I'm going into labor...

No, silly, not that kind. So I officially set out today on my mission to become an employed part of the Czech nation! Yay! I started at the post office, where I felt entirely successful after ordering some sort of Kolek stamp for some application or other... I love how even the simplest tasks result in a feeling of such success, after navigating hurdles of language, location and just plain not knowing what's going on. I couldn't help celebrating with a red-cup Starbucks (uhhh.. what's a Pernikove latte? Gingerbread? AWESOME!) Then it was onto the labor office. Another major success in even finding the place across town! But alas, the girl (who spoke very little English) spoke just enough to hand me a whole new set of applications needing signatures, stamps and additional passport copies. So I set right off to school so my director could sign my papers...another huge trek across Prague, into the suburbs. Managed to get everything signed and stamped, stopped back at my flat to get my passport, and scurried back to the office o' labor for round 2. Problem. The number machine is not giving me a number, but rather a slip with lots of Czech on it that doesn't look promising. I stare at the slip for a few minutes, hoping someone will recognize me as clueless and Czech-less. No go. So I sit, the time ticking away as I'm supposed to tutor in an hour, and finally the last lucky man holding a real number gestures to me until I figure out that yes, the Czech on my slip does indeed say I've lost the labor game and the nice Czech lady who helped me before will have no sympathy that I have been all over town and back today! And that my tourist visa is up in 2 weeks...and I need my work permit ASAP...oh no. They are finished. Closed, before 1:30. And Closed on Fridays, conveniently! Le sigh. I will be returning yet again...and this time I'm getting a double shot Sbux to fuel the intensity.

I tutored the rest of the day, which I'm finding, is always a good time. Private in-home tutoring is not only relaxed, but a great insight into Czech culture that I might not get teaching adults in a school. I worked with my 15-year old girl for a while, and chatted at length with her mother about life in Prague pre- and post-Communism. She also made me some great flat cookies the size of my head that are made with some special water found in a special fountain in the Czech Republic. The cookie even has an imprint of this fountain on it. Then I headed down the road for my 90 minute conversation "class" with a couple of 20 and 22-year old siblings. Honestly, I feel guilty getting paid for these lessons, because we literally just chat about anything and everything for 90 minutes, and occasionally I'll eat things like homemade sushi or the like. And get to play with a really cute dog. They've told me so much about life here and I love learning firsthand how life is different here than at home. I know it sounds obvious, but it's really what makes the experience here so great- is not taking your lifestyle at face value, but realizing how every single thing you do is done differently in every single place around the world. It's fun to get a new perspective from people my age- who I have alot in common with. I was told not to go into work tomorrow, as all the kiddos are sick. :( Sad, because I missed them today running all around town! However, I am very incredibly excited, because I get to plan the entire week for next week, THANKSGIVING week!!! I am supposed to teach them all about America and turkeys and making cool hats and handprint crafts and songs and all this kind of shenanigans. And then I went to Tesco (Europe's Target+Macy's my new happy place) and everything was Christmassy and I just did a little happy dance. It's the MOST- wonderful TIME... of the YEAR!!!

11/11! Today I finally can't mess up the date by writing it American style!

But first, a brief continuation of the segment, "Random Things I Like About Prague" (because they far outnumber the "random (and not-so-random) things I don't like about Prague.")

So anyway, more random things I like.

*Preschool. Okay, on the first day, I thought, 'WHAT did I get myself into? This is not English preschool, this is Czech preschool with ONE English speaker: me! But, by day 2 I found out that these kids are ridiculously adorable and I'm going to know so many Czech kids songs by the end of all this!! Also, free lunch and snacks, heyyy.

*The Astronomical Clock: the tourist attraction which is deemed "the world's biggest disappointment!" Apparently, people come the world over to see the clock "come to life" every hour, and well, you should come see it for yourself! I personally love it. Which leads me to...

*The Trumpet Man who trumpets every hour, and who I also fo

und on the Mala Strana side of the Charles Bridge, tooting away his little tune and waving away..

*Completely justifying eating croissants/random pastries for breakfast whenever (errrr..often) because it's Europe, and that's what you eat for breakfast in Europe. Duh.

*Mr. Clean is Mr. Proper here. This is sitting on my washing machine.

*Complete lack of awareness of potential lawsuit situations.. let's just plop a 3 year old on a 6 foot high horse and hope he doesn't fall off! More on this later...

*24-hour places are called "Nonstop"..for some reason I like this. Aptly describes life in Prague has been ever since touchdown.

*The way that every single "quick" trip to the grocery turns into 20 minutes of indecision when faced with the 8 zillion types of cheese... I shouldn't be allowed to go to France at this rate.

*The people. On the outside, they are rather gruff; not smiling in the streets, or offering much in the way of false friendliness. But I have started private tutoring for 3 families, and everyone of them is incredibly genuine and hospitable! They go out of their way to make you feel at home, jelly donuts and homemade sushi included!! No, but really, it's not just the food :) Getting to know Czech people is one reason I'm so glad to be teaching English here, and not just solely hanging out with the expat community.

*The Globe- unexplainably delightful to have a bar/cafe/bookstore where by now, I can walk in there at nearly any time of day or night and meet up with someone I know. Practically all TEFL grads hang out there for happy hour, it's our little home base in Prague! Oh and also, it is the only spot that gives you the whole bottle of ketchup for free!!!!(!!!!!)

*Jumping photos. 'Nuff said.

*Free sangria!

*Random ways they help the environment. No, they don't recycle plastic.... But you must bring your own grocery bags or else buy one each time you shop!

*After 2 months and 3 days, I was walking home from my friend's flat and was struck with a new, odd feeling... it took me a minute to pinpoint it, but I realized- this place finally feels like home. Nothing will be home to me like Seattle! (over salmon pasta at school today (first taste of fish in 2 months), it spurred an entire explanation to my Czech coteacher about how much I miss shellfish and the ocean smelling the salty air and watching the big boats go by..) ...so I know where home home is, but I've found my Europe home, for now :)

Uppies and downies

Things I like about Prague:
~How I'm never going to get over the beauty of the architecture/everything about the city, really
~I live in a city with an amazing castle.
~Not driving. I heart metro.
~Beer AND wine are cheaper than water.
~It's happy hour here at the time I'd be on my way to work at home :)
~Playing guessing games about the weird, weird items at the grocery
~Plethora of random parks, and dogs
~Exploring cafes/bookstores/thrift shops..
~The experience of hearing and seeing a foreign language all around me..quite humbling to be the foreigner for once
~Smack dab in the middle of everywhere I want to travel to :)


Things I don't like about Prague:
~The national cuisine is pretty much the opposite of healthy (though come wintertime, goulash won't sound so bad)
~English speakers aren't exactly the most appreciated population by Czechs outside of the school/classroom
~Random, haphazard job search process...
~Terrifying visa process (as of the moment..)
~The number of times I've electrocuted myself (too many.. does that kill brain cells?)

A hunting I will go...

The past few days, I have been taking my job hunt rather literally, by switching from "mass-emailing CV" mode to the "stake out and attack" approach. Okay, I might be a little dramatic, but it helps me maintain my aggressive mentality. :) Now, job hunting in Prague is very different than it ever was at home. In Seattle, I'd contact various employers and meet at their office, or sometimes a coffee shop or some other sophisticated locale. Right, we've all done this. But job searching here, in keeping with the whole reason I left my life at home to come here, is adventurous and incredibly random. I've found myself sprinting for metros, buses and trams, completely windblown by the time I arrive for my interview at... a construction site outside of the Klementinum (enormous, beautiful library built in 1232...picture below.) Anyway, what I thought was an interview for a very part-time nanny position (stop laughing) turned out to be a recruiter who posted my profile on a couple of random job sites, all in Czech of course. Hoping it turns out to be fruitful.. other random interviews of the day included sprinting through a rainstorm to meet up at a McDonald's and taking a metro, tram and bus 2 hours away to meet a potential tutoring student... when a road sign informed me I was 34 km outside of Prague, I silently prayed that my wacky directional skills could get me home! Also, while it's easy to get by within the city, nobody speaks English past the last metro stop. Nobody. Let alone 30 km away from the last metro stop. Anyhow, the next day, I ventured to some actual preschools, taking the direct attack approach I mentioned earlier. This turned out to be rather lucrative, and lots of fun, as I was able to see areas of Prague I may not have ventured to yet, and of course I love visiting preschools because they are adorable, incredibly brightly colored and have the most adorable names such as Beehive, Panda and Magic Rainbow :) I ran into a random food market at the JZP metro stop, and postponed my shameless self-marketing to sample gingerbread cookies, sausages, cheese and ciders! This was also the day I sat next to a dog on the metro that looked like this:
Now I may have mentioned about the dogs here in Prague; they are the object of a very serious obsession. They are allowed absolutely anywhere- restaurants, stores, public transportation, the works. Which makes for a TON of "awwww, puppyyyyy!" moments, and this straight-up ponytailed pooch was no exception.
So while I'm still getting accustomed to the random, somewhat hap-hazard job search process here in Prague, I've got a few actual interviews scheduled for next week, at preschools (no, I didn't plan on working at a preschool when I came here, but for some reason working with the little ones is just calling my name right now! The plan is to do that most of the time and fit in private tutorings on the side.) Prague has a national holiday on Thursday, so most things will likely shut down from Wed-Friday (if not earlier.) That's the thing about Europe- people take their vacations seriously. I mean, you would never hear of someone skipping a vacation day to go into work. Most people take off for the weekends here regularly, anyway. They have this whole, crazy mentality that maybe you should actually enjoy what you do, and work so you can live. Spend time with your family, visit new places, the whole nine yards. I know. Wild. :) So, in order to stick with our new style of European living, we're taking off for Cesky Krumlov on Wednesday, a picturesque village about 2.5 hours out of Prague. Sometimes in my zest for European travel, I forget that there are so many beautiful towns to visit in the Czech Republic itself! Well, the rest of the day is for reading, coffee drinking and baking with some girlfriends- miss everyone at home tons, and if anyone is itching for a Prague trip...our current couch-surfer, Sarah, can vouch for the hospitality of our little abode :) till next time, nashledanou!

Back home- and home is Prague- and I love that!

.


Wow, it's been awhile since I've been around here! The last few weeks have been madly busy, with working hard to graduate TEFL, actually graduating TEFL, and packing up to travel through Vienna and Budapest with 4 other girls this past week. It was nice to get out of the city for a few days and have some adventures! We stayed at a pretty nice hostel the first 3 nights in Budapest, walked all over, saw castles, did a free walking tour, took a day trip to Szentendre where we saw a marzipan museum, ate at some great cafes including the best dessert in Budapest, and explored the markets! We had 2 days in Vienna, where some girls graciously opened their apartment right in the city center for us to stay! Again, we hit all the major sights, another fabulous outdoor food market, and one of the largest flea markets I have ever seen! I got some neat old letters that I plan to make into some sort of collage, and bartered for some old sheet music with an artsy cover, but the lady wouldn't budge! I found her rather mean. It's a flea market!!! You come here to haggle. And I really wanted old sheet music from Vienna..... but alas. I will settle for my old letters. We returned late last night from our bus from Vienna, to home sweet Prague! How funny that returning "home" from a trip is actually returning to the greatest city of them all (so far!) I love Prague! Although it has its quirks, which I think I will save for another post. Now that life is more settled, I'm going to update this more often, just with thoughts on daily life in Prague, and whatever comes to mind. Some friends of mine are attending a swing dancing class tonight, which I unfortunately am going to have to miss since it begins earlier than I thought, and I didn't wear a skirt to the coffee shop.... but this is my lesson to stop wearing sweats. Even though it's laundry day. It's EUROPE!! People dress cute here. Alright, that's my life lesson for the day. Next plans of action: decorate my room on an unemployed budget, (ambiance is everything; how can I be productive without an inspired environment?!) and fixing said unemployed situation. Hopefully ASAP. Interview at a preschool on Thursday- I'm excited!! Until later... Nashledanou!

Happy hump day!

Is the week already almost half over?! Our group had an Elementary lesson yesterday- the only problem was, it was a national holiday (the fall of Communism, I believe) and we only had one student show up! (who was far more elementary than we had expected.) So the first three girls had to seriously modify their plans, and I ended up teaching them, pretending to be students! (all of this observed to count towards our certification.) Were we ever ready for that day to be over! Today I had my last one-on-one tutoring session (I'm going to miss her! She is so sweet.) and now I'm finishing up some lesson plans with some people at the coffee shop... We found a place that sells burcak (sweet, partially fermented wine that tastes like juice) just across from us in the mall here (yes, we're in a huge mall.. Prague is way more "modern" than you might expect!)

Anyhow, so burcak + lesson planning in coffee shop and I'm hoping to get some gnocchi in a bit when we meet up w/ the rest of the TEFLers at the pub. That's life right now... not terribly exciting, but everyday we chat about all the weekend trips we're going to take when this is over! And we're qualified! Not sure if I mentioned this yet, but I'm signing a lease on my apartment here through June! I find it slightly ironic that I haven't even signed a lease this long in my real life (since college, ha, you know.."real" life!) and I'm doing it in a foreign country. C'est la vie!

my head is full of verbs...

Prague!! You are one of the most beautiful, mysterious, magical cities in the world, and I want to spend all day every day exploring everything you have to offer! Instead, I must savor the snippets of time we have together as I spend my days within the walls of TEFL, learning about auxilaries and modal verbs, present perfect continuous and eliminating that ever-present "teacher talk time." While the city lies patiently in wait, us TEFLers have had some pretty good time to bond in the classroom, learning all we can from our two British teachers, who have informed us that the one area we Americans generally lack in proficiency is correction. "The British... are great at correcting. Students make a mistake, and they're right on it. You Americans, you think everything's awesome, just AWESOME! The student can't speak a word but you think they're just awesome!"

Speaking of cultural differences, I have had some time (running from school, to tutoring, to the coffee shop to work some more) to interact with and observe the Czech culture. While I generally run around smiling (even feeling haggard after a long day and lugging around laptop + school bag..I'm in Prague, for goodness sakes! of course I'm smiling!) ... Czech people don't smile on the street, or generally make eye contact, or put up a front of niceties. Which is different, but almost refreshing in a way, because you get the sense that people are real; there's no b.s.-ing around here! The grocery store clerk doesn't flash a wide fake smile and ask how your day is going. They just get things done, and you know what? It's easier for me, because I can get by on a few words Czech and (maybe) nobody knows the wiser :) Also, there are SO many dogs here! I mean, everywhere. And they don't use leashes. Or pooper scoopers. Going running is like dodging bombs on the ground.

Off to bed; this has been the longest week in history, and I speak for my entire class when I say that we are completely wiped out!! We're having a party at our apartment tomorrow- celebrating our roommate's birthday that was on Wednesday, and inviting all the TEFLers over because we deserve a celebration for making it HALfWAY to teacher-dom! in just 2 more weeks I will be a real teacher AND finally have time to travel...watch out world!

Back to school!

Well, I've made it to Prague, and has it ever been a whirlwind since touchdown! Last Thursday, I landed with no idea what to expect. Another TEFL girl I met on the plane and I got a ride to our school/hotel (they are next door) and met a few other TEFLers who had arrived early. Soon though, I was told I would not be staying at the hotel, but in an apartment quite a ways away. This seemed a little disappointing at first... before I reached the place and found a quaint, old-fashioned apartment with huge bedrooms, a cozy living area and 3 other roommates.

And close to the center! Bingo. The metro system here is fabulous; it's set up so that it's probably less convenient to drive than it is not to drive. The first weekend here, the TEFL students trickled in, and we explored the city at our leisure. Daytime walks through all of the squares, a tour of the castle, and a big group dinner at a Czech restaurant on Sunday night. Then.... Monday!! The first day of school! I'm not going to lie, I was so excited. I mean, I've been wanting to go back to school since... well, I graduated. So our big group of 30 was divided into 2 classes, and from 10-1:30 everyday we have a variety of lessons; from 2:30-6 we teach. This course is already exceeding the expectations I had for its workload- in addition to planning 2 45-min lessons a week (and I mean planning as in 7-8 page lesson plans), we have a one-to-one student (3 sessions) with a 10 page paper, 3 other papers about our Czech lessons, and of course teaching the class of Czech students twice a week! That's not to mention the fact that we're at school from 10-6 most everyday. Yesterday was our first long lesson, and it went fantastically :) The students are great, and the classroom environment is so fun and engaging. Many of these students have been coming to TEFL Worldwide for years to take our "practice" classes, so I imagine they have a good handle on us beginning teachers :) I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks; even though it's going to be a TON of work, the group has already gotten very close, and we're having fun while working our behinds off! Last night, we all went out on a (somewhat disorganized) pub crawl. I'm still getting used to the fact that all the bars here are super smoky, but it's all part of the European culture, I suppose. I have yet to see one of these famed European dance clubs- there's a 5 story club that get a lot of talk around here... sure that will be checked out in the near future. It's almost frustrating that there is SO much to see around here, but this course is going to keep everyone pretty busy for the next 4 weeks. I'll be spending my weekends poking around the shops and markets, but I'll probably save the really tourist stuff-museums and guided tours- for after we're done with this. Might take a trip to Ikea though... the idea of furnishing my new room in Prague is just too tempting :)
The roommates and I are heading over to the annual Prague Wine Festival in an hour or so... should be a good, cultural experience! (and, we like wine!) I'm hoping they have some good Czech food there as well- it's been growing on me! I was so sure that all the meat and gravy etc. would totally gross me out- turns out, goulash isn't half bad, and fried cheese sandwiches? Yes please. Also, they have KFC and Starbucks here- probably not going to hit up the colonel, but I do see pumpkin spice in my future. ALSO- they have real Italian gelato! Okay, it must be lunchtime, I've got a one track mind! :) More pictures later!

48 hours

So here it is, the months of dreaming, weeks of actual preparation and days of soaking up my friends and family have come down to the last 48 hours...until I get on that plane to Prague with no set plans to return. Sinking in at last? A bit. Saying the last goodbyes to my friends has made everything real for me. Even though it's not really "goodbye" but just "see ya later!", change is inevitable and nothing will ever really be like it is now, today, in this snapshot of life. But that's why I'm doing this. It's hard to leave people and places that feel so comfortable and familiar, and enter that weird, empty transition period between old and new. I'm sure there now, and I can't wait to get to Prague and venture forth into the new.

So I've definitely still got to figure out how to pack my life into 2 suitcases, bid my family farewell (friends were hard enough...) and hop 3 planes to Prague to meet a group of aspiring English teachers whose wanderlust also caused them to uproot their lives and do this crazy thing. I'm not going to lie, it's pumpkin spice season and that's the time of year when I love, love, love Starbucks. So this whole "venti" life thing is about just going for it, and living life VENTI sized! Sometimes your dreams and ambitions don't match some idea of a "real world" or "beaten path", and that's when it's time to live your life in a big girl cup :) Now I know that "venti" doesn't actually mean "large", but it does mean "twenty", and I'm smack in the middle of my twenties and determined to make the most of them. So overall, venti/large/twenties life, in Prague, in 2 days! READYSETGO!!