I hate Prague...I love Prague

I just finished my fourth week of teaching, and my 3rd month of living in Prague.
I still haven't gotten a paycheck, but all of my employers swear there is money on the way...
I wish I could say "I'm not in it for the money..." but people who say that usually have a little money saved up...
Everyone gets paid in Prague monthly, but you dont get paid that the end of the month, no no no, you get paid on the 20th of the NEXT month...THE 20TH! I tried asking for an advance, but that isn't going to happen.
I'm down to $200 in my bank account which is not enough for next month's rent...how exciting right?

However, I have created some amazing dishes for dinner though that cost less than 15kc, which is less than $1...
One favorite recipe is;
-2 Packages Instant Soup
-1 Envelope creamy mushroom soup powder.
-Boil water, add 2 ingredients, and BAM!, a feast is made.

I'm glad I bought my flights to Spain and London when I had money, so now I have something to look foward to that is already paid for...


I think it was this week that I "made it" in Prague;
Wednesday I woke up at 6:30AM in my communist high-rise. I missed the bus by about 10 seconds, so I ran to another stop and caught the bus there. The bus was so full of people that the doors could barely close, but I just mumbled "prominte" and "pardon" ("i'm sorry" and "excuse me") and squeezed onto the bus. It's only 3 stops to the Metro station, but in the morning traffic it took forever, and the bus kept starting and stopping, which caused everyone on the bus to bump into eachother. i have given up on having personal space. which is hard to do at 7AM.
upon arriving at the metro station everyone filed out of the bus as quickly as they could and we all started herding into the station. I made it about 10 meters into the station when I heard a metro train approaching on the platform downstairs. Next thing you know, I am in a full out sprint with 100's of miserable Czech commuters all trying to get onto the metro train before it leaves. The only problem was, you couldn't tell which direction the train was going...but we ran anyhow. Sometimes you run and run, just to realize that the metro you are running towards is the wrong one, so you end up standing on the platform for 5 minutes anyhow. But this time I was lucky and it was the right train for me and I got on just as the doors were closing.
Then, like a real Czech person, I fell asleep on the metro. What a glorious feeling. Being squeezed in between two strangers, but still falling asleep. I woke up just in time to switch to the yellow line, which is an event in itself which involves two escalators and two flights of stairs, all at a very brisk pace.
I finally got to the Radlicka metro stop where I teach at CSOB bank, used my entry card to get through the security checkpoint and found my way up to the classroom. And I was 1 minute early...

---

---