Ja Jsem cizinec(ka)

We live in a yellow painted flat above the pivnice on Dvořákova, near the park.


We live...present simple.

Ja jsem učitelka agličtny....an glee chee tny...
Ja jsem učitelka agličtny.

I am an English teacher.

Every night is a party.
vic..Pilsner, prosím
Petr, my boyfriend loves when I attempt to speak Czech. He's tall and handsome and rolls vanilka cigerta.

Cigerty? ne, vanilka- feminine...cigerty masculine...changes to cigerta. Feminine and Feminine.

Czech is complicated, but Petr has reassured me that I will learn it. He has confirmed that I must learn it," for Czech is a poetic language of great beauty and the mother tongue of Kundera, Rilke,and Kafka."


Ivana and Tomaš make out on our leather sofa. Ondřej passed out two hours ago. He had one two many pivo..ne, pivi.... beers, to put it simply.

I am merely an observer tonight- an expatriate navigating this strange world.

"Ahoj...krásna," Petr whispers to me, wrapping his arms around my waist, his breath smelling of vanilla tobacco and beer.
"Ahoj.." I say with a wide "American smile." "miluji tě," I say, very quietly.
"I love you too... krásna," he says back with a larger, surprising-for a Czech- smile.

Krásna. Adjective. Translates into English as, "beautiful;" also krásný depending on it's use. It’s one of my favorite words in the Czech language. I love how it sounds. I love how it rolls off my tongue. Krraa-sna.

I am relieved. I never uttered "I love you" in any language, let alone a foreign one.

"Co že?" Ondřej woke up from his druken nap.
"Nothing....we didn't say anything. Why don't you just go back to sleep?"
"tak..dobře."


Petr, still attached to my waist, nudges me and motions to the two on our couch.

"Hey, you two going to come up for air anytime soon?"

"Oh umm...we are you know how we say, in love, jo?" Tomaš utters brokenly with a mischievous laugh.
"We should leave, thank you for beer" Ivana said, re-adjusting her top and flattening her make out hair.
"You're very welcome."

Our friends leave, except Ondřej, who lays on the floor snoring and drooling on him self.
"Dobrou noc," I say to him, laying a throw across our inebriated friend.
"Let's go to bed," Petr says kissing me.
"Tak..I'll be there in the moment."
"Tak. Krásna."

I looked out the window. The street lamps light the now quite street. The pivnice is now closed. A homeless man pees in a trashcan. Lovely.
Two hulky policemen tred loudly down the grey, brick street where we live. They scold at the urinating homeless man and reprimand him for his shattered and abandoned beer bottle.


So, this is my home. This is where I live.

I walked into mine and Petr's bedroom. I smiled and looked at the man already fast asleep.

I swept some hair away from forehead and softly planted a kiss.

"miluji tě..." I whispered in his ear.