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the season of poor
i’ve arrived back home and it’s the end of august: the unofficial ending of my favorite season. school is right around the corner for the kiddos (which means our jobs start up again) and budějovice is putting on a lovely show for us: sunny 22°C weather and the annual end of august festivities that are to occur this weekend. it seems like czech republic is welcoming us back with a sheepish smile. today alone we’ve run into two different nice ladies, the weather is good, the groceries (and really, everything) is cheap again, the stores are overflowing with delicious produce (and squash!!!). i feel like forgiving it for any way…
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i was inspired to take part in the day in the life project because i’m one of those curious individuals that loves to take a peak into the daily routine of someone else. also, i think it would be really nice to look back on sometime and hopefully, interesting or insightful for you! for this day, i chose friday, july 25, 2014, the last day of summer camps. all events take place in either české budĕjovice or český krumlov in south-west czech republic. … 5:40am: the alarm goes off. since it’s summer, it’s light enough to get ready without having to turn on a lamp. shower & get dressed in red…
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june noms
ah yes, the time of the month i like to talk about food is here. june has been so inspirational to me in terms of cooking. perhaps it’s all the fresh produce available… or the retrograde in mercury… or the warm weather! whatever the reason, i’ve finally had a healthy dose of inspiration to make a bunch of fun recipes. all of them were alex tested and approved, and he put up with all this food photography. what a guy. mushroom & caramelized onion risotto: a healthy favorite of mine made with the two vegetables alex formerly disliked. i used no butter and only a tiny amount of milk to make…
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hot hot hot
what a beautiful warm weekend we had here in south bohemia! between celebrating our “minus one anniversary” with spanish food eaten outside on the adorable street behind me (above) and seeing electric light orchestra in the middle of the budvar brewery’s loading dock…. to the fabulous annual slavnosti piva české budějovice (beer festival) and hanging out in the shade beside the river, it’s been a rrrreal good one. i’m enjoying a surplus of bergamot (lemon mint) and finally figured out that the thing to do with it is make MINT ICED TEA– the ultimate cooling summer beverage! and as it’s going to hit 32C (90F) today and for much of this…
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may noms
normally i like to write travel related posts on tuesdays. ah, but not this week. i’ve been concentrated more on blowing my nose and drinking “fizzy drink” (vitamin tablets). herbal tea with local czech honey has been a mainstay the past weekend… then i ran out of herbal tea. i purchased this aptly named herbal tea (for 10czk!) yesterday, and it’s been doing the job alright. may has had some great noms, so far. on my birthday, a stop at starbucks inspired me with one of the breakfast sandwiches on offer: a fried egg on belgian toast with ham and gravy. yes, yes, and yes. what makes the dish is…
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what a week
they say the hardest part of doing nearly everything is taking the first step, which was last week. this week feels as though the first steps are starting to bud: my first german lesson since 2008 will be next tuesday (!!!) and we met with our chill and laid-back engagement shoot photographer to talk plans for the end of the month. last time i’ve had professional portraits taken was over ten years ago at age 17, so what better time than now to have a go at it again? even if we don’t use these photos for really anything, they will be such a special keepsake of our time living…
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Living in Europe, pt II
there’s this weird phenomenon that starts to happen after about a year of living abroad: it becomes harder and harder to imagine returning home. the thought is scarier and scarier…. not only because we still are not confident about where we would work, where we would live, and what we would do…. but because that would also mean leaving life over here. which is pretty great. i mean, gosh! i live in europe! every day i feel lucky to enjoy life here. meeting other expats that have stayed here for years is quite interesting too; to hear their take on living in a small czech city vs. prague vs. the…
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Hallo-Week
hello listopad (november) in czech republic. i’ve seen you somewhere before. oh yeah– it was last year when we moved into you! yes, we arrived on a train from berlin fraught with worry and anxiety over an incident with the ticket checker and also our failure to follow instructions and meet our contact person at the correct place and time at hlavni nadraži (central station), prague. finally we were whisked away by taxi and shown to our simple apartment on kolbenova street, vysočanska district (prague 9). boy, that day was a culture shock. and going to one of the many chinese restaurants to realize we couldn’t say anything… not a lick…
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Lately, Fall Pt. II
this has been a weird week. the weather has been strange (highs of 20’C some days!) and been thinking a lot about the czech republic. one day loving it, the next, exhausted by the stares of crabby old people. thinking about friends, about relationships, about life, about home….. but at least it wasn’t as weird as last week with no electricity, hot water or heat! so thankful to be warm. preparing now for a nice little weekend in eastern bavaria! i haven’t been to bavaria in years, and i’m rather looking forward to a little shopping, some mugs of helles from a famous old brauerei, rich history and architecture and…
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Desperate Times
sometimes i feel like alex and i are like harry and lloyd from dumb and dumber. living together in a former communist central european country where we don’t speak the language with only each other to count on, when it comes down to it. i realized this yesterday, which was day three of the great unexplained power outage. at one point i sat there in my hoodie that doesn’t zip anymore thinking, okay. we have no food. we have no money. my employer is two days late with the paycheck. we have no hot water… we have no heat… my phone is out of minutes…. “our pets’ heads are falling off!”…
