Czech This Out

The one where Stacy left…

The one where Stacy left…
Well, it’s been an interesting year so far! I am about two months into it and it seems like a completely different experience! Last year, we arrived and everything was scary but exciting. I didn’t know any of the language, the culture was unfamiliar, transportation was a big scary thing to learn, and I spent a good portion of the first few months just trying to gain a feeling of independence. And all of that didn’t even TOUCH the experience of teaching high school students – the planning, learning about 120 unfamiliar names, grading papers, etc… But at the same time, everything was novel and exciting. I loved finding a new route to a familiar place or finding new paces to eat, hang out, use free WiFi or whatever. This year has been significantly different.
I started out a little frustrated because I went from excitement at returning to culture shock in less than 2 or 3 days. I found myself upset at little things that had been so easy to take when I left in June, like not being able to find a public bathroom, not getting eye contact from people or not knowing enough of the language to really survive even a small conversation. I spent weeks just readjusting to what had become comfortable a few months earlier! Plus I felt that I lacked the anticipation of teaching that I had had last year. Even though that was scary, I really looked forward to it, and at the beginning of this year, I did NOT look forward to it. Then I started noticing the advantages:
It’s been easier, for sure! The job is familiar; all of my lessons are repeats from last year, so I just need to tweak them or change what didn’t work last year. The things that baffled me last year – transportation, money, etc… were taken care of. I knew most of my students’ names! I had a set of homey-type places where could retreat if I needed alone time … or WiFi time. Overall, it’s been an easier year, with less highs and lows, emotionally.
The one big exception to this has come in the last few weeks. Our roommate, Stacy, decided that this wasn’t the best place for her to be right now, so she went home. Thank God that I still have two other roommates and an amazing team to provide support, but it’s still been a difficult loss, both to our flat and to the ESI Central Europe team as a whole. I don’t think that we will get a replacement teammate because her school has already hired someone to take her place. The Czech team lost another teacher 2 weeks before Stacy, so this hasn’t been the first blow to the group, but this one was a little more personal to me. Stacy and I got along very well and I will REALY miss her friendship and fun personality around the house!
As far as the other 2 girls go …. Elanor got engaged to Andrew, a teacher in a nearby town, 2 weeks ago, so that was exciting news. Amy is my rock. She’s my support and I hope I am hers. It’s been nice to have that carry-over from last year so that not EVERYTHING has been new! Oh, and Katie is still here, of course! She’s the other American who teaches at our school and lives next door to us. She’s practically the 5th…uh 4th roommate anyway! I know the last year and a half would have been miserable without her! I can’t remember not knowing these girls!
The team hasn’t only suffered losses of people either. Actually, in our net total, we’re up by one! That’s because three families have gained a new person this fall! Amy and Matt Smith had a baby girl right after I came back, Matt and Jenny Thomas have adopted a wonderful 20 month old little girl, and Aaron and Phoebe Williams had a baby boy almost 3 weeks ago! Exciting additions to the team. As soon as we can get them teaching, we’ll be set!
Anyway, in summary, I have really enjoyed the year! I’ve gotten out of Prague a bit more - I have already spent more time in Pribram, a town near Prague where Ben and Stephen live, than I did all of last year. There we went on a hike to Slivice, the site of the last battle of WW II here. The city also had a bit more of … “ the nature”? than Prague (they have a holy mountain!), so the fall colors were beautiful!
In October, I was in Bratislava, Slovakia to stay with ESI teachers there. I would highly recommend the city to anyone as they have a café with the best hot chocolate I have EVER had! And it’s a nice place, of course.
I've also been to Ostrava, a Czech city on the border of Poland. The teachers there work with an amazing community of people in their Christian-run school. We even had a “Thanksgiving” dinner with them in the mountains – fantastic! Ostrava is just a really cool place with my favorite coffee shop in all of the Czech Republic and a street called “Stodolni,” which supposedly boast 100 pubs. It’s interesting!
This weekend, we have a state holiday so I am planning a trip to Berlin with the boys. It was a place on my “to see” list for this year, so I will be glad to make it.

posted by Kassidee Kennedy @ 6:11 PM