An Englishman of Veveří

I’m an Englishman who came to Brno to live with my Czech girlfriend in late September 2007. I am 44 years old and have chosen to live in Brno to teach English. My girlfriend and I had lived together in Exmouth, Devon, in south-west England, for 3 years. This was always going to be a major change in my (and our) life.

I was never sure how I would react, in myself, to live in a Czech city, with a language I only spoke a few words of, and a culture which was unknown to me. All I knew about Czech people was that they like drinking (good) beer, and drive on the right side of the road.

Mila, my girlfriend came to Brno ahead of me to find us somewhere to live, while I finished organizing my departure from England. Mila found us a 2 room flat in Veveri. The first change in my life – living in a flat – after living all my life in houses. The second change was I now found myself in the centre of a large city, after living for many years in a small town in the countryside. These lifestyle changes were made easier for me to cope with by the simple fact that we plan to live in a house in a semi rural location at the edge of Brno by this time next year.

To my surprise I actually enjoy living in a city centre. The language school I work for is able to offer me lots of work, partly because of my location. Travelling around Brno is so simple and organized on the public transport system. No town or city in the UK is able to offer such a fast, frequent and reliable system to its people. The people of Brno are very, very lucky to have this service. Well done Brno.

John Camus