• Summer

    a year of life & travels: 2017

    today is new year’s day and it’s time for a recap of last year! it was another great year of being based in southwestern czech republic, feeling like home both here and back in my home country (and realizing that “home” is just a construct), and going to some magical places. let’s revisit them, shall we? i changed the title of this year’s post to “life & travel” because, as i learned last year, travel isn’t everything and it is also important to capture what else was going on in one’s life. although for this post, it still remains the focal point. (don’t worry) so without further ado…. in january, we…

  • Summer

    friday things: hello, 2017

    maybe i am just one of those perpetually upbeat people. even when things are going kind of rough or i’m wearing an all black ensemble, i can’t really help but be a bit peppy. even in january. the change to the new year always puts me in a great mood of new beginnings and usually brings icy wintery weather to budejovice. (a view from this morning, above) so! i thought i’d put in motion the first ‘friday things’ of the year! just some things that i’ve been into lately or have been making me happy. 1. this coat i’ve decided this year i stop worrying about trying to blend in…

  • Summer

    a new year

    happy new year! this year i didn’t feel much pressure to ring in the new year in any particular style. we went to our friend (and czech teacher’s) house in a nearby village on the afternoon of the thirty-first and had a frosty walk before we made it back to the house for punch, snacks, and chatting. in my memory, i cannot remember trying slivovice before (i know) until that day and i quite liked it. after many drinks and coming back home at a reasonable hour, i just couldn’t summon the ire to go out “on the town”, and even better that we could see loads of fireworks from…

  • Summer

    a year of travels: 2015

    oh man, you guys, this year. it was one of the best. although i managed to pack a ton of travels in the second half of 2015, the first half was alllll about that local travel while saving up my korunas to come back to the states for the wedding. i am feeling just so grateful with the travel opportunities that have popped up and looking forward to what might come in the new year! but first, let’s take a look at 2015 as it was… not much happened in january after the aftermath of our our austrian christmas, but we managed to make a few day trips and a…

  • Summer

    beginning the year

    oh the dreaded first monday of the year, the day when we are forcefully shook from our holiday stupor and before you know it, you’re standing in front of eight students on a monday morning thinking, “welp, this is weird.” fortunately getting back to normal wasn’t quite as brutal as it was last year. so far so good. but, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. besides travel tuesday, i’ve been pretty absent from online things. i’ve been busting my back with teaching and other daily activities that by the end of the day (we’ll say around 9pm) i am ready to hit the mattress. (which is good, because our…