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thoughts on heading home
heading to my homeland, the united states, in the coming week for the first time in ALMOST THREE YEARS. this isn’t exactly weird to me, because i’ve lived it, but i can see how it would seem weird to everyone else. i suppose when your life is weird, these weird facts just grow on you! two years and nine months solely spent in europe. blam. i can’t help but wonder if i might freak out when i hear english around me all the time. or what i’m going to do to busy myself on a long-haul flight because the real last big one i took was in 2011. or if…
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spring stories (from our czechpat life)
a big ol’ smattering of a spring update is here, now that it’s suddenly may and things are really happening! starting out freezing, peaking mid-month with warm temps, and ending on a cold rainy note, april in budějovice came and went. we postponed our “cabin in the nature” trip until the end of summer due to this, below left, from alex’s birthday. (second out of three birthdays of his spent in czechland that have snowed!) spring definitely got a slow start here in europe this year. funny that now spring has sprung, everything has exploded with greenery and you’d never know it was like that at all. (see photos, at right)…
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on being a foreigner
like many of you i’m sure, the feeling of being in a foreign place feels so completely thrilling. but, there are times when that general excitement for life in a foreign place can turn downright tiresome. i have a weird hang-up and i suppose i will be honest and divulge it to you, my friends: sometimes i feel as though i don’t deserve as much (in general) as the local people do just because i don’t speak their language. take for example, a few days ago at a pizzeria. i had a few slices of pizza yet i wanted to take home, but i almost didn’t feel like asking for…
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třeboň + april weekends
how odd it was to go from a full day of snow to sunny and 18°C in one week! from winter coat to bare legs and sandals. but that’s april for you. (shrug) in case you haven’t yet guessed, we had to postpone our lovely little cabin trip ‘til august… ‘cause when the proprietor contacts you the day before to tell you “it’s like winter here!”, you listen. (we just took off for prague instead, which i’ll post about on tuesday) so with the forecast looking wonderful this weekend, we spent the afternoon in třeboň, only about a half-hour away. třeboň is one of my sobo (south bohemia) happy places. i love to…
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a tree blooms in žižkov
žižkov is one area of prague that i never really got to know on a personal level. it’s supposedly got the most pubs per capita of anywhere in the world and is well known as a place where expats congregate and live because of cheaper rents and um, said pubs. my prague expat existence never included ol’ žižkov as i was swept from crumbling kolbenova to plush malá strana in one day (and ohhh, what a day it was). but a part of me can’t help like i missed out on the experience, with our schmancy st. nicholas cathedral and trdelník on demand (well, we were pretty broke then; i…
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where i’m from & why i left
before i got my ire up to buy a one-way ticket to the european continent in may 2012, i knew deep inside that living in seattle was not a permanent situation; at least not at the moment. i spent eight years trying to find my own path there while slowly discovering and eventually learning to love washington state’s largest city. staying was never exactly part of my plan, but it seemed like what i was resigned to. i took a job there after college in 2008 as a barista that i knew i could easily quit when my plans to live abroad started to materialize…. but the thing is, they…
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cafe day
as we had no plans for most of friday, we deemed it a “cafe day”… this means that the main event of the entire day is going out to one of my favorite cafes in the afternoon, like le chat noir. and cafe days are just so special. for that hour (or two), it’s like i’m on holiday and i’ll order whatever beverage that tickles my fancy at the moment, like this foamy cappuccino, and just relax and take in the old world viennese style surroundings. cafe days are also excellent for having really important conversations about life. the conversations you can’t quite have at home because there’s always internetlaundrydinnerpreparationvideogames or some…
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ways in which i’ve become more czech
i’ve lived here almost two and a half years and i’m sure i have a long way to go if i would really like to be more “czechified”, but some of these things i couldn’t help but notice… tolerance. you those new yorkers depicted in various films (like this one above, midnight cowboy) that yell at cars and say things like, “EY! i’m walkin’ ‘ere!” that was so me in seattle. four years of working in the heart of the retail downtown (from early mornings and swing shifts) had hardened me. i had seen a lot of things… and dodged a lot of cars. (but nowhere is the driving worse than…
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march noms
this past week, having almost half of my lessons cancelled for all kinds of different reasons, i had time. oh, sweet time. and i embraced it: long-ish yoga sessions, walking to lessons across town instead of taking the bus because of the sunny spring weather and the want to get moving a little bit more as we get closer to spring. but my favorite way to celebrate a nice relaxing weekday? make a weekday cake! i adored this weekday cake (raspberry ricotta) of molly’s– very moist and took less than thirty minutes to whip up! just as she described herself, there is something that makes you feel really put together…
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march, lately
001. a rain-soaked main square002. vincentka. czech mineral water and apparent secret cure of everything that ails you003. prague’s beautiful art noveau obecní dům 004. finding this mural of the main square in an empty lot!005. my favorite nábřeží (quay) reminds me a bit of paris 006. doubling down on denim for george harrison’s birthday 007. we’ve passed the hundred day mark! (on our new tea cup chalkboard)008. my winter reading-nook009. alex is locally published! (in cz/en budejovice rag, milk & honey) and some march thoughts! // czech republic, like most of the european continent experienced beautiful sunny 13 degree temperatures during the weekend! this has inspired me to plant some…
