A Stress-Inducing Mess

Lots of developments since I last posted. For awhile there I was afraid nothing cool in my life would ever happen again and I would end up boring you all with the random junk that pops up in my head.

You're in luck, though definitely at my expense.

Texas things that are awesome:

Flannery and I went to Fredericksburg, Texas. We did this last Christmas also.

F'burg is a town that was settled by German immigrants (there are lots of people of German and Czech decent in Texas) that has a very kitschy German flair year-round but it is especially wonderful at Christmas time.

On the way back from F'burg, we stopped in Johnson City

Johnson City is the home of Lyndon B. Johnson the 36th president of the U.S. You can see insane amounts of Christmas lights in this city including 1,000,000+ on the courthouse alone.

I also went to Dallas this weekend to watch my high school bestie graduate from UT-Arlington. (I'm so proud of her.)

Given it was a graduation celebration there was lots of food and tequila involved. 

We had lots of fun and it wasn't until yesterday when I was about to leave that I realized I wouldn't get to see them (her and her parents, who are like a second set of parents for me) again until the next time I come back to the States... 

Unless they make good on some loose plans to come visit me in Europe. *cough*hint*cough*

It's been quite a busy weekend, but wait there's more!

So when I left Prague, I was told I am guaranteed a full-time position at the school I did my TEFL course because I got the highest grade possible in the class. Hooray. 

They also told me that I had the option of starting then (in October) or in January when the new semester starts. 

Well, for some reason I thought that I would somehow save money if I came home (hindsight is 20/20... and honestly I should have known better) but more importantly, I was crazy homesick and knew I probably wouldn't have another opportunity to come home until next Christmas. So I came home.

I was told to e-mail the coordinators a couple of weeks before I came back so they could get everything ready for me. In the mean time, I've found an apartment in the center of Prague. 

There now you're all up to speed on why the hell I came home from Europe in the first place.

I'm super excited. At least I was until I got an e-mail back from my school which basically said, Oh yeah, we only have a full-time position available an hour outside of the city. Take it or leave it. 

(Paraphrasing is one of my greatest skills.)

This honestly wouldn't have been a problem. The best thing about living in Taoyuan was that I saved money and learned Chinese a lot faster. Those same things (insert Czech for Chinese) would probably be true in Mlada Boleslav.

But it is a problem. 

Because they didn't inform me before I left that it was possible I wouldn't be living in Prague, I found an apartment in Prague. I committed to a year lease and sent my new (awesome) landlord money to cover half of December's rent and all of January's rent. 

And from what I'm told, it's an awesome apartment. (My sources are totally reliable.)

But hey, now I'm on the hunt for another job. The school has offered to let me accept full-time employment in Prague but I won't actually be full-time until March. I think I might do that for now and supplement my hours with part-time positions at other schools. That is unless another school offers me a full-time job.

I honestly wouldn't mind working several part-time jobs.

Lucky for me, I go all out when it comes to applying for jobs. I had a master list of all the language/English schools in Prague. I applied to all 170 of them. I have three interviews already set up and three or four other companies which asked me to send them further information.

I'm not worried. Honestly, I've been told that my school isn't doing so hot anyway, so maybe it's a good thing in the disguise of a stress-inducing mess.