As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've been trying to find a job here, so that I can then get a visa and stay. I also need the money, so getting a job is crucial. I was offered positions at two language schools, either way teaching English, each with its own advantages, each with its disadvantages. I spent a few days mulling over the possibilities, and finally decided to work at the larger school, and they're going to help me take care of the visa and paperwork, which will hopefully go through quickly. On Monday, I went and met with them, filled out the paperwork which will be filed for me to be a legal worker in the Czech Republic. I'm not yet sure if they've filed it or not, because they're under the impression that they need to show my original diploma from UVM, although I've just used a copy in the past, and it hasn't been a problem. Either way, I should hopefully get my diploma in the mail either tomorrow or Tuesday, and so the ball is already in motion for me to become legal here. Once that paperwork is submitted, I can apply for a visa in Slovakia, and hopefully that won't take very long.
Thursday was a holiday here. November 17th is one of the Czech Republic and Slovakia's independence days. It might sound strange that I wrote "days," whereas in the US we of course only have the 4th of July as our independence day. Remember, though, that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are right in the heart of Europe, and there have been several different regimes here throughout the centuries. November 17th is known as Den boje za svobodu a demokracii, the Day of the Battle for Freedom and Democracy. It was the day that began the Velvet Revolution in Soviet Czechoslovakia. It's a very important day in their history for obvious reasons, leading to the independence of Czechoslovakia and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. I celebrated the day with Libor and Ola, from Poland, by going for a hike in Babí Lom, just outside of Brno. It was a great hike, though we didn't go for as long as we planned. In the morning, there was frost on the ground, and the day's high was supposed to be somewhere around 33°F. We had planned to walk for 10km (about six miles), but instead only went 5km. We took the bus to Vranov, a village outside of Brno, and from there hiked through the forest, across some cool rock formations, and down into the village of Lelekovice. We had lunch there in a pizzeria, and Ola was nearly frozen to the core, so we caught the bus back to Brno. It was a beautiful hike, though, and nice to be outside for such a long period of time. It was a nice relief from the city, too.
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| A tree covered in frost. |
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| The beginning of the path from Vranov to Lelekovice at about 10:30 in the morning. |
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| In the middle of the forest. There was a line between the leaves and the wall of frost. |
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| Frozen Ola and happy Libor. On a clear day, you'd be able to see the Alps in the background. |
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| US mailbox in the middle of the Czech Republic! |
On Friday, Libor and I met up in the afternoon and went to Náměstí Míru, the Square of Peace. There's a nice park there, and in the middle a little sports complex. There, we met Lukáš, a friend who Libor went to high school with, and we played squash. I had never played before, and Libor thinks he played maybe once, but we both had no clue what the rules were, etc. I read a little online before going, but we sat and watched the others until Lukáš could explain to us what we were supposed to do. It was awesome, such a fun game, and we're going to start going more often now, along with badminton, like we already play. Mára, who also went to high school with them, met us there, and then we all crossed the city (which is no easy feat, Brno's fairly large) to Lukáš' house. This summer, he flew to Hanoi, and from there traveled all over Vietnam. He spent a total of three weeks there, so invited us over to his house to cook Vietnamese food for us (the Vietnamese equivalent of spring rolls), and showed us his pictures from the trip. It was amazing, and afterwards I told Libor we had better start looking into flights to Asia. Lukáš liked to point out that he got an Adidas sports shirt for $5, a North Face jacket for maybe $20, all straight from the factory. Not too shabby. We then met up with Fanda and another Mára, who are also Libor's former classmates, and went out to a pub owned by, you'll never believe it, the mother of yet another classmate. It was fun, they're a good group of guys, and a lot of fun to hang out with.
Last night, Ola and her roommate Kasia, who you'll remember from my entry about our adventure to the racetracks, invited a few people over to their place for a little party. It was a mix of kids from school, but such a good time. We ended up hanging out there all night, chatting, forcing Kristina to write things in Hebrew for us, watching Dina and Anton write in the Cyrillic alphabet, swapping music, playing games, and just all-around having a good time. It was definitely one of the highlights of the semester so far. Anton, from Russia, was here last year doing the same Czech course I'm doing now. This year, he's a regular master's student. I asked him if the group of kids last year was as good as this year, and he said not even close, that our year (and even our teacher has confirmed it) is some kind of a weird exception. I'm definitely lucky that things fell into place that I could come here.
That's about it. It's been on the one hand a relaxing weekend, but on the other always lots to do, seeing friends, etc. We're now in the final weeks of the semester, so everybody's starting to get ready either to go home for the holidays, or to go home for good, which is scary to think about. I'll be returning to the US on December 10th, flying into JFK. My 90 days in the European Union will be up on December 13th, so it's best if I leave a few days earlier. I'm flying out of Vienna, and Libor actually just got an interview for a job in Graz, so I'm flirting with the idea of sneaking down to Graz with him for a few days to see my friends there and enjoy Christmas in Austria, because let's face it, Austria is THE Christmas country. Otherwise, I'm just wrapping things up here, getting ready to move out of my horrible apartment, trying to find a new place for when I return to Europe, and looking forward to going to Prague this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving at JoEllen's!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US!!!
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