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!