Intensive Czech Course, Week 3

Happy Easter! Or Hezké Velikonoce! I hope you have a great holiday weekend. I’m quite pleased to have both Friday and Monday off from class – I really feel like I need a break! On the other hand it means that I’m not yet halfway through the course, not until Tuesday afternoon. Another student and […]

Intensive Czech Course, Week 2

Whew, 33% done with the course! “Intensive” is an apt descriptor for this immersion course. Thinking about it, the course is 150 hours of instruction time, plus about 50 hours of study and homework time, so ~200 hours total of Czech language focus. And yet… Czech is so difficult that even that amount of dedication […]

Strč prst skrz krk

Not all those who wander are lost in translation, but I find myself doing exactly that lately. In these past days I often catch myself traveling around in public while mumbling and whispering the dozens of easy-to-understand-but-difficult-to-pronounce words I’ve learned during 4.5 hours per day in my first week of intensive Czech language immersion at […]

Revealing Further Japanese Surprises

Japan is a wonderfully unique place, and I very much hope to return one day to explore more. But I’m already technically continuing to explore, albeit from afar, as I watch countless YouTube videos (especially from Abroad in Japan and Paolo from TOKYO) about Japanese culture and days in the lives of Japanese workers of […]

Seoul Searching

Because Ben and I traveled all the way to Japan, quite a far distance from NC, we had decided to also fit in a side trip to South Korea. After visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, we flew to Seoul for a four-night visit before returning to Tokyo to finish up our unforgettable multi-week East Asia […]

From Toilets to Temples: Revealing Japanese Surprises

Never before for this blog have I struggled so mightily to choose from so many options of what to write about for a trip. Japan is such a startlingly unique (and fun) destination, with many unexpected aspects, so I decided to highlight just some of these for you here, and I’ll definitely provide more in […]

Bosnian Excursions

Due to circumstances of my current situation as of this writing, I need to be able to spend additional time in Prague, therefore to not overstay my 90-day tourist entry into the European common visa zone (the Schengen Area), I stayed longer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is not a member state of the Schengen […]

Sarajevo (part 2)

The previous post on Sarajevo described some of the highlights from a visit to Sarajevo, and this current post provides additional insights into this great city, with focus on the Ottoman side and on the annual Sarajevo film festival, which was coincidentally finishing up during my visit. If you plan to visit Sarajevo one day, […]

Sarajevo (part 1)

Of all the new cities I’ve visited in 2024, Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so far has been my favorite (though that very well may change once I visit Japan and South Korea in the autumn). Sarajevo has a rich history and an amalgam of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian influences, making it an engaging and impactful […]

Background Czech

Last stop on this 7.5-week journey?: Prague! It’s been a wonderful visit because I’ve been able to spend so much time with Sofia! We’ve of course had some meals, drinks, and walks together, and we also enjoyed a classical concert and a day trip to Czechia’s second city, Brno, where some American friends of ours […]