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embracing a local christmas
this is now our fifth christmas in europe. i have to say, you’d think it gets easier but that’s not necessarily true. our first christmas, we had only been in europe for a couple of months and it was all the heart eyes as prague pulled out all the stops and there was nothing but perma-smiles. the next year, my mother visited. the following year, we had a picture-perfect austrian christmas at the wolfgangsee. last year we happened to be in berlin, but a funny thing happened. while i was in my personal “happiest place on earth”, i felt a case of “the sads” as we call them, creeping in…
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friday things: thanksgiving weekend
it seems that after the initial dust cloud settled after the first week of the american election, things starting to feel a little happier, thank goodness. so i bring you five happy things for the end of this third week of the month, from recent trips to expat life successes… 1. vienna! we enjoyed a long weekend in the austrian capital last week. although busybusybusy, it was so good! shopping, eating schnitzels as big as our ‘eads at figmüller, seeing the pointillism exhibition at the albertina (i do adore this museum), wandering around the innere stadt until our feet felt like falling off, and of course… plenty of cakes and…
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an (im)perfect arrival – the first day in the czech republic
sometimes, i think where you stay when you are traveling has a big effect on how you end up feeling about the place. ease of your arrival there can really set the tone, too. but what if your arrival just goes haywire? as we are nearing our fourth czechaversary now in a couple of weeks, it gets me thinking a lot about our arrival to prague on that cold, mid-november day. such a thrilling feeling to be on the road for months and then have a one-way ticket to a country that you don’t know when you’ll leave (as you might know, i never did). however, the arrival definitely did…
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preparing for a central european winter
winter is coming, friends! well, not too soon, but just soon enough to start thinking about whether or not you have the right stuff to last these cold, frosty months in the heart of central europe. the first winter i ever spent in europe back in 2007 was memorably freezing. as we followed our tall danish-german professor around berlin, the wind seared through my jacket like a hundred tiny unforgiving knives, while he seemed completely unfazed. we were all from the continental west coast, and we all were dying. i bought a couple of cheap coats at one of the various kurfürstendamm h&m’s, but none of these coats were big…
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october things + my favorite autumn breakfast (recipe)
i have been a studious, busy little bee lately now that my brain is fully embracing autumn and has already gone back to school! i’ve decided to take a less crazy schedule than i had last year because, you should’ve seen me last year – i was running around like a mad person! there is this cycle that happens to english teachers here (and maybe other places, i don’t know) where you want to get more and more lessons to fill up your schedule. you keep gathering more and more until finally, you have so many that you are starting to go crazy. you are running in and out of…
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how to move to the czech republic to teach english
i get a loooot of questions about how best to start teaching english in the czech republic and steps you need to take to be able to do this and be successful at it. so, i’d figured i’d help y’all out with this big honkin’ post! if this is not your thing, welp, then i’ll see you back here in a few days! first off… GET TEFL CERTIFIED if you get your TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificate in prague, it’s going to help you big time with not only the connections to schools you’re going to need later, but also just helpful day-to-day things (like which bins to…
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telč & its beautiful square
every year in february, excepting the year we had just moved here, we like to take a little february getaway. this is mostly because alex, as an english teacher of primary school aged children, gets a whole week for spring break! as a freelancer, i do not get a complete week unless it’s reeeeally important (berlinale!) but i can try to shift around my lessons in order to do something fun that week. this week, a sudden cold threatened my weekend plans. i woke up friday unable to speak with a normal human voice and having to cough and blow my nose every three minutes. but i have to tell…
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contentedness
so far this year, there’s been no big milestones, or “lily-pads” as emma calls them. but even so, life “between the lily-pads” has been rolling along. i was so thankful just to stick around in one place in january, and although february brings even more travel scheming and dreaming, i have just been perfectly content lately. content to be here, with life… not in a “my life is so exciting!” kind of way but just a quiet sort of happiness. my instagram, usually buzzing with photos of czech architecture i pass on my day to day life has even been quieter than usual. no need to take photos or write…
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things to know before moving to the czech republic
let’s just get into it, shall we? the things they just don’t tell you… you’ll probably have to leave the country to get a visaif you are a non-eu passport holder and unless you have a pre-existing arrangement with a sponsor of your new job, mentally prepare that you’ll be headed either to berlin, bratislava, or vienna to get your visa. why? nobody knows. oh, and you’ll be going back there again to pick it up. nobody in immigration will speak english to you. even if they know english.you’ll likely be spending a lot of time in your local immigration building which probably looks straight out of a kafka novel.…
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the first day
yesterday the three year anniversary of living here in české budějovice, a small city in southwest czech republic. like the country of the czech republic, i realize i have a lot of milestones. i acknowledge each new year in europe, each year in the czech republic, and each year in the city, which are all different dates and in different seasons. but this one resonates with me particularly in terms of expat life and the success of our time living abroad. all of the snow we’ve been having really brings me back to the day we arrived: thursday, january 24th, 2013. i’ve already written about being picked up at the…
