Quick Update

Just wanted to write a quick note with an update on things here. Currently we're still without furniture, TV and most importantly internet in our flat. So if you email me, please be patient as I'll only be checking my email about every other day time allowing. Not to mention if you try calling our Vonage phone that won't work either. We're not completely settled in our new flat yet, as we've all been pretty busy starting work this week, but hopefully will have everything finished come the weekend. I'm starting to get really sick of living out of hockey bags, not to mention I can't find anything!

I started work yesterday and had a pretty great day. Things are a little interesting at the moment as I'm waiting on the teachers to assess the students who I'll be working with as my title is Special Education Needs teacher. So probably sometime next week things will get organized with that and I'll start working with the kids. I also don't start teaching swimming lessons until next week along with helping out in the preschool on Tuesday afternoons. I'm currently aiding a grade 1 class or as they would call it year two. The kids are from all over with a couple of diplomats children in my class and it's pretty cute to hear the British accents in the class. I need to run and head off to work for the afternoon, so once again I will try and post pictures of the new flat soon...hopefully by the end of the week.

Our New Flat!!

I just got back from our new flat and WOW!! We are pretty pumped at the moment with our new place. It's on the top story of an apartment building about 10mins away from where our current place is and is two stories. I think the whole living room area is about as big as our current flat. There are three rooms on the top floor along with a bathroom. Then on the first floor we have a large kitchen, living room, small dining area, pantry and a bathroom. Not to mention we have two balconies! It's pretty unbelievable to say the least, so much better than the flat we have right now. It's not brand new like our current flat but pretty close to. Oh yes and we have an elevator! How nice! I don't have any pictures right now but will take some soon and post them online so you can see. The only problem is that we don't have any living room furniture as in couch, table and chairs and a tv, internet etc. So we'll be waiting on that, not sure how long that will take but hopefully that will come soon. I need to sign off here and finish packing and head back over to the new place and unpack. Will write more later!

I Have a Job!

I'm pretty excited to tell everyone that I have a job! Yes I know playing for HC Slavia Praha is my job, but as you know from last year we also had a part time job working at a preschool. Well I won't be going back there this year because I'll now be working at Riverside International School. I'll be working part time, full days on Monday and Wednesday and then a half day on Tuesday. I'm not a hundred percent sure all my duties at the school, but at the moment I'll be helping out with a couple of classroom teachers, doing some pull out sessions with special needs students, and then on Wednesday afternoon teaching swimming lessons. This is all in their primary school, so I'll be working with kids aged 5-11. My first day is on Monday so I'll write more about it later as I can only imagine I'll have many stories to tell!

Kutna Hora

Jeni, Arielle and I took a little road trip last Saturday out to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour away from Prague. The reason for the trip was to see the Sedlec Ossuary or also know as the Bone Church. We had seen pictures and heard stories in the past on just how awesome it was, so figured it was a must see before we left, and we were not disappointed.

The Plague hit this area pretty bad and plots for graves started to increase in price, so the small All Saints chapel was pressed into becoming an ossuary. A large ossuary at that with the remains of around 40,000 people. Then in 1870 the Schwarzenberg purchased the ossuary and gave Frantisek Rint free rain to get creative with the bones. So this is now what it looks like...


Sedlec Ossuary


Graveyard around the church


Standing in front of the bone chandelier


A closer look


Schwartzenberg family crest, made of bones of course!


Jeni and I by some skulls

Next stop was St. Barbara's Cathedral, another super nice huge church. They started building it back in 1380 and then was finally completed at the end of the 19th century. There's also fresco's inside dating back from the 15th century. So pretty old if you ask me. So all in all it was a pretty great day of sight seeing and exploring the town of Kutna Hora finished with a Czech meal. Here are some more pictures...


In front of St. Barbara's Cathedral


Some random stone sculpture


Inside the sanctuary


Stained glass window


Sky view of the church


Overlooking Kutna Hora

The Zoo

On Friday Arielle, Jeni and I decided to spend the afternoon at the Prague Zoo. Chelsa was there last year and had mentioned it was a good time so we thought hey, why not? I went to the zoo with little knowledge of it whatsoever and upon entering it found out that it was ranked 7th world wide for zoo's. So not too bad! Our first mission was to find a map of the zoo and when we saw it we were slightly taken aback by the size of the zoo. I guess I now know why it's ranked 7th in the world. So for the next 3 and half hours we power walked through as much of it as we could.

It was pretty amazing as I haven't been to a zoo in about 8 years with the last one being the Calgary Zoo. I couldn't begin to tell you all the animals I saw or the all the strange looking birds that I saw. The highlights of the zoo for me were seeing the polar bears playing in the water, watching the tigers eat their lunch, looking at the African safari containing zebras and giraffes, and then finally staring at a gorilla for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what the heck it was doing - throwing up it's food and then licking it up again. No joke, never seen anything quite like that before. I have no idea if he was sick, or if this is normal. So if you know anything about gorilla's please inform me as this was super strange. Here are some pics...


The polar bear


Some strange looking two hump camel, I rode the one hump camel back in Egypt.


Looking at the African safari in Prague.


Jeni and I hanging out on a lion, granted we never did see any at the zoo...only tigers...


The tiger


And finally the elephants and me.

Good News!

We just found out today that we'll be moving to a different flat! You're probably wondering, well aren't you in one already? Well yes we are but are in one with little space. We currently have our old flat (or apartment) from last year along with a new flat about a 10min drive away. This "new" flat is really nice, granted it's missing a kitchen, and only has a fridge. Hum...kind of a problem as it's not really livable at the moment. So we've all been bunking in our old flat with someone sleeping on the mat on the floor. Needless to say the living quarters have been tight and we're still all living out of our hockey bags/suitcases. So it would be really nice to unpack and get settled.

Well today our agent met with our owner and we were told that we have a new flat and we can move into it next week! So excited! I'm not sure what it looks like of course but was told it has two bathrooms, is two levels and has a garage. So looks promising. I'll of course post pictures and write more when we move in next week!

Karlstejn Castle

Two Fridays ago we actually had a day off so we decided to be tourists and head to Karlstejn Castle, about a 30min drive from Prague. It was an awesome drive out there, very pretty country side. The castle dates back to 1348 and housed the crown jewels for the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the IV. The castle then fell during the Hussite War and was restored back in the 19th century. It was pretty amazing as you can see from the pictures below. We took an hour long tour through it, which was really the only way to see inside the castle. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle so I only have pictures from the outside. Enjoy...


On the walk up to the Castle


The Castle


The side of the Castle overlooking the country side.


The tower


Me, the tourist