Monday, May 23, 2011

Remember when?

Definitely on a blast from the past kick. Going through all those pictures has stirred up the urge to review the past. So we're going with a few more oldies but goldies. Perhaps this will inspire a little trip down memory lane through my blog archives. I promise there are LOTS of other great pictures where these ones came from, but I just couldn't put up everything from all my trips. I give you now a few sneak peaks into the life of my 07-08 school year. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the photos from my Sweden/Norway Christmas trip, so they'll be missing from this first year line up. Otherwise, this is a little tribute to most of the countries I visited during my first year in Czech. Maybe, just maybe, looking at these will give people the impression that I did live a tourist sorta lifestyle. I think that's just because I'm such a poser. Funny thing is, when I lived in Hong Kong, the absolute land of posers, I was pretty lousy at it. Just takes me a while to warm up I guess :)
We'll start this line up with:
Remember when I used to live here?

That's right, we went all the way back to Skalka. I don't think you can truly say you've experienced local Czech living until you've put in some time in a panalok. Not that I actually recommend this type of accommodation, but it at least was roomy, providing Naomi and me with our own separate space. To see the video tour you can check here. I put a lot of time and effort into this video, and it really is worth it.
Remember when Crystal and I went on the wild ride with a German student to Nurnberg to enjoy the Christmas Market?


It was a super crazy day, made even more random when we ran into a group of our teachers from Slovakia. Couldn't have planned it like that if we'd tried.
Remember when I went to Salzburg with Nicole?


I just got off the phone with Nicole, and it was so great to hear her sweet Canadian voice in my ear as we reminisced about all the traveling that we did together. Salzburg was our first really epic journey. From the Sound of Music and Salt Mines Tour to racing around to get pictures of the monastery and walking for absolute ages to find a place to eat, check out posts from February 2007 for more pictures of this little getaway.
Remember when Naomi and I took a 13 hour bus ride to London and got dropped off at 3AM?


We might have had slightly different sight seeing agendas, but there's no denying that this was an incredible experience for Spring Break '08. Yeah, it really might look like we traipsed around a lot, but I swear the work was REALLY hard the first year. Lesson planning got a lot easier with time, but since we had a serious 25-30 minute walk to work we spent most of the day in town rather than walking back and forth. It was exhausting. We really NEEDED these trips.
Remember Prague and just how fabulous it is?

I could put in lots more photos of Prague, but since I'm thinking of covering a couple more years in review I thought it best not to overkill.
Remember when Naomi and I went to Poland for Easter? The fated trip where Crystal missed the train by minutes, and where we were awed by the massive quantity of shrubs the Polish people grew?


The train ride was long, but we managed to be spared being beaten for Easter so we were happy.
Remember when Nicole, Crystal and I discovered the wonders of Rothenburg?


It was so nice of the Czechs to have so many holidays so we could get away on three day weekends. Definitely made it a lot easier to take in the wonders around us.
Remember when we had that canoe trip to Cesky Krumlov where I didn't canoe cause I'm too freaked out about falling in the water?


Here's a whole slew of people that made this final trip of the school year amazing.

Definitely a lot of memories from year one. And this doesn't even take into account the times spent getting to know students, or most of the traveling we did in the country. Semi-charmed kind of life, anyone?

2 comments:

Crystal said...

This is great. Your flat video made me remember that I actually DID take showers sitting down for an entire year. Oh the memories.

Transient Drifter said...

Seriously, going through my photos and everything was so emotional. What a lot of crazy things we got to do. But I REALLY don't miss the sitting shower business. Definitely not my thing!