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.  :)

The Amazing Jicin Adventure!

So, I'm not the world's most social butterfly.  *waits for people who know me to stop laughing*  But in a foreign country (especially with not enough to do right now) I actually hit people up to see what they're doing.  And like, initiate activities.  I facebook friend them after meeting sooner than I ever have.  I've always had this weird trait that I don't like people who like me right off.  But if somebody kind of ignores me then I think they're cool, and I must have them.  In 3 to 8 months we will have exchanged a few casual words, shared some interests, and eventually be friends. 

That's not the formula here.  I met some people at a Christmas party, the next day we got dinner, and the next we took an overnight trip to a smaller Czech Republic town called Jicin.  Then we had many adventures (and misadventures).  And now we're probably friends fo life.  Hopefully at least, Australians are awesome.  I've already learned that the key to being a happy expat is making connections.  It's a big tough city and a lot of locals still don't like foreigners here.  Everyone who's been here a while has said the same thing.  It's an interesting crowd.  A lot of people are like me; want to live abroad, want teaching and living experience, bragging rights back home, etc.  A surprising amount are running from bad or dead-end situations.  And a lot more are just directionless idiots doing teaching as an excuse to party in Europe.  They are my greatest motivation to make it out here.

ANYway, adventures in the nature!  The Aussie is an atypical expat in that he's not an English teacher.  He's an accountant and has access to a company car.  It was really fun riding in a car after a month and a half.  It was also great to just see really really far without buildings or trams or people in the way.  The Czech countryside was really pretty all covered with snow and I'd love to see it in spring or summer.  We had a good drive and listened to good music. 

We got to Jicin, (eechin) and settled in at D's flat.  It's his hometown and he's a student in Prague.  His friend K came along as well, she's Czech but goes to school in Scotland.  We got some Czech food for lunch, I had svickova.  It's meat and dumplings in this creamy sauce with a garnish of cranberry sauce and whip cream.  Then we went to the big attraction in the area, Prachov Rocks.  It's in an area with tons of pine trees, all covered in snow right now of course.  You walk up a wide path and get closer and closer to these huge rocks jutting up out of the ground.  Then we did a slippery and narrow and treacherous hike up and up to where you can view the rocks and whole area from above.  Very cool! The way down was longer but safer.

Since it was Monday night in Jicin we had an early night in with some games and music.  The next morning we headed to the town's castle gate type thing.  D has connections and a cool lady came to open it up for us.  I don't know how she's involved or has keys exactly, but it was nice getting the VIP treatment.  We went up and up more steep steps to the top.  It was a beautiful, clear day so we could look down on the whole town and see for miles. 

Then SOMEBODY had a great idea to go up to this mountain and look at some waterfalls that would be frozen this time of year.  Which would've been cool if we'd made it.  Driving around the busy ski-mountain looking for a parking spot we drove into what definitely wasn't a road and got stuck.  And since it's the Czech Republic, nobody who could have helped us would.  (The Texan and Aussie were appalled.)  Some very nice Germans tried to get us unstuck and got stuck themselves.  Then some stupid Russians though it was a parking area and got themselves stuck as well.  Things were bleak.  And cold.  And kind of hilarious but not.  K and I were about to hop a bus when some blessed being with a tractor and chains got everybody out.  There were actually some kind Czechs who tried to push and help, but most called us stupid and told us it wasn't their problem.  Tractor man wins at life though. 

The plan had been to eat in Jicin and head home, but we made a beeline back to Prague.  Misadventures aside, it was lots of fun.  And just what I needed I think. 

....

I watched a man beat a carp to death on the street, and all my misgivings about being here floated away. 

"Jake, you get wise. You get to church."

It doesn't matter where you go.  Church people will feed you.  They will ask you about your life and they will touch your shoulder or hand.  And then they will invite you back.  Many times.   

Bratska Jednota Baptistu just happens to be on a street I now know very well and live two blocks away from.  What the hell, right?  I'm not crazy about church.  I kind of think people should keep religion to themselves and just do/believe what feels right to them.  But anyway, I was actually really excited to go once I made plans to last night.  It's been a crazy time of uncertainty and the feeding me and asking about my life and even touching my shoulder or hand was cool.  It's a really diverse group with lots of students and expats and English speaking locals.  The weirdest part was meeting a family from Texas.  They have a niece that goes to HSU and he knows Dr. McGraw from seminary. What....I mean, what?! 

After the blessed goodbyes I went to hang out with my athiest friend.  I took a long-cut through one of my favorite places in the city (so far), Riegrove Sady.  It's a park on a hill full of benches and paths and old people and people with dogs and kids on sleds these days.  There's an awesome view of the city, even awesomer at night.  There's also a beer garden there that I can't wait to drink at once it's warm enough.  Anyway, I love wandering around this park.  Saying "Dobre den" to old people, and petting happy dogs, and watching kids bust off of their sleds. 

Doing so today I kind of took a mental step back and really looked at this thing that I'm doing.  I've had one or two "what-am-I-doing-here-I-wanna-go-home" moments this past week.  Not many, but they've hit hard.  A year seems like such a long time to commit to a teaching job, but I know once I get going it'll fly by.  If I manage this I can manage anything and I'll be so proud of myself afterwords.  I just need to get through the holidays and the job-hunt.  I've met a lot of cool people here but maybe a weekly community thing would be a good support system here. 

ANYway, why am I getting introspective, this isn't the Livejournal.