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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,…
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gay paris
paris update– life is good here, and in our little studio apartment in gobelins. the weather has been PERFECT for us (not too cold, blue skies and sun almost daily) and we’ve been enjoying kicking back, sleeping in, and exploring like it’s our job. there is so much to see in this city that twelve days leaves a mark, but a pretty small one. i keep stumbling onto new streets, like rue moffatard– famous latin quarter market street only a short jaunt from my place. or rue montmarte, or rue lombards! everything i find i wish i had found sooner. paris is WAY more expensive than i remember from visiting eight…
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rolling into london
“picadilly circus? what a shitty circus.” — garth just rolled into paris from london on a nine hour bus journey! (and remember kids, book your channel tunnel train tickets early!) it really wasn’t that bad since we were on a ferry for three hours of it. we were really lucky to be able to stay with one of our previous host’s sister, who lives in the pimlico district of london, so i felt right at home. my favorite part of london was the first night we got in which happened to be warm and calm (before it starting gradually pouring down rain): walking along the opposite side of the river…
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edinbURGH
finishing up our time here at the woodland estate in penicuik– it’s been a straaange but decent week. highlights of this week for me was definitely the opportunity to sing latin hymns with a small choir in the crypt of rosslyn chapel with our male host. rosslyn chapel was high on my radar and i sort of forgot it was in our neck of the woods here near edinburgh. this is the chapel featured at the end of both the novel and the movie ‘the da vinci code’. it’s particularly fascinating to me because of the strange religious groups connected with it and the mystery that surrounds it. it has…
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isle of islay
it was a little sad leaving the farm as alex and i both felt completely at home there and wished we could stay longer. however, the sheep season was wrapping up and during our time there we were mostly vaccinating the sheep and getting them ready to ship off to the isle of bute for the winter, where they’ll graze their hearts out and come back in the spring nice and plump-like. fortunately! we headed straight for the isle of islay– a place i’d been convinced since several weeks ago that i needed to go to since it was nothing more than a medium sized island with stunning scenery and…
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a bit of photos from our time at the farm– definitely some of my favorite scotland memories so far
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life on the farm; iona
since we’ve been at barndromin farm, i think we’ve both felt really lucky to end up in such a great place with such amazing and thoughtful hosts. and dogs! our 24hr stint as B&B and farm owners went well as the guests left happy and well-fed and no sheep were harmed. yesterday in particular was of note because most of my work for the day involved helping at morag’s annual church luncheon. there were nearly 200 guests for a lunch and raffle and i was running around being a waitress again, carrying bowls of soup for the elderly guests as well as going from table to table with a tea…
