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here we go again
from the very beginning of this trip we’ve been on the move, and when we landed in prague i really had no idea how long we’d be here at all. we moved into a beautiful flat in mala strana with a cool roomie and life has been great, besides the whole lack of jobs and money thing. however, our jobless streak is over as today, alex has officially been offered a position in České Budĕjovice with an English school that specializes in young learners and will be teaching about 18 classes a week to primary school children in both CB and Česky Krumlov, a nearby small town as beautiful as one from…
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funemployment
i have been unemployed (not by choice) for over three weeks, which is normal from what i hear talking to other past TEFLers. the first two weeks were a blast– it was christmas time! lots of dinners, events, fun things to check out. then week three happened– the week that is bringing plenty of wondering: “where are all the jobs?” “should i stay in prague?” “should i start looking elsewhere?“ the amount of jobs and job related activity in the past five days or so has been close to nil. i have heard the january was the second biggest hiring time of year in prague but you wouldn’t know it.…
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cooking in the CR
food, food, food. i love food. living in seattle, i got pretty dang good and cooking asian food and had some great resources– uwajimaya, huge asian superstore in south seattle. living near the ballard market was a big win for cooking in general as well. so after alex and i were finished with our work-stays in scotland and arrived in paris, we were now on our own for cooking. i fell into the cook position at that point and have been cooking almost all our meals ever since. i’ve never cooked consistently for two people before– as before i would feel free to make whatever super crazy healthy concoction i…
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happy new year!
wishing health & happiness to my friends and family in 2013! i know 2012 has been an incredible one for me…. let’s see…… became a barista trainer, became buddies with the seattle hobos who hang out downtown at 5am, bought a one way ticket to europe, went to disneyland, stayed in an executive suite in the seattle hyatt for next to nothing, high fived jason biggs at a SIFF party, quit my job of almost four years, move out of a neighborhood i’ve lived in for over four years, spent august in warm & sunny michigan, waitressed in a 19th century dining room in the scottish highlands, worked on…
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what christmas in europe looks like! we had a wonderful christmas time here in prague. on christmas eve (which happened to be unseasonably warm) we had an EPIC pancake breakfast with eggs and bacon. i had NO IDEA it was so dang easy to make pancake batter. and they turned out amazingly. it’s just flour, egg, baking powder, a little sugar, milk, and that’s about it people! i will never purchase another pancake batter mix as long as i live. we rode the tram to namesti miru with the intention to go to the christmas market there and stumbled upon a czech christmas carol session that was just starting up.…
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some photos i’ve taken of my new neighborhood, malá strana. malá strana (which means “lesser quarter” in czech) is located in prague 1 on the quieter left bank of the vltava river. this is one of the most beautiful places in all of prague, i am pretty darn sure. it definitely gives paris a run for its money! full of gothic and baroque architecture, comes complete with a catheral and, well, prague castle! you can walk to all of the important places in prague if you should want to from here, which is pretty darn cool. i’ve been a bit busy with my job search as of late, but now…
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tefl certified
it’s been an intense four weeks but both alex and myself, and our sixteen other peers are TEFL certified now, meaning we are qualified to teach english as a foreign language anywhere in the world. we’ve planned nine class lessons, planned two individual lessons, given two grammar presentations to the class, and the other day, took a grueling grammar examination. we have words like concept checking questions, focus question, lexis, warmer, scene setting, and many more teachery expressions drilled into us every day. the course was rigorous but manageable and i have learned SO much, especially about teaching adults since i have done it so frequently lately. now, we have this…
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merry december!
the first day of december, traditionally a very important day for me. the day i’ve been known to take off of work JUST so i could decorate and put up the tree. the first of december has been no different, even though i am in the land of the czech. alex and i went down the street to check out a fleamarket rumored to be quite awesome. i’ve never actually been to a fleamarket you had to PAY to get into, what the what is with that? i tracked down a small to medium sized fake tree and colorful globe lights as we navigated between the muddy icy puddles in…
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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…
