Advertisement
Published: October 23rd 2010
Teachers' Room
Where I spend my Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have free periods at the Gymnazium.Nazdar!
It’s been a little while since my last update, but this past week has been so absolutely insane that this is my first time to sit down and have a few free minutes to do something besides work, etc. Well, here we go.
Last Friday morning, I hopped on the train and started my four hour journey into the east. Although Havlíčkův Brod lies right along the stretch between Prague and Brno (almost in the dead center, to be exact), the train connections here are otherwise atrocious. I can get to Prague and Brno very easily, there are trains leaving every two hours, but otherwise, it takes a while to get anywhere else (since I typically have to go to either Prague or Brno and then connect). Anyways, I headed down to my favorite city in the Czech Republic, lovely ol’ Brno, and there connected onto a second train, destination: Ostrava.
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic, and is in the northeast of the country on the Polish border and close to Slovakia. It is not known for being the most beautiful city in the world (but since the Revolution has improved drastically).
Czech Classroom
This can be considered high technology, given that there's a computer, a projector, and a TV. Many don't have those. It is more or less an industrial city, above all for coal-mining. Czechs from outside the region say the people there are impossible to understand since they talk so fast and don’t even speak Czech, more of a weird combination of Czech-Slovak-Polish.
Anyways, at about 2:30 on Friday, I rolled into Ostrava’s main station expecting to meet my friend Martin, who is also Libor’s cousin. Due to some minor miscommunication, he had actually gone to a different train station in Ostrava to pick me up, so I hung out at the one I was at for a little while until he could come and get me. It was great, though! Like I said, Ostrava’s the third biggest city, and right outside the train station is one of the stops for the tram. People were walking around everywhere, the trams and buses were cruising around, I knew instantly I was going to like Ostrava.
Well, Martin met me, and we headed out into the city! It was very interesting because Ostrava grew out of several villages that came together into one city. It’s still sort of like that, in a sense, because the area where Martin studies, Poruba, is
Czech Classroom
They sit two to a desk. about a 20-25 minute tram-ride from the center of the city, and on that stretch, you literally are riding through the trees down a highway, which was pretty wild to experience, given that we were in a big city. Since I’d gone to the main train station, though, we decided it was easiest to see the center of the city while we were already there. We headed first and foremost to a street called Stodolní. This is probably the most famous street in the Czech Republic, as it’s maybe a quarter of a mile, and as we walked along it, Martin and I counted 63 bars/pubs/restaurants/clubs. Needless to say, it’s frequented most often by the exchange students in Ostrava. Martin said, though, that he’s only been there twice in his four years of studying in Ostrava, mostly since it’s so far away from his university, and also that it’s so touristy. Anyways, we wandered down it during the day, so nothing was open, seeing as most of the doors had signs saying their hours were from something like “23-7,” so 11 o’clock at night to 7am.
After seeing Stodolní, we headed to city hall, which was a massive building
A Teacher's Life
In the midst of grading. with a huge tower. We went up to the top of the tower, where there’s a catwalk that overlooks the entire city. Unfortunately, due to its industrial history and industry still today, Ostrava is nicknamed černá dzungle, the black jungle, and slunce nikdy nesvítí v Ově, the sun never shines in Ostrava. There’s typically a fair amount of smog hanging over the city, but the weather wasn’t great when I was there (it rotated between raining and not raining), so there was even less visibility. Martin pointed out the major sites to me from the tower, though, and the city itself is huge. It’s almost the same size as Brno, but has almost 100,000 people less, so it’s spread over a large area. At the base of the tower, too, there was the informational office for the city. There, they had a big map on the wall entitled ODKUD JSTE? (Where are you from?) It was a map of the world, and there were small flags stuck into it which people had put there for wherever they were from. There had yet to be anyone there from RI, CT, or MA, so of course I got a little American flag
Klaus
All rooms in Czech schools are required to have a picture of the president, Vaclav Klaus. pin and stuck it in on Westerly. First RIer in Ostrava!
After that, it was approaching dinnertime, so we made the hike with the tram out to Poruba, and I got my first taste of being back in a dorm and not being a student. Believe you me, it was kind of a strange feeling. It’s been quite the experience so far to have switched sides in the classroom, and so going to Martin’s room, which was naturally full of books and things he was working on (he’s a biomedical engineering major dealing with the way computers and technology can interact with the human body, and the types of therapy that can be developed through reading signals from the body), it was a strange realization to think that I don’t have to do any of that anymore, that I have no deadlines! Czech dorms are also very different from American ones. Theirs are fairly slim, almost like a hallway, but divided into two rooms. You walk in the door, and you’re in a room with cabinets and a little stove, and then there’s the second room, where are the beds (bunked) and the desks. Martin’s room is made for
Park Budoucnost
"Park of the Future," the park in the middle of Havlickuv Brod. Unfortunately, you can't tell how colorful it all is. two, but there are actually three of them in there. At that time, he only had one roommate, who had gone home for the weekend, but unfortunately a third moved in on Monday. There’s also a shared bathroom and shower with the room next to them, so the whole thing is laid out like an H. Martin cooked dinner for us, which was fantastic ‘cause he’s a really good cook, and then we headed out to meet two of the Fulbrighters who are in Ostrava, JoEllen and John. It was fun to speak some real English, and we sat in a café for a few hours and chatted.
On Saturday, Martin and I headed out once again into the center of the city. He showed me one of Ostrava’s main squares (there are actually three…remember, it was several villages that came together into one city), and the square itself was roughly the size of Havlíčkův Brod. After that, we went to Librex, a 5-story tall bookstore. There, I finally got a Czech textbook, which is actually a continuation of the one I used in Austria. I’ve looked in the bookstores here in Havlíčkův Brod, but it’s so small that
Park Budoucnost
A building among the trees. I don’t think they expect foreigners to be here, so naturally they don’t have anything for foreigners. Martin and I then headed to Ostrava’s castle, where there was a medieval festival going on.
The festival was really cool, and the castle was really nice. There was a band singing up on stage (and they later came to serenade us in their time off), and there were people dressed like they were from the Middle Ages. Around the courtyard of the castle were little stands, some Czech, some Slovak, where you could buy different types of traditional food, clothes, or other little knickknacks. We wandered around a little bit, and then got a trdelník, one of the specialties of the Czechs, and sat down to eat. A trdelník is dough that’s wrapped around a spinning tube and allowed to cook, and then they put cinnamon and powdered sugar on top. I’m sure there’s more to it, but it is fantastic (and they’re also always pretty cheap). As we sat there enjoying our trdelníky, the band came over to where we were. We were actually kind of out of the way in an aside corner of the courtyard, and the band
City Walls
These are the old walls that surround the main part of the city, which were constructed between 1310 and 1350. just started singing and playing songs there. I took a video of one, so you can hear and see it, especially if you recognize the song.
After having seen all the things at the castle, we headed back into the city. Though neither of us were very hungry after the trdelník, we stumbled upon a restaurant that was offering their Saturday special of buy one pizza, get the second free. We decided we couldn’t pass it up, and so we went in and each had a pizza (remember, in Europe, you order your own pizza). We then just went back to Martin’s and hung out until the evening, when we met JoEllen and John and got a drink. On Friday night, we had mostly spoken English, though Martin hadn’t said much. He’s never actually learnt English, he’s only picked it up through traveling, which is amazing. He said he was nervous to speak to us in English on Friday night, but on Saturday night, we had a lot of fun since the three Americans spoke Czech, and he spoke in English to us. Needless to say, the waitress was very confused, especially when Martin ordered in English.
On
Tower
One of the look-out towers as part of the city walls. Sunday, Martin and I headed to the train station (this time in Poruba), and I bordered the train to make the four hour trek back to Havlíčkův Brod. The weekend was overall an absolute blast. I spoke almost entirely in Czech the entire time (except with JoEllen and John), and Martin started speaking more English with me. Now, he, JoEllen, and John are actually starting to meet once a week so they can practice Czech and he can practice English, which is really great.
This week otherwise has been very hectic. I taught from Monday to Thursday as usual, but then had something to do every night, so have been going nonstop. On Monday night, Hana, Monika, and I went to spinning as usual, and then on Tuesday night I met Aleš, one of the teachers from the Gymnázium who I was in Italy with, for a drink. He actually lives in the building next to me, so we went to a nearby pub. It was a great time, and he actually told me that he would be my Czech teacher (since he’s a Czech teacher at the Gymnázium, but for Czechs, of course, so like an English teacher
Memorial
The sign at the bottom says that this is the site where four primary school boys were killed by the Germans in 1944 when their papers were collected and things weren't "in order." Two were 12, one was 13, the last was 14. in our schools). He’s never taught a foreigner, but wants to try, so I gave him my textbook and we’re going to start meeting so I can learn more. On Wednesday evening, I met some of the teachers from the Gymnázium at a nearby pub for a drink, and I talked to a geography teacher there. She just taught a bit about North America, and asked me if I’d go to one of her classes at some point and talk more about North America, being a North American. I of course said I’d love to, but there was indeed a catch. She told me that while I could talk in English, her students are younger (sophomores), so they might not understand as well. Thus, I’ll soon be running my first class entirely in Czech, which is more than a little bit terrifying. She says she thinks I can do it, though, so we’ll see! I had to leave the pub early, though, since some of the teachers from the Zdravotka (medical school) had organized a dinner for me at a local restaurant. What I had not realized, though, was that it is the nicest restaurant in Havlíčkův Brod, so you
Smetana
A statue for Smetana, one of the greatest Czech composers. can imagine that I went more than a little bit underdressed. Such is life! It was fun, though, and the principal of the school also came, so she and I chatted mostly in Czech, but she’s also learning English so talked to me a little in English, too. I got to know some of the teachers who I don’t often see a bit better, so that was good. After that, I went back to meet the other teachers from the Gymnázium at the pub, and though most of them had left, there were still a few, so we sat and had a drink. Thursday night, I met one of the teachers from the Gymnázium for a drink, as well, but of the non-alcoholic variety, which is a bit odd in the Czech Republic. Why, you ask? In less than a month, she’ll be having a baby, so it kind of eliminates alcohol from the equation. She’s one of the English teachers at the Gymnázium, but is on maternity leave for the year and was afraid she was losing her English, so she asked to go out with me for a little. It was great, and her English was perfect, and
Good ol' Czech Names
Take a guess what play this is. we had a really fun time. Yesterday was my first day off, but there was no rest for the weary! In the morning, I went to the book fair, which is one of the most famous in the Czech Republic. It's so famous, in fact, that the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, was there, but I didn't see him. He just wrote a book so was signing copies. One of the teachers from the Gymnázium (who was actually my roommate in Italy) also organizes floorball on Friday afternoons, and he invited me to come and play. It’s very similar to indoor hockey, but without contact and at a much faster pace. It’s one of the largest played sports in the Czech Republic, and was a lot of fun. Some of my students were there, so it was nice to get to interact with them in a different environment. I spoke to them in Czech, too, which I think was a big relief to them (they were mostly my younger students, so are still learning the basics). The game was absolutely exhausting, but like I said, a lot of fun, so I think I’m going to go more often
Brno's Train Station
I love this sign in Brno's train station. It's in Czech, Russian, and German. now. Unfortunately, this group meets on Fridays, and most Fridays I’m not in Havlíčkův Brod (it’s crazy, my next 2 months are booked every weekend!), but when I’m here, I’ll definitely go. Several of my students play on other days, though, and have offered to teach me, so I’ll go with them to learn more.
That’s about it for now. Things here have been hectic, and still are, but so it goes. Better too much than too little! On Tuesday afternoon, I’m taking the train to Prague to meet Calan and Alex, and on Wednesday morning, our next adventure begins. We’re flying from Prague to Sofia, Bulgaria, where we’re renting a car and driving around the Balkans for a few days. We’re shooting to hit as many countries as possible between Wednesday and Sunday. Thursday, October 28, is Czechoslovak Independence Day, meaning the fall of the Habsburg Empire and the beginning of Czechoslovakia, so we have Wednesday and Friday off as part of our fall vacation. Not too shabby, eh? I’ll talk to you all soon after my next adventures!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 37; dbt: 0.0446s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
