Double Duty

Yep, that's right, two posts in one day. In fact, I'm writing this immediately after finishing the one previous. But I didn't really feel like that one needed anything else added to it. Rather a stand alone sort of piece, rather than something to tag photos onto the end. So I'll throw the photos on here. (Nearly said I'd throw the photos up here, but thought maybe the vomiting visual might be a bit much. Naturally, as I've now said it anyway I'm not sure if it was much use not to just put it. Ah well.)
This past weekend was a busy one. While the lovely clear blue skies of Thursday didn't last out the entire weekend, the feeling of Spring is still here to stay. Or so I keep telling myself. But just check out this view from Thursday. Fabulous, simply fabulous!

I also feel the need to add this picture as well. I was just so amused by how the shadow of the branch totally looked like a squirrel!

I think I can safely say that Pub Night on Friday was the smallest one ever. There were possibly 15 students that showed up over the course of the night. Two of them were actually students from my first year. It was really great to see Martin, who has been in Australia for the past year and a half. Some of his other classmates were supposedly going to come, but the only ones who showed up were Kristyna, who wasn't actually in my class that year, and Henry who seldom misses a pub night due to his insatiable thirst for inebriation.

I spent most of my time talking to Marketa and Tyna, two of my daily students from this year. They're great fun, and it's really nice to see how their English is improving from the beginning of the year. Marketa confessed that when she first started she felt like she really didn't know any English at all, but now she's really getting more and more into it. I adore them both and thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them, as well as cheering with them as we watched a Czech girl win the bronze medal in the slaloms. They laughed a lot at me cheering "Vyborne Sarka! Vyborne!" Good times.


I was good and didn't stay out very late because I had to be at the train station before 8 the next morning. Saturday I had another CA meeting in Prague, so off I went, bright and early, heading for the big city. It was a long day, but nice as well. I do enjoy CA meetings, and the chance it gives to pray for the people on our team, and to think of ways to better encourage them in what they're doing here. And here's a random sight from outside Kelly's house. Just had to throw this one in ;)

Can't say I'd ever seen a caviar truck before, and can't say that I particularly ever want to see one again. So...yeah.
Sunday morning, I opted for a little private and personal time. I curled up in Starbucks with a steamy cup or gooey caramel covered coffee, a 180 podcast on my ipod and a view of fantastically beautiful Art Nouveau hotels across the street. Pretty great way to start a day if you ask me!





Love it!

An Eclectic Collection of pictures from the past week

That was a rather ridiculously long title, but I really couldn't think of anything much more cohesive to say about what I'm about to post, because they're totally unrelated events. I always like to throw in some pictures of students, and so I thought the best way to do that was to cover the top events of the past week. Last Friday, as in the 29th of January we had our pub night. It was a pretty low turnout, but I actually prefer it like that. I was able to have some good quality talks with several students. One of my students had her cousin and his wife come with her. They have recently moved to Sokolov, a town near Cheb, after the man lived in the US for 30 years. It was really nice to chat with someone who has perspectives on both types of life and who is trying to deal with the reverse culture shock in the country he left when he was 14. Through talking I told them my family lives in Idaho, and they told me they'd visited Idaho in September. Come to find out they were actually in Moscow where a friend of his works at the University. How random is that? Talk about a small world.
Only one of my daily students came for the evening, and I had a really nice talk with her. She was able to help affirm me in my teaching style, which is always helpful. She said that she really feels her English has improved a lot having me as her teacher. At the beginning of the year she was quite self conscious, but because of my limited correction style, the goal of which is a greater level of fluency, she's become more self confident in speaking, which helps her to improve a lot. It was good to see that there are people who believe my techniques are helpful. She said this as a direct contrast to a fellow teacher who gives constant correction which she finds quite unhelpful. So I suppose the balance is really what helps create improvement. Either way, it's nice to know that my style is appreciated ;)
This is me and Martina. Her cousin is the one who lived in the US.
This is me and Tyna. She's the one daily student who came.
Since I mentioned Sokolov, and since the next pictures I have are from Sokolov, I'll talk about it briefly next. On Wednesday I headed out to Sokolov to do another mid-year reflection. Because of strange train schedules I had to take a train an hour early, so I was able to wander around the city for a while. I went to the square and enjoyed the snow covered monuments, taking a moment to enter the old church where and old man and woman mumbled their holy prayers in the presence of so much ancient glory. Then I wandered through the park and checked out all the ducks on the frozen waterways. It was a sunny afternoon so that made it all better, despite the slushy trails I had to muck my way through.




I had a fairly busy week, despite the fact that I was still enjoying some extra free time in the mornings while Jonathan covered for me as payment for his holiday. Amazing all the things that manage to fill up every empty space I manage to make room for in my schedule. As I said in a recent post, I'd really love to be officially writing some greater project, but I somehow can't seem to even find time to get all the other practical things I need to be doing in my life taken care of, so it's not surprising that I don't find time for things that seem almost frivolous. Although the idea of a great life work isn't really something to laugh at I suppose. All the same, it's hard to make it happen. I suppose that's true at every moment in life. I keep waiting for that time when I suddenly have all this extra time. I had that in Salem, but managed to fill it up with "friends" (aka TV programs :P)
So the week flew by and suddenly it was Friday again, and with that came my first real ples. Now I did manage to go to a ples (similar to a high school prom but much more ceremonial and open to family and friends, not just students) my first year, but it was only a side invitation. I sort of knew the girl from church, I at least knew who she was, but she would never have invited me to the event. Tammy just managed to get us tickets. But this time I was really and truly officially invited. And not just over facebook, as I've been invited to at least 5 other pleses. I don't really count those because they aren't directly making contact. But I knew that Eva actually wanted me to come, and that made me hugely excited.
All this means that Friday night I got all gussied up and headed to the ball with a very handsome man in tow ;) I do love an occasion to dress up every now and again, and this was the perfect one. We even ended up with a nice table to sit at, because we went with Karina and another Eva who is a teacher at the gymnasium. So we sat together with them at the teacher table because there weren't very many other teachers there. Super cool.
I had a great chance to talk to my student at the beginning, which was a blessing since she was so busy the rest of the night that I only saw her from a distance when she was performing. She's a professional belly dancer, so besides the group dances that the class did, she gave a solo performance as well. She did one really traditional belly dance and then one with a sword. Most impressive. I was excited to finally see her dance because she'd told me so much about it before. A lot of my other students were there as well, so it was fun to see them there all dressed up, and to watch their expressions when they recognized me 8) That smiley face was to represent just how big their eyes were when they realized that I could actually dress up. Of course the hair is all to Tammy's credit and not my own. I'm still hopeless at hair preparations. Ah well. It was a lovely night.



My last picture is a tribute to the continued domestication of Sarah. Mark's parents have been super sweet, and have sent food home with me on several occasions. Last week they sent two bananas along with enough meat for a week. Now, for those who know me very well, you realize that bananas are far from being at the top of Sarah's choice of favorite foods. So they sat on my table, and I contemplated what to do with them. I didn't want to just waste them, but neither did I want to eat them. In the end, I had the brilliant idea of making banana bread. And therefore I went to the internet in search of "easy banana bread recipes" and found one that called for only 2 bananas, and I proceeded to make it. Naturally I was short on some supplies, and simply didn't have any shortening or grease for the pan, so I substituted butter for those, and added in some coarse flour because I didn't have enough of the regular kind, and ended up with banana bread all the same in the end. It actually looked really nice when it was done, and tasted lovely and buttery in the end so it was all good.

And there you have a week in review with a photo accompaniment. Dobrou Chut!

Feels like a record

Okay, so it's actually not even close to a record, not even for me, but having more than five posts for the month of January is rather refreshing. And in honor of the accomplishment I'm just going to write one more. It's going to be a short one, but it feels good to be so up to date!
I had a three day weekend this week which was nice. Rather refreshing, especially since I won't have any sort of break again until Spring break which is the second week of March. I'm already looking forward to it, as my parents will come for a visit. It's time to really start figuring out what all I'm going to do with them. I think it will all be quite amazing though.
This was a nice weekend. We had our pub night on Friday, so I wasn't able to go anywhere for the weekend like I'd been hoping for. Still, it all worked out for the best. There was a small turnout, but I had a really good talk with my one daily student who came, Tyna, and I met some people who are Czech but have been living in the US for a long time. Turns out they were actually in Moscow, ID in September of all things, and they know someone who works at the University. We were all amazed by what a small world it truly is.
On Saturday Mark's family picked me up and we went together to Plzen to see Avatar in 3D. It really was quite the experience. I must say that it blew Spy Kids 3D out of the water. (yes, that's the only other 3D movie I've ever been to. In my defense, it was with children, a lot of children that I'm related to.) Anyhow, we all enjoyed the movie. It was a little difficult for me to follow everything since it was in Czech, but it's a very visually stimulating movie, so I was at least able to follow most of what was happening. It would be nice to see it again in English so I can fill in all the plot that I missed, but it was still good fun.
Today Mark and I rode with his dad up into the mountains around Marainske Lazne. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but it was definitely a sight to behold. Mark's Dad took some pictures on his phone, so maybe I'll have a chance to add them here later. Anyhow, we greatly enjoyed the drive up there. The trees were so heavily laden with snow that their branches hung down vertically instead of being horizontal. Some of the smaller trees looked like little men with their heads bowed all wrapped up in long white cloaks. Perhaps a spell was cast over them all, or maybe they were merely waiting for a chance to reach out and nab some small unsuspecting passerby.
We walked around for a little while, after having strudel and cappuccinos in a little hunting lodge cafe. They told me that the hunting houses there were actually built in Switzerland and then transported and rebuilt in Czech. Pretty fascinating. Really do wish I'd brought my camera (sigh) I'm scarcely ever without it, but Mark convinced me I didn't need to carry my whole bag...
Anyhow, it was a lovely afternoon and a great weekend over all. Now I'd best move toward bed since tomorrow is Monday and a new month and the beginning of my challenge not to drink Coke for a while. It's been quite popular to do this of late, and I decided that the best way to prove to myself that I really can give up soda is to actually attempt to do so. So February is hopefully going to be a coke free zone at the very least. We'll see how it goes...maybe I'll be able to blog more with less caffeine...and maybe not ;)