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teaching english
i am now a long-term residence permit holder here in the czech republic! this means i’m legal to stay here for at least the next six months and am also legal to earn wages! this is extremely exciting, as it was definitely a huge concern even before leaving for europe. people often asked “howwww the heck are you going to stay past ninety days?” i had done some preliminary research and i felt pretty hopeful about it. plus, there was always my back-up plan of fleeing back to britain for a spell, or perhaps croatia. but britain in the wintertime wasn’t exactly what i was imagining, so i am dang…
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When You Miss the Country Right Outside Your Window (+ Holiday Plans)
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cesky krumlov-ing it
we took a day trip seeing as we both have the week off from lessons– half hour bus ride away to beautiful quaint little cesky krumlov. it is basically what would happen if prague was tiny and only old town with winding streets and plenty of cobblestones. alex is lucky enough to have the opportunity to work here, teaching the local primary school kids english once a week! the people are friendly and being there in february on a wednesday morning, it was practically deserted. (off-peak travel really ain’t that bad!) i had visited here six and a half years ago during my first “eastern/central europe” trip– it was the…
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employment
yesterday was a monumental day in the life of “cynthia abroad”, for i have been hired by a language school as an english teacher. as clients come up, they will assign me classes and slowly my open schedule will fill. i have already been assigned a course with an employee at a local firm here that will start the week after next, as this next week is the czech “spring break” holiday. the czechs LOVE skiing and usually plan ski trips for their families to nearby ski resorts in the south of the country or in the austrian alps. i also had my first paying gig last night– first lesson…
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next phase
on thursday, we moved from prague to ĉeské budêjovice– about a two hour, twenty minute bus ride in complete snow. upon arrival (in which i, not going to lie, felt a liiiittle nervous about… “am i going to like it?”) we were whisked away by our landlord and alex’s new manager, marketa to our new home for the next five weeks. our landlords are super nice and thoughtful, and the woman reminds me of mrs. hudson from sherlock (yes, i have watched the entire BBC ‘sherlock’ series thus far. now i’m into ‘the wire’). it cannot be overstated enough that our flat is GORGEOUS and giagantic and i can’t believe…
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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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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…
