• Autumn,  Film

    The Spooky October Film Series, Part VII

    What are your Halloween traditions like? Mine entail a near devotional spooky film every Sunday night in October in the lead-up to the holiday… however, it can’t be any of the same films we’ve seen in the past several years! It’s not too hard to think up different films that still perfectly fit the Halloween bill if you’re myself or Alex. This year, as I’m also reading Dracula, I was really feeling the vampire theme. I was, however, not allowed to bring Twilight into the mix (I guess on my own time…) so this is the list we came up with this year. I hope it helps spark some Halloween…

  • Autumn,  Budějovice,  Daily Life,  Lifestyle,  Pandemic,  Teaching

    Autumn, Lately

    This year hasn’t been a banner year for the old bloggity-blog by any means. It’s hard to write when a) you are doing a million things and this space has frankly taken a back burner, b) there’s too much to put online, or c) somethings that are going on, you wouldn’t want to put online anyway. It’s also dispiriting when your favorite blogs on the interweb have a) gone dark or b) gone behind a paywall. (If you’ve got a cool blog or know of one, holler at me in the comments because I’m out of ideas!) I miss blog reading. Remember the days that everyone would post their daily…

  • Summer

    festival magic + my top 5 films seen at this year’s KVIFF

    ahoj all, i’ve been in the middle of summer camps (sotiredomg) just wanted to pop in after our annual trip to karlovy vary for the film festival. even if it took me all dang week to finish this post. in case you’re new around here: hi, i’m cynthia and i like to have film festival vacations in beautiful hilly spa towns where we get up at 6am to go stand in box office queues! joking aside, we’re getting into a real routine when it comes to this festival, but the most notable change this year is when we arrived to the box office on thursday shortly after getting in, we bought…

  • Summer

    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…

  • Summer

    the spooky october movie series, pt. IV

    halloween is drawing near, so it’s time for this year’s edition (series four) of the spooky film series! as film aficionados, we try to select five movies that have a deliciously horror or spooky vibe, because i know i’m tired of watching hocus pocus year after year. this year we’ve got films ranging from the 1950’s to this decade. i chose two, alex chose two, and our halloween night film was chosen together.  i rate the films on a scale of one to five ghosts depending on how “halloween-ish” i feel the movie is, but also accounting for quality. week 1: the addams family values (1991), barry sonnenfeld my pick.…

  • Summer

    winter, lately

    so, it’s barely february, but i wanted to pop in and say “hi”! how are you faring this winter? it’s such a mild, washington-style winter this year – high-ish temps, grey sky for days (which is very un-south bohemian, really), fog here and there. i’ve just been focusing on forgetting my phone and spending less time with social media, taking zero photos, and honestly, it’s been really lovely. today was a “cafe day” – our halfway through the school year (pololetní prázdniny) day off tradition. we went to my absolute favorite cafe here in budejovice. unfortunately, they don’t allow dogs so we don’t go as often anymore. the coffee is good…

  • Summer

    spooky october movie series, pt III

    spooky movie time! do you know what you’re watching on halloween yet? as you may know, alex and i do a sunday night movie series every sunday throughout october (i’ve taken to calling it ‘goth advent’ because of our recently obtained black skull candle) this movie series was born because there’s only so many viewings of ‘hocus pocus’ you can take! we’re on a mission to dig up some lesser-known but perfectly halloween-worthy films, old and new. here’s what we’ve got up to… i hope it may give you some watching inspiration! (rated on a scale from 1 – 5 “ghosts” based on how appropriate i feel the film is for…

  • Summer

    friday things: february

    hi all, i’m at you for the monthly ‘friday things’ on the last friday of february! this has been such a busy (yet good) week full of hardcore language studies, teaching, chatting at a čajovna drinking the freshest japanese green tea, and thinking about some great books and stories i’ve read over the past week (and one terrible one, haha).  onward with some happy things & a piece of news! i suppose the news part is… 1) summer plans! i can say now that we are officially heading back to the united states for over a month this summer – it will be our “big trip” this year! we’ll be…

  • Summer

    the spooky october movie series, pt. II

    coming up with the idea to watch a festive spooky movie every sunday night in october was basically one of the best ideas ever for getting one in the proper mood for the season.  we try to select slightly out of the ordinary films – not exactly what you would expect. the quintessential halloween movie for me is one that is a bit creepy and spooky, but also equal parts enchanting, charming, funny… not just a typical slasher film or something like that. here’s what we’ve got up to so far this month – i hope it provides you with some ideas for your halloween viewing! week 1: crimson peak…

  • Summer

    may: friday things

    hey friends – hope you are having a beautiful may! i always enjoy this birthday month and finally shaking the winter cobwebs away, preparing for the fun that will come with spring… especially more travel opportunities, heh. we enjoyed a gorgeous weekend in prague (above, on kampa) to celebrate my birthday but honestly, i’ve been finding that most of the action is right here in south bohemia lately. hoping that in june we’ll have some time to steal away for some adventures. so! here are a few memorable moments and some things i’ve been into this past month. 1. boat trip! i’m not exactly a boating novice (i wrote about our kayak…