Be Thankful for...

Last week was Thanksgiving and it was a little bizarre.  Ya, my freshman year was spent with my Aunt and Uncle in Virginia, but at least I was with family. This year was...different to say the least.

Ever since I started at my new teaching company, I've been way happier! I've actually taken on swim lessons on the weekends with the kids of one of my English students. It's crazy what happens when you have connections. I'm finally in the swing of things and doing what I enjoy.  On top of my 3* jobs, I also got hired as a waitress at an Irish pub near my house last week.  It's right near Charles Bridge and 10 minutes walking from my house. If you know me at all, 10 min is nufffin'.  The restaurant is really cool, the chef is American, so we get along.  The place has a lot of regulars, everyone knows everyone and everyone is super friendly.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving was really fun.  We had a "friendsgiving" with most of the people from the Drunken Monkey.  A couple people made the turkey, which is pictured above.  Then about 10 of us made the rest of the goodies.  We brought it to the bar and had a giant feast.  It was literally like Thanksgiving, but without real family and it wasn't on a Thursday. But hey, who's paying attention? Not me.  It was amazing.  It really felt like home and even though my real family wasn't there, these people have become my pseudo-family. After, I was in a food-coma and died. It was greaaaattttt.

That week, I started at my new job.  I had training on Monday and started my real official day on Wednesday, by myself.  I loved it.  The thing was, I had to go to Bratislava on Wednesday night to file for my Visa.  No one could come with me because of money issues, so I was allll by myself.  It was kinda interesting going there alone, but no big deal.  I took the bus to Bratislava and went straight to my hostel.  I had an appointment at 10 am, on Thanksgiving, so I went to sleep pretty much.  I went to the embassy in the morning and long story short, couldn't get in and I have to go back in a couple weeks. Whatever no biggy.  Then I had about 5 hours to fill before my bus left back to Prague.  I was pretty distressed about the whole thing and a guy was there doing his student visa and saw that I had a few issues. He was New York, so it was nice to speak to another American.  We went to grab coffee and he heard me venting and what not.  He was super nice and we decided that we might as well make the most of the day since our buses didn't leave until later.  We then proceeded to walk all around Bratislava (basically) to the castle.  Which, btw is, like, at the tallest point in the city, so that was a nice little hike.  The view was beautiful though.  You could see allllll of the city, it's really small anyway.

View from the Castle

I felt like the buildings were made for mini people, too.  Everything seemed a bit smaller than usual.  It was interesting. It was strange being in a SUPER foreign country, on Thanksgiving, by myself.  Whatever, I made it work.  The bus is only 4 hours (took 5 cuz of traffic) and I was back by 8pm.  My restaurant was actually doing a Thanksgiving special and Poppy, Laura(one of my friends) and I went there to have Thanksgiving Part II thanks to my Ma! It was soooo good, 3 course meal with pumpkin pie. I was in heaven.

NOMZ

Safe to say  it was a pretty successful Thanksgiving.

Naturally, we went out after, which didn't last long due to he-who-shall-not-be-named. Love him anyway LAWLZ. 

This week has been going pretty well, too.  Hopefully my friend will do my hair tomorrow. FINALLY. It's a hot mess. God Palmer where are you. And I have swim lessons this weekend and a couple of my friends and i are going to the cinema on Sunday and I'm making dinner. Well those are the plans anyway. :)

'Till next time, when something else exciting happens. And in conclusion: be thankful for everything.

xxx

This City Will Change You

I know I haven't posted in awhile, it's been a busy month!  From my birthday to Katie visiting, job changes and everything in between, life is Prague is amazing.  It's hard to explain in a blog how phenomenal one city really is.  Who knows how long I'll actually be here for but dang do I love it!

Fact is: I don't have much to write about because I basically do the same things every week.  I haven't done many touristy things since I'm here for so long.  Plus, my roommate has a friend coming so that's when we'll do all that fun stuff.

On my lovely 23rd birthday, my friend surprised me at a bar with 2 bottles of champagne and a cake with streamers! It was awesome. Everyone is so nice and wonderful here.  Every person I've met is so down to earth it makes living here that much better.

Teaching has been going ok, too.  I work for a different company now teaching business adults.  I love it so much more than the kids.  Luckily, I am able to have a lot of lee-way with my schedule and now I can pick when I want to have lessons.  Teaching adults is so much better.  My lessons right now are individual, so I basically talk to my student for an hour about different topics.

My friend Katie, (who is studying in Paris right now), came to visit last weekend and it was really nice to have a familiar face around! She had a great time.  We went to go see Prague Castle *finally on my part* and it was breathtaking.  The view of the city from the castle was beyond words.  It is an aerial view of the entirety of Prague.  We saw the cathedral and golden lane, too.  Golden lane is a street full of small houses, basically looks like it's for midgets, but in medieval times everyone was small I guess? The architecture and design and facade of the building are amazing and it is still very well kept.  So beautiful.  I also tried hot wine for the first time and let me say, I WAS MISSING OUT.  It's like the best thing ever that has entered my mouth.

It's starting to get colder here and I'm really nervous for winter.  I don't think I can handle it! We shall see!

Until the next time.  Hopefully something cool happens soon :) But for now, I'm just tootin' along, doin' as the locals do.

Ready, Steady, GO!

This past week has been interesting to say the least.  One trip to the hospital, classes and no classes, bar crawls, and the beginning of Winter (all ready).

Explanation of the hospital visit:  Every year, I get a pretty bad sinus infections, like some people.  BUT considering I'm not in the US and it's not that simple to just go to the doc's. (Plus I don't have my visa yet, so that makes it 10X more difficult). Anywho, I was getting extreme sinus headaches and could not get out of bed.  I couldn't blow up a balloon at school, weird, but that was how bad it was.  Luckily, the doctor gave me some Sudafed type stuff that made them go away. Thaaank you Mister.

On to the fun stuff!  Now that I work in Old Town Square, with the bar crawl, I've been able to meet some awesome people, tourists and locals alike.  It's a great little social scene and all of the bar crawl people get along.  Besides the point, I've been able to venture around the city, by foot mind you, and explore bits of Prague.  Honestly, getting lost in the city is the best thing you can do! I've found the most random things just by getting lost on accident.  I'm trying to encourage ALL of you that read this to visit me! It's definitely one of my top cities that I've ever visited.  Since I have to travel for teaching, that has also allowed me to figure out where different things are and get around easier.  As most of you know, I am very determined when it comes to directions.  I know where I'm going and I like to MOVE and get to the next destination.  So now that I know the public transportation system pretty well, it's like Disneyland, I feel like I could conquer anything... Bizarre I know. Been here for a month and I made the trams my buds.

Teaching has become less stressful now that I've gotten into the movement of everything and the kids know me.  Still, there are those devil children that never want to behave and makes the job a bit more difficult.  Hey, no one said it'd be easy, but it would be worth it.  It's definitely worth it and I wouldn't change it.  Not for now anyway.  Like my sister always said before I got here: I really don't see you working with kids. No kidding.  But I'm making it work Palm! Speaking of who I MISS YOU!  My favorite class is my two hour class on Monday and Thursdays.  They're 8 years old and really fun.  Kinda psyco, but at that age, weren't we all?

I'm really excited for this weekend, I'm celebrating my 23rd Birthday with all of my new friends.  Sheesh I'm old.  Luckily, the friends I've made are awesome and they're helping me plan everything! I'm still waiting on my package from my lovely parents, been stuck at customs for a few days. But should be here today.  *Hoping there are some chocolate covered gummy bears in there* ;)


Until next week! xoxo

I FOUND A GYM

That's about it I'm afraid.  Just to add: It's fully functioning and clean with body work classes and I'm definitely not going to be able to walk tomorrow.  *Thanks Czech lady*

Actually, funny story.  I saw her in the locker room and said, "Great class!" She looks at me and says, "You know, I won't be teaching in English." I laughed. Duh, I thought to myself, I'm not in America.  But I said it was fine because I'm used to classes from back home.  To be honest, I had no idea what was going on.  I had to look at my friend who told me about the gym in the first place. Oops.

Anyway, everything is so FANTASTIC! (For a Monday people) And I start my second day of training for my second job...Ya second job.  Teaching is wonderful, but I need to pay my bills!


:)

That Time I Was Homeless and Had a Job

Remember that short period of time when I was homeless? Ya that was like yesterday.  GREAT NEWS: Finally moved into our wonderful, huge apartment in Prague. Ugh, the last few weeks were relatively stressful.  I arrived in Prague on September 4, (yesterday was the 19th btw) and we finally have our own place.

Just a little background for those of you are like WUT.  My roommate came to Prague end of August, she had been traveling slash couch hoping since June. I know.  Anyway, up until yesterday we were basically homeless.  One of our friends graciously let us stay at his place for a few days before we moved in, saving us some $$$ or Czech Crowns to be specific. Long story short: in order for us to move in, we needed a co-signer on our electricity bills.  They don't allow Americans to be on the accounts.  So just to clear that up, it seemed like that was NEVER going to happen.  Then a miracle happened and one of my co-workers said sure, I'll sign for you.  A literal life-saver and the best human ever.  Gotta love the English! So we finally figured that out.

But before she signed, I thought I had explained everything to my Czech friend to be our co-signer.  Unfortunately, the language barrier was quite large and she said she couldn't.  Naturally, I was so frustrated and the landlord said we couldn't move in until the 25th.  Like Wuh? I cried and it was like I was living in a movie from Hell.  The week itself was all ready difficult, then added the extra stress.

In conclusion, our landlord felt bad and called me the next day saying that if we got a co-signer on Wednesday we could move in Thursday.  I immediately called my English friend and she said yup! So thank god that was taken care of :)

Now on to the teaching part! (Obviously the most important part)  I finally started teaching on Monday!  Let me tell you, this week was so rough trying to figure everything out.  I think I definitely need to learn Czech... BUT I had a nice Czech lady show me around to all my schools.  By the way, I taught at  6 different schools and had almost 5 or more lessons a day.  My Monday consisted of 3 25min lessons with 3 year olds.  They were so cute.  One class had one kid who wouldn't stop punching himself and spitting, but that's besides the point I guess. The rest of the lessons went totally fine.  My Tuesdays and Wednesdays are nice.  I teach 5 45min classes in the mornings with 6-8 year olds.  Those classes are a little bit less stressful because they understand me a bit more.  Also, there must be a God because my work didn't give me classes on Fridays, YAY! (Can you say second job?) Yea, I'm going to be a bar crawl promoter on the side, no biggy.  I need the extra cash 'round here!

All in all, it was definitely a stressful week, but I've been trying to focus on the good rather than the bad.  I knew EVERYTHING would work out so I was focusing on the fact I was moving into a great apartment soon! Thanks Petr.

I feel like I'm officially Czech as well now too, I got my payment card from my Czech bank! No more converting from Dollars to Crowns.  Ugh so tedious.

As I have my second glass of wine, I am still in awe of how lucky I am to have this experience and opportunity.  Granted, I'm referring to the free wine nights on Fridays and Saturdays here, but hey, the teaching is cool too ;).  I'd like to point out that the night life is pretty great.  Any one want to visit? My door is always open! I mean if I know you of course...

xoxo

Beer is Cheaper than Water

How could you say no to this?!

This last week has been such a roller coaster.  The week before I got to Prague was even more crazy.  I quit my job about 10 days before I departed the country for 12 months or more, and let me tell you, packing for that amount of time is so difficult.  I think in total, I got rid of 4 bags of clothes/shoes and 3 bags of trash.  Boy did I collect a lot of crap.  Finally, 2 giant suitcases, a large backpack and a carryon later, I made it to JFK to board my first flight to London.  If any of you know me at all, you know that was going to be my favorite part.  Unfortunately, I only had a chance to run to my connecting flight miles away in the Heathrow airport.  1hr 45min is NOT enough time for a connection British Airways. But luckily, I made it in time.  *Side note: I slept basically the entire time on my flight from NYC to London, it was like magic. *

Upon arriving at the Prague airport, naturally I was so confused.  Clearly I speak no Czech, and no I didn't learn anything before coming.  Sorry Mom.  My then future roommate gave me pretty detailed directions to get to the hostel so that was so helpful.  Luckily, I was in no hurry to get there so I just made sure I was going the right way and followed the directions to a T.  I had to lug all my luggage onto a bus, then the metro, then to the hostel. But hey, I made it alive without getting lost! Everyone should be so proud.  I mean I am good with directions so I'm not surprised I made it out alive.

After getting to the hostel, I settled in a bit and Poppy(the girl I'm living with) got back from work and we went to see an apartment.  It didn't work out :( but it's ok, better news is coming up! After, I had my first Czech meal.  It's a lot of meat and potatoes, so it's definitely not an everyday thing.  By the time that ended, I was falling asleep at dinner, clearly I needed some sleep.

The next day, I slept until 2pm and then met Poppy to open a Czech bank account; I didn't open mine until Thursday.  It feels so official with a bank account now.  But our main concern was the apartment still.  Also did I mention that beer is cheaper than water? Hence the title.  It's insane, people told me that was true, but I didn't believe them until now.  We went out for the first time on Friday with my friend Bara, whom I met at SFC; she's Czech.  It was tons of fun.

Saturday was such a nice day as well.  Poppy and I walked up to Petrin Hill, which is a giant park near Prague Castle and a mini Eiffel Tower that France gave to the CR, why, I'm not sure yet but I will find out.  Anywho, it was worth the sweat and pain to climb that hill, the view was PHENOMENAL(pics later if I must). Later that night we weren't planning on going out, but the bar downstairs had free wine from 10-12.  Need I say more.  Some how we ended up on a bar crawl, so you all can use your imagination after that.

Sunday was the day we thought was the day we finally got an apartment.  But negative ghost rider, it was a poop-hole and over-priced.  Sad day.  BUT I got over it because the next day I finally started training for work! The whole reason I came here was to teach and I couldn't wait.

Monday was really interesting. We had a 9-5pm training session and I met other teachers from other regions, meaning they're not teaching in Prague, they'll be all over.  I really wanted to work in Prague so I pushed for it a bit harder.  Love it so far.  The guy who owns Wattsenglish trained us for the day and he's a very interesting man, but their methodology is very clear and I'm excited to use their materials and teach little kids.

I actually had to go to one of the schools I have to teach yesterday and met the director.  They don't want me to use the WE materials, which is ok.  At least I was able to see the school and the area I will be teaching a couple times a week. By the time this school year is over, I'm going to be a pro at public transportation in Prague.  Watch out y'all!

It still amazes me how so many series of events led me to this place at this time in my life. I still can't believe it, it is literally a dream come true! People dream of traveling and living as I do all their life, and now it IS my life.

Sorry mom, I don't know when I'll be back.

For now, I'm just living day by day and having a F**KING FABULOUS TIME. Till next time!

XOXO gossip girl (jk that's not really me.)

To Whom it May Concern:

It's that time of year again-Paige is in Europe. Again.  This time, it's going to be longer than 3 months.  Potentially 2 or more.  Who knows, I'm in love all ready.

Just a little background on why I am now in Prague:

Upon graduation, I was so lost and confused on what to decide I should do after.  Like many people after graduation, I could have gotten a job doing some sort of business whatever.  But my passion is not business.  I knew if I got into that field I would never leave and I wouldn't be happy.  Naturally, I freaked out.  Of course not knowing what you want to do for the rest of your life was one thing, but as my surgery was also approaching, I was a hot freakin' mess.  This summer was going to be a tough road and I knew it.

Myself and stress are...enemies. We do not get a long.  A week before my surgery(12 week recovery by the way), I talked to a friend who was looking into getting his TEFL/TESOL Certification.  For those of you who aren't aware it means teaching English as a foreign language.  After speaking with him and doing A LOT of research, I signed up for my course that took place all summer until the middle of August.  I finally had a plan and a path to go down.  Unfortunately, the summer was not going to be easy.  At first, I wasn't sure where I wanted to teach, I had so many options.  As my recovery and rehab continued through the summer, and my summer hostessing job, I decided on Prague.  Why you may ask? Honestly, I'm really not sure.  Throughout my lifetime of traveling (LOL because I'm only 22), I had yet to step foot in the Czech Republic.  So many of my friends and colleagues had told me it was a beautiful and wonderful city.  Obviously I did a bunch of research and made up my mind.  In early July, I booked my ticket.  Spontaneous I know.  But hey, it was one of the BEST decisions I've ever made.

After finishing up my course, I took an extra couple of weeks of young learners English and business English.  That's when I knew I wanted to teach young children in Prague.  After applying to many different schools, I was hired at Wattsenglish Ltd. It was one of my first choice schools and I was hired! Yes, I was heading to Prague with no apartment or job, so.  I was confident enough, I knew things were going to work out just fine.  After getting the job, I focused on getting the apartment.  I actually met a girl through my TEFL program and found out she was also going to Prague so we decided we were going to be roommates.  She was doing a lot of work trying to find apartments before I came, bless her(it was very difficult), all while living in a hostel.  Which, by the way, we are still doing. Anyway, after arriving in Prague last Wednesday, we've been looking at some places and FINALLY found one! We're hoping to move in next week.  Pictures will come later! Thank goodness we won't have to live in the hostel for much longer.  But it's not terrible, I'd just like to cook my own meals.

Another post will be up soon about this last week and training for Watts.

xoxo