Keeping in Czech with Erica

What I love about living and teaching in the Czech Republic (in no particular order).

1. I love that I don't need a car!
I love that I know exactly how much time it will take me to get somewhere and that it ALWAYS takes that much time. If I walk somewhere today and it takes 10 minutes, guess what it will take 10 minutes tomorrow, and when I take the number 11 to church on Sundays it will always take 16 minutes...what I'm getting at is that there is no traffic! WAHOO! This city girl loves that! I get to live in a perfect for me sized city, in downtown no less, and I don't have to deal with traffic. YES! For those of you who are thinking you can't imagine having to take public transportation, don't think about Dallas and the "train" that takes an hour and a half to get to downtown Dallas from Denton, when the drive is half an hour. I'm sure having a car is a little faster than the trams and buses here, but not by much, especially when you factor in traffic. The public transportation in Ostrava is pretty sophisticated. There are rarely any problems, and if there is an accident or construction they change all of the schedules to let you know and organize different connections and even have workers available to help guide you in the right direction.

2. No judgement.
While the apathy of Czechs has many negative effects, it also has some good ones. For example, nobody cares what you do, at all. So, in emergency/difficult situations that sucks. But in everyday life it's great. I feel like I can do anything! I can be naked in front of other people at the spa and pool (a cultural norm), I can be in the front of the class in Zumba, I can dance in a club looking ridiculous and no one cares! It's the best feeling ever, really. For example, I cannot carry a tune to save my life, but guess what?! I could become a professional singer...there are plenty of people whose songs are played on the radio in CZ that shouldn't be, and plenty of local bands that have no talent at all...but that's the beauty of it! No one is going to tell you you can't do something.

3. Going in peace.
I am around hundreds of people everyday, at any given moment I'm surrounded by 30 or so people...on public transportation, on the streets, in shops. But the best part for this introvert is that no one talks to anyone. And if someone does talk to you, something is wrong...sometimes they need directions, but more often than not they're crazy. I can go to work and come home surrounded by people yet not having to interact, it's perfect down time after a long day.

4. The ability to live in the present.
In Dallas life is SO fast-paced. I had my days completely booked and did a million things in one day, saw so many people, and yes my schedule is up to me, but it's also what everyone else does too. However, here life is much slower, if I get to the grocery store at all I consider it a productive day. Time here is spent with people rather than getting stuff done. Lunch at the weekends lasts for 3 or 4 hours, you eat, then relax and have some coffee, then go for a walk, it's a whole afternoon affair. There are tons of cafes and tea houses in the city where you can sit for hours, relax and talk with friends, read a book etc. When you meet with someone (unless it's during the middle of a work day) they are really there with you, they don't check their phone every two minutes, they don't keep looking at their watch thinking about their next commitment. They are just there with you and it's like there is nothing else they'd rather be doing. Life is slow and I like it.

5. "The Nature"
I said it like my students always say it. Me: "What did you guys do last weekend" Students: "We spent time in the nature". When they mean is the countryside, in the mountains, basically outside somewhere in this beautiful country. Ostrava is really close to the mountains, I don't go as often as I would like, but I did climb the highest mountain in the range last year. While it was the hardest physical thing I'd ever done in my life, it was some of the most beautiful countryside I'd ever seen in my life. There are so many nice villages near Ostrava, it's so easy to hop on a train and take a day trip somewhere to see a castle, get away from the city noise, go for a walk...it really is a beautiful country.

6. So these are what seasons are!
Yes, I'm now speaking about the weather. While the winters here are very cold and long, it's not the cold that bothers me, it's the lack of sun. In the dead of winter we only have 8 hours of daylight (more like twilight with the clouds and smog. The sun rises at 8am and it's completely dark by 4pm. All things considered, I do prefer the climate here rather than in Dallas. In a years time I actually experience all 4 seasons (and when they are supposed to happen, not in one week like in TX). When it's warm outside you can actually be outside without feeling your skin fry. You can go to the park and lie in the grass without having to worry about fire ants or any ants for that matter. All the restaurants and cafes have outdoor seating. Fall lasts a while and all the leaves turn different colors, not just brown. I'm just in awe.

7. Lines, or lack there of.
Most days the fact that Czechs can't make a line or wait in one to save their life drives me crazy. However, last year when I was home (in America) I saw a huge benefit to not having lines. We all know the person who has had plenty of time to think about what they want while they were waiting in line but then gets to the front of the line and still doesn't know what they want and takes their precious little time. Meanwhile we get to stand there and wait even if we already know what we want and it's only one tiny little thing and it will only take two seconds. They were there first, therefore we get to wait no matter how long it takes. In contrast, here in CZ there aren't lines. That means if I am the closest one to the counter but someone standing behind me knows what they want before I do, they can go around me. Yes, it used to make me so angry and sometimes it still does, but once you get the hang of it and realize you don't have to wait behind the slowest person ever either, it's quite nice. :)

8. Ostrava is 3 hours from everywhere.
If I wanted to I could visit 3 different countries, use 3 different languages and 3 different currencies all in one day. I am less than 30 minutes from the border of Poland, I can get to the capitol city of Slovakia in less than 3 hours, I can get to Vienna, Austria in 3ish hours. It's awesome! One time I visited a village one of my students lives in and we walked to Poland! HA! How many people can say they walked to a different country and back in one afternoon. I also love getting to live downtown. There is always something happening. In the warmer months there is frequently people playing music in the streets, some music festival happening somewhere, outdoor concerts. There are a lot of museums and once a year there is museum night where all the museums are open for free and they have special events happening all throughout the night and free transportation to all the museums. We also live across the street from a famous party street, something like 6th street in Austin, and there's always something to do there. It' a great life!

9. Say what?
This is about learning the Czech language. While Czech is a seriously hard language and I think I set myself up for failure by making this my first foreign language attempt, I do enjoy speaking and learning the language. I can't imagine how I sound to Czech people, but I'm grateful for the ones that make an effort to understand me. It's very hard to go from being an educated adult with a college degree to a place where you are essentially mute and illiterate. So when you do things as simple as ordering the correct thing on the menu, going to the foreign police (who don't speak English), asking for directions, going to the pharmacy and explaining a problem you're having and then paying for some unknown drug and then going home and translating everything and realizing you got exactly what you needed, are all causes for a HUGE celebration!

10. Teaching
If anyone, during any point of my life in America would have asked me if I wanted to be a teacher I would have said, "No way!". I remember how we treated our teachers in school, and yes I was in the "bad" class, but still. I was also afraid of dealing with parents. Especially after working at a day care with 2 year olds and how those parents were already crazy, I couldn't imagine how they would be once their child started going to actual school. I honestly don't think I even ever considered the idea or what it would really look like.
Anyways, all that to say that I moved across the world and started teaching. I can honestly say it was the best thing I've ever done. I love love love teaching. But the irony is that it is so hard for me. It's very challenging. You get all sorts of crazy questions (and in CZ culture your expected to be an expert on whatever you're teaching and if you don't know the answer you're often times written off as stupid), you can plan your lesson down to the minute and then walk in the classroom and the board has been taken away or the CD player is broken and you have to be flexible and come up with a new plan on the spot (so not easy for me), you can be given a class of 2nd graders who don't understand any English besides vocabulary words from various topics and be expected to teach them how to speak English and control their behavior all in Czech :), you can be given a group of youth students with levels varying from not being able to make a sentence to being able to have a fluent conversation with me in English and be expected to teach them from the same text book. I'll never be a perfect teacher, I'll never know all the answers to every single question. It's so so hard. Yet...
I don't have to worry about my students' parents because they don't speak English. HA! I am lucky enough to be working for a Christian language school that has the same values as me and encourages us to build relationships with our students and allows me to keep my same classes from year to year. My classes with Fishnet are small, meaning manageable (the elementary school is a different story...but it's getting better). Every year I teach the same thing, English, yet there are so many methods and games and activities and ideas for how to teach English that it never gets boring, there is always something new to learn and always something to improve on.

And possibly the coolest thing about living in Europe is being exposed to so many different languages and cultures all the time and realizing that God is so big and He created them all and understands everyone all the time. I absolutely love love love worshiping in Czech..it's the coolest thing ever! It just reminds me of how big God is and how every tongue, tribe and nation will bow to Him one day...oh what a glorious day that will be!

Hello all,

It's that time of year. I've stopped teaching for the year. I finally have time to catch up on the things that fall by the wayside during the school year.

C and S have left to go to America for Christmas. B and I are here chilling, getting the rest of our Christmas shopping done, eating and baking sweets...

Nothing new to report really, I still really like teaching although this year has been filled with all sorts of new challenges. Teaching children who do not speak English, AWESOME. Having the majority of my hours be with bigger groups of students at an elementary school which some of them definitely don't want to be at. I never really thought classroom management was something I needed to learn how to do. But, this year I have learned it and it is working, it's just SO exhausting to enforce the same rules EVERY class...i don't understand how they forget the rules from the day or week before. Oh and follow through...it makes me tired just talking about it....zzz.....zzzz.....

I'm planning on spending Christmas with the same family I have the past two years. They have been such a blessing to me and make me feel like I have a family at a time that I really miss mine. I can't wait to see my friend's little niece...she is just so cute! ;) And the rest of the family is great too :)

Not sure about what to do for New Years yet...

Here is a pic of all of us roommies (+D, who I know looks like he belongs to me in this picture but he doesn't, he is S's) in downtown Vienna, it was really cold but SO beautifully decorated for Christmas. We took a day there to visit the Christmas markets, which turned into just experiencing all different kinds of food since all of the stuff people were selling was SO expensive! Boo Euros...