I was very, very sick for a few days there... I stayed in bed from the afternoon of June 5th through June 9th... I never went to the doctor because my boss chose to tell me this time that I'm not not allowed to come to work on antibiotics (according to Czech law) which I've already broken a lot this year. Still, I decided to ride it out. Thankfully I felt better over the weekend (the 8th and 9th) and while I forced myself to stay in over the weekend (missing a BBQ and other fun events), I was able to be back at work on Monday antibiotic free (though not 100% healed).
I honestly don't remember too much of the week after that. I was still trying to get to bed early and survive until the weekend. The weekend was wonderful (and worth resting up for). It was June 15th and 16th... so 2 weekends ago, and it was the last weekend that almost all of our friend group would be in Prague (the next weekend some people had weddings and other travel plans and this coming weekend lots of people are flying out for good on Friday or Saturday). To celebrate the end of the year and to start our goodbyes, we met up at a wine and cheese shop at JZP (a metro stop in a cool area of Prague) call Le Caveau. The website is here: http://www.broz-d.cz/
My friend Katy found the place and I wish I would have known about it sooner... it's adorable. Delicious and affordable wine, sandwiches, cheeses and desserts (we all indulged in all of those things). We met up mid afternoon (Me, Katy, Tamela, Kate, Lauren, Tereza and Celieta and Jena joined after they finished skydiving) and started chatting and sharing wine. By the time we left hours later, we all had finished too much wine but were quite happy to be heading off together. The group headed for Riegrovy Sady to watch the sunset and I headed to pick up John (a guy I'd never met but a friend of my friend Jacob) and then took John to meet everyone. We were tipsy and John was ... not. I feel like we may have overwhelmed him just a little bit, but he was a good sport. After the sunset I took John on a walk around Prague (and got us lost multiple times... no matter how long I live here I just can't get my bearings in Old Town) and then I dropped him off at his hostel and went to meet my friends at one of our favorite dancing spots, Radost.
By this time, the group had evolved a bit. It was me, Tamela, Dino (a guy Tamela has been seeing), Jena, Tereza, Katy, Gary, and Nathan (a friend of Katy and Gary's who is staying with them for a month). We danced on stage and hugged and desperately avoided the creepy guy trying to give us weed (not sell, GIVE.... Prague is... very liberal). It was a fun night and I was very glad I was well enough to participate.
That Sunday I slept in and then started packing, did some shopping, and called Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day, but all in all, it was quiet.
Last week was a LONG week. First of all, it was hot. Overall, I LOVED it. 90-95 degrees is better than 50 degrees in my opinion, so I was happy to have all the windows in our apartment open and be in sundresses constantly. That said, the school where I work is not airconditioned. Every classroom has at least 1 wall that is completely windows. Some classrooms, like mine, have 2 walls of windows. It is a GREENHOUSE. Not only is the place not airconditioned... there are also not even fans. The school was stifling.
Although I will admit it was hot in the building, Czechs are really, really concerned about the kids getting overheated. On that Monday, it was only about 75 out when we headed out for recess.... but my co-teacher was scared that the kids would have heat strokes.... she lathered them in sunscreen (that part is good practice), freaked out that one of them didnt have a hat, and kept pushing water at them. The other mornings that week, she deemed it too hot to go outside at all. Now, I know I teach 2-3 year olds and they are more sensitive and such... but to someone like me, raised in GA, this is just borderline ridiculous. Then again, she thought I was being absurd in the winter when I would suggest that 18 degrees fahrenheit was "too cold" to take kids out into.
Tuesday of last week I had morning club (leave home at 6:20) and then we had a staff meeting and THEN I had to stay with Nikola and finish setting the color of the tie-dying that our kids did on handkerchiefs for their parents. I didn't leave school until around 6:25 in the evening. I went home, showered and changed and then Tamela and I went to dinner at one of our favorite places, Mood, for a nice dinner and our last roomy outing. When came back and settled in to watch the Bachelorette and then our power went out. Since it was steaming hot outside (and pretty warm in our unairconditioned apartment) and pitch black, we both just gave up and went to bed (we found out later there was a huge explosion in a suburb of Prague that caused the outage across about 1/5 of Prague).
Wednesday was another VERY long day. I left the house at 6:40 to get to school for parent teacher conferences. After a few, we had our class presentation that morning where parents stayed and the kids performed a whole list of songs they have learned this year. The performance went really well, but it always makes for a stressful morning (and way more crying when parents finally do leave bc it is out of routine). That afternoon we had more parent/teacher conferences (including a not so pleasant one) and then I had to teach Nikola how to do necessary things on the computer. Now, I love Nikola. I would not have survived this year without her... BUT... she cannot work a computer. I don't mean she just kind of can't... I mean that I wrote a step by step manual for her, complete with pictures, on how to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer... following said manual involved 2 hours and LOTS of questions. She has lots of talents I don't... but teaching her that computer stuff was painful and I was hot and tired and by the end of it... I was not holding my patience so well :( We left about 6:30 again that day... ugh.
By Friday, I was ready to relax. Jena wanted to spend her last Friday night in Prague (she leaves this coming Friday morning) eating Mexican at our favorite place, so she came over to the apartment and we made strawberry margaritas and guac (help keep us from spending so much there) and then me, Jena and Tamela headed out to eat. We had amazing food and a pitcher of margaritas and lots of good chatting and girl time. After dinner, I headed home to be productive, and Jena and Tamela went dancing.
Saturday was another perfect day. Jena and I met up at Letna (a huge park overlooking Prague/the Vltava River) and picked a spot in the sun. We bought popsicles and lounged about. Tamela showed up, and later Tereza and we just sunned and ate too many popsicles and talked. It was a lazy afternoon, but absolute perfection with the weather and the lounging. I headed home about 7 to continue productivity (goodbye letters to my students, putting together a photo album as Nikola's goodbye present, packing, planning Mallorca, etc) and everyone else headed to a music festival.
Sunday (yesterday) I got up and did some things for Oxford before meeting Nikola, Joanna, and Will to head to Konepruske Jeskyne- the largest cave system in the Czech Republic. We took the train to a town near the caves and then walked... I expected a short walk... it was 7 km (roughly 4.5 miles). Some of it was true hiking, other parts were along country roads. The landscape, however, was GORGEOUS. The weather was also cool and breezy and actually perfect for hiking. The caves themselves are incredible. HUGE caverns and very spacious... as a fun fact, in one of the caves, they found bones from a rhino that are around 13,000 years old. Which means 13,000 years ago there were rhinos in what is now the Czech Republic. Getting to the actual caves and through the caves was another 1.5 miles (and 500 stairs). After exploring we took a route to Beroun (a different town than the one we arrived to) which was another 4 miles. About 2 miles in to that portion I twisted my ankle. It hurt but I was/am able to walk on it. It's still sore but doesnt even feel sprained.
Anyway, it was a really cool day and I got to see a lot more of the Czech country side (plus, we rode there and back in a 2 story train and the upper level was SO MUCH FUN!)
Today was my last Monday teaching Blue Bunnies... only 4 more work days left. Exactly 1 week until Munich, 1 week and 1 day until Mallorca and Greg's 25th birthday, and 2 weeks and 1 day until home!
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Sick (again)
I spoke too soon about feeling better from that cold.
I've been in bed with a 101.5 degree fever since yesterday afternoon. Scarlet Fever is going around the school (cause by Type-A Strep which also causes strep) and I have huge tonsils, headache, very painful swallowing, and a high fever. No scarlet rash..... yet. Fingers crossed.
I thought I could ride it out, but I'm heading to see a doctor in the morning since I still feel really, really awful.
Sometimes I'm not SO different than my 2 year old students. When I'm this sick I just want my mom. No matter how old we get, I don't think that feeling ever goes away.
I've been in bed with a 101.5 degree fever since yesterday afternoon. Scarlet Fever is going around the school (cause by Type-A Strep which also causes strep) and I have huge tonsils, headache, very painful swallowing, and a high fever. No scarlet rash..... yet. Fingers crossed.
I thought I could ride it out, but I'm heading to see a doctor in the morning since I still feel really, really awful.
Sometimes I'm not SO different than my 2 year old students. When I'm this sick I just want my mom. No matter how old we get, I don't think that feeling ever goes away.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Prague Floods
The past week has been a bit of an adventure.
Greg arrived last Thursday. I still had a cold, though I was feeling somewhat better than I had been feeling. We decided to stock up on groceries for the weekend and then treat ourselves to dinner out at our favorite restaurent in Prague... a little italian osteria. Unfortunately, they were totally booked for the night, so we headed back to my apartment and cooked salmon, fennel, peppers, zucchini, potatoes, and onions. After dinner and catching up with Tamela, I headed to bed since I had work the next day.
Friday Greg met me at Opatov (about 1/2 way out to where I work) and we headed back into the city to do some printing and scanning for our universities. For those of you who haven't heard- Greg will be completing a fully funded PhD at Cambridge through their NanoscienceDTC program (essentially nanotechnology that is presented through physics, material science, engineering, etc). I'm very proud of him and he deserves a big shout out. Anyway, he needed to get them some paperwork so we did that and then rushed home to have a quick dinner before going to see a dance show, "Bounce," as part of the Prague Fringe Festival. The description said, "Bounce is a must see performance from New York Fringe! Eva Dean Dancer's 'five brilliant dancers' (nytheatre.com) move with circus globes, poi balls and physio balls to create wondrous worlds. Dance theatre that has 'mesmerizing choreography.' (The Wall Street Journal). An 'unalloyed delight' with an 'infinite-seeming range of the lithe expressive physicality', (The New York Times).
Based on that, I think my expectations were way too high. I was expected something whimsical and acrobatic. Maybe like a miniature, amateur version of Cirque du soleil. Unfortunately, it was more just like modern dance with giant balls. Parts of it were quite entertaining, but parts were just too weird for me and a few parts were maybe even a little boring. Greg said he liked it so maybe I just didn't get it. During the show I also started feeling feverish again, but Greg had been dying to check out the Prague Beer Festival so I insisted we head over even though I was feeling really under the weather again. By the time we got there, I was feeling awful, so Greg drank a beer and took a quick look around and then hurried me home.
The next day (Saturday) we were supposed to go sky-diving. I got us vouchers for Valentines Day and we've had this weekend planned for a long time. Unfortunately, it started raining Friday night and was still pouring Saturday morning. The company called to let us know that the weather was too bad to go, but they asked if we wanted to reschedule for the following day, which we did. We made a big breakfast and then headed off to the beer festival in the pouring rain to spend the afternoon. As soon as we got a table, Greg went to order us beers and met a guy from California in line. He was in Prague for the weekend from his study abroad program in Germany and none of his friends had wanted to brave the rain for the beer festival. We invited him to join us and spent the afternoon just chatting and getting to know each other. It poured the ENTIRE time we were at the festival and still hadn't let up by the time we left. Greg and I eventually headed home to get changed and make out dinner reservation at Da Clara.
Dinner was, as always, spectacular. We started with our favorite salad (arugula, gorgonzola, walnuts, apples, and a lemon/honey/olive oil dressing and then drizzled with balsamic.) After that, we split a pasta dish with eggplant, tomatoes, almonds, ricotta, and garlic. It was phenomenal. It had sounded good to me, but I didn't expect it to be so outstanding. For our main courses I had duck in an orange sauce with roasted veggies on the side (potatoes, broccoli, carrots) and Greg had a steak with asparagus and cheese and a side of similar roasted veggies. Although the food and service was wonderful, as always, they charged us a table charge, and for the tap water, which they have never done before. We didn't complain, but it made me a bit sad... I'd honestly rather just pay a bit more for the food than have little charges tacked on. Still, it's a minor complaint and it was a wonderful last meal at my favorite place in Prague (I say last b/c I doubt I'll spend the money to eat there alone before I leave).
After dinner we walked the short block home and watched A League of Their Own, which Greg had never seen, and also skyped with our good friend Brittany who we love and miss dearly back in Philly. It rained all through the night, including what sounded like a monsoon... or more just like someone pouring buckets of water over my building. It was nuts. Sky diving was cancelled again (boo) and we instead had a very lazy Sunday watching movies (Totoro) and reading (Wheel of Time series for both of us) and eating. We also booked our vacation for the first week of July to Palma de Mallorca. I was hoping for Greece or Portugal, but we got a great deal on Mallorca and I'm actually really excited to have some neat history and a nice mixture of history/sites and relaxation/beach.
That night Greg was catching a mit fahr (carpool) back to Munchen and we realized that the city was in bad shape. We started looking at how he was going to meet up with his ride and realized that 8 metro stations had been closed, some trams weren't running, buses had been re-routed, etc. We managed to get him to his ride without too much trouble, but I was curious to see how bad things were getting so after dropping Greg off I walked down to the Vlatava to watch it rise. Lots of people in the city had the same idea. It was still POURING out, and the river was roaring and crazy high. I took some pictures and then decided to head back to my apartment. As I followed the news after getting home, I realized just how bad things really were.... parts of Prague were being evacuated... including animals from the zoo. This was quickly turning into the worst flood since the devastating flood of 2002 and THAT was the worst flood in well over 200 years.
Despite the fact that all public schools (and most private schools) were closed AND that there were major transportation disruptions, my lovely school decided to open on Monday. To be honest, my commute wasn't so bad on the way to school, but it took some teachers nearly 4 hours to reach the school. What quickly became concerning, however, was how to get home. It was STILL raining outside, so routes that had been open to get TO school, were gradually being closed throughout the day. When I inquired to management about whether or not there was a contingency plan to help get staff home (there were still open roads but none that have public bus routes for us to use to get back into the city), I was told that management was dealing with "more important things" and "wasn't keeping an eye on the transportation situation." Now, about 75% of the staff commutes in from Prague using public transit... and a small number of students do as well... so tell me why this wasnt at least being monitored. Thankfully, I was able to make it home... in the rain.
Last night it finally stopped raining. I made it to school again and so did most of the staff, though some teachers were evacuated and several have had their flats/houses totally flooded/damaged beyond repair. It's crazy to see some of my favorite places in the city just under water.
Keep Praha in your thoughts!
Greg arrived last Thursday. I still had a cold, though I was feeling somewhat better than I had been feeling. We decided to stock up on groceries for the weekend and then treat ourselves to dinner out at our favorite restaurent in Prague... a little italian osteria. Unfortunately, they were totally booked for the night, so we headed back to my apartment and cooked salmon, fennel, peppers, zucchini, potatoes, and onions. After dinner and catching up with Tamela, I headed to bed since I had work the next day.
Friday Greg met me at Opatov (about 1/2 way out to where I work) and we headed back into the city to do some printing and scanning for our universities. For those of you who haven't heard- Greg will be completing a fully funded PhD at Cambridge through their NanoscienceDTC program (essentially nanotechnology that is presented through physics, material science, engineering, etc). I'm very proud of him and he deserves a big shout out. Anyway, he needed to get them some paperwork so we did that and then rushed home to have a quick dinner before going to see a dance show, "Bounce," as part of the Prague Fringe Festival. The description said, "Bounce is a must see performance from New York Fringe! Eva Dean Dancer's 'five brilliant dancers' (nytheatre.com) move with circus globes, poi balls and physio balls to create wondrous worlds. Dance theatre that has 'mesmerizing choreography.' (The Wall Street Journal). An 'unalloyed delight' with an 'infinite-seeming range of the lithe expressive physicality', (The New York Times).
Based on that, I think my expectations were way too high. I was expected something whimsical and acrobatic. Maybe like a miniature, amateur version of Cirque du soleil. Unfortunately, it was more just like modern dance with giant balls. Parts of it were quite entertaining, but parts were just too weird for me and a few parts were maybe even a little boring. Greg said he liked it so maybe I just didn't get it. During the show I also started feeling feverish again, but Greg had been dying to check out the Prague Beer Festival so I insisted we head over even though I was feeling really under the weather again. By the time we got there, I was feeling awful, so Greg drank a beer and took a quick look around and then hurried me home.
The next day (Saturday) we were supposed to go sky-diving. I got us vouchers for Valentines Day and we've had this weekend planned for a long time. Unfortunately, it started raining Friday night and was still pouring Saturday morning. The company called to let us know that the weather was too bad to go, but they asked if we wanted to reschedule for the following day, which we did. We made a big breakfast and then headed off to the beer festival in the pouring rain to spend the afternoon. As soon as we got a table, Greg went to order us beers and met a guy from California in line. He was in Prague for the weekend from his study abroad program in Germany and none of his friends had wanted to brave the rain for the beer festival. We invited him to join us and spent the afternoon just chatting and getting to know each other. It poured the ENTIRE time we were at the festival and still hadn't let up by the time we left. Greg and I eventually headed home to get changed and make out dinner reservation at Da Clara.
Dinner was, as always, spectacular. We started with our favorite salad (arugula, gorgonzola, walnuts, apples, and a lemon/honey/olive oil dressing and then drizzled with balsamic.) After that, we split a pasta dish with eggplant, tomatoes, almonds, ricotta, and garlic. It was phenomenal. It had sounded good to me, but I didn't expect it to be so outstanding. For our main courses I had duck in an orange sauce with roasted veggies on the side (potatoes, broccoli, carrots) and Greg had a steak with asparagus and cheese and a side of similar roasted veggies. Although the food and service was wonderful, as always, they charged us a table charge, and for the tap water, which they have never done before. We didn't complain, but it made me a bit sad... I'd honestly rather just pay a bit more for the food than have little charges tacked on. Still, it's a minor complaint and it was a wonderful last meal at my favorite place in Prague (I say last b/c I doubt I'll spend the money to eat there alone before I leave).
After dinner we walked the short block home and watched A League of Their Own, which Greg had never seen, and also skyped with our good friend Brittany who we love and miss dearly back in Philly. It rained all through the night, including what sounded like a monsoon... or more just like someone pouring buckets of water over my building. It was nuts. Sky diving was cancelled again (boo) and we instead had a very lazy Sunday watching movies (Totoro) and reading (Wheel of Time series for both of us) and eating. We also booked our vacation for the first week of July to Palma de Mallorca. I was hoping for Greece or Portugal, but we got a great deal on Mallorca and I'm actually really excited to have some neat history and a nice mixture of history/sites and relaxation/beach.
That night Greg was catching a mit fahr (carpool) back to Munchen and we realized that the city was in bad shape. We started looking at how he was going to meet up with his ride and realized that 8 metro stations had been closed, some trams weren't running, buses had been re-routed, etc. We managed to get him to his ride without too much trouble, but I was curious to see how bad things were getting so after dropping Greg off I walked down to the Vlatava to watch it rise. Lots of people in the city had the same idea. It was still POURING out, and the river was roaring and crazy high. I took some pictures and then decided to head back to my apartment. As I followed the news after getting home, I realized just how bad things really were.... parts of Prague were being evacuated... including animals from the zoo. This was quickly turning into the worst flood since the devastating flood of 2002 and THAT was the worst flood in well over 200 years.
Despite the fact that all public schools (and most private schools) were closed AND that there were major transportation disruptions, my lovely school decided to open on Monday. To be honest, my commute wasn't so bad on the way to school, but it took some teachers nearly 4 hours to reach the school. What quickly became concerning, however, was how to get home. It was STILL raining outside, so routes that had been open to get TO school, were gradually being closed throughout the day. When I inquired to management about whether or not there was a contingency plan to help get staff home (there were still open roads but none that have public bus routes for us to use to get back into the city), I was told that management was dealing with "more important things" and "wasn't keeping an eye on the transportation situation." Now, about 75% of the staff commutes in from Prague using public transit... and a small number of students do as well... so tell me why this wasnt at least being monitored. Thankfully, I was able to make it home... in the rain.
Last night it finally stopped raining. I made it to school again and so did most of the staff, though some teachers were evacuated and several have had their flats/houses totally flooded/damaged beyond repair. It's crazy to see some of my favorite places in the city just under water.
Keep Praha in your thoughts!
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