Normal Prague Life + A Couple Crazy Events

I haven't been updating much because the most exciting things to happen to me are usually me getting a new student. I'm up to 10 and possibly 13 if I accept another family. Not sure how I feel about that....

Anyways, my typical day in Prague as of now is getting up, making coffee and something to eat (food varies, coffee is forever!) and then heading out to the villages to tutor my students. One of the families I tutor (I tutor the mother and two of the three children) has half adopted me and lets me stay over for lunch occasionally. When I'm not teaching, we tend to slip into lots of Konglish. It's seriously the best. And I get food. And everyone gives me coffee. I am currently up to about 4-5 cups a day depending on how many students I have/how long I'm at home before 6:00PM (when I switch to black tea....)

I started working with a new family (and my only non-Korean family) last Thursday. I'm tutoring the son in writing, but he also happens to have an elder sister who is only a few years younger than me. So we are tentatively making plans to hang out. 

On days when I am not teaching, I try to get up at a decent time (9:00), fail and get up a bit later (about 12:00) and then attempt to use the rest of the day to explore things. I'm getting really good at moving around the city. For example, today I wanted to see the astronomical clock in Old Town, so I figured out how to get there, then went on a hunt for a coffee shop, failed to find one, then some how managed to get back to the tram stop at the bottom of the hill where I usually catch the tram to go home. Another time I really wanted a scarf (and more coffee). So following the guidance of a friend, I got off the tram near between a theatre and the Charles Bridge and then started randomly walking the side streets searching for a corner shop with cheap scarves. Scored one for 100Kc (about 5USD). Then made it back to the tram (even though I had no clue where I was) and on to the coffee shop. It's like you can't get lost here. 

I've met up with a Mac alumn, who is totally awesome. After hanging out with her, I was reminded of why I love Mac so much. We all just get along so well. Usually I'm really shy and awkward around people when I first meet them (and I still was haha) but she was so nice and even though we study two totally different things we found loads to talk about. She showed me an amazing coffee shop that is pretty easy to get to and very cheap with great customer service, as well as a bunch of other cool places in Prague and the surrounding area. 

My crazy events are.... well one is crazy, one is just a little not what I'm used to. We'll start with the not-used-to one. I went to my favourite Indian food restaurant this past week for dinner. The food there is so good that all I've thought about since I realized I would be coming back this summer is going to eat there again. Yeah. That good. But this particular time one of the waiters started chatting with me and by the end of the dinner I had been asked out for coffee. Can I tell you the number of times this has happened to me?Answer: 0. So, ummm yeah. Now I have a tentative coffee date with the waiter at the Indian restaurant. Maybe he knows how to roller skate..... 

And the crazy event is something that just happened and shook me up pretty bad, but also made me really appreciate the kindness of Czech people. As some of you may or may not know, I'm watching two cats in addition to tutoring and watching the house. One is the cat of the actual owner of the apartment, Jaye, and the other is a friend of hers from work. The friend's cat really likes to go outside, but he has no claws and the apartment is the third (and top) floor of the apartment complex. The cat has snuck out before, since I usually keep the windows open to help keep the apartment cool. I usually try to keep them closed enough that he can't get out, but sometimes I forget (usually with the bathroom window because I leave it open after a shower). and he gets out. So tonight he got out. And fell off the roof. From the third floor. Into my neighbors-whom-I'd-never-met's garden. Luckily, his owners were very smart and wrote my number on the collar. They called me, luckily spoke English, and then helped me get him to the vet. The man stayed with me and helped me translate at the vets office and then when I tried to give them money, they refused it (I did manage to give them cookies I baked for 4th of July though!). The cat is okay now. He has a small cut on his lip, but otherwise fine and running around the house and making noise as usual. I am now shutting all the doors and keeping windows closed in rooms the cats are in. Thank god cats always land on their feet or who knows what might have happened......

But yeah. That's almost all of what's happened since my last update. I will try to do more exciting things to talk about. Emma is coming next week, so more silly adventures will probably ensue! 

Getting into Prague Life

I'm writing this post while consuming a somewhat late breakfast of toast and beet/grapefruit/lime juice that I just made a few minutes ago. Despite the fact that it's almost 9:00 and I'm just now eating breakfast, I've actually been up since a bit after six. Around 7:00 I went for a run in the local park. Can I please be this motivated every day?

I've been pretty busy these last few days. I moved to Prague last Friday. Since then I've been roving around with Jaye, learning how to get around town through the transit system, where to shop for groceries and clothes. On Monday I met one of the families I will be tutoring for and then managed to navigate my way home. Yesterday I went to actually tutor the mother for an hour. By the time I got home it was about noon and so hot that I could hardly stand it. I made some lunch and tried to work up the courage to go back outside. I really can't tolerate heat. I don't like sweating and I prefer weather to be no higher than 75F. It was so hot that I debated with myself for quite awhile on whether or not I wanted to make my planned trip to the mall to buy tanktops to wear in the heat.

Finally I sucked it up and headed to the bus stop. Getting to the mall I went to is pretty easy as it's just one bus. Getting back is a little more tricky, however, because only every other bus actually goes all the way up the hill to where my bus stop is. Sadly, on this particular day, I forgot that. But it was fine. I just had to wait outside for another 10 minutes or so.

I actually had two missions at the mall yesterday. One was to buy tank tops, which I found at H&M on sale for 70C (less than 5USD!!). The other was to get price estimates on roller blades. You see, the park by my house has a really nice paved path for bikes and roller blades. And on the weekend there are so many people out having fun and roller blading that I really wanted to attempt it myself. I'm currently looking for a used pair, but I haven't had any luck and I would like to get a hold of them soon so I have time to put them to good use. I've managed to find a few pairs for about 60-70USD but most of them are more like 100-150USD. I'm not sure how I feel about dropping that much money after just having spent that on a phone....

Before I went on my actual shopping spree, however, I decided I was in dire need of caffeine. There was a Costa Coffee (England's number one coffee chain!) in the mall, so I stopped in there for a bit. I sat at a table and doodled some. It felt so good to just be able to draw without pressure. I didn't feel guilty like I should be doing something else, like studying, but I also didn't feel like I was just forcing myself to draw for the sake of drawing, which is how I've felt for about the past month. So yeah, that was really great! After I'd been sitting for a bit, one of the baristas came around with a tray giving out lemonade samples. It was awesome.

I had such a good time being out yesterday that I'm going to attempt the same this afternoon if the weather holds. Apparently it's supposed to rain a bit today or tomorrow. This is only a concern because the only way to cool down the apartment is to open the windows and pray for a breeze.

Now that I'm a bit more settled, I'm going to attempt to keep this more regularly!