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!? :)

End of an Era

Over a year after it should have, our school in Korea finally closed it's doors on Wednesday November 25, 2009.

RIP Brighten English School. You will not be missed.

Bratislava

Last weekend Jason and I made a little juant down across the border to Slovakia. The capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, is only about 4 hours away from Prague. I only have one class on Fridays and it has been canceled for the last 3 weeks, and Jason only has 2 Friday classes which he was able to reschedule. We knew that we wanted to head to Bratislava at some point while we were in Prague, but we had a little bit of motivation for going on this particular weekend. As you should know, Jason is a big soccer fan. The US national soccer team had a friendly game scheduled to play against Slovakia for last Saturday. So we decided it would be a good time to check out the city. So we caught a 7 AM bus on Friday morning and made it to Bratislava a little after 11.

It's a tiny little capital, but has some nice areas to walk around in the old city center. There are some great pedestrian streets filled with shops, restaurants and pubs. We wandered around for a while and made our way up to the Bratislava Castle, which sits on a small hill overlooking the city. Unfortunately, it is undergoing renovations, so you can't go inside and some of the ground area closed. The main castle building has recently been repainted bright white. Now it looks so new and perfect that you'd think it was some fancy new hotel, not a centuries old castle.

But there were nice views of Bratislava and the beautiful countryside and the winding Danube River. Looking west from the castle, you can see dozens and dozens of electricity generating windmills. Looking this direction you think Slovakia must be concerned about the environment and is trying to do their part to help. Then when you turn to look at the view to the east, you see dozens and dozens of factories with smoke stacks polluting the air. Lovely. I take back my previous statement. You can also see the city's "famous" bridge, the Novy Most, which looks like a UFO is landing on bridge. It's interesting, and clearly from the '70s.

So after a day of wandering around the city, testing Slovak beer (simply for testing purposes, to compare to Czech beer), and a tasty meal, we went to pick up our tickets for the USA vs. Slovakia game. Thanks to some of Jason's soccer connections in the States, we were able to get 4 free tickets to the game. We had to run by the Holiday Inn where the team was staying and meet with the team manager to get our tickets. Before we went, we had all these ideas of how excited the team was going to be that we made it all the way to Slovakia for a game and they were going to invite us to dinner and give us warm ups and a special VIP box at the game. But, surprisingly enough, none of that actually happened. Huh.

We then went to meet up with our wonderful host for the weekend, a very friendly Slovak girl named Dana who we found through Couch Surfing. For those of you who don't know about Couch Surfing..... it's an online community similar to Facebook, but it is specifically for finding people to stay with or meet up with while you're traveling. I know, it sounds like it could be a little sketchy, but it actually seems pretty safe/legit. Everyone has a profile with photos and information about themselves. Then after people stay with them, they write reviews (just as you would review a hotel) for other people to learn about the person. I know there could still be some problems, but it really seems like they're making it as trustworthy as possible. And I think most people who get involved with it are like minded people and really just want to meet other travelers. Anyway, it is a great way to meet locals and save money at the same time. If you're interested, check it out here.

So we met Dana and went to her cute little apartment in one of the many old communist block apartment buildings. Her place was comfortable and we enjoyed staying with her and hearing her stories and getting some great travel advice from her.

Saturday was the big game. Online, we found a group of Americans that were planning on meeting up in a pub in the center a few hours before the game. So we found the pub and met about 15 other Americans there. Most of them were living in England, either working or studying. There were also a few diplomats from Vienna, and even one couple who flew all the way from Chicago to Bratislava for the weekend just to go to the game. Wow. It wasn't even an important game!

We had a good time chatting and getting to know one another before heading to the game in the afternoon. When we got there, we were quickly escorted by a few security guards who showed us to our special Americans section. The security guards stayed with us the whole game, I think we had about 8 of them surrounding the group of 15 of us. The US ended up losing the game, bummer. But we still had fun in our little cheering section, trying and failing to cheer as loud as the thousands of Slovak fans.

For our last day in Slovkia, we took a bus about 15km outside of the city to another old castle, called the Devin Castle. It is completely in ruins now, but you can walk around and stones and get some great views. There are still some towers standing that look pretty cool, and you can imagine what the castle must have looked like in its glory days. It is also right on the Danube River and is only 3km from Austria and about 12km from Hungary. We had warm, perfect weather that day and it was just wonderful to walk around outside.

Outside the stadium with some of the American crew.

Different.

Living in the Czech Republic I find myself comparing my experiences here to those I had in Korea. Clearly there are more cultural differences than I could possibly mention. But most of what I'm noticing is how my interactions with the cultures differ.

In Korea, I obviously did not look Korean. No one ever tried to speak Korean to me and they were never surprised when I didn't understand them. We would get many stares- especially from older people or little kids. Many kids would even stop, point and say to their patents "mi guk!" (foreigner). I got used to life as a minority and not being able to blend with the culture. No matter what I did, even if I learned to speak Korean fluently, I would still stand out as being different and being a foreigner.

In Prague it is completely opposite. I am just another white, European person and look like any other Czech girl walking down the street. My style is similar to Czech fashion, my hair color is spot on, etc. I get stopped at least once a day where someone tries to speak Czech to me. Ask directions, try to sell me something, older people when i give up my seat to them on the tram, whatever. And at the deli when I am buying some lunch meat and the sales person tries to ask me a question and just looks at me like I'm stupid for not understanding something so simple, until they realize that I'm not Czech. In any of these situations there's always the awkward moment when I try to make it clear that I don't understand. "No Czech, English." and this usually doesn't happen until they've rattled off half of what they were tring to say. I hate dealing with these situations and it almost make me miss Korea where no one would talk to me, never even hand me promo fliers in the metro, never have the confused look on their face when I didn't know what they were saying.

I had told myself that I wasn't going to make the same mistakes I made in Korea as far as not learning the language. But now, I'm not so sure if it's going to happen. I had hoped to sign up for a free Czech class through one of my language schools but unfortunately it doesn't fit with my schedule. So I bought a Czech phrase book and decided I would try to learn some on my own. But the pronunciation is so different from English that I don't even know where to start. How do you pronounce "zd" together? And what's the difference between č and c? Û, ú and u?
And it's not only that. While they only have simple verb tenses (no continuous or perfect tenses), they congigate nouns and change endings for masculine and feminine. For example, "Prague" in Czech can be Praha, Praze, Prasky and probably a lot of other versions that I don't even know.
So we'll see how far I get on my own. Many of my students really want me to try learning it and ask about my progress every week. And then just smile and laugh when I try to say anything in Czech.

So, back to my Korea vs. Czech ideas... While it is of course nice to be able to blend and not stand out all the time, when you feel like a stranger in a strange land it is kind of nice to not be confused as something different. And as a white American, I think it was a very good experience for me to spend a year as a minority. But that's a whole other story.

I don't think I'm really going anywhere with this, just observing the differences. So that's where I'm at. I will try to learn some more Czech to make life easier. Maybe I can at least learn "I don't speak Czech."

A History Lesson....

One of the best things about living in foreign countries is learning things that I would never have either the opportunity or desire to learn much about back home. And here in the Czech Republic, teaching well educated adults, I've been given a lot of opportunities to learn about Czech history, mostly from first hand accounts.

As the Czech Republic gets ready to commemorate the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism twenty years ago next Tuesday, I thought I would take the time to share some insight that my students have shared with me.

One of my students, Pavel, has shared a lot of his experiences growing up in a communistic society with me. He says his father had some trouble with the police because he was involved in some protests in the 60's. Because of this, Pavel wasn't allowed to go to high school. Even though he had some of the best marks of his class and successfully passed his entrance exams, he was told that there was no more room at the school. He was sent to a vocational high school where he learned some trade work and was eventually allowed to attend a regular high school. But this meant leaving his hometown and moving to Prague by himself at the age of 15.

He also told the story of his brother who left their hometown to study in another part of the country. He has to change his last name so no one would know he was related to the family, and Pavel was never allowed to talk about his brother in public.

Students tell me stories of "voting" during the communistic rule. It was reported that 99.99% of the people voted and they all voted for the communism leader. Well, this was obviously because they were given no other options. You had to go to the polling place on the day of the election and fill in the ballot, even though there was only one option. And if you chose to go into a private booth to fill in your answers (such as is common practice now) it would be noted and you would probably be questioned and black listed later.

I have another student, Josef, who told me his memories of the Velvet Revolution. He was actually involved in the revolution and participated by spreading the word throughout the towns and villages around the Czech Republic. He said he would make posters and traveled around the country posting the information to those who were out of touch with the happenings in the big city.

He also remembers the days before the revolution when he was a university student. He says he liked metal bands, such as Metallica, but he was only able to buy their music on black markets and had to be careful about it. Music that was ok'd by the regime? ABBA and Michael Jackson. He also said that some foreign products, like Coca Cola, were available in Czechoslovakia. But they were only in specialty stores which used some certain type of bank notes that only foreigns were able to obtain in exchange for their foreign money.

Now, about 15% of the Czech population still supports the communistic party. Who makes up this 15%?, I ask. Older, poor people is the answer. The small part of the population that actually benefited from communism.

Even though the Czech Republic is traditionally a Catholic country with beautiful cathedrals littering the countryside, there are very few people practicing religion today. Only about 25%. And in Prague, I hear it is even lower, more like 10%. I think this has to be one of the most - if not THE most- unreligious cities in the world. When I talk to some of my students in their 20's about religion, they say that they don't know a single person who attends church and believes in God. One student says she "goes to church" occasionally. When I ask her more about it, she says that she goes to see the cathedral, not to attend mass. Maybe she will attend mass on Christmas, she says. But she describes that mass as not being religious, more just well wishing for everyone. Surely much of this is due to the cummunistic rule that was in place for decades and did not allow religion. But, there are other countries that have been under communism for just as long. So what makes the Czech Republic different? I'm still not sure...

In one of my classes the word "confiscated" came up one day. When I tried to check my students' understanding of the word, I got a little bit of laughter along with this response: "If you've ever lived in a communistic country, you know the meaning of the word confiscated."

While most people I speak with seem to feel very strongly about communism and there are clearly still fresh wounds there, I have one student who doesn't seem to care too much. She says she thinks very few people's lives were changed by the fall of communism. Most people's everyday lives are the same as before, she says. But, I think she might be in the minority on this. While it's probably true that most people's lives didn't immediately change, I think everyone will cite plenty of differences between their past lives and today.

Happy Birthday Sehyun

Sehyun's 5th Birthday party at my school in Korea.

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!?!

But What Does It All Mean!?

In Korean:

Ne = Yes

Anio = No

In Czech:

Ano = Yes

Ne = No

You see my confusion? After a year in Korea I got the words so ingrained into my mind that I'm having a lot of trouble changing it. I usually find myself in shops saying no (Ne) but nodding my head yes. I know I'm confused and I can't imagine how the poor shop keepers feel.

Also, to indicate the number one, I am used to holding up my index finger as we do in the States. However, here, that means two. One is indicated by your thumb.

So, here I am in a shop trying to buy.... let's say, a croissant. I say "one," hold up my index finger, nod my head "yes" and say "Ne". The shop keeper just stares in udder confusion.

Who knew a simple task could be so confusing?

The Vienna Weekend

Me at the Schonbrunn Palace

So a couple weeks ago now, we had a nice 4 day weekend which we decided to spend in the beautiful city of Vienna. Here's the great thing about living in Europe: access to many amazing cities just a short bus/train/plane ride away. We took an overnight bus to Vienna on Thursday night and arrived bright and early at 5:00 AM. Well, it was early but I don't think we were feeling so bright at that time of day after little sleep on the bus...

So after checking into our hotel at 5am and taking a 2 hour nap on the couch in the lobby, it was time to set out to see the city at 7am on a Friday. During our 3 days in the city, we saw some beautiful and amazing sites. I have to admit that I didn't actually know that much about Vienna before visiting. I really didn't know what to expect from the city. But I was certainly impressed. The best word I can think of to describe the city is: grandiose. There are amazing palaces, beautiful government buildings and ancient cathedrals galore and everything is big and impressive. And it’s a city of music! Obviously so many great composers have come out of Austria (Beethoven, Straus and Hayden to name a few….) and that history is still very present in the city today.

We spent our time in Vienna walking around taking in as much of the city as we could. We were on the go basically non-stop from morning till night during our full 3 days there. We saw too much for me to remember or even tell you about. But some of the highlights include:

St. Peter’s Church

Taking in a classical concert with an orchestra, opera singers and ballet dancers

The amazing gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace

The Great Hall of the National Library

The copula in the State Hall

And to me, the very best was our first night spent wandering around the city. Outside of a beautiful government building we found a great circus that had set up some semi-permanent attractions. I really wanted to see the circus (it looked so inviting!) but we decided against it… maybe if they would have had elephants it would have been a different story. :)

But anyway, the circus had a great tent with lively music set up right outside a beautiful white building with a great clock tower. And outside of the tent there were stalls set up selling ethnic food from all different regions of the world (although they had hamburgers as the food from Mexico. Hmmm, not really what I would call Mexican food). We dined on some great Indian food and got to do some good people watching.

After dinner we wandered on to see some more of the city at night. We stopped into a church in the center of town, which was hauntingly still and silent. There were just a few other people sitting in the pews in the dark candlelit room, listening to the recorded chats playing from the alter. If you know me you know that I am not a very religious person, but this experience was moving even for me. It was so peaceful and seemed like such a wonderful refuge, it had a perfect atmosphere and I could feel the spirituality in the room.

Leaving the church, we wandered through the streets and happened upon a lone violin player, filling the quiet streets with his music. We stopped and listened to him play a few songs. I couldn’t imagine anything better. After that, a nice glass of wine sitting outside a café was the perfect way to end a perfect day.

Karls Church

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.

The Wonderful Summer

Ahhhh.... summertime. It has been a great one. I was so happy I had the opportunity to be at home in Colorado this summer, not working and just enjoying life. And that's just what I did.

With Macey and Amy in Minneapolis

Somehow I have managed to stay completely busy this summer and haven't even been able to do all that I wanted to. But, I did get to do some pretty great things. I've made my way to 3 states so far this summer and will head to 2 more before taking off for Prague. I visited Jason down in Dallas and my friends Macey and Amy up in Minneapolis (it was my first time in Minnesota, great!). My dad and I flew his plane for a quick two day trip to LA, where we hung out in the city, visited with my cousin Adam and picked up my suitcase that has been sitting at his house for the last 9 months!! We also had a great scenic flight around the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and The Vegas. (Oh, and we stopped for fuel in Utah on the way there and Arizona on the way back, so I guess that's two more states I've been to this summer if you want to get technical about it.....) And before heading to Prague, I will spend about 5 days in the New York - New Jersey area, visiting friends and family. Jason will meet up with me there and we will take off to Prague (with a day stop in Brussels first) from Jersey. Phew!

Dad and I self-picing on the flight to California at 15,000 ft

We also had a lot of great company visiting this summer. Two of my mom's cousins and their kids came by Colorado for a long weekend during a road trip from California. Jason visited for a couple of weeks, and right after he left, Alicia, my roommate from Barcelona, and her boyfriend, Jimmy, came out for a few days. And of course a few of my great friends from around Colorado came up a couple times to visit. I was so happy to see all of them and had so much fun doing great things around Glenwood with them all. I did so much great hiking and biking this summer once the weather actually got warm enough. And I even faced my fears and went rafting for the first time in about 10 years (Thanks for being a great guide, David!). I went to every Summer of Jazz concert, which was always the highlight of my week. I got to do a little gardening with my mom and loved picking and eating all the fresh fruits and veggies. I made it up to Denver to visit friends a few times and got to go to two great Rockies games with my aunt and uncle.

Jason and I hiking up beautiful Savage Lake

With my parents and cousins up Hanging Lake

Really, what more could I ask for? It's been wonderful. Oh, and one of the best things has been the adorable new cat my family has acquired. My mom and I randomly decided to adopt a cat who was being transferred from one animal shelter to another. He's a very sweet and playful cat, and I'm really going to miss him when I leave!

Sweet baby Miko, the newest addition to the family

Just 3 more days left in Glenwood. It's definitely bittersweet. Better get packing......

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!

Pictures!!

Jason and I at the Kwang Si Waterfall, Luang Prabang, Laos

Boh Tea Plantation, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Haad Yuan, Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand

The Many faces of Bayon, Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Rice Terraces in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

FINALLY...... after being home for about 6 weeks I have gotten around to loading all of my photos online. We had thousands upon thousands so it took me quite a while to go through them all and try to choose a reasonable number for each album. So here it is! Click here to view my photos from our 3 month jaunt in South East Asia.

Enjoy :)

Home Sweet Home

My Big Family.

I have been having the best time being home and just enjoying beautiful Colorado. It has finally started clearing up and getting nicer out. For about the first month that I was home it rained everyday. But in the last couple of weeks, we have had the beautiful sunny days that Colorado is known so well for. Since I'm not working this summer, everyone keeps asking me what I'm doing to keep busy. Glenwood is a small town and I have very few friends around here these days, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm keeping busy, but I am. I babysit occasionally for a little extra spending money, try to make it to the gym everyday, and apply for jobs, work on uploading pictures (almost done!). I feel really busy and am afraid of how fast my time at home is going, there just isn't enough time to do everything I want to. I had a great visit to Dallas to see Jason and am excited for him to come up here at the end of the month! Next weekend I am going to Minneapolis to visit Macey and Amy, who both happen to be living there right now. I'm excited to see my friends and to go somewhere in the States that I've never been before.

As for the job hunt.... everything is still completely up in the air. Korea is looking like it's probably out, but we're still looking at several other countries. And we could make it back to Korea sometime next year, who knows!

Until next time....

Back in the USA

I've been back home for a little over 2 weeks now and it has been wonderful. Our travels were amazing and I wasn't ready for the trip to be over in the end, but there's definetly something to be said for sleeping in your own bed. I've loved so much relaxing in my parents' beautiful house, eating the delicious food my mom makes and having my own space in a clean and comfortable room. Oh yeah, it's been nice spending time with my family and friends, too. Actually, it's been really great. I didn't realize just how much I had missed my parents until I finally saw them again. I've been doing so much since i've been home, I didn't even have time to finish unpacking my suitcases until a couple days ago. And here I thought I might not have enough to do and get bored! Colorado spring (the weather is not quite acting like summer yet) is beautiful and I love being outside hiking, biking, doing some gardening and enjoying the fresh mountain air.

Right now I am on yet another plane, headed down to Dallas to visit Jason. I'll be there for a week and a half and then later in the summer Jason will come up to Colorado for a visit. Our future plans are still up in the air at this point. We were planning on going back to Korea but situations have been deteriorating there lately so we're not sure yet if it would be a good idea to go back there or not. We were also looking at Japan but just learned that the JET program (the main resource for teaching English in Japan) involves a 9 month application period and we just don't have that kind of time. Whatever we are going to do we need to figure out in the next couple of weeks if we want to leave around the end of August. I'll keep "y'all" posted...

Goin' Home.....

3 wonderful months. 6 beautiful countries. An experience I will never forget.

As sad as I was for it to be over so quickly, I was also very excited to be going home. I'm heading back to the States right now for the first time in 15 months. Seeing my parents for the first time in just as long. It feels strange but it will be great to me home.

I'm going to sleep in MY bed.
Shower in MY shower.
Drive MY car.
Go to the grocery store and be able to find the things I want.
Walk into a store and communicate with the clerk without using hand gestures.
Eat delicious food.
Relax in the comfort of a beautiful home.

These are the things people miss while living abroad and the things I cannot wait to do when I get home.

I left Bali, which I have not yet written about but was amazing, and headed back to Seoul for a few days to tie up some loose ends. Bali was where Jason and I parted, he flew to Tokyo then Dallas and I came back to Seoul. I had a great two days here staying with my friend Kelly and seeing other friends for dinner. I made the dreaded last visit to my school and somehow the owner pulled it off and we were paid all of the money we were owed. Everything just worked.

And now for the long trip home. On my way to the airport right now where I will fly Seoul-> Tokyo-> LA-> Denver and drive back to Glenwood. It's along journey but a great one nonetheless.

Malaysia Wrapup

What a beautiful country filled with wonderful people! After we left the amazing Perhentian Islands we headed up into the mountains to the Cameron Highlands. This area is an old British hill station, dotted with small towns, the rolling hills covered in farms and rain forests. We stayed in a very unique guest house composed of bunker like buildings leftover from around 100 years ago.

Our first full day in the Cameron Highlands we hooked up with 3 other people staying at our guest house and decided to go check out the "Boh Sungai Palas" tea plantation. We took a bus out of town and then walked a few more kilometers to the plantation. The bright green tea fields on the rolling hills were a sight to be seen. We watched as farmers harvested the tea leaves and admired the beauty around us while enjoying a cup of tea at the plantation. After finishing our visit there we decided to continue our trek and head up to the top of a nearby mountain. The book said it was only a 2 hour walk up... we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The road all the way up was a steady and steep climb with around a 1000 meter elevation gain (the peak is exactly 6666 ft high... Hmmm...). We eventually made it to the top of the mountain after some confusion since none of the roads and trails are marked. We arrived at the top just in time for the clouds to roll in and cover us in fog which was really beautiful in the middle of the forest.

From there there was a "jungle walk" that we were supposed to be able to take back down the mountain. Well I have done a few different jungle treks by now but nothing like this one. We climbed straight down the mountain through thick mud and over/under/around trees and roots. It was such slow going we only went about half a kilometer in 45 minutes. By the time we made it down we were covered in mud and exhausted. We figured that we had done a 9+ mile hike, and that was after weeks of inactivity at the beach to make it worse. I was sore for days to come after that one.

After another day of easier hiking and touring around the Cameron Highlands we headed south to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. What I love about KL is the international and multi-cultural feel it has to it. You walk down the street and see a woman covered from head to toe in a veil,, Buddhist monks in their red robes and Indian women wearing saris and bindis. And the great thing about it was that there didn't seem to be any tension between the cultures- to an outsider on a quick visit at least. Everone we met no matter their background was very helpful and friendly. It was probably the first city in Asia that I felt like I could even blend into the culture there.

We wandered around the city taking it all in. Visited the Petronas Twin Towers, the ex-tallest buildings in the world before Taipei and Dubai out did them. Got a free tour (on condition that you watch a 15 minute advertisement for Petronas) and went up the towers, to the sky bridge at least. Visited the National Mosque as well as the oldest mosque in Malaysia. Did some shopping and exploring and just enjoyed being in a nice city.

I think many times when people plan their South East Asia trips they don't even consider visiting Malaysia, we met very few people who had been there while we were in other countries. But Malaysia ended up being one of my favorite destinations of the whole trip.

Monster Island!

We just spent a week on what must be one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Close your eyes and imagine an island paradise: soft white sand, clear blue warm water as smooth as glass and palm trees swaying in the light breeze. That place you're imagining is the Perhentian Islands off the coast of Malaysia. It is barely inhabited with just a handful of hotels on the beach and a small fishing village on another part of the island. There isn't even regular electricity: none in the day and generators power the lights and fans for a few hours at night.

As soon as we set foot on the beach all we could say was "Wow." The only way to describe this beach was perfect. So far Koh Pha Ngan was our favorite hang out beach and Koh Phi Phi was the most beautiful island with its limestone cliffs, but Palau Perhentian had by far the most beautiful beach.

However one flaw quickly became apparent in this beautiful place. This was no ordinary island, it was MONSTER Island! While Jason wandered around the beach looking for a place to stay and I waited with the bags I spotted 3 giant spiders. Now if you know me at all you know that I am absolutely terrified of spiders no matter the size. But anyone who saw these things would agree that they were monster sized. The only thing I've seen bigger are some tarantulas. These spiders ranged in size from "small" ones the size of a toddlers hand all the way to that of a hand of a big man with his fingers spread all the way out. And the thing with these spiders was that they were everywhere (except the beach, thank God). We ended up staying at a hotel set back a few hundred meters from the beach where we had to walk along a dirt trail through trees and long grass to get there. Around 15 visible spiders dotted the trail. And at night there were no lights along this path. Our first night walking home I was so scared I actually cried. I eventually got better about dealing with them because what choice do you have? Deal with the thing that terrifies you most or go home. And I wasn't leaving. The only thing that made me feel better was that they NEVER moved from the center of their webs. And the man at our hotel promised me that they were not poisonous and that people even touch them with no problems.

The other reasons I called this Monster Island was because of the 5 foot long Monitor Lizards that inhabited the place and the Mosquitoes the size of a silver dollar. The creatures were so big i was half expecting to find King Kong lurking in the bushes But despite all of the monsters it was an amazing place and we had a great time wasting our days away on the beach.

The Perhentian Islands are also renowned for their incredible diving and snorkeling. Yesterday, our last day on the island, we went out for a snorkeling trip to 3 different sites. We got to swim with -and touch- a giant sea turtle, were surrounded by dozens of fish swimming up to our masks and through our arms and legs (they kept biting me!), see beautiful coral gardens, saw sting rays and even a shark!! When they said we might see a reef shark I imagined a tiny tiger stripped shark maybe a foot and a half long. But this was a big grey shark with black tipped fin, over a meter long! Very cool to see in the wild and somehow I wasn't even scared. Even though I've been doing a lot of snorkeling and boating lately and been fine with it, this time my stomach decided I should share ALL of my breakfast with the hungry fish. Always a fun experience.

Now we are moving along to our next destination. We are currently in the middle of a 5 hour mini bus ride to the Cameron Highlands- an old British hill station filled with tea plantations, strawberry fields, butterfly farms and hiking trails. After a couple days there we'll head to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and then fly to Bali where we'll spend the last week of our trip. I can't believe the 3 months are coming to an end so soon.

And if you're wondering when I'm going to post photos from all of these wonderful places, its going to have to wait until I get home. Internet connections are too slow, and the last time I tried to plug a camera into a computer in Thailand it put a virus on my memory card...

A Night on the Beach

We just spent a whole week in Koh Phi Phi. That's the longest we've stayed in one place since Luang Prabang. Phi Phi is a very touristy island with a small town and tons of stuff to do. And its beautiful. Like really, really beautiful. Limestone cliffs. Jungle. White sand beaches. Even with all of this stuff I still prefer the little beach we stayed at on Koh Pha Ngan. There wasn't near as much to do there, but it wasn't so touristy and I liked our lifestyle there. But all that aside, I still liked Koh Phi Phi and we did some great things there.

By far my favorite thing we did at PP- and one of my favorite things from the entire trip so far- was spend a night on "The Beach" beach. You know, that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio where he goes to Thailand and finds this backpackers paradise on an amazingly beautiful island? Well we slept on that beach.

Its on an island right next to PP (called Koh Phi Phi Ley, the one the town is called Koh Phi Phi Don). In the late afternoon we took a boat out to the island and parked in a small bay opposite from "The Beach" side. There we were able to kayak and snorkel around. It was the best snorkeling we've done so far. The water was so clear and we saw fish every color of the rainbow (including one that was rainbow colored), giant starfish, sea annenemies urchins and cucumbers and amazing coral reefs. Angel fish. Long scary fish that changed colors. Bright yellow flat fish. Curious fish that would come right up to your mask before swimming away. It was truly incredible and there's no way I could describe just how great it was here.

After about an hour playing in the water we hiked through the rocks and the trees to the other side of the island. The trees opened up to snow white sands and emerald green waters in the unbelievable Maya Bay- "The Beach". It was even more perfect and beautiful than in the movie. I was really glad we decided to do an overnight tour rather than just going during the day. We talked to people who went in the day and said it was so packed with people that it wasn't even enjoyable. But by the time we arrived in the bay all of the day tourists and boats were gone. There is only one overnight tour there, so for the whole night there were only about 20 of us on the whole island.
We walked all around the beach and in the water and took photos. That night were served two delicious dinners (apparently the tour guides really like to eat) and relaxed on the white sands and admired the sky filled with a million stars.

Then when we looked into the ocean the beautiful night sky seemed to be reflected in the water. Plankton filled the bay and would glow when washed up on shore or when agitated. They flowed on to the sand mirroring the stars above. We wandered down the short pier and jumped in to swim in the glowing water in the middle of the dark night. It was such a unique experience that I'll remember forever.

Late at night we finally fell asleep just in sleeping bags under the stars. We woke up early and watched the tide come in and the sun light up the water. The light was perfect and I don't think Maya Bay could ever be more beautiful than it was that morning. After breakfast and a morning swim we headed back to PP before the crowds came into the bay.