a very TEFL Thanksgiving

my TEFL friends

 Yesterday my friends from the TEFL course and I celebrated Thanksgiving at the castle girls' apartment! We all cooked food (most were family tradition dishes), had a wonderful feast, then bundled up to go to see the opening of the Christmas market/tree lighting in Old Town square. The square was absolutely PACKED with people, but we made our way through the crowd to get a good view of the tree. With the light snow on the ground from Friday night it really felt like the holidays!

Christmas tree in Old Town square

After the market we went back to their apartment for dessert and the classic Christmas film, Elf. It was a lovely day spent with good friends and lots of good food- a true Thanksgiving.

i'm thankful for skype.

skype family frame shot

Happy Thanksgiving!!
In honor of turkey day I successfully pulled off a turkey hand-art project with my Czech students, making them tell me, 'Farmer Natalie', why I shouldn't kill them for my Thanksgiving dinner. It was hilarious.

After school I came home and had a skype-athon! First with my fam in Minnesota celebrating at Uncle Tom and Aunt Susie's house, then with the Nanny/Faust/Quinton/Pelant crew in SNOWY St Louis, and finally with Zoey in Seattle. whew!

Lots to be thankful for this year, and looking forward to our own attenpted Thanksgiving dinner this weekend in Praha!

wool weather

Sunday night seems like a good time for a new blog post!

Had a lovely weekend here in Prague. It started with Melissa and I going to see an afternoon showing of the new Harry Potter movie--in English--on Friday. Yes, it was fantastic. The ending was a bit akward since they are splitting the last book into 2 movies, but other than that it was good. Let's be honest, I'll probably go see it again with Matthew. Then we had dinner at our favorite local hole-in-the-wall restaurant with the BEST garlic soup. I'm not sure of the actual name of the restaurant, so we just call it 'garlic soup place'. Very appropriate.

On Saturday Melissa and I were extremely successful in our shopping endoevers. The weather reports say that we are getting our first round of winter weather this week, so my southern Belle friend insisted that we go find decent boots before we get snow/fall on the ice/freeze.. Surprisingly we both found what we were looking for while Matthew spent the day in an exam room taking the GRE. We celebrated with fellow TEFL friends last night, it was good to see them again.

This weekend the first Christmas market opened! We went and checked it out this afternoon-it was complete with a huge tree and nativity scene in the center of the rows of stands. You can find ornaments, wood toys, gingerbread cookies, honey/jam/lavender concoctions, scarves, and much more. The big market opens in Old Town Square next Saturday night with an official 6 pm lighting ceremony of the large Christmas tree! We are planning on having a TEFL Thanksgiving on Saturday afternoon then going to the tree lighting ceremony. Should be a very festive start to the holiday season!

I have procrastinated looking at lesson plans for the week by watching an episode of The Office, 'decorating' my white walls with pictures from the H&M holiday and Vogue magazines, and now blogging... so I must do some work now before the week begins. Hope everyone had a nice weekend, too! xox

peace out, Communism

Today is yet another Czech national holiday-but no complaints here, so far I've had one day off per month of being here! Although today is what all of my students have been calling a 'celebration day' because just 21 years ago today was the end of Communism reign in the Czech Republic. 21 YEARS!!

I have heard many stories from some of my older students about life during Communism. They laugh about it now, but back then it was no joking matter. Absolutely everything was regulated, monitored, and rationed out (bananas at Christmastime only, for example). Simplicity was key and freedom was non-existent.

Today my teenage students are blessed with futures outside of the CR if they wish, but their parents weren't as lucky.

In honor of this celebration day I am practising my freedom and buying a plane ticket to London for my Christmas holiday!!

fun with Zoey



1 pound scarves

The alarm went off at 4:14 am this morning, forcing Zoey and I to say goodbye after a fantastically full 2 weeks together. Here are some pics from our holiday:




Vampire Diaries tees from Barbie




Krakow, Poland

 



Big Ben









Halloween in Praha



carving pumpkins



winking Jack O lantern



H2O