delicate balance

we had a retreat last weekend w/ all the ESI czech-ers. lots of talk about future plans for people. decision time is upon us... future is a weird concept. somedays i am overly concerned and anxious about what is to come. somedays i could careless. but i know this - i still love using my czech kc - i still love getting yelled at in billa and breaking into a sweat bc of it. i still love our flat w/ a balcony that makes you want to pray for this city. i still love laughing w/ my team. i still love my friends at home and am glad i haven't lost people this year in the distance. i don't mind hang-drying my clothes bc it makes our living room smell like a cloud of fabric softener. layer upon layer upon layer of clothes is funny and stupid annoying. i love the simplicity roots that i am planting in my soul as a result of my life here. i love public transportation. i am very grateful to be living here. it is an actual dream come true. nazdravi to 5 and a half more months.

swing of things

what does the swing of things even mean. since when do we compare life to being on a swing?

well. mom and dad left. and this past week teaching was like starting in august. planning planning planning planning. and then some planning. snow has been fun. to be posted is hopefully a full video explaining the fun which was had whilst sledding. a treat for sure. snow has also been ridiculous when every 10 seconds you let out a small yelp and wonder if you are about to eat it in the snow in front of a ton of people. snow is also cold and wet. but when it flutters down it's like someone forgot to put the force of the skies behind it and was like - let's just frost everything today. let's make all the dead brown and black have white on it.

so school. snow. slippers. still laughing at bean and with her. i like lemon water w/ bubbles. bc bubbles burn so good. i wish our shower came above my head. i'm reading out of the silent planet and pagan christianity and trying to grow my little mind. i rearranged my room again before christmas. a.d.d.

that's all for now. a novel of a day

phew! on to praha and dresden

wow. vienna was long. i'll try to contain myself a little more. now no one will read it. haha. 

i showed mom and dad around

 prague. the city and it's charm haven't gotten old yet. this was my third time there. 

mom and

 dad's favorite stories from the trip include the 2 times i got them lost - one time, we just went out of the way for like half an hour. the other time. we got on a tram to nowheresville. literally. it was the 18 that 

we got on. we all saw it. and the 8 didn't come to that tram stop. but it did on this night when i was you know, reassuring mom and dad that their little girl was safe and sound on her own in the big scary continent across the ocean. so a 30 minute ride to nowheresville, a frantic call to frank and then gina, broken czech i couldn't understand and 30 minute wait later, we were back on the tram headed the exact path we had just come - just parallel - down to the proper tram and another 30 minute ride home. WHAT?! trams in prague are retarded. and it was not my fault. i swear. it was funny though. 

new years eve we toured the city more, enjoyed a starbucks w/ bean and cat.

 mom and dad went off to find a hotel for the next week and bean and i went to the flat, showered and headed back out into the tundra which is the czech (did i mention this vacat

ion was the coldest i have ever been in my life? there were times i had on 2 scarves. there were times i wanted to take the wind and slap it and tell it to knock it off. there were times i whimpered bc it was so cold. i would bury myself in layers and puff and scarves and hats and still be hating my life.) to try to find somewhere to dance - shocker - lyd and bean dance? neh. so we found somewhere. with a long line. but didn't want to miss the fireworks, so after a 30 minute line, we hopped the fence

 and rushed onto charles bridge - aka - mosh pit. and people were humming the white stripes - 7 nation army - yeah, we didn't get it either. and we moshed. bc the people move like a current and you just go with the flow. and giggle. at midnight i got hugs and kisses on the cheek from strangers. and saw fireworks. on the charles bridge. in prague. and ran into cat again. so we took pictures and giggled some more bc it was 2009. and were going to dance - but it was stupid expensive so we started to walk around - you know - bc everyone was out and so excited about it being the new year and all - but the cold was eating gina's feet off, so we darted in the fir

st cafe we found, had a beer, then went home. found frank, aaron and britt there and hung out for a bit and slept. 

next day - dresden - 

much more baroque than gothic. pretty awesome. saw, ya know, more good architecture. had coffee and pastries w/ mom and dad. saw a chinese art exhibit comparing european kingdoms in the 1700s to the chinese empire. headed to herrnhut. i'm not even going to blog about the catastrophe

 which was getting to herrnhut. bc it really wasn't a catastrophe - moreso just my irresponsibility of leaving my phone charger in prague and not being clear enough w/ lizzy burkhard about our plans. but we got there safe and sound. mom loves that story though. and loves to point out that i HATE asking questions and looking like a tourist. it's all the dang stigmas attached to stupid loud americankas that i steer as far away from as i can. i'll ask questions if so necessary, but i hate it and would rather be lost and in circles for a bit then run up to people like mom "ENGLISH?" she drawls out in her cute sou

thern accent that i tried to put behind me several years ago "ENGLISH? WE ARE AMERICAN - WE KNOW NOTHING - ENGLISH?" i will give her props though - we got more accomplished i'm sure with her being like that and arrived at destinations in germa

ny. it would have taken a lot longer w/ me and my pride in the way.

herrnhut is adorable and we had really yummy pizza. you know the shepherds and our pizza. and we walked around and dad got his fill of all the zinzendorf things - the guy that started a massive movement of prayer and a revolution of sorts. i got my fill of lizzy burkhard. and got to see raeann and ellis. all delightful. and we talked more about thailand since raeann and i had both been and we kind of compared experiences a little bit and that was awesome. bc i hadn't talked about it in a long time. and i miss talking about it. bc talking about it stirs things in my heart that can get buried in the day to day jargon of life. thailand was super impactful and i hope i never never forget the things i learned and experienced there. so i stayed w/ lizzy that night - parents were at the ywam place and the next day we drove through candyland headed back toward ostrava. 

it had been snowing for a couple of days and it had snowed an immense amount in the part of germany and czech that we were going through. like the forest had been dipped into white icing and was set against a cotton candy sky. and then there were the trees for those who don't have such a sweet-tooth - the ones dusted on top with powdered sugar. it was mucho mucho bonita. i didn't even read. 2 hours of staring out of the window, smiling, at how creative creation actually is. if you don't see God in the mountains and forests, then my friend, something is so wrong w/ you.

back to prague then on a train to ostrava. showed mom and dad around town. started teaching again. they left wed. it was delightful for them to see and experience my world. and to travel together. they travel a lot. but i hope these travels were special and all that. they got to meet some of my ostrava lovelies. they got to stay in my flight. i got to talk to them about europe and books and all their silly habits that they make fun of each other for. i am very very appreciative that they took all the time and effort and money to come here. and they got me new boots and jeans bc mine are all getting holey :) k. now that holiday is blogged about.

let's talk about vienna

hopefully this will be somewhat enjoyable to read.

plan:: vienna - december 23,24,25,26 | salzburg - december 27,28,29,30

reality:: vienna - december 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and most of the 28

sleep 4 hours december 22. 

december 23 - wake up at 6am to catch a 7am student agency bus that takes us to brno. carry our heavy shit around brno. find an over-priced cafe to park in for our 2 hour layover. maybe it was 3 hours. it was long. get on another bus. get to vienna. find new zealander and aussie chicks in our room. settle in. head out. walk into magic-ville. huge lights on streets. there are the adjectives i was looking for. imagine your christmas tree and house on crack. imagine a city that is chevy chase style. lights that are 2-3 times the size of you hanging between buildings, each street holding it's own magic and own style. walk by buildings created, oh, you know, 1,000 years ago. stumble upon christmas market after christmas market with people from all over europe drinking hot, sweet wine, eating sausages and pastries and candied nuts. everyone is smiling. homemade ornaments and gadgets and toys and puppets and art in miniature houses all in a row. christmas lights, christmas trees, christmas spirits, aaaah. i think i found my favorite building so far in vienna. the biggest christmas market was outside of it. we never could attain entrance into said building, but it was lovely and detailed and gothic with several towers and stained-glass windows, the color of a super vibrant rainbow. it made me want to lie down in front of it and fall captive to it's architecture. but my freezing body told me that wasn't so smart. 

december 24 - hausdermusik. so much fun. mozart's lounge - we want to purchase this album. we created miniature symphonies, listened to the sounds of thailand, nyc, kids playing, the woods, water, etc etc. we read about the great composers and austria's role in the great musicians like beethoven, mozart, etc. we went to starbucks. don't judge. starbucks tastes like home and when being so far from home for quite a while now, starbucks was welcomed with wide-open arms daily while in vienna. delicious drip coffee s hasselnuss. hosteled. then went to christmas eve mass which was in english at yet another hideous central european cathedral - you know the ones that catch bad flack for being too big and impersonal and cost too much money - those ones that steal your breath and remind you that the history of christianity is jaded and beautiful - one that couldn't be contained or boxed in by cathedrals or catholics or protestants - ones that make you realize the awe and majesty of one we serve that is greater than us - we had christmas eve mass in one of those. and then hosteled again and made friends i think that night downstairs.

december 25 - lonely on christmas without friends and family you ask? if you don't consider the some of the greatest artists of all time friends and family - then maybe YOOOU would've been lonely. bean and i survived just fine with monet, klimt, grosz, van gogh, etc. so museum in the morning, starbucks to detox from the mass amount of beauty we had just taken in, then - the little piece of heaven sent from the angels - kunthausvien. i think i will do a whole other post on him. he's that good... hundertwasser that is. then we were famished. oh this is good. so bean and i don't eat when we travel - especially when grocery stores close for 3 days and we were unaware that they were going to close in the first place. so by about 7pm - i thought - hm - bean looks appetizing, maybe i'll eat her. you know - like looney tunes when bugs bunny turns into something so delicious and then gets hunted. that is how i felt about gina. so i ate her. we had a good relationship while it lasted... no no - everything was closed, of course, bc what crazy isn't with a family on christmas day? so at wit's end - we found an adorable little italian place where we received homemade pasta and salad. thank you, vienna. my one meal today was delish. then we decided to go completely crazy and splurge on an expensive english movie. FAIL. australie. if you liked it - well, good for you for finding entertainment in the lame, boring, crap that movies have become. ha. i don't judge you. we just couldn't sit through it after the beauty of everything else we had seen on christmas day. so we left mid-way through and went back to the hostel and maybe made friends again? i don't remember. maybe we just went to sleep, satisfied. christmas was a good day.

december 26 - boxing day over here across the atlantic - grocery stores still closed. museums = open. albertina and belvedere. the best part of the belvedere was the klimt exhibit. beautiful is an inadequate adjective. sparkling maybe? or graceful. idk. but we were way distracted bc we found out that getting to salzburg was going to be 50 euros and then another 50 to get to praha - 100 euros that we did not have. so beyond bummed that half of our trip was now going to fail - we decided to book another night in our hostel. we quite liked vienna and then we would be able to go out saturday and enjoy sunday in vienna before heading on up to prague sunday evening, 2 days earlier than intended arrival. 

december 27 -  save money and just walk around the city all day admiring more european buildings and structures that i'm sure you look at in pictures and go - building, pretty building, pretty building, but in person - they still have the allure of something that reeks of history and a culture that cared about aesthetics and took time to have a city that looked like something awesome. then - the nutcracker for 4 euros - yes please - i wish i had taken more pictures at the opera house. mmhmm. nutcracker in the vienna opera house. that night was just terrrrrrible :). when i was a kid, i remember the ballet boring me. when i was 23, i thought it was genius that your mood could be affected solely with costumes, a stage, dancers and a phenomenal orchestra. we were in the standing section (ie: the cheap section) and smiling for a good 2.5 hours. magical. i know - lame to keep using that word... but magical it was.

that night we met up w/ 3 friends from the hostel (that we had gone to the ballet with) to try to find good dancing. good - not so sure - shady, on the river, dark, really loud bass, dudes entranced by the lights overhead, hipsters everywhere, smoke everywhere - that is what we found. a european experience - sure. an experience we kept laughing through - of course. the nice part - we paid ourselves back at the end of the night. bc if you take empty glasses or bottles back to the bar - they give you money back. GENIUS. so we went around collecting other people's trash basically and made ourselves a few euros. more bars should do that. we got home at 4am. or 5am. i don't remember. we were supposed to wake up in time to go to the vienna boys choir and check out of the hostel before that -- no - we woke up at like 9 i guess. and laid around the hostel and used our little book to try and find some decent place to have coffee or eat - we failed at 3 attempts all over the city - so we went back to a place that we had the day before that was near the center and the opera house and enjoyed a superb meal. we walked down the streets - freezing our asses off - and said goodbye to the city sprinkled by magic fairy dust and christmas cheer from santa's sleigh.  then our bus left at 6. and we got to prague at about midnight. it was a cold and long bus ride. so the next day we slept in and shat around the boys house, enjoyed catching up w/ ems from hungary and had dinner w/ the crew. then guitar-heroed our night away and off to bed. mom and dad arrived the next morning.......

this post is long and i'm sure i'm leaving out important things. but let's be honest - you don't really care that much :)

i love christmas. and bean

bean and i decided to spend christmas in austria. we were to leave on tuesday, dec 23. so that gave us a whole weekend at home after school ended on the 19, without a million planned events, to breathe. and we did just that. and went around the city to take pics. and enjoyed our teeny tiny christmas market. that was the weekend of the fishnet office party too. 

here's some pics. oooostrava

ps - the devils. st. mikolas day. if you are a bad kid - you will get coal and a potato and a devil will come take you away. if you are good - you get fruit and candy. so these are the devils at shopping park. creeped me out every time. 

tak

december... well that was a while ago now. a blur if you will. 

let's see here. i bought the grinch - cartoon version and played it in 80% of my 

classes so i watched it something like 10 times by the time christmas came. still laughed every time. still loved it every time. 

we had a homemade christmas exchange at which i received this awesome owl pillow and i  enhanced an apron for ash. i spent 7 hours on a sunday hand-sewing. that was preceded by the hour i spent making a cheesecake for which i had to chop up a chocolate bar to have chocolate chips. 

yes friends, chocolate chips don't exist. and i also hung my laundry to dry. basically - i lived in 1930 for a day. it was cute. we had a christmas cookie baking party. czechs freaking spank americans in their decorations. i mean. by lightyears.

i ate about 25 different varieties of czech christmas cookies. all delicious. all tiny. like tiny. so that you're like - oh i should have another and another and another - since they are 1/3 the size of normal cookies - and 14 cookies later... y

ou're like wo- calm down there killer. 

we had an office party at a restaurant. me and bean tried to dance after on stodolni. they played the ting tings. that one song was enough. then it was back to trash-attack of the 90s terrible rock bands like limp bizkit - so we left satisfied w/ a good dance to the ting tings. k. pics of that stuff. 84 more updating posts to follow.