Recovery and End of the Year Fun

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!