Bringin' Da Rain, Bringin' Da Dust

My facebook feed has been blowing up all day with fearful posts from people's safe rooms thanks to the heinous line of storms that made its way through Tennessee last night. Thankfully all of my friends and family are safe. They didn't want all those trees in their yards anyway.

Tennessee's not the only place that's had some crazy weather this week. Yesterday morning the Mister and I were greeted with a chilly morning shower on our commute to work. A cold front must have moved in over night and brought a little "cloud vomit," as one of my sweet angels put it.

As it is wont to do in Kuwait, the rain quickly subsided. But then the sky turned red.

Literally.

Photos shamelessly stolen from Charles and Tom, respectively. Thanks, guy!

Photographs just don't do these dust storms justice. In Saudi, the dust was actually kind of white and just looked like gritty fog. But more times than not, the dust in Kuwait is literally red. Like terra cotta red. And just like in Saudi, it. gets. everywhere.

So there you have it. North America has tornadoes. Kuwait starts the day with rain and works its way to flying dirt.

Vicariously yours,

Welp. That was fast.

It might be a little early to call it, but I think we're through the worst of winter here in Kuwait. Here is this week's forecast, side-by-side with the forecast back home.

Suckas.

Vicariously yours,

My resolutions need a rolling start

This week, I've put the Mister and I on a self-developed menu to restrict our calories. I've also started getting up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise.

It's that time of year again!

There are a few things that make this resolution awesome. First of all, as TONS of health magazine articles will tell you, I have a lot more energy during the work day. Granted, I hit the wall BIG time by around 8:30pm, but I've been very productive at work so far this week. Secondly, I'm discovering some great new recipes to keep our interest in staying on this menu.

Hopefully it'll keep our interest long enough to actually make some real change in our lifestyle.

In other news, winter as arrived in Kuwait and DANG it's cold! It's a very dry kind of cold, and it has really blustered its way into town. Sadly, our apartment has some drafty windows and we have no central heating. We're making do just fine with our little portable radiator the school gave us, but it certainly doesn't make waking up and stepping out onto that tile floor any easier.

However, the cold, dry weather is working WONDERS on my hair!

See?!

Love it!

For those who are wondering, here's a side-by-side comparison of the weather conditions in my two homes as of this morning when I got up to work out. I realize 45F really isn't all THAT cold...but...oh fine feel free to mock my thinned blood!

Vicariously yours,

Featured Photo: You could say it's a little dusty today

This is a shot from our living room balcony. But seriously, y'all, this isn't even as dusty as it's going to get. Today's dust was a bit of a morning surprise, and unlike what we commonly saw in Saudi Arabia, it stuck around all day long. But boy was it a gross, lung-clogging day!

Just so you have a frame of reference, here's the same shot but from a lovely, clear day.

Yuck.

Vicariously yours,

Low Key New Year's in Prague

Despite all the illness and pink eye we've suffered this break, it has been kind of relaxing. The most expensive relaxing vacation ever. We basically paid for airfare and lodging so we could go get sick in Europe.

But yesterday we tried to make up for lost time. We got all dressed up and went to a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant. We had heard all about the fireworks over Prague on New Year's Eve, so we picked a restaurant that overlooked the whole city with a clear view of the river so we wouldn't miss a minute of the show.

It was a very fancy restaurant. They had a pianist and violinist.

The dinner was very very good! We had several courses. It was so fancy that when we looked at the menu I had to look at the Mister and ask, "Do we get to eat all of this, or do we only choose one thing?"

We got to eat all of it.

Including the "poachet pikeperch" with caviar and red beet carpaccio. I wasn't even sure what red beet carpaccio was!

At first the dinner was very awkward because we were one of maybe 3 English-speaking couples in the whole room. We were seated really close to everyone around us, but not close enough to non-awkwardly strike up a conversation with any of them. Eventually we were able to entertain ourselves between courses.

They gave us some cool pseudo costumes to keep ourselves occupied.

Finally it was time for the big fireworks we'd heard so much about! Anyone who has spent a 4th of July with me can attest to my unhealthy love for fireworks shows. So we got our half bottle of Czech sparkling wine and headed outside for the big display.

Turns out, the big fireworks display organized by the city of Prague happens on the night of New Years Day...because the city of Prague doesn't want to compete with this.

It's not an actual fireworks display so much as all the people in Prague (tourists, immigrants, and Czechs alike) just setting off the most elaborate fireworks I have ever seen set off by private citizens! Seriously! I have had MANY a 4th of July in my day and I have NEVER seen people legally setting off fireworks this nice, loud, and dangerous! WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THESE FIREWORKS!?

It was pretty darn cool, though. We could see for miles across the city and into the outskirts of town and it was fireworks as far as the eye could see. It was like little tiny, not-scary volcanoes going off every 400 feet for miles and miles.

Here's a blurry photo of what it looked like. I'm a dedicated blogger.

It was a pretty awesome way to ring in the new year.

We woke up today feeling energized, refreshed and ready to start the new year tackling ALL our resolutions.

I'm just kidding! haha! We literally haven't left the apartment all day. And it's been awesome. Around 5:30 I asked the Mister if we should get dressed and try to find a good place to watch tonight's real fireworks show. We both responded with a resounding, "meh."

Luckily we could see the fireworks from our awesome apartment!

Video can be seen here.

Happy New Year, y'all!

Vicariously yours,

We went to a fairy tale land

This vacation has not gone as planned.

At. all.

Thank goodness we rented an apartment through airbnb. If we had been sick and holed up in a hotel room this whole time, there probably wouldn't be a We anymore. Only one of us would have survived.*

*it would not have been this guy.

We've been following a pretty regular pattern of one day on, one day off. We'll go out and see some sights, and it'll take it all out of me and I'm in bed the whole next day. I should probably take it a little more easy and not go so hard when I am out of bed, I'm determined to see something while on this darn vacation!

So yesterday, the Mister and I met up with the tour guide who showed us around town on our first day in Prague and he drove us south to a medieval village called Cesky Krumlov.

Literally translated, the town name means "Crooked Czech" or "Crooked Bohemian." Kamil, our tour guide, told us that originally there was more to the name that made it mean "Crooked Czech Town" but that was too much to say so it got shortened. The original parts of the village were built as early as the 1200s and a post Communism boom in tourism has helped to bring the old buildings back to their wonderful historic luster. Here are a few photos.

Oh. We stopped by the Budweiser Budvar brewery on the way down. This is where the real Budweiser has been brewed for several hundred years.

The town is built along the southern banks of the Vlata River, which flows north to Prague.

The castle is on the left, the cathedral of St. Vitus is on the right. Two hotties in the middle. amirite? 

This is the lower castle, the oldest part of the castle that got a "facelift" during the Renaissance (ie around the mid 1500s)

All the detailed artwork on the facades of all the buildings was so amazing! The castle was handed down from one wealthy family to the next for hundreds of years. As each family ran out of money, another one would step in and...spend money on parties and entertaining guests till they went broke. It was very Downton Abbey. But in Bohemia.

Behind me is a plague column, built during one of the many plagues to try to ward off the evil spirits that were causing all the deaths. I'm standing in the town square down the hill from the castle.

The upper castle is on the hill behind the Mister. Tchotchkes and quaint buildings are  featured as well.

One of the families built this elaborate passageway to connect the lower castle to the new theater in the upper castle some time in the 1600s.

One of the perks of staying in a fully functional apartment? You get to burn cook your own dinner after a long, cold day of sightseeing! 

The Mister was down for the count today, complaining of the same ails I had at the beginning of our adventure (minus the pink eye), so we didn't go anywhere today. Tomorrow's goal: leave the apartment.

...If we can accomplish that we're going to try to see the Prague castle, visit a museum or two, and find me some shoes for New Year's Eve!

Here's hopin'!

Vicariously yours,

Chillin' and illin' in the Czech Republic

Yeah...that post title is pretty darn bad. My apologies.

So the Mister and I are finally on Christmas break! After two Christmases spent in Saudi--one working, one sitting around the house awkwardly until our families were awake enough to Skype us--we now work in a school that observes an American school calendar. It is SO nice!

We considered going home, especially since my aunt was diagnosed with cancer this fall, but decided to spend half the money and go to Prague instead. I have had my butt kicked this semester with learning the new curriculum, re-adjusting to teaching 6th grade again, and just transitioning into a new country and school. I needed this break like whoa.

So it only stands to reason that I get sick as a dog not 24 hours after we touch down in the Czech Republic. I think most of my ails are due to the onslaught of tree pollen and allergens that just don't exist in Kuwait. My sinuses are angry at me. The entire right side of my face is blocked up tighter than an LA highway at rush hour.

Adding insult to injury, I got something in my eye yesterday as the Mister and I was out for some sightseeing and as I swept it out of my eye, I must have introduced some sort of nasty pathogen which decided to fester itself in my eyeball overnight. I woke up to my left eye being crusted shut and all kindsa redness and inflammation.

WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS!?

My misery has been compounded by the fact that all pharmacies have been closed until today because of the Christmas holiday and there are no over the counter medications sold in grocery stores or mini-marts. So I haven't had any ibuprophen, no Claritin, NOTHIN' to try to ease my pain!

Fast forward to this afternoon. I decided that this eye nastiness wasn't going to work itself out pleasantly, so I found out where the nearest eye clinic was and decided to venture out.

Hard to tell, but that's one red eye on the right there.

I found the address, packed myself up with my passport and some money and hopped a cab.

Don't worry, Moms. The Mister came with me. He kicked some serious Angry Birds butt the whole way there.

We got dropped off at this unassuming building on a side street. No ambulance bay, no big blue signs with a bold H to indicate this was a hospital. I never would have imagined it was a medical facility. Thankfully there was a nice lady at the information desk as we entered the complex. I pointed to my red inflamed eye and she said, "Ah." followed by a string of Czech. She got a map of the hospital, circled what I assumed was the eye clinic and wrote down what I assumed was an office number.

Apparently we look Italian. She gave us the Italian map of the hospital instead of the English version.

We made our way to the "ocini klinika", only to find that the information desk in that wing was closed. We were greeted instead by tiled hallways and LOTS of Czech signs. This place looked unlike any hospital I had ever been to. First of all there were no people! We saw a few cleaning staff popping in and out of closets, but no nurses station, no "Dr. So-and-So, please report to room such-and-such" over the loud speakers. No other patients that we could see. It was odd.

The information desk for the eye clinic is on the right; that wooden inset past the double doors.

Eventually a kind man must have read the helplessness on my face and took mercy on me. I pointed to my eye, he said, "Ah. Come." and I followed him to a yellow room. A nurse happened to be coming out of a door, he explained something to her in Czech, pointed to me, I pointed to my eye, and she pointed to a chair.

...alright. We were getting somewhere.

At this point I had no idea that I was actually sitting in the waiting room do a doctor's office.

There he is again. Killing those pigs. That white door led to the doctor's office.

The nurse came out and asked for my passport and my insurance card. When she saw that I wasn't an EU citizen she shrugged and said, "Ah. Will pay cash." That wasn't a problem. She took me back and I met with a very nice doctor and his student. They inspected my eye and he wrote me a prescription. The doctor decided that I had an "infection from some garbage from the window."

Translation: something had gotten blown into my eye and it had caused an infection.

He wrote me "a recipe" for antibiotic drops. I paid the kind nurse CZK 516 ($27.21) and headed to the pharmacy near the hospital entrance. I hadn't realized that the 516 covered the doctor's visit AND the prescription! I picked up a box of ibuprophen with my eye drops and paid another CZK 198 ($10.44) and was on my way.

At the end of it all, I had spent just over double the taxi fare to visit a medical professional and pick up a prescription! Dang! There might be something to this whole socialized medicine thing after all!

We got back to our apartment a little while ago. I picked up some dinner..

washed down with a dessert of Oreos, obviously...

 ...and now the Mister and I are resting up before an early morning visiting a UNESCO world heritage site tomorrow. Many more pictures and stories to come, I'm sure.

Vicariously yours,