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those magical days
even though christmas is over, i do love that stretch of days between the holiday and the new year. nobody is really in town yet, everything is running slowly and mostly still, everyone’s playing, everyone’s happy… i am embracing it this year (as i mentioned in the last post) rather than feeling guilty for lack of productivity. if there’s any time to take it easy, it’s now! i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! we started ours with a walk through krumlov and took ferdie on his first trip (with a bus ride longer than ten minutes). he did okayyyyy, until he upchucked on the floor of the bus! (mental…
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photo an hour | december
i’ve never done a photo an hour before, so i thought i’d give it a try… i personally am a huge fan of reading ‘day in the life’ posts so i hope you enjoy it too. this was sunday, december 4th, 2016, and was a special day as it was our first full day of being dog owners in the czech republic! 9:00 – as the first out of bed and dressed, i took ferdie out. it was looking exceptionally wintery that day, as you will soon see! 10:41 – breakfast! this breakfast just so happens to be my absolute favorite – paprika-dusted poached eggs on avocado toast with beans…
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say hello to my little friend
adventurings, now, with 56% more dog! we have been thinking about getting a dog for over a year now (with a little drama in between: we were told we couldn’t have one in our building, then later it turned out we could, but only a very small breed). as i grew up with a dachshund, it seemed like the best choice for us at this time. alex got to know a bit about the breed with sweet mika from our workstay near oban, scotland, so he was on board too! and here we are, first few days of december, and finally met our little ferdinand! (ferdie, for short!) the amazing…
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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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traveling is not everything
so you’re probably looking at this title thinking “duhhh”, or you’re in the “the more, the better” camp, like some many of us living abroad when it comes to travel. while it certainly can bring some much needed excitement to life (travel is accelerated living!), there’s something to be said for taking some time to be at home for awhile. after our big nordland adventure this summer, we have planned and gone on some great (shorter) trips, but the focus is, happily, more at home right now. what are the advantages to not traveling? 1. doing all the local things drinks with friends, going to the market, snuggly weekend brunches…
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so bad, yet so good
alex and i have talked before, half jokingly, about that if trump gets elected, i guess we’re staying here four more years. this was when we both believed there was not a single chance in a million years this would be happening to our country. and yet, here we are. i certainly never left the united states on any political ground, whatsoever. no, i just wanted to live in another country, study other languages, learn about other cultures, and work so i could travel and use central europe as my spring-board, if you will. then, the more time we spent here, we woke up to the fact that, “wow, life…
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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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indian summer
babí léto. altweibersommer. (both names relating to old people!) whatever you want to call it, we are experiencing one heck of an indian summer in central europe. it is now the perfect temperature for things like hiking! it occurred to me last week that i was not in a rut, per se, but forgetting that i live in europe and how much there is to explore around here. i promptly planned two local trips to celebrate st. wenceslaus day holidays that grace the end of september here in czechland. the first was finally climbing klet’ hill (last time, we took the chair-lift!) and hiking down into krumlov for some folklore festivities. what…
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at summer’s end
even before returning from iceland (heck, even before i went to iceland), i was hopehopehoping that the czech summer still would be in full swing to welcome me back with open (sunny and warm) arms and man, have i not been disappointed in the least! we have been having such a wonderful time since we’ve been back: rafting on the vltava, barbecues, warm summer night gatherings and pool parties, every meal al-fresco out on the balcony… it has really been the third chapter of summer i have been hoping for. however, i am feeling a bit like phil from wayne’s world today: partied out (again)! with the cool temperatures returning…
