So I am now officially more than half way done my TEFL course. I think I lucked out because really week 3 is supposed to be the "hardest" week. Since the first day we started all we have heard from former TEFL graduates is how it is OK to break down and cry the third week. However, I am teaching upper intermediate students this week and they are amazing! They understand and LOT of Cesky (because most of them have been studying United for years) and they LOVE to debate issues. There are only 3 women in the class so sometimes you need to assign roles to get a good debate going. My debate topic today was "Is it ever OK to take advantage of or kill your own children?" (A little heavy I know, but it was based off of an article from BBC World News about a French couple who killed their child with Down Syndrome), I assigned an older lady the conservative position of "No it is never OK," and crazy lady with the position of "it is sometimes OK-my favorite of hers response was" sometimes it is ok to kill your children, like for example if they are ugly! "haha and I assigned the youngest student in the class of the position" It is definitely OK to kill your children. "All in all it was a very successful lesson and I received yet washed best grade on it! (We are observed by experienced TEFL teachers during each lesson and afterwards they grade us and review our lessons.)
So I have not cried yet this week (or at all! Yay me!) And I do not think week 3 is going to get me - tomorrow I am doing a lesson on "Teachers who date their students" (I smell another heated debate . ...) and I am using the "Friend's" clip when Ross dates when his student, to introduce the topic. Does it get any better than that? Pretty much my lesson planning for tonight is to watch Friends!
Or ... Week 3 could be going so well because I am coming off a great weekend of festivals Federweisser (Federweisser is a sweet wine that is only in season for a short period of time-last weekend was the first weekend of the season) We stumbled upon 2 festivals with food stands, shopping stands, live music and lots of Federweisser. It was a fantastic weekend and gave us a chance to relax. We also have some apartment viewings lined up for this week-so I will let you know how that goes as well. And to top it all off-I am hoping to get my resume out to at least 15 or so schools would be tomorrow night ... so wish me luck with that!
* I also realzied the reason for a lot of the typos in my earlier Blogs-I write them in microsoft word then copy and paste them to blogspot and it translates part of them to Cesky-(so it also translates mistakes such as confusing word order and making Federweisser into Budweieesier) So until I try to figure that out, I apologize for the typos .*
Hope you all well with everyone! I miss you all! If you have any other Q's or anything you are wondering about let me know, and I will try to get around to answering them! Love ya! xoxoxo
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The pictures you have been asking/waiting for....
View of the Castle from the side of the Charles Bridge. My first day in Prague!
walking home with my cross- bow....what thats weird?
Kelly, Drake and I (students from the class) overlooking the Vineyards @ the Burcak wine festival
View of the city on my way to Letkna Beer Garden
Kelly,Nicole and I...2 amazing girls from my class. We are in the hotel together- and are looking for an apartment this weekend together.
There are more pictures on facebook to check out... and I will blog later today. For now we are going to try and do some laundry... should be interesting!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
That's a first...
Well I officially survived my first week in Prague. As with any new adventure / place / journey you are bound to run into a LOT of first time experiences .. here are a few of mine from this past week ...
First time eating lamb sausage
First time having to dodge puke on the sidewalk, all day every day. People here puke a lot. I wonder if it's the food or the beer ... I'm going with beer. But honestly there is puke on almost every sidealk- its a rare and good day if you can walk from place to place and not see puke. My friend Nicole stepped in some tonight, haha it was sick, and pretty funny!
First time not wanting beer !! I NEVER thought that would be a first for me(I was still nursing a hangover, I had been having beer for/with lunch and dinner ... it actually does get a little old. The water is expensive, so I have taken to carrying a liter of water around with me)
First time witnessing a drug deal and then witnessing a drug deal bust outside of a Herna Bar (casino that is a popular spot for the Mafia to meet and do deals)
First time I have ever burnt my hair on a curling iron. (picture Little Women when Meg burns Jo's hair, not even exagerrating, but its ok now. It was just a small piece in the front and barely noticeable, just very traumatic, and smelly - damn european electricity is strongggg. However I got right back on the horse, turned the curling iron to LOW and turned off the power boost, and did manage to curl my hair last night.
First time I have left the bar with a beer in my hand (legally), drank it in a cab then found the bottle enpty the next morning on my bathroom floor...
First time having an orange slice instead of lime with my tequila shot
First time buying jeans with european sizes ( a LOT of trial and error ) haha
First time at a "book store" with a full bar selection and a movie projector where they play really funny European movies.Sunday night's flick pick- Mediterreanou. It was hilarious. An Iatlian film (I think...?) about soldiers who get lost at sea and find an island full of drugs, sex and prostitutes??? - Which reminds me...our hotel is nice but a little shady . We are pretty sure they are running a very low grade prostitute service out of the "spa" at our hotel. One of the former graduates of the TEFL class was in the hotel last month and he went to the spa with one of his buddies and the girl was trying to get them drunk (by emptying their own mini bar) and in the hot tub with her for a massage??? Needless to say I don't think I will be enjoying any "services" at the spa....
First time I have taught(successfully)English to adults! They spoke little to no English and I speak very very very to no czech. The methodology of teaching a langauge in Europe is totally different than how we teach back home. Here it is a communicative approach where you become fully immersed in the language. Where as at home we take words and translate them, more of a vocabulary approach with some speaking and a lot of writing thrown in. Very interesting... and hate to say it but Europe's way is absolutely more successful.
First time I can teach in sweatpants- bonusss!!! Anything goes in Prague, fanny packs, neon shoes, MC Hammer pants ( I swear I have seen them here) you name it- you can wear it.
First time I have seen dogs being treated as kids. These people LOVE their dogs. They are in restaurants, on escalators, on the metro,in stores EVERYWHERE..Mom you would hate it haha.
First time 2 people in one night have asked us if we needed directions. And they were being very genuine and honest. I know mom and dad- i can hear you cringing from here. I am being very careful, try not to worry. And yes I have seen and remember the movie taken.
and finally...
First time I thought I really understood Czech (turns out we were just in a British grocery store, so yes I understood everything because it was in English haha. In my defense I was very sleep deprived when I realized this.
So after expereincing all of those firsts in one week (plus countless others I am too tired to rememeber right now) I am absolutely looking forward to my class being over so I have time to travel and explore a little more. Our days are very long right now. Breakfast at 8:30, class from 9:30-1 Lunch from 1-2, "Prep hours" from 2-5, teaching from 5-8, reflection/meeting with our observer/getting tomorrows lesson from 8-9 ish, then lesson planning, dinner, facebooking, emailing, blogging etc. from 9- i fall asleep. And that is life for the next 3 weeks from Monday - Thursday. Fridays we are done early (usually by 2) which is awesome! And then weekends we have been exploring around Prague, and visiting different bars and clubs and catching up on SLEEP!!!
Wish me luck on week 2...the first week flew by, hope this one does too :)
First time eating lamb sausage
First time having to dodge puke on the sidewalk, all day every day. People here puke a lot. I wonder if it's the food or the beer ... I'm going with beer. But honestly there is puke on almost every sidealk- its a rare and good day if you can walk from place to place and not see puke. My friend Nicole stepped in some tonight, haha it was sick, and pretty funny!
First time not wanting beer !! I NEVER thought that would be a first for me(I was still nursing a hangover, I had been having beer for/with lunch and dinner ... it actually does get a little old. The water is expensive, so I have taken to carrying a liter of water around with me)
First time witnessing a drug deal and then witnessing a drug deal bust outside of a Herna Bar (casino that is a popular spot for the Mafia to meet and do deals)
First time I have ever burnt my hair on a curling iron. (picture Little Women when Meg burns Jo's hair, not even exagerrating, but its ok now. It was just a small piece in the front and barely noticeable, just very traumatic, and smelly - damn european electricity is strongggg. However I got right back on the horse, turned the curling iron to LOW and turned off the power boost, and did manage to curl my hair last night.
First time I have left the bar with a beer in my hand (legally), drank it in a cab then found the bottle enpty the next morning on my bathroom floor...
First time having an orange slice instead of lime with my tequila shot
First time buying jeans with european sizes ( a LOT of trial and error ) haha
First time at a "book store" with a full bar selection and a movie projector where they play really funny European movies.Sunday night's flick pick- Mediterreanou. It was hilarious. An Iatlian film (I think...?) about soldiers who get lost at sea and find an island full of drugs, sex and prostitutes??? - Which reminds me...our hotel is nice but a little shady . We are pretty sure they are running a very low grade prostitute service out of the "spa" at our hotel. One of the former graduates of the TEFL class was in the hotel last month and he went to the spa with one of his buddies and the girl was trying to get them drunk (by emptying their own mini bar) and in the hot tub with her for a massage??? Needless to say I don't think I will be enjoying any "services" at the spa....
First time I have taught(successfully)English to adults! They spoke little to no English and I speak very very very to no czech. The methodology of teaching a langauge in Europe is totally different than how we teach back home. Here it is a communicative approach where you become fully immersed in the language. Where as at home we take words and translate them, more of a vocabulary approach with some speaking and a lot of writing thrown in. Very interesting... and hate to say it but Europe's way is absolutely more successful.
First time I can teach in sweatpants- bonusss!!! Anything goes in Prague, fanny packs, neon shoes, MC Hammer pants ( I swear I have seen them here) you name it- you can wear it.
First time I have seen dogs being treated as kids. These people LOVE their dogs. They are in restaurants, on escalators, on the metro,in stores EVERYWHERE..Mom you would hate it haha.
First time 2 people in one night have asked us if we needed directions. And they were being very genuine and honest. I know mom and dad- i can hear you cringing from here. I am being very careful, try not to worry. And yes I have seen and remember the movie taken.
and finally...
First time I thought I really understood Czech (turns out we were just in a British grocery store, so yes I understood everything because it was in English haha. In my defense I was very sleep deprived when I realized this.
So after expereincing all of those firsts in one week (plus countless others I am too tired to rememeber right now) I am absolutely looking forward to my class being over so I have time to travel and explore a little more. Our days are very long right now. Breakfast at 8:30, class from 9:30-1 Lunch from 1-2, "Prep hours" from 2-5, teaching from 5-8, reflection/meeting with our observer/getting tomorrows lesson from 8-9 ish, then lesson planning, dinner, facebooking, emailing, blogging etc. from 9- i fall asleep. And that is life for the next 3 weeks from Monday - Thursday. Fridays we are done early (usually by 2) which is awesome! And then weekends we have been exploring around Prague, and visiting different bars and clubs and catching up on SLEEP!!!
Wish me luck on week 2...the first week flew by, hope this one does too :)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Rough Take Off....
Soo.. after the end of 4 long days, it feels like I have been in Prague 4 weeks.
We left West Chester around 10.. and had smooth sailing to JFK, had a nice lunch at the Holiday Inn JKF , NY and smooth sailing to the CSA Airlines gate. Said goodbye to dad outside at the curb and mom walked me in. Had a sad, tearful, goodbye to mom, little did I know I would be calling my parents again in like 10 minutes to come pick up some of my stuff because BOTH of my bags were overweight. Talk about off to a rough start. So after saying good bye again, unpacking and re-packing bags in the JFK airport and finally lugging my bags to baggage check, I thought it was only to appropriate to find a bar near my terminal. I had a beer and baorded my plane with about 30 minutes to spare.
The 8 hour plane ride wasn't bad.. had dinner and breakfast with abour 2 hours of sleep in between. I met an artist from NY who was going to Prague to open a gallery (which I will be attending on Thursday night with some of my TEFL friends.) Only complaint- the TV was about 5 rows in front of me... I can deal with that.
Landed in Prague, breezed through customs, and went to meet Jaromir- the Owner of the Lamguage House, where I am studying. He was about 20 minutes late so I called his cell phone ( 20 minutes in a foreign airport, on 2 hours of sleep, with 100+ pounds of luggage to carry around really feels like 2 hours- which gave me a lot of time to consider/reconsider/consider/reconsider... my decision to move to Prague- Academy Park was sounding pretty good right about then...) But it worked out Jaromir - who goes by Mirka did show up and he helped me with my bags and gave me a mini audio tour of the city on the way to the hotel from the airport. He only through me off with his question of "Can you perform to me a favor...?" My sleep deprived response "uhhh I guess so..." Turns out he just wanted me to deliver a welcome packet to this girl Nicole who he had dropped off at the hotel the night before, but had forgotten to give it to her. No issue there. However the issue came when my room wasn't ready at the hotel... so its around 7:45 AM in Prague and Mirka had to leave- but only after he voiced his complaint about the room not being ready. (The owner of the hotel is a former TEFL graduate) So what to do... receptionist stored my bags for me and promised me a room by 11 and suggested I go to the basement for "free" breakfast. * Last week they sent out an email to the TEFL students in the hotel saying we weren't to take advantage of the complimentary breakfast offer since we were alrady getting reduced rooms, however I am certainly not one to turn down a free breakfast, and what else was I going to do in this strange city? and -side note- we have taken advantage of breakfast every morning, even packing our lunches at breakfast to take to school per Mirka's advice.
My room was finally ready around 9:30... I spelt until 12:30 and then met up with another TEFL student to do some exploring in the magnificient city. All of the buildings are so beautiful, it is hard to believe I will be living here...We found the school, ordered and enjoyed our first meal in Prague, got new cell phones, and did some shopping for basic things we forgot (toothpaste.)
That night we met another TEFL student who is staying at the hotel, we all went out to dinner and then to a little DJ bar afterwards- where we felt it necessary to sample every drink on the menu ( a menu completely in Czech mind you) so we could try to learn some of the langauge- so we made drinking educational... who would have thought? LOL
Then went home (to the hotel) completely exhausted... ok so that was ALL FRIDAY.- tired of reading yet, yeah?
Saturday...woke up around 11:30, and it was freezziinnggg... around 50 degrees all day and windy. Met with the other students around 1. Had a wonderful lunch of Lamb Sausages on the water near the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) and explored around Old City until about 6. It wouldnt have taken us so long except we got so ridiculously lost in the craziest part of Prague. NONE of the streets are straight so you walk for 5 minutes and your sense of direction is completely thrown off. All of the streets circle each other and intersect and have tunnels that aren't labeled... it was sheer craziness. A few hours later we met up with another student, went to a local Polica pub, had some Pilsner Urquell for 30 crowns each ( for those of you not familar a dollar is 20 crown, you do the math... $1.50 beers- hell yea!) When we got back to the hotel Mirka had just dropped off 2 more TEFL students so there are 4 of us here total, and the rest are in flats right outside the city.)
We went to dinner that night- I ordered a burger because the food porn ( yes there is food porn everywhere- millions of pictures of the dishes in menus, windows, placemats...) looked absolutely delicious and it was-were talking McDonalds hungover good, we are talking melt in your mouth like Dove chocolate good, we are talking refreshing Natty Light from Uncle Pat's basement good... you get the picture. After dinner we went to the Legenda Music Bar.. lucky for us it was pool party night, real blow up pool, floatie toys, sand and waiters in bathing suits (pictures to follow.) It was a lot of fun and gave us a chance to get to know eachother more... we all made it home around 4 AM..? (bars here open till the sun comes up, literally, seriously.) So that ends day 2...
Sunday- finaly getting adjusted to the jet lag, but woke up with a killer headache (wonder why..) that lasted most of the day. And Pharmacy's are closed on Sundays and hard to find, and once you find them, you need to knoe the EXACT name of what you need because everythign is locked up- thankfully I found one today and the pharmacist spoke english and I was able to buy ibuprofen. Back to Sunday- Went exploring again with some of the girls to try and find a grocery store for a few snack to have at the hotel- it took us about an hour to find somethign we were literally no more than 100 meters from the entire time while following street signs for it, because it was in the BASEMENT of a strip store, who would have thought to look there? Got a few snacks and went home to nap for a few hours...
That night 6 of us went to dinner at a real CZECH restaurant and it was DELICIOUSSSS!!! I had fried cheese ( there amazing version of mozarella sticks that don't taste like old fried oily stuff, but actually like warm gooey cheese) and beef sirloin in a cream sauce with bread and potato dumplings and cranberry sauce... wow, my mouth is watering just typing this. Probably a once a month type meal or I will weigh a million pounds when I come back haha. And of course had a few beers ( since beer is about half the price of everything other beverage) and then we went home to preapre for our first day of class.
Monday- first day of class!! Very excited that we actually start at 9:30, not 9...like I had originally though- yay! Met our instructor and others in the class, got an overview of the course and went on a 4 hour tour of the city- which ended at the Czech restaurant Dnkinmbe (spelling..?) for our Welcome Dinner. The TEFL instructors treated us to dinner, and drinks of course, and it was a delicious after hiking it through the city, seeing the Castle and a million other things, and learning how to ride the metros (under ground) and the trams ( above ground) Before we left dinner we were given our first assignment- come prepared tomorrow to do a 15 minute "How to" lesson... I went home and planned my lesson and finally fell asleep around midnight. I haven't been sleeping that well here, but I am hoping that will change- I thinik the pillows are too soft and hurt my neck, so last night I slept with 2 pairs of jeans under my pillows and it helped A LOT.
Today was our 2nd day of class. We arrived and jumped right into some lecturing and "demo" ing of lessons and how to make a lesson plan. We break for lunch between 1-2. There is a nice grassy park (a fav. spot for the homeless guys and also for public urination- which is legal here) but when you can get past that, the park is actually really nice, just stay under your tree, or in the sun and away from the bushes and you are golden. We have been eating lunch with about 8 of the 15 TEFL students so we have really been getting to know eachother, and suprisingly are getting along really well! There is one lady in out class who we think may do coke... or is recovering from rehab- somethign is just a little off- more to come on her later, because SURPRISE- she is in my teaching group.
This afternooon we did our "How to" lessons. Mine was on "How to pour like a pro" so I taught my class a few simple bartending skills. I think mine went well, there are definately things I could have done better once I looked back and did soem self reflecting, but overall not a bad start. We will get our evals. from our instructor back tomorrow. After class we dropped some stuff off at the hotel and Nicole, Kelly and I (2 girls in the hotel who I have gotten to know really well) took teh metro and the tram- ALL BY OURSELVES and went to the mall ( girly) to look for girly things like travel coffee (kava) mugs, and hair straightners (I think I blew mine out...) and wallets. With not much success we had a Mongolian BBQ dinner- sort of like chicken Lo Mein and made our way back home on the metro.
Ok that is probably the longest blog I will ever write... and thats my first 4 days in Prague. The first day I was on the verge of tears, and reallyyy reconsidering my choice to make such a big move at this time in my life. I really miss my family and friends, and after 2 days in class the next month is going to be completely crazy and challenging and I wish you guys were here to support me through my 7 hours of lecture during the day and 3 hours of teaching at night...(yeah that starts next week) but I know you guys are there, and that you do support me and honestly after just 4 quick days... I think I am falling in love with Prague.
We left West Chester around 10.. and had smooth sailing to JFK, had a nice lunch at the Holiday Inn JKF , NY and smooth sailing to the CSA Airlines gate. Said goodbye to dad outside at the curb and mom walked me in. Had a sad, tearful, goodbye to mom, little did I know I would be calling my parents again in like 10 minutes to come pick up some of my stuff because BOTH of my bags were overweight. Talk about off to a rough start. So after saying good bye again, unpacking and re-packing bags in the JFK airport and finally lugging my bags to baggage check, I thought it was only to appropriate to find a bar near my terminal. I had a beer and baorded my plane with about 30 minutes to spare.
The 8 hour plane ride wasn't bad.. had dinner and breakfast with abour 2 hours of sleep in between. I met an artist from NY who was going to Prague to open a gallery (which I will be attending on Thursday night with some of my TEFL friends.) Only complaint- the TV was about 5 rows in front of me... I can deal with that.
Landed in Prague, breezed through customs, and went to meet Jaromir- the Owner of the Lamguage House, where I am studying. He was about 20 minutes late so I called his cell phone ( 20 minutes in a foreign airport, on 2 hours of sleep, with 100+ pounds of luggage to carry around really feels like 2 hours- which gave me a lot of time to consider/reconsider/consider/reconsider... my decision to move to Prague- Academy Park was sounding pretty good right about then...) But it worked out Jaromir - who goes by Mirka did show up and he helped me with my bags and gave me a mini audio tour of the city on the way to the hotel from the airport. He only through me off with his question of "Can you perform to me a favor...?" My sleep deprived response "uhhh I guess so..." Turns out he just wanted me to deliver a welcome packet to this girl Nicole who he had dropped off at the hotel the night before, but had forgotten to give it to her. No issue there. However the issue came when my room wasn't ready at the hotel... so its around 7:45 AM in Prague and Mirka had to leave- but only after he voiced his complaint about the room not being ready. (The owner of the hotel is a former TEFL graduate) So what to do... receptionist stored my bags for me and promised me a room by 11 and suggested I go to the basement for "free" breakfast. * Last week they sent out an email to the TEFL students in the hotel saying we weren't to take advantage of the complimentary breakfast offer since we were alrady getting reduced rooms, however I am certainly not one to turn down a free breakfast, and what else was I going to do in this strange city? and -side note- we have taken advantage of breakfast every morning, even packing our lunches at breakfast to take to school per Mirka's advice.
My room was finally ready around 9:30... I spelt until 12:30 and then met up with another TEFL student to do some exploring in the magnificient city. All of the buildings are so beautiful, it is hard to believe I will be living here...We found the school, ordered and enjoyed our first meal in Prague, got new cell phones, and did some shopping for basic things we forgot (toothpaste.)
That night we met another TEFL student who is staying at the hotel, we all went out to dinner and then to a little DJ bar afterwards- where we felt it necessary to sample every drink on the menu ( a menu completely in Czech mind you) so we could try to learn some of the langauge- so we made drinking educational... who would have thought? LOL
Then went home (to the hotel) completely exhausted... ok so that was ALL FRIDAY.- tired of reading yet, yeah?
Saturday...woke up around 11:30, and it was freezziinnggg... around 50 degrees all day and windy. Met with the other students around 1. Had a wonderful lunch of Lamb Sausages on the water near the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) and explored around Old City until about 6. It wouldnt have taken us so long except we got so ridiculously lost in the craziest part of Prague. NONE of the streets are straight so you walk for 5 minutes and your sense of direction is completely thrown off. All of the streets circle each other and intersect and have tunnels that aren't labeled... it was sheer craziness. A few hours later we met up with another student, went to a local Polica pub, had some Pilsner Urquell for 30 crowns each ( for those of you not familar a dollar is 20 crown, you do the math... $1.50 beers- hell yea!) When we got back to the hotel Mirka had just dropped off 2 more TEFL students so there are 4 of us here total, and the rest are in flats right outside the city.)
We went to dinner that night- I ordered a burger because the food porn ( yes there is food porn everywhere- millions of pictures of the dishes in menus, windows, placemats...) looked absolutely delicious and it was-were talking McDonalds hungover good, we are talking melt in your mouth like Dove chocolate good, we are talking refreshing Natty Light from Uncle Pat's basement good... you get the picture. After dinner we went to the Legenda Music Bar.. lucky for us it was pool party night, real blow up pool, floatie toys, sand and waiters in bathing suits (pictures to follow.) It was a lot of fun and gave us a chance to get to know eachother more... we all made it home around 4 AM..? (bars here open till the sun comes up, literally, seriously.) So that ends day 2...
Sunday- finaly getting adjusted to the jet lag, but woke up with a killer headache (wonder why..) that lasted most of the day. And Pharmacy's are closed on Sundays and hard to find, and once you find them, you need to knoe the EXACT name of what you need because everythign is locked up- thankfully I found one today and the pharmacist spoke english and I was able to buy ibuprofen. Back to Sunday- Went exploring again with some of the girls to try and find a grocery store for a few snack to have at the hotel- it took us about an hour to find somethign we were literally no more than 100 meters from the entire time while following street signs for it, because it was in the BASEMENT of a strip store, who would have thought to look there? Got a few snacks and went home to nap for a few hours...
That night 6 of us went to dinner at a real CZECH restaurant and it was DELICIOUSSSS!!! I had fried cheese ( there amazing version of mozarella sticks that don't taste like old fried oily stuff, but actually like warm gooey cheese) and beef sirloin in a cream sauce with bread and potato dumplings and cranberry sauce... wow, my mouth is watering just typing this. Probably a once a month type meal or I will weigh a million pounds when I come back haha. And of course had a few beers ( since beer is about half the price of everything other beverage) and then we went home to preapre for our first day of class.
Monday- first day of class!! Very excited that we actually start at 9:30, not 9...like I had originally though- yay! Met our instructor and others in the class, got an overview of the course and went on a 4 hour tour of the city- which ended at the Czech restaurant Dnkinmbe (spelling..?) for our Welcome Dinner. The TEFL instructors treated us to dinner, and drinks of course, and it was a delicious after hiking it through the city, seeing the Castle and a million other things, and learning how to ride the metros (under ground) and the trams ( above ground) Before we left dinner we were given our first assignment- come prepared tomorrow to do a 15 minute "How to" lesson... I went home and planned my lesson and finally fell asleep around midnight. I haven't been sleeping that well here, but I am hoping that will change- I thinik the pillows are too soft and hurt my neck, so last night I slept with 2 pairs of jeans under my pillows and it helped A LOT.
Today was our 2nd day of class. We arrived and jumped right into some lecturing and "demo" ing of lessons and how to make a lesson plan. We break for lunch between 1-2. There is a nice grassy park (a fav. spot for the homeless guys and also for public urination- which is legal here) but when you can get past that, the park is actually really nice, just stay under your tree, or in the sun and away from the bushes and you are golden. We have been eating lunch with about 8 of the 15 TEFL students so we have really been getting to know eachother, and suprisingly are getting along really well! There is one lady in out class who we think may do coke... or is recovering from rehab- somethign is just a little off- more to come on her later, because SURPRISE- she is in my teaching group.
This afternooon we did our "How to" lessons. Mine was on "How to pour like a pro" so I taught my class a few simple bartending skills. I think mine went well, there are definately things I could have done better once I looked back and did soem self reflecting, but overall not a bad start. We will get our evals. from our instructor back tomorrow. After class we dropped some stuff off at the hotel and Nicole, Kelly and I (2 girls in the hotel who I have gotten to know really well) took teh metro and the tram- ALL BY OURSELVES and went to the mall ( girly) to look for girly things like travel coffee (kava) mugs, and hair straightners (I think I blew mine out...) and wallets. With not much success we had a Mongolian BBQ dinner- sort of like chicken Lo Mein and made our way back home on the metro.
Ok that is probably the longest blog I will ever write... and thats my first 4 days in Prague. The first day I was on the verge of tears, and reallyyy reconsidering my choice to make such a big move at this time in my life. I really miss my family and friends, and after 2 days in class the next month is going to be completely crazy and challenging and I wish you guys were here to support me through my 7 hours of lecture during the day and 3 hours of teaching at night...(yeah that starts next week) but I know you guys are there, and that you do support me and honestly after just 4 quick days... I think I am falling in love with Prague.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
