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Lately, Fall Pt. II
this has been a weird week. the weather has been strange (highs of 20’C some days!) and been thinking a lot about the czech republic. one day loving it, the next, exhausted by the stares of crabby old people. thinking about friends, about relationships, about life, about home….. but at least it wasn’t as weird as last week with no electricity, hot water or heat! so thankful to be warm. preparing now for a nice little weekend in eastern bavaria! i haven’t been to bavaria in years, and i’m rather looking forward to a little shopping, some mugs of helles from a famous old brauerei, rich history and architecture and…
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Desperate Times
sometimes i feel like alex and i are like harry and lloyd from dumb and dumber. living together in a former communist central european country where we don’t speak the language with only each other to count on, when it comes down to it. i realized this yesterday, which was day three of the great unexplained power outage. at one point i sat there in my hoodie that doesn’t zip anymore thinking, okay. we have no food. we have no money. my employer is two days late with the paycheck. we have no hot water… we have no heat… my phone is out of minutes…. “our pets’ heads are falling off!”…
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Dark/Light
day two of unexplained power outage continues. arg. yesterday evening, i made swedish meatballs to celebrate leif erickson day (instead of columbus day) in the waning daylight on our gas stove lit with matches. it was funny to sit in the measly light of candles like the vikings must of done. today i took the plunge and had a cold shower. it wasn’t quite as bad as i thought. sort of reinvigorating in the middle of the day, to be honest! not a huge fan of the heat not working, but eh, we have blankets and tea. we will survive. besides the cold showers and no heat, i’ve actually been really…
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Misty Morning
walked to my favorite corner store this morning and was pleased of how serene the morning was. slightly misty, not cold, sweet smell of leaves in the air……. so fresh and invigorating. i felt instantly better. one of my favorite kinds of fall mornings that remind me that i live in europe. pretty cool. cooking risotto and pho (dear everyone, alex ate a dish of primarily onions and mushrooms and LIKED IT), drinking coconut juice, staropramen light, new decaf coffee and kusmi boost tea. watched the conclusion of breaking bad season four, reading this book, meeting new locals/friends, listening to church bells and deerhunter’s halcyon digest album. enjoying the serenity…
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Bohemia Autumn
when you move to sobo (southern bohemia), the first thing everyone tells you to do is go to the top of klet’ mountain. at 1,084m (3,556ft) it is the tallest mountain of the blanksý forest, southwest of ĈB and northwest of ĉesky krumlov. to put it in comparison, mt. erie in anacortes is about a third of the height at 388m (1,273ft). they say on a clear day you can see the austrian alps! so, it wasn’t exactly a clear day…. but we finally made it there. we took the train 35 minutes south to holubov, a hamlet popular with outdoor enthusiasts and mushroom collectors (ie, pretty much all czechs). on the…
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“Figuratively” Speaking (Making Fig Jam)
an unexpectedly lovely weekend here in ceske budejovice! yesterday we sat for hours in the sun at a cafe along the river with a new friend (outdoor cafe season still going! wooooo) and today, it was all about relaxation. ie… cooking. because making life easier for yourself the rest of the week is awesome. i’ve never had a fig before! maybe in a fig newton, but i’ve always hated those. so, i’ve recently noticed their existence– all over the place lately with big sales at the supermarkets and at farmers markets as well. it must be fig season! so i stocked up and decided to have a go at fig…
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Lately, Fall
life here in czech republic is picking up again! alex and i’ve both started back up with our lessons for the new school year. i chose to stick with my job at the language school that i’ve been with since february instead of teaching only children with alex. i loved being around the kids during summer camp and i do enjoy having young students, but i thought that personally, i have a lot i can offer adults as well. so, i will continue to teach a variety of ages, 7 through 60+. what i like about this job is that i can accept or decline new students as i feel…
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survived the first week of school!
it is friday and alex and i have both survived our first week of our intensive TEFL course! this week has been full of homework, lectures, nerves, and learning how to lesson plan. on only the second day of the course we were expected to teach at least 15 minutes on our own and the fourth day of the course, teach an entire 50 minute lesson on our own, beginning to end. i feel accomplished and glad to be actively working towards some of my goals and dreams. we have officially been here for an entire week and are getting to know our temporary neighborhood of vysocanksa in prague 9.…
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berlin; arrived in prague!
i cannot believe there is less than a week until the american thanksgiving holidays! whoa! just spent approximately the last two weeks in my favorite city, berlin. i spent lots of time showing alex around some interesting historical sites like east side gallery, topographie of terror, and the bernauer strasse wall memorial. eating at my favorite restaurants was a thing to do by itself: thai huong snack: home of the 4 euro huge portion asian noodles with veg and pillowy delicious tofu! also delores california burritos: the restaurant that changed my mind about burritos. other things we did in berlin: ate lots of currywurst, got the flu (me), recovered from the flu, was…
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two weeks in paris, pt II
we arrived back in berlin this sunday after a tumultuous day of travel. our flight from paris was only and hour and a half, but alex had just developed a 24-hr stomach flu the night before so it was the worst possible time for the poor guy to get up and put a huge backpack on. i half expected him to want to cancel the flight but he didn’t even think about it– he just pressed on and i’m really proud of him for that. it was NOT easy. i didn’t get that OH i’m in berlin!!! feeling that i always get. instead i felt as if i was just coming home,…
