Czech visa

Now that I’ve been back in the US for almost two months, I have confirmed that I do indeed enjoy dividing my time between Asheville and Prague, with each offering various highlights and advantages. Why choose just one?? It’s the best of both worlds. I admittedly at times feel a bit discombobulated from living two […]

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Intensive Czech Course, Week 6

Because of multiple Czech holidays during my stay in Prague, the six-week course (30 days) actually takes seven weeks to complete. So my final four days are next week, finishing on Thursday, May 15. At this point, I’m very ready for it to end, but I can certainly see it through. At the same time, […]

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Intensive Czech Course, Week 5

Above is a bonfire, not a dumpster fire, though sometimes my brain feels like a dumpster fire during the course. But I’m definitely on the home stretch now. I’ve been vacillating between considering signing up for the next course, and then wishing it could all please just be over with. My leaning often changes daily, […]

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Intensive Czech Course, Week 4

60% done now – 18 out of 30 sessions completed! It continues to amaze me how much we learn each day, and how the more I learn, the more complex Czech seems. In class on Friday I just had to chuckle aloud when the teacher showed us all the various word ending changes and rules […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Konec (The End)

So this is it, the final post for the nine-week trip around Central/Eastern Europe and Portugal. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them, and thank you for following along on this adventure! I’m signing off for now, though perhaps I’ll come back to this blog one day […]

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