How I came to live with Ivan and Martina

Well I gave it a good shot. I really did try, but I managed to survive only a month in my school’s spartan 95-year-old basement flat in Czech Republic. I bought a skillet, a couple of dishes and borrowed silverware from the teacher’s lounge. A janitor hung a clothesline above the tub for my washing (all hand done). But I grew quite depressed because I was so isolated.

One day, I decided to gather my wits and go out to explore the nearby train station and decipher the schedules for the entire country. To get outside, I had to trudge through the entire U-shaped school and four locked doors. The doors were on towering revolving cylinders. I managed to get through three, but the final one stymied me. I could not get out. I went to a pay phone in one of the school hallways and called home. After sobbing for about 10 minutes, I told my husband I was going to give a month’s notice and return home.

Back in my flat I was surprised by the ringing of a phone.

“Huh?” I thought, “There’s no phone here.”

I opened a door I hadn’t used and found a large sunny room with a phone on a table. So I answered it. The man on the line said he and his wife would like me to teach them English, but they wanted the lessons in their own home because they had been in my flat and didn’t like it. Sounded fine to me.

After school one day, I met Ivan (pronounced ee-VAHN) and Martina for ice cream and then strolled to their place. It was a family house. Her parents lived in a nice flat on the ground level and their charming quarters were upstairs. I found myself in a very comfortable and lovely home.

Ivan was a young bank employee who was also pursuing an education on his own in science, and Martina was a medical student who worked and studied at a hospital in a nearby city. They had been married for three years and had a darling, well-trained cocker spaniel named Bessy.

After the English lesson Martina mentioned that her father was in real estate, a new career there since the fall of communism. I asked if he knew of any apartments for rent. Nope. Apartments were sold but not rented.

Then they asked if I would like to watch CNN. Would I ever — I had seen no American news for weeks. When I left the states, O.J. Simpson’s first murder trial was an ongoing and riveting story. Ivan turned on CNN and at just that moment Simpson’s jury announced its decision. He was found innocent. I couldn’t believe that was the first news I would see in CZ.

We had several more lessons and then Ivan and Martina asked me to move in with them so they could learn English more quickly. I was unsure, but they had a cheerful second bedroom with not only large windows but also a piano. I could practice now and then.

My return to the U.S. was forgotten and the move was arranged. It turned out to be one of the best things ever to happen to me. My experience of Czech life and language was enriched so much. With Ivan and Martina I had lots of adventures, watched charming CZ fairytales and other cultural programs on TV, toured many castles, churches and cathedrals and enjoyed wonderful CZ food.

Ivan, Martina, her par- ents and I often all chatted together, laughing at our crazy language mix-ups. Czech is the language of Czech Republic, but German was a second language that Martina’s parents and I speak at about the same intermediate level. When we were all together speaking three different languages (English, German and Czech), at times we would start speaking the wrong language to the person we were addressing.

I was truly blessed to live with them.

After my return to the U.S., Ivan and Martina visited us for five weeks one summer, and I took them around Idaho, Montana and the Oregon coast. Ivan continued his education and ended up receiving an award from the Siemens Corporation for his PhD dissertation. It was judged one of the top 10 in Europe. They remodeled their kitchen and installed a dishwasher with his award money. He now is a university professor teaching about artificial intelligence, Martina is a nephrologist, and they have two beautiful daughters. They also have a menagerie of pets, including a darling cocker spaniel named Cora.

Johnson, of Grangeville, worked in three different European countries — Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia — in the 1990s and early 2000s. She can be reached at johnsondixie@hotmail.com.