Czech'd Out: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

Before you read anything else beyond this point, you must watch this. It's a reading of the first chapter of the next book from my favorite author, John Green. And it's about a 16-year-old girl with cancer, who meets a boy who had osteo-sarcoma (same type of cancer as my Dad, for those of you who don't know). I can already tell it's going to be my favorite book probably ever and will also make me cry a whole ton.

Anyway, on to super-happy-funtime news. Or something. More like an update on my life, which I guess you could put in the 'super-happy-funtime' category. I got back yesterday from a week of travelling and (unsuccessfully) putting up with snoring in hostels and breaking my laptop (and then fixing it!) and seeing some things that I've only ever dreamt of seeing, and falling in love with a city which I never had thought I would love so very much. More on that all in another post.

For now, we go back to last weekend, where I would have written an update on life but I was super sick! Let me tell you, having severe vertigo is no fun. But I decided to try to ignore it and I went about life last weekend as per usual. On Saturday I went to an art museum on the Vltava river, then climbed up Petřín hill, which is to the west of Vltava River and just south of Prague Castle. It was freezing cold and a very long climb, but definitely worth the views of the city. Of course, it was super foggy when I climbed it so that meant I didn't have the greatest view, but I still thought it was beautiful. I also climbed the Petřínská rozhledna (a lookout tower on the top which is built to emulate the Eiffel Tower). That was a really neat view, but was slightly clouded by my at times crippling fear of heights and the fact that the top of the tower sways (which really isn't good when combined with vertigo!). But all-in-all, I'm glad I went up there.

On Sunday I went to another hockey game, this time with Chris and Helen. It was HC Sparta Praha versus HC Kladno, which (a bit of trivia for you) is the team that Jaromir Jagr used to play with. It was quite fun, and Helen and I looked mighty goofy in the paper hockey helmets, waving our Sparta flags furiously. I think Chris was rather embarrassed to be seen with us. :) In the dying seconds of OT (literally, 14 seconds left), Kladno scored, so that was disappointing. It was a good game with quite a bit of emotion (and two or three almost-fights!), and we had really good seats so I got to see Mario Bliznak's face a couple of times... plus, I think Chris and Helen quite enjoyed it, so I'm always glad to introduce folks to the wonders of hockey.

I can't believe that I only have two weeks left in my student teaching. I do feel like I'm ready to go out and get a job, but at the same time I'm kind of frightened by the prospect. It's not the actual finding a job part that scares me (I know it'll be difficult, so I basically ignore anyone who says something like, "Good luck finding a job... you're never going to get one in this economy."). The part that scares me is not having the fantastic support I've had at this school. I don't want to end up somewhere where the staff is aloof and self-centered. This school has been awesome in that even the teachers I don't work with on a one-on-one basis are always checking up on me, giving me advice, etc. I just hope I find a school where I will have a similar support scheme.

Anyway, I'm going to go edit photos from my trip, and then hopefully sometime in the next couple of days I will post about my trip. But 'til then, I'll leave you with some photos from last weekend:

Helen and I looking like right proper dorks. But we had team spirit, that's for sure!!

There's a love padlocks bridge near the Lennon Wall. It's a tiny,
nameless bridge that was overrun by padlocks only in the last couple
of years. I took a few photos, but this one's my favorite.