Příští zastávka: Nevime!

It has been quite the week.

To spare you all the trouble of reading something outrageously long, I have so thoughtfully organized the past week into bullet points. For those of you hoping to avoid a few minutes of work by reading this, I have elaborated directly below each bullet point. Whichever option you choose to partake in, I will be blissfully ignorant, so have no fear of reprimand :)

That being said, here is February 22-March 1 in a nutshell...



1. Tried to learn the difference between low self-esteem, lacking self-confidence, and insecurity.

I can't really elaborate much on this. I needed to know the differences and be able to explain them in simple English so my Czech students would understand. The problem? It's really hard to explain something you're not really sure of yourself... The result? Let's just say.. I hope I never have to do it again ;)

2. Taught a group of confused Czechs how to analyze each other's signatures.
On Tuesday I had my first *REAL* english lesson for class. My lesson was all about graphology and learning how to interpret a person's signature. It was pretty fun and the tutor (my boss who observes our lessons and critiques every little detail) was astounded that I was able to make the students laugh at my jokes. Unfortunately, I talk way too much and am no good at giving directions. Luckily it was just the first one and I have plenty more tries to get it right :)


3. Learned that pronunciation is key and spent 3 hours figuring out that evidently I know nothing about proper pronunciation.

Wednesdays are pretty killer. I have class from 9 until 4:30. Which, I realize, it not much different than every day of my life from kindergarten to high school graduation. But I'm older and wiser now and know that 9-4:30 classes are absurdly and simply too long. Fortunately, our teachers are very kind and allow us several breaks throughout the day. By the end, though, my brain is usually on the fritz and my level of English language reception and production is dramatically reduced as a result of hours (and hours, and hours, and hours) of analysis, critique, study, analysis, critique, practice, analysis... Who knew our language could be so complex? Not to mention the fact that most Europeans learn British English, so us Americans are having to learn very important distinctions between our mother tongue (haha i love that phrase) and the British version. See my comment on "pants" in a previous post if you need an explanation as to why this is so important.


4. Learned that the center of Europe is in Lithuania (and they have a sign to prove it).

Wednesday night country presentations are one of my favorite things. Apart from the nudity and alcohol that is showing up to be quite the trend, they are pretty fascinating. I really do feel that I've lived a pretty sheltered life, at least in terms of knowing anything about European countries. Last Wednesday's presentations were on Lithuania, Hungary, and Australia. The only problem is, after learning so much about all these different countries, it just makes me want to go to them all. Which is only a problem because my weekends are rapidly filling up and I am almost out of time left for traveling!


5. Realized that living here has made me very frugal and $25 for a round trip bus ticket to Slovakia is too expensive.

Friday afternoon, a group of us went down to the student agency bus to buy tickets for a day trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We soon found out that tickets were over 500 crowns ($25) and 5 of us agreed that that was too expensive (after all, Vienna only cost us $20 and it is bigger and more popular!) We didn't want to stay in Brno, though, so after a heated conversation with the ticket lady (she was not pleased to be speaking in English) we decided to come back at 7 the next morning and hope for open seats aboard a bus to Olomouc (a small town just outside Brno that is said to be quite beautiful) We knew we were taking a chance (travelers to Ostrava were given priority for seats on the bus to Olomouc (Olomouc was just a stop along the way to Ostrava) and those wanting to stop in Olomouc could only buy tickets an hour before departure if there were any left) We woke up bright and early and trekked to Hlavni nadrazi (the main station) only to find out there were 5 of us and only 3 seats left. Not only that, but all other buses were either A.Full, B.Too Expensive or C.Didn't leave for another 3 hours at the earliest. We were not giving up. We walked across town to another bus station (a little less glamorous and a lot more sketchy) and decided we would just board the first bus that was departing and cheap. The winner? A bus that was to leave 2 minutes later headed for Jihlava. We had no idea what that was, but we knew it must not be too lame because even the student agency buses went there. We climbed aboard and settled in, unsure how long the trip was going to take. About 45 minutes later, the bus slowed to a stop in a very small, very shabby looking town. We waited to see if other people got off (Jihlava was supposedly the final stop) and decided this must not be our stop since only 3 people left. 15 minutes later and another stop. More people got off and from what we could tell, the bus would not be continuing on so we got off...

Which brings me to:


6. Spent the day thinking we were in a city we actually had never arrived in.

For the first 3 or so hours of our time in "Jihlava" we ate breakfast, saw the sights (we literally could stand in one place, turn 360 degrees, and see everything worth seeing according to the big, booming tourist map in the center of town), bought some dried fruit, window shopped, and played in a game store. We knew the last bus would be coming at 5, so around 4 we started heading that way (there was also going to be a bus at 420 and we thought we might try to catch that one) Once at the bus station, we realized we hadn't been in Jihlava after all... In fact, Jihlava was still another 30 km or so away. Oops. We ALSO realized that the bus didn't actually come at 4:20. Or 5. or even 6 for that matter. The next bus wouldn't be coming until 6:35. So we waited. And laughed. And waited some more. And stood in awkward silence as the romeo and juliet couple stuck their tongues down each other's throats (Czechs are NOT shy about PDA. Makes for some awkward situations) The bus finally did come, we boarded it, and arrived back in Brno with a few pictures, full bellies, and a lot of laughs at our own expense. Even though we didn't make it to Bratislava, or Olomouc, or even Jihlava, it was really fun and we were all glad to just be outside of Brno and the responsibilities that have attached themselves to it.











Trying to convince Rachel that the bus WILL come and she doesn't need to swim back!





Some monument. We have no clue what it is for.





The tourist map. All the things you see on here were literally filled less than a block of space.

7. Sang Czech songs with homeless people.

Sunday mornings at Armáda spásy (salvation army) church are so sweet. They are really long (after all, we are basically getting two services - 1 in czech and 1 in english!) but so cool. We basically start out by singing a couple songs (in czech!) and then either Christa or Petr (the couple that runs the Brno Armáda spásy) read from one of the Psalms, then a few more songs (in czech!) and then a time of prayer (in whatever language the people who choose to pray speak!) and a few more songs (again, in czech!) then a time where people can share ways they've seen God working in their lives (it's so sweet. this one lady always stands up, goes to the microphone and shares a story about physical ways God works in her life. This week she shared about how God healed the throbbing pain in her leg) a couple more songs (you guessed it, in czech!) and then the actual sermon (in Czech AND English!) My favorite part is when people share their God sightings because most of the people are homeless and it's really humbling to hear them praising God for such small things as healing an ache in their leg or one guy even talked about how thankful he was for missionaries around the world. It's just really neat, but hard to explain. I also really love the singing parts because not only is it cool to hear Czechs worship the same God I worship (sometimes even with the same songs I've sung back in the states!) but it's very helpful in my attempt to learn the Czech language. Especially because I am learning more meaningful words like Bůh (God) and svatý (Holy) and milenka or milujeme (love or we love you).

8. Spiked a volleyball in a French boy's face.

This afternoon I ventured out to the gym near the town center with a couple friends. Today was absolutely beautiful (THE SUN WAS SHINING!!) and the overall feelings of lethargy were overpowered by the energizing of the sunshine. We ended up playing a game of volejbal (volleyball) with a bunch of other students (both Erasmus (other-European) and Czech) It was really fun, but now my arms have bruises all over them from the rock hard volejbal. Also, I'm really not that great and at one point in the game, I got overzealous and spiked the ball as hard as I could, sending it straight into the eye socket of one of the French boys. Oops. Luckily, he took it as an accident (or was it..haha just kidding) and from that point on, the boys knew not to mess with me. So all in all, it was a pretty successful adventure :)

9. Indulged my body in the art of yoga.

After volejbal, there was an hour long yoga-for-beginners session down the road from Vinarska, so a bunch of us went to try it out (also, my friend Sarah that teaches with me was the instructor so we wanted to support her). It was pretty intense, but really refreshing after the intensity of the volejbal courts!

10. Indulged my taste buds in several delectable dishes.

I am continuing to culture my pallet with a variety of tasty foods and thought, rather than telling you, I would just show you some of the delicious things I've passed down my gullet...






Plum-filled dumplings.





The Korean food Jeongmin taught us how to make (with limited access to authentic Korean cooking ingredients) The one on the right was reaaally spicy, that's why it looks so different.





Pasta with spinach and tomatoes (it's amazing how great *REAL* vegetables can taste after having been filled with so much cabbage and bread.





Some sort of yummy cake from the mystery town.





Another cake from mystery town.


And here are some other random pictures for your viewing pleasure...





girls night out!





We live the high life in Vinarska :)





Stephanie ordered a "Peach Shake" and they gave her this disgusting drink instead. We decided it tasted like a bowl full of Musli (sort of like granola) with milk poured over it and left out on the counter for a few weeks, then chilled. She tried to convince us she kind of liked it. So we called her Grandma Stephanie. This was her reaction :)





Jeongmin puts tabasco sauce on EVERYTHING. We asked her if she thought she could drink it straight. Her response? "Why not??"





haha. i know this doesn't really fit with the rest of the blog. but it's funny. isn't he cute?? :) this is what happens when sam and i are forced to skype at strange hours in the day. mostly really late for him and really early for me. oh, 6 hour time differences...

oh,
and also,

sam and i are getting married in 104 days. mark your calendars :)