Engagement and Preparations...

You must be thinking: “Wait, wait, wait, but why did you get engage so quickly? Why?”.

That’s was life stuff. Do you know when we think that we like someone for real? Yeah. But I really liked her, and the old fellow was tricked. Of course it wasn’t just like “hello, let’s get married”. Mika was an exceptional person, really good to me, so good that sometimes seemed like a joke. She wanted to be with me, but we just couldn’t, as you know. I couldn’t live in Europe without visa and neither her could in Brazil. So we agreed that we would get married and stay together.

I had my plan to go to Canada with my friends, but if I’d taken the woman with me things would be completely different. So the proposal came out:

- You are going to Prague and will stay with me there. If it wouldn’t go well, as things there are not that easy, we will come back to Brazil or even chose another country.

Perfect! I always wanted to visit this part of Europe. Blond ladies, wonderful Sharapovas… Oops! I forgot that I was getting married; what a pity, I had to respect my fiancée from now on.

New year - Prague 2009/2010

Anyway, I already knew that by the end of 2009 I needed to leave so I had to plan what to do. So I followed the same steps, with some additional, as the ones to go to Canada:

Step 1: Life cost

Really high. It seems not to be, but Prague is an expensive city. Just the rent would kill my savings.

Step 2: Language

Oh my God, I almost cried while trying to learn some sentences in Czech. If you want a tip, visit livemocha.com

Step 3: Food

Terrible, and the worse thing was that my girl was vegeterian. I was doomed.

Step 4: How to get married there

This one was tough. Lots of papers, lots of stamps. Hellish.

Step 5: Job

This one was the worse. There are lots of companies in the Czech capital, but their educational system is quite good. Almost everyone has masters or doctors degree and even with that they are unemployed. Of course there are different stories, but things there are not that easy. Few money, lots of work.

Step 6: How much would I need at the beginning

This wasn’t a problem for real. My parents would give me some help.

So those were the six basic steps I followed. But we had a problem. She was unemployed like me. The way things were going we wouldn’t manage. But I had some cards in my sleeves for that kind of situation. I manage to raise the money and with the money I was saving to go to Canada things work out.

After thousands of calls to the Czech Embassy to get all the necessary stamps in my wedding documents ( there were lots of ), tickets bought ( both ways because as I didn’t know what would happen I preferred to had my way back ), rings in hands, a big backpack bought in the popular market of Salvador, clothes for the cold weather and the difficult task to put 20kg inside the bag. I noticed that something was wrong.

Mika was a bit strange (she has always been I just couldn’t see it before ). She got a job during this period, a person that speaks nine languages without a job would be really strange, and because she spoke Korean she got a job in a popular corporation. The company was in Ostrava, east border of the country. She hated her job and asked me to live in Brazil, but it just didn’t make sense for me. She has always wanted a proper job and she got one, had money in her pocket, worked with the language she liked (Korean), what was wrong? So I said no, I had spent lots of money with documents and trips to get them and such a suddenly change of plans was too much. Maybe that was the beginning of the end.

After some months she started acting worse. Always busy, always tired and always working. The first thing I imagined was: “Damn it! She is cheating on me!”. But it wasn’t like that. The situation was the one she created. I can’t lie saying that I was calm with all that. But I faced it as nothing was happening, it’s just normal life. But I started to change as well.

Come on, it wasn’t fair! I didn’t deserve that after all I passed through. So I started going to parties again, see other girls, some cleaning ladies too (they are human hehe) and met some girl through internet in May on Lastfm portal, a Polish girl. Summarizing, I started spending the money I was saving. The engagement wasn’t going well at all, and also my fiancée said that she preferred her work than me. Can you believe it? The only good thing is that I noticed before and wasn’t surprised with those revelations.

I didn’t have much to do. The wedding was arranged but the engagement was full of problems. I started liking the girl I met in the music portal and didn’t want to marry the Czech anymore. What were I suppose to tell everyone? I just stayed quiet. Got a place to stay in Prague, German friend’s house, and decided that I was going anyway. The “worse” thing that could happen was the wedding to happen.

I sold my Xbox and made a raffle for another one on MDAN website, so with that I had back part of the money I spent. It was time to go to the old part of the world. Without plan, without job (everything was arranged for me to start working in the same company as her) and no visa guaranteed. The only thing I had that moment was courage and I couldn’t just go back. Everyone was expecting me to get married, but as thing wouldn’t happen it all I was planning to go back to Brazil after I had my fun trip.

The friends who bet I wouldn’t go would have to pay. Other people said that I wouldn’t get married and would end up in Canada. In the end everyone was wrong and my bags done.