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travel, living abroad, and a more ecological lifestyle.
travel + an ecological lifestyle – can these two things belong together? it’s a hard thing to reconcile for any traveler – how to lessen your personal impact and be a more responsible traveler? there’s carbon offsets you can purchase, either as you make your flight purchase or separately from a few different organizations. there’s booking a trip from a company with a ecologically-responsible policy. (in the past week, rick steves just announced all his tours will be certified carbon neutral) there’s opting to take the bus or train more vs. flying. we live without a car here and do almost all of our errands on foot (including grocery shops, hoofing it…
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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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how to move to the czech republic to teach english
i get a loooot of questions about how best to start teaching english in the czech republic and steps you need to take to be able to do this and be successful at it. so, i’d figured i’d help y’all out with this big honkin’ post! if this is not your thing, welp, then i’ll see you back here in a few days! first off… GET TEFL CERTIFIED if you get your TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificate in prague, it’s going to help you big time with not only the connections to schools you’re going to need later, but also just helpful day-to-day things (like which bins to…
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i’m on a podcast!
hello, friends. we’re enjoying a beautiful end of the week (mostly) off from teaching due to the october 28th holiday (czechoslovak independence day). i just wanted to let you know that my expat interview as a guest on the abroad podcast is out this week… just in case you ever wanted to hear me telling my entire expat story. it’s like the audio-book version of this blog. why i wanted to move abroad (and how i did), why we decided to leave prague, how our transition to budejovice was, and a little about expat life now, travel tips + some real talk opinions (fair warning!). also, apparently i’m really chatty and…
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what i love about “home”
české budějovice isn’t what i consider HOME home, but it certainly is my home for now and it’s important to think about and remember why i chose to live here and what makes it great. i’ve thought of plenty reasons, but here’s my ten favorite things about good ol’ CB. 1. i LOVE my flat i could easily spend days holed up here in this haven of english speaking, great cooking, and ornate early twentieth century architectural detail, but force myself to get out once and awhile. we really got lucky! the flat next door is vacant as it’s being remodeled, so we don’t have to worry about being too quiet…
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brno
if someone told me earlier “in a week, you’ll travel to brno for the day”, i would’ve wondered whaaaaat would ever compel me to undertake that. but my father (whom i haven’t seen in 3+ years) was on business from singapore, so it would be almost criminal not to meet up after being so close! brno, the second largest city in the czech republic, is almost four hours away by bus which isn’t exactly day trip material. but you know what? brno it is! because sometimes plans change! as my mind surely did as i stepped off the bus and was greeted by the warmest sun on my face i’ve felt…
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berlin valentine
berlin for berlinale and valentines’ week was a hell of a time. i was a little unsure about returning so soon after my all-too-short weekend getaway last summer somehow rubbed me a little bit in the wrong direction, but the city’s back on my good list now and it seems that valentines’ week was the perfect time to realize that it was just a rough patch we were going through. as i was being smothered by winter monotony here in south bohemia, five days in the hauptstadt was just the thing to refresh my spirits. although i was looking forward to seeing the city in it’s snowy winter glory, the…
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february noms
it must be winter because food is largely on the mind again. and guys, i’ve been creating some gooooood stuff lately. my week of good cooking has been capped off by a sunday excursion to tesco to exchange my twenty-five stickers for a $46 grundig blender. THIS THING IS A BEAST! it’s got this gigantic 1.5 liter glass jug and the base is the size of kilimanjaro. i have been wavering back and forth on this purchase for literally months, as it is really hard to justify buying stuff during my time living abroad– plus, i’ve already lived here over a year without it and got by okay. but…. eh,…
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normal
maybe because it’s the middle of winter and there’s not much to do besides the usual, but recently, i wake up out of bed, get ready, and go about my normal routine giving absolutely no thought to the fact that i live in the czech republic. even to overhear czech spoken on the streets sparks no wave lengths out of the ordinary in this brain of mine. this slavic language that’s all around me doesn’t even sound that strange anymore. or, i’ll be walking down a beautiful cobbled street on my way to a lesson and pay it absolutely no mind that i live in a foreign country. instead i’ll…
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football & tea time
hands down, the best part of winter is drinking mugs upon mugs of tea. bonus points if you’re drinking tea and it’s snowing. last weekend we had a proper british tea time (hosted by our new english friend) with a bakewell tart (did not know what that was until a couple days ago) and yorkshire tea– apparently the best brand. hey, as long as it’s a good black tea with milk, i’m happy. i’m hoping tea time will become a regular fixture through the rest of winter and spring! (picture via) i’ve been a tea aficionado since college, where the other girls in my house would giggle at me for loading a…
