July 31, 2009 - Under the South Bohemian Sun

In Zimutice, the village of my great-grandmother, which she left with her family when she was 4, the mayor's assistant who showed us around the village made it quite clear that I could be given some land and buildings by the village if I was willing to restore them. Many of the villages are having difficulty finding young people who are willing to live in the villages. So the possibility of experiencing "Under the Tuscan Sun" in the Czech Republic is quite possible right now. There is restoration going on everywhere. Even with free land, this, of course, would still be a very expensive endeavor, as the buildings are in need of much repair.

Building Available for Renovation

The Trnka homestead in Sviny does have a young couple restoring it, and the Malecha homestead in Sviny is being restored by the relatives I met.

Installed at Dobruska as of last night, we did our introductions to the group and questions and response in front of all the teachers and attendees to get placed in our classes - a bit like the "sorting hat" in Harry Potter. I did "Good evening, my name is Frank Trnka" in Czech and the rest in English, so I assume I will in fact be in the beginner class. There are 79 of us from 36 countries.

Will not be posting any more photos to this blog unless I can find something other than the computers available to us here, which are dial-up.