Making an attempt

Having never tried to download video anywhere, I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I thought it was time to share a little tour of my "amazing" little flat. Just in case you want to see how those of us in Panaloks live.

According to this it looks like it worked, so we'll wait and see. It went so quickly I have trouble imagining that it worked, but maybe.
Okay, so I'm not sure how this is all going to work because I just figured out that the upload takes a really long time, and it doesn't really want to let me add photos at the same time. So this might end up being just my video, if it ever manages to all get on there. I knew it wasn't possibly going to be that easy.
Well, I don't have a whole lot to say on this stormy Wednesday afternoon. The weather is still quite warm, but storm clouds have blown in to make things crazy today. There's been some pretty serious thunder and lightening as well as a torrential downpour or two. Very exciting of course.
My friend Nicole managed to make it back from Canada last night. I'm very excited about that. She really helps to lighten my days and keep me entertained. We're going out to dinner with her tonight after class, so that should be fun.
My Czech Colleague, Tomas, has a very big and important German test on Monday. This is his third and final time to take it, so it's very important that he pass. If he doesn't, it somehow negates all the work that he did in university. I'm not exactly sure how the whole system works, but it's really not very cheerful. He's currently staying at his brother's house so he can study all night and not have to worry about any distractions. This means I'm teaching extra classes this week. It's not so bad, but it does mean extra time in the office. And now that the storm has hit, I can't exactly get outside to enjoy the day.
This evening I'm meeting one of my classes in a "Pub" for class. "Pub" is a term used loosely here for pretty much all restaurants, although I'm sure there will be drinking. It tends to be very important in Czech society. They call beer "Czech Bread," and are very proud of it. It's always nice to be able to meet with them outside of the classroom. It gives us a chance to be more relaxed and talk about things other than grammar. Although I have one student in this class who particularly doesn't like to have class outside of the class for that very reason. She really likes grammar. Can you believe it? I promised I'd bring her a work sheet so she wouldn't feel like the lesson was completely wasted.
So life goes on in it's usual way. Ice cream (Zmrzlina) has become all the rage these days. The sunny days bring out the people and they all seem to be licking ice cream cones. (Wow, I think this video is really going to take FOREVER to load. I'm only up to 9M out of 41. Hmmm...might have to let it sit on it's own for a while so I can do some work.)
I'm getting more and more excited about having a chance to go home. The nice weather has made it easier to be here, but it will be so nice to be back on the other side of the world for a while. I enjoy Czech, but more and more I'm looking forward to being while people who understand me without words. I guess, in a sense, it seems like the people here sort of have to understand me without words, but it doesn't really work that way after all.
Jonna, another ESI teacher, came for a visit this past weekend. It was really good to see her, and she was full of these thought provoking life type questions. She asked what it is we feel like we have learned this year. It's a difficult question.
In a lot of ways, I feel like I've known myself pretty well for quite a while now. I'm pretty accustomed to most of my quirks and irritating habits. Doesn't mean they don't still annoy me, but I'm familiar with them all. I've lived overseas, and am well aware that it can be difficult and trying at times, but for the most part I feel up to the challenge.
I'm also well aware of my need for people. I know I don't do well when I don't have an outlet for my feelings and frustrations. I know how much I depend on the people who know me well to help me through the bad and dark days.
There have been issues that have come up throughout the year, but none of them have really surprised me. It's more a matter of, "Yep, there's that one again."
I think the only thing I've found to be a surprise in my life is how hard it is for me to come up with prayer requests. That might sound strange to most people, but it's really true. I find it so difficult to come up with something personal to ask other people to pray about. I'm find with ideas to pray for other people about, or for asking obvious things like during decision making time, or support raising and what not. But as far as asking for people to pray for something that's really personal, I'm at a loss.
I tend to be pretty open with people generally. I find that I often relate information about myself through stories. They might not always directly be stories about me, but as I share about the people that I love the most, or the places that I've come to call my homes, I reveal a lot about what makes me tick. Talking about music or movies also tells a lot about me. And in the end, I can see that, while I can make personal statements, I'm the kind of person who really doesn't like to ask for help.
I'm pretty self-sufficient. I mean, I've lived all over the world. I've done all sorts of crazy things. I've gotten a degree. I've survived substitute teaching. I know how to get things done, and how to take care of myself. Asking for help doesn't fit so well into that whole picture somehow. Perhaps that's the sort of thing I still have to work on. After all, knowing myself as well as I do, I'm pretty much aware that perfection is still a long way off. So, yeah.
And my video is now about half way downloaded, and I'm really starting to run out of things to say. So I might just have to let it go, and hope it manages to be all there before I have to head to Incognito.
I just finished my monthly team report and suddenly it looks like the video is almost done so we'll see if this works after all. If so, I hope you enjoy these little views of my clearly marvelous flat.