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!

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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!