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melding traditions
the other day, my student asked me in the middle of a class, “so if you celebrate the holidays here, do you participate in czech or american traditions?” (cut to a dream sequence) hmmmm, that’s an interesting one! it’s now my fourth holiday season here (and my first married christmas!) in the czech republic and i do love adapting to different christmas traditions, much like a sponge. (below, large shoe box full of cookies we were famously gifted in 2013) czech christmas cookies? this is an easy one to adapt to! particularly the linecký and the rohlíčky! it is so common in the czech republic for babičkas and maminkas to…
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home vibes
the dark days have me wanting to be surrounded by blankets, flannels and slippers. i actually totally forgot i had slippers (you might remember my post about them earlier this year when i gave a pair away!) and a big smile came across my face– “I HAVE SLIPPERS!” sure enough, at the back of my closet shoved away, there they were. when you forget you own things, it’s like second christmas. (further proof that i am settling into life here more and more) loads of tea lights and advent candles a glowin’ nightly… so much darkness has caused me to retreat to bed wayyy too early a couple nights this…
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st. nicholas day & hangin’ in nuremberg
from what i can recall from my travels around germany in 2007, nuremberg (nürnberg) had the king of christmas markets; topping many a list. not only is the setting gorgeous and the stalls seemingly unending, but they are famous for both their glühwein and their lebkuchen (gingerbread). i knew alex had to see this! i mean, germany is soooo close… and yet, so far. although it would take about one hour by car (or less) if one drove directly west of budějovice to get to eastern bavaria, the public transport connections usually straight up suck. even after twenty five years since the fall of the iron curtain, the infrastructure and…
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december/prosinec
hi friends! happy it’s december? you know i am. i’m trying to get a head-start on christmas stuff this year (well, aren’t we all trying to do this every year?) and i decked our halls two days earlier than my usual first of december decoration day. i’m trying out the “after thanksgiving” method, but now that it’s fully december i can play all i want for christmas is you with impunity. oh, don’t try to act like you don’t like that song. christmas trees aren’t available for sale in the czech republic until around halfway through the month, but i’ve been keeping an eye on all the usual places in…
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how to enjoy versailles like royalty
i’m not a palace person. i’d much rather see how the peasantry or the middle-class live. real stuff, not rich peoples’ houses. but after urging from my friend monica (you need to go!) i figured on this, my third time in paris, i was ready to see the grandiose palaces of versailles. i decided to watch sofia coppola’s marie antoinette, which i had been meaning to see forever, and i fell in love. it quickly moved up the ranks to one of my favorite films that i know i can watch again and again. initially, the movie was panned for having too many costumes and not enough substance, but i…
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sublime paris + my airbnb open experience
on my fourth full day in paris, it was my mother’s birthday, so we had to go shopping in the opera district to spend two hours in the monki store and to stop by galeries lafayette to see their stunningly beautiful noel tree centerpiece. “i’ve spent four days here and still haven’t seen the eiffel tower yet!”, she told me, as we were riding the escalator to the terrace on the top floor level. “well….. look, there it is!” we didn’t have pre-sale tickets for the eiffel tower that afternoon (hot tip: buy your eiffel tower tickets as far in advance as you can! not a couple weeks, even in the off-season) but i…
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moments in paris, pt. I
the past week has not been an easy one. coming home from a dream holiday is always tough, but tougher has been coming to terms with the events of last week. however, now that the shock has started to subside, i have found solace in focusing on all of the wonderful parts of spending a glorious, warm november week in paris. #parisisaboutlife, after all, and you would be hard-pressed to find another city that is as vibrant as the city of light. i took a trip with my mother to celebrate her milestone birthday in a place she has always wanted to visit, but as i arrived first, i had…
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returning from paris
hello friends. if you’ve been following along on instagram, you will know that i was just in paris for the past week on a holiday… i opted not to blog during this time (i barely even answered emails the whole time) and to really be in the moment there. i am back safely to the czech republic, but something has really been on my mind and i can’t exactly talk about paris without referring to what happened there on friday night. before spending the past week in paris, the city to me was one of a handful of my favorites in europe, a city that i knew i would probably…
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my favorite things
“raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittensbright copper kettles and warm woollen mittensbrown paper packages tied up with stringsthese are a few of my favorite things” a fun assortment of things that make cynthia tick… or at least that light up my day. funnily enough, most of these are in some way related to travel. of course. nudelboxes in berlin doner kebaps, currywurst, and really legit fallafels from that place in neukölln are great, but i have been and will continue to be all about: the nudelbox. asian noodles. with vegetables. in a convenient, carry-out box. sometimes you can find nudelboxes with tofu, like from this place on skalitzerstrasse near schlesisches…
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halloween abroad, pt. IV
hello friends, i hope you had a nice halloween if you celebrate it! as it is one of my favorites, you can bet i did. it was the fourth we’ve celebrated abroad and it really came and went without too much fanfare. (below, the state of the backyard this morning) it’s been interesting talking about this holiday with the groups of teenagers i teach. usually about half the class seems interested and celebrates the holiday in some way (whether that is some activities at their school, going to a halloween party or gathering, carving a pumpkin, or even getting dressed up!), one or two are completely indifferent and don’t celebrate it,…
