To be honest, I kind of forgot I had a blog there for awhile. I'll do my best to hit the highlights of what I've been up to in the last month.
First, on April 29th we celebrated the "Witch Burning" at school. The actually official day for this is April 30th, but the school celebrates a day early. Basically, in Czech tradition, the last day of April signifies the end of winter weather and the "Witch" represents winter. They make a "witch" out of cloth and straw and turn it into a huge bonfire. Then, we roasted marshmellows and sausages and just hung out. I was dreading staying so late after school ended, but it actually ended up being pretty cool.
Mixed in there were some fun nights out at Riegrovy Sady, a beer garden and park where you can order a beer and then sit on a hill overlooking Prague and just enjoy the weather. Pretty much every nice night a group of us would go and picnic and just enjoy the views. The first 2 weeks of May were really nice because we had 2 Wednesdays off in a row (May 1 and 8) so for awhile it went: Weekend, 2 days of school, 1 day off, 2 days of school, weekend, 2 days of school 1 day off, 2 days of school, weekend. It made those two weeks FLY by.
Around then one of my good friends, Jena, had her sister visit which involved a night out to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then some dancing at our favorite places. She also had some friends visit from France so I went out dancing with them as well. Both nights were tons of fun and now that the weather is less frigid, I feel like I've been out and about significantly more.
On May 17th Greg came to visit. We met up with friends, Katy and Gary (a British couple I work with) and went to Riegrovy Sady. While there, we witnessed a terrifying sky-diving accident (basically we saw a bunch of people jump and one parachute didnt deploy. We were a ways away but we watched the speck spiral out of control and fall out of sight. It was really awful and sad and scary and not at all encouraging considering Greg and I are supposed to be skydiving next weekend. Anyway, I had to work the next day so Greg came and picked me up from work and then we went to Lennon Wall where we each added quotes of our own. Then we came home and made a big dinner and just hung out. The next morning I took Greg to the bus station and saw him off.
That night was a friend's birthday picnic. Unfortunately, it rained, so we all picnicked on the floor of her apartment instead, but I still had a great time. It'd been awhile since the whole gang was around in one place, so it was good to catch up. I didn't do anything exciting the next day (a Saturday) but then on Sunday I met up with Katy, Jena, and another friend, Tereza, to take a long walk around Divoka Sarka. Divoka Sarka is a park that is located within the Prague city limits (granted, on the very edge) and is more like a nature reserve or state park than a city park. It's huge and really gorgeous with a stream, big lake, rock formations, cliffs, meadows, woods.... it's just unbelievable that a place like this exists in a huge city of 1.3million people.
This past week was a hard week at work.... just lots of kids acting out (using toilet bowl cleaning brushes as swords... after dipping them in unflushed toilets, hitting, a child spit in my face, etc, etc, etc) and lots of long days preparing for upcoming conferences and other end of the year activities. Only 5 weeks to go (25 days of actual school). I think I can I think I can I think I can.
Thankfully, this weekend has been much better than my week. Despite waking up with a migraine at 3AM on Saturday morning (so bad that I couldnt fall back asleep until 10AM or so.... I then slept until mid-afternoon), my Saturday evening turned out to be lots of fun. I woke up in the afternoon headache free and so Katy, Tereza and I met up to go to see a show that is part of the Prague Fringe Festival. A simple definition of a fringe festival is just performances that are not main-stream... generally a bit artsy and off-beat. We went to go see a play/monologue called Escape From Disney Land about a guy who worked at a disney themed fast-food restaurant. Parts of it were really funny and parts were just weird and a little uncomfortable, but I'm glad I went. From there, we headed to a tea shop where we all got a small sweet and tea/coffee.
Then, we decided to go meet up with Jena for a dinner/drinks. We went to an expat place called The Globe and ordered dinner/snack/drinks and then realized that they would be showing the Champion League Final (a soccer match that is a HUGE deal in Europe.... it's like the European Championship game). It was 2 german teams playing... Munich versus Dortmund, so naturally I pulled for Munich (and they won 2-1!) After the game, we all headed home.
Today I've had a lazy day. It feels like winter has returned to Prague. The high today is 46 and it's pouring rain. Greg will come sometime this week (I think Friday but perhaps earlier if he can get someone to pick up a shift for him at work) so I have that to look forward to.
June is going to be a busy month but I'll do my best to keep you posted!
