I realize I haven't posted in some time, but today's lunch at my school cafeteria has spurred me to try to get back in the habit. Also, the fact that it's 4:30pm and dark outside (I really don't think I'll ever get the hang of daylight savings time).
Lunch in the cafeteria is often an interesting experience in one way or another. Today I realized that we use actual plates, bowls, knives, spoons and forks. There are no styrofoam trays or sporks to be found (I also jumped on this opportunity to try to explain the spork to the group of teachers I was sitting with...they just kind of giggled and now probably think the US is an even stranger place than they had once believed). This means that the women who work in the lunchroom are constantly engaged in an endless stream of cooking, serving, cleaning, and occasionally reminding me to scan my little keychain chip (the Czech version of a card swipe) when I get distracted by trying to figure out what I'm about to eat. Usually the lunch is infinitely better than anything I was ever served up in a school cafeteria back in the States, but sometimes it's a tad on the unusual side. Today, for example, we had mashed potatoes, and then two hardboiled eggs. Sauce seems to always be the most important part of the meal for Czech people, so we then had a choice of a creamy dill or garlic sauce ladeled generously over the top of it all. It was delicious, if a little heavy on the cholesterol, but something I certainly never would have thought of myself.
I'm finally really getting settled into life here in Ostrava, and into teaching, as well. My lessons are taking me less and less time to prepare, but I think they're getting better and better. I'm getting to know the personalities of my different classes (although, I get a whole new schedule in about a month, so we'll see how settled I feel then). In my classes with students who take their exit exams later this year, I've started to work on essay writing as well. I'm finding that this seems to be one of my strengths as a teacher - I was fortunate to have strong writing teachers in high school and especially at Seattle U, and having paid some attention to the ways they instructed me seems to be paying off. I think the students might be a little annoyed with me at the moment, because having me instruct them in writing means that they're writing a lot more than they otherwise would (practically, it just takes me less time to correct their writing than it does for my Czech co-teachers), they're getting a lot of practice and I'm seeing improvement, especially in their organizational abilities. So yes, teaching is going well. I'm even managing to sneak in the occasional creative writing exercise, borrowed from Sam Green, without them realizing that I'm asking them to put themselves out there and expand the ways that they're used to learning.
Ostrava is rapidly growing on me, something I didn't really expect. My first few trips back to Prague, especially during the first month that I was teaching here in Ostrava, left me feeling fairly nostalgic for my days of study abroad, and also with a sense of not-belonging, or perhaps mis-belonging. From the start, people here seemed to think that I fit in alright. It has taken me awhile to get on board. I'm starting to feel that myself, and I catch myself walking past the tram graveyard near my house (where the trams rest at night), slogging through mushy leaf piles, often carrying my laundry to or from the flat of the other fulbrighter here in Ostrava, and imagining walking the same path 10 years from now when I come back to visit.
I've been surprised by how willing people are to not only take care of me and offer me anything I might need (such as cookies and breads to sample on the train), but to actually genuinely welcome me in their lives. Ostravians have something of a reputation for xenophobia, and I know I look fairly Czech, so that helps, but it's been really...heart-warming? to see how, in the last month, I've been introduced to a lot of people, but I finally feel like some are starting to become friends. Maybe it's all that Czech beer...it'll bring anybody closer together:-)
Ok - overall, a positive post. I'll try to write more frequently so you can hear more of the details, and so I can remember them better later. Now, I'm going to go enjoy the Philadelphia cream cheese I found.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Mustang Sally
I think I ate liver for lunch today. I'm resisting the urge to look up the word that was posted on the lunch menu...
This week has been filled with small difficulties, all of which seem to quickly dissipate once I'm back at my dorm, munching on chocolate and rolls. Nothing to spill milk over (yeah, something I said this week when I was trying to think of the idiom about not crying over spilled milk). Wednesdays are long days for me, which lead into even longer Thursdays. I should really quiet my complaints, though, since my co-teachers have graciously agreed to give me Fridays off.
Cleaning ladies in the Czech Republic (which, I recently read, should more often be called Czechia - Czech Republic was intended to be used only in official documents) are a force to be reckoned with.. Thus, my Wednesday mornings begin when the woman who cleans my residence hall keys into my room, bellows "dobré ráno!" (good morning) and starts vacuuming. That's my queue to get my ass outta bed and in the shower, while she finishes with the carpet and takes out my trash. We've come to some understanding of one another, after last week, when I forgot the word for "to vacuum" (luxovat) and instead mistakenly substituted "žehlit" (to iron). I had to quickly apologize, explain that I was a foreigner, and that yes, I would very much appreciate her cleaning my room. And that no, I was not asking her to do my ironing.
Today was our first session of after-school English club, which are rumored to greatly piss off the women who clean the school, since we take up time in the classrooms after school has let out. There was a pretty good showdown today in Czech (thankfully, while I'm half in charge of the English part of English club, a few Czech teachers attend as well). Otherwise, I think the club is off to a solid start, with about 7 or 8 students in attendance. Since most of the older kids don't finish class until around 4:30 pm, I think I'm also going to start hosting informal sessions at a nearby čajovna, or tea room, after school hours. I have my doubts about how helpful these clubs will be for students trying to practice their english, especially given the extra prep time that it demands on my part.
Tomorrow I'm getting in touch with someone who should be able to give me Czech lessons, however, so I think that may help me be a bit more patient, and feel like I'm putting my time here to good use. I can already see how quickly this year is going to pass, and I don't have a good idea of where I'm headed after (except, of course, up Mt. Rainier). I'm beginning to see how easy it is to turn one year away from school into two. My kids are anxious to know whether or not I'd settle here in Europe...I'm not sure why. They seem to have dificulty understanding why, when I have American citizenship, I'd live somewhere like the Czech Republic.
Aside from these constant naggings, I'm having a blast. Especially in my classes - the kids give me so much energy. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing in one class, when one boy, describing a picture of the Grand Canyon, said "there are a lot of bushes, a lot of George Bushes." When I had them write sentences about why they might like to visit a national park like the Grand Canyon (Mt. Rainier and Killarney were also options), someone else wrote that he'd like to go to the Grand Canyon and see George Bush. Tomorrow I'll be taking on two classes solo, since a few of the teachers will be gone, and it's easier to just have me substitute.
Wish me luck,
Jo
This week has been filled with small difficulties, all of which seem to quickly dissipate once I'm back at my dorm, munching on chocolate and rolls. Nothing to spill milk over (yeah, something I said this week when I was trying to think of the idiom about not crying over spilled milk). Wednesdays are long days for me, which lead into even longer Thursdays. I should really quiet my complaints, though, since my co-teachers have graciously agreed to give me Fridays off.
Cleaning ladies in the Czech Republic (which, I recently read, should more often be called Czechia - Czech Republic was intended to be used only in official documents) are a force to be reckoned with.. Thus, my Wednesday mornings begin when the woman who cleans my residence hall keys into my room, bellows "dobré ráno!" (good morning) and starts vacuuming. That's my queue to get my ass outta bed and in the shower, while she finishes with the carpet and takes out my trash. We've come to some understanding of one another, after last week, when I forgot the word for "to vacuum" (luxovat) and instead mistakenly substituted "žehlit" (to iron). I had to quickly apologize, explain that I was a foreigner, and that yes, I would very much appreciate her cleaning my room. And that no, I was not asking her to do my ironing.
Today was our first session of after-school English club, which are rumored to greatly piss off the women who clean the school, since we take up time in the classrooms after school has let out. There was a pretty good showdown today in Czech (thankfully, while I'm half in charge of the English part of English club, a few Czech teachers attend as well). Otherwise, I think the club is off to a solid start, with about 7 or 8 students in attendance. Since most of the older kids don't finish class until around 4:30 pm, I think I'm also going to start hosting informal sessions at a nearby čajovna, or tea room, after school hours. I have my doubts about how helpful these clubs will be for students trying to practice their english, especially given the extra prep time that it demands on my part.
Tomorrow I'm getting in touch with someone who should be able to give me Czech lessons, however, so I think that may help me be a bit more patient, and feel like I'm putting my time here to good use. I can already see how quickly this year is going to pass, and I don't have a good idea of where I'm headed after (except, of course, up Mt. Rainier). I'm beginning to see how easy it is to turn one year away from school into two. My kids are anxious to know whether or not I'd settle here in Europe...I'm not sure why. They seem to have dificulty understanding why, when I have American citizenship, I'd live somewhere like the Czech Republic.
Aside from these constant naggings, I'm having a blast. Especially in my classes - the kids give me so much energy. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing in one class, when one boy, describing a picture of the Grand Canyon, said "there are a lot of bushes, a lot of George Bushes." When I had them write sentences about why they might like to visit a national park like the Grand Canyon (Mt. Rainier and Killarney were also options), someone else wrote that he'd like to go to the Grand Canyon and see George Bush. Tomorrow I'll be taking on two classes solo, since a few of the teachers will be gone, and it's easier to just have me substitute.
Wish me luck,
Jo
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Midnight train
So I thought I'd add a bit to that last post about the train ride, because the week's adventure certainly didn't end there. Thankfully, my Czech is rapidly improving. After a jaunt from the train station in Ostrava to a nearby tram stop (looking ridiculous with two laptops), the trams seemed to be running terribly infrequently. By that, I mean they seemed to be running not at all. I stared at the yellow sign next to the usual schedule of trams posted at each stop (unusual schedules or any changes are always printed on yellow paper here) before realizing that the trams, in fact, are not running all weekend, and that I needed to try to take a bus back to my dormitory.
Unfortunately, it's been so foggy in Ostrava that I don't know major landmarks very well, and I certainly don't know the streets yet. So after a bit of searching, I found a bus stop and found the number I needed to take. When the next bus pulled up to the station, however, it had (instead of a number) just a picture of a tram. I looked confused enough that the woman next to me explained that this bus was running along the tram lines that had been rerouted. This seemed like good fortune, so I got on, only to be told two stops later that the bus line was terminating a few miles from where I needed to be. More walking and confused looks later, and I finally managed to get a transportation officer to point me in the direction of the bus stop I needed.
So I made it back to my dormitory, and the security guard (one I haven't seen before) didn't believe that I live in the building. To be fair, I didn't exactly look like I belonged - I was wearing my Trinity College Dublin sweatshirt, carrying two laptop bags, and speaking funny-sounding Czech (to him). After I pulled out my key to show him that I really do live here, another woman came out from somewhere. She asked if I lived on the third floor, and when I said yes, she said "oh, ok then. Good." Apparently "3rd floor" is the magic password into the dorm on the weekends...who knew :-)
I had one other Czech language adventure today at the grocery store. I can tell my langauge is improving, lately, because I'm able to fake that I speak Czech for awhile, at least when someone approaches me on the street, in a store, or on a train. Today, a babicka (grandmother) saw me squeezing packets of mozarella cheese, testing for firmness. She'd been staring at the mozarella for awhile, then finally asked me if it was salty cheese. I told her no, that I didn't really think so. She then asked if it was like tvaroh, which is a kind of sweet-ish Czech cheese. So we got into a discussion about how I think tvaroh is kind of sweet, but she really didn't think so. So I described mozarella as being somewhere in between this tvaroh and sliced Edam, the plain, white, hard cheese they sell here. She wanted more information about the texture, which I then described as being closest to korbacky, a cheese that is very salty but shaped something like shoe laces. See the picture (and my yellow bowl, to which I am very attached), here:
I hope she'll be satisfied with my comparison, since the chances of me running into her at the supermarket again are high.
I'm feeling nervous about teaching this week...I think just because I've been away from the kids for over a week, now. I've got a good lesson planned to practice the present simple and present continuous with my 11 yr old students, though, and I hope it'll go over well with the teachers. Wednesday will be my first after-school English club, and I'll be helping run lines with kids who are putting on a non-Shakespearean English version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I hope to choose a book for our after-school book club this week, as well. So far I think that Tuck Everlasting will be a good fit, but I'm accepting suggestions for texts around that skill level.
My research has just turned up that tvaroh cheese is also called quark cheese. Strange.
Unfortunately, it's been so foggy in Ostrava that I don't know major landmarks very well, and I certainly don't know the streets yet. So after a bit of searching, I found a bus stop and found the number I needed to take. When the next bus pulled up to the station, however, it had (instead of a number) just a picture of a tram. I looked confused enough that the woman next to me explained that this bus was running along the tram lines that had been rerouted. This seemed like good fortune, so I got on, only to be told two stops later that the bus line was terminating a few miles from where I needed to be. More walking and confused looks later, and I finally managed to get a transportation officer to point me in the direction of the bus stop I needed.
So I made it back to my dormitory, and the security guard (one I haven't seen before) didn't believe that I live in the building. To be fair, I didn't exactly look like I belonged - I was wearing my Trinity College Dublin sweatshirt, carrying two laptop bags, and speaking funny-sounding Czech (to him). After I pulled out my key to show him that I really do live here, another woman came out from somewhere. She asked if I lived on the third floor, and when I said yes, she said "oh, ok then. Good." Apparently "3rd floor" is the magic password into the dorm on the weekends...who knew :-)
I had one other Czech language adventure today at the grocery store. I can tell my langauge is improving, lately, because I'm able to fake that I speak Czech for awhile, at least when someone approaches me on the street, in a store, or on a train. Today, a babicka (grandmother) saw me squeezing packets of mozarella cheese, testing for firmness. She'd been staring at the mozarella for awhile, then finally asked me if it was salty cheese. I told her no, that I didn't really think so. She then asked if it was like tvaroh, which is a kind of sweet-ish Czech cheese. So we got into a discussion about how I think tvaroh is kind of sweet, but she really didn't think so. So I described mozarella as being somewhere in between this tvaroh and sliced Edam, the plain, white, hard cheese they sell here. She wanted more information about the texture, which I then described as being closest to korbacky, a cheese that is very salty but shaped something like shoe laces. See the picture (and my yellow bowl, to which I am very attached), here:
I hope she'll be satisfied with my comparison, since the chances of me running into her at the supermarket again are high.
I'm feeling nervous about teaching this week...I think just because I've been away from the kids for over a week, now. I've got a good lesson planned to practice the present simple and present continuous with my 11 yr old students, though, and I hope it'll go over well with the teachers. Wednesday will be my first after-school English club, and I'll be helping run lines with kids who are putting on a non-Shakespearean English version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I hope to choose a book for our after-school book club this week, as well. So far I think that Tuck Everlasting will be a good fit, but I'm accepting suggestions for texts around that skill level.
My research has just turned up that tvaroh cheese is also called quark cheese. Strange.
Slip-slidin' away
I’m currently on a train back to Ostrava, annoying the people sitting next to me with nearly incessant click, click, clicking of the keys of my newly borrowed (without a required date of return) laptop. Mine has been on its way out for some time, now, and after somehow managing to erase its own IP address about two weeks ago, will now no longer connect to the internet or play DVDs. So, in a desperate state, I’m now borrowing one with both an English and Czech keyboard, and with a working IP address and DVD player. A friend of mine was remarking on the way that everything seems to run on connections here in the Czech Republic – life is easier when you know people. This situation with my computer has certainly demonstrated the truth of that statement…it’s interesting, to finally start feeling like I do have connections here in the Czech Republic, or, at least, in Prague.
Speaking of connections, I spent the week in Prague for an orientation with the rest of the Fulbrighters in the Czech Republic – teachers, teaching assistants, researchers and students. I hadn’t before realized that so many of us teaching assistants are clustered in northern Moravia, so it was great for us to spend a week together and getting to know one another better. We have another session together in the middle of November with teaching assistants from all over Middle Europe, and we’ll be meeting up in Krakow. There’s also a rumor circulating that our mid-year orientation in Slovakia is when we really get to know one another, since part of the sessions include nude, non-gender-discriminating spa trips.
It was helpful to hear about the experiences of other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants)…while I have certainly received a very warm welcome from my school in Ostrava, there are of course a lot of difficulties being encountered along the way. Namely, the balance between us, the assistants, and the original teacher in the room. American and Czech classrooms tend to be run in different styles, especially where discipline is concerned. So, brainstorming with other people in my position was helpful, and sharing mutual stories and trials was just hilarious. It seems that the male teaching assistants might have it a bit tougher in some senses – girls don’t need to giggle in my classes, and when my students introduced themselves to me individually, none added “making love” to their lists of hobbies.
So much of the week was spent in discussion about the Czech school system, but we also spent a significant amount of time wining and dining with folks from the U.S. Embassy. They’ve both convinced me to take the Foreign Service Test, and made me more concerned that I wouldn’t enjoy the lifestyle of a foreign service officer. I’ll be taking the test in October in Poland, so further updates will follow.
The men who worked for the embassy were, however, great for adding stories to my collection. They mostly shared a few stories about the weekends they were “on duty,” basically, or just filling in for whoever it is that usually receives the call when a U.S. citizen needs assistance. One of my favorite stories was about the American who decided to remove a sword from one of the statues on Charles Bridge. I also really enjoyed hearing from the Consular Officer who used to be stationed in the Cancun area, and received a call from the Mexican government that went something like, “We have one of your gringos, and he broke a really expensive rock.” Turns out a guy was throwing stones around at the Mayan ruins, tossed one a little too far, and it landed on top of another rock, breaking it in half. Thankfully the consular officer was skilled, and he managed to negotiate the price of the broken rock down from $10,000 to $2,000.
I did learn, too, that Obama is close to appointing an ambassador from the US to the Czech Republic, and that the ambassador will be visiting my classes in Ostrava in November. So there are more connections to be made, I suppose.
New words I’ve learned this week:
Řeřicha (watercress) – useless, but difficult to pronounce and therefore a challenge
Bohoužel (regrettably) – useful, but full of vowels that are tricky to keep straight
Well, I’m approaching the land of invasive Spanish slugs, so it’s time for me to sign off. Steven – you recommend killing all the Spanish slugs I come across, but do you have any suggestions for a method? I mentioned the slugs to my co-teachers, and they all said that they have a pair of scissors that they usually use for gardening, and that they cut the slugs in half when they come across them. While gross, I’m somehow drawn to the idea of slug shears.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Turn Around
Ok - so my plan to be faithful to this blog with frequent updates has clearly failed...I'm now settling into life in Ostrava, however, so perhaps I'll have a little more regular time during the week to update.
I wanted to start off this post with a funny anecdote - scoping out places to go for a run in Ostrava, I came across a pretty nice park near where I'm staying. The only downside, I thought, was that people didn't seem to pick up after their dogs with much consistency. So, a small inconvenience, a little gross, but not an insurmountable problem by any means. This morning I decided to get up and go for a run. It was raining a bit (though it hasn't stopped since I arrived), so I figured I'd just tough it out and go anyway - dog shit, rain, and all. As I started my jog, I was trying to pay attention to the kinds of trees and plants around me...see what kinds of things I'd never seen before, etc... Well, in the process of this examination, I noticed that what seemed to be dog droppings were actually slugs. A little google-image searching revealed that the culprit was actually...the highly-invasive, non-native Spanish slug. I'd recommend you do a little image searching yourself, since I don't think I can actually post any of the pictures without violating copyright.
Well, since my last post, I have completed my language school and moved to Ostrava. I moved in last Wednesday, but today is actually only my 2nd full day here, since, surprisingly, I ended up back in Prague for three days this weekend. The high school where I teach is currently finishing up last bits of construction from the summer (which includes a lot of new bathrooms and a new shower for teachers), so students are only attending for an hour or two each morning. So, instead of teaching my first week, I had one day of showing up, meeting the teachers, and introducing myself to the principle. I have seven colleagues in the English deapartment, and I've heard there are several other teachers who are fluent in English, so I think I'll definitely have the opportunity for lunchtime conversation. The rest of the week, however, I spent in Prague with one of the classes who will graduate this year. I learned that it's a tradition for all graduating students to make this trip to Prague for 3-4 days, to learn more about their capitol city. I think we toured just about everything there is to tour in Prague - all in Czech, of course, so I had a good chance to practice my listening comprehension. I hope my own (obvious) struggles with learning the language will help them to be less apprehensive about making mistakes in English in front of me.
There are several students, out of the 22 that I met this weekend, that now seem to have little fear of speaking with me. I spent the first day and night mostly with the two chaperoning teachers, but the ice was soon broken when one boy was brave enough to ask if I've ever seen How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory. Luckily, I have, and the conversation that followed seemed to loosen everyone up a bit. The next day I had to sneak away for 2 hours on my own, first to buy shoes for the play were were planning to see at the National Theatre, and second, to get just a little time for myself. The kids are great - I haven't laughed so much in a long time - and so eager to speak in English and to know if the rumors about America are true. Some are eager to discuss Steinbeck and Faulkner, and I've already promised to loan out my copy of John Donne poems. I wasn't quite prepared for those discussions, but I think I held my own, thanks to UH and Great Books.
The group of students I went with were all 18 and 19 (of legal drinking age in the Czech Republic), so they quickly learned of my taste for Czech beer and cooking. They (and even the teachers) seemed confused by my slimness ("How is it that you're so skinny? How often do you eat McDonalds?"). They wanted to know what I missed most about the U.S. - I usually talked about friends and family, but they had fun listening to me reminisce about free water, free toilets, ice in drinks, and top sheets. I think my favorite question was about how often I use the past perfect tense.
They soon took it upon themselves to start introducing the country to me. One girl had a stamp card for Starbucks, where if you bought two drinks, you got the third for free. I lost a rock, paper, scissors contest for who should pay for the coffee, so ended up getting the free drink. I sampled a bit of every sweet and salty thing they brought to snack on, and was told repeatedly that I need to try "babicka" cooking, or the cooking from a Czech grandmother. This welcoming hospitality is not restricted to the students, by any means. My English-teaching colleagues were so concerned about me doing laundry at a laundromat that they decided that they will just alternate taking my clothes home to wash and return to me. The women who do the cooking at the lunchroom were exceptionally excited to hear that I wasn't a vegetarian, since they'll be cooking lunch for me every day. I live in a kind of boarding school / dormitory, and the man who is the landlord told me that he doesn't speak English, but that if I have any problems at all, he'd be happy to track down someone who does.
On the train on the way home, even, I sat by two middle-aged women who tried to chat with me a bit - I explained that I don't speak much Czech yet, but that I'm teaching English at a high school in Ostrava. They were so excited, and kept saying that they were so grateful to have me in their city, since I'd be helping students pass their high school exit exams in English (exams which are evaluated by a native speaker, even though they don't get many come through their schools). They then proceeded to feed me for the entirety of the four-hour train ride - more cookies and small pastries, half a tangerine, cheese spreads on different types of bread, etc etc... It just feels like such a different reception here than I received when I came to study - people are eager to hear me try to speak Czech, and really happy to try to speak English. That said, I think my Czech is going to rapidly improve out of necessity, because the generation gap between people my age and younger, who have all studied english for 9-10 years, and older people seems to be much stronger here than in Prague.
Well, I think this entry hasn't been as poetic or descriptive, perhaps, as the first - I just wanted to get down a lot of what I've been doing, so I can remember better later. That's all for now - this week I'll be helping students rehearse A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, so I think I'll be busy and will definitely have more to write soon.
Cheers!
I wanted to start off this post with a funny anecdote - scoping out places to go for a run in Ostrava, I came across a pretty nice park near where I'm staying. The only downside, I thought, was that people didn't seem to pick up after their dogs with much consistency. So, a small inconvenience, a little gross, but not an insurmountable problem by any means. This morning I decided to get up and go for a run. It was raining a bit (though it hasn't stopped since I arrived), so I figured I'd just tough it out and go anyway - dog shit, rain, and all. As I started my jog, I was trying to pay attention to the kinds of trees and plants around me...see what kinds of things I'd never seen before, etc... Well, in the process of this examination, I noticed that what seemed to be dog droppings were actually slugs. A little google-image searching revealed that the culprit was actually...the highly-invasive, non-native Spanish slug. I'd recommend you do a little image searching yourself, since I don't think I can actually post any of the pictures without violating copyright.
Well, since my last post, I have completed my language school and moved to Ostrava. I moved in last Wednesday, but today is actually only my 2nd full day here, since, surprisingly, I ended up back in Prague for three days this weekend. The high school where I teach is currently finishing up last bits of construction from the summer (which includes a lot of new bathrooms and a new shower for teachers), so students are only attending for an hour or two each morning. So, instead of teaching my first week, I had one day of showing up, meeting the teachers, and introducing myself to the principle. I have seven colleagues in the English deapartment, and I've heard there are several other teachers who are fluent in English, so I think I'll definitely have the opportunity for lunchtime conversation. The rest of the week, however, I spent in Prague with one of the classes who will graduate this year. I learned that it's a tradition for all graduating students to make this trip to Prague for 3-4 days, to learn more about their capitol city. I think we toured just about everything there is to tour in Prague - all in Czech, of course, so I had a good chance to practice my listening comprehension. I hope my own (obvious) struggles with learning the language will help them to be less apprehensive about making mistakes in English in front of me.
There are several students, out of the 22 that I met this weekend, that now seem to have little fear of speaking with me. I spent the first day and night mostly with the two chaperoning teachers, but the ice was soon broken when one boy was brave enough to ask if I've ever seen How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory. Luckily, I have, and the conversation that followed seemed to loosen everyone up a bit. The next day I had to sneak away for 2 hours on my own, first to buy shoes for the play were were planning to see at the National Theatre, and second, to get just a little time for myself. The kids are great - I haven't laughed so much in a long time - and so eager to speak in English and to know if the rumors about America are true. Some are eager to discuss Steinbeck and Faulkner, and I've already promised to loan out my copy of John Donne poems. I wasn't quite prepared for those discussions, but I think I held my own, thanks to UH and Great Books.
The group of students I went with were all 18 and 19 (of legal drinking age in the Czech Republic), so they quickly learned of my taste for Czech beer and cooking. They (and even the teachers) seemed confused by my slimness ("How is it that you're so skinny? How often do you eat McDonalds?"). They wanted to know what I missed most about the U.S. - I usually talked about friends and family, but they had fun listening to me reminisce about free water, free toilets, ice in drinks, and top sheets. I think my favorite question was about how often I use the past perfect tense.
They soon took it upon themselves to start introducing the country to me. One girl had a stamp card for Starbucks, where if you bought two drinks, you got the third for free. I lost a rock, paper, scissors contest for who should pay for the coffee, so ended up getting the free drink. I sampled a bit of every sweet and salty thing they brought to snack on, and was told repeatedly that I need to try "babicka" cooking, or the cooking from a Czech grandmother. This welcoming hospitality is not restricted to the students, by any means. My English-teaching colleagues were so concerned about me doing laundry at a laundromat that they decided that they will just alternate taking my clothes home to wash and return to me. The women who do the cooking at the lunchroom were exceptionally excited to hear that I wasn't a vegetarian, since they'll be cooking lunch for me every day. I live in a kind of boarding school / dormitory, and the man who is the landlord told me that he doesn't speak English, but that if I have any problems at all, he'd be happy to track down someone who does.
On the train on the way home, even, I sat by two middle-aged women who tried to chat with me a bit - I explained that I don't speak much Czech yet, but that I'm teaching English at a high school in Ostrava. They were so excited, and kept saying that they were so grateful to have me in their city, since I'd be helping students pass their high school exit exams in English (exams which are evaluated by a native speaker, even though they don't get many come through their schools). They then proceeded to feed me for the entirety of the four-hour train ride - more cookies and small pastries, half a tangerine, cheese spreads on different types of bread, etc etc... It just feels like such a different reception here than I received when I came to study - people are eager to hear me try to speak Czech, and really happy to try to speak English. That said, I think my Czech is going to rapidly improve out of necessity, because the generation gap between people my age and younger, who have all studied english for 9-10 years, and older people seems to be much stronger here than in Prague.
Well, I think this entry hasn't been as poetic or descriptive, perhaps, as the first - I just wanted to get down a lot of what I've been doing, so I can remember better later. That's all for now - this week I'll be helping students rehearse A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, so I think I'll be busy and will definitely have more to write soon.
Cheers!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Country Roads
So today makes two weeks and one day that I've been in Prague. It's the first day I've felt some real tug from Seattle...across the street from my flat out here in Prague 6, there is a large "wild" park. It's not easy to describe in American terms - it's not really a natural park as I would usually think of it (though, it is natural), and it's not filled with wild animals. Still, I'm not going to go walking around it in my Converse.
Anyway, if you hike into this wild park a ways, there is a large water reservoir that you can swim in, and a little further in is a swimming pool made out of filtered river water from the nearby river. The little tugging I'm feeling from Seattle is my desire to take a running jump into the lake at Madrona and then sit on the dock until my back is sunburned and I only want to eat really salty kettle chips. I'm not sure if this little river pool is going to stave off some of this, but I think I'll give it a try as soon as the thunderstorms quit. Plus, there's a little pub right next to the entrance to the park, and finding good beer in the Czech Republic is like finding good tea in Ireland. You can go anywhere and ask for "beer" and something delicious and large will be brought to you.
Thunderstorms are among the many, many small things I'd forgotten about in the Czech Republic. When I thought about it too much, rain in Seattle always made me miss the stronger rain in Arizona, but I have that again, here. Here, I also have a lot of interesting notions about fashion - old women who dye their white hair to various purple hues, dreaded mullets (business in the front, dreads in the back), business professionals who actually wear color, high heels and short skirts on cobblestones, and (though this is new this year) skirts with legs. They're difficult to describe...they are skirts until about mid-calf, when suddenly the fabric becomes skin tight. If I knew the word for them, I'd google image a picture to post.
Speaking of words, my 5 hrs of Czech language instruction each day is going well. I'm filling in some of the basics I missed out on the first time around, and my understanding is rapidly improving (even watched a movie in Czech with Czech subtitles instead of English, and I think I got most of it). Those 5 hours include 30-60 minutes of private phonetics lessons. This means that for at least 30 minutes every day, my instructor says something and I repeat it until she gets really excited that I pronounced it correctly or she gives up, in a fit of laughter. I hold firmly that the most difficult sound to make in Czech is not [ř] as everybody thinks, but rather [d'] and [t']. My usual day starts at 7am - get up, shower, eat a breakfast of Albert granola and white, a little bit salty, yogurt. I head out for class around 8, finish up there at about 1:30. My old study abroad school has been kind enough to give me a key card, so if it's warm I take over the little study room with a futon and enjoy one of the only air conditioned buildings in Prague while having a roll and some cheese and chocolate. If it's nice out I eat outside somewhere, and if it's raining I usually come home to eat something warm. In the afternoons I spend time doing something in English...reading or watching gilmore girls, and I've been spending the evenings at the dorm where most people in my program live - they have Czech movies on almost every night and really terrible dinner food :-)
Saturdays and Sundays the school offers day trips around the country - last weekend I went to Hradec Kralove and Male Svatonovice (birthplace of the Capek brothers with a nice museum), and this weekend I'll have a saturday in Pilsen and spend Sunday in Tacnik and Zebrak. We take country roads when we travel.
All in all, these two weeks have felt, unexpectedly, like coming home. I met an old friend and his friend for a beer a few nights ago, and the friend wanted to know why it is that I like living in his "little country." The last time I was here I didn't write down much of what I did and saw, so I'm attempting to do a bit more of that this time around, hopefully, at the end, coming out with some account of why I do like living here. Also, so I remember things like the old women with purple hair.
A Josef Capek painting, for your enjoyment:
Anyway, if you hike into this wild park a ways, there is a large water reservoir that you can swim in, and a little further in is a swimming pool made out of filtered river water from the nearby river. The little tugging I'm feeling from Seattle is my desire to take a running jump into the lake at Madrona and then sit on the dock until my back is sunburned and I only want to eat really salty kettle chips. I'm not sure if this little river pool is going to stave off some of this, but I think I'll give it a try as soon as the thunderstorms quit. Plus, there's a little pub right next to the entrance to the park, and finding good beer in the Czech Republic is like finding good tea in Ireland. You can go anywhere and ask for "beer" and something delicious and large will be brought to you.
Thunderstorms are among the many, many small things I'd forgotten about in the Czech Republic. When I thought about it too much, rain in Seattle always made me miss the stronger rain in Arizona, but I have that again, here. Here, I also have a lot of interesting notions about fashion - old women who dye their white hair to various purple hues, dreaded mullets (business in the front, dreads in the back), business professionals who actually wear color, high heels and short skirts on cobblestones, and (though this is new this year) skirts with legs. They're difficult to describe...they are skirts until about mid-calf, when suddenly the fabric becomes skin tight. If I knew the word for them, I'd google image a picture to post.
Speaking of words, my 5 hrs of Czech language instruction each day is going well. I'm filling in some of the basics I missed out on the first time around, and my understanding is rapidly improving (even watched a movie in Czech with Czech subtitles instead of English, and I think I got most of it). Those 5 hours include 30-60 minutes of private phonetics lessons. This means that for at least 30 minutes every day, my instructor says something and I repeat it until she gets really excited that I pronounced it correctly or she gives up, in a fit of laughter. I hold firmly that the most difficult sound to make in Czech is not [ř] as everybody thinks, but rather [d'] and [t']. My usual day starts at 7am - get up, shower, eat a breakfast of Albert granola and white, a little bit salty, yogurt. I head out for class around 8, finish up there at about 1:30. My old study abroad school has been kind enough to give me a key card, so if it's warm I take over the little study room with a futon and enjoy one of the only air conditioned buildings in Prague while having a roll and some cheese and chocolate. If it's nice out I eat outside somewhere, and if it's raining I usually come home to eat something warm. In the afternoons I spend time doing something in English...reading or watching gilmore girls, and I've been spending the evenings at the dorm where most people in my program live - they have Czech movies on almost every night and really terrible dinner food :-)
Saturdays and Sundays the school offers day trips around the country - last weekend I went to Hradec Kralove and Male Svatonovice (birthplace of the Capek brothers with a nice museum), and this weekend I'll have a saturday in Pilsen and spend Sunday in Tacnik and Zebrak. We take country roads when we travel.
All in all, these two weeks have felt, unexpectedly, like coming home. I met an old friend and his friend for a beer a few nights ago, and the friend wanted to know why it is that I like living in his "little country." The last time I was here I didn't write down much of what I did and saw, so I'm attempting to do a bit more of that this time around, hopefully, at the end, coming out with some account of why I do like living here. Also, so I remember things like the old women with purple hair.
A Josef Capek painting, for your enjoyment:
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