Fashion cheapskate

I know when it starts to get so cold because I start to see my breath. Fall has long been gone in Czech Rep. I have this feeling it's going to be a long winter and for once I'm hoping I'd be wrong. This is the time when I miss sunny Cebu and the eternal sunshine in P.I. Even when it's the rainy season in some parts of the country like in Surigao, you can still get out in shorts and flip-flops--absolutely something you CANT do in Prague at this time of the year.

You have to wear eighty thousand layers for you to dodge off hypothermia. For some reason Hulk Hogan always enters my mind every morning when I can barely bend to zip my boots from the layers of clothing I'm wearing. Warm winter clothes and boots are quite expensive in Prague. But shhh, I'll tell you a secret. I buy scarves, gloves, even boots from a really cheap Vietnamese store. My boots have been the rage at school since last year but only one teacher knows that they only cost 450kč. Knee-high ones, mind you!

So if you're a fashion cheapskate like moi, checkout this place. It's on the ground floor of OC RUZE building right across the (grocery) entrance of Centrum Chodov. I don't know its name (what a useless blogger, hehe) but I'm sure you wont miss it. And please, don't forget to haggle! They actually expect you to.

Oxford university press training

I just finished attending a training/workshop given by Oxford University Press. I thought I would be bored sitting there for hours and hours. My attention span is half an hour, max. I was dreading of drifting away and coming back to school with nothing new to share with my co-teachers because I wasn't paying any attention to the lectures at all. It was just the opposite. Naomi Noir and Kat Kinsella, the lecturers, were so good that my ears were glued to every word they said.

The training was for teachers of very young learners (ages 3-8). There will be a part 2 of it I guess sometime in January next year. For those who are interested to attend, check out their website for training/workshop schedules right here. You'll get handouts, a free book and a training certificate from them. It's definitely worth your time.

Miss Saigon in Praha

I've long wanted to watch musicals that I'm familiar with such as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. I missed Miss Saigon when they staged it in Manila so I'm thinking why not watch the local version here in Praha? Problem is, I don't know if I'd be satisfied with the performance. I wont be satisfied if it wont be no less than Lea Salonga performing as Kim anyway so maybe I shouldn't bother.

Stumbled on these vids after a series of relentless YouTube searching for a different one. This was what I missed in Manila-- Lea performing as Kim with mostly the orig cast of MS minus, of course, Jonathan Pryce as the Engineer....




Totally mind-blowing performance! Robert Sena as Thuy was phonomenal and Lea... well, she earned a Tony for this so I need not say more. But for those who would like to catch MS in Praha, here's when and where it's at:

GOJA MUSIC HALL
Prague 7 - The Prague Exhibition Grounds Výstaviste, Holesovice, www.divadlogmh.cz
Box office: Yamamusic, Prague 1, Jungmanovo nám. 17, tel. 224 236 303. Box office open Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Tickets also available at: Ticket Art, Ticketpro, Ticketportal, Cedok and Sunny Days travel agencies.
23 Fri. Miss Saigon - 7 p.m.
24 Sat. Miss Saigon - 2.30 p.m.
30 Fri. Miss Saigon - 7 p.m.

Mightier law

A told me a few weeks ago that the law on getting a permanent resident permit here in Czech Rep will change soon. No longer will spouses of Czech citizens be instantly eligible for permanent residency. He also said something about eight years of continuous residency in the country before one can have a maroon card. (EU passports are maroon in color.)

Yesterday while browsing for Italian restaurants in Prague, I stumbled on an article about this law. Here's an excerpt:

Presently — as the law stands — spouses of Czech citizens are eligible for immediate permanent residency (trvaly pobyt) and within five years are eligible for full Czech citizenship (without voting rights, naturally). Newcomers to Czech society in this way merely have to demonstrate a passive knowledge of the Czech language in order to qualify for that same citizenship.

Under cover of the slower holiday season, Parliament is attempting to hustle through ammendments to the existing law. No longer will spouses of Czech citizens be eligible for instant permanent residency. And under the current proposal presently kicking around the Czech Senate for final approval and signing into law (following President Klaus’ rubber stamp), it will now take prospective Czech permanent residents eight years of continuous residency in the Czech Republic to qualify for citizenship with Czech language fluency.

Eight years is a long time. Then again their country, their law. Besides maybe eight years is the minimum time you need to learn their language. I've been here for almost three years and without a proper course in it I'm still struggling past hi and goodbye. Two more to go and I will be eligible for citizenship. The ultimate question now is-- to be or not to be?

Paid to be silly

We had our first concert at school last Wednesday. When I say concert it means parents of our kids will come to watch them sing and dance, do fingerplays and say rhymes. They (the parents) are still raving about how cute the kids were and how they enjoyed the show. Well, 3-5 years old kids (the age bracket I'm teaching) can never do wrong. Everything they say or do always earns them a chorus of "ohhhh, she's/he's so cuuuuuute."

Our director jokingly said A should come watch me and my kids next time we "perform." Not a bad idea. A once said I have a great job as I get paid to be silly. So true. Oh the inumerable silly things I do everyday at school to make my kids get into it. Though sometimes I feel like a glorified nanny, preschool teaching is actually a lot of fun. So if you want to join the pack, I'm sure there are a lot of teaching jobs posted here.

Remembering Raine

Raine is my nick for my Mom. Nobody, until now, knew this but me. It started two decades ago when she told me a story about one of her many Mills and Boon heroins named Raine. The name just stuck in my head, I guess. She was so moved with the girl's plight I swear she was fighting off tears while telling me the story. My Mom was a certified Drama Queen.

Like mother, like daughter.

This was my tribute to her on All Souls' Day. She passed away when I was 15. Each passing year my memory of her gets blurred but there are things I will always remember about her. Such as how she loved the color tangerine and how she was a sucker for sunsets.

This montage is a compilation of sunrise and sunset pics from our picture files. I made this specially for Raine.

One of my many quick fixes

Nachos are my current favorite. This dinner requires a 10-minute preparation which is perfect for Wednesdays and Thursdays as these are my longest days at school. When you work all day the least you'd want is to work in the kitchen when you get home.

What you need:
a ripe avocado
onion
tomatoes
grated cheese
chips
salsa

As simple as chopping the vegetables and scooping out the avocado, sprinkling them with grated cheese, adding a tablespoon or two of salsa and putting them in the oven or microwave till cheese is melted, you'll have dinner ready in ten minutes or less. I eat by spooning the delectable mixture and topping my tortilla chips with them, then rolling my eyes upward in bliss as I take a bite. Each bite is coupled with agreeable noises....hmmm...hmmm....hmmm....this is good!

Note: In Prague, you can buy salsa from any grocery store. It's usually at their international section. The brand I buy is Vitana. Same goes for the chips though I prefer the one that Albert has.

Hitchcock marathon

I've never been into old movies. Let me rephrase that-- I've never been into movies. I've been living in Prague for almost three years now and I haven't been to the cinemas here. This indifference has a simple explanation-- I'd forget the scenes right when the credits roll so why bother?

Having a fast internet connection made me think twice. Why not bother? I mean, if we had to pay 800Kč/month for the subscription, might as well take advantage of all its perks. A found this website www.rapidshare.com where you can download hundreds of movies for free. The catch is it takes hours to download one because of its size so we opted to get a monthly subscription for 200kč. This way we can download several movies in less than an hour.

It's worth it. I don't know how I shifted gears from latest releases to classics but I'm glad I did. We have been watching a marathon of Hitchcock's movies since last week. Now I understand why he remains one of the most popular directors of all time. That man was brilliant. His movies are full of droll humor I couldn't get enough of. Start watching one of his films like, say, "North by Northwest" and you'll be hooked.

In the land of women

When women are together, they usually talk about food, men and fashion. I have no problem with that. I love food, I love my man, and fashion, well, I'd like to try wearing those black leggings that just refuse to die. Problem is, in between these immortal topics, gossiping rules. Sure I do gossip, I'm a woman after all. But I prefer not to do anything about it.

I work in a place ruled by women. Naturally, the gossiping also just refuses to die. I couldn't care less if people gossip about me because I know my worth. What I don't like is being the sponge of all these talks about each other. It gets pretty boring when nothing is new except another round of "she did this and said that." It gets annoying when your patience is hanging on a thread and your hormones are making your moods go ballistic because of bad energies surrounding you.

What to do about this? Sign up for yoga with Monica again? Re-read Thich Nhat Hanh's "Peace is Every Step" to get enlightened? Ignore it? Scream shut up when I feel my daily dose of gossip is coming? Women! Oh well, I'll better get back to my laundry and sleep on it. For now.