Průhonice

What better way to spend my last weekend before going back to work, than heading out to the park and castle at Průhonice, taking a nice walk in the snow and feeling sorry for the ducks swimming in the freezing cold water!

Christmaslishly

So another Christmas in Prague, unfortunately not a white one (though I'm consoled by the white birthday that I had a fortnight ago!) Top of the list for my initiation of blood and fire into Czech Christmas traditions was making cukrovi -- or Czech Christmas cookies. Intense!


True to form, we had a pretty sweet spread of food to consume over the last couple of days, not including the turkey (in the oven at the time of photographing) and my friend's mum's contributions:



The best though, were the pineapple (and strawberry and cherry) tarts that I made! Okay, so it's a Malaysian Nonya recipe and not very Czech, but oh so yummy!! Yeah!

Work Pic

It's the Nessie/Park Lane staff! See how dignified we are, right before the gathering degenerated into a mass snowball fight...

Dirty Thirty

Well, apparently I've just well and truly celebrated the end of my childhood [birth to 10], adolescence [10 - 20] and my second/extended adolescence [the twenties]...

It would seem more momentous if I actually felt any different, but I don't really.

It's the same old story, isn't it -- you feel more or less like you all along, that is, until you compare yourself to yourself 10 years ago and do a gigantic double take at how all the tiny changes you never noticed add up to something a bit more significant.

Although I'm at the same time wary of anyone who acted like an idiot for 29 years and then suddenly puts on the maturity show just because of a birthday, or having a kid, or getting married or whatever. Anyone claiming to be an adult is still just pretending, in my book!

[This sort of attitude is probably why I still feel as immature as ever...]

From my Dad

Recently

I have spent one weekend sick, the next weekend looking after a sick friend and the following weekend being sick all over again!! To make matters worse, the third was a 4 day weekend, and I was sick the entire time -- what a waste of a long weekend! Other than that, it's been business as usual at school, but I've started Czech and French lessons and I'm also in the midst of translating/summarising some articles for a medical research group.

And that's what I've been up to recently!

Boo Hoo

So a couple weeks ago my computer stopped booting properly and I've spent the last few days reinstalling Windows and all my other programs. Wah!

This Weekend

Pics from Mirek again, who evidently has decided to chronicle my life in Prague via photography for me!

Here I am, hobbit-like on the top of the hill at Svatý Jan pod Skalou (Saint John under the Rock). Although we've got blue skies and sunshine, it's as cold as buggery because the wind is really blowing up a treat!





The big news of the weekend, of course, is how we got to Svatý Jan pod Skalou in the first place -- by motorbike! I got me a helmet and hitched a ride on the back of Mirek's cute red number, my first motorbike experience ever!

Last Weekend

Pics courtesy of Mirek.

Last weekend we went to some burčák festival in Litoměřice.



Burčák is this wine so new that it's still fizzing and cloudy with enzymes and vitamins -- tastes a little bit cidery and if you buy some to take home, you have to loosen the cap every few minutes to let the accumulated gas escape! After tasting various types of burčák from various winemakers, it was necessary to take a litttle nap (just a nap, NOT passing out!) somewhere:



But I roused myself to take a look at the medieval parade that was part of the festivities. Yay, monks and knights!

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!!