Mortgage Crisis at Home

I try to stay abreast of news back home, and lately all I seem to read about (besides the presidential primaries) is the home mortgage mess in the USA. Far from being just another headline to me, I have two people very dear to my heart in the middle of the mortgage crisis now. One of my friends lost his job and is becoming behind in his house payments, the other is a home lender with depleting business. Anyway, to all those folks back home involved in this mess, my thoughts are with you. I know losing your home is probably the worst thing that can happen besides losing a loved one, and I feel ya. Whether you choose to refinance or sell or actually declare bankruptcy, just remember that times will be better - one thing I've learned about stressful times in my life...the clouds always clear up eventually. :-)

Anyway, in Brno it's the opposite trend. Home prices on the rise like there's no tomorrow. So, probably after new year's we'll move into a rental and continue to watch home prices & really get to know this market before buying.

I know this subject isn't very exciting, lol. Being in the accounting industry, though - I think about it a lot, especially when I'm planning to buy in the coming months.

Last night, my friends and I met in a Brno pub called Pegas, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Czech Republic & touring pubs. Not only is the pivo (beer) excellent, the atmosphere is friendly & buzzing, and the staff work their tail off to make sure that no glass is ever empty. Here is the pub, one of my favorites in Brno:

Brno Expat Community

To be honest, the expat community in Brno, Czech Republic is mostly eastern europeans. And, right or wrong, the czech culture seems more welcoming to those from the west than those coming from countries "worse off" than themselves.....Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, etc. Myself being American, and most of my friends (americans, germans, dutch) enjoy the highest level of hospitality here, deservedly or not. Besides that particular factor, czech people are generally friendly to everyone. I've been in the country for more than a year now, and have rarely seen any acts of violence or even hostility towards anyone, local or foreign.

Whenever anyone asks me what is better about life in Czech Republic or USA, I cringe...there are simply too many complexities to this question, one must truly live in both cultures to fully understand. To name a few of the things I like about Czech life...definitely the beer always comes to mind first, then the ladies, the peaceful / happy nature of czechs, the old architecture and history, just to name a few. What do I miss about life in America? Plenty. Mostly, the conveniences and niceties that come with established capitalism. Being a developing nation (although it's WAY ahead of further east countries), Czech Republic life can seem archaic compared to the developed lifestyle I'm used to. That being said, though, I find most of the differences exciting & tolerable. I've simply traded away conveniences & comfort for excitement and novelty!

The beer & women are definitely great enough to each warrant their own blog entries....I won't try to cover them in this initial post! But I will say, to anyone thinking of visiting or relocating to Brno, Czech Republic from an established western nation to go ahead & do it. I've not regretted it for a single day since I've been here. Of course, when I'm waiting in a slow moving, 30 person long queue for milk tomorrow, I'll think about the conveniences I've left behind. And then I'll smile & consider all the great things about life here. Maybe it's just my values, who knows.