A History Lesson: Vyšehrad

We've been getting pretty lucky here on the weekend weather lately. We've had a couple of weekends in a row with beautiful sunny weather (though this weekend was frigid) and of course that means I've had to take advantage of it. I'm in Prague after all.

So Saturday my friend John and I went to Vyšehrad.

Mother Nature, You're So Bitchy

Yesterday was the worst day ever and until I get things under control or at least figure out a plan of action, I don't want to talk about it.

Instead, let's talk about the weather.

Absorbing the Language

I don't know if I'm more observant than many other expats because I've being doing the whole abroad thing for so long or what. Maybe it just goes back to when I was a kid and the guys in my apartment complex teased me saying I must be a spy because I knew everything that was going on around the complex. 


I'm just observant. Honestly, I'm far less observant these days because I'm self-absorbed really busy and sometimes forget to stop and look around.

Goals: Escalators, Foreign Languages and Zumba

I have decided on a new goal. Well, a couple of new goals really.


I want to be able to walk up the escalator at Náměstí Míru a) without stopping b) without feeling winded.


Náměstí Míru is the deepest station within the Prague metro system (though not the deepest point, apparently that's somewhere in between Hradčanská and Malostranská farther north) and, of course, that means it has the longest escalator in the system. 

A Walk Through Letná Park

I am really enjoying this whole two-day weekend deal. I know some of you who aren't so familiar with my life are wondering what I'm talking about. "Haven't weekends always been two days?"


In Taiwan, I had Sundays off. Only Sundays. Saturday was actually my busiest day of the week. Sure, I only worked four hours a day during the week, but it sucked not having two full days off. 


This is literally the first time since I started my first job when I was 15 (Sonic Drive-In carhop, what what!) that I have had weekends off. When you're in high school, you work weekends. In college, I worked weekends at the bar and weekdays at the newspaper (not to mention those pesky classes I was supposed to be going to). 


The point: having two days off is akin to being in heaven.

Disjointed Conversation

The first class I walked into this year was to observe another teacher. The students had been given a writing assignment for homework the class before and one of the major things they were to work on was cohesion.


The reasoning: When you're talking to an American the conversation is fairly linear; You go from one subject to the next to the next. That's not the case when you're talking to Czechs. You'll be talking about one thing and then another and then you're suddenly talking about something that was mentioned 30 minutes ago again. It's all over the place, the teacher explained to me.


Now and then I'll think about this again. It seems like an eternity since that day which was only two weeks ago, but that's not the point.

It's All About Me

So apparently today is my day. I'm being featured over at Travel Babbles. Ky is an awesome young lady who is living in Germany with her hockey-playing fiance. Pretty awesome, huh?


Go check it out.

I, Food

When I left the house it was still dark this morning. 


The benefit to that (today at least) was that I was finished teaching by 10:45 a.m. I stuck around the office to do my lesson plans because I knew I would procrastinate it all day otherwise. (Remember yesterday?)


I was still home by just after noon. 


So I spent the day looking up recipes trying to figure out how to use every single ingredient in my kitchen before I have to go buy more food. This is partly me being frugal — read broke — and partly me wanting to be more creative with my cooking. I have a lot of go-to recipes and tend to stick with what I know, but now and then I get in the mood to jump out of my comfort zone in the kitchen. (Actually, this happens pretty often, I'm usually just too lazy.)


I found lots of soup recipes which I think are going to be a huge help in keeping me fed over the next month while I wait to get my first paycheck. (That or I'll be eating plain rice and ramen noodles a lot. Whatever.)


After some thorough research, I came to a few decisions/resolutions. We'll see how this works out.

New Look

I continued to procrastinate lesson planning by doing two things. 

a) Playing on Pinterest.com my newest Internet addiction thanks to my college roomie. I think I spent something like three hours "pinning" things today. (That sounds a lot dirtier than it is, damn.) I recommend checking it out, but proceed with caution.

b) Redesigning my blog. I've been thinking about doing this forever but I finally created my new header and so it was time to give the whole blog an over-haul. 

Love it? Hate it? Don't care? Confused?

Let me know your thoughts.

Booze, Art, and More Booze

I only had one class today so now I'm sitting here at home thinking, "What the hell do I do the rest of the day?"

I decided to go grab lunch and then finally buy one of those expandable file folders so I can keep all my classes separated and organized. Right now all my stuff is all piled up in one spot and although I have a pretty good hold on what's what, I foresee it getting messy. 

So I guess I should be organizing my stuff. Then I suppose I could plan my lessons for the rest of the week... That's ambitious.

Instead, I'll tell you about my lovely weekend. 

Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious

So a few days ago I was selected by one of my peers out there in the blogosphere for an award:

So thanks so much to a fellow Texan living abroad, TexaGermaNadian!

Now upon accepting this award, I have agreed to a few stipulations:

    1.    Thank and link back the person that awarded it to you (Check!)

    2.    Share 7 things about yourself (Easy enough.)

    3.    Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great Bloggers (15! We'll see.)

    4.    Contact those Bloggers and tell them about their blog award (On it.)

So now a bit about myself. Most of you already know a lot about me. Some of this will be repeat information. Some of it will be really random stuff.

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears

So I've decided to put off lesson planning by ranting talking about current events and politics. It's going to be one of those, "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears" moments. 

I'm sure you all know about what happened in Tucson on Saturday and I've been waiting on further information before I've decided whether or not I wanted to comment on anything. Here are a few things.

Karaoke Blog Ring of Death

So my dad has really gotten into vlogging and watching vlogs and keeps telling me that I should have a vlog. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I wasn't one of those little girls itching to get on TV. 

Sure, I like attention as much as the next girl, but when I get in front of a lot of people (or what would potentially be lots of people via the internets) I get flustered. *Wait, why am I a teacher?* 

The written word affords me the ability to censor myself think through what I'm going to say before I say it (though apparently not always to edit myself but that's another story). 

Anyway, I essentially caved. 

Monk Beer and Unpacking

Friday night I made tacos with my roommate (best idea ever) and then we went to this brewery/restaurant for drinks with a couple of her friends. Her friend promised it's the best beer in Prague.

This place has beer hand-crafted by monks and it's heavenly. (You know you laughed.)

The Running Commentary in my Head

I generally don't do stuff like this (because I don't want to get sued) but as I was looking at this awesome NY Times photo illustration which summarizes some really trivial and really prevalent stuff — they called it abstract — found in the 2008 census, I couldn't tame the running commentary in my head.

I took it apart and added my commentary below for your enjoyment. This is how my brain works. Don't be offended. Or be offended, I don't really care.

Maybe we just decided to replace food with alcohol. I know I did. Red wine is good for your heart and red meat is bad for it, right? Oh and veggies just suck. (Not really, I <3 Vegetables.)

Earning My Weekend Beer Allowance

So the thing that sucks about taking extended vacation time is that when you do finally go back to work, even the easiest days seem like they're never ending and tire you out quickly.

I had orientation today with my new full-time job as well as my first private lesson with an 11-year-old girl. I'm slightly exhausted but I can't really go to sleep just yet. (It's only barely after 9 p.m. after all.)

The Joys of City Life

I spent a lot of time on the Internet today (and apparently continue to) so I didn't really get a whole lot done. But after a lovely Skype date with my from Leila (the infamous bring-the-rain-on-every-trip-we-ever-take-together Leila), I finally went in search of an Open Card office.

I'm Awesome. (Yeah, you read that right.)

Two days in the Prague — yes, the Prague — and who has a job?

That's right: I do.

So I knew there was a good reason I wasn't too nervous about coming over here without having something in writing saying I had a job. Remember when I first went home in October and I had a job within a day and a half or so? Yeah.

Champagne is the Devil and I'm Back in Prague

So New Years Ever was amazing and I'm so happy I got to have one last amazing night in Austin before leaving. I got to see people I haven't seen in three or four years. It was like a big Daily Texan reunion. 

Unfortunately, champagne is the devil and so when my dad woke me up at 9 a.m. on Jan. 1, well... I wasn't really feelin' it. 

But it was moving day so I was still super excited and it didn't take too much to drag myself out of bed.