Slavko Comes to America!!

Slavko is a great friend that we met in Prague.  Originally from Macedonia, he had moved to Prague for university and then took a TEFL class and became an English teacher- he worked at the same school as Jason.  He was a member of our close group of friends in Prague and we shared all too many great stories and funny moments with him around.

Back in October we got word that Slavko was coming to Texas- El Paso/Juarez more specifically- for Christmas.  I know, Juarez and El Paso??  To travel halfway around the world to go to one of the most dangerous and least desirable places on earth!  I tried to warn Slavko of this, but he was going to visit a friend and was convinced it would be fine.

In the end, it was, of course.  He stayed there for the holidays and then made a weekend trip to visit Brandon, Sarah, Jason and I in Austin.  It was so much fun to see our old friend and relive some of our favorite memories from the good ol' days.  We greeted Slavko at the airport wearing t-shirts designed by Brandon, special for his arrival.

We all wore our t-shirts out on the town that night and got plenty of good laughs and great photos.  What a fun night of catching up it was!  We spent the rest of the weekend showing Slavko as many Texas sites as we could- everything from BBQ to walking around Town Lake and 2-steppin' at a real country bar.

It was a great visit, but I couldn't help but to think how strange it might have been for Slavko.  Slavko still lives in Prague and has a good job (much better than when we were all English teachers...).  But still, the disconnect from life in Prague and life in the States is unreal.  When we all lived there, we had small (but nice) apartments and owned basically just what we could fit in our backpacks and took public transportation everywhere.  Now, both Jason & I and Brandon & Sarah have bought big houses and have two cars with tons of stuff.  How different can life be??  Whenever I think about how much stuff I have now it makes me want to take a step back and simplify my life.  While I do enjoy being able to buy a new shirt without having to wonder how I will take it back home, I miss the lack of materialism I had while living abroad.  Anyway, I just realized how strange it would probably seem to an outsider... especially since we all were in the same boat just a short time ago.

Ahhh... the simplicity.

RIP Havel

I never was a big history buff and was too young during the time of the Soviet Bloc to remember anything. While living Prague, I quickly learned all about the fall of communism and one of the Czech Republic's most beloved figures, Vaclav Havel. My students loved telling me all about the events of 1989 as well as their own personal stories from this era. It opened me eyes to the incredible history these people lived through. It became clear to me very quickly that Havel was a special man. Czech people were so proud of him and the things he accomplished during his life time. He will be greatly missed.

With the recent events in Prague, it has made me miss that amazing city as much as ever. I wish I could have been there for this.

The Final Countdown

6 Days.

6 Days until I leave this beautiful city that I have been calling home for the last 10 months. And I'm not ready!! It's going to be hard to leave. But moving on is just a part of life, isn't it? There's not much room for me to progress and do what I want career wise in Prague, so there's just not too much to keep me here for too much longer.

All the friends we have made here this year have been amazing and unforgettable. We have formed the coolest international expat group of weekend trip taking, frisbee playing, wine drinking, BBQ eating, football watching, marshmellow roasting, camp fire story telling group of friends that I will never forget. How I wish that we could all stay here together and continue our lives in this way. But alas, almost everyone is moving on now, too. I know I will see you all again whether it be at a reunion in Colorado, a hiking trip in Nepal or a beach vacation in Thailand.

This is not the end.

It took me a while to get used to life in Prague, as I suppose it does anywhere. But now I truly love this city and the beauty that I see walking around every day. Views of the Vltava and the castle will never, ever get old. Hanging out at one of the many beautiful parks has become a favorite past time here. And how could I possibly forget to mention the cheap, delicious Czech beer? Wonderful.

It's been an amazing year that I will never forget. It's hard to compare life in all of the countries that I have lived in throughout the past 4 years, but Prague may just take the number 1 spot, thanks to the beautiful city and amazing friends. But each one of my homes will always hold a special place in my heart.

Now on to the next one....

Jason and I are leaving Prague on Friday to spend a long weekend in Budapest. Beyond that, our plans for the next couple of months have changed a lot from our initial ideas. Jason has decided to stay in Prague and work for one more month. So after Budapest, he will return to Prague and work for July. I will continue on from Budapest (exact location still TBD...) and have my own little adventure for the month. I am going to participate in WWOOF, a program that places volunteers with organic farms for an exchange of work/information. I think it's a really interesting program and I am excited to get my hands a little dirty and learn more about organic food and sustainable living at the same time. I am looking into Greece, Croatia and Slovenia for farms and hope to spend about 2 weeks working. Then I will travel around a little bit and hang out at the beach for a few days wherever I am, before coming back to Prague to meet up with Jason again. From here, we'll probably go to Switzerland for a few days before heading back to the States at the beginning of August.

That's the plan, I'll let you know what really happens after the fact.

Cheers to a wonderful summer and a beautiful city!

Sopris in the Supermarket.

Spotted: Mount Sopris* plastered across the walls of the fish section of the German superstore grocer, Kaufland, right here in Prague.

*one of the most beautiful mountains ever, which happens to be located in Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, the valley I am from.

Busy Busy.

With friends in Znojmo

Beautiful town of Znojmo

GREEN in Moravia

How am I supposed to keep up with a blog when I can't even keep up with my own thoughts? Things here have been busy (but great!) lately. Over the past month or so, this is what has been going on:

-Weekend trip to Berlin

-Visit to Konopiste Castle (hour from Prague)

-Day trip to Plsen

-Parents come to visit

-Jason's mom comes to visit

-We all go to Cesky Krumlov

-Everyone leaves

-Off to Znojmo (a town in Czech wine country) for a wine tasting weekend with friends

-My birthday!

-Jason's aunt and uncle, cousins and their 3 little girls come to visit (fun but exhausting!)

Finally, this weekend, is our first weekend with no plans and it feels GOOD. Next weekend our

last visitor will arrive for a few days, and beyond that it's only a few more weeks before we pack up and leave at the beginning of July. Time flies, doesn't it? Can't decide how I feel about leaving yet. Prague is so much more enjoyable now that it's warmer out. Of course it's always a beautiful city, but especially now that it's filled with green trees, flowers and the occasional bit of sunshine. We've developed a great group of friends over the last 3 or 4 months, and now just as I'm feeling really settled it's time to leave. Exactly how I felt in Korea. And exactly why I'm ready to live somewhere I plan on staying for a long time.

It's not like we have to leave now, but the timing just seems to make sense. We came here imagining that we would stay for 10 months till the end of June, and that's what we're doing. from what I hear, in the summer, things slow down. Most people take vacation, so there isn't that much work available teaching English. Plus, all of our friends are leaving at the same time as us. So it just makes sense.

So for the next month before we leave, we will be trying to enjoy our time in Prague to the fullest. Relaxing at beer gardens in the sun, Friday afternoon frisbee days, wandering around the old town and marveling at the beauty of it all. After all, it won't be too much longer that I get to look at the beautiful scene like the one pictured above and think: I live here.

snow, Snow, SNOW!

And lots of it!

Everyone has been saying lately that it actually doesn't snow very much in Prague usually. And by seeing how they're dealing with the snow, I'm starting to believe it. It has been snowing pretty much now stop for the last four days and has really been piling up.

In the States, I feel like cities deal with snow in one of two ways:

-If it's a city that normally gets snow, they deal with it pretty fast and clean it up so people can go about their normal business.

-Or, in states where snow is uncommon, it will snow an inch and the whole city will shut down.

So I get that it doesn't normally snow a TON in Prague, but snow is a regular occurrence and they should be prepared. But no, no, no. This is not the case.

The streets here have hardly been plowed and snow is piled high on the sidewalks. I haven't seen a single snow plow in the streets and have noticed very few people shoveling the sidewalks. There is slush everywhere, your shoes get soaked, and you really have to make an effort just to walk down the street. (On a positive note, I'm building up big calf muscles rather quickly.) And many streets really haven't been cleared at all, only from the cars driving by and pushing it around with their tires.

The worst part is the trams. The city doesn't even bother to clean the snow from their tracks. So of course, this means constant delays. A tram ride that should take 15 minutes is now turned into 30. Or sometimes, the tram just doesn't come at all. So I'm really looking forward to my tram ride I have to do tomorrow morning to one of my classes. On a good day, this particular ride takes about an hour. Ahhhhhh.... snow!

Christmastime in Prague

Mmmm.... you can smell it in the air... Christmas is here! Although it may be unusually warm for December and we haven't seen a flake of snow since one day in early October, Christmas is definitely in the air. Even though the Czech Republic is highly un-religious (which I mentioned in a previous post), Christmas is still a wildly popular holiday. The holiday topic has been popping up in my classes since I first started teaching in October. And now, with the arrival of the Christmas markets, it's pretty much unavoidable. I have heard that the Markets in some of the neighboring countries (or even in small Czech towns) are better than those in Prague, but the ones here in the city are still perfectly enjoyable.

The biggest market is held in the Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti), with a few other markets in some smaller squares around town. There are small wooden booths set up around the square, selling gifts, food and drink. They are decorated with pines and lights with a HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of it all.

Saturday night Jason and I headed out to the Old Town to see the festive atmosphere and drink some delicious hot wine (tastes like apple cider... with wine) and eat some tasty cinnamon rings. (okay, so I don't know what they're really called. But it's dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar and wrapped around a metal rod and cooked over a fire. They slide them off the rod and look like a big cinnamon bangle bracelet or something. So bad yet SO good!)

And another reason we chose to go to the market on Saturday night was to witness the Czech Advent tradition of St. Nicholas. Every year on November 5th, St. Nicholas comes to ask the children if they've been good or bad and give them sweets or rotten potatoes accordingly. An angel and a devil accompany St. Nick. The devil rattles his chains and tries to intimidate the children, asking them what they have done wrong and making them sing songs. The angel obviously is the nice one in this team, praising the children for what they have done well and offering them candy.

Apparently people here really enjoy the tradition as the streets were filled with people dressed up in elaborate costumes. Nicholas wears a full Cardinal's outfit with a large staff and all. The devils were painted completely black with glowing horns and dragging chains, and angels in white gowns with large wings. Trios of St. Nick, the angel and the devil strolled the streets looking for innocent children to harass. It was pretty funny to watch, and some people seemed really into it. Especially teenagers who were most likely bothered by the devil not so many years ago, out to get their revenge on the young children today.

Obviously we have some similar traditions in the States, but nothing quite to this affect. Another Czech Christmas difference I've learned from some of my students about is about who brings the gifts. In the US, all children know that Santa Claus flies around in his sled on Christmas Eve, delivering gifts to all the good girls and boys around the world. Here, there is no Santa. Baby Jesus is the one who delivers presents on Christmas Eve (to be opened that night).

One of my students, explaining that her children no longer believe in the myths of Christmas told me, "My children are older now so they don't believe in Baby Jesus anymore."

Prague's Top Sites

Story from CNN about some of Prague's top sites! I'm lucky to be living in such a beautiful city!

(CNN) -- Prague has not been nicknamed "Zlata Praha" or "Golden Prague" for no good reason. The well-deserved eponym is a tribute to this city that mixes architecture, history, art and beauty like no other.

While not forgetting its more somber communist past, Prague has been one of the first East European cities to get a luxurious makeover. Designer shopping malls, exclusive restaurants and trendy nightclubs abound.

But it is the mystical atmosphere of a Prague of past eras that leaves many visitors craving to come back. Largely untouched by the ravages of WWII, Prague is arguably the only European city with so many century-old buildings left intact for people to enjoy.

All more impressive than the others, these are the historical sites you should not miss in Prague.

Wenceslas Square: In 1348, King Charles IV of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) founded the town of Prague. The King built several open areas for markets, including Wenceslas Square, previously known as the Horse Market.

Named after Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech state, the square is the largest in the city and was at the center of much of Prague's history, including the Nazi occupation, the Soviet invasion, and the Velvet Revolution.

In 1969, Prague student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. And in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution that overthrew the Communist regime, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered here to protest.

Today the square has become one of the trendiest and busiest in the country. Lining Wenceslas Square are fashion stores, cafes, bars and kiosks. Above the square is Prague's Museum of Natural History, which was shot at by Communist troops when they mistook it for the Parliament building.

Prague Castle: Kings, Roman Emperors and Presidents have lived in this legendary castle that overlooks the city. The castle is the largest medieval castle complex in Europe and arguable Prague's prime tourist attraction. First built in the 9th century, Prague Castle has survived wars, fires and opposing political powers.

The castle complex consists of the Saint Virtus Cathedral, viewing towers, a monastery, museums and art galleries. The Czech crown jewels are also held here.

After Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, the castle became the seat of the President of the new Czech Republic.Gallery: Prague gallery

Charles Bridge: This magnificent 14th century gothic bridge over Prague's Vltava river is lined with a series of large stone statues that represent important religious figures and icons.

Its construction started in 1357 under King Charles IV and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. Until the 19th century, the bridge was the only way to cross between the Old Town and adjacent areas, also known as the "Lesser Town."

During the day, thousands of people traverse the bridge to watch the views of the city and enjoy the numerous street performers.

Dancing House: A masterpiece of modern architecture, Dancing House was named after dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Dancing House is also sometimes nicknamed "Drunk House" for its wavy curves.

The building was constructed between 1992 and 1996 by Czech architect Vlado Milunc and world-renowned Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The top floor houses one of the city's most exclusive restaurants, Celeste.

Old Town Square: Located in the heart of the Old Town, this square included Prague's gothic Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century. The church's towers are 80 meters high and topped by small golden spires.

Another fixture of the Old Town Square is the baroque-style St. Nicholas Church.

In the center of the square is a large statue of Jan Hus, a Catholic priest who was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy in 1415.

But the most popular attraction for visitors of the square is the famous Astronomical Clock.

Astronomical Clock: Built in 1410, the Astronomical Clock still functions and provides accurate data on a number of astrological events, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon and major planets.

Each hour, the clock bells and a series of moving wooden puppets come out. Below the Astronomical Clock are 12 medallions with the signs of the zodiac, added by painter Josef Manes in 1865.

Prague Cathedral: Saint Vitus's Cathedral is another one of Prague's Gothic masterpieces. The Cathedral, set in the walls of the Prague Castle, was commissioned by King Charles IV and work on it began in 1344. It took nearly six centuries to complete.

Today it is the seat of the Archbishop of Prague and contains the tombs of many of the Bohemian Kings. The interior features stained-glass windows from different eras.

One of the cathedral's chambers was used to crown several Kings and it is said the room can only be opened with seven golden keys given to different members of parliament.

Vyshehrad: The old fortress of Vyshehrad and its surrounding parks is the place where the city of Prague was originally founded and around which the city was built. It is a great place to get a sense of the history of the city.

Its thick walls house the National Cemetery, where many of Prague's most illustrious citizens are buried, including Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvorak and writer Karel Capek.

......so who's coming to visit!? :)

Photos, Photos, Photos!

I finally did the big upload!

Brussels photos here.

Vienna photos here.

Prague photos here.

Enjoy!

Life in the CZ

Okay, I know I've been a little behind about writing about life in Prague. We haven't had properly functioning internet at home until now, so it's been hard to update. But I really do want to keep u with my blog a little better, so it's my goal to write more on here. Starting..... NOW!

Life is Prague has definitely been a little crazy. Getting settled here has been much much more of a challenge than the other countries we have moved to (Peru and Korea). In Korea, we had everything settled before we even left the US: jobs, work visas, apartments, etc. In Prague, we came with NOTHING. All we had was a hotel to stay in for the first four nights and some names of schools to start sending our resumes to. So when we got here, we hit the ground running.

Luckily, we found an apartment after about 3 days. We met a nice British guy who worked at the hotel we were staying at (he has since become a good friend here) and asked him for any tips on getting settled here. He just so happened to have a friend who was moving out and needed to sublet his apartment for a while. Perfect! The apartment was in a really nice area of Prague, but a little far from the center. It was also pretty old and not the nicest place ever. But it was fine. But after a couple months of living there, we decided we needed something new. And the guy we were subletting from was planning on moving back in in January. So we had to find a new place eventually. We found a really nice apartment closer to the center and closer to a metro station and just moved in three days ago. The only trade off was that we couldn't afford to live in a central location by ourselves. So we are sharing a place with two other American girls, both teachers as well. The apartment is big, recently redone so everything is nice and new, and we have a nice big bedroom on the 5th floor with a little view! Life is good.

We started going on job interviews our second day in the city and landed our first offers after about a week. Like everywhere else in the world, the Czech Republic has been affected by the financial crisis (although not as much as many of it's neighboring countries). Because of this, we realized we were most likely not going to be able to find full time jobs. We both ended up getting two part time jobs, which leads to plenty of work. Jason and I both work at a small language agency and then we each have separate jobs at two bigger schools.

I use the term "school" loosely here, as very little of the actual teaching is done in the school. The majority of classes in the Czech Republic are taught 'in company', meaning a language teacher is sent out to various companies around the city and teachers individuals or groups in their own company. So, I spend my days running around all different parts of the city. I go everywhere from the very heart of Prague to places that I don't think are even technically considered to be part of Prague. This definitely was a little crazy at first, figuring out everywhere to go and how to get there, but after a few weeks it became pretty easy to get it down. All of my classes are once a week, so my schedule is different everyday. On some days (like Wednesday, my easy day) I just have one class in the morning and one in the evening. Lots of free time during the day to plan for classes, come home and relax, etc. However on other days (like Thursday, my busy day) I go non-stop from 8am to 6pm - 5 classes that day.

I have almost all individual classes and most of my students are at a pretty high level. So I have a lot of conversation classes where we spend our time just talking about various topics. I have a lot of students that are very interesting people and make my classes really enjoyable. I learn a lot about Czech culture, food, history, etc. from them. A lot of my students have very interesting jobs, and it's a good experience for me to get to talk to all these successful and different people. I teach everyone from a high school aged model, to the owner of a media production company.

And as for the visa process...... still working on it. Jason is further along on his than I am on mine, and we're getting different types of visas. Coming here, there was so much mixed information, it was really hard to figure out what our best options were and how we should go about doing different things. One of the big questions we had was about the visa. You can choose to get either a regular employment visa or a business license (Zivno). The advantages of the business license is that you don't have taxes taken out (you're supposed to be able to keep more of your money with the Zivno) and you have the freedom to work how ever many jobs you want. I got convinced to do the Zivno, so I'm in the process of doing that. I have to go to Germany on Friday to apply for the visa at the embassy, so we'll see how that goes...

Only problem with the Zivno that we're just learning about, is that I may not be able to leave the country for quite some time. It has a long processing time - several months- and until it's finished being processed, I'll kinda be here illegally as far as I understand. So if I were to try to leave the Czech Republic and come back in, my tourist visa would be expired and I might not be able to do it. This is going to be a problem for Christmas when we have two weeks off and were hoping to travel to some warmer countries... Border patrol is pretty lax in these parts, so we may just be able to go somewhere by bus or train where we won't be stopped and have our passports checked. We'll see!

So that's life here in Prague. Who's coming to visit!?!

Prague: The Beginning

What a whirlwind! We have now been in Prague for about 2 and 1/2 weeks, and it has flown by! Been a little hectic and crazy, but I think we're starting to get the hang of things here.

But before all of that... I had a great visit in New York and New Jersey. Got to see a bunch of friends and family, and Jason joined me out there for a couple of days as well. We had a great trip.

From NJ, we flew to Brussels and had a day stop over there before heading to Prague. Both Jason and I had been there before, but it's been about 10 years for both of us. I barely remember it from my first visit, so it was fun to go back and spend the day walking around. We got pretty tired by the end of it, but got to visit a cathedral, beautiful park and gardens, the main square, etc... And of course, we took some time on our first day in Europe to sit out at a cafe and enjoy a cup of tea. Always a must.

After our great day in Belgium, we were exhausted and slept the entire flight from take off to touch down to Prague. We sleepily made our way on the bus and metro and found our great hotel near the center of Prague (thanks to a coupon from Expedia we got the place for 1/2 price!). [By the way... we were disappointed to NOT go through customs and get a stamp when entering Prague! Only got one when arriving in Brussels. Bummer!]

Our hotel ended up being a great base for us for the first four days. Luck would have it that a friendly British guy working at our hotel had a friend who needed to sublet an apartment. So after just four days in the city we moved into a little apartment for a great price.

So for the last week and a half, we have had a home! It's a very simple place but is clean and comfortable and has everything we need (pretty much...). We're trying to figure out if we'll stay here or move on to a new place. The area where we are living is very nice with many cute cafes and restaurants and even an organic grocer right down the street! I was thrilled. Only problem is that it's a little ways from the center, takes a while to get anywhere. And while that even wouldn't be so bad if we were working regular 9-5 jobs and only had to go back and forth once a day, we're not.

Teaching in Prague is definitely handled differently than other places I've taught. Most "schools" here don't really hold many classes at their offices, but rather send teachers to companies and private residences to teach courses there. It seems like there will be good (variety, not being stuck in your school all day) and bad things (lots of travel time) about this. That means that some classes might be really far from the center and there could be up to an hour travel time between different lessons - this is why a 'full time' schedule here is only around 20 hours a week.

And the other thing that's different - and this might just be because of the bad economy, I'm not sure - it's difficult to find full time jobs. Most schools we interviewed with were only hiring part time positions. So, here I am now, with two part time teaching jobs. I'm a little nervous about balancing them and scheduling issues that might arise. But I guess I'll handle that problem when it happens. So my two schools" both seem good, different from one another. One is a smaller school that handles mostly private individuals with one-on-one classes and is pretty flexible with how the courses are run. The other school is big, about 2000 students with some big name companies. Everything is pretty fixed, although still leaves more of the planning up to the teacher than the other places I've worked. And even though they offer a lot of support for their teachers, it really seems pretty impersonal, such as many big companies are.

So far I've only taught one lesson, which was with an 18 year old high school student/model. I think I'm bound to meet some interesting people here...
More of my classes will begin this week or in October.

So, this is life in Prague so far. As for the city itself, it is incredibly beautiful. We've been so busy figuring out life here we haven't had much time to explore the city and see the sites. We did take two days to see things and think we are going to do more of it this weekend.

Prague, Here We Come!

After months and months of indecisiveness, we have finally arrived at a decision! In just a matter of weeks we will be making the big move to Prague, Czech Republic. We're both very excited and a little nervous about our next destination. We're moving there without anything prearranged, so it makes it a little scary. At our previous destinations pretty much everything was set up before we arrived. But this time, we don't have a job or a place to live or anything, really. But that's not because of poor planning or few options. Things just work a little differently in the Czech Republic. Where as most other parts of the world will hire English teachers through email and phone interviews, it doesn't work that way there. It makes it a little scary, but it will actually be better for both the school and for us to be able to see the school and meet the staff before signing a contract. This way we'll know what we're getting into and won't get into a bad work situation without knowing something about the school first.

So the big question everyone seems to be asking is, "Why Prague?" And to that I say, "Why not Prague?"

Neither Jason or I have ever been there, but it's a place that we've both had a strong interest in visiting, as well as the rest of Eastern Europe. And Prague seems to be one of the big spots for American Expats and teaching English. (Probably our ideal place in Europe would be Spain, but it is very, very difficult to get a job there as a Non-EU passport holder for visa issues.) Prague is supposed to be a wonderful city, everyone who visits loves it. When I studied abroad it college, I loved living in Europe and I'm excited to be back there again.

The other reason to go to Prague, is that this is just how it worked out with applying for jobs. Some of our other hopeful options kind of fell through. We had considered going back to Korea, but with North Korea becoming more of a threat in recent months we decided against it. We had also looked into some positions in Mexico and Japan, but nothing was really working out how we had hoped it would. The Czech Republic was always kind of the option that we thought we'd be able to work out no matter what. But don't get me wrong, we are both very excited for this new adventure.

Our first few weeks in Prague will surely be a little stressful, finding a job and an apartment and everything, but I have faith that it will all work out. And if it doesn't? Well, then we got to vacation in Prague anyway.

My future home, in just a few weeks!