And so it begins...

Tomorrow, October 1st, marks 18 days until I leave - wow! The last two and a half weeks have all but flown by, which I suppose isn't really such a bad thing. I've enjoyed being ridiculously lazy, spending time just lounging around the house, not having to put on makeup or be anywhere in particular. I've enjoyed a couple days where I've gone no farther than the little convenience store - 4 minutes away by car. I've made sure to drive at least once per day, even if I have nowhere to go...
All of that was nice while it lasted, but it's time to kick it up a notch - in just two and a half more weeks, I'll be boarding a plane to Moscow!!

In some ways, it seems like I have a lot left to do, in others, not much at all. My most time consuming effort will be figuring out how to take exactly 23 kilo of luggage per large suitcase (2 of them), 10 kilo for my carry on, and as much weight as possible in my wonderfully large purse! Luckily coming from America I'm allowed two 23 kilo suitcases, rather than the measly European rule of one 20 kilo suitcase. Other big tasks are running around to a few different stores to stock up on things I can't get in Moscow, selling things to try to make a few bucks before I go, and fixing the clothes that I've been neglecting to repair (translation - having my lovely talented mom fix them for me :) it pays to have a seamstress in the family!) The actual to do list is considerably longer than that - but those are the most time consuming pieces of it.

So, I've thoroughly enjoyed my vacation, but now it's time for slightly crazy moving mode to begin. Full blown crazy moving mode will commence in about a week!
Stay tuned : )

Why Moscow?

Why not? : )
Okay, honestly - let's start from the beginning. Russia was a childhood fantasy for me - I was a competitive figure skater for 13 years, and I grew up in an ice rink surrounded by Russians! I think I was 11 years old when I first saw Saint Basil's on TV, and decided then that I would be there someday. I finally got the opportunity to go in the summer of 2007, when I went there with friends to help them get settled into their new apartment. It was a wonderful time - I would leave my apartment in the morning, and not return until it was dark. I simply wandered around the city with nothing but my camera as my companion. No maps, no agendas, just wandering. It was then that I truly fell in love with the city. Unfortunately, that was not the time for me to be there, so I returned to America in September. I knew for a fact that one day I would be going back, and now that time has finally come!


So what is it about Russia? I love the Russian language and culture. It's so deeply routed in traditions that are still upheld. It's a modern world, yet with so much of the old world still there. As for Moscow specifically, I love the energy of the city - and I'm not talking about the nightlife! I'm not a party girl and never even stepped foot inside a club or a bar the whole time I was there. Being in Moscow also gives me a lot of freedom to take weekend trips to any of the surrounding towns by simply hopping on a train! Something else I really love is being able to visit places that have been around for centuries upon centuries. Moscow is 862 years old - just imagine everything it has seen and weathered! The architecture is a wonderful bonus - I'm an avid photographer and buildings are my favorite subject. 


Lastly, this is what's right for me at this point in my life. It's my first step in my multi country journey - and I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd want to start. I gave plenty of other places a good amount of consideration, but in the end Moscow won out - it just feels right. I'll be doing something I love (teaching English) in a place that I love. Does it really get any better than that?




This picture sums up why I love Russia - amidst the modern and new, you can always find jewels like this!

One Month

Exactly one month from now I'll be on a plane heading to Moscow! It's still rather surreal at this point, but I think that's partially due to the fact that I've wanted this for so long (2 years to be specific) and up until this point it just wasn't realistic for me to be there. I always knew I'd be going back, I just had to wait for things to fall into place. I had to wait until I was truly ready to go.

I am going to enjoy my last month in America spending a lot of time with my family, and spoiling myself with luxuries like drying my clothes in a dryer and driving! This month is going to be a busy one, but I plan on enjoying every moment of it. After all, it's just another part of the journey! For now, I should probably go put away the mountain of laundry I have sitting on my couch - I keep hoping it will put itself away, but I've been waiting a week and it hasn't happened yet...

I'm moving to Moscow!

It's official now - I'm moving to Moscow to teach English!

The Alexander Garden (Александровский сад) outside of Red Square, pictured above, is just one of the many places I can't wait to return to visit. It will be interesting to see the differences in the fall and winter, as I've only seen Moscow in the summer.

On being home...

I've been home for a bit over two weeks now - and I figure it's time for a new post. It took me about a week to catch up on all of the sleep I missed during the CELTA course, and then another week to feel like doing anything... I was thoroughly enjoying not having a single thing to do!

My last four days in Prague were enjoyable. I took around 2,000 photos - I'm still going through them, and eventually I'll get around to uploading them to my flickr account :) I spent a couple evenings admiring the cathedral inside the castle grounds, and otherwise just ran around seeing as much of the city as I possibly could. I trekked up Petrin Hill, and there were some wonderful views of the city throughout the entire walk. Overall, Prague is a beautiful city, and I would like to return sometime to see anything that I missed (and to take a few photos I didn't get to this trip!)

I must admit, the thing I'm enjoying most about being home is the food. I'm savoring all of the wonderful fruit and vegetables that are available here - the one thing I was sorely lacking in Prague. I didn't find any good fruit or veggies the whole time I was there! My first meal in America was at my favorite Mexican restaurant, La Tolteca, and it was wonderful. Since then, I've been treating myself to all of the food that I won't be able to find as easily when I move back overseas.

Other things I'm enjoying about being home are being able to drive, spending time watching my cat be a complete spaz, sleeping in my own very comfortable bed, and having a washing machine that actually washes more than 10 items of clothing at a time! I'm enjoying the weather as well - it's starting to feel a bit like fall!

Well, I'm out of things to write, so, until next time...

View from the Astronomical Clock tower

Testing from flickr again....

Test post from flickr

IMG_6142, originally uploaded by aroundiemiru.

This is just one of many wonderful doors I saw in Prague.

Perhaps I'll come back later and write a post with some actual information in it...?

Done!

So, the CELTA course is officially over now. The last day was fun, we just played games with our students, and then got to talk to them for a while. After that it was just some paperwork, and we received our certificates - we all passed! Afterwards we semi took over a nearby restaurant (our group was 17 people, and then the other class came as well!), and then headed downtown to a bar/club place. I was so tired, I only stayed there for a little while, then went home to SLEEP :) I never realized how amazing sleep could be!

Now, I plan to spend the next 3 days photographing like a mad woman! I'm about to head off into the city soon - just have to wait for my camera battery to finish charging. I'll try to post a couple pictures here, but I make no guarantees - but I promise when I get back to America I'll post a ton!

Alright - I'm off to go exploring :)

Oh, two random things that I keep meaning to write about... The crosswalk signals here tick, as well as show the little walk/don't walk people. They tick rapidly when you can cross the street, and slower when you can't. I think that's pretty clever! And I've heard people joke that in the Czech Republic, pork is considered vegetarian - turns out that's not a joke! They only consider meat to be red meat... seriously! That explains why on most "vegetarian" sections of menus, especially in the center, the options were either pork or seafood! Crazy, crazy ideas about food here...

I survived the CELTA course!!!

It still hasn’t sunk in that I've basically finished the course. On one hand, it feels like I’ve been here forever, but on the other it feels like I just began. All in all, it was an amazing experience. The sheer amount that I learned amazes me – I didn’t know it was possible to cram so much information into a four week period of time!

Teaching my last observed lesson today was a bit surreal – and it still hasn’t entirely sunken in that I’m done. No more CTLs (evil, evil papers…) or cover sheets, or analyzed lesson plans! No more assignments to write, no more teaching observations, no more lectures…. it’s weird to think about, really. All we have left is a fun group lesson with our students tomorrow (we’re playing games the entire time) some admin stuff, and finally getting our grades!

I've become so used to stressing about everything, and pressure/time constraints, that I’m not sure if I remember what relaxing is like. I also don’t remember what it’s like not waking up before the sun to finish a lesson plan or assignment. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow! Tomorrow afternoon/evening will be fun too – we’re all going out to a restaurant to celebrate the end of the course, and to just blow off some steam. It will be a nice reward. I treated myself to a piece of cake today as a treat for finishing all the hard parts of the course!

I am sooooooo looking forward to Saturday though – my tentative plan is to spend as many hours in the city as possible – so basically whenever the metro opens to whenever it closes! I have a long to do list, and not really enough time to do it all – but I’ll manage somehow! The hardest part of it will be going through my thousands of pictures when I get home! I already have around 800 – and that’s mostly from 1 day!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures, more to come soon!

Good lesson today :)

My lesson went really well today, so I'm happy :)

I guess sleeping paid off - even though I'll regret it by tonight, when I don't have time to sleep because of the assignment that's due tomorrow....

I'll write more later, I have 3 hours of lectures now... yippee!

This is me procrastinating...

So, I've been in Prague for 2 weeks now - and what have I been doing?

CELTA, CELTA, CELTA, and more CELTA stuff!

I've been so busy with lesson planning and coursework that I just haven't had the time and/or energy to do much else. I'm trying to finish up an essay that's due tomorrow so that I can go into the city.... as you can see, it's not exactly working, because I'm writing this blog instead of the essay....My goal is to finish it around 2:00 or 3:00, then head into the city for some exploring!

More later... must work!

I'll post something soon, I promise!

I've been rather delinquent in my posting lately... sorry! The past two weeks have just flown by, and I am so busy every day that I don't really have a free minute to spare! I've promised myself that I'll get out of the apartment this weekend in between lesson planning and writing two papers... I need to do that for my sanity! I'll post a couple pictures later on tonight, and hopefully more on the weekend...

I'll write more later, I've only got 30 minutes before I have to observe a lesson, and I want to get started organizing my paper!

First few days

I'm sitting at the coffee house (free wifi!) waiting to walk to class... I'm anxious for today - I just want to begin!

The first couple of days have been great. A few of us went exploring/photographing yesterday in central Prague. It's beautiful - so much to photograph, of course. Being a Sunday, it was rather crowded, so I'll have to go early in the morning to be able to get unobstructed shots of most buildings. That's okay, because the sun rises at like 4:30am here, so I'm pretty much up by 5:00 because it's so sunny.

I'll post pictures soon - I shot all of them in RAW, and I haven't had time to edit them yet. By tonight (my time) I'll have a few up!

The flat I'm staying in is pretty nice. Aparently we don't have hot water now - Prague does the same thing as Moscow in the summer - the hot water is periodically turned off throughout the city so that they can do maintenance work on the pipes. Cold showers it is!

I guess we're heading out soon, so that's all for now... I'll keep everyone posted!

In Prague

I've made it to Prague! I'm about to head into the city to do some exploring :)

I'll post pictures later, I promise!

How's this for a first post?

I'm going to Prague tomorrow!!! More details later... but I'm just too excited to wait to share this news!