Month in Review: November 2019
It’s time for my monthly review and roundup post. So without further ado, here’s the month in review for November 2019! (How is 2019 almost over!?!) In case you missed it, here are my monthly recaps for June, July, August, September and October!
Travels
This month we went to…
- Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
- Naples, Italy
- Rome, Italy
Highlights
November has been a pretty amazing month! We started it off with a few nights in Cesky Krumlov, an adorable medieval town in the Czech Republic, just a few hours from Prague. This town gets super crowded in the summer but was an awesome spot to visit in the off-season. I’m super excited to write a blog post about our time there!
Back in Prague, we did something totally outside of our bucket list: we took family photos! If you haven’t already, check out our family photos in Prague! We’ve never done a photo shoot before but we had a blast and we now have some beautiful memories of our time in Prague.
And then we ended the month with a week in Naples and Rome! Highlights of Italy include our amazing cooking class with a local family in Naples, a free audio guide we found for exploring Pompeii and parts of Rome, the guided tour of the Colosseum (with gorgeous views from the third level), and, of course, all the delicious pizza, pasta and gelato!
Lowlights
Sadly, a great month still had a few downsides to it. The worst was probably our washer issues in Surrey. Our tenants let us know the washer was making weird noises and many stressful emails, late night phone calls and worried conversations later, we were buying a brand new washer dryer unit for our apartment back in Vancouver.
Another lowlight was the crappy weather we had in Naples. It rained a lot the first few days we were there which made sightseeing pretty unpleasant. But the worst part was that I wore horrible shoes that weren’t waterproof at all and had no traction, so I was slipping everywhere with wet feet!
Lastly, and I know this one might sound kind of silly, but there was an awful episode of Survivor that aired this month. Even if you’re not a Survivor fan (unlike some of us, 39 seasons later), you may have heard about this one in the news. Suffice to say, there was a sexual harassment issue and the show and players handled it really poorly. I really struggled watching that episode and haven’t been back to Survivor since. I think I might be taking the rest of this season off.
Posts from this month
Here’s what was published on Teaspoon of Adventure this month. If you missed any of my posts, click below to read them (and add your email to the subscribe box on the right or at the end of the page so you don’t miss anymore!).
How to Spend One Day in Cinque Terre
What Is There to Do in Nuremberg?
9 Tips for Oktoberfest on a Budget
How to Spend One Day in Bratislava
Is the New York Cafe in Budapest Worth It?
What I read this month
Below are the books I completed reading this month. If you want to check out my reading and reviews on these books, visit the Story Highlights on my personal Instagram @rianaautumn.
- The Gifted School
- The Unhoneymooners
- The Psychopath Test
- Red, White & Royal Blue
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Bad Blood
After only finishing two books in October, it was nice to get back on the reading wagon this month with six books finished in November. That might be a new record!
Best reads/listens/watches
Reads: My favourite book of the month was Red, White & Royal Blue. This story was just so cute! Sometimes you need a sweet story with a happy ending and that’s exactly what this novel was. Plus, it was such a refreshing take on a contemporary love story: the First Son of the United States (whose mom is the President) and the Prince of England, fall in love. The First Son is also biracial and from a blended family. Love the diversity and inclusion!
Listens: As much as I hated watching that awful episode of Survivor, I was so impressed by the podcast coverage on it from Rob Has A Podcast (RHAP). I’ve come to depend on Rob and his co-hosts/guests for awesome Survivor coverage when it comes to strategy and fun character moments. But I was so blown away by the intelligent conversations, the thoughtful feedback and the experts Rob invited on the show.
Watches: We watched a couple of old school Julia Roberts movies this month and I forgot how much I loved them! My Best Friend’s Wedding and Notting Hill totally still hold up!
Best and worst meals
Best: November was a great month food-wise! I guess that’s what happens when you travel to Italy. We had amazing pizza in Naples, as well as delicious sfogliatella and all the dishes we made at our cooking class. In Rome we found some amazing pasta and gelato. And even back in Prague, we ate pretty well; Colin made us a delicious mac and cheese, and we found a new Asian restaurant on our street.
Worst: The night we got back from Cesky Krumlov, we ordered some pizza for dinner. And sadly, it was awful! Ingredients were missing, it was cold and the cheese tasted like plastic. Luckily, we made up for it with some great pizza in Naples – stay tuned for a post all about the best places to eat in Naples!
Expat life
One thing I love is all of the opportunities I’ve had this month to share our story! This month I was featured in two blogs and did an interview where I got to share more about our expat year living in Prague. You can check out the blogs here and here.
One thing I hate is being an international landlord. It’s stressful! It’s really hard when you can’t check out problems in person and when you have to try and fix things over email or calls across timezones. I know we’re so lucky to have great tenants and awesome family in Vancouver who can help us out but it’s still no fun dealing with issues that come up when you’re on the other side of the world.
One thing I’m learning is to make the most of our time in Prague. We have a Prague bucket list that we created in June and have been slowly ticking things off. It was awesome to cross our photo shoot off of that list! And we were also in Prague on the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which was very cool to experience.
Gratitude
This month, I’m most grateful for our moms back in Vancouver who helped us fix our landlord issues! As stressful as it is, I’m so thankful that our moms are there to help us.
Coming up next
Christmas Markets! I am a huge Christmas fanatic and am so excited to check out not only the Christmas Markets in Prague but also some in Germany and Austria. Stay tuned for all of the festive details!
What did you get up to this November?