Wobble

Turkey, turkey everywhere. In the midst of turning Saturday's culinary masterpiece into new, exciting taste explosions, I completely forgot, so here is my catching up:

What's your favorite part of  your body and why?

Hmmmm... this is going to sound very strange, but I'm gonna go with my left eyebrow. It has a way of creeping halfway up my forehead without me even noticing whenever I find something amusing/embarrassing for someone/distasteful/annoying/whatever. I wish I could train my right eyebrow to do the same, as I'm worried that in 20 10 years one eye will have significantly less wrinkles due to its daily workout. My students laugh at me for it, Peej impersonates it, and here it is in all it's Thanksgiving day glory...

You can also see my wine-induced pink nose... 

What is your love language?

uhhhhh... French?

I have no idea what this question means, so I was going to just skip it, but then I Googled it and found this nifty quiz, so let's see, shall we? Please hold...

... Quality time. Which, according to this other site means...

Quality Time: You crave togetherness. Being in the same room is not "togetherness". You want a person's undivided attention-- a true connection with someone. Dialects of the language of Quality Time are Quality Conversation, Quality Listening, and Quality Activities. You can enjoy just one or multiple dialects.

• Quality Conversation consists of focusing on drawing the other person out, listening sympathetically to what they have to say, and asking questions with the genuine desire to understand their thoughts, feelings, and desires (not as a means to an end, like solving their problems). It also consists of you, yourself, verbalizing your thoughts, feelings, and desires.

• Quality Activities means you like to enjoy activites with people to spend time with those people. It's not the activity that's important but the quality time. Whether it's something new or something you love to do all the time, you'll always remember those times with the people that matter in your life.

To improve proficiency in Quality Conversation: Don't engage in other activities while you are listening to another person. This is about quality time. Listen for feelings and observe body language. Then confirm their feelings, e.g., "You must be really frustrated since..." It says you're listening and gives the person to clarify their feelings. Do not interrupt! Research has indicated that the average individual listens for only 17 sec before interrupting and interjecting their own ideas. Ask reflective questions (so there're no misunderstandings), express understanding (so they know they've been heard), and lastly, ask if there is anything you can do to be helpful.

So now you know. And so do I. Though I feel this quiz is not quite scientific, especially as every other question is about receiving gifts and you feel like a shallow asshole if you just keep answering "Yes, I like when people give me things"... even if it's slightly true (it's almost my birthday and Christmas, it's allowed.).

Phew, Out of the Kitchen

Thanksgiving dinner a rousing success, and so begins the week(s) of turkey leftovers. Whipping up a turkey pot pie tomorrow. Tried today but realized at checkout that I'd forgotten my wallet and had to lurk around Billa putting back puff pastry and tossing potatoes back in their bin and then sneaking out the entrance... and by sneaking I mean running into the crowd as the alarm went off. Ohhhh, Monday.

Describe your family dynamic as a child versus your family dynamic now.

I think in general, we're all much more relaxed than we were when I was younger. We're a lot closer than ever before and it's great having siblings and parents who are also really great friends. Love you!

If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be and what would you eat?

Hmmmmm... this will just highlight my inner nerd, but I'm gonna go with Anne Boleyn. She's gone down in history for her intelligence, wit and charm, so I'd imagine she would make for excellent conversation, and there is so much mystery and misinformation about her. Plus, this way I could see for myself if the rumors about six fingers and three boobs are true, plus gossip about all of those alleged affairs. Juicy stuff.

What popular notion do you think the world has the most wrong?
Where to begin, where to begin?

Jeeeeeez, there's a lot, isn't there? But I think the one that most succinctly sums up what I think is just totally off base is that there is this assumption, particularly in the US, that religion has a place in politics. It seemed like the 2012 elections were focused so closely on issues that divided people on the basis of faith. Whatever you choose to believe or not believe is fine, but when it starts to dictate who is eligible for basic rights, we need to step back. The place for those discussions is not in the government buildings.

I think the reason this bugs me so much is it's so closely tied to social issues which are incredibly important to me, and I think a lot of young people - marriage equality, birth control, women's rights... all of these came under attack from politicians this year and the arguments made over and over again were based on pick-and-choose religious "evidence". I believe there is certainly value in having a free enough society in which people can debate and express their views and feel safe enough to do so, but if we are going to have a government that's truly "of the people, by the people, for the people" then we need to remember that not all of those people adhere to those religious tenets, and certainly shouldn't be governed by them.

I know the election is over and we have a good three years before we all need to be debating who can marry who and when does life begin and whose rights trump whose, but I hope that in these next few years the US can make some strides and start acting and governing itself and taking care of its citizens in the progressive manner it likes to think it has.

Plus, this video.

I Will Die in this Apron

Channeling my inner housewife/Barefoot Contessa today. One of three turkeys, strudel, spinach dip, layer cake, pumpkin bars, cornbread, homemade crescent rolls and three bags of turkey stock. Good God. And a craft. And this. Boom.

Enjoy, as yer not getting one tomorrow, that's for sure. Cooking for 30 people leaves no room for blogging.

So, without further ado, today's topic...

What are your top five hobbies and why do you love them?
Can't I just copy and paste my passions post??

Food – cooking it, eating it, talking about it. I love it for a number of reasons. For one, it’s a great way to learn about new cultures. When I moved to Prague, I spent many happy days sampling gulaš and medovník and svičkova and fruit dumplings and pork knew and sausages and whatever else crossed my path. Food is such an integral part of a society – people’s tastes, attitudes and social cues when it comes to eating say a lot about national traditions and history. But I also love it because food can introduce you to new things, teach you new things, give you valuable skills, force you to get creative, and best of all, it brings people together.

Painting and other crafty things – I forgot how much I love to make things, anything really. It’s incredibly relaxing and when you’re finished, you have something that you can (maybe) put on your wall. Hobbies with something to show for it – excellent!

Travelling - I don't really have the budget but planning, packing, the actual travel, exploring - I love it all. It's incredible to see new places, meet new people, try new things. I'm very lucky to have seen so many amazing cities and sights this year - Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Krakow, Budapest, Wales, England, Croatia, around the Czech Republic... excellent! Just realized I've ended two paragraphs this way... my brain has been juilliened, boiled, broiled and baked today, leave me alone. 

Blogging - I have such a great time sharing my life on here (plus it saves me writing a thousand emails), figuring out what to tell, how much to tell, how to tell it. It's often a source of guilt about not posting enough but it's a really great feeling when I press "Post" and it's out there. And I love the feedback!

Reading - My Kindle gets a workout, let me tell you. It's just so relaxing, and as about half my day is spent commuting, I get through a lot of books. You always have something to do, and you always look busy when waiting at a bus stop, train station, bar...

Bonus - only bc Peej reminded me - collecting containers. A place for everything, and everything in its place. 

Hardly Surprising...

... that my lofty goals of actually sticking to a posting schedule got derailed. It's a busy week, leave me alone.

The wifi at Costa totally sucks, so lets hope this actually works.

Three significant memories from your childhood...
Not exactly significant, but nice!

When I was 9 or 10, my grandparents lived in a town called Bicester, in England, and by their house was a big chunk of farmland called Slade Farms. It was full of fields and paths, and also had a giant thicket of raspberry bushes.
There were lots of other kids who lived in the neighborhood, and it was over the creek and through this prickly thicket that we had The Village. It probably looked like a hobo shantytown, but this cluster of forts made of scrap wood, corrugated tin and twine was just plain awesome. It was completely tucked away, hidden in a circle of big trees. I'm not entirely sure what we did when we were there... probably played games and pretended to be soldiers or something, but I do remember there was a "bad guy", aka an angry older kid who bullied us, and it was our job to defend our village from him and his gang of hooligans from taking it over and destroying it. Typical kids stuff.
Local government decided to develop Slade Farm (typical). There were lots of petitions and us going door to door asking people to protect it, friendship bracelet sales and even probably the lowest-earning benefit concert in someone's garage (kids don't tend to have lots of money to chip in, I'm sure most of it went to packets of Hula Hoops and Fox Party Rings to munch on while we were rockin' out), but sadly, our little group of miniature conservationists were unsuccessful, so now there is probably a family living on what was formerly the coolest place in the world. Will have to dig out the photo of all of us when I get back to the states.

My second memory isn't really a specific ting, but it's Amersham. Amersham is the village my grandparents lived in when I was really little, and it was amazing. They lived on a farm and it was absolutely the best place to spend summers as a kid. There was a trio of goats behind the house who escaped and ate all the fruit off the apple trees. There were fields full of sheep, cows, horses. The garden was full of roses and ponds that Grandad threatened to dunk me headfirst into by holding me by my ankles. There was an honest-to-god outhouse that skeeved me out (spiders!), and a pool at the neighbors that to get to, you had to walk past three wild boars, who I was completely petrified of after my NY cousins let me watch a movie with them where a guy has his head nearly completely bitten off by a boar and yet is still able to walk, talk, and get into sword fights. There were chestnut trees and field after field of clover and poppies. There was a creek to paddle in, a dried out lake to explore, and a fallen tree to climb over. There was a dusty lane that Bo Nanny used to always say needed a good sweeping. When you looked out the upstairs windows, you could see hot air balloons landing. Sheep shearing, horse grooming, country life. It was just idyllic... Would kill to go back (for a day anyway, probably be a bit dull after that!).

My grandma in NY kept closets full of my aunts' old clothes from the '60's, which were excellent dress-up supplies (and probably would look really chic now). They were packed into cramped, giant closets that you could hide out in and dig around and find these treasures. One day, after too many games of How Many Monkeys Jumping on the Bed got boring, my cousins, my brother and sister and I decided to play a big game of dress up (come to think of it, my cousins must have been far too old for dress up at this point... what were you thinking??), which resulted in Ben in a giant suit and Jenna in an old dress, housecoat and funny hat while we officiated their wedding. There is also photographic evidence of this... will need to dig it out.


If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
Do I get a cute superhero outfit? Or is this more like a Misfits thing?

Easy - teleport. First I'd swing home for a visit, and then I'd be off to Paris, Capetown, Rome, Barcelona, Phucket, Bali, Dublin, Dubai... But realistically, I'd use it to zap myself to class on time so I could sleep in a bit longer. :)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 15?

Five years - Hopefully, I'll have a job that I can look forward to going to, preferably at my own company. I will have a rigorous Pilates regime, a discerning wine palate, be able to make a perfect Cointreau creme brulee. I'll have a darling little Frenchie who comes to work with me every day. I'll vacation in fabulous places. I will get over my fear of skiing and that a hassled mother will one day ask me for help getting her pram on the tram. Maybe I will be that hassled mother. (No, no, will avoid public transportation until my child can walk.) Five years seems like an awfully long time from now, so who knows?

Ten years - By now, my company will be wildly successfully - franchises all over the place! I will have a fantastic flat or house with a big kitchen and double oven and fancy espresso machine. I will have learned how to drive stick. I will probably be freaking out about turning 40 in a few years, so pilates will have turned into multiple weekly sessions with a personal trainer and a zealous anti-aging routine. My maybe-baby will now be able to walk (so can start using public transport again!), and will start to be interesting so I can use all those crazy parenting crafts you see on Pinterest (moon sand! expanding soap! make your own bouncy balls!).

Fifteen years - My company will have been so successful that I can sell it off and retire early to a life of making beautiful things and raising boston terrier puppies full-time. My maybe-baby will by this point be a hormonal pubescent nightmare, so I'll probably be researching foreign boarding schools to ship it off to and give myself a bit of peace. But fifteen years from now is hella far, and I can't really think about what I'm doing next week, let alone for a significant chunk of my life. Yikes!


Off for a full day of teaching, followed by Thanksgiving prep for Saturday.

I hope all of my fellow Americans have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat a lot for me, I miss you guys!

A Day Late, A Koruna Short

Okay, three days late. It was the weekend. Was recovering from Thursday's escapades and eating horrendously spicy things at the chili pepper festival, and then home improvement shopping (i.e., buying more containers. As Donut says, IKEA probably has a alarm rigged to go off whenever I'm in the vicinity.). So here I am, slightly late (nothing new) and with a lot to catch up on. So here goes...

What's one thing you most wish you were great at?
Why one? I want to be great at all things!

• Singing. Because here I disprove the rule that practice makes perfect.
• Speaking Czech. Because here I don't  know if practice makes perfect, because I don't.
• Making bank. Because, obviously.

What has been the most difficult thing you've had to forgive?

Easy - being put far down on the priority list of someone who was at the top of mine. And I did forgive, over and over and over and over until I realized that it wasn't worth it to keep fighting for that top spot and that there are something things you just can't or don't want to compete with. So I stopped fighting it and let it go. And I do forgive, completely and wholeheartedly. I think it's really difficult in the moment to take a good look at your relationships and be honest with yourself. You fight for things to work out of a sense of obligation, of "this is how things are meant to be", out of indigence ("WTF is wrong with him? He should be counting his lucky stars!"), and because the status quo is a lot safer and more comfortable than having such a giant space ripped into your world, but eventually you realize no amount of work is going to fix the problem. And sooner or (much, much) later you get to a point where you're okay with what happened, and happy that that person came into your life and happier that you know how to move past it. You gotta follow the advice of Ma$e - just "Breathe, Stretch, Shake, Let it Go". Ohmmmmmm.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

Prague! I know it baffles my students, but I absolutely am 100% in love with my new home. It's the perfect sized little city - small enough to navigate easily but big enough to always have something to do. The people are friendly (mostly), it's full of culture, history, modernity and beer, and it's just.so.freaking.beautiful. There is not a day when I'm travelling around that I don't think to myself "Ohhhhh... look at that gorgeous little street!" or "How scrumptious do those pastries look?" or "I'm commuting past a flippin' castle!" Every single day brings some holy crap moment where I'm either shocked/stunned/surprised/educated/impressed by something. I love the life I have here and the people that are in it. 

This isn't to say that I wouldn't be open to moving somewhere else fabulous for a bit (Paris, peut-être?), but Prague has my heart. 

Okay, all caught up - will try to be better in the future, but only have ten days to go (though have been late fairly regularly in the first 19 so...). 

Ughhhh

Slightly overdid it last night and had a rough morning. How come the older you get, the more likely it is that you so much as look at alcohol, it's an automatic hangover? I find this completely unacceptable.

Today's post is...

What are your five greatest accomplishments?
Uhhhhhhh...

• Moving to Prague. Not exactly the bravest, greatest, most inspiring thing anyone's ever done, but it was a really hard thing for me to do, and I'm glad I did.

I can't find original artist info, but this was posted here: Polo and Vines

• How I did at my last job. You guys, that job was the worrrrrrrst. But I was good at it. I kicked ass in it. My spreadsheets reigned supreme. So that's nice to know.
• I'm an excellent student. I actually really, really liked school. And if it wasn't for one awful little troll in "Voice and Speech Improvement" who told me I sounded like a six year old sucking helium, I would have had a perfect college GPA (while finishing early, natch). So, summa whaaaat?!
• This blog. It makes me happy that I get to entertain you (or try), and it's really awesome to get to look back and see what my life has been like the past year or so. It's not churning out advertising revenues or garnering a massive following, but I'm pretty proud of it. 
• I'm proud of the fact that I neither weigh a thousand pounds or have a serious drinking problem after living in the Czech Republic.. but don't worry, I'm working on it. ;)

Grrrrrrranimals

The sunshine's brief appearance has passed, and we are in the midst of another grey, cold, foggy day (with snow, if you're lucky enough to be in the 'burbs, as I was first thing this morning). Had a midday cancellation, which means I forget how to tell time, show up 50 minutes early for my next class, and am now killing time eating a grey Caeser salad at KFC (now I understand why you get such a giant dressing packet, it's to mask the flavor of dead lettuce), sharing a verrrrrrrry tiny table with an ancient man who is carting around a bag full of keyboards and sneaking suspicious glances at me every time he gets up, as if I might do a runner with his pile of junk.

Thanks for all of your feedback about Agog in Prague - it means a lot! I'm glad I can entertain, or at the very least give you something to do when you really should be doing something else much more important.

Luckily today's topic is a quick one, easy to type out while shoveling this graveyard bowl of greens into my mouth.

If you were an animal, which would you be and why?
Is this a job interview? If so, I can start immediately.


My usual answer is a monkey - social and clever (I can use tools!), and I really like bananas.

However, I have consulted this website: Animal in You for a professional opinion.

It keeps telling me I am a wild cat. This is the explanation given:

"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." ~Mark Twain

Wildcat personalities do not differ substantially from their domestic cousins and exhibit the aloof behavior that is common to all felines. I am quite aloof. With their well-deserved reputations as creatures of comfort, wildcats jealously guard their independence while indulging in the finer things in life. So... I'm bougie. But we already knew that. Attractive, solitary, creative and curious, these individuals are quite happy to observe the world from a distance.

The wildcat would never take a conventional route and prefers to explore life from off the beaten track, relying heavily on its instincts and powers of observation to guide it safely through the jungle. Its air of indifference and need for privacy keeps it on the outskirts of society, but its love for comfort always brings it back. Who am I, Henry Thoreau? Outskirts? I don't think so. 

Exceptional personal hygiene is a hallmark of the wildcat personality, and from their hair to their fingernails they are immaculately groomed. Well, on a good day. Shopping for clothing or personal-care items spices up long, dreary days. I think that's just called being a female.

When someone wrongs a wildcat, they make it their business to even the score. Displaying superb patience, wildcats will even wait years for the right moment. When the occasion comes to strike, they gather all their force and attack. In the face of a ferocious display of hissing and blustering, their surprised victim has little chance of escape. I love it, makes me sound like Emily from Revenge. Don't really think this is the case though - who has that kind of energy? 

The wildcat differs from its lion relatives in its approach to its social structure. With an aversion to the complex family organization of the lion, the wildcat finds freedom and self-indulgence to be far more compelling. As a natural explorer it disdains staying in one place for long, preferring the freedom of solitary roaming in exotic locales. This wanderlust makes it ideal for a career as a travel agent, explorer, mountain climber, researcher or writer. Can someone even be an explorer these days? What's left? And if I was a mountain climber, it would be a short lived career. I'd be a splat on the ground ten feet up my first attempt. 

Although wildcats are uncomfortable performing in front of large groups, their grace and lithe bodies make them natural dancers or gymnasts. Haaaa. If tipsy SYTYCD sessions in my living room have taught me anything, it's that I am neither a gymnast nor a dancer. 

Well guys, there you go. It's science, so you can't really dispute it. 
_______________________________

I'm pretty sure most of my dancing looks like this guy's: