Love you Washington

I've been back in the states for the last six months now... No work still. I feel like shit on the bottom of a shoe. What the fuck do I have to do to get a job around here? I have an amazing resume, lots of good skills and I stick with jobs for a long while. So whats the problem? Is it me? Do I smell bad? At least I've been enjoying my unemployment. Kalab and I got out to the cascades last weekend for my first time which, homygod! AMAZING!!! We went to a campground called Lonefir, if you find yourself in the North Cascades it is worth a night and a day :D We saw some amazing stuff and I got to jum in a glacier river every morning. That by itself would make my day.

Darby (Drews happy little Corgie) left his mark behind with his magnificent balls (R.I.P.)

 I'll tell you more about Tiersa later, she is, was and always will be my Best Friend. I will take her everywhere with me. She passed too young and I have vowed to myself to take her with me wherever I will go.I left two poems for her at Burning man 2009 and some graffiti in Prague. It is a small gesture but she always wanted to travel and I feel that this way she can. This way she flies with me.

Kalab and I decided to get married!! We plan on having 2.5 kids and a cookie cutter home with two garages. We will also have one dog, a cat and all the material possessions that society expects we should have....

HA!

It is a cute chapel though

Sooooo In love with these mountains! The view from the car.

This is MilkMilk... His job is making sure that safe driving is always happening. He doesn't do a very good job.

 

So we did a whole bunch of awesome stuff at Lone Fir! We went hiking, swimming and .... yeah. We also played Horse Shoes which is a really fun game. If you don't know what it is look it up and play that shit! Super fun! Of course being out in the boonies some Axe Throwing has to happen as well :D I had a blast!

The views that we saw whist hiking were breathtaking.

Some dangerous hiking was to be had as well. Kalab ran off on his own up a precarious trail and I have never felt such fear and anger. My veins were white-hot. Next time I'm following him. If he falls to his death I'm going to know about it first.



So yep. Awesome weekend. Jealous much? I'm already jealous of myself... I want to go back so bad!

Climbing out of this muddy hole that I was calling life...

  Okay so working out is always a bitch but being in shape feels so much better than not! When I was in Prague, doing Yoga every day was easy with the floors we had. Here its not so easy with the awfully plush carpet and no space. So frustrating. This works for the space I have at the moment. Though swimming every day would be the best and my favorite option! However getting to the water without a car is hours which = uber-lame-notsohappyfuntime. Being in shape helps you focus your mind more as well which is one more reason to do it, especially since I'm starting school on the 24th!!
    Anyways I know it been a bit but actually I have 5 or 6 posts that are just grammatically awful and rambling pieces of shit (like this but worse, much worse) I am slowly crawling back out of my hole that I dug for myself when I got back to the states. It's a scary place we live in. Now with all this election nonsense and all of the straight up lies on both sides it makes me wish I had just stayed illegally in Prague or Germany until the election year is over. It doesn't matter which way you vote anymore, its all going to be shit. A two party system might work for a small country but the United States is fucking HUGE! Watch the video at the end of this. Do it for your brain. It need it.

An Alternative to First Past the Post voting..

First past the Post is what Americans are doing right now, which is a load of shit..

Let C. G. P. Grey explain..

  http://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo

Guess who's back?

  That would be me! Yep. The visa process is one confusing bit of shenanigans!! I now have much more respect for people getting work visas, especially in the us of a where I hear we are especially paperwork heavy.
    So I'm back again and staying with my mom in Port Townsend for the moment, she has a lot of home improvements that need to be done and with my construction background I figured that this would be a great way to help her out. I have a little trepidation considering leveling her basement floor but we will see how involved it will be. I suppose this is what you get with a good deal on a house. sub-par basement flooring :) I am worried about my motivation,  I work off the other people around me and my mom seems to be the same way.. great... so this means that we wont get anything done, crap. oh well it could be worse. at least i'm going to be able to help her out, with whatever I can do.

Writers block is broken... for now

     Today is Mikuláš day in the Czech Republic  and it was an interesting day to say the least, walking to the metro I almost ran into an effigy of the Pope. Yes that is correct the Pope :) He was accompanied by one Devil and one Angel this apparently is Saint Nicolas for the Czech People.

      The saints back in the day used to wear the same big fancy hats like our Pope today apparently according to my Czech roommate. Either way being in a busy metro station and seeing a woman wielding a long metal chain is always a little bit intimidating. Also being in the thick of the festive crowd and not having any idea what was going on is a little thrilling in itself. Thoughts ran rampant through my mind.. "what are they doing?" "Can I take a picture of this? Would it be rude?" "Are these teenagers in costume???" Yes by the way, they are :) It was strange to say the least but it makes for memorable moments in Prague with the promise of many more to come.

    This city is one giant anomaly in the world... It makes me really wish I had grown up here. It is the little things they do that make it such and amazing city tho.. for instance the fact that teenagers actually enjoy celebrating tradition with terrifying children and then subsequently comforting them with the promise of sweets and toys from Saint Nick. When you are in a small shop trying to make exact change and you are a few CZK/Koruna (pronounced like Corona the delicious Mexican beer) short they would rather just take your little bills then cash one of your big one (money is a bit weird here) Sales tax is added onto all the grocery items all-ready so you can have exact change when you go to the cashier, and that bread is baked all day long because everyone loves bread... even the dogs seem happier here.


      I wish I could fit a bit better. I would love to live here but I feel my life pulling me in another direction. I will not listen to what will be best financially for me (the original reason I had for going to college) I will be following my heart.. my soul. It is so important to be truly happy in what you do on this planet. I will not waste any more time doing something I hate. I refuse. And though this is not going to work out in the long run for me here I feel I have learned a lot about myself and my limits and loves that this trip was worth every penny. I don't know how much more traveling will be said in this blog but for sure it will follow my velocity of life and that is one scary somebitch :) I can only hope you will enjoy my further ventures and mistakes and hopefully learn a little something for yourself from them. Adios Ahoy Aloha.... TaTa..

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    I would also like to take this moment to point out that this morning I learned to poach an Egg.... Impressive I know :) I would like to thank the movie Julia Julia for first showing me that hey wait I don't know how to do that and then subsequently challenging me to figure it out!!! MUAHAHAAA!!!

Pizza time in the Czech Republic

Most recent and 2nd favorite Pizza so far..

    I would like to talk of something that has been on my mind since I arrived here in Prague and it is something that I have been struggling to understand.. Pizza. Now originally I saw my first slice on a crazy night out and I was so impressed because it was MASSIVE! However that can be a deceptive mistress, size. Because although this piece of pizza was almost larger than my head I think that if one crumpled it up into a little ball my fist would probably be larger… (I’ve got freak tiny hands as well..) the cheese was non-existant on my peperoni pizza and by the time I finished my pizza I was seriously contemplating E-mailing the owners of Zeeks Pizza to see if they wanted to get a little something something going on over in Prague cause if they weren't going to do anything about this grotesque lack of crust and cheese I was going to have to take matters into my own hands and I was never the best pie cook on the line!

    However I was saved from almost certain failure by my new friend and roommate Wendy who after hearing my Pizza laments helped me order a whole pizza (they defiantly do not call Pizza's "pies" over here) and I found out that here in Prague a Pizza does not feed a family or four like it does in the states. Oh. You get your own pie!! WHAT! Yes! It is much smaller than i'm used to, probably closer to a medium pizza size, but when its just you the size doesn't really matter! Nor is there any of that fighting over the odd last slice out and compromising on toppings :) Oh it was absolutely fantastic! I got myself a veggie Pizza (garlic, spinach, broccoli, and fancy cheese with an olive oil base) with prosciutto added :) I love doing that with pizza get a veggie pie and add meat. Wendy looked at me kinda funny but shrugged and ordered the pizza. We went and grabbed it and practically ran home! (not really but it is true that we were very excited for said pizza) I wish I had grabbed a picture of that fantastic Pizza before it was expertly devoured :) this one up here was tasty but a surprise! I live out on the edge of Prague proper so none of the shops in the area speak English, which normally isn't a problem except when you want to know what is on your pizza... So Basil and shrimp it is! It was okay.. really really wish I had a picture of the other one it was amazingly fantastic! But this will do, at least you can see what it was I was eating :)

Class Time!!

Sculpture on grating at Prague Castle- Random-

    So it appears that my young learner class (students about 10 years old, if that didn't make sense) was not today as I thought it was. Oh well. Now I have one solid young learners lesson plan that I can use for later.. The lesson planning is by far the hardest part of teaching. Doesn't help that the teacher I'm teaching under doesn't like me very much, not that I can blame her. The only interaction she had with me was that I was late for my first class and then to top it off I spoke too fast for the children half the time :( Crap, maybe I would make a lousy teacher. Or maybe I was nervous as hell!! and when i'm nervous I speak fast... crap..

    This is a lot more stressful than I thought it was going to be. Even the visa process is a head-ache. I'm going to have to go to the American embassy and swear that I have no criminal background, then go get the equivalent of 6,000 USD into my new Czech bank account and then its off to Berlin to the Czech embassy to apply for my trade license :) Then I bring all that paperwork (and the lease from my new flat) to this office in Old Town square with a someone who can speak Czech (preferably a native Czech person) cause they won't speak English. 

    And you had better hope you have everything in order cause if you don't they will send you away and the place is only open two days a week! Its mostly just annoying red tape except for the Berlin bit which is just ridiculous!! However I have friends in Dusseldorf so maybe I will visit with them. Course I said I'd be there over the Christmas Holiday and it's not really there yet.

    So yeah everything is so up in the air at the moment and when stuff like that happens with me I get more forgetful than average, which for me is a very bad thing indeed. So far I have lost my hat and my scarf... lets hope I can keep it down to just that.

I'm in!!!

My Kitchen!!!

    Its official! I have moved in! I unpacked my bags and even had an issue with the toilet already!! (That's between me and the toilet btw) It seems so surreal, I don't know what to make of it...

   Well let me tell you about the place, its a lovely apartment however you don't call it an apartment you call it a flat. Its got two rooms, mine and Wendy's a bathtub which has a shower curtain-ish so that way you can take a shower (shower curtains appear to be rare in flats in the Czech Republic) and a washing machine in the same room room, the toilet however is separate, which if you think about it... that makes a heck of a lot of sense.. If I ever get around to building my house that's how I'm going to do it. The living room is nice and big and the fridge is hidden in a closet :) yep that's right! Its in a quiet part of town but that is no problem for me cause I have my awesome pass for public transportation! And let me tell you something about the metro tram and bus over here... Its fantastic!!! The only reason you would ever need a car is if you have a weekend house out in the country, which a lot of people do around here (Another fantastic idea from the Czech People) I got a vodafone sim card for my phone so I have about a months worth of calling and text for... drum roll please.. 10 freakin dollars!!! Thats right! A sim with credit! 10 bucks! About 200 CZK (called krona pronounced like corona like the beer).