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September 19th 2010

Published: September 19th 2010

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mgreene10

Our Room

My and Alex's room. I was on the right, he was on the left.

I apologize for the long wait for my next blog, these past few weeks have been ridiculous busy! It’s been more than a month now that I’ve been constantly traveling, be it to Boston, to New York, to the Czech Republic, back and forth between Prague, to Brno, to Moravská Třebová, and now on Thursday, I’m headed to Italy! It’s been a blast, but exhausting at the same time, and I’ve also yet to have steady internet (and won’t have internet in my apartment until the 29th!), so bear with me in the amount of things I’m about to talk about!

Since we last spoke, I’ve been teaching at the medical school. My first week went fairly well, except for the fact that I was very sick. The weather here is naturally much drier than in Rhode Island, given that there’s no ocean to moisten the air, so that was the first attack, and then it’s also already much, much colder than home, to the point that I had to actually buy a jacket (whose tag says it’s a “wind-braker”…c’mon Czechs, at least get a proofreader!). Teaching has been going well, but has not been without its frustrations. The Czech

Our Sitting Area

We were in the main building of the villa, so we had a sitting area in our room, too.

system is drastically different from the American, and students are mostly required just to sit there and listen, though not actually participate, ask questions, etc. As well, students spend somewhere between 4 to 8 years in the same group of roughly 30 kids, so they know each other really well, and the group mentality forces no one to want to stand out, which then fosters this fear of speaking. It’s been difficult because I’ve been trying to ask them questions and get them to talk, but really to no avail. That’s aaaaall about to change, though! We’ll get to that later.

Last week, I went to Libor’s house in his small village named Linhartice right outside of Moravská Třebová in Moravia. His family has been wanting me to visit, and his brother invited me to a little barbeque type thing, so I left Havlíčkův Brod on Thursday and, after a 4 and a half hour ride there, finally arrived, where Libor and Lenka (his 8-year-old sister) picked me up at the train station. The weekend was a lot of fun, and I think really surprising for his family, since Libor rarely had to act as the translator for me.

First Night Out

A picture of most of us before going out the first night to a pub. Pictured are: Jackie (Iowa), Amy (San Diego), Emily (Seattle), JoEllen (Arizona), Alex (Nebraska), Me, Calan (Ashaway/Aspen)

There were times when the topic would be too complicated for me to explain in Czech, or I just wasn’t understanding what someone was saying to me, but for the most part, I understood just about everything and could always get my point across! The barbeque was also a lot of fun, I met his brother’s son who is now 10-months-old and just starting to talk and walk. Everyone there was really nice, and Libor’s brother’s wife’s father taught me how to ride a four-wheeler where I had to shift gears (which is not an easy task, having that explained to you in Czech!). The funny thing was, too, that I actually had to sign the four-wheeler after the fact, and write “USA” under my name, because he was so excited to have met me and talked to me and taught me that. Over the weekend, I was reintroduced to “agro-tourism,” in that it was not exactly the relaxing weekend I’d been envisioning. Instead, since there was now an extra guy to help, Libor’s stepdad decided it was the appropriate time to redo the outside of the house around the front door. There’s apparently a centuries old method of using

Sitting Room

This was outside of my and Alex's room.

this stuff called “malta” in Czech, which you mix sort of like cement, and then slap it onto the house. It’s finally finished by painting it white, which is thus why all the houses in Greece are white (it’s the same method). All day Saturday and all day Sunday were spent doing that, which was quite the experience. Though I didn’t actually have to do the application process, Libor and I were in charge of mixing, etc., and a few other random tasks around the house. On Saturday night, as well, Libor had a soccer game, so I went to that. It wasn’t actually his team, he was only filling in because they’d asked him to, but needless to say, it was one of the worst/funniest games I’ve ever seen, since all the players were so bad. They ended up losing, but it was fun to watch and the scenery was really nice. On Sunday evening, after spending the day putting more malta on the house, Libor’s stepdad drove me back to Havlíčkův Brod with Libor and Lenka, since it only takes about an hour by car and he thought it was ridiculous that I had to take an almost

Upstairs Conference Room

Also outside of our room. We, the English Teaching Assistants and Teachers, had one of our discussions here.

5-hour train-ride. He also came back the week before, I’d moved to my new apartment, but the stove wasn’t working. It’s a gas stove, and apparently just the gas needed to be turned on, but I didn’t know how to do that, so he let did that I can finally cook! He also took me to the store to buy a microwave, so now I have that, too, and slowly, my apartment is coming together. There’re still several more things I need to get, but nothing too pressing as of yet, so I’m content with it for the time being.

Like I said, I got back to Havlíčkův Brod Sunday night, woke up on Monday morning, taught two classes, and then ran to the train station, destination: Prague. I was headed there for our week-long Fulbright orientation, where all the Americans (roughly 23 of us) in the Czech Republic were gathered together. Let me tell you, it was one of the most fun weeks of my life, I had an absolute blast! There are 7 ETAs (English Teaching Assistants), of which I’m one. Then there’s Alex, who was my roommate for the week, who’s from Nebraska, JoEllen from Arizona,

Waiting Room

This is the area where we would meet, etc. Reception is in this room, and you have to go through two other rooms to get here from the front door. It was a big villa.

Rachel from New York City, Jackie from Iowa, Amy from San Diego, and Sujin from New Jersey. There are also three exchange teachers, who are really teachers in the US and swapped with a Czech teacher for the year. They’re Calan, who’s originally from Ashaway and now living in Aspen, Emily from Seattle, and Brock from Ohio. The 10 of us really stuck together for the week (especially me, Alex, Calan, and Emily), and a few of the researchers hung out with us, too, which was great. All in all, I had the best time! We stayed in a villa from the 1800s, and like I said, Alex was my roommate. It was fairly close quarters, as you can tell from the pictures, so needless to say, by the end of the week we’d become good friends. Monday night we had a big dinner celebration, followed on Tuesday by seminars all day about Czech history, culture, art, economy, etc. We spent Tuesday night at the opera in the Old Town of Prague, seeing Don Giovanni by Mozart, in THE theatre where Mozart himself conducted the premiere show! Needless to say, it was amazing. Wednesday and Thursday were spent with seminars

The Staircase

For some reason, Alex and I were really the only ones in the actual villa, everyone else for the most part was out in the back houses (or slave quarters, as they deemed them). Alex and I had the luxury of walking up and down these stairs to get to our room.

during the days, as well, but another highlight came Thursday night: we were invited to a cocktail party at the home of the American ambassador. This is kind of a tricky subject, in that since Obama’s election, there has yet to be an ambassador named to the Czech Republic. Thus, we spent the evening talking to the workers of the US Embassy here in Prague (and all of us asked for jobs in our respective fields…and hey, I even got a card and told to stay in contact!), and it was simply an awesome evening. Our bosses were also invited, and one of mine, the principal from the regular high school, showed up, which was a really nice surprise. He and I got to know each other better throughout the evening, and he actually lives in a city close to Havlíčkův Brod, so wants me to go there and visit so he can show me around there, etc. There’s so much more I could say about the week in Prague, but seeing as I have limited time here, I won’t, but just believe me, I had a great time! On Friday, Alex and I wandered the city in the morning,

The Villa

Our room is on the second floor, the window on the left. Not bad, eh?

as my train wasn’t until noon and his ‘til 3, and then I boarded (with Burger King in hand) and headed back to Havlíčkův Brod. My landlord had told me he was coming on Friday to set up the internet for me, and so he came and drilled and hammered and did a million other things, at the end of which he told me I had to go and make an appointment for someone to come and set up the internet for me. Typical. Anyways, I headed down to the company he told me to go to, and they told me they wouldn’t be able to come until the 29th, which is ridiculously frustrating, as I said, since it’s now more than a month that I haven’t had steady internet, but oh well. Luckily, I’m headed to Italy from Thursday to Tuesday, and the man is coming to set up the internet then the following Wednesday morning at 9am, so for the most part, I won’t be here, and when I return, I’ll have internet (hopefully).

As I said, though, it’s pretty frustrating with the Czech students, since they’ve been so long trained not to interact in class. We,

The Villa

There were also balconies, but we didn't have one.

the American ETAs and teachers, decided in Prague that we’re not able to work within the Czech system, it just doesn’t work with how we’ve been taught, so instead, we’re going to run our classes like Americans, which the students will probably hate. They’ll be doing reading and writing assignments, giving presentations, doing research, etc., all of which is not expected of them at this point by their Czech teachers. You can’t blame them, though, since their country IS only 17-years-old, whereas we’re coming from an almost 300-year-old democracy. That was one of the best parts of being in Prague and in our seminars, as well, was that we really discussed the changes in this region of the world, and how for the past 17 years, the Czech Republic has been a constantly changing and evolving place. I guess that’s one of the reasons I find it so interesting here. About a year and a half ago, the Czechs hated their government, and literally threw them out, creating an interim government and changing many laws that were simply not working. It’s democracy at its most basic form, where the power lies with the people, and the people are very active

At the Opera

Alex, Me, Rachel

and interested in their government. Nowadays, at least in my opinion, in the US, most people would simply talk about wishing for a change, but not take action. Here, you never know what might happen, it’s all still so new to them. Anyways, I’ve started doing my own thing for my classes, and am going to teach them the only way that I know how (which granted, is next to nothing, seeing as I’m not trained, but based on what I’ve seen of my teachers in the past), and so they might not like it, but tough! Even the Fulbright office in Prague (which is comprised solely of Czechs) told us that that’s what we should be doing, as the students here need to see what it’s like to be an American student, and see what it’s like to work hard.
Alright, well, I think I’ve rambled on enough, and caught you up with the latest happenings of life here in the Czech Republic. As I said, I’m headed to Italy on Thursday, and will be teaching up until then (Tuesday is actually my first day at the regular high school), so I might not be in contact until next