About me

I started out in this world as a cowgirl on a 5th generation cattle ranch in Emigrant, Montana, USA.  I spent a big chunk of my life in San Diego raising my girl. Fell in love with my Czechmate in California. Then tested living here in Prague for almost 12 years by keeping one foot in the USA and one here in Europe. But as Kafka said, “this mother [Prague] has claws”.

I read in the expat survivor guide almost ten years ago that when moving abroad you go through the stages of grief. Honeymoon stage (“I live next to the castle!”), grief stage (“I miss everyone, I have no friends, and Czech’s humiliate me every chance they get!”), and acceptance stage (“This really is my home, for better for worse”).  So it seemed more appropriate to start the blog as I reached the acceptance phase and write about normalizing my not so normal life.

Why Polly to Pavla? Because my Czech husband, Michal and this country have great influence over me. Living abroad changes a person at their core if you are open enough to let it. I am learning to accept both the Polly and the Pavla in me. And Pavla was the closest name to Polly.

More info about Emigrant, Montana. It started as everything in U.S. as a place for immigrants to search for gold and adventure. So it seems fitting I have become a migrant myself. My little village is comprised of a Post Office, Old Saloon, Church, Community Hall, Store, and in recent years a Bank. My identity is wrapped up in where I come from. So this year we made one more dream come true by building a cabin. Or as Czechs would call it a ‘chata’. I consider this our forever home.