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starbucks in my city…

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starbucks logoSo it’s been no secret to you my readers, or my friends here, that I like having Starbucks in ‘my’ Prague. I also love that I have relationships with the guys that manage my usual store and the guys that are opening them here. Recently I read an article over at the Washington Post, entitled
A Starbucks State of Mind. It was interesting, here is a quick portion of the whole of the article.

By the same token, when you don’t have an especially nice place to live — if you live, for instance, in a dormitory — you might well prefer to spend your afternoons in an attractive coffeehouse. And this is where the Starbucks ethos meshes so well with the cultural history of Central Europe: At the height of their popularity, the coffeehouses of 19th-century Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest were famously frequented by people who didn’t live in particularly lush apartments and thus preferred to spend their time in rooms decorated like the salons of the upper classes. Hence the association of coffeehouses with poets, literati, revolutionaries and other assorted riffraff. Hence the attraction for students today. As for the stockbrokers, they are simply back where they belong: Many of the world’s stock exchanges got their start in coffeehouses, since merchants and traders were once outsiders, too.

Will the St. Bucks of Central Europe build an ethos that fueled “poets, literati, revolutionaries and other assorted riffraff” of the 19th century? I don’t know, but I love that they are here and I have the hook up from them! Booyah! Check out the whole article, click here.

starbucks here

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So when I got home tonight I had an email from my director, this is what it said:

The world’s largest coffee-shop chain Starbucks plans to open some 20 outlets in the Czech Republic and Poland this year. Saturday’s Mlada Fronta reported that the Czech Republic would have its first Starbucks by March 2008. It is speculated that this first branch will be opened in Prague’s Palladium shopping centre, with others to follow in the city’s other malls. There are more than 15,000 Starbucks in over 40 countries. This year, the chain aims to expand into Central Europe, as well as Portugal and Bulgaria.

I don’t know how I feel about this. I know for sure that I will miss going to Starbucks as treat of sorts when I travel for work and etc around Europe. The jury is still out on what I think about the Starbucks chain here. I’m not a fan of Prague becoming like London, where you seemingly have one on every corner. But this isn’t the first time I’ve said this, see here. We shall see…

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starbucks in prague?!?!

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picture-1.pngCould it be true? I know I have friends out there (Amber) who loathe Starbucks and think their product is sub par, but I love it. While going down my morning blog roll I happened to be on a friend’s (Carrie) blog, who lives in Prague and she sited this article, Critics lining up to give Palladium a difficult arrival, that made me happy, but did it?! “Why?” you ask. Well they speak Starbucks’ arrival to Prague. Now I struggle with what Carrie discussed in her blog entry on this too. That struggle is with the commercialization of Prague. Prague is growing in popularity and seems to be flooded more and more by the positive and negative affects of capitalism. So is getting a Starbucks good for Prague? I’m not sure. I don’t think it will be cool when Prague is like London and there is a Starbucks on every corner. I’ll be honest, Starbucks espresso drinks are somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me and when I travel to a city in Europe with a Starbucks I delight in a splendid venti hazelnut mocha with caramel drizzle, with skim milk and no whip, but that is a treat. What will it be like having one in Prague? I’m not sure. I just hate to think of a Starbucks on every corner… Anyway, I am sure I will enjoy it for a season at least!

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COME AND SEE ME!

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Hey gang! Here’s the schedule of where I will be, when I will be there and so on… Will I see you? (click on the addresses for maps)

  • August 7th, 3pm-5pm – Oshkosh – Open House at Smiths (email me for details)
  • Aug. 10th, 4pm-7pm – Lake Geneva – Caribou, 883 Main St.

Beyond that here is the run down of the churches I’ll be at again.

I do hope to see many of you and share about what God is doing here in Czech! If any of you are interested and/or able to host a support dessert I still have dates I could fill up. Thanks for all you do to make a difference in Prague, Czech and Europe!

inspiration in my ears…

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So write now I’m sitting here enjoying one of these:


Yummy… They just switched to the Christmas cups and I was compelled to enjoy one! I guess… So I’m in between my Czech class and doing some prep for a sermon I’m doing at church this weekend, and I thought I would blog some inspiration that has been in my ears over the last few days. I’m not procrastinating, I’m trying to catch my breath between things. It’s especially hard for me to transition to anything worthwhile after Czech class. In other words, Czech class kicks my butt, even when I have, the rare, good day like today! So here I am blogging wanting to share some inspiration with you. This inspiration comes in the form of 3 songs, here you go:

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are you zach?

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Every Thursday at noon I meet my pastor, whom I call Philly D to the double D (it’s his hip-hop name), at St. Bucks for mentoring and sharping; well today while we were talking about life, ministry and etc. I was asked by a stranger, “Are you Zach from the YouTube videos?” I said yes and began to turn red, as this stranger said, “I work at the Malostranska Starbucks and saw your video about us on your blog, it’s really cool, I like them.”. Thanks! I didn’t know how to respond but needless to say it made me laugh and I also realized I have more people on this site than I could even begin to imagine. Which is cool and scary too. So here is to all of you out there in zACHhARROD.com land whom I don’t know! Thanks for reading and stopping by! This has made me want to write more and get more zhtv’s online! We will see what I can do about that. I’ll post that St. Bucks zhtv video later when I have more than my iPod to write on. Okay I’m off to my daily spanking, a.k.a. my Czech lesson!

Here’s that video:


Here is a picture Phil took of me today at St. Bucks. This is phonetically how Czechs spell my name, Z-A-C-H, I guess! It’s fun!

more “bucks” fodder

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Just as I’ve wrestled with the presence of Starbucks here in Prague with mixed feelings, it would appear that I’m not the only one. This morning I read an interesting article from Prague 360 entitled, “Starbucks brings us up to date with Civilization” and the author was definitely a little cynical about Bucks’ arrival to the “Golden City.” They used strong words like “imperialists”, “neo-imperialism”, “communism” and more. Here are two sections that I found interesting:

What, then, is exactly wrong with Starbucks’ arrival in Prague? It’s just another cafe among hundreds is the facile answer, and the wrong one of course. Just as American citizens have more weight on their shoulders for the state of global affairs than say a Moldavian citizen, Starbucks strikes a chord with everyone. It’s a symbol of something far greater than just coffee that’s roasted too dark. It’s the neo imperialism. It’s McDonalds. This Starbucks on Malostranske Namesti might not be as momentous as the McDonalds in Moscow, but it’s on the same track. Prague is not that wild place anymore. You can’t buy a house for pennies or have a different supermodel girlfriend for every day of the week. You can’t buy ten beers for your local equivalent of one (with a few exceptions). Yes, Prague is part of Western Europe now.

And:

Like with everything else here in Bohemia, we know that these new imperialists will one day leave, like the Russians, and the Germans before that, and so on. Look at The Metronome in Letna Park — tick tock, tick tock. Time will pass and the present nonsense will go away, probably to be replaced by presently unknown nonsense, but no matter. It will all go away eventually. Tick tock, tick tock.

Read the whole article HERE. For the record, my director, Billy, and I are meeting at Cafe Calma today instead of Starbucks. It was our original plan to go to Starbucks, but we felt inclined to turn it down today. Hmmm, sad or liberating? Not quite sure!

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zhtv #13 – “the bucks” arrives

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The title kind of says it all, the “West” has finally made it’s last stand to conquer my beloved Prague. Last Tuesday, while I was in Hungary for a conference, the long awaited Starbucks showed up. The first (yes, the first there are plans to have 20 new locations between Czech and Poland within the year) one ever in the Czech Republic and Prague has set up at Malostranské námÄ›stí to conquer yet another country and city with its green apron clad baristas!

You are probably picking up on a wee-bit of cynicism with this. I really don’t know what to think. I’m torn up a bit about this, and probably investing too much mental energy into it. I did enjoy my drink on Friday and I will probably be back there before the week ends, but I feel a bit reluctant with it all. I’m not sure why. However, I was impressed with the design and the set up of our, for the time being, only Starbucks at Malostranské námÄ›stí. It still has that welcomed Starbucks feel, but it definitely has a Prague feel, which was cool. Moreover, it wasn’t too gaudy. I was impressed that as I walked up to the store I was overwhelmed with a gaudy exterior of green letters. All in all, I’m going to enjoy it and at the same time lament a bit because sooner or later there will be more and more stores here. Seeing them on every corner, as I did in London, was a bit too much for me. Well, I should get rolling… Oh HERE is a little write up about the store from Radio.cz, and the pics below are from the article. You have to love those green aprons! 😉
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’07 in review, and anticipation for ’08

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Did Christmas and New Years sneak up on you? It did sneak up on me! During this break from school I relaxed quite a bit and the whole break I was taken back at where my year went and how fast the Holidays came upon me. People have told me the older you get the more often this happens. I still see myself as a young man (Despite my friends who give me a hard time for coming up on 30!), so as I wrestle with this phenomenon I struggle because I don’t want to merely live through, or just merely survive, each day and at one point look back with regret that I missed so much. As of late
this seems to be a lingering fear in my mind. I ask myself and God, “I’m only 27, should I really be thinking this now?” Part of me says, “No,” and part of me says, “Praise God!” Praise God for this breakthrough now on this side of so much, Lord-willing, yet to come in my life.

With that said, I was journaling and spending time with the Lord in my favorite cafe, Kafičku, in Prague and I felt very reflective on the year of 2007. I wrote in my journal;

“This might have been the biggest year of my short 27 years thus far. Big life decisions. Big life transitions. And so much more God. Could this be the biggest year yet?”

I would say YES. Bigger than leaving for college. Bigger than graduating college. Bigger than moving to Europe for 18 months. Bigger. Biggest yet. So much has happened in the last year. I’ve seen evidence of God in so many ways in the last year. I’ve been challenged to continue to grow up this past year in ways that I expected and didn’t expect. All in all it was a great year. As I reflect on the goodness of God and the fullness of 2007, I wonder what 2008 will bring. There is so much ahead of me. Many things, “life landmarks” if you will, that I have yet to pass over the threshold of and that is crazy to me! Thus I look ahead with great anticipation to ’08. What will God bring? What beautiful story has the Divine Playwright written that I will walk into, today, tomorrow, next month, this summer and so on? May God bless our 2008s and may they be a beautiful reflection of Him at work in our lives and the world!

So as I look back and reflect on 2007 and God’s work, I thought it would be fun to do a Year in Review here at zACHhARROD.com, enjoy…
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finally the 72 dolphins can be quiet…

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This morning I’ve enjoyed my morning coffee and NFL.com. I have a confession; “I’m still a bit of a bitter Bears’ fan.” So reading and watching the highlights and interviews of the New England Patriots’ undefeated season was welcomed. I’ve been pulling for them down the stretch hoping they would pull it off. “Why?” you ask. Well, I’ve been a closet Patriots’ fan since Brady showed up in 2001, but that isn’t the real reason. I’m also (despite the whole video thing this season) a fan of Bill Belichick and the mastery of his coaching, but that isn’t it. The real reason I’m happy about the Patriots’ undefeated season is because of the 1972 Dolphins.

I’ll be honest I’m tired of them and their sheer arrogance. Every year when a team is undefeated and rolling throughout the regular season these guys2006-01-30-in-ditka2.jpg surface at games and root against the team that is chasing history. My angst isn’t just from watching this year in and year out, but probably back to the earliest of my football memories. This gets back to the “Bitter Bears’ Fan” part. The magical season known as the ’85 season is my earliest memory of my team. I was crushed when the Bears couldn’t answer the bell and fell to the Dolphins, but what burned me even more as 5-year-old was seeing these old guys cheering for my team to loose so they could still claim, “We are the best team ever, look at the record.” However, I still believe that if you were to line the ’85 Bears up against the ’72 Dolphins it wouldn’t be a game! In the words and voices of the Super Fans, “1985 Bears 121, [dramatic pause] the 1972 Dolphins -3. Yeah -3, the Bears’ defense would simply scare a -3 points out of them during the opening introduction.” Anyway, I’ve always been bothered by this “1972 Dolphin Team Phenomenon.” Why? 1) Records are meant to be broken; and 2) Talk about classless; cheering for teams to loose so you can gloat!

So I raise my 16 oz. mug of Starbucks’ Italian Roast to the ’07 New England Patriots for their season and here’s to another Super Bowl! Okay I have to go pray and confess my bitterness over this ridiculous thing to the Lord! For those of you that aren’t too fired up about football, I apologize about such a heavy football post! Have a great day!

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