Where does the time go?

Another stand with hand-made Czech ornaments
see all photos »

Wow… has time just flown by. In 8 days, I will be boarding the plane that takes me back to MN.

Last Wednesday, Kari and I headed to the Christmas Markets once again to experience the holiday of St. Mikolas here.  Mikolas is somewhat like the American halloween, or the closes they get.  Kids dress up as with angels or devils.  They have baskets or bags and walk around the streets.  Adults dress up and walk around in groups of three or more.  One adult is St. Mikolas.  He is similar to our Santa, but skinnier and looks more like a pope in some ways.  Another adult is an angel, dressed in all white with wings.  The last adult is the devil, dressed in black with red horns.  The children go up to these characters and if they have been good, they get a treat from St. Mikolas (by word of the angel:)  If they were naughty, I think they got coal or something or the rumor had it, the devil would take you away!  Of course, none of the children every receive coal!  After walking around Old Town, we headed to the St. Charles Bridge and went for a late night walk on the other side of the river.  We ended the night with a nice, hot glass of wine.  Man, that is the best way to keep your body warm!

Horse carriages everywhere around the markets
see all photos »

The rest of the week I just worked and relaxed.  Saturday we hung around the house, waiting for our landlord to come and bring us a new washing machine (I’ll get into more detail later about that). That never happened until Sunday. That night we did a little bar hoping hitting up some local pubs that we have been meaning to get to. It was neat seeing the variety of pubs they have around town. Our favorite still remains, what we like to call the Cave Bar, U Supu. Nor sure what it stands for in Czech. The atmosphere and everything makes the bar so unique.

Prague tree lit during the day
see all photos »

Sunday was a great day. On Sunday our landlord brought the new washing machine. The whole saga began in October… the 15^th to be exact. Emailing our realtor letting him know what was wrong with the “flat.” On the list included the washing machine. Never fixed it. Finally we had a Czech friend call the landlord for us and he said he would call and have someone look at it. 2 weeks later, we hadn’t heard from anyone, landlord or repair man. So we called him back. Oh, he forgot. Guess what now? We have to find our own repair man. Yes, to English speaking Americans have to call around Czech speaking repair men to have them fix our machine. Luckily, one of Natalie’s students called for us and got us the appointment. This appointment was scheduled for November 30^th. He came, washing machine is unfixable. Figured that much, but what do I know. Now we have to wait another 10 days for him to bring us a new one. As you can imagine… we have piles of dirty clothes around the house. My socks, lets just say, most will be heading to the garbage once I return home. We were lucky enough to have wonderful neighbors upstairs who let us burrow their washing machine, but we didn’t want to be an annoyance. So that gives you an idea of what we were like. We fit well into the society of stinky people on the metro. Lucky for me, I can’t smell well so I really don’t know how stinky everything was. The good news, clean clothes all around. I smell good again and so do my clothes. It is wonderful!

Angel and St. Mikolas with random Italians
see all photos »

Also on Sunday I finished my Christmas shopping. Bought some great stuff for my aunt and mom. At least I hope they think so!

Monday night we had our work Christmas party. It was at a restaurant in Prague 8. They had an appetizer buffet with free drinks. The food was good consisting of cold pasta salad, a pork thingy I’ve seen before but don’t know the name of, chicken wings, and potato cakes. I enjoyed white wine with my meal as well. There was a lot of people there, many I had seen at TTA before, some newbie’s. Interesting enough as I sat eating my food, I heard two American accents. I asked where they were from and one was from MN. South Minneapolis to be exact. And the other dude was from Cali but worked with a girl from Bloomington, possible an AHA graduate. Now, if only I could remember her name.. I want to say Angela, but it was unfamiliar to me. Of course, I didn’t go to school there long enough to know the underclassman.

Fire dancers that were entertaining the crowds on St. Mikolas Day
see all photos »

Tuesday worked most of the day and same goes for today. I have one more lesson this evening, five lessons tomorrow and on Friday, we board a plane for Venice! I am so excited. The one city I wanted to go to. Hopefully it isn’t too cold and we won’t enjoy it.

Have a great rest of the week and see many of you soon!