Carp and Ježišek

Veselé Vánoce! (Merry Christmas!)

December in the Czech Republic has been an experience! Instead of seeing Santa figures everywhere, on December 6-7, I saw Angels, Devils, and the Pope! ... oh, I mean... St. Mikuláše or St. Nick! And we won't see any turkey or... (you know, I really don't know what the traditional American Christmas dinner is because I have a family full of picky eaters and we just eat Mac and Cheese at every holiday!) but anyway, Czechs eat Carp and Potato Salad for Christmas with a whole slew of fascinating traditions including Baby Jesus (Ježišek) bringing presents on December 24. Unfortunately, I won't be seeing baby Ježišek this year because I will be in Budapest and Moldova for the holidays. Only a few more days! Yay!

I have had the wonderful chance to do a little traveling this month! I went to Pardubice on a Thanksgiving Retreat with my fellow English teachers in Central Europe. We had a delicious turkey day dinner and got to explore the area and even go Geo-caching! woah! I also went to Vienna with some Czech friends and one of my teammates. People weren't joking when they said Vienna is lovely at Christmastime; it's breathtaking! There was a full advent calendar in the windows of the capital building-extraordinary.

I can't believe how much I've missed Starbucks! Wait... before you start thinking I'm just a spoiled American, I really miss it because I miss the people I worked with last year and that entire experience. It was nice to step into the Vienna store, but oh so different. This is a picture of me and one of my Czech friends enjoying his FIRST Starbucks coffee! What an experience!

This month I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things here. I can understand bits and pieces of conversations around me, I can confidently accomplish any type of grocery shopping task, and have made so many new friends and acquaintances that along with my flatmates, we had a full house at our Christmas party! I had so much fun having everyone over and learning more about the similarities and differences between us that makes cross cultural living so interesting!