Trip to Berlin

The company (Caledonian School) that owns the school that I work for (Nessie English Pre-School) has a visa liaison, whose job it is to accept the papers and documents you give her for your work permit/visa application, not update you on how your application is going, not return e mails, and then on Monday tell you that there will be a trip on Wednesday to Berlin to apply for visas, leaving Prague at 5am in the morning no less.

Am I a little bitter? Well, natch.

Anyway, all up it was a good day, but only because after the 5 hour minivan ride and 2 hours of sitting around in the Czech Embassy in Berlin, we had a couple hours to explore Berlin. Utterly disregarding the protests of the others with me who had never been to Berlin before (the wall? all that history? bah, overrated), I went on a mad hunt through downtown Berlin to find the chocolate store I'd visited during Christmastime. Armed only with vague memories and the friendliness of Canadian guy, (who had no qualms at all about approaching total strangers and asking them for directions in French, then English, then by gesticulating) we found it in the end, which was damn amazing, given that I couldn't remember the name or the address of the store, just that it was near to a market in Berlin with a French name! (Fassbender & Rausch on Charlottenstrasse opposite the Gendarmarkt... so now I know!)



After the joy of Titanic chocolate, we headed back, whiling away the many hours by playing that game where you name a musical band or artist, then the next person takes the last letter of that band/artist and uses it as the first letter of their band/artist. I wanted to sleep, but one of the other teachers urged me to play, saying, "We'll get bored in about 10 minutes anyway." They didn't get bored. I went to sleep. When I woke up they were still playing. 4 hours later they were still playing. Unbelievable.

But not nearly as unbelievable as the entire cadre of teachers getting carsick to nearly vomituous due to our minivan driver in the last hour. What's the deal with the swerving?? And the insane hurry to get right up near the next car in our bumper-to-bumper traffic jam? Or, for that matter, does one really need to brake so sharply and abruptly?! What's more, goddammit, visa woman got him to drop her off at home, leaving us to suffer minor and multiple whiplash after she bailed out on us!!

In the end, I spotted a metro station, and not caring where in Prague I was, (about an hour away from home!) I called out that I would get out here and it was really close to my house. Almost everyone else in the car got out along with me, and we spent a few glorious minutes breathing fresh air and trying not to heave our guts out. And then the task of figuring out where we were and how to get home... but ANYTHING was better than another 30 seconds in that minivan!!

Catching up

Well it's a beautiful, sunny autumn day! I've retained enough of my upbringing in Australia, where the trees aren't deciduous, to have an inane pleasure at seeing bright yellow and red leaves, and to feel idiotically happy to hear them crunching under my feet as I walk (or making that cool swishing noise as you run through a really big pile of them!!). This was taken at a park about 15 minutes away from where I live -- there are stacks of people out playing frisbee, rollerblading, cycling or just taking the kids out, because up until this weekend we've had some pretty miserable weather!



So I recently got the following photos from Mirek, which is why they're appearing now, all in a bunch. Really, I have been doing stuff for the last 2 months, I just haven't had any photographic evidence!

So what have I been up to? Well...

Picking berries. Note the basket. Very Red Riding Hood Chic.



Visiting the botanic gardens (but obviously more interested in the butterflies there).



Going to various castles.




Hiking up some hill where once was a thriving Celtic civilisation... and now all that's left are lots of rocks. That people have stacked, for some obscure reason.



Stacked some rocks of my own.



Gotten to the top of the hill...



...and then been grumpy all the way down because I was tired. I blame having a full time job -- I've climbed taller hills than that, climbed back down and then spent the rest of the day full of beans. Accursed work!

Breaking the Silence

So I've been incredibly lax in my blogging lately -- too busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off in my new job!! But in the last few days I've actually been getting into the groove of things ... and actually starting to feel like a Year 1 teacher (heaven forbid!!). Here are some of the cherubs at our assembly last week. Yes, it's a VERY small school!!





Yay, I'm taller than the kids!!