Sep 2006

I'm excited about that fact. Ok, to be honest, the first week or two was a little rough. But I'm discovering something - I love my students. I've finally started to learn their names and their personalities, and I like them. A lot. For certain reasons, we're not allowed to spend time outside of school with our students. It's understandable and it's a good rule for a reason, but there's just one thing. I love my students! It would be so easy to become very good friends with them.
Even the class that started giving me problems has calmed down. They're not so rowdy anymore. It's so exciting when my students get excited about something I'm teaching. When they laugh at me in class, I love it. I know I'm getting through to them.
I pray that I will be able to make a good impression on them during these first weeks of teaching. This is the basis for how they will react to me and my message during the rest of the year.
Between planning lessons and classes, thinking about lessons and classes, and thinking about planning lessons and classes, I don't have much other time to spare. But I've had time to do some very fun things. This last weekend, we went to the Prague Castle gardens. They were gorgeous! Very European. There were peacocks running around the grass, and statues lining the walkway.
Here are some pictures of the trip to the garden:

St. Vitus's Cathedral in the background.

A fountain in the Prague Castle gardens.

A big European building!

Elsie and I with more European buildings at the Castle Gardens and the cathedral in the background.

As you can see, it was a fun trip. I have many more pictures and many more experiences. In the meantime, just know that Prague is beautiful and fun. I can hardly believe I've already been here a month. But it's good to know that I have much more time to do many more things here.
Keep me and my students in your prayers.

So I've been here nearly three weeks. It actually feels shorter than that. This last week has been so crazy I can hardly even remember what happened.
I finished my first week of official teaching! I was so nervous the first day. I was shaking, and it's a good thing I had written a list of things I needed to talk about, because I would have completely forgotten. But it's much better now, after teaching every single morning (and some afternoons) for a week.
I'm still a bit nervous before each class, but it's getting better. I teach conversation to fairly advanced students. That's nice, because they know most of what I'm saying. They're also well-behaved. I teach history to beginners and intermediate students. That's fun too, although my beginners tend to be rather talkative. The intermediate students don't say a thing. They pretty much don't respond at all, to anything. It's a struggle to get them involved.
This last week, I've been putting all my energy and creativity into my classes. I have to act very enthusiastic and even crazy in my classes to get a point across. I do that for the beginners so they know what I'm talking about - if I act out falling, they get it better than if I just tell them what it means to fall. I act for my intermediate students just to get them interested.
So today I'm making many many more lesson plans, because we're beginning more classes for the post office workers. So all in all, I've got at least 7 classes that I'm teaching, most of which meet at least twice a week, some three times. That's in addition to taking Czech classes myself. And as for that, I'm getting a little better in pronunciation. I mostly practice by repeating the words after the announcer says each stop on the tram or metro. Hey, it's how the little kids do it here! I've seen little kids repeat the stop names while on the metro. I thought "that's a good idea!" But I'm sure it's strange to hear some American wandering around and mangling Czech words. The word for the number 4 in Czech is "čtyři", which is pronounced something along the lines of "chturzhi" and it's very difficult to say. So I try my luck on that word a lot, thinking how strange it would be to see someone walking around repeating "four, four" in my language.
I miss everyone back home, but I'm getting used to all the little quirks about living here. Just keep praying that I can stand all the stress! One other thing - I've got a bit of a cold, and my voice is very scratchy. I teach four 90 minute classes tomorrow, and I'm not sure if my voice is going to hold out. We'll see!

I've started taking Czech lessons, and believe me, they are not easy. My tongue doesn't want to form these words. Mostly, I've been saying a lot of "dobry den" and "děkuji" to people because those are the only words I know (hello and thankyou). Some people speak english here, others, you just sorta have to sign what you want. And of course, all the signs are in Czech, so that's been fun. Shopping for groceries is also a challenge, as I have no idea what potatoes or macaroni is in Czech. It's been an experience, to say the least.
Last weekend, we visited Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge, two of the biggest tourist destinations here in Prague. They were very crowded, and would have been a little unpleasant except for the fact that those places are absolutely gorgeous.
Our apartment is all situated. We have furniture and dishes and utensils, and a working stove (though it's gas, so I'm learning how to light that with a match and not blow things up). We just got a washing machine, so now I can do laundry! No dryer, though. I don't know if other people here have dryers, but we don't.
School starts officially on Monday. I'm teaching one of the more advanced classes, and I don't know how to feel about that. It's going to be busy, and right now it feels overwhelming. But we're supposed to get our schedules soon, so I'll know soon which classes I'm teaching and what times they are. I'm not nervous yet, but I know I will be soon. Probably Sunday night as I'm preparing my lesson plans.
In the meantime, I've been having a lot of fun with everyone learning to navigate the tram and metro systems, finding the good restaurants, and learning where the good cheap stores are. We have a Tesco near us! That's basically a Wal-mart, and it's pretty nice. Shopping is good here, and the clothes are very fashionable, but some are terribly expensive.
I've also learned that water in restaurants is not free here, and they will always ask if you want water with bubbles or without. Bubble water, or "voda perliva," is gross.
And, the lines at the Foreign Police station are very long. We had to go there to register, and it's basically like a very big, stinky, foreign DMV. But I did get to see this old cemetary where all the gravestones are overgrown and covered with ivy. It's not one of the tourist places, so it was so quiet and peaceful there. I'm definitely going back to take pictures because I didn't have my camera with me then.
So for now, pray for me as I get ready to start teaching.
(To view the pictures I've taken so far, click "MelissaSM" under Authors on the right column.)