-
at winter’s end
maybe this is far too optimistic for me to state at the beginning of march – this time last year when the ponds and rivers were frozen over – but the forecast here in the czech republic now seems firmly rooted in comfortable temperatures… dare i say it, springy? march has never been an easy month for me, but i actually see spring is on its way. 17°C (or warmer!) days becoming more frequent, wearing the shoulder season jackets in favor of the big bulky winter coats, sunglasses, drinking a cappuccino outside … i can feel it! although winter has treated me very well this year. it was one of…
-
february city hangs | prague & linz
it’s been such a great month so far! i thought january was good, but february seems even better and the fact that we just had our semester break and i enjoyed most of a week off work was just the thing. i was thinking i’d head to prague on sunday, the second day of the month, until there was a “severe snow advisory” (??!) warning and decided not to mess with that. (besides, a friend of mine had to spend the night on a train last autumn when she insisted on traveling in heavy winds! trains + inclement weather = not going there) instead we went on monday when there was…
-
january lately
ah january, time to hunker down with a candle, cup of tea a stack of books and your favorite tv shows and films. or my favorite winter activity: i call it the ‘read-nap-read’ (or “the reading nap”) on a cold sunday afternoon with falling snowflakes outside the window. it’s typically hard to grant myself time to do those things, but winter does give me permission! what have you been enjoying? i’m making my way slowly through a little life (and all of its seven hundred something pages) as well as chunks of other books also on my nightstand. i’ve also been watching a bit of ally mcbeal season 4 (the…
-
nyepi: a quiet new year
while i was at iceland airwaves, i managed to catch ólafur arnalds’ much-buzzed-about set on the first day at kex hostel in reykjavik, and he played a beautiful song called nyepi. while i enjoyed the song, the message behind it made much more of an impression on me: nyepi is the balinese new year’s “day of silence”. (have you heard of it?) arnalds explained that he lives there much of the year and had recently participated in this day of silence in which the city actually turns off the internet, no electricity is used, no travelling is permitted, no work, nor music or loud noises, and people generally just sit…
-
the books of 2018
i cracked the code last year, for last year was the year i really discovered fiction. (choir of angels sing) i know, i know… please stop rolling your eyes. but if you’ve seen any of my past books of posts, you may notice that non-fiction has by far been my favorite thing to read. until now. i think it’s because i mostly have used my reading time as a chance to learn more about topics that interest me, but it happened more than once over the past several years that i couldn’t even crack a goal of twenty books in a year. this year, i read more than thirty! thanks,…
-
hello, winter
hi! solstice greetings! do you like to do anything to observe the solstice? every year in summer, we have a picnic that i like to try and make go on for as long as possible. but in the winter, it’s about turning more inward. ideally, i would go for a walk in the woods and soak up every bit of those precious sun rays that shortest day of the year (some nature element is important here – to connect with the earth), and then spend the evening indoors watching a movie lighting all the candles in the house. one particular winter solstice (our first in europe) it happened also to…
-
december, lately: a lot going on at the moment.
whoa, what a big few weeks it has been! in the wake of receiving our visa extention in october, alex and i had been furiously studying to make sure we aced our elementary level czech exam, which is far too expensive to re-take (not that we even have the time to do so) but fortunately, three and a half hours later, we victoriously walked to the bus stop with our certificates! we did it! not going to lie, but this little (big?) victory has instilled some major confidence. i think it is deserved confidence, for all those times that i doubted myself and didn’t want to try speaking czech, or…
-
november, lately
hello all,happy thanksgiving week! it started snowing sunday night and there was a blanket of snow on the ground by monday morning – and still snowing (despite what the photo above from a lovely day last month shows!). i really got in a more wintery mood in iceland as there were no leaves on the trees anymore and festive decorations all over the main streets, but there is absolutely nothing like a blanket of snow on a monday morning to get your week going! (if you like snow, that is) since coming back from my trip, i’ve just felt like there are endless things to do – catching up on…
-
a (near) perfect foggy autumnal prague day
i always think the question of “your perfect day” is an interesting one. what would a perfect free day in the big city look like for you? i think about this a lot, especially when i have limited time in a place. we decided to pop up to prague for a one night getaway (dog in tow) about a week ago for the public holiday. actually, celebrating a century since the foundation of czechoslovakia in 1918! pretty cool to be in the capital for this momentous day, even though the weather was so awful we didn’t even want to bother with the firework show. i awoke at a pleasant hour…
-
october, lately + bake off update
hi guys. it’s been a strange start to the school year this time around. i’ve had a few work switcheroos and cancelled lessons throwing me for a loop – not exactly the kind of thing you want to have happen a month or so before you go on a big trip. ohhh, did i mention i was going on a trip next month? more perceptive readers will know i tend to post my travel plans on this page as soon as i’ve scheduled them, but i haven’t yet got a chance to mention that next month, one of my biggest travel dreams is going to come true. one that i…
