Thanksgiving Week

Last week was a fairly difficult week for me. Since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to be home, I was missing my family a bit extra and wishing we had the time off work as well. I could not sleep very well at all. I would be busy with work or waking up cold in my room for lack of a functioning radiator, my kittens played games whenever I woke them up that kept me up, and I slowly turned into a zombie throughout the week.

On Wednesday, I went shopping to get some things to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal my flat mates and I were invited to by another American teacher here. I bought things for mashed potatoes and decided to buy some gourds or squashes and see what I could do with them. The gourds/squashes were unmarked and usually you have to weigh everything in the produce section, but the guy I asked for help was pretty rude and said one thing and walked away. I couldn't find the gourds in the register for pricing, so I asked a young woman who worked there who asked another guy who asked the same rude guy from the beginning who started saying something in an angry voice, made a seen, and again turned his back on me... I just started walking slowly away from the produce section as a woman said "excuse me, they said the price is by the item, and I'm sorry about that." I was happy for the help and kept shopping when a guy with an unidentifiable English accent came over, outraged and apologetic for what had occurred. He said that the workers were unprofessional and should not have treated me that way...apparently, the guy yelled that I should learn Czech...I thought, fair play, but it was unprofessional, too. The guy wanted to go with me to report what I had suffered, but I said that I was pretty tired and had good experiences with the store and would wait for a second offense. The guy continued to talk to me for a half an hour, saying he's finishing up studying English at the University and needed to work with some students to complete his degree. He ended up giving me his email address and I got him the hours at my school.

On Thursday, I was so out of it that I missed two private lessons and was panicking while cooking with Laura. We ended up making great food. Laura made stuffing from scratch, and I made some sort of mashed/baked squash thing that was delicious and mashed potatoes (also delicious!). We went to our friend's place and had a great time with friends, but I was antsy to get home and talk to my family on skype. When I finally did, I cried a little bit when I was talking to them and my mom, sisters, and I all cried for a few minutes straight. It was a good time, but I probably didn't get to sleep until 2 and had to wake up early yet again. At school the next day, I finished the mural of a Christmas tree, gifts with all the third graders' names on the tags, and a window with a snowman and snow outside....the kids loved it.

After my private lessons on Friday, I slept for 4 or 5 hours before visiting with grandma and knitting before watching a movie with Laura and going back to sleep. Yesterday, Laura, Kat, and I went to see Nicole, our good Canadian teacher friend who decided to go home for Christmas and not return after. We had a great time with her at her old place, and went on to our friend Lucas's for a what we thought was a display of his photographs..in fact, it was a photo shoot in which we drank a lot of wine, played some music, and got our photos taken.

Laura and I left there to get some nachos at a bar, moved on to a classy cafe with live music where Laura said I'm a singer and the waitress said I could sing a song. Nicole joined us and we joined a birthday party that some guy invited us to join. Nicole sang the girl happy birthday and we we both sang killing me softly with the singer who was there backing us up. We moved on to several other bars and ended up eating some delicious kebabs. Overall, it was a great night. Now, we're having a farewell brunch for Nicole, so I must go!