The One Where I got Married and moved back to the States
I am a resident of the old U.S. of A again! Alright, so I am a reluctant resident. I had a wonderful summer! Stephen and I were married on July 5th. Our immediate families were in attendance. The week before was alternately very hot and really rainy, so we were concerned about our outdoor, garden wedding, but the weather was beautiful! It was in the 80s and a bit cloudy so it was just perfect! The week was filled with visits to castles, touring the city, Stephen's family seeing the village where he lived for 2 years, food, and, of course, beer. We also managed to have bachelor/bachelorette parties on the Thursday before. They wre fairly low-key, with both Stephen's and my mom attending my party - actually they were the life of the party! They sang more karaoke and danced harder than any of us "younger" girls. It was a fun celebration.
The day of the wedding went so fast - I wish I could have preserved every moment! I got made-up and dressed, Starbucks in hand, at our parents' hotel/apartments. Laura Bazyn and I hauled ourselves, our coffees, and all the flowers on a tram from my house - getting strange looks and knowing smiles the whole way. Someone even offered to buy our flowers.
The wedding was perfect. I was a nervous wreck, crying when Stephen said his vows, but pulling it together enough to say mine. ;-) We had a fantastic turn out of friends as well. A few people from Budapest came up, a LOT of students, and the ESI crowd was there too! I think it was a bit bigger crowd than the garden was meant to hold! The location was phenomenal though! It's a UNESCO heritage site - a beautifully retored historical garden near the palaces on the Mala Strana, "the small side," of Prague. We took lots of photos, some with guests (see below)both there and in the city. We crossed the Charles Bridge, danced on it to a Dixie land band, and took more photos from our favorite spot south of the Charles Bridge - also one of the first places we kissed in the city on New Years Eve two years ago!
Our reception went off well, if not without problems. The air-conditioning was "on," but not good. Our dads ended up buying fans which worked well until the power completely went out about 2 hours in! We spent the rest of the time chatting with people outside the reception hall or out on the street, even making a brief appearance at a student concert - my favorite Ska band, Skalena Treska, in the basement of our reception restaurant. They congratulated us from the stage. At the end of the night, our friends ushered us into a waiting taxi which took us to our surprise - a five-star hotel! They bought it for us for two nights! What a fantastic treat to finish the perfect day!
Of course, as is our custom, we spent the next morning in Bohemia Bagel. It was my birthday request. ;-) It was a bittersweet day - a fun beginning to our honeymoon and also lots of sad goobyes to many friends!
We flew to Italy the following day and spent a week galavanting around the Amalfi Coast and Rome. We saw Pompeii (too hot and dusty to really be worth it) and Naples, one of the dirtier cities in Italy!!! Sorrento (where we stayed in a renovated church building right on th edge of the sea) was gorgeous, situated on a rocky coast of cliffs, steep walkways to the sea, and lemon groves everywhere. Sometimes the scent just floated around you. My favorite day on the peninsula was the day spend in Positano and the Amalfi coast. I wouldn't recommend staying there - WAY too expensive - but we took a ferry around the coast and loved the city set into cliffs, overlooking the Mediterranean. It was breathtaking, as was the walk to the bus top! Yikes - those hills leave San Francisco looking like a flat South Dakotan plain! We spent a few days in Rome too - HOT days! Thank God we had great AC in our room though! We visited a few of our favorite sites (San Eustachio's espresso and the Pantheon for me!) and a few sites from a favorite movie - Roman Holiday. As Stephen and I both love Audrey Hepburn, we saw a few key places where she stood - though not all, thanks to the oppressive heat.
The rest of the summ was made up of goodbyes to Czech friends, receptions in Illinois and Wyoming so we could celebrate with extended families and our American friends, and finally, this move to South Carolina.
I have been a bit shocked at the friendliness of people here! Wyoming is a friendly place, but it has nothing on this place! Ah- Southern Hospitality! It's especially a shock coming from Central Europe where people are less...open and friendly with strangers. ;-)
I have a new job - one I have been threatening to get for years, probably to the chagrin of my parents, who stood by me supportively while I got my degree, and to my husband, who will be relying on my financial income to help support us this year! I am a Starbucks barista! Yes, I joined the rank and file of those coffee brewers known worldwide for their consistency and friendliness (even in Prague!) So far I really like it!
I have been having a hard time with a few things. The first is that I am not doing a "worthwhile"job anymore. I used to live in Europe and teach English - interesting and useful, right? Well, my pride is being tested here! This is most painful when telling Stephen's colleagues what I do. I feel a need to follow the introduction with "I chose to work there! It's not that I don't have an education or that I can't get a job elsewhere." Yikes...gotta work on that.
The second struggle I have is a basic human need, but one I feel especially bereft of after my experience of the last three years - friends. I need people. I am a people person! I want girl-friends, in whom I can confide secrets. I want colleagues who understand the problems I face. I want interesting people around me who can make me laugh, who will laugh at my stories, and people I can count on in good and bad times. I have been extraordinarily lucky in this department for years! When I was in the U.S., I had long-term friends - people I had cultivated friendships with for years and with whom I felt infinitely comfortable. We could have an easy dinner party, watch So I Married An Axe Murderer, or just lie around the house, watching LOST and eating ice cream!
Then I found this great organization, ESI. Both in Pasedena for traning, and in Prague, I met some of the most high-quality people I have ever known, as my friend The Great Scott Adams predicted I would! I found an easy rapport with these people. We had things in common, such as a love (or tolerance for some of them) for teaching, a love of the Czech Republic and our faith. Some were quite similar to me and I struck up instant friendships with them. We knew right away we could have a great connection. Some were as different from me as I could imagine! In some cases, these friendships took a few years to develop - students who warmed up to me after awhile, some becoming people I lan to keep in touch with for a long time. And some were people I grew to love. We might or might not have had anything in common politically, religiously, culturally, or otherwise, but being brought together by common circumstances, we found or formed deep bonds. And now, I have my best friend, Stephen, but no others to sharpen me, listen to me over a cup of coffee, etc... Thank God for email and cell phones so I can keep those old friends! It is hard though.
And my most recent struggle has been localized to this week. The newbies in Pasedena are heading to the Czech Republic, as are the returning teachers, mostly either yesterday, today or tomorrow. I am really having a hard time both handing over that baton to people I don't know and with feeling covetous of the experienc they are about to have. I really miss the Czech Republic! I miss the beauty and the history of the city, the culture, the customs, and even the language!!! (Now THAT is shocking!) I "know" that I am in a different place in my life now and I am happy, but I long for the comfortable, the familiar, the routine that I know.
So, that's been my summer - an amalgam of the best parts of life and the some of the sadder parts, leaving places and friends that you love. (Sighhh...)
I'm getting married to my best friend!
That's right - Stephen proposed to me over Christmas! He flew to Wyoming and surprised me - just showed up on my doorstep. It was super-romantic! I hadn't seen him in 4 months, so I was absolutely stunned to see him. He gave me just enough time to recover from just seeing him standing there and he dropped to one knee. Of course I said yes! So we're planning a wedding in Prague, in July! I know that isn't convenient for any of you, but we will have receptions back home - we're having one on July...19th? in Illinois, where Stephen is from, and on July 26th in Wyoming/SD (somewhere between Gillette and Rapid City). ;-)
So...if anyone is up to either coming to Central Europe for a wedding or coming to Gillette or Urbana, IL, you're welcome!
The rest of my Christmas vacation was split between Wyoming and Illinois. In Upton, I saw my family. We had a lot of fun! It was great having Danielle and the girls at Mom and Dad's house. We could all just relax and hang out together. It's always hard to see people and enjoy them without feeling like I am rushing to the next person. Yeesh!
In Illinois, i had a bit of downtime, but we spent a lot of time getting pre-wedding stuff done. It was a bit crazy, but I had so much fun being with Stephen and his family!
in mouring...sort of
It's interesting not having a camera...I have seen lots of things in the last few days that I wish I could capture on film. I saw my students practicing an AMAZING dance yesterday in our gym that I want to record when they preform it at our formal ball next week. I saw the first snowfall of the year over the weekend! It was so beautiful and we were in the mountains. Today, some students made a snow"Shrek" outside, which I would like to have captured on digital "film" because they destroyed it about 20 minutes later. We had an amazing talent show at our Thanksgiving retreat last weekend and I would have like to record some of THOSE moments...whether for the memories or for blackmailing purposes - either way!
This is not a cry for sympathy, just me...mourning the loss of my little camera. Thanks for being there for me for 1 and a half years, little buddy...wherever you are!
The one where I got robbed...
I had an interesting weekend! i was getting used to being back, into a rhythm of talking to Stephen just the right amount of times per week (it's 7, by the way). We had agreed to have our Central Administrators meeting with ESI in Budapest - yay! That means going to the baths, cafes, and seeing our Slovakian and Hungarian friends! Well, two hours into it, Ben and I realize that we BOTH forgot our passports at home! That was going to be my big news for the weekend - that my pride had been knocked down. I had always thought i wouldn't do something so, well... so obviously dumb, right? Well...anyway, we went home (2 hours each way!) and the next train out was 7 hours later at 11 p.m. Night trains from Budapest are notorious for not being completely safe from thieves - ask Matt Smith! So I went through my backpack and unloaded a few pricey things, like my camera, so they wouldn't get stolen. My camera, I laid on my bed under a towel, near some Slovak money, which I thought I probably wouldn't use anyway.
We caught our night train, someone DID try to take my backpack, but Ben woke up and the guy just left. We got to Budapest at about 8 a.m., had our meeting all day, went to the thermal baths, and headed to a friend's house for a short night's sleep. The next morning,bright and early, we got back on the train. Ick - 9 hours on a night train, 25 hours in Budapest, 7 hours back. What a weekend!
So you can imagine my state of mind when we home to find that our flat had been robbed! Two of our windows, which are normally covered with bars (but had been uncovered all summer when they replaced our windows), were open. What was taken? WEll, among the missing were: the VCR, the DVD player, about 60-70 of Ben and Amy's DVDs (and one of mine that was in the DVD player), Amy's suitcase, and my CAMERA! The money was still thoughtfully left under the towel though! We also found a strange grocery bag filled with my hair dryer, 2 extension cords, and a Pepsi by the open window, as if they'd planned to take them too, but had forgotten or had their hands full. Weird and disconcerting!!!
The police came over about 2 hours later - welcome to Central Europe! It was like CSI for awhile there. They were taking fingerprints, etc...but I really dont' think that they'll find anyone. It was a petty crime, non-violent.
I am somewhat upset about the things - but they are only THINGS! I do want/need a camera, especially when travelling (like on my school trip to Scotland next weekend), but the stuff is replaceable. What I can't shake is the feeling that we're less safe than we were last week. Someone knows how to get into our flat! The school's insurance isn't planning to pay for our things because they could find no damage to the windows. That means that it's actually EASY to get into our flat, which bothers me a great deal! For now, we have to lock all of our doors from the outside so if someone gets into our windows, they'd be locked into that bedroom. We've also had to remove any of our remaining electronics. It just ticks me off that I am not as secure as I was before! I know that in the big picture, this is a small thing, but this changes my lifestyle and how I see people.
Back in Prague!
I am back in the Czech Republic! My summer was eventful so I took the time off from blogging completely. I am back though and want to restart my communication. So, my summer began - wildly enough - in Maui! I flew straight from Prague (with only 4 separate flights!) right to Maui. I would highly recommend the island, and I would NOT recommend travelling that far in one day with that many connections - ever! It was amazing though. I loved the days at the beach, the good food, the company... My mom, my two sisters (Danielle and Britnee) and my Grandma were there. We had a great time which inclluded a luau, a sunset dinner cruise, and many nights on our condo balcony drinking Pina Coladas and chatting...heavenly! But I did miss Stephen, so although Maui was amazing, I had something to look forward to when we returned home! He flew into Rapid City a few hours after we did and spent the next week at my parents' house. He was a great sport - meeting all the relatives (grandparents, a few cousins, and especially the nieces!), my old friends, and getting to know them a bit. The most taxing thing that I think he had to endure was a cattle branding! Yeah...that's right! I will post photos as soon as I have more. I took him to old familiar places like Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, my home church, etc...before we set out for a LONG road trip to California. We did a lot of sight-seeing on the way and when we got to Cali for ESI training, we had a few hot weeks in the non-airconditioned accommodations there. Still, it wasn't nearly as hot as the two previous summers. It was fantastic getting to know the "newbies" and imparting to them our great wisdom and experience - ha! More like telling them horror stories or pitfalls and how to avoid them, if anything...Finally, we said a final goodbye to some good friends who would not be returning to the Czech Republic and headed for Wyoming again. We drove through Vegas, but did NOT get married there. ;-) Stephen had to fly home right after that so I had a few days of visiting people by myself, especially some good friends (the Hills and the Foxes) at a wedding, and by having a girls' night out with friends - some of whom I had lived with, one who lives in Germany but was temporarily home, one who recently moved to Kansas City, and some who were holding down the fort in Gillette - providing a solid home base for those of us who have left and want to visit! It was a great vacation home. Then I said goodbye to all those friends and my family some until Christmas, some for a year or more... I hate goodbyes, especially to a four and eight-year old who ask why I go. That's become a tough question to answer these days. I guess I still feel a calling here - I love the country, the people, my friends, and my life here, but...that won't hold me here indefinitely. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure this is my last year! It's been sad even since I have been back to see things happen or go to places that i may never see again! (sigh)...So anyway, back to the ...past: I flew to Illinois and spent the remainder of my summer holiday with Stephen's family. They were fantastic! They treated me like family. I got to travel to Indianapolis and meet his grandmother and some extended family there too. It was an amazing week - I have only felt more embraced by my own family. I hope to see a LOT more of them in the future. ;-) The hardest thing I have done in years was getting on the plane at the end of that week! And now I am back - updates on my three weeks here will come very, very soon!
;-)
Training itself was filled with exciting moments too, for example this one, wherein we demonstrate the variety of Christian-life with a wonder-invoking performance in what is knwon as the Braveheart skit!
There were old friends to visit, like Arianne and her mom, Amy Smith!
Every now and then, Stephen and I managed to find a few minutes to ourselves to go sit in Starbucks, go shopping for new flip-flops or, like here, just find a few minutes of peace in a park.
Ben, Amy, me, Stephen
This was the last picture the four of us took together on our last night all together ...
:-(
UM...I am not going to even attempt to explain - just know that the guy with horns was our in-field country Director for the last 2 years - Aaron. I'd also like to thank: Laura Bazyn (without whom this little fiasco would certainly never have happened!), Ben, Phoebe (Aaron's wife), Santa Stephen, and me...I'm the little Pooh in the corner.
Stephen and I danced at our alumni dinner at training.
Behind us is the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco...oh, you can't see it though! Apparently the fog races through the city whenever tourists who have just driven 2200 miles come to see it!
This is in San Francisco on the way to training (it's not really my pub!)
We hit a few coffee shops on the way too - and this is my favorite one in the WORLD - the Rimsky Korsakoffee House in Portland, OR...ahhh!
Multnomah Falls - such a romantic spot!
We drove through the Redwood Forest in Northern California - there were some moderately big trees there.
My nieces, Madison and Avery, showing off their hula skills with their souvenirs from Maui
Me, Dani, and Brit at our luau!!!
That's not pineapple! That a frozen chunk of Pina Colada!
I took Stephen to see Mt. Rushmore. It really does look smaller in person - except for Jefferson's nose, right?
This is Britnee, me, Danielle, Grandma Mavis, and my Mom. We're lounging on a rock on a beach on the Western side of maui!
Spam sushi...in a gas station....need I say more?
Me, danielle, and Britnee on our windy cruise.
Mom, me, Dani, and Brit on the front of our boat
Back from Britain
I am back! Our trip to England was LONG! I really enjoyed it - most of it, but it was a long trip. It was 50 thirteen/fourteen year olds on a double-decker bus with and emergency-only toilet! We started out at 8 p.m. from Prague. During the whole trip we stopped about every 2-4 hours to use the restroom and let the kids run around a bit. We drove all night and got to Brussels around 8 a.m. We spent the morning in Brussels and Bruges (like a small Amsterdam!). I really liked Belgium. Then we stayed in a funny little hotel near Calais and crossed the channel to the UK the next morning. Our bus was stopeed and checked ("controlled," the Czechs said) by police on the way to the ferry...we sat there for an hour and a half! Then we missed our ferry so we ended up having to skip Canterbury as one of our stops. Bummer. But we did go to Stonehenge! (One of the biggest henges in the world!) It was eerie and cool, although a little smaller than I'd have thought. We arrived in Barnstaple in North Devon that night. My "host family" was a single woman with a nice sized house! She worked nights and pretty much left me to myself, which was fine, but very different to the other girls' accommodations. I really enjoyed that part of England. It was small-town, but not too far from bigger things. The program for the 10 days was something like this: Classes for 3 hours in the morning (for the kids) and then some excursion in the afternoon. One of our excursions was to Clovelly, a privately-owned village on a steep, steep hill in a beautiful harbour. It had been preserved to victorian times...really gorgeous! One outing was to two cites, one almost directly above the other - another steep hill. Actually, this was more like on rocky cliffs, with a railway connecting them. The other days we went to a farm-themed amusement park, the beach, a pier in a village which has the 2nd highest tide in the world! It was relaxing, mostly. THEN, we went to London on our way home. It coincided with a 25th anniversary celebration of the Falklands War. There was a parade, veterans everywhere. Princes Charles and Andrew supposedly made appearances, but we didn't wee them. Anyway, because of that, it was CRAZY in London, and there we were - trying to herd (i do NOT use that word lightly here!) through the most touristy spots in London. It was insane! We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament ("there it is again kids - Ben Ben Parliament!"), Trafalgar Square (where I saw a woman putting a pigeon into her purse!!!), Picadilly Circus, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, etc.... And then we saw it all again from the London Eye. It was a great day but really stressful! I worried about it all week before that. But we survived and left with the same number of kids we came with! That day the weatehr even cooperated! Shocking. All for now, but it's enough!
31 May
Successful trip to the foreign police (FoPo) = a new visa to work here next year!
We arrived this morning at 6:10 a.m., whihc means we got up at 4:30. When we arrived, Katie asked if we had all the right paperwork at the information desk (which is a BRAND-NEW concept) and the lady told her that if it were her, she wouldn't accept it as enough, but we could wait and see. So we did. After almost 3 hours, we got in and all of us got our Visas! There was one small problem...I had run out of pages in my passport! "How?" you intelligently ask. I only got this passport 2 years ago. Well, lots of little trips to Germany, Hungary, Austria, Poland, etc...last year add up to lots of stamps. The embassy is only open until noon, so I rushed over there - and when I say "rushed," I mean took an hour to go the distance that would probably be a 10 minuite car ride! Then I rushed back to find my visa lady at lunch. I waited, mostly patiently, for her to return and when she did - Presto! I magically had my visa. It's astounding. The old way, you bring your stuff to this tiny dank (yeah, that's right!) office building, where you wait for 6 officers to wait on everyone. If you accidentally got the wrong number, too bad - come back tomorrow and try again! Then you leave your things there, they check them over and give you a paper that says to come back in 30 days! Of course, we're gone for the summer by then, so we have to come back in the fall and basically repeat the process. In the last few months, they've moved, have about 20 officers now who put all the info in the computer (so "goodbye" to some of the old crabby women who used to work there). Some of these people even speak English! It's so much more pleasant.
All in all, a long day, but successful, so it was worth it.
Thus ends my month "committed" to blogging....but I'd be sad to let it go, so I will still attempt to write daily comments. Please keep reading if you're interested! It's been great to hear feedback on some of it. I like knowing that even if we lose touch a bit while I am here, I can still let you know what's going on in my life. Instead of having to coordinate times to be at the phone, I write whenever I have an moment or something to say, and you can read it when it's convenient! Ah...the beauty of the internet.
30 May
Today I am sick. Actually, yesterday I was sick too, which is why I didn't write. I had three classes, so I taught them very mechanically and went straight down to my flat and to bed. Normally, the process is really simple - if you are sick, you call the school and tell them, so they cancel your classes for the day, and you go to the doctor. Always. You don't stay home a few days...you have to go to the doctor! Usually this itself is QUITE an ordeal. SOme doctors, like our school's normal physician, do not speak any English, so describing symptoms is a complicated process. Think gestures combined with body part words, which you prepare ahead of time. Really, I have only been to the doctor once for an illness, so I am lucky. The normal procedure though, is that they write a note for the school saying you have such-and-such disease and have to stay home for ____ days. A week is standard, or you have to go back and get a new note. This is for anything. You have strep throat - a week at home. You have a sinus infection - a week at home. Whatever. So...when you go to the doctor, you have to prepare for that possibility, which is why I am typing this instead of going to a doctor. I do not HAVE a week to sty at home! Tomorrow morning, at about 5 a.m. (oof!) AMy, Katie, Ben, and I will trek off to the foreign police to get our visas for working here next year. My friend Stephanie went today and it only took her 6 hours of sitting in the office before her number was called, and then 2 more hours to run and get the paperwork that she was missing, and get back. Nice, huh? So that's our lovely plan for tomorrow! The next day we leave for a canoeing trip on the Vltava River a few hours away in the beautiful town of Cesky Krumlov (see the movie The Illusionist for views of it, even though they say they are in Vienna). The following week, on Tuesday, I leave on a trip to southern England for two weeks with a bus load of 13 year olds - fun and stressful! So all trhat to say...I don't have time to go to a doctor. I was lucky and my classes were cancelled today, since the kids were on their own canoe trip! So, I slept most of the day, except for a few hours of waking up to watch the season finale of Lost - oh my GOSH! - and now I will head to bed again. Hopefully by tomorrow, the fever and stuffiness will be gone!
28 May
We had our last retreat of the '06-'07 school year! It was nice...sort of. We went to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour east of Prague. It's famous for a church that is decorated with human bones. Eerie! The estimate is that about 40, 000 people's bones are used in that place - wow! I will try to get some pictures and post them too. It was an emotional weekend...sad to see some very good friends for the last time and to have to say goodbye to them, but some good things happened too!
We did a lot of walking and saw three churches, actually... One was made of concrete blocks and was very plain. It was not really open to see, but we peeked inside and saw what was either a skeleton or a mummy! You never know around here! The other church was beautiful on the outside - covered in what looked like gargoyles! Not just on the corners or in "normal" places, but little tiny gargoyles covering all of the peaks and flying buttresses...it was really cool! And, I believe - enough said about the bone church!
Today I had regular classes...when I say "classes," I mean "class." Since my seniors are gone, I really only have about half my regular classload! Today is usually my easiest day anyway, so...only one class for me! I taught grammar! Lovely, yeah? How and when to use articles...wow - can't tell you how exciting THAT is. As an American, given a combination of a public and private school education - I had no idea what the rules were for using articles. Can you explain when you would use the word "the" versus when you'd leave it out? Or when you'd use the article "a/an?" Why do we say The Great Salt Lake, but leave off the article in Lake Erie? Those are the wonderful questions my students ask me. This one went fairly well, mostly because I taught this lesson to 6 classes last year and 3 this year. Most of my grammar lessons are marked by at least one point in the class where I am asked a question, my eyes grow large, and I have to humbly say "...um, I'll have to ask Ms. Byrne and get back to you!"
25 May
Well, Pirates was interesting. I guess if you're a fan, I recommend seeing it, but ... to borrow an ESI phrase "keep your expectations low!" The special effects are phenomenal and the action scenes are shockingly good, but the plot. Well, what do you expect from a series fo films modeled after a Disneyland ride!?!?
Today, we hadthe Maturita ceremonies - one for each class. They were great! The head master gave a short speech, saying that the class was like a bottle of wine - a good year and in about 10 years, after having time to mellow, they'd be a great bottle! It was sweet. The music was good too. One of the boys wrote the words to a spiritual song and a choir sang it. It was amazing and touching...although weird to hear such meaningful words being sung by and listened to by people (most of them) who mean it so little. Overall, it was a great time and kind of sad.
Off to Kutna Hora - to see the bone church...andto present a slideshow that Amy and I made of Stephen. ;-)
24 May
So I just finished Maturita week! I am sorry for not writing this week, but it was absolutely not on my priority list – again, sorry. ;-) No one failed! Not only did no one fail an English exam, but no one failed ANY exams! It’s miraculous…maybe not. We have a fabulous group of kids!
Monday was my easy day – only 3 exams. My biggest complaint that day was the heat! All the rooms are on the south side of the building and they kept the doors closed so it would stay quiet…bad idea for examining 4 nervous kids at a time who are all wearing formal clothes! I decided that this week, I’d be a bit self-indulgent, so Monday I spent the afternoon in the park writing and reading, then to my favorite coffee shop Kava Kava Kava (where Sam Trad’s mom bought be an iced latte). I was craving spicy food, so I got take-out from Tandoor, the Indian place where Stephen and I ate the other night. I got spicy food alright!!! I ordered the Vindaloo (sp??) chicken. Wow! My stomach hurt after eating half and I was sweating pretty badly, so I stopped. Leftovers!
Tuesday – not so easy as yesterday! I had 11 exams today. Basically, you have to go in the room, wait for the student to draw a number out of the official bag, and give them the test materials for the corresponding topic. Then they have 15 minutes at the “sweat table” to prepare. After that, they come to a table where I sit with another English teacher – a witness – and the commissioner of the exams, their class teacher, and other officials. Often the room is also full of their classmates who want to cheer them on or younger students who want a peek at this infamous exam! I prompt them to answer questions and give info about their topic. At the end of 15 minutes, the commissioner will tell us to stop and another student starts speaking. It’s very fast-paced. Today, Stephen came into town and we met for dinner. It was a welcome break at the half-time of the busy week!
Wednesday – a tolerable day. Most of my 10 exams were in the morning. I had plans to go to some friends’ house to watch a movie, but I decided to stay in and relax…so I made dinner and watched a mindless romantic comedy with Katie. It was a nice day…considering! Amy, Zuzana (the new teacher at school who’s living with us for a month) and Katie watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2…in Czech. I had prepped Katie and Amy with the plot of the film beforehand, but I think they were still pretty lost watching it!
Thursday – that’s today! I am done and celebrating. I came down to Kava Kava Kava to do this – after a neglectful week, and because in an hour, the roommates (Amy, Elanor, Zuzana, and Katie – sort of), Sam, her mom, and I will go see the new Pirates movie – before any of you get to see it! Actually I am sure that some theaters in the US open before noon, but that’s about what time it will be on the East Coast when our movie starts. I have been looking forward to this for months! I am not such a huge Pirates fan, but I am even less of a Spiderman or Ninja Turtles fan, and THAT is the film-fodder we have been given to chew lately! It’s enough to give you indigestion. ;-)
Anyway, that’s been my week. Tomorrow we have our final Maturita ceremony at a local monastery and then this weekend is our ESI End of the Year retreat. We’ll take a train to Kutna Hora (the city with the Bone Church). That’ll be our home this weekend. This is my lead-in to an excuse for not writing this weekend. ;-) I’ll try to make it up the next weekend.
19 May
As usual, Bohemia Bagel this morning! We had the addition of the boys' friend from college who was visiting with her family. After a few hours of studying in an internet cafe with Ben and Stephen, we decided we needed a "date night." Stephen and I walked around the city awhile, again scorning tourists. Then we decided to try new Indian restaurant that everyone in our group has tried. Cheap, spicy food...mmmm. It was tasty and the weather was magnificent! We then went back to the flat and took a frisbee to the park nearby. We have this amazing park called "Hvezda" which means "star." The park is long (a kilometer, i think) and full of trees. It looks and feels like you're in the middle of a forest! I love it. It looks spectacular in every season, but fall is my FAVORITE! Anyway, we enjoyed the nice afternoon and evening and Stephen took on the huge task of trying to get me to catch a frisbee! Good luck!
18 May
We had an afternoon in the park today for Maturita students who needed some R&R time. It turned out to be more non-Maturita than Maturita students, but they placyed Ultimate Frisbee with El, ANdrew, Amy, and Katie...while I watched. ;-)
Today I realized that this will be my last weekend to hang out with JUST our "core group," so we went to dinner together. Amy, Ben, Stephen, and me.... It was a little sad! We all have an ESI retreat next weekend, Cesky Krumlov (our annual canoe trip) the next weekend, then I am gone over two weekends to Barnstaple, England. I'll be back by the end of June, but then Sarah, Christie, and others will be visiting...it's slipping away! I have got a FULL/busy year - what's left of it! we had asian food and walked downtown. We wandered the Charles Bride, scorning tourists- which we can do since we live here! ;-) I really love our group! It has been the four of us together from the begining, with Katie and Sam too. I will miss "us." Raise your glasses to the last two years of great memories!
17 May
I think I became a member of a church today. I say "I think" because it was sort of unofficial. There are no membership classes or anything, no doctrinal statements to sign or anything. I just agree that I want some official place in this church body. Last year, I went to a Czech church, but it was translated and I always felt like something got lost. Or maybe I just didn't "get" what the sermons were about. Also, since my Czech is so limited, and was more so back then, I met very few people! After Christmas, I went to a few International churches, trying to find a good fit. Laura, my roomie last year had found Prague Christian Fellowship, so I tried it. by the end of that service, we were on our way to someone's house to have dinner and that is where I made my church home for the last few months of the year. I have said for years that I don't believe that I'll ever find a church where I agree with all of the doctrine and all of the practices in the church, so I look for a place that feels like "home" where you can make relationships with people. That's what church should be right? I would much rather disagree with a church on some minor doctrinal points and find people I love. This is a good group of people and I don't have any serious issues with what is preached there, so...here I am! The choices are pretty limited here! There are two international, Protestant, modern-service type churches that I know of, some smaller Czech churches, an Anglican church (where Elanor goes) and a lot of Catholic churches here. It's worth branching out or even coming out of your comfort zone to find a church here!
So I met with the pastor and his wife today and have agreed to make this my church home.
16 May
I felt like I was in college today! Amy and I spent our afternoon sudying at Bohemia Bagel, drinking bottomless Coke-lights. Mmm. It's been awhile since I have had to memorize information but I certainly need to for next week! This exam we'll give had 25 questions that the kids will rendomly select from. Each question has both a conversational topic and a content-based topic. For example, one combination might be: "Describing Appearance/Personality" and "British Literature through the 17th Century"OR "Peer Pressure and Rebellion" with "Autralian and New Zealand History." It's topics like that - basically a combination of history, literature, or government of Britain, it's Commonwealth countries, the U.S., or the Czech Republic. My worst areas are early and modern Czech history and the literature topics. I didn't read so many "Classics" as I did Pilgrim's Progress in high school.
;-)
Anyway, we studied our brains out today! This weekend will be more of the same.
15 May
We had a pub talk of sorts today for our Maturita students who were studying. Every other week, we meet with any students who want extra English conversation practice. Elanor meets the younger students, who she teaches more often, in a tea shop. Amy, Katie, and I usually meet ours in a pub...one of the things you CAN'T do in America! So usually, it's just random conversation. Tonight we wanted to do a trivia game related to Maturita topics, but ...almost as many "Juniors" as "Seniors" showed up, so that was kind of pointless. Didn't happen. Stephen came with us tonight, which was new! It's interesting to have an outsider's perspective on our pub talks too. Our kids speak pretty good English and are highly motivated most of the time. Even the shy ones open up a bit when they've had a beer. Funny thing, some of their teachers recommend that they have a beer before their Maturita exams. We saw a teacher give a student a shot of some drink last year before her exam! (More things you couldn't do in the U.S.!) It helped enough that the student talked instead of cried. ;-) Don't know that it's a great solution, but...
It's the 15th of the month and, once again, I forgot to remind the people on my CA team to turn in their TMRs. Every month, we all turn in reports to ESI saying how we're doing financially, emotionally, physically, etc... I have to collect 4 and turn them in with mine...except I forget almost every month to remind them! I am not a great CA...
;-)
14 May
So today was my first day without my senior, or Maturita, students. Kind of weird. My schedule will get lighter from here on out, but I'll have to do more substitutions and things like that. Amy and I have decided to spend soem of the week studying...just like the college days!
Today Stephen came up. His roommate, Ben, has been gone all week at a camp in the mountains and has taken his computer with him, so things are pretty quiet in Pribram! We enjoy a mid-week visit...kind of unusual. Katie asked us if we'd be interested in going to a theater performance with her. We saw a Native American/canadian playwright. He primarily writes modern versions of old histories, legends and stories of Native people in North America. He also writes a lot of music for his plays, so the performance was really just a compilation of his songs. An AMAZING singer performed them. She was really fantastic and made the whole thing worth it. A Czech author was also releasing her book there - a comilation and translation of 3 authors of these kinds of stories. Very interesting evening!
13 May
One of my major complaints about living here - one of the FEW! - is the terrible Mexican food! I miss Las Margaritas in Gillette! I know even that may not be authentic Mexican but at least it tastes good. To recount a few Mexican food experiences here: There is Hombres, an expensive place I went to on New years Eve of LAST year with a group of Americans. Not too bad, but definitely ta once-a-year kind of place...just too much money! But at least they use salsa and cheddar cheese, although their fajitas leave a LOT to be desired! Next there is Cantina...also a bit more pricey, not quite as bad as Hombres though.The food is...tolerable, not great - some people even say they hate it. I really, really like their refried beans though - they are black beans and have sort of a smokey, bacon-y, garlicky flavor. But at these prices, I need to learn how to MAKE them! Also there is Picante, which is the fast-food of Mexican in Prague. I have never eaten there and laft without a sick stomach. The fmenu is mostly is fried stuff - greasy and not bad, but spicy and...doesn't like me for some reason. The only benefit - free refills and a variety of salsas. Last we have ...gosh I don't know the name. I Pribram, where the boys live, a new Mexican restaurant opened up last month. We4 were so excited, we rushed right over. While the quesadillas were pretty good, the "salsa" they served was a cross between barbeque sauce and chutney. Weird. Weird on the "enchilada" but not too bad on the chicken wings...that's mexican right?
Anyway, that's my major food complaint. Bring on the Taco Bell! So last night Stephen and I made tortillas and salsa and made or own version of Taco Bells' Mexi-melts. ;-) I have to say...not bad! Threw some tomatoes, onions, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro in the robot and gave it a whirl. We let it sit while we made the tortillas...a long process, so we made extras to freeze at my house! mmmm. We had made these before with a group, so we KIND OF knew what we were doing.
This is the recipe we used, as I said before, from Marianne:
4 cups flour, 1 tsp salt mixed together
Then add 1 T of oil and add between 1 and 1 1/2 cups of BOILING water. Start with the smaller amount of water and add more if needed. This WILL taste like homemade play-doh!;-) So form it into litlle balls and roll them flat. Put in a frying pan on Med heat and flip with then turn white and get a little brown(ours took about 3-5 min each, so we used 2 pans).
We got about 16 tortillas out of this recipe I think. Fantastic! Even last year, it was kind of hard to find tortillas outside of the really big grocery stores. Anyway, these were fantastic. We indulged ourselves and bought some hard-to-find cheddar cheese and mmm....
Church today was good. It was about what you think about. The pastor showed a funny little clip that you can find here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vBn2_ia8zMand asked us "What are you (th)inking about?" Then we got lots of Scriptures instruction us on what we should think about...very nice.
After church, I met with a former CFNI grad! Weird story, but I found a snifer...;-) They weren't at the school when I was, but a few years later.
12 May
Again, I don't have email access sometimes, especially on the weekends or if I don't have my laptop, so sorry this is late. Saturdays here, as I've said, are pretty lazy. On this one, we all woke up late after having been to a student concert last night. Last night, Amy, Ben, Stephen, and I went to this concert - a student band called "Skalena Treska"...which is something to do with a type of fish. It's a ska band, so lots of fun and dancing. They played some of their own songs, both in Czech and English and some familiar ones too. There was a particularly touching moment when the four of us were singing a ska version of "Happy Together." Ha! ;-) Anyway, it was a good time and we left around 11:30 to catch the last regular bus home...night buses start after midnight and don't come very frequently. We waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes with a growing crowd and then Stephen left to go to the bathroom. Then the bus came. I wasn't sure if he was back from his ...venture into the woods, so I debated whether to get on the bus or not. I got on, looked around, asked a few people if they'd seen him and finally decided to get off and wait. As the bus closed its doors and drove on, I saw him waving from the back of the bus, looking really confused! The first night bus came at 1:10...almost an hour and a half later...so, I headed back to the concert/pub and made myself comfortable, playing "table football" and re-telling the story to students, who thought it was pretty ridiculous! The first thing that crossed my mind at the moment I realized I had such a long wait for another bus was...Well, I guess I'll have to drive home! But wait! That's not an option! This was one of the few times I wished I had a car here! most of the time, public transportation is fantastic! Think of all the money you save! You can get anywhere in the city and a three-month pass costs about...65 dollars. Compared to a car payment, insurance, and gas, it's a STEAL! Plus, if you DO have a car here, there's a really good chance it will get stolen. ;-) To wrap this up, I did end up getting home early, splitting a taxi with 2 students who were taking one anyway. Fun night!
Tonight, we are making homemade Mexican food!I'm finally trying out the "robot" to make fresh salsa and even homemade tortillas (recipe courtesy of my friend Marianne in Cheb).
11 May
A few things today:
An update on the exams mentioned last week and an event happening at our school today, which can only be classified as chaos bordering on anarchy.
So last week, I mentioned that the exit exams for all seniors in high school were being reformed. As it currently stands, each school makes their own version of an oral exam, where the students have to speak for 15 minutes and, at the end of it, are given a grade...this is the grade they show universities and carry with them forever. Each school has its own standards, its own questions, and its own grading system. This makes for a VERY subjective exam, based partly on the whims of the teacher, partly on the rules of the school, but judged the same by outsiders. Seems unfair, huh? For example... my school is one of the best in Prague (prob the whole country) and I have have no doubt that some of the kids we teach will be leading this country someday! (My own little bragging moment - sorry!) So at their "Maturita" exam, they get between a 1 and 5 for a grade (1 is the best). If my student gets a 1, he/she is really good! At another school - perhaps a lesser-quality gymnazium (college prep high school), a student can also get a 1, but it's relative to the students in the school. If he/she were to be examined at our school, they might only get a 2 or 3. There is just no objective standard. So universities looking at these scores really have no solid meaning to attach to them. Secondly, there is no standard way to grade between tests even in your own school! On Monday, you might be sick or crabby, giving out lower grades, but on Wednesday, you feel better, get more sleep, or whatever, and your standards might change. We have been improving on this within our school. A few years ago, our head English teacher (and dear friend!), Katie, introduced a grading rubric, giving us some solid criteria with which to give marks. It's a great improvement within our own system, but doesn't solve the larger problem. Last week I mentioned the reforms that are happening though. In 2005, it was decided that NEXT year's seniors would be given a new "standardized" exam. It's slowly coming together, but due to many factors, it's still a work-in-progress. Last Friday, students staged a protest downtown in (famous for other protests)Wenceslas Square against having to implement the new exam so soon. During their protest, the government announced that it would delay the exam for 2 years.
Good points of that decision: Less work to make a whole new exam so soon and to teach it to our seniors. Also, hopefully, there will be less ambiguity as to what will be ON the exam and they'll have some of the kinks worked out.
Bad points: A good thing delayed because it had a few flaws...hopefully it will actually happen! As it stands now, our seniors, for 3 more years, will have this subjective thing still governing their futures!
Okay, second thing to mention today - the "Last Bell": The Maturita exams start in a week and a half and the week before the exams, they have school off to study. So it's the seniors last day of school - the last bell they'll hear! They basically TAKE OVER the school. They play music, spray teachers and otehr students with water...or cheap, old-man cologne like today. They sell food, play games, whatever they want...and it is CHAOS! Right now there's a football (soccer) match going on outside between the seniors and the other classes. I should be watching, but ...here I sit!
One of our favorite classes has a Ska band. They're playing tonight and have invited us, so that's the most exciting part of the weekend - to go watch a few student bands play in a club. ;-)
10 May
Well, ths Salsa turned out pretty well! I used a bit to much Cilantro...typical beginner mistake. The Robot seems to be performing nicely though. My pack back is as well. I definitely needed it since my neck and back were getting so sore I could hardly turn my head!
Yesterday was our final day with our Senior classes. :-( A bit of a sad day, having to say goodbye. I brought coffee and pastries to my first class...only 4 showed up. It relieved a bit of pressure on a crazy day. Thursdays are my busiest anyway with teaching 6 lessons and usually having an English Dept meeting in the middle. Today though, between lessons, I baked a cake for one of my senior classes...dumb idea! Then taught others all day and for my last lesson of the day (my 7th), I brought the cake...again - only 4 people. That's okay - lots of cake for each of us then!
We have a weekly Bible study with the Greater Prague area folk. This week, we looked at Exodus 34...at God's description of himself. It's a cool verse...interesting description. We then debated whether God literally was holding them responsible for sin to the 2nd and 3rd generation in a physical sense, like simple natural consequences, or whether it was more in a spiritual sense - like they were to be punished for their fathers actual sins. And is that how a just God treats us? Someone referred to Jeremiah 31 where it said that there's a day coming when God won't do that, when someone who "eats sour grapes" will suffer for only his part in it, basically (my crazy paraphrase). Is this the new covenant we have or do we still have "generational" punishment for sin? No conclusions were reached... they rarely are! ;-) But it's great to have such thinkers to discuss your opinions and beliefs with. One of the guys brings his Hebrew Bible, so he can help us with original translations...fantastic!
9 May
Today I got a new backpack... yeah that's about as exciting as it got. I have a cheap old backpack I got at the begining of last year at Tesco for about 10 dollars. Fine but my computer is very, very heavy and I inevitable carry around papers to grade in case I have free time. All this has contributed to my back and neck being so sore lately that I can't turn my neck! Anyway...the cheapest solution to this seemed to be to get a new backpack. SO I did. Will let you know if it helps! ;-)
Actually the other thing I am excited about is my birthday present..."Yes," you say "but your birthday was in July!" Right, my friends - my kind roommates told me I could have a food processor as a gift for my B-day last year... all I had to do was pick it out and they'd split the cost. So...about 2 weeks ago I did. Ha! Anyway, I have experimented a few times with my "Robot," which by the way, is a Czech word! It's fun and easy. I made shortcake in it last week for Elanor's bridal shower. Tonight though...Salsa! All I needed today was some beautiful tomatoes, Cilantro (Koriander here - and hard to find!) and jalepenos....no, wait... no jalepenos to be found. What to do? My friend Chrissy said she'd seen them canned - ugh! But after trying my local Delvita supermarket and a few small produce stands with no luck whatsoever, I decided to cave... I bounght the canned guys. (sigh) They can't possibly taste as good, but I'll let you know how my robot works!
8 May
I realized that my books, movies, etc...listed to the right of this are INCREDIBLY out of date! I promise to change them soon. Just please know that I have NOT been reading the same book for thre months now.
This was my last day of the glorious four-day weekend. I usually travel on long weekends. The last one led me to Berlin, which was fantastic. Our fall break is about this long too and we hit Paris with an ultra-cheap discount airline ticket. This time though, it was nice to just relax. Otherwise, it's just like any vacation you've ever taken...you get home and wonder how you could possibly get another four days off just to recouperate! Ah! So all I really did today was catch up on blogging and met friends. Our friends from Ostrava (Kevin, Laura, and Jessica) were in town this weekend, so I met with Stephen, Ben, that group, and Zach for a few hours. We don't see them much, so it's nice to catch up when you can!
Tomorrow will be interesting. We've already turned in grades for our Seniors (Maturants) and they know it, so we'll see how many come to class this week at all! They only have two days of school and then Friday is the "Last Bell," which I'll explain on Friday!
