Four Thanksgivings and a Christmas Market

A very common question we get here is if we are homesick. This question comes up most frequently during this time of year, especially with Thanksgiving, which obviously is not celebrated in the Czech Republic. And even though Thanksgiving here feels very different than Thanksgiving at home - working a full day on Thanksgiving day being one of the largest differences - we have been blessed with multiple communities who have helped it feel like a time of thankfulness in a place that now feels like home.
This year between October 24 & November 26, we were able to be part of four different Thanksgiving dinners with four different groups here in Prague.

Our first Thanksgiving on October 24 was with our Teach Beyond team (minus 3 people who couldn't be with us). These are all the Americans & Canadians who work with Teach Beyond & live in the Czech Republic.

Next, on November 6-8 we were on a retreat with the ESL teachers who work with Teach Beyond. There are 8 of us Americans who work in Czech & Hungarian schools, and we were able to have some spiritual rest & renewal as well as a delicious Thanksgiving dinner together.

On November 21, our friend Shara hosted and prepared ALL the food for our third Thanksgiving dinner. This meal was especially interesting & wonderful because there were only 4 Americans. The other 8 guests were all Czechs, and for some of them this was their first American Thanksgiving meal ever.

Finally, on Thanksgiving day, we shared a wonderful meal with our Bible study group (and some other friends). Countries represented: Czech Republic, USA, Scotland, Ireland, England, the Netherlands, Singapore, Kuwait, Honduras, and Ghana. It's a constant joy to be a part of such an international community!

Now that it is the first weekend of Advent, this also means that Europe's Christmas markets are in full swing! We were lucky enough to have a friend in from out of town this weekend as an excuse to head down into the touristy areas & soak up the festivities!

Prague's largest Christmas market is in Old Town Square

Our friend (and Teach Beyond teammate) Danielle was able to come to Prague for the Christmas market, so the five of us enjoyed some time in Prague's Old Town Square.

 

We are really looking forward to this Advent season, and our prayers are with all our friends & family as we REJOICE in what this whole season means!

30 Days Where We Live

For the last 30(ish) days, Brittany has been doing an Instagram challenge to take one picture each day showing everyday life where she lives. We thought we'd share that on here to give people a better idea of what our day-to-day lives look like here. So mostly you'll see a lot of school & public transportation :) Enjoy!

Day One: The view from our balcony

Day Two: Our local pošta (post office) - so if you ever get mail from us, it comes from here!

Day Three: 12 Czech weirdos led by 2 American weirdos = English Drama Club. Love it!

Day Four: The lane between our school & the metro. Beautiful on a wet fall day!

Day Five: Behind these willows is our apartment building. So this is literally where we live.

Day Six: Riding the green line metro - it's similar to an underground subway.

Day Seven: Our friendly neighborhood bus stop - about a 2.5 minute walk from our flat. Really all my pictures should be either at school or on/waiting for public transport. That's mostly all we do.

Day Eight: In the grocery store - how we buy our bread all out in the open. If we're lucky, it's fresh and warm. If we're not so lucky, it's been sitting out for a few hours & isn't so fresh and warm. This day we were lucky.

Day Nine: Sunset at the bus stop

Day Ten: Our favorite movie theater!

Day Eleven: Our street sign (and the fence it's on).

Day Twelve: This was on a Sunday afternoon that we spent enjoying some great orchestra music in this beautiful building, The Rudolfinum.

Day Thirteen: Once a week Brittany meets for English lessons with the manager of our local Starbucks. Aside from the obvious perk of making a new friend, she also gets paid in lattes.

Day Fourteen: Out near a favorite restaurant after meeting a friend for coffee & talks of travel.

Day Fifteen: Brittany's office at school that she shares with two Czech women who also teach English. Here we have offices instead of our own classrooms, and we change classrooms each period, so it's more like university than US high school.

Day Sixteen: Here we have Jadon at the main door of our apartment building. The window above the door is our bedroom.

Day Seventeen: The teachers' workroom at school. The big gray board in the corner is where schedule changes are listed. Our class schedule changes frequently. The week this was taken there was only one "normal" day. Every other day had at least one class time changed, a new class added, or a class totally cancelled. This took some getting used to, but now it seems totally normal.

Day Eighteen: Part of our walk home from the bus stop.

Day Nineteen: We were outside of Prague one weekend doing a retreat with the other ESL teachers in Central Europe. It was a wonderful time of rest & spiritual renewal!

Day Twenty: Cute little cabins at the retreat center. Beautiful warm, sunny day!

Day Twenty One: Pretty much what every evening looks like. Chicago hockey & kaiser roll garlic bread. Livin' the dream.

Day Twenty Two: The living room. On the left is how we dry our laundry (driers aren't a thing here) & on the right is one corner of our giant full wall book shelf. We are really fancy.

Day Twenty Three: Yellow school, yellow leaves, cloudy day.

Day Twenty Four: One of the best things about European living is the abundance of cafes. Spent some time relaxing at one before drama club last week.

Day Twenty Five: How we get around. To get to school we take a bus (bottom) two stops & then a tram (top) two stops. But the day this was taken we went two other places, so all together we ended up riding 4 buses & 3 trams.

Day Twenty Six: Christmas has come! Since there's obviously no Thanksgiving here, they're not skipping over any holidays, but it's still hard to believe Christmas is so soon! (This picture is of a mall.)

Day Twenty Seven: Always enjoy the services at our church here in Prague, Faith Community Church.

Day Twenty Eight: Three days a week we teach until 5:00pm, and it's always a bummer when you're still at school for the sunset, but at least it's a pretty view!

Day Twenty Nine: The Czech flag is not displayed nearly as often as the US flag, but November 17 was a state holiday. No work, no school, & flags on the trams. (Plus, as you can see, it was a very windy day.)

Day Thirty: We actually live pretty far from the center of Prague (which is why you haven't seen it in any of these pictures), and we usually only go to Old Town when we have visitors, but I thought I'd end with an iconic Prague picture. This is the national museum & St. Wenceslas on his horse in Wenceslas Square.

Now come visit Prague & you can see all this great stuff for yourself!

Christmas Cards

Hello Everyone!

We cannot believe how quickly Christmas is approaching!
Like last year, we would love to receive your Christmas cards this holiday! It was a fantastic way for us to feel more connected to friends & family last holiday season. We get our mail at school, so for us to have your cards before Christmas, they need to be mailed by early December. But if they are late, we will just as gladly open them in January :D

Here is our address if you need it:
Jadon & Brittany Huddleston
Gymnazium
Arabska 14
Praha 6 160 00
Czech Republic

Sorry we've been delinquent with our posts on here. We're hoping to get a few more up in the next couple weeks.