Vienna.

Someday I'll do Vienna and actually care.  This weekend wasn't the time for that. 

I really didn't want to, just wasn't feeling it, but yesterday I got on a train from Prague to Vienna.  I found a kind friend of a friend to host me and actually had a great time with her.  We pretty much talked about music the whole time.  She's going to Coachella in the spring and I'm soooo jealous.  She also fed me leftovers.  Anyway, she's grown up in Vienna and we did the google map thing to find the best way to the embassy and back to the train station.

This morning I got up, said goodbye, and headed to the embassy.  It wasn't too terrible.  I've heard some horror stories.  I had my paperwork together and the Czech guy doing everything was pretty cool.  I should have a visa in a few months, but for now I'm not even going to think about it.

It was kind of strange, but being there made me realize how familiar Prague has become.  The whole time there I was just focused on where I was and how to get where I needed to go.  The metro and trams are pretty similar, but having to concentrate on everything around me was kind of exhausting.  It was such a relief to pull into the station at Prague and be able to get to my apartment on auto pilot.  One of my friends who has been here a couple of years asked if I felt at home here yet and I told him I didn't know if I ever would.  Some people land and have that feeling and some stay for years but never cut things off from wherever they came from.  I still don't think anything but Home will feel like home, but I realized that I'm definitely comfortable here now.  There's still parts of the city I've never been to and don't know, but I'm pretty sure I can get to where I need to be from just about everywhere. 

I'm a TEFL teacher!  Week one down.  It went really well.  Other than my schedule getting changed a lot.  I lost a couple of classes to it but they're going to try to find me more.  But the first week was mostly about assessing the students' level and finding out where they are in their books.  There'll be more structure later. 

Got all my visa stuff together.  WOOHOO.  I kind of hate this country and the whole EU sometimes.  Nothing like blasting a little Violent Femmes on the way home from a bureaucratic runaround though.  But tomorrow I'm going to Vienna to apply for the visa on Monday morning.  Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.  I needs to get legal, yo.  It's the last big thing on my plate (other than working) to take care of here.  It'll be a big relief once it's over. 

Page, Plant, Bonham, and Jones.

I start teaching tomorrow!  I'll usually have three classes on Mondays but one is already cancelled which is kind of nice for a first day and all.  I'm really not nervous yet but I'm tired of waiting for the day.  I've gone over my lesson plan a lot and think I have enough to do and get them talking.  The first lessons are really just getting to know them and assess their levels. 

I still have a lot to do regarding applying for the visa.  It's such a pain but everybody goes through it.  If I get it all together I'm going to the Czech embassy in Vienna on Monday.  You have to apply for it outside of the country you're applying for.....  Yeah.  I'd love to spend some time in the city but I also kind of think I'll be thinking about everything I have to do and just want to get the process over with.  We'll see though. 

I confess to a weekend of shenanigans that started on Thursday, in fact.  Bit of a last hurrah, if you will.  Oh who am I kidding, the hurrah never stops in Prague.  A girl I met a couple of weeks ago said she suffers from a case of FOMO: Fear of Missing Out.  I never had it before, but since being here I understand the feeling.  I do stuff on my own too but for some reason I like keeping tabs on my friends here.  I'll randomly think "I wonder where so'n'so is in town, who are they with, what's going on, oh man I have to be there too if they're having fun, how dare they be having fun without me!"  etc. 

Also.  Czech Led Zeppelin cover band = coolest thing ever.  It was four dudes who we all agreed looked like our fathers and their friends.  They've had to have been doing this for thirty years though.  The only way they could have sounded more like Zep would be if it were actually Page, Plant, Bonham, and Jones.  I've been really really happy about it for days. 

 

The calm before the storm.

Hasn't been that calm actually, but I have been savoring sleeping later and having down time.  I start teaching on Monday!  Been going over my classes and planning lessons and meeting with my "tutor".  We get assigned a senior teacher to help us out and observe us teach once in a while. 

Also working on visa stuff so I can be legal for a while here.  I'm doing it with another girl starting at Glossa and I'm really happy to have a buddy in it.  She's pretty cool too and we've hung out a bit. 

There's a new member to the melting pot that is my flat.  He's from Senegal and a java programmer. 

I've made a few purchases that don't have to do with rent or food.  My room came with a comforter for the bed, but it's not only white but kind of grungy and depressing.  I bought a pretty duvet cover and matching pillow case and the room already feels happier.  I also really wanted something with a hood for when it's rainy/snowy/cold and I found a cool bomber jacket with a hood lined with fake fur at a second hand store.  I fit right in now and feel so european walking around in it.  Also, after a few days of glorious sunshine it's snowing again.  At least it's above freezing though.

Tonight I'm going to a concert of two cover bands for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Led Zeppelin.  Never before has there been so much potential for awesomeness or suck.  Should be fun though, got a small group together of two of my TEFL mates, British friend, and a guy from Texas I met on Tuesday.  Rockin' and Rollin' in the Czech Republic. 

Movies!

Not much to do with Prague, but it's my blog and I want to talk about movies.  Spoiler free of course.  People aren't always traipsing through the cobbled streets of Prague 24/7 to see awesome sights and go to awesome parties after all.  We do things like sit around and watch movies too.  A friend of mine texted with "One of my students got me True Grit and 127 Hours, want to watch them?"  And I responded with "Come over this second."

We watched True Grit first, which was so so so so much funnier than I ever expected it to be.  I mean, it's the Coen brothers, but they're not always laugh out loud funny.  Five minutes in we almost had to pause it because I couldn't stop laughing over this one part. It was also really well done; beautiful shots and great dialogue.  The main theme was based on "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", which was cool and reminded me of the music used in "O' Brother...".   Jeff Bridges was fantastic of course and I kind of kept forgetting it was him.  The girl playing Mattie did a great job and had awesome delivery, maybe a bit of a single note character though.  Josh Brolin's bad guy was good but not what I expected.  Matt Damon the Texas Ranger was absolutely brilliant. 

We had planned to just watch one and save 127 Hours.  But we made the mistake of watching the trailer for 127 Hours and wanted to watch it right away.  But then we got a text and went traipsing through the cobbled streets of Prague to an awesome party.  Fine, it does happen.

Reconvened this afternoon.  "127 Hours".   .............  I mean.  I can't even.  If you think you can handle watching it.  Watch it.  It's not just an hour and a half of James Franco cutting his own arm off, (although that happens of course).  It's an hour and thirty minutes of humanity.  Danny Boyle, man.  He knows how to make you appreciate life.  And I'm just more and more impressed with James Franco every time. 

The Nail Bar.

It's not actually called the "The Nail Bar", but everybody calls it that.  It's actually called "Near Perfection" in Czech, because a bar down the street is called "Perfection".  But expats, (the majority of people who go there because there's cool stuff on the walls and the beer is cheap) call it the nail bar.  Because there's a giant tree stump on the floor.  And people play a game with a small pick-axe passed around the circle trying to get their nail nailed into the stump first one smack at a time.  After or while drinking. 

It's filed under "Things You Probably Won't See in the States".  Liabilities?  Here?  Naaaah. 

It's where I and my TEFL mates were taken on the Friday after the first week of class.  I remember my nail bar night well.  Surprisingly.  Many of the people I met there I still hang out with regularly, some I hadn't seen until last night.  I was immidiately welcomed into the fold of Sci-Fi night then and there.  The girl I'm always asking annoying questions about jobs and banks and the city was there, as was the Brit I had a fling with.  It all seems so long ago, but enough reminiscing. 

We met about half of the new class there last night.  They have a bigger and more diverse group than we had.  It was really fun to feel like an old pro around them and keep meeting new people I missed at the last meetup or just haven't come across.  I also invited a Canadian girl I met hours before at my school. Anyway, after a while we migrated to U Sudu.  It's a big underground place with multiple rooms connected by windy hallways.  It's cool, but you're going to come out smelling like U Sudu.  Then a lot of them wanted to go to a club, which isn't my thing and if there's one thing I'm good at it's knowing when to call it a night.  A few others went home too so we split up and caught our respective night trams.*

I'm always learning new things about the expat community here.  It's such a diverse group, and everybody is here for different reasons, but we all kind of share the same mind set.  Go places, do things, meet people, have absolutely no idea what is going to happen tonight or next week or in six months, terrified of marriage and children, and barely knowing what the word mortgage means.  Simultaneously self-obsessed and interested in everything and everyone.  Some really seem to have it together and some are a mess.  It's not like the expat thing is anything new, there's been lots of famous artists and writers and teachers and relief workers who spent time working abroad.  And not to project a label on the thing, but there's something interesting about this generation of mine that can't find jobs and wont grow up.  But I do feel like I'm a part of something unique to here and now, and that we could possibly make a semi-interesting documentary or something.



*It's kind of hilarious to use "respective" and "night tram" in the same sentence.

It was two months ago today...

Yes, two months ago today I arrived in Prague. 

Much has happened to me.  Instead of going into it through words, I shall express myself...through gifs.  Fandom gifs.


I can honestly say the majority of the time can be summed up with this:  (Maybe, I happen to be in a good place right now.)

Although there's been a lot of this:

Bit of this:

Even some of this:

But I've had a lot of support from family and friends, (friends old and new):

I'm pretty proud of myself so far, and if anything, Chuck Norris approves. 

Well that was fun.  Much thanks to the 10th and 11th Doctors, Arthur Dent, Sherlock, HIMYM boys, and Chuck Norris. 

I've been offered that job I interviewed for!  I went by today to talk about their visa assistance, schedules, how many hours I can get, etc.  There's the good and the bad, but I think that's going to go for every school.  I'm most likely taking it.  Most likely because I have another interview tomorrow with a different school.  One I know that pays more but they do have you sign on for a whole year.  I want to stay for a while, at the very least until it's nice and warm and green here, but a year sounds like a while. We'll see how I feel after a few months of teaching.  There's also the option of staying here but just changing schools if I don't like it. 

We did a pre-greet for some of the February class last night.  The Language House alum typically greet newcomers on the Friday after their first week of class.  J from my TEFL class has a friend in this one though and we were able to meet him and some of the others a little early.  They're going to have a different experience than we did.  Westergaard won't be their methodology teacher and they're in a completely different building.  We'll still probably meet them at the Nail Bar on Friday though.  My infamous Nair Bar night seems so long ago.  I still feel like a baby talking to my friends who have been here a while, but I feel like an expert with the newbies.

It's been warmer here the past few days.  The ice is melting off and I can actually walk around without a hat and gloves.  Who knew 40 degrees would ever feel warm to me?  I finally got up to Letna park.  I tried going when there was snow and ice on the steps and it was treacherous.  It's up on a hill and gives a great view of the city.  It's really cool to see how far apart all the landmarks I know are.  It's also just nice to be away and above everything.  There's a lot of benches and trails and while you can hear traffic and trams it's still quieter.  The parks are the main thing I want to be around for in warm weather.  Especially ones with beer gardens.  I know what I'm doing on the first warm Saturday here. 

Angelheaded hipsters.

I had an interview today with a large school in town called Glossa.  I know a couple of people who work there and they have both good and bad things to say.  But hey, they're hiring for full time and offer visa assistance.  I've noticed this English teacher lot can be a bunch of whiners though, so I'm being very careful with who to listen to about what. 

I think I did really well on the personal part of the interview but then I had to present a lesson plan they sent me an that part didn't go too smoothly.  I didn't like the guy going over it with me, he seemed kind of rushed and just wanted to correct or change everything instead of talk about it.  Eh well.  I feel about 50/50 on it, but I should hear back soon.  I have another interview on Tuesday to prepare for, so I'll work on that instead of wringing my hands over this one. 


In Things Not Pertaining To Job Hunting, because there's only so much of that you can do without going crazy, I went to a cool movie theater last night with two of my TEFL classmates called Bio Oko.  There's normal theater seats and then there's a more comfortable assortment scattered around, and then there's beach chairs here and there, and then there's a hulled out old school yellow taxi-cab to lounge in.  We saw "Howl" which I'd been wanting to see for a while now.  It's about Allen Ginsberg and the obscenity trial that probably drew more attention to the poem than it would have gotten anyway.  It was in English with Czech subtitles.  I think the entirety of the poem was eventually read, so I wonder how things translated.  Anyway, having read it a lot and knowing a bit about Ginsberg (and Kerouac and all that) I didn't know what to expect, but it was really really good.

Happy New Year!

The city of Prague didn't have its regular New Years firework show due to the current economic crisis. 

That really didn't matter. 

I've never been in a big city for New Years, and while I avoided the bustling, touristy areas the streets were still looking alive.  I started out wandering around with my TEFL friends, texting other people to see what they were doing.  I had plans to go to a party but couldn't get ahold of the girl who invited me.  We walked, and hopped trams, and met up with others and split up.  We watched people's fireworks that were going off everywhere and people drinking in the streets (and joined them).  I think I surprised some people with a loud, customary Texas whoop after particularly good fireworks.  Some of us split up and me and another TEFL girl couldn't find the right street the apartment party was on.  It was better for it though because we were right by Namesti Miru, my favorite square.  Tons of fireworks going off and lots of other people but with pleanty of elbow room.  They turned off the lights on the church there to see the show better.  Not just the last ten seconds but the whole last minute of 2010 were crazy.  You couldn't hear a break in the explosions.  We'd been carrying around cheap champagne and popped it open, sprayed some around, and split the rest between us.  Everyone around was doing the same thing, shaking bottles, setting off fireworks, hugging, kissing. 

Definitely one of my "I'M IN PRAGUE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!" moments. 

Things didn't exactly die down but we were getting cold so finally found the apartment.  A friend I've made here from Uganda invited me and we found her and a couple of other people I met at Christmas.  Almost everyone else there was from Africa and they were playing some mad beats to rock the streets.  This is a cracker country, and it was fun to hang with a more diverse group.  Oh yes, don't even think I didn't dance all night.  And tell Texas jokes. 

We all made it home in the wee hours of the morning and here I sit at nearly 3pm thinking about getting dressed for the day.  It's kind of been one big party since Christmas, which I think I really really needed.  Monday I'm getting back to the whole mature and responsible adult thing.  Gonna get a job so I can stick around this town that knows how to ring in the new year.  :)