East or west, home is best

People can live in many different places. We usually live in houses or flats of course. In Britain, for example, most people live in houses, not flats. A typical British house has got two floors - the kichen, the living room and sometimes the dining room are downstairs, while upstairs there are two, three or four bedrooms and a bathroom. The toilet is usually in the bathroom. A lot of houses have another toilet downstairs. Typical British town houses are made o red brick and have no stucco. There are also many traditional old cottages (I like them). Houses which stand separately are called detached. Two houses joined together are called semi-detached houses and when there are more houses in a row, we call them terraced houses. British houses usually have two gardens - a smaller front garden and a bigger back garden.

In the USA houses are often made of wood and built by carpenters. Brick and stucco houses are more common in the southern states, where wood is rarer. People in the USA move the house very often - once every seven years on average. In American cities people live in flats, which are called apartments in American English. Apartments which are sold individually are called condominiums or condos (not condoms! :o)) They often have lots of communal amenities such as laundry rooms, swimming pools and fitness rooms. Young people who can't afford a condominium usually live in rented apartments.

Czech houses are usually made of brick and stucco. But there are still a lot of housing estates with ugly concrete panel blocks of flats which were built during the communist era. They are very unpopular and uncomfortable to live in. You can hear what's happening in the flats next door, you have no privacy even in the toilet or bathroom. It may be one of the reason why so many new houses are being built in the country or suburbs these days. Living in a village and working in a city is a very fashionable way of life now. Unfortunately, many commuters drive to work instead of using public transport, which isn't good for the environment. The roads and motor roads become very busy in the rush hours. I think that the government should solve this problem by supporting public transport.

Of course, there are also homeles people, who have to live in the street and sleep somewhere under a bridge. Some people live in quite unusual places such as palaces, castles, yachts, mobile homes or even railway carriages.

I know a young man, for example, who has bought a ruin of a medieval castle in the Šumava, far away from people and civilisation. He is trying to repair it and make it suitable for living. There is no electricity, no gas, no water and even no mobile phone signal. He says that the castle is haunted. He has got a wife and a baby.They must be very brave.

I wouldn't like to live in such a deserted place. But I wouldn't like to live in a big city either. Cities are noisy and dirty and sometimes even dangerous. They are usually very expensive to live in. On the other hand, there are lots of places to go to and things to do. You can visit cinemas, theatres or galeries, go to various concerts, you can choose from many restaurants to go for a meal.

However, my ideal place for living is a cottage or a house somewhere in the woods but with electricity and with an internet connection (and not too far from a city). I would like to put together the advantages of living in harmony with the nature and using technology of the 21 century .

Speaking about my actual place of living - it's neither bad nor ideal. I live in quite a big family house with a garden in Hořovice. Hořovice is a town with about eight thousand inhabitants, situated between the Brdy hills and the woods of Křivoklátsko. I like this part of the country very much, its countryside and nature, its location close to Prague and Pilsen. But I don't like the location of my house. The garden borders with quite a busy road so it's rather a noisy and dusty place. It's also difficult to tidy up the house as I share it with a dog and a cat - the hairs are everywhere! That's why I sometimes envy people who have just one or two-room-flat. On the other hand, if I had to live locked up in such a small place without garden all the year, I think I would die.

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