It's Official! I'm TEFL certified!

It's official!! I am now a TEFL certified teacher. After one month of class and nonstop lesson planning, I finally have my certificate! :) The course required a lot of work but I learned a lot and met some really interesting and fun people! Some of them are not staying in Prague though so I am very sad to see them go! :(

Roomies! :)

UCD Aggie <3

"The Whole Gang"

Graduation took place on Friday the 14th, the last day of the course. They called each of us up, one by one, to receive our certificates. Then we all went out to dinner to Cortez, a restaurant right by the school. 

Earmuffs, Mulled Wine, and Trdelnik

Christmas is here...well almost! What a busy week with TEFL! Classes, lesson plans to write, practice teaching lessons, and assignments, I'm glad it's finally the weekend! Couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate the weekend and the beginning of the advent season than with my cousin and her husband in the Old Town Square of Prague!

Michelle and I in the Old Town Square

Mich and Martin

December 1st marked the opening of the Christmas markets here in Prague! The markets stay open all throughout December and sell all kinds of Czech handmade goods such as glass, ornaments, jewelry, and little toys for kids. On Saturday night there was a big celebration in the Old Town Square as they lit the Christmas Tree. I went with my cousin Michelle and her husband, Martin. It was so fun! We walked through the square and had some mulled wine. The square was packed!! There was one part of it that was so crowded you could barely move because you were surrounded by people on all sides! It's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic! Finally, we found a good spot to watch the tree light up :). It only lasted a few minutes though,
but then we each had a Trdelnik. (A pastry made from wrapping dough around a metal rod and roasting it over an open flame, then decorating it with cinnamon, sugar and nuts.) It was delicious!! I can't wait for Christmas to come! :-)

Mmm Yummy!

Hradec Kralove

I spent Saturday and Sunday in Hradec Kralove last weekend with family. Lukas took me out there around noon on Saturday. Fifteen minutes into the drive though his car got a flat tire! Oh no! It didn't take that long to fix luckily, but it's still a bummer that it happened. Eva had lunch already waiting for us when we got there. She made authentic Czech sausage with potatoes and apples. :-) It was so delicious!!

mmm Výborný!

Then we all drove up to the top of the hill, basically the only one in the city. There were lots of country houses but there was also a gorgeous view! The countryside is stunning!

They were so friendly! Baaaa...

As we were walking down one of the roads some of the sheep "baaaahhhed" at us. We also saw a ferret! 




Later that night my cousin, Michelle, and her husband, Martin came to join us for dinner. We all went to a local Indian restaurant. The next day Lukas and I went to a theater show in the morning and walked through the town in the afternoon. We had lunch again with Eva before we left. Then made it back to Prague in the evening. What a great, relaxing weekend in Hradec Kralove!

 
 

Happy Birthday!

Today I turned 24! Oh my! So what's the first thing I do as a 24 year old? Wake up and go for a short run around the neighborhood. :) I put on my cold weather workout gear (some pants, longsleeve shirt, and some gloves) and I was off! The apartment is on this little mountain, which is great because there are stairs connecting one street to the other that I can run up and down. It's a great workout! 

Then my cousin took the bus into Prague to celebrate my birthday with me! I showed her my apartment where I was staying and she gave me my birthday present. :) We got on the metro and went downtown. We took care of some business at the vodafone store and then went to lunch. The food was delicious and it was really nice to just talk and eat. I had a spinach/pesto risotto. Yum!

(Mich and I at an little Italian restaurant near Palladium)

After lunch we went to Palladium to do some shopping because I needed to get a couple things. While shopping we had to take a small coffee break of course at Costa Coffee.

 (Enjoying my gingerbread coffee! Mmmm...Coffeeeeeeee)

 Not quite sure what to do next so we headed to the movie theater to go see the new movie Twilight. I've never read any of the books or seen the other movies but I thought why not? The movie was really good and I even learned some new Czech words while watching it because of the subtitles.  :) Once it was over, we went back home to get ready to go out and meet up with everyone else.

Overall it was a fantastic birthday and I'm very happy that I got to spend the day with my cousin!!

Later that night we went with the rest of the group to a bar downtown, a few blocks away from Wenceslas Square. The bar was great except for all of the smoke. It was mostly underground and pretty big. I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone!!
 

I'M HERE, I'M HERE, I'M REALLY HERE!!!

I finally made it to Prague! Yay!
 

So it is the always-lovely jet lag that brings me to my computer at 4am Prague time of course but 7pm LA time. All I want to do is shower and eat! Haha. However I do not have any snacks/food with me other than some Herbalife tea (thanks Kady!) and I don’t think anything close by opens until about 7am. And it is still a little too early to shower because I don’t want to wake up my roommate. But at least it gives me a chance to update my blog and send some emails! Maybe I will even start unpacking in a little bit! 

Views from my apartment:

I landed in Prague around 8:45pm and then took a pre-arranged taxi to my apartment. There was some confusion of where to go and the taxi driver just dropped me off in front of the apartment with nothing but my luggage and no keys to get into the building. Ah! I was quite confused and probably shouldn’t have let the taxi driver leave. Not to worry though, I made a quick phone call and someone came to meet me with my keys and information. Apparently the driver was supposed to have me pick this up at a separate building close by but he didn’t do that. Anyway I got a quick tour of the apartment and surrounding area (metro, school, etc…) and then left on my own. I got settled into my room, chatted with my new roommate, and then off to bed!

Touchdown in the Munich airport!

Nothing but smooth sailing so far, well, more like flying...

The flight went by so fast! I couldn’t believe it, before I knew it we were landing. They served dinner right away and gave us a choice of salmon or pesto pasta. I opted for the pesto pasta. It was surprisingly pretty good. It came with a little salad, bread, desert, and some crackers. Then I watched the movie 'Chocolat', which I’ve never seen before. Not sure why, but it was listed as a comedy... Anyway, I also watched ‘What to expect when you’re expecting.’ I liked both of them. Then I slept, or at least tried to sleep. It was tough to find a comfortable spot though despite having such a great seat on the plane. No one was sitting next to me and I had an aisle seat with lots of leg room! Woohoo! For breakfast they served an egg omelet, not that good :( . Once I woke up a little and walked around a bit, I came back and watched Spiderman. I’ve never seen that movie either. Haha. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the very end though because that’s when the plane was landing. Man, I was so bummed! Of course we had to be landing at the best part and thus they stopped the movie! Guess I will just have to rent it sometime. 

Now, I’m sitting in the Munich airport at one of the café’s near my gate. I ordered a tiny bottle of sparkling lemonade and an apple for four euros. So far I have heard many French speakers. Oh how I miss French so much!! I will have to make it out there while I am here so I can speak some French :).

I love airports... I like people watching and hearing other languages. The prices for everything are outrageous of course but that is to be expected. I probably had the biggest grin on my face as I got off the plane. So excited to know that I finally made it and would be arriving in Prague shortly.

Anyway, off to catch my plane from Munich to Prague. See you next time Munich! 

ONE WEEK LEFT

Well in exactly one week I will be boarding a plane, landing first in Munich and then in Prague. Still can't believe that this will become a reality. This week I took care of the paperwork to apostille my University degree and transcripts. The process was actually fairly easy, just a little costly unfortunately :( Now the main thing that's left to do is just packing! 

 Tonight though I gave my final speech (at least for awhile) at my Beachcities public speaking club. It went pretty well, even though I didn't really follow the guidelines of the speech Manual. :/ I'm glad I got a chance to say goodbye though. I'm definitely going to miss seeing everyone each week!! I will keep you up to date with my new club in Prague and when I get my CC :) 

 On a side note: I'm glad the elections are finally over... I hated being bombarded with election ads every time I turned on some kind of media.

A WEEK OF LASTS...
I feel like I should be using this last week to do all of the "last" things that I can't do in Prague. lol For example, Eat In'n'out (which I did last night).  If you have others suggestions Please comment :)

Today was also my last day of tutoring-sad to leave all of my kiddos :( 

Happy HOWLloween

Happy Halloween everyone!! Have lots of fun but be safe! :-) This year my costume is a ballerina (from black swan). I enjoy dressing up but what I enjoy most is seeing everyone else's creative costumes! I also love carving pumpkins and roasting the pumpkin seeds! I carved an owl this year.

Anyway, Not only is today Halloween but It is also TWO WEEKS from today that I depart on my adventure!!! It still has not hit me that this will really happen. I still have a lot of packing to do and some shopping, which is never a bad thing of course. I need lots of winter clothes because in southern California there is really no such thing as "winter". It's either hot or kind of cold and I'm ready for a change!

Time to go pass out some candy!!

Three weeks left

In just about three weeks my world is about to be turned upside down and inside out!! I will be leaving sunny southern California to set out on a new adventure in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I am beyond excited!! I am ecstatic!!! :-) All day long, I'm constantly visualizing myself walking down the Charles Bridge all bundled up in my winter clothes, going for runs at Petrin Hill and sitting along the Vltava river, admiring the scenery. The last time I was in Prague was summer of 09 (3 years ago) but I still remember it as if it were yesterday.

Here's a Czech list of things I wish to accomplish (basically my Bucket list):

 • Become fluent in the Czech Language

• Be able to read, write, and speak with ease.

• Pass the course with flying colors.

 • Get a Job!

 • Spend time with family.

• Create and keep up with a travel blog.

 • Make new friends every day.

 • Go to Catholic mass at St. Vitus Cathedral.

• Take a trip to the beer spa at the Chodovar Brewery.

• Enjoy a beer bath and massage.

 • Become a local.

• Attend the beer festival in Prague (May).

• Run the Prague half Marathon in April.

 I know this list will get much longer but I think this is a good start for now!