A Day in Hradčany

Hradčany is the Castle District in Prague and, of course, centers around Prague Castle. It's gorgeous and old and there are a million tourists to elbow your way through if you want to see any of it.


I decided to take a solo day a few weeks ago and went to the Castle by myself to take pictures and have a look around. It was some of the first sun we had seen in awhile and I was determined to spend the time outside whether anyone else was coming with me or not.

For some reason I decided to start at the bottom of the hill.

Beauty and the Beast

So when I'm learning new languages I go through phases of really kicking ass and taking names and then phases of being totally lazy and wishing I could study via osmosis. 


Luckily, learning a foreign language in the country it's spoken in kind of has osmosis-like properties in that you're surrounded by it constantly and sort of pick it up and/or figure it out because you have to.


That said, people always ask why my friends and I are even bothering to learn Czech. The Czech Republic is the only country which uses the language and the population is barely pushing 10 million. And people here speak English.

Age is Just a Number

My liver finally managed to organize all the rest of my organs (namely my brain and my stomach) into a full on revolt yesterday. I stayed bedridden after a late night of beer, tequila and (god help me) Slivovice with a few of my students. (Slivovice is the devil in liquid form.)


It was Vlasta and Jan's birthdays this week, 21st and 20th respectively. Sometimes I forget how young they are.

Quarterly Update

April has arrived and I'm having a bit of trouble believing I've already been in Prague for three months (this round). It's gone from snowy and freezing to sunny and warm with the occasional spring shower. I'm much happier with the weather now. 

Several of my classes are coming to an end this month (because they're quarterly) and others are finally getting comfortable enough with me to just plain have fun without thinking so much about the English and simply using it. I'm much happier now that I'm getting settled in and figuring out how to teach adults. (Not surprisingly, it's really not that different from teaching children.)

Endings and Beginnings

In case you didn't get the memo, it's Spring. Spring signifies endings and beginnings of so many parts of the cycle of our lives. I'd like to share a few that I've noticed thus far.

Ooooh, pretty.

Livin' It Up

It's been insanity around here.


Last week was Spring Break for my post-secondary students, so I didn't have to teach their class all week. On top of that a couple of my other classes took holiday or rescheduled, so I basically had a bit of extra time to myself. This was honestly a good thing. 


It would surprise you how quickly you can burn out doing this job. There's a reason schools have breaks every couple of months and it's not for the students.


Point: I had no classes on Friday, March 18. 

Chats With Seester

One of my favorite things about having a Blackberry is that I have a gchat  application on it. This means I can basically text my sister and my best friend  from home whenever I want. It totally normalizes my life. That is if you can call this normal:

6:47 PM me: Rain is evil

 seester: Rain makes plants.

 me: Yes

  It also messes up my hair

6:48 PM :(

  And it makes it cold

  :( :(

6:52 PM Miss you!

6:53 PM seester: Hehe... Miss you too!

 me: I'm gonna go eat goulash now

  Because its raining and goulash beats rain

6:54 PM Its like rock paper scissors

  Rain beats hair

  Goulash beats rain

  Hair beats goulash but we'll try to avoid the combination

 seester: Rock paper scissors lizard spock rain goulash? Way complicated.