lately, november

hi friends! we’re almost at the end of the month now and i’ve seen the mild weather go from pleasant and sunny to cold in almost an instant… funny as i was just bragging about our warm weather as recently as last weekend. no longer! this month has so far seen golden autumn countryside walks, celebrating our second “czechaversary”, and the first weeks of hosting travel tuesday! here’s what else has been up…

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eating: the past few weeks haven’t been too kitchen friendly. it’s honestly felt more like a chore a lot of times and i kept buying only ingredients for one certain kind of food. for example, one week we accidentally only ate pasta. the next week, accidentally only asian food (i still can’t eat rice right now). i’m trying to find that happy balance again. but there was definitely a kitchen triumph this week: angela’s enchilada veggie casserole. i subbed the black bean mix (takes too long to cook) for my lentil-tempeh filling and this casserole was absolutely divine. i was a little concerned at one point (enchilada meets pasta meets tempeh?!) but it tastes delicious. alex gave it 9.2/10– pretty dang good, coming from a michigander raised on meat and potatoes!

listening: catching up on the KEXP live video streams from iceland airwaves. imagine– iceland airwaves in your own home! this year, it was a reality. it is still a lifelong dream to attend this festival but i’m so happy my favorite radio station can make this sort of happen for me in the mean time! i had a solo lunch-hour dance party in my living room to fm belfast (fav icelandic band) and it was wonderful. solo dance parties are usually a good way to perk up any ol’ day!

drinking: various kinds of winter herbal teas! i’ve got pickwick’s spiced cinnamon apple that i’m sipping daily, and just picked up the lord nelson (LIDL brand) magic moments flavor (rooibos & cinnamon). earl grey is also really hitting the spot these days! tea makes every situation better. don’t wanna go to your lesson? bring a tea. don’t want to get up early? make tea. it always gets me through all the stuff i’m not excited about during the week.

reading: allllll of your travel tuesday posts! they’re so much fun! i’ve also really enjoyed this post from amanda about being an expat couple (and the compromise that comes with it) as well as sara’s great post about thanksgiving holidays as an expat. still plodding away on a biography about zelda fitzgerland. note to future self: memoirs, not biographies. the latter can be much too boring unless you are already absolutely fascinated with that person. i am sort of failing my goodreads challenge of 20 books in 2014. i blame this on poor book choice (boo, non-fiction!) and too many good blogs to read.

watching: caity recommended this itv mini-series called cilla about cilla black (singer friend of the beatles) in 1960’s liverpool and i am loving it (except, only 3 episodes? what?!) as i need more british telly in my life. alex & i are also still enjoying this season of the amazing race. on the film front, we’ve been going to the cinema what seems like all the time these days! i really enjoyed seeing sils maria at the french film festival this past week (one of the few films that was not french with czech subs) and holy interstellar! what an incredible and epic film we saw on our fancy date night yesterday. christopher nolan can do no wrong.

thinking: about alllllllll the classes i have signed up to teach this past week– buhhhh. my language school seemed a bit hard up and basically pleaded that i do it. when you’re a freelancer you really make your own schedule, so it can be tough to know when enough is enough, and i can definitely say that i have hit that ceiling. on those unbelievably busy days, i just try to remember that this is what i want to do and to enjoy every moment– take a second to feel centered again. and bring tea. always tea. i recently shelled out for an adorable josef lada (so czech!) tumbler, thanks to alex’s insistence that i should own one. now i take my tea everywhere!

looking forward to: thanksgiving weekend, which is synonymous with the first weekend of advent and the opening of the christmas markets! (better than a birthday) we are planning to celebrate thanksgiving a week from today instead of on thursday or friday, when we’re both busy until the evening. you really need a whole day to relax and reflect on things or thankful for, speaking of which, this graphic floating around the internet really caught my eye.

if you must go out on black friday (which, after working in retail, i would not recommend!), remember to be especially nice and lovely to one another, especially your friendly service industry workers who are really doing their best to make some extra holiday cash and pay rent on this craziest of crazy commerce days. better yet to stay home and be cozy, in my opinion!

how has your november been so far? xo