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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…
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survived the first week of school!
it is friday and alex and i have both survived our first week of our intensive TEFL course! this week has been full of homework, lectures, nerves, and learning how to lesson plan. on only the second day of the course we were expected to teach at least 15 minutes on our own and the fourth day of the course, teach an entire 50 minute lesson on our own, beginning to end. i feel accomplished and glad to be actively working towards some of my goals and dreams. we have officially been here for an entire week and are getting to know our temporary neighborhood of vysocanksa in prague 9.…
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berlin; arrived in prague!
i cannot believe there is less than a week until the american thanksgiving holidays! whoa! just spent approximately the last two weeks in my favorite city, berlin. i spent lots of time showing alex around some interesting historical sites like east side gallery, topographie of terror, and the bernauer strasse wall memorial. eating at my favorite restaurants was a thing to do by itself: thai huong snack: home of the 4 euro huge portion asian noodles with veg and pillowy delicious tofu! also delores california burritos: the restaurant that changed my mind about burritos. other things we did in berlin: ate lots of currywurst, got the flu (me), recovered from the flu, was…
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starbucks abroad
i never was a starbucks sort of person and before i worked there i never ever went to one… besides getting caramel frappuccinos in high school or something like that. while i worked there, i would try to go to other independent coffee shops on my days off over it. right after about three years working there though, something snapped and inside, i declared my love for it and would choose to go there over other places (hey, i had a discount!). i even bought those little ceramic starbucks cup christmas tree ornaments last year. now that i’ve been away from the official world of starbucks for over three months, my…
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two weeks in paris, pt II
we arrived back in berlin this sunday after a tumultuous day of travel. our flight from paris was only and hour and a half, but alex had just developed a 24-hr stomach flu the night before so it was the worst possible time for the poor guy to get up and put a huge backpack on. i half expected him to want to cancel the flight but he didn’t even think about it– he just pressed on and i’m really proud of him for that. it was NOT easy. i didn’t get that OH i’m in berlin!!! feeling that i always get. instead i felt as if i was just coming home,…
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gay paris
paris update– life is good here, and in our little studio apartment in gobelins. the weather has been PERFECT for us (not too cold, blue skies and sun almost daily) and we’ve been enjoying kicking back, sleeping in, and exploring like it’s our job. there is so much to see in this city that twelve days leaves a mark, but a pretty small one. i keep stumbling onto new streets, like rue moffatard– famous latin quarter market street only a short jaunt from my place. or rue montmarte, or rue lombards! everything i find i wish i had found sooner. paris is WAY more expensive than i remember from visiting eight…
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rolling into london
“picadilly circus? what a shitty circus.” — garth just rolled into paris from london on a nine hour bus journey! (and remember kids, book your channel tunnel train tickets early!) it really wasn’t that bad since we were on a ferry for three hours of it. we were really lucky to be able to stay with one of our previous host’s sister, who lives in the pimlico district of london, so i felt right at home. my favorite part of london was the first night we got in which happened to be warm and calm (before it starting gradually pouring down rain): walking along the opposite side of the river…
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edinbURGH
finishing up our time here at the woodland estate in penicuik– it’s been a straaange but decent week. highlights of this week for me was definitely the opportunity to sing latin hymns with a small choir in the crypt of rosslyn chapel with our male host. rosslyn chapel was high on my radar and i sort of forgot it was in our neck of the woods here near edinburgh. this is the chapel featured at the end of both the novel and the movie ‘the da vinci code’. it’s particularly fascinating to me because of the strange religious groups connected with it and the mystery that surrounds it. it has…
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isle of islay
it was a little sad leaving the farm as alex and i both felt completely at home there and wished we could stay longer. however, the sheep season was wrapping up and during our time there we were mostly vaccinating the sheep and getting them ready to ship off to the isle of bute for the winter, where they’ll graze their hearts out and come back in the spring nice and plump-like. fortunately! we headed straight for the isle of islay– a place i’d been convinced since several weeks ago that i needed to go to since it was nothing more than a medium sized island with stunning scenery and…
