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.

Hostel Plus

October 30^th 2011

I think I may finally fave a place to stay!! I'm so excitied I hope that it works out. But all the best laid plans of mice and men right? If all works out I will be there on Thursday so some more nights in Hostel Plus... woo. Now I don't pretend to be a hostel expert by any stretch of the immagination but no kitchen? No area for hot water? You are going to make me pay as much for a beer as you would for hot tea??? No. No thank you sir. I understand this is one of the cheaper hostels, now I know why.

However the people coming through are very interesting. The turnover here is much higher than I have seen at any of the other hostels i've stayed in, which is a little strange for me. The last four days I've had three different groups of people in my little six bedroom dorm. The first couple nights were some crazy party people from Brazil and who were very nice but smelled like traveling boys... (note to all traveling boys out there, please wash your socks... they is pew..) The second night there was a gaggle of Chinese women with one man. Yes I belive gaggle is the word I will use for them. I've never "not spoken" to my room mates before that day, but every time I tried to communicate with them all I got was a blank stare. Which I wouldn't have minded if they really didn't speak english but when they were leaving they received two different calls in English... oh well fine. -On a side note I think that there should be a movie or documentary or something showing how some women get ready for a night out... it was like a Zoo.. very strange- The women and their token man left promptly at 9am and I must admit it was nice having the room to myself after having to share for so long. But once I was ready it was time for errands, so I loaded up my backpack to travel the city. Coming back after a long day of traveling around the city all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but when I opened the door I was greeted by one, two, no three Austrian boys here on a holiday weekend. They were couch surfers who didn't plan out their couches well enough and were now hostel bound. They were looking to go out and party it up, unfortunately for them they didn't realize that Prague sleeps on Sundays. Anything worthwhile is going to be closed and I warned them of the expensive beer and food to be had at the in house bar. So they putzed around and talked back and forth with grand plans of the city and then just plopped down to bed. Who will it be tomorrow I wonder??

Long cold nights of October the 23rd

I blame the majestic lady on top of the building..

Why is it easier for me to stay up all night and do normal errands the next day? Its as if the Czech Republic has cast a spell of different Zoe... whos' toes are freezing!!! Yikes! Its getting cold fast here!! This morning I found something interesting about living in a different country.. you know those crazy bums in the metro tunnels and on the streets, the ones who yell about how god will smite you and other incredibly horrible things... I can't understand them any more!! HA! Its nice to hear the crazy and just not worry cause you don't know if maybe the person is just mumbling about a grocery list or how shaved cats are going to eat your brains :) Life has lots of lovely little good moments!

..funny side note.. somehow my computer thinks I should be spelling in Czech and so when I went to spell check this document the whole thing lit up :) So if you notice a spelling error just let me know so I can correct it and not feel like a total idiot!

Always look on the bright side..

    Well I finally feel settled and then my life takes a turn. Well this is what I wanted right? Hell yes I did!! And tho I've run into some road bumps all in all its not too terribly bad. Yes having my wallet stolen really sucked, but after I got over the initial violation of it all it wasn't that bad. For one, they didn't get my passport, and two it has shown me new ways to up my personal security.
   Originally I had my wallet, passport and locker key on a purse that I slept with, which would have been just fine excepting the fact that I did not zip up the zipper on the purse that was available to me. So my hypothesis of what happened is that while sleeping and moving about as I do in the night I must have kicked my wallet out from my bed upon whence it fell upon a dangerous floor.. and into the hands of an opportunistic asshole...
   But bottom line is I only lost USD $211 not everything so all is well! From now on I will have my money split up between my luggage and only a small bit I will keep on my person. An expensive lesson yes, but it could have been much worse. And now I'm preparing for school and trying to figure out where to stay.

I cheated on this picture... this bit is from Amsterdam :)

   Originally I was prepared to stay in this hostel, despite the theft and the water in the shower that only sprays for 2 minutes before you have to depress the button again... yes I know. Really flippin' irritating. Its just like the old faucets that some of us had in elementary school and I suppose some Americans will remember then from all sorts of other venues, but bottom line is you just never get enough water. You push the button and then get your soap and then shit! No water! I understand the concept (its a form of water conservation) but I wish I could see myself naked with my head covered in shampoo so I dare not open my eyes fumbling for that little freakin' push button... yeah that was a fun first day here.
   However my reason for staying is leaving on Monday. I met a really nice Czech guy who has been teaching me a bit of Czech and I've been teaching him a bit of English. Its a good trade and he is from what I can tell a really good guy, and its nice to have a local friend. But he is running out of money himself so back home to Brno (still in the Czech Republic) just not Prague. So I think I will be moving on from here.. where to I do not know.. but that's how I'm rolling over in Europe! Keep you posted! Or at least try to!!

Sleeper train from Amsterdam...

Well look what I found in Amsterdam! Awesome!

    Okay so I ended up staying for the rest of yesterday and all today in Amsterdam. and now all aboard for the night train! Yep that's right! Zoe took a sleeper train!!! Let me tell you what... weird... super weird experience.. but yeah okay lets rewind the days.....

Amazing Bar!!

     

 
     So I left to go get myself some train tickets, I found out also that the station was stupidly close to the hostel :( not more than a five minuet walk... you're killing me Amsterdam... seriously killing me.
 
    However that is not what I'm talking about, that's stuff of being upset from yesterday not today! The point is that at the train station the only tickets for Prague were tomorrow afternoon for 189 euro or tomorrow night for 145 so hell why not :) Course that means that i'm going to have to hang out in Amsterdam for basically another day... ;)

Arabic toast that Nassim taught me
and I promised him I would not forget!

 
 Well red light district here I come! I don't know if its cause it was the middle of the day or what but it deffiniatly wasn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be and every museum is super expensive to boot so I jotted back on down to the Hostel to see if anyone had any cool ideas. So sitting at this little table in the common room I meet my new friend named Nassim! He is from Algeria which is in North Africa however he has been living in Paris for a bit and get this... he learned english from watching American movies!!! What?? Absolutely fantastic!! The multilingual culture over here makes me feel like an idiot.

Part of the lovely walk!

     Anyways he sat down at the table I was sitting at and we got to chatting and ended up hanging out  for the rest of the day! Come night time we decided to meander into a bar we found along our wandering and it was insane!! Well just really cool looking really. Since the night was fairly dead we were able to sit up at this crazy round table set like a window display! Upon which we were soon joined by the local cat of the establishment. One thing about Amsterdam is that there are sure a lot of cats! All over! Not that I am complaining I am simply making an observation!
    

Goodbyes

It's okay nice Airport men I'll be back eventually....

        Goodbyes are bittersweet and lovely. I wish all these smiling faces could come with me on my journey a different journey or at least make one on their own, be it big or small. It is so nessarry to enrich your life with wonderful expirences and i'm just now starting to truly understand that. But everyone has their own path and no path is the same..

Oh no! Don't cry!!!

      Besides like I can say anything about traveling at this point...HA!! Oh my I think  may pee my pants.... here she goes off into the sky and the fork in the road less traveled. I'm stoked!!








So with this I say Adieu to Seattle and all my wonderful friends and family for however long I'm gone. I love you all!!! Peace out!!

These drops are  giving me an ominous feeling...

Bravery? Foolish Endeavor? Crazy Lady??

     Why is it that everyone says it's so brave to travel? I've had a hard time wrapping my head around this concept. Yes, its difficult, lonely and terrifying. Albeit exiting as well, but brave? Maybe I'm missing the whole definition on brave itself, maybe I just missed the class on being scarred of traveling, why tho would you ever want to be scarred of something so fantastic??
     On the flip side however you have the naive young girl all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to take on the world, just to be stomped on mentally with culture shock... humm 

    Don't worry I'll try to keep my wits about me..

Musings at lunch time

     There is an itching in my spine, tho sometimes its a tingle. With the day of my departure coming so much closer the butterflies begin. Tehya, my sister, and Sam, my father, are both trying to convince me to stay but these pleads are falling on deaf ears. For the first time in my life I feel on the way to my self discovery and rebirth. I can not wait to begin my journey. Since I was a little girl I've had this strange feeling of my imminent death in my mid 20's but being here now I think that the death will be of my old self and I will be reborn anew and more wise to myself. I can't wait for it. To see my limits and go through with my thoughts and desires. It will be an age of discovery for me. Something that has needed to happen for a long time. I hope to study Thai Chi to center my soul and Laughter Yoga to brighten it, Speak with old and wizend gurus to deepen it, and run across the globe to widen it.

Typically when I start a blog I will start with an introduction, but I never go back to them after the first couple posts.. So here I go just getting into the meat and bones of it and if I so happen to continue on with this blog after the first few weeks.. or maybe months. Then, and only then, will I grace you few with an introduction.. In the meantime I hope this bit got your rocks off as one, cause this is it.

I have 6 1/2 weeks left in America, that's not a lot of time. I'm giving my notice at work in just over a week, then two weeks after that no more work. Then two more weeks and I'm gone! Its strange to think about leaving and now with this little ammount of time left I realize how many people I still haven't gotten around to seeing. I suppose that is the nature of things like this, or maybe its just me procrastinating my time away. I'm desperately trying to save every penny I can and kicking myself every time I walk by Starbucks thinking of how much damn money I spent on venti iced soy lattes and oh man that sounds tasty.. NO!! NO MORE!! Gah! I need a shock collar for coffee. At least I found an old date book so I can keep whats going on in my life straight.

Then of course i'm running into the problem of what to bring. I don't want to let my stuff out of sight so I am only bringing the one bag but this damn computer is so big.. how is all my stuff going to fit in one backpack? More thoughts on these subjects and more later right now i'm going to do some more reading....

http://www.roadjunky.com/guide/861/around-the-world-costs

http://www.roadjunky.com/guide/844/a-travel-guide-to-money-on-the-road