New Year, New Post

Happy New Year from Mnichovice and a belated Merry Christmas to you all! Things here in the Czech have been wild for the last few weeks. My mom arrived at the beginning of December, and my dad arrived a week and a half later. I have been acting as tour guide and local expert, which is really hilarious because my Czech is still terrible. I am trying to improve my skills using the app, Duolingo. Now I can say a whole bunch of random words and nothing coherent! In all honesty, I am also reviewing my French, and that is going much better…. Czech sounds so cool, but it is very hard to learn.

Christmas here was a very unique experience. For the first time in my life, I didn’t get to see my family on Christmas Eve. This was probably the hardest part because that tradition is so ingrained. On the positive side, I finally got to experience another culture’s Christmas traditions. For one, I got to be in school for St. Mikulás’ Day. On this day, St. Mikulás comes with angels and devils to find out if children have been naughty or nice. Naughty children are given coal and potatoes, and possibly dragged off to Hell by the devils. The nice children receive candy. Another Czech Christmas tradition is eating fried carp, fish soup, and potato salad on Christmas Eve, then opening the presents. For those of us who don’t like fish, schnitzel is an acceptable option.

My students dressed up for St. Mikulás

Also, on December 1st, the Christmas Markets opened all over Europe. I started with the one in Prague because it’s clearly the most conveniently located.

The following weekend, Miles and I took my mom to the markets in Nuremberg, Germany. Along with the shopping, we also took a trip to the Nuremberg Courtrooms. My mom was less interested in this than Miles and I were. She mostly came along for the shopping.

Once Dad arrived, we decided that we wanted to go to the markets in Dresden to see the giant Christmas Pyramid. Below, you can see a photo of the four of us with the pyramid. I was pleasantly surprised by Dresden, and it was my favorite city that I have been to in Germany so far. We had some awesome traditional German food, i.e. sausages and pretzels. We also took a side trip to the Volkswagen Car factory because Miles loves cars. The only bad thing was that it poured. I wish it had been snow, because that would have definitely benefited the ambiance.

We also took a day trip to Plzen to tour the Pilsner-Urquell factory. It also rained. Again. Miles, Dad, and I climbed the tower in the local cathedral. Because of the rain, we ducked into a cafe that had cats! I am dead serious. There were like eight cats. I was so happy! I haven’t gotten kitty cuddles in months! I ended up doing some research and it turns out there is a cat cafe in Prague! I will definitely be taking a trip there in the next few weeks. More on this topic to come in the future.

Miles and I with our other loves – Cats and beer!

Additionally, I had the opportunity to attend the LGCT Global Champions final. For those of you who are not into horses and show jumping, this was one of the biggest horse shows in the world for show jumping. It was really incredible to see this in person. The horses are massive, and they jump like crazy! This turned out to be a whole day affair with various shows and entertainment between classes. I loved it! Mom and Miles… not quite as enthusiastic, but still enjoyed it.

So this last month has clearly been crazy, which is why I have been horrible and neglected to update this blog. (I haven’t even gotten to our trip to Switzerland and Itlay during break. I think that will have to be another post…) However, since it is the new year and a time for new goals, I will promise to try to update every other Tuesday. Part of the reason that I got so bad about posting on Sundays is that I am traveling a lot. This does not look like it will quiet down any time soon, which I am completely OK with. However, it also means I have to be realistic. I am not the person who can get home at 11 PM on Sunday and write a blog post about my week/weekend. I feel like Tuesday is a much more realistic time to be posting, so this is my new goal.

I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and is starting their new year off right! Find a way to do what you love in 2019!

Lovelies, until next time,

***Hunter