Odcházení

by Karl

This post takes its name from a 2007 play by Václav Havel, about a prime minister who is leaving after a fairly long term in office. Havel says he had the basic idea for the play long before he was directly involved in politics, but the autobiographical connection seems obvious, since Havel served as Czechoslovak president from 1990 to 1992, then as Czech president from 1993 to 2003. Last year the play was turned into a movie, with Havel himself premiering in the director's chair; a friend who saw it said that it's fine, as long as you go in understanding that Havel hasn't so much made a movie as filmed a play.

Proposal for movie poster, not implemented

The title means "Leaving," and it's about the difficulty of going away from something that you've gotten very used to.

This morning when I was up at the office handing in my key and picking up some boxes to ship things in, our landlady called to see about coming by with two prospective tenants to show them the apartment. I met them back here, and as they looked around and asked the landlady about various features, I noticed an odd thought in the back of my mind -- "Wait, this is our apartment. We live here. You mean you're going to rent it out to someone else?"

We've gotten very used to it here, and as much as we're looking forward to being back with old friends and the familiarity of home, it's hard to leave our Prague life.  In four days, we're outta here.