Moving

Hi y'all!

This past weekend I was busy MOVING.  I was living right in the center/heart of Prague, just a 3 minute walk from I.P. Pavlova, a main metro station.  However, for a multitude of reasons, I needed to move apartments, and around the time I needed to move, one of my friends and co-worker's roommates moved out to live with her boyfriend, so I moved in to the apartment.  The place is a bit farther from the touristy part of Prague, but it's only a few minute walk to a bus stop and about a 5 minute walk to a tram stop, so it's still easy to get around. The place I am living now is super-duper nice.  The guy who owns it had just renovated it for him wife and their kid when he got transferred to Vienna for work.  He was very picky in finding tenants, but rented it for way less than he could get for it.  Basically when they re-did the place, they were very thoughtful in adding little touches that make it so nice to live here, for instance:  a light switch beside my bed so I don't have to get out of bed to turn out the light, lights all have dimmers, bathroom has it's own temperature control so it can be set warmer than other rooms, TONS of closet space in bedrooms, TONS of cabinet space in kitchen, gas stoves, heated towel racks, double shower heads, etc.  Tamela and I even have our own bathrooms!

Anyone wishing to send me mail should no longer use my old address.  My new address is:

Sarah Vaughn
Mexicka 3
10100
Praha 10
C/O
Hanna Sands

Moving this weekend wasn't too tiring.  My new roommate is dating a guy here in Prague and he has a car.  He was nice enough to come pick up all my things and drive them over to the new place so I didn't have to pay for a cab or struggle on public transit.  I thanked him profusely, and then started unpacking.  As is always the case when moving, I soon realized I was missing this or that so I compiled a list (sheets, a duvet, pillows, a bathmat, a trashcan for the bathroom, bedside lamp, a spatula, an oven mit, hand soap, etc) and headed to Ikea.  It took forever, but I left with the things I needed and then swung back by the old apartment to vacuum and drop off keys.  Finally, I headed back to the new place to keep unpacking.  When I arrived, Tamela was cooking tacos/fajitas and so we opened a bottle of wine and ate dinner.  It was delicious!

Yesterday I just continued to clean and unpack and then I braved the grocery store.  There is a small Tesco only about a block away, tons of potraviny's, and a HUGE Tesco 2-3 bus stops from here.  I went to the big Tesco so stock up on somethings and the trip was a success.

I mad soup last night since it's been so cold here and it turned out really, really well- for anyone else who is a soup fan, I highly recommend it so here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (I used 1/2 this amount of butter and then added a little bit of olive oil to the pan)
1 1/2 cups chopped onions (I didnt measure in cups but I used 4 small onions b/c that is what I had)
2 tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/4 pound peeled, chopped carrots
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
11/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
4 cups chicken broth/vegetable broth
juice from 1/2 a lemon (2-3 table spoons if you're not using fresh)

Preparation: 

Melt butter in a heavy, large pot over medium-high heat.  Add onion and saute until tender (4 min).  Add ginger and garlic and saute another 2 minutes.  Add chopped carrots, tomatoes and lemon peel and saute 1 minutes.  Add broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until carrots are very tender (20-30 min).  Cool slightly and then in batched pour soup in blender and puree.  Return soup to pot and mix in lemon juice, then season with salt and pepper.  

I ate the leftovers for dinner tonight with 1/2 a grilled cheese.  Perfect comfort food on a cold night. 

This coming weekend I'll also be cooking up a storm.  My new roommate and I decided to do a traditional American Thanksgiving for the American (and other) expats that we hang out with in Prague.  We're expecting 12-15 people and we're doing all the cooking- though people are donating ingredients this week to help us cover the cost.  I'm really excited about it but also pretty nervous because I've never cooked this big of a meal for this many people.  New respect for being a real grown up (what is this?)

Anyway, I'm off to be productive and then get some sleep!  

I'll update again soon and post pictures of the apartment!  

--Sarah

To see a doctor in Prague (socialized healthcare is awesome)

People back in the states can complain all they want about socialized healthcare... but having experienced myself, it's AWESOME.

For the past month or so, I've been sick off and on with some sort of cold/sinus crap.  After working alone Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was exhausted, and I woke up Thursday running a low grade fever and feeling miserable (tightness in my chest, bad cough, stuffy nose, the whole nine-yards). Anyway, I decided this had gone on long enough and I really should go see a doctor.

I set off this morning to see an ENT doctor that my co-teacher recommended.  She THOUGHT someone in the office spoke English, but wasn't positive.  I took a tram to the building, not having made an appointment or anything, and wandered around, looking very lost, on the third floor of a building that screamed "communist era."  Finally, a nurse stopped me and kept asking me in Czech what I needed.  I couldn't respond in a way that made any sense (I tried), so I finally wrote down what/who I was looking for and the nurse steered me around a corner and pointed at a door.  There were tons of people in the hallway outside the door (and they all shot me funny looks when I tried to open the door... which turned out to be locked).   I was very unsure of what to do so I just stood around in the hall until finally, about 10 minutes later, a nurse walked out of the locked door.  I was super relieved b/c I'd felt really awkward just standing in the hallway, not having checked in or anything, and even though I was still unsure of what to do, I just followed the mad rush up to the nurse and noticed that everyone was handing over their government insurance card, so I did the same. I also asked (in Czech) if any of the doctors spoke English, and thankfully one did.

About 20 minutes later I was called into the room with the locked door (which I now know is the exam room).  The doctor asked for my address and phone number, then asked me to tell him what was going on.  All of this took about 5 minutes, and then the doctor asked me to sign a form of consent for him to do a nasal endoscopy.  I signed, walked over to an exam chair, sat down, and immediately got nervous when the doctor pulled out a long metal rod.  He told me to breathe normally and not to move at all.  He guided it up my left nostril and pulled it back out after about 15 seconds.  It was a bit uncomfortable, but by no means painful.... then he moved to my right nostril.  It was very, very painful.  I was whimpering and crying, and I think the dr. actually found this mildly amusing.  (I did later discover that at least in the U.S. they do generally give you a numbing nose spray before doing this procedure so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was really painful).  When he pulled the scope out, I was like this: http://i.imgur.com/W840S.gif (and since it STILL feels sore, am still doing that).

After doing the scope, the doctor told me I have severe sinusitis, prescribed me a week of amoxicillian and prescription strength sudafed, asked me for 30czk ($1.50) and then sent me downstairs to the pharmacy in the same building.  The pharmacist made up the prescription immediately, with no wait, and the drugs were roughly 250czk or $12.50.  I was back home within of an hour and a half of when I left and that included stopping to get lunch.

To summarize: saw a specialist, had an endoscopy, received prescription medicine, for a rough total of $14 out of pocket, all in under an hour and a half.  Such a win.

HFMD

The good news:  My co-teacher returns tomorrow!

The bad news:  The kid with the "cut" on his tongue.... turns out it's HFMD.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand,_foot_and_mouth_disease

Sarah's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (2) Day(s)

When I got a text Sunday evening from my co-teacher saying that she would be out sick AT LEAST Monday through Wednesday, and maybe the whole rest of the week, I knew I was in for a long few days.  On Monday, I was dreading work but I left my apartment at 7:16 to catch the 7:22 metro like I do 4 days a week.

My commute normally works like this: I leave my apartment at 7:16, take the 7:22 metro from I.P. Pavlova to Opatov.  I arrive at Opatov at 7:37 and grab an apple or orange from the market and then run upstairs to catch the 327 bus that leaves at 7:45 to the school.  I walk into school at 8:02 and head to my classroom and kids arrive starting at 8:25.

Anyway, on Monday, I jumped on the metro and away we went.... very, very slowly.  The metro was running at a snail's pace and frequently stopping between stations.  Finally, about halfway to Opatov, and not at a station, the metro just stopped.  An announcement came on, first in Czech, then in English, that the metro was discontinuing service and we would have to wait there for maintenance/repairs.  They fixed it pretty quickly, but I still didnt arrive to Opatov until 7:55 which meant I missed the bus to the school.  The next bus isn't until 8:10.... which would mean I wouldnt get to school until after drop off starts.  If my co-teacher weren't out this wouldnt be such a big deal, but I knew I had to get there.  I called my boss and he said to get a cab, so I jumped in a cab and between my broken czech and the driver's broken English, managed to communicate where I wanted to go.  Thankfully, the school reimbursed the ride.

When I got to school, I realized that there was no sub in my classroom... just me and 10 two year olds (which, for the record, is illegal under Czech law that requires there never be more than six toddlers under the age of 3 for per 1 teacher).  The kids were all pretty good, but it was still a really, really tough morning.  They finally got a sub in for me at 9:30ish, and he was helpful, but an unfamiliar adult set off lots of crying and since he didn't know the kids OR the routine.... the help was pretty limited.  He also wasn't really any help at all getting the 10 kids to the bathroom, but that may be a school policy as most of the male subs arent really supposed to go into the bathrooms b/c some of the parents are really funny about it.  Anyway... the sub had to leave at 12:15 so he wasn't even there 3 hours, but a lot of the kids leave at 12:15 so I only had 4 after lunch.  Still, with no sub in the afternoon, I didn't get my lunch break or even a bathroom break all afternoon.

When parents arrived to pick up kids, one little boy told his mom something in Czech that he had been saying to me all afternoon.  Turns out, it meant he had a pain in his mouth.  When his mom looked, he has a huge gash in his tongue.  I have no idea how or when it happened... he didn't cry at all yesterday, but I felt really terrible about it.

The bright spot of yesterday afternoon was going to pick up a box that my parents mailed me.  The contents were as follows:

• Much needed hand/toe warmers
• An issue of Practical Horseman
• A Birthday card from MPC
• 3 boxes of Yogi Throat Comfort Tea
• 3 boxes of ping pong balls for my friend Will
• Tarragon (impossible to find here and up there with my favorite herbs to cook with)
• Post-it notes (I LOVE post-it notes)
• Bubble wrap.... admit it.... y'all love popping it too. 

Today (Tuesdays) are my long days at work because it's my day to do "morning club" which is basically for all the kids who get dropped off between 7:30 and 8:25 before their teachers are in their classrooms.  I hate Tuesdays for this reason... leave the apartment by 6:30 and at school by 7:20 makes for a long morning with students that aren't mine and that I often don't know.  Today, I settled in at 7:30 and kids trickled in.  Normally at 8:05 or so, my friend Jena comes in because morning club is held in her classroom and then at 8:25 the other kindergarten teachers come to collect kids from their classroom.  Today, by 8:25, Jena still hadn't showed up and all the other teachers were collecting their kids.  I couldn't leave Jena's classroom because she had students in there, but I also had parents waiting in my classroom to drop kids off.  After a call to school management, I found out that Jena had called in sick and her co-teacher doesn't have to be in until 9AM normally and no one had called him.  It took some sorting out, but another kindergarten teacher took her class AND Jena's until 9 and I rushed to my classroom so parents could leave my kids.  

I only had 6 kids today, but one of them is super attached to Nikola and was absent yesterday so she started crying immediately.  It was a rough morning and I didn't have a sub until 9:15.  It was the same guy as yesterday and he was more helpful today, but I don't think he really likes working with the really, really young ones (aka, my class).  Also, he had to leave at 11:30 which is right when I serve the kids lunch and things are the most hectic so it really didn't help all that much, though still nice to be able to go to the bathroom or grab a drink.  I had 4 kids again after lunch and that went ok.  Another really sweet teacher even swung by mid afternoon so I could run and get my lunch out of the fridge.  

All kids are supposed to be picked up between 3 and 3:15 and then there is a bus back to the metro station at 3:25.  If all the parents are on time and no one stays to chat, it's possible to catch that bus.  The next bus is at 3:55, so it really sucks when a parents is 5 minutes late, chats for 5 minutes, then leaves and you have to wait 30 minutes for the next bus when you JUST missed the 3:25.  Anyway, 3 of the kids are picked up by 3:10 so I was hopeful.... but then 3:25 rolls around and still no parent.  When this happens, there is an after school club we can take kids to... that said, I have a clingy 2 year old who is a LOUD crier and screams when she gets dropped off with anyone unfamiliar (she just recently stopped crying with Nikola and me).  Plus, I had a friend working the afternoon club and I just felt too guilty dropping a screaming 2 year old off when there were about 15 other kids in the class to watch.  So I waited.  The mom showed up at 3:55.... just as I saw the bus pull away... so I had to wait another 30 minutes.  Grrrrrrrr. 

Anyway, today did have its bright spots.... on the way home I stopped by a cheese shop I've been eyeing and treated myself to a small block of manchego which is one of my favorite cheeses.  I'm also really pumped about election results but too exhausted to stay up to watch them (polls start closing at midnight my time... blech). 

Here's to hoping tomorrow goes better and that Nikola is back and healthy on Thursday! 

Snow, Halloween, and Greg's visit

It's been a busy and fun 2 weeks here in Prague.  I actually don't remember what I did week before last (lame, I know) but starting last weekend things are pretty memorable.  Last weekend (the weekend before Halloween) I was planning to go with friends to Terezin (German name Theresienstadt) which is a town, fortress, and was a concentration camp during WWII.  I woke up Saturday morning to freezing cold temperatures and snow, so while I still want to see Terezin, I didn't want to be out in the cold all day.  Instead, I decided to ride several tram lines around the city (trams are all above ground) and just see various areas a prague in the snow.  It was really beautiful but also really cold and considering it was only Oct. 27, I wasn't really excited to already have below freezing temperatures and snow.

That night, I headed over to my friend Tamela's apartment (where I'll be moving in 2 weeks!) and a few other people were over eating pizza, quesadillas, and drinking a few beers.  It was a low key, really relaxing night with friends and fun and all in all, a great night.

This past week was a LONG week at school.  It seems like we had more crying and diaper blowouts than normal, and we also had a girl fall and bit through her lip.  Plus, we had an extra long staff meeting on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we had to dress up for Halloween and then do an after school Halloween party that lasted until 7PM.  After ELEVEN contact hours with 2-3 year olds... I was exhausted and pretty much running on empty.

On Thursday Greg arrived to visit me.  I met him after work and we just came back to the apartment and made dinner and relaxed since I had to work Friday.  Friday I woke up and had to head to work.  Greg slept in (much needed since he's been putting in crazy long hours at school and work.  He spent the day lounging and then looking for some winter clothes/shoes, but all he found was a new hoodie/sweater (though a nice one!)  Then he came to pick me up from work and see the school.  From there, we headed to pick up a birthday gift for my friend Larry, and then went to Larry's birthday party at our favorite local bar, Kavárna "Na Sumave", which we all refer to as "Honsa's."   Greg and I split a semi-dark beer that was on special, and then a really delicious lager and then said early goodbyes and headed to dinner reservations at Las Adelitas, one of the only places in this part of Europe to get good Mexican food.

When we got there, we ordered a pitcher of margaritas and a starter of chips and guac.  Then Greg got enchiladas three ways (red salsa, mole, salsa verde) and I got chicken tacos topped very simply with red onion and a bit of cheese.  Everything was really good, and while not completely authentic, a really solid meal that I think we were both happy with.  Ater that, we'd planned to go explore Old Town, but I was really tired (ok, so maybe I had a bit too many margaritas) and so we headed home.

On Saturday, we got up and Greg went to get us fresh bread from Paul's bakery for breakfast... I like Czech bread but Paul's is a chain that sell french bakery stuff... it's expensive but worth it when you are craving something other than traditional dark, Czech bread (with rye flour and caraway seeds).  Anyway, after breakfast we headed to an outlet mall to see if we could find better deals for Greg since he was still in desperate need of winter things.  We found him another pullover/hoodie, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and even a computer mouse since his broke.  All in all, it was a successful day shopping.  From the mall, we headed to my new neighborhood and spent some time wandering around.
We ducked into a little bar to grab a beer and met the owner (a man from Croatia) and a guy who must have been a regular who was in there drinking.  He was a dual U.S./Czech citizen who emigrated to the U.S. in 1968 to flee communism and then returned in 1995 to the Czech republic after the fall of the communist regime.  He had some interesting things to say about the Czech Republic and basically told me "Don't fall in love with it here... it's still messed up and be careful."   ..... Comforting words... especially since as soon as we walked out of the bar I passed a guy holding a shrink wrapped machine gun.  Oh, Eastern Europe.

From the bar, Greg and I headed to Tamela's apartment so he can see where I'm moving in 2 weeks.  We spent some time checking out the apartment and talking with Tamela before heading next door to an Italian place called Osteria Da Clara that came highly recommended.  It was the best meal I have had in a long time and by FAR the best meal I've had in Prague.  We were seated immediately and brought TAP WATER (unheard of in Europe.... everyone serves only bottled water and charge you an arm and a leg for it).  Next, we ordered a carafe of chardonnay which was really, really good and some classic bruschetta as our starter.  To follow, we each had a primi serving of pasta.  I got a classic tuscan spaghetti topped with a few tomatoes and tossed with breadcrumbs, olive oil, and some type of seafood.  Greg got a pasta dish with italian sausage and pumpkin cream sauce.  Next, we split an entree... a seared tuna steak with garlic, parsley, and a bit of fresh red cabbage and citrus fruits with a side a roasted potatoes, sauteed greens, roasted eggplant, and roasted red peppers.  To finish the meal off, Greg had an Italian style espresso.  All of this was only the equivalent of $44 USD and everything was fresh and fantastic, the service was excellent and the atmosphere was cozy and unpretentious.  Definitely my new favorite place in the city.

Anyway, after dinner we decided to wander Prague so we took the tram back to the main part of town, got off and walked through Wenceslas Square and then to Old Town Square, then along the river, and finally got home well after midnight.  This morning we just got up, Greg packed, and then we headed to meet the driver he was carpooling with.  When I got home, I got a text from my co-teacher saying that she has a bad cold/maybe the flu and won't be at work for at least the next 3 days.  My co-teacher is pretty much my hero and keeps the kids under control so I have no idea what I'm going to do with all those kids all by myself... I seriously hope they get a sub to help me but that's questionable b/c so many people are out sick with the same things right now.... still... it'll be a long and miserable week if it's me and 12 2 year olds all by myself.

Hope all is well back home.  I miss everyone!