my studying is getting in the way of my abroad.

I realized I haven't said much about my school life here in Brno, so this (short!) post will be dedicated to just that: what my schooling is like. But first let me tell you what my schooling is NOT like. My education here is not that of a typical Erasmus (international) student.

The typical Erasmus life consists of sleeping in until 2 or 3, maybe going to class (if you feel like it) then staying out all night drinking pivo (beer). Class is just a nice time filler when you happen to wake up earlier than the parties start. The teachers of the typical Erasmus courses don't take attendance (appalling, right MC people!?) they don't give homework (WHAT?!) and usually instead of a final exam, you are required to write one paper for the whole course. It is basically a joke. Most students don't even go to class.

My life, however, is strikingly different. I am only enrolled in one of the "Erasmus" courses (Modern Czech Theater) and it really is a joke. We have three different professors that alternate each week, we meet once a week for 90 minutes, and for the whole course, we just have to write one paper on any topic related to theater. That's it. Crazy. The other normal class I am in is my Czech Language class. It is a little more challenging, mostly because it is a language course and if you don't go to class, you don't learn the grammar (obviously I learn plenty of vocab outside of class, given that my life is like one giant flashcard). We only have 1 exam for class at the end of the semester, but if we don't pass it, we don't pass the class. Last semester 45% of the class failed. But I'm really not too worried. I enjoy the class and I make an effort to go and learn something, so I'm already ahead of about 90% of the other students who don't care one way or the other.

Since I am taking the CELTA course, I have a much different set of expectations given me by my "tutors" (professors, basically). We are required to attend every class, which only meets on Wednesdays from 9am until 4:30 pm. If we miss one class (or even one section of one class) we fail the whole course. Unless we are on our death bed. In which case we fail sooner. Once a week we have what is called TP (and yes, I did double check my acronym accuracy this time!) which stands for Teaching Practice. We are required to teach 6 hours, 3 to upper-intermediate students and 3 to elementary students of English. We are observed during our TPs and given a pass/fail for each lesson we teach. We are also given a pass/fail for each lesson plan we make. We are only allowed to fail one part of one lesson (either the plan or the execution). Each lesson is 40 minutes long, with the exception of the midterm and final lessons, which are both 60 minutes. There are several other things required of us, but I won't go on. You get the idea.

Anyways, yesterday I had my midterm TP and let me tell you - It was exhausting. I was required to teach 4 narrative tenses enough for the students to be able to tell their own narrative using the 4 tenses properly. The students are upper-intermediate and are a lot of fun to teach, so that helps. Unfortunately, my knowledge of English grammar is quite shallow. So I spent 8 hours on Monday and about 4 more on Tuesday researching and preparing myself for questions on past simple (I worked), past perfect (I had worked) past continuous (I was working) and past perfect continuous (I had been working). In the end, I passed both parts of the lesson and am now preparing to climb mount everest. Because I feel like I could do that now. hahaha. The sad part, though, is that was my last time teaching the upper-intermediate class because no we switch and teach 4 lessons to the elementary students. This is going to be especially challenging for me because, well, I tend to talk a lot. And that is no good for students who can't quite yet understand the language well enough to understand a rambler. So it's going to be a good challenging few weeks.

All that to say, I am really enjoying my education here, as grueling as it is (and as much crap as I get from other students asking me why I am actually going to class and doing homework all the time..). I'm really looking forward to the end result and have already started looking online at job opportunities for teaching English. I've realized lately a restlessness in my heart to know more of the people of the world. Every Wednesday at the country presentations, I am reminded at how huge the world is and how many different kind of people there are and my heart does all these crazy things inside when I think about them all. I really want to know people who are different than me. And I know God is preparing so many awesome adventures for my life (with my husband!) in the near and distant future, so that's exciting. Also I'm getting married. Which is awesome. :)

Here are a few pictures of how I spent my Monday afternoon....