Winter is coming, along with the Christmas holidays, and for me, my first holidays out of my home country Macedonia. Also, I am having my Christmas for the first time on 25 December, since Macedonian people celebrate the Orthodox one in January. Along with this, this will be my first and last Christmas holidays as an EVS volunteer, so of course I would try and make the most of it.

Case in point, on 28 November, I was happy to be a part of Toulcuv Dvur's traditional Christmas Market, or in Czech, Mikulášský jarmark. The market is an annual event that is visited by people from all over Prague. It offers its visitors several Christmas-y joys, such as quality gifts for the close ones, warm food and drinks, and many types of entertainment, like theatre , dances, live music and workshops.

This year, my participation involved being responsible for a workshop for making a paper devil doll, or Čertik in Czech. Kids from all ages were constantly coming to my table and my task was to explain them the process and to guide them in order to create the perfect Čertik. It goes without saying that due to my very unsatisfactory (for me) knowledge of Czech language, my workshop sometimes wasn't going as smooth as I wanted. Still, the good thing was that I had the help from Lenka, a Czech native speaker who was my partner during the activity.

The day went very fast because for me it is always fun and a pleasure to interact with the local community, and I also had the chance to enjoy the market's roasted chestnuts, gingerbread and buy some gifts. Thus, I am looking forward to the next Toulcak event.

Stay tuned,
Vladimir