So when I last left you, I was explaining the crazy story of how we ended up living permanently in Prague! Woo! Well, I’m now here to tell you that that dream has now unfortunately been extinguished. Boo! …Buuut it’s ok!

So for two beautiful short weeks, Chris and I were living it up drinking unbelievably cheap beer and subsisting on a diet of mostly sausages and fried cheese.

   

 
  
 We were also living in the corner of the living room of our friend Megan’s apartment in a gorgeous part of Prague just up the street from the main railway station. I was working at the world’s cutest preschool with The Czech Republics cutest children. Said children LOVED me and I wore them as giant kid boots, kid scarves, kid hats, and pretty much anywhere else a 4-6 year old can drape themselves across an adult human.

   
 Working at the preschool was a TOTAL TRIP. I was the only one there that didn’t speak Czech and this confused the children to no end. Even though they loved me and wanted to be draped across my body at all times, they had such adorable frustrations communicating with me through their limited English. And the girl that spoke English the best would do her best to translate what the other kids were trying to say which was mostly “She doesn’t speak English good enough” or “You really don’t speak ANY Czech? NONE? Don’t you know we’re IN the Czech Republic?”

But all of that was forgiven as soon as another girl pointed at my eyes on the 3rd day and said something excited to her in Czech and she translated with excitement, “She says you have eyes like ELSA! You do! Purple & Black lines.” Eyeshadow choice at 7 am that morning – on point.

  
Another funny but adorable thing was reconciling fights/emotional things with kids who had a limited English vocabulary with which to express themselves. The two girls that got most attached to me were best friends, but the other teachers aptly called frenemies because they would get into at least 2-3 fights every day where they would sit across the room in a huff or angrily pull their hand away from their hand holding and give the other the classic cold stare/arms crossed look. The problem is that I would witness all of these but they were speaking in Czech so I had no idea what the argument was about! But they would inevitably turn to me to be the mediator. Aside from how frustrated they were with having to explain things to me, I actually think this was great practice for them with their English skills and social skills. They had to decide whether the dispute was important enough to go through the hassle of explaining to me what they were mad about. I quickly found out that the old model still holds true even in a completely different country and culture. “Did she hurt your feelings?” *pitiful nod* “I don’t think you meant to be mean, but you hurt her feelings. I think you should say you’re sorry.” *something in Czech that body language tells me is an apology* followed by “Ok, can we be friends again?… let’s give eachother a hug.” (I only had to use the ‘like you mean it!” line a couple of times. Still worked like a charm). It’s amazing what can be solved by a hug. I pretty much solved 90% of disputes between the kids this way.

  
Although the commute was a force to be reckoned with (2 metros and a very weirdly scheduled bus) and left me frustrated and confused most days, (it somehow took me 2 hours to get to school on the first day) 

 
   and it took me hours and hours to figure out my metro ID card

– the school itself instantly felt like home. They did a great a job of fostering a really comfortable environment for learning and playing. And, amazingly, all of the kids are given the same thing to eat each day – 2 snacks & lunch, and lunch is always has a soup course and a main course and is classic Czech foods. And no one is a picky eater! That might’ve been the most striking difference between my experiences here and the American kids I’ve worked with. Sure some days the kids said they didn’t like the food, but they would still eat it even if they didn’t like it. I’ve never seen such easy going kids at lunch.

Also, they have a trampoline!

   It definitely brought me back to my childhood when the trampoline in our backyard was my favorite thing in the world and a big part of my daily routine. On my last day, the kids insisted on taking turns jumping with me, which will be one of my favourite memories from my time here. Jumping on a trampoline as a kid is so amazing, it’s just pure excited bliss. And the preschool itself overlooks a beautiful huge mountainside.

  
After waking up most days before 7 am, and running around with the kids all day, I was too physically and emotionally drained to see much of Prague. But Chris spent day after day while we were there diligently searching for a place for us to stay. Megan and her roommates were amazingly generous to let us be stowaways in the corner of their living room for 10 days, but it felt horrible to be in such a state of flux and uncertainty and, even for someone who grew up with 7 other people in the house, I missed having a semblance of privacy. But the Prague rental market (maybe just in September?) is INSANE. We contacted over 50 different people and places, most of which never responded (I’m still receiving email rejections!). We even went to see a place available and in our budget that ended up being the sketchiest place I’ve ever been into. And I’ve been in a lot of sketchy places. 

  And then just when I thought our luck in Prague couldn’t get any worse, we hear from our visa agent that (even though I informed him of this) that he didn’t realize our tourist visas were going to expire so soon (in 2 weeks!) and there was no way we would be able to get our visa applications in on time.

After venting my frustrations quite literally over the side of the Charles Bridge and imbibing a few giant beers (and some delicious absinthe!) Chris and I came up with our new course of action – DO EVERYTHING. Since we only had two weeks left in the EU, we have to try to go to the places we were planning on seeing in the next year of living in Prague and then go to see Ireland (conveniently located outside of the dreaded Schengen Area) and just hang out there and make music for a month or so until our savings run out and we have to return to Texas (or go on to other adventures?).

So, I had a very sad next day resigning from my job and trying not to get teary eyed in front of all the little babes I’d already become so attached to. But we got on Priceline and booked a car rental and plotted our course to the wonders of Eastern Europe and, most importantly, a pilgrimage to the hometown of Chris’ Grandpa Zic in Croatia.

  
 And now… we’re here! Day 2 of the roadtrip and we just pulled into Punat! I’m going to post another update on the roadtrip itself tomorrow. So much to share!