishna with Josh Kulp. ) Pnina spent the past year in Israel studying history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She came back to Prague a couple of days ago only to finish her studies at Charles University in Prague before going back to Israel to make alyiah (to immigrate to Israel.) When we met, Pnina shared with me her discomfort of being back in Prague. She misses Israel a lot and finds it hard to slip back into her Czech life. Naturally, I understood her mixed feelings very well, especially knowing how much she wants to move to Israel and how much this is important for her. As I have mentioned earlier, as much as I miss Israel and my friends I left there, I am very grateful I am back home again. Thinking about what Pnina told me and also about all the things I don´t like about being back home, I thought I would put down a few pros and cons about living back home in Prague:

Pros:
-Being with my family and friends - does not need further explanation.

-Sunday - Sunday is a great invention that Israel lacks. Nobody can persuade me that the free Friday in Israel is the same. It is not. In Israel, I always spent most of Friday cooking and cleaning for Shabbat. The more time you have before Shabbat the more time you spend preparing for it. Here, I manage to do everything within 3 hours on Friday afternoon and can enjoy the whole free Sunday.

-Recycling - In Israel, I have always been frustrated by the fact that it is impossible to recycle anything except for plastic PET bottles, newspapers and card board. I went back into recycling everything including yoghurt plastic cups, plastic bags, TetraPak cartons , different kinds of glass and all kinds of paper. I bought the most enviroment friendly fridge I found on the market and I feel much less guitly again.

-Being able to go anywhere by bus - In Israel, I did use the bus system occassionally, but due to reasons that need not be explained, I used my bike most of the time (great for my orange skin, by the way.) Entering buses without checking out my co-travelers suspicciously is a great relief.

-Speking Czech - awesome! People actually laugh when I tell a joke.

-Summer rain - which cools down the air, but does not turn the whole country into a freezer.

-Green lawns and forests - while in Israel people are able to keep their gardens and parks green by means of very clever irrigation systems, walking in a forest that has a moist scent of needles is priceless.

-Secular people - It is great to walk back from the synagogue on Friday and see people having fun, watching the World cup on a huge screen on the Old Town Square, going hiking or roller-skating. As my chavruta Ales says "secularity is a very important part of religious experience."

-Living among Czechs - while I hate many features in Czech national character, I still love living among Czechs immensly.

Cons:

-Being the fat one again In Israel, there were many women who had wide hips and size 42 or 44 like I do. Buying skirts and pants was a piece of cake. I am back in a country of anorectic looking women with sizes 38 and lower. I feel fat and big-nosed.

-Lack of parve cookies - many Americans and Israelis are horrified to see how kosher-eating people shop for food here. Food with hechsher (certificate of an authorised rabbi confirming the food is kosher) is hard to find; we shop according to a kosher list, which lists food with no non-kosher ingrediences, i.e. most people eat "kosher style." Kosher yellow cheese and kosher meat can be bought only in the JCC etc.) This is not such a big deal for me - once you get used to it it becomes quite natural for you. What I miss is parve cookies. After having meat I am forced to eat healthy food like oranges and bananas.

-Not being with my friends from Israel - does not need an explanation.

-Not being able to pray with an egalitarian minyan - except for Friday night - but this makes me daven at home on the terrace on my own overlooking pretty green hills of the Prague suburbs, which is beautiful.

-Not living among Israelis - while I hate many features in Israeli national character, I still love living among Israelis immensly.