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 :)

Vienna waits for you...

So, I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post. Sorry about that! Most of last week is kind of a blur... Had class all day Wednesday and country presentations Wednesday night. We saw a presentation of Slovenia and of France and ate homemade crepes and baguettes. The French presentation consisted of naked women, naked men, a few pictures of the french landscape, a few more naked pictures, and a slide show of the french students showing some skin. Needless to say, it wasn't very riveting for me. The Slovenian one, however, was enthralling. Especially since prior to watching it, I knew NOTHING about Slovenia. By the end of it, Rachael and I had decided we wanted to go to Slovenia the next day. So that night, we did some research to find out the price of train tickets to Slovenia, a cheap hostel we could stay in, and a few must-see places to visit while we're there. We were really excited and bright and early the next day went to the train station to buy our tickets. Unfortunately, our Czech still is not very useful, and by the time we explained to the lady where we wanted to go and when, we had already lost all hope of being treated fairly. Some people in Brno love foreigners. Mainly because we are ignorant enough to be taken advantage of. It was pretty discouraging to literally watch the lady change the price on our tickets from 500 crowns to 2000 crowns (about $25 to $100) Rather than let ourselves be cheated, we decided to save Slovenia for another time when the Slovenians could share some of their traveling secrets with us and instead, go somewhere a little closer. So we headed to the student agency stand and left with round trip tickets to... you guessed it- VIENNA! We were to leave Saturday morning at 6am and leave Vienna Saturday night at 9. We figured since it was still winter and pretty cold, we would just spend the day and save a longer trip for later in the Spring when it's warmer and prettier outside. It was gonna be me, Rachael, Ruthie, and Jeongmin. We were stoked.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and spent the two hour trip to Vienna listening to music, drinking tea (compliments of the bus stewardess!) and watching Rumor Has It in Czech. Once we got to Vienna, we found our way to the information stand, picked up a few maps, located our location, and set out to stumble into whatever adventures we could. We decided not to take advantage of the trams or buses and instead walk around the city to see whatever we could see. It was such a fun day. We ate really good food, saw beautiful things, ate some more really good food, saw some more beautiful things, and ended the day with some more really good food. It was such a successful trip. We never got lost and we saw a lot of the things our friends back in Brno recommended us to see. While I love it here in Brno, it was such a refreshing break from reality to spend the day wrapped up in the beauty and romance of Vienna. Vienna is incredible and I can't wait to go back.

















































This was my absolute favorite place in Vienna. In front of that huge, magnificent castle was an ice skating rink and also an ice skating trail. Basically, you could either skate in the big open area, or skate a loop around the castle. It was absolutely enchanting. I felt like such a little girl, in complete wonder of the whole place and captivated by the beauty of it all. Unfortunately, we were running out of time, so we didn't get to ice skate. But I will go back someday and ice skate there. :)






























On the bus home. We were all sound asleep within minutes. It was such a fun day, though and worth every second and every cent. :)

He wraps the world in Light.

Tonight, as I was walking home after a long day of learning AND teaching, I had my headphones in and the song "How Great Is Our God" came on. I was very attuned to the lyrics and as I listened, I couldn't help but look around me and be reaffirmed of the truth behind the words. It has snowed pretty steadily here the past couple of days, and as a result, the streets and sidewalks have a good foot or so of crystal white snow layering them. In the darkness of the night, I was amazed at how vibrantly white the snow still was. And though snow and I are typically not good friends, I had to admit that it really is a beautiful, wonderful thing. There's not much else in life that, surrounded by nearly complete darkness, can continue to shine so bright. I started to think of the line that says "he wraps the world in light" and realized that it is so true. God is so evident here in Brno. I was trying to think of all the places I've seen God since I've been here, and I have yet to run out of places and things. He is here. He has wrapped Brno in light. There are still so many people focused on the darkness, but the city is wrapped in Light. And I have hope that the dawn is near. I know without a doubt that people are beginning to see the light, every day. Since I've been here, I have met so many solid Christians, from all over the world, worshiping God with the same passion and sincerity of heart that I have seen among Christians back home. God is not dead in Europe. He is alive and well. And he still works miracles.

Yesterday I was invited to observe a friend teaching her beginner English class. It was so much fun, and so refreshing. I didn't realize it until yesterday, but I have been desperately missing kid interaction - being around little kids. Her class wasn't big - three little seven year old boys. But they were so stinkin cute and I loved every second of being there. I plan to go back next week and hopefully (if my schedule permits it!) teach a class on Friday mornings to Czech kids. I am pretty excited.

Today I had my first teaching practice. Me and three of the other TESOL students played a BUNCH of ice breaker games with a group of 15 Czech students, ranging in age from 21 to 51. It was interesting, to say the least. They are upper intermediate students, meaning they know English quite well, but after talking with a bunch of them, realized most of their knowledge is of grammar and their weaknesses and insecurities are in conversation and listening. The students were all so gracious and very patient with us, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun teaching them and also learning from them. But it will definitely be a challenge. Being a native speaker, I feel sort of at a disadvantage because English comes so naturally for me. I've never had to think about what I say or why I say it, and for non-native speakers, this can be quite troublesome. I was told more than once that I was talking way too fast, and found myself staring into fifteen confused faces after saying something they didn't understand. Not only that, but most of them have learned English from British English speakers, which has several differences than American English. For example, today I was leading this "catch phrase" sort of game in which I would write a word on the board and the class had to prompt one of their team mates to guess it without actually telling them the word. I wrote the word "pants" on the board and listened as the students stumbled over words and eventually found out, none of them actually knew what "pants" were. They knew them as trousers. Oh, life. :) All that to say, this semester is going to challenge me and stretch me and grow me and hopefully improve my English speaking and teaching skills so that I can communicate with non-native speakers in a meaningful way. :) Magda told me today that I should get credit for being her roommate because I am constantly explaining things to her and correcting her English (only because she told me I was required to!) Today she started a journal of all the American English slang she's been learning. Some of the words include "juke box" (I told her she was like a juke box because she would sing 10 different songs in the matter of 2 minutes) "awesome" and "Bummer, dude" It's pretty fun to talk with her. She's been trying to teach me polish words and phrases too, though I'm not such a good learner, I'll admit.

Lately I've spent a lot of time with this one group of people - Stephanie from Virginia, Rachael from Nebraska, Brian and Ruthie from Wisconsin, and Jeongmin from S. Korea. We went out for Ruthie's birthday last night. I am really getting tired of going from pub to pub and drinking SO much tea (okay, i'm lying, i will never get tired of drinking tea!) but each night I sit and wonder how many more hours until I can be sleeping in my bed always ends with the moment that makes it all worth it - when everyone is just tired enough to let their defenses drop a bit and talk about real things. Every time I hang out with these people I am more surprised at how much they have experienced in life. It makes me love and understand them more and more and see more of their desperation for a FULL LIFe. Ruthie especially. That girl has seen more in her 20 years of living than anyone should ever see in a lifetime. Her stories are absolutely CRAZY. Sometimes I feel like she's just making them up based off of some horror movie she has just watched. She's a pretty regular pot smoker and gets drunk almost every night, but since she's been here, she has not smoked pot and she only goes out 2 or 3 times a week. Getting to know her has been so cool, and I know that God has brought her here for a huge purpose. I only pray I get the privilege of seeing what that is. Please be praying for Ruthie.





Brian, Ruthie, me and Jeongmin

I can show you the world...

Magda and I have been spending a lot of time together. She is so funny. We mostly just laugh together. Which is such a blessing, because language barriers tend to make joking around really hard. But she has a great sense of humor and can take a joke just as well as she can dish it out. It's so fun. Yesterday, I showed her the video on youtube of that boy singing A Whole New World, both parts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-CS2v8wcc) Magda LOVED it and I think we've probably listened to it about 34 times since then. haha. We also spent about 30 minutes watching Pocahontas videos on youtube in different languages. There's a really cool one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooo2oNqbDhE Anyways, it's been nice to relax and just hang out and not always be out and about going and going. Especially since every person that knows anything about the TESOL program has said it will basically be the death of me. As in, a LOT of work and all-consuming. So I am soaking up free time now while I can. :)

I finally took a few pictures of our room so you can sort of get a feel for how we're living. I was wishing the other day that I had brought my bonnet and apron, because sometimes I feel like I'm living Little House on the Prairie. The only things missing are the horse-drawn buggies and wood stove fireplaces. They probably just haven't made it here yet ;)

So, without further ado, I introduce to you Vinarska 5, room 6:




The hallway entrance. Notice the lack of a door handle. You can't come in the room without a key, even if it's unlocked. It's been 2 weeks but I have yet to lose my keys. I'm hoping my history didn't come with me... :/



This is what you see when you first enter. That doorway straight ahead is the entrance to our bedroom.



The bathroom. Good thing neither of us is claustrophobic!



Our abundant storage space!!



The shower room. I don't even have words... I'll just be honest, I think since I've been here I've taken 4 showers. You can do the math. (Hey, on Little House, they only got showers once a week, so I'm doing pretty good!)



Our spacious and elegant kitchen! To the left, you can see our stove, useful for boiling water. And that's pretty much it. Under the counter in the corner is our fridge. We sometimes have a hard time finding enough things to fill it! And of course, plenty of room to store all the food we eat :)



My side of the room. I was so pleased to find that beautiful gold tapestry when I first got here. It sure makes me feel like a princess.



Magda. haha. She was most likely singing. I love that about her. Some of her favorites include Selena, Madonna, and Rihanna. haha.



Our room. That door is the door that leads to the hallway and eventually, the outside hallway.



Another view of my beautiful, oversized bed. It sure is going to be hard getting used to sharing a bed after having this huge one all to myself!



This is my couch. I know, it looks a LOT like my bed, but trust me, it is a couch. (I think back home you call them futons)



My desk.



The balcony, from the inside looking out.



View from the balcony!



I was making progress on drying these until the snow started falling this morning... I feel so Amish, though... :)

So there it is! I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour. It's okay to be jealous, we are living the good life here in Brno, that's for sure :)


Today, I don't have class so I will probably go out exploring a bit in the snow. This morning Jeongmin and I had made plans to go running, but then we saw that it had snowed and decided to try out the gym here in Vinarska. We went there and knew we had to pay but weren't exactly sure who or where or how much. There was a lady in an office so we went to try to talk to her, but she didn't speak any English. She showed us a few documents with unfamiliar words all over them and pointed to a few things and then went back to her Sudoku. We pretended like we knew what she was talking about and walked out. At that point, a younger guy came in and we asked him how we could get to the gym. He explained to us the best he could that we needed a note from our coach but that he would show us how to get to the track if we wanted. We figured it was the best we were gonna get so we followed him. I am still laughing thinking about what happened next (it's too bad I didn't have my camera with me..) He took us down a flight of stairs and through 2 locked doors (apparently the track is so valuable they need to secure it twice!) and we stepped into a darkened corridor. There were no lights and no windows. It was just a long hallway with some sort of matting on the ground. Except that the mats were all uneven and didn't match up properly and were bulging in places. The track. We decided we would probably be better off waiting out the snow. I love this place. :)