• 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…

  • czech culture,  Czech Republic,  Daily Life,  South Bohemia,  Teaching

    Czech School Curiosities

    What a month! In the middle of February, it was supposed to have been our half-term break week, but several months ago we agreed to teach most of the week at a primary school waaaay out in the countryside, about an hour from where we live. I mean, we didn’t really have any plans and we have an ambitious travel year ahead, so why not? The wind storm Sabine which ripped through Central Europe made it impossible to start teaching there on Monday as absolutely no trains or buses were leaving the city, but for most of this week we were up on the early train north. Although Alex isn’t…

  • Summer

    i heard it at summer camp

    ahhhh, summer camp. the obligatory summer job that helps keep the lights on around here in those slower months when people aren’t exactly jumping at the idea of having lessons, but it also brings us great joy… when summer camp is administered in small doses, of course. we almost missed out on summer camp this year entirely because of our back to america travel plans but managed to teach one week of it right after we came back from greece. one thing i love about it, besides tasting all of the czech meals at lunch time, is it’s not so much just teaching as it is hanging out with kids.…

  • Daily Life,  Eats,  Expat Life,  South Bohemia,  Teaching,  Winter

    What I Do Now

    in my opinion, what one does for a living certainly shouldn’t define their worth as a person in any way. no, i’m not really a fan of the question, “so, what do you do?” {referring to their occupation} when meeting someone new, although it does provide you with more insight into their daily lives (for ever-curious people like me) and perhaps what their skills and interests are, i have to admit. and these days, i am much happier answering this question than i used to be. but before wasn’t terrible or anything; i have so many fond memories of being downtown seattle barista extraordinaire chick. a video of me “on…

  • Spring,  Teaching

    A Whole Lotta Rain

    it started raining saturday morning and it has not once stopped as i write this late monday afternoon. nuts! people are like, “oh but you’re from seattle so you’re used to this”. errrrg……. not really, right guys? in case you haven’t read about it, the central europe floods are making international news. i think today will be the worst of it and the rain is supposed to let up. in prague, the city is paralyzed. schools are shuttered, transportation is at a halt. the animals from the low-lying zoo near the river are being rescued. the metro station near our old ‘hood (malostranska) is closed. here in budejovice, we are…

  • Expat Life,  Teaching

    teaching english

    i am now a long-term residence permit holder here in the czech republic! this means i’m legal to stay here for at least the next six months and am also legal to earn wages!  this is extremely exciting, as it was definitely a huge concern even before leaving for europe.  people often asked “howwww the heck are you going to stay past ninety days?” i had done some preliminary research and i felt pretty hopeful about it.  plus, there was always my back-up plan of fleeing back to britain for a spell, or perhaps croatia. but britain in the wintertime wasn’t exactly what i was imagining, so i am dang…