She will stay! Prague is fantastic! I am sorry I have taken my sweet time posting my adventure, but it has been just that! A time consuming, amusing, breathtaking adventure. On my first day in abroad, my flatmates, Carrie, Maureen and Laura, and I, toured Prague 1 and Old Town. We devoured giant American size sausages and lingered in the aroma of our dessert; trdelnik – magnificent pastry bread, cinnamon dipped and pecan rolled deliciousness.
Day Two – Mission 1 – Locate the schools. Brendan, a fine British bloke who took the TLH (TEFL Language House) course a time or two ago, graciously took a few of us around the city on Sunday night to get used to the trams and see a few things. He also took us by the school to make sure we knew where to go in the morning. Afterwards, we had dinner at a really great Italian restaurant. I had a fun convo with the bar tender about Czech and common words to get used to; like Na shledanou (good bye) or Dekuji (thank you).
Day Three – First day in class. Rise and Shine! More or less, I was still getting used to the time change. I was a dull star on Monday and Tuesday, but class still went well. We did warm ups and ice breakers and then we were taught HOW to do warm ups and ice breakers to our students. The rest of the day was spent with our fine friend, Andrea, a really cool teacher on the course. Aside from teaching, Andrea also gave tours in Prague, so she took us to The Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle and out to dinner. Another one of our really great instructors, Skip, met us for chow and bought us a feast. Oh, and also an obnoxious shot that I’m pretty sure left singe marks on my tonsils, throat, stomach, possibly even major organs… He’s a peach! 😉
Day Four – Learn and teach. Sleep and eat. Pretty uneventful, but still a great day.
Day Five – First Czech lesson this morning with Pete. We were not allowed to use English throughout the entire class. This was to demonstrate what it feels like for the students; the shoe is on the other foot scenario. A challenge, but very entertaining and Pete is an awesome teacher so it was super fun!
Day Six – Dunt Dunt Dunt!! Today was my first day teaching Czech students. I put together a fifteen minute activity that was not only observed by my ten students, but also by one of the instructions. This was a little intimidating at first, but not for long. You begin to feel very natural in the front of the room and when the students look to you for the answers your confidence rises, even if you do not know how to respond. I really like all my students, they range from 22 – 45. Hopefully Monday will go well, as this is the first day that I will teach a full lesson. Gulp!
Day Seven – Friday always rocks, but this Friday climbed the charts. First thing in the morning we had Renee teach us about grammar and about teaching in general. She is very sweet and phenomenal at what she does. I soaked up her pointers like a napkin (no Nik and Shannon, not that kind of napkin :P). Class ended early at 3:30. Cha ching! We had plans to meet up with some students on the last course at a restaurant called Banditos. Happy hour specials and a really authentic Mexican spread- winning!
Everyone was awesome! We ate, drank and ate and drank. A group of us went to The Dobry Den – one of the guys flats (Dobry den also means “hello” in Czech ;)) after dinner and had a few more drinks, hung out and listened to music. Around 11 we headed to this fantastic techno bar called Retro. I think I lost 4 pounds from dancing, and how can I put this…? MEN. MEN EVERYWHERE. Not boys, just men. It was like there was a sale of them. They were over stocked, over 6 feet tall and overtly good looking! Lord save me I am in trouble! 😉
PS – on this day…. I also became 1/4 of an English teacher. 😀
Day Eight – Yawwnnnnn…. UGhehkel uhsh ahh (weird noise we all make when stretching in the morning. Don’t deny it, you know you do it too). After sleep and downing about 36 crackers with jam before hitting the hay last night I felt completely refueled. BTW – thank GOD for Jane last night. If it wasn’t for her the four of us would have had no clue how to get back to our flat from the Metro. Four, count them four, people gave me directions back, all of which made absolutely no sense to me. BUT, I was told it would come to me after a while… lets hope.
So today (Saturday) Carrie and I woke and got lost on purpose. We went in every direction, down alleys, on the tram, off the tram. We did this for about two hours and then popped into a really nice restaurant and became the window display. We wanted to “people watch” while we had another Italian meal (we know this is frustrating for some, that we keep eating Italian in Prague, but come on, it’s just so damn good and we have had PLENTY of meat and potatoes while here already. Trust.) After spaghetti for Carrie and minestrone and bruschetta for me we went to this shop or department store called Tesco. It has a toy store, a grocery store, appliances, clothing, makeup, jewelry etc etc. If we get home sick, we will definitely come here. It smells exactly like Macy’s – perfume counters and all.
We ended the day with something sweet, my first gelato. Eht hem. ATTENTION, this is very important. I would like my family to know, it is my dying wish, that on my death bed, I would like to have this magical substance siphoned into my veins. Yes, I know, this will only kill me faster, but I do not care. I cannot even imagine how it will taste in Italy, but in a few short weeks, I will let you know. 🙂
Other little tid-bits:
-Grocery shopping is hard. I cannot read a damn thing.
-Everyone is beautiful. Everyone.
-We are regulars at Paul’s already. This is a small café right outside one of our schools. They have great little sandwiches and again, more men. 😛
-There is a quaint little pub right around the corner from our flat that I adore. A few of us stopped there after class one night and now I think I will most definitely “frequent it”!
-I blew my CHI. 😦 Immay Stupit Ahmerichanka.
GREAT PEOPLE. GREAT COURSE. GREAT FOOD. So far, so good!
See you soon! Check out the tabs above. Pictures galore!
❤ Ash
Akoss The Sea 