• Expat Life,  Prague

    prague jokes

    it rains today. gloomy, grey and dark and making me wish for spring’s arrival as soon as possible. i wanna get out there! on friday (as i wrote below) we were in prague for three hours in order to visit the foreign poice in zizkov.  because our appointment unexpectedly lasted maybe a half hour, alex wanted to take an earlier bus back because he had work to do for his monthly reports.  naturally i would allow this, but i kept teasing him with things we could do if we stayed in prague for an extra three hours to try and change his mind.  “we could….. go shopping?“ no.  “we could…..…

  • Prague,  Winter

    Last Days in Prague

    last days in prague, which is quite snowy and freezing at the moment.  not exactly great exploration weather but it’ll have to do. today i’ve sort of shut myself inside all day with tea, sweater, and a candle sifting through hundreds of apartment listings in ceske budejovice.  and of course there is something wrong with almost all of them.  trying to accept the fact that i will be moving into a terribly communist looking building as most of them there are like this. as almost a strange hobby of sorts, i’ve always liked perusing craigslist for cool looking apartments in great neighborhoods… just for fun.  but i have to say, it is so…

  • Budějovice,  Life Abroad,  Prague,  Winter

    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…

  • Daily Life,  Prague,  Teaching,  Winter

    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.…

  • Berlin,  Life Abroad,  Prague,  Winter

    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…

  • Christmas,  Life Abroad,  Prague

    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…

  • Christmas,  Expat Life,  Prague

    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.…

  • Christmas,  Expat Life,  Prague

    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…

  • Prague,  Teaching,  Winter

    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…

  • Christmas,  Life Abroad,  Prague,  Teaching,  Winter

    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…