Chapter 3: Jess

A few days have passed and have been really great. Sunday was the second day of our orientation--not just orientation as in getting to know the people in our course and getting to know what the course is about, but also orientation of the city. I'm starting to get the hang of the public transportation system, getting the hang of walking around and finding landmarks, and also figuring out where various cafes are. The thing about cafes here is that so many of them open late! I'm used to being able to get coffee at 6:00 AM if I want to; it will be an adjustment waiting for 10:00 so that coffeehouses are open. I have also spent the most money on a single cup of coffee than I ever have before. Steve and I went to Cafe Kafka because, well, we had to, and for an 8 oz. latte, I spent 99 CZK. That's about $5.00. Since Kafka was the poet of shame and humiliation, I'm sure he would have approved of the shame I felt shilling out those Czech coins.

Aside from ridiculously expensive coffee, we did get to do a beer tasting at a beer museum--it was a lot of fun and a lot of beer. Learned that there is a town in the Czech Republic called Budweise which has, of course, been making beer for hundreds of years, much longer than Anhauser-Busch. Due to Anhauser-Busch using the name "Budweiser" for it's trademark beer, every time the company goes to purvey the traditional 'Merican beer in another country, there is a legal battle over the name; the number of legal battles is inordinate. I think it was somewhere in the 70's. So "Budweiser" on menus here usually means beer from Budweise. "Bud Light" is used for the other, less good beer. Also, there is a dark beer here called "Merlin." Simply magical.

Some of the beers we got to taste. The dark one is Merlin.

The first day of class was a lot of fun--we played a lot of games, but each one had plenty of underlying pedagogy. The course is extremely dense, which only makes sense considering we are learning to teach English to non-native speakers in a mere 4 weeks. We actually got to teach real students today--day 4! It was only a short 15 minute thing consisting of an icebreaker and short activity, but still. Day 4! The level I teach is pre-intermediate, so not beginner, but not intermediate. So, I'm still not totally sure what that means, but it went well. I'll have the opportunity to teach higher-level students later, and maybe fresh students, too. It's going to be fun!

We don't have to teach tomorrow, but at the beginning of next week, we will all be teaching 45 minute lessons. Our first task is to teach lexis, so between 7-10 new words. I don't know what theme I want to teach--I'm between weddings, cooking, superheroes, bars/dating, and music. Quite the spread. So we teach every day except for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the next three weeks. When they said this class was intensive, they were not kidding.

After class on Monday, we walked around the city, across Charles Bridge, and walked to the John Lennon Wall. 

On Charles Bridge

Some of the group by the John Lennon Wall

In other news, I tried rabbit for the first time. It was okay.

I took two shots of traditional Czech spirits, Becherovka. It's 38%. Take from that what you will.

I should mention that part of my "getting the hang of the public transportation system" includes me getting on the wrong tram and ending up on the wrong side of the Vltava River and then wandering around for 45 minutes trying to get to where I need to be, using my horrible bastardized Czech to try and ask people for directions and trying to read a Czech map. However, I do, indeed, know the city better and now know that team 9 is not the tram I need!

Finally, I learned that many Czechs like to use the word "fantasy" to mean "idea." That makes me ineffably happy.