Lisa and Taylor went on a Mexican cruise and came back the night before I left for…Thailand! My original plan was to start teaching in South America in January. When I booked my ticket home from Prague, the flight back for a one-way ticket was 35 hours! Just for fun, I looked at round-trip tickets, too. For some reason, the flight back for a round-trip ticket was only 20 hours…and $60 more. But I decided it was worth it, and I would just cancel the flight back. I had a job offer in Chile, but I never felt excited about it. I fasted about it the first Sunday in December…whether to go to Chile, go somewhere else, or maybe stay home (there were a few guys on the radar). That night, I still hadn't received much of an answer, when I got a call from an old friend. We talked about our recent travels, and where we were planning on next. I told him I was planning on Chile, and him, Thailand. He started talking about Thailand…how cheap it is, how kind the people are, how beautiful it is. I started getting that really exciting, I'm-about-to-do-something-insane feeling…and there it was, my answer! Since I already had that ticket back to Prague, I just needed a ticket from Prague to Bangkok (which was $400 as opposed to the $1100 ticket it would have taken to get to Chile). I also realized that it's a quick flight to the Philippines, which is where my mom currently lives, and to Beijing, where my brother lives.
I started applying for jobs in Thailand, mostly around Bangkok, and I had a few interviews over Skype. The first position I interviewed for sounded really great! Until I looked up where my ward (for church) would be and realized there wasn't one within a 300 mile radius. So that wasn't going to work. The second sounded ok, until the guy interviewing me told me he would be honest with me, the town was known for sex tourism. So a no go there. I set up a few actual interviews for when I got to Thailand, but nothing set in stone. Basically, I booked my ticket on a wing and a prayer!
I scheduled about a week in Prague, during which I was planning to visit friends, see the sights, and visit some nearby towns that I never had time to see during my course. I arrived the morning of December 31, just in time for New Years' Eve. I went to a party, but left early before drunk drivers hit the road and the fireworks completely exploded (fireworks are an irrational fear of mine). The next day, I wandered around Prague with the girls I was staying with. We went up the Powder Tower and got some gorgeous shots of Prague at sunset. I only had my phone, which has a really crappy camera, but they still turned out pretty :)
After sunset, we went to the Christmas market! The Prague Christmas market is one of the best in the world and I was so excited I got to see it! It was very lovely, even if I was quite jet-lagged!
The third day in Prague…wipeout. I got a really awful, horrible cold! I was on the couch for 5 days straight. Finally, my last day in Prague, I felt well enough to get out and visit Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora is famous for it's Bone Church, a church decorated by actual human bones.
After I saw the church, I visited an information center, and the woman told me I simply had to see the other churches in Kutna Hora. I had time, so I did the trek. It started snowing…snow adds a magical element to Europe I've never experienced.
The next morning, I left on an early flight headed for Thailand! I did stop for a seven-hour layover in Frankfurt, though. I kept asking people what I should see while I was there, and the most I got out of anyone was to go to the city center and shop. So I mostly wandered around and took pictures. It was a pretty rainy and dreary day, though :(
