Trees and flowers are in full bloom and the weather here is lovely!
When we first arrived in Prague a month ago the trees were barren. Now a month later and all of the trees are green and blossoming. The views from the city of tree-covered Letna Park and Petrin Hill are amazing. It is amazing to see how everything changes so quickly.
This past Friday was our last day of our TEFL program and thank God because I don't think I would have been able to handle another day of it. It was much more work than I had expected. The website had said it was an intense and challenging course and this was definitely no lie. Every day after a full day of class we had work to do, either preparing a lesson plan or teaching a lesson.
Now that we are done we are excited enjoy our free time and experience living in Prague! I start my first day of work tomorrow at an English preschool. We moved into a beautiful apartment right behind the National Museum next to the Vltava River just an hour ago! We feel lucky to have found such a beautiful place for the price. It is amazing to be here! We finally feel like we can enjoy Prague to the fullest now!!
More on our apartment next post.
Ciao ;)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
My First Interview in Prague!
The past three weeks have been super busy and intense. I had no idea that this course was going to be this much work. It is challenging and time consuming. So far I have taught five English classes to Czech students, 1 one-on-one lesson, and a grammar lesson to my fellow classmates. Next week is our last week and I still have two more one-on-one lessons, another grammar presentation, two more group English classes to teach, a 10-page paper to write, and a final grammar exam. Thinking about it all makes me just a tad overwhelmed. It's amazing to me how much I have done and learned in such a short period of time. I have been challenged to use my mind, something that I haven't had to do since college.
Yesterday I had my first job interview at a school called Kindergarten that teaches kids ages 2-6. The directions in the email seemed very simple and since it was Prague 9, the same area of Prague we are staying, I figured it would be close. Yeah, not so much. To get there, I ended up taking the metro all the way to the end of the line. When I got off I had to find the correct bus to get on. Once I found the bus stop, I realized there were about 20 different stations all with three or four different buses. I thought I was in the wrong place because I couldn't find the sign with the bus I needed. I started to panic. No one spoke English or knew what I was talking about. "Promiente (sorry/excuse me) Rosimete anglicke? (do you speak english?) K'de bus 250? (where is bus 250)" No one knew. I felt like a little lost girl trying to find her way. Finally I spotted the sign that said "Bus 250". Phew!
I waited for five minutes which seemed like an eternity. I checked my watch, 20 minutes until my interview. Would I make it? How far was it from here? Finally the bus appeared and I hopped on and a younger guy sat next to me. I showed him a piece of paper with "Sudejocka" written on it and asked him how many stops it was. He told me six. Six, oh that's not bad. Probably a couple minutes between each stop. Then all of a sudden the bus got on the freeway and started heading towards the countryside. Where exactly was I going? I started to panic some more. I had written down the school's number on a piece of paper and had brought my cell phone with me in case of something like this. I called the school and told them my situation, clueless as to where I was or how long I would be.
As it turns out I ended up getting off the bus at 4 pm on the dot. When I got off the bus I saw Marketa waiting there for me, her dyed red hair and yellow jacket. We walked and talked and told me that we were getting into a car. At first, I was a little apprehensive about this but then she proceeded to tell me that it was straight back in a neighborhood that looked quite nice and that she didn't want me to get lost.
Once we got to the school, which is basically a house in a cookie cutter neighborhood, I remembered that it was customary/polite to take your shoes off when entering someone's home. I took my heels off and Marketa handed me a pair of big fluffy slippers with unicorns on them. This is what I did my interview in. Classic.
The interview went well and next Tuesday I have a second interview where I will be giving a 20 minute demo "lesson" to a group of kids at the school.
The school is quite far away from Prague's center which I am a bit concerned about. But one of the girls who works at TEFL told me that she used to travel 2-3 hours around town giving private lessons each day and that was normal.
I definitely need to start firing out my CV to schools this weekend. One more week until the course ends!!!! Woo hoo!!
Yesterday I had my first job interview at a school called Kindergarten that teaches kids ages 2-6. The directions in the email seemed very simple and since it was Prague 9, the same area of Prague we are staying, I figured it would be close. Yeah, not so much. To get there, I ended up taking the metro all the way to the end of the line. When I got off I had to find the correct bus to get on. Once I found the bus stop, I realized there were about 20 different stations all with three or four different buses. I thought I was in the wrong place because I couldn't find the sign with the bus I needed. I started to panic. No one spoke English or knew what I was talking about. "Promiente (sorry/excuse me) Rosimete anglicke? (do you speak english?) K'de bus 250? (where is bus 250)" No one knew. I felt like a little lost girl trying to find her way. Finally I spotted the sign that said "Bus 250". Phew!
I waited for five minutes which seemed like an eternity. I checked my watch, 20 minutes until my interview. Would I make it? How far was it from here? Finally the bus appeared and I hopped on and a younger guy sat next to me. I showed him a piece of paper with "Sudejocka" written on it and asked him how many stops it was. He told me six. Six, oh that's not bad. Probably a couple minutes between each stop. Then all of a sudden the bus got on the freeway and started heading towards the countryside. Where exactly was I going? I started to panic some more. I had written down the school's number on a piece of paper and had brought my cell phone with me in case of something like this. I called the school and told them my situation, clueless as to where I was or how long I would be.
As it turns out I ended up getting off the bus at 4 pm on the dot. When I got off the bus I saw Marketa waiting there for me, her dyed red hair and yellow jacket. We walked and talked and told me that we were getting into a car. At first, I was a little apprehensive about this but then she proceeded to tell me that it was straight back in a neighborhood that looked quite nice and that she didn't want me to get lost.
Once we got to the school, which is basically a house in a cookie cutter neighborhood, I remembered that it was customary/polite to take your shoes off when entering someone's home. I took my heels off and Marketa handed me a pair of big fluffy slippers with unicorns on them. This is what I did my interview in. Classic.
The interview went well and next Tuesday I have a second interview where I will be giving a 20 minute demo "lesson" to a group of kids at the school.
The school is quite far away from Prague's center which I am a bit concerned about. But one of the girls who works at TEFL told me that she used to travel 2-3 hours around town giving private lessons each day and that was normal.
I definitely need to start firing out my CV to schools this weekend. One more week until the course ends!!!! Woo hoo!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
First day of TEFL Class
Today was the first day of our TEFL class!
The course doesn't start everyday until 10 am Monday through Friday which is really nice, but this morning I had a hard time getting up and out of bed before 9 am. (I think that my body was still tired and sore from the past weekend's festivities.)
We grabbed seats at the front of the class and waited for the teacher to show. Without any idea of what to expect on our first day, a man suddenly burst through the classroom door and started speaking Czech to the whole class, "Dobry den!", and proceeded into a formal dialogue.
We repated the dialogue over and over and over, practicing pronunciation of different letters and syallables, all without the teacher speaking any English the entire time.
Jak se menuijete = What is your name?
Jmenuji se Courtney = My name is Courtney
Jak se máte = How are you doing?
dobře (dob-rzh)= well
špatně (sh-pat-ney) = bad
Nashledanou! (nas-let-a-no) = Goodbye!
We figured out what he was saying by his gestures and happy/sad faces he drew on the whiteboard.
Then then we got into pairs and practiced the dialogue with each other in different ways; reading off the whiteboard, filling in blanks on a worksheet, practicing reading it off the worksheet, putting cut outs of the words in order, and practicing with everyone at a pretend party.
Our instructor then began speaking in English asked us questions about the Czech lesson that had just happened so abruptly. It was a ton of fun!
Next he went into an hour long demonstration reading comprehension lesson. Once it was over, we went over in detail all of the parts of the lesson and how to write a lesson plan.
After a short break, we split into groups of 3 and worked on our own lesson plans for our first REAL teaching session tomorrow in front of real students! It is only a fifteen minute lesson and should be easy, although we are not sure how much English they really know so it should be interesting/challenging. Surprisingly I am not nervous, just excited!
The first day of class was awesome! Our TEFL course instructor is an incredible teacher with so much enthusiasm and a hugely engaging personality and sense of humor.The eight hours flew by (partly because we got an hour and a half lunch) and before I knew it it was six o'clock. I sincerely loved every minute of it. I feel like I am meant to be here and am so excited for everything!!!
After class, Stu and I took a walk across the street from our apartment and found a bike/walking path similiar to the Boise greenbelt that goes along a small river/stream. I'm not sure how far it goes. Tomorrow we plan on going for a run on it in the morning.
On our evening walk, we cut off the path and found ourselves in a small Vietnamese grocery store with all different fresh fruits, vegetables, and rice noodles.Choosing not to buy anything there, we headed up along the street to the main shopping mall and bought some groceries we needed, including a beer we split on our walk back to our apartment. You can walk practically anywher in Prague with a beer or mug of mulled wine (or whatever your drink of choice is) since there is no open container law. Pretty neat!
When we got home, I opened up what I thought were chicken breasts, that turned out to be chicken legs... the only meat I could find that looked like chicken breasts... I still have a lot of work to do on my Prague vocabulary! :)
Nashledanou!
xoxo,
Courtney
The course doesn't start everyday until 10 am Monday through Friday which is really nice, but this morning I had a hard time getting up and out of bed before 9 am. (I think that my body was still tired and sore from the past weekend's festivities.)
We grabbed seats at the front of the class and waited for the teacher to show. Without any idea of what to expect on our first day, a man suddenly burst through the classroom door and started speaking Czech to the whole class, "Dobry den!", and proceeded into a formal dialogue.
We repated the dialogue over and over and over, practicing pronunciation of different letters and syallables, all without the teacher speaking any English the entire time.
Jak se menuijete = What is your name?
Jmenuji se Courtney = My name is Courtney
Jak se máte = How are you doing?
dobře (dob-rzh)= well
špatně (sh-pat-ney) = bad
Nashledanou! (nas-let-a-no) = Goodbye!
We figured out what he was saying by his gestures and happy/sad faces he drew on the whiteboard.
Then then we got into pairs and practiced the dialogue with each other in different ways; reading off the whiteboard, filling in blanks on a worksheet, practicing reading it off the worksheet, putting cut outs of the words in order, and practicing with everyone at a pretend party.
Our instructor then began speaking in English asked us questions about the Czech lesson that had just happened so abruptly. It was a ton of fun!
Next he went into an hour long demonstration reading comprehension lesson. Once it was over, we went over in detail all of the parts of the lesson and how to write a lesson plan.
After a short break, we split into groups of 3 and worked on our own lesson plans for our first REAL teaching session tomorrow in front of real students! It is only a fifteen minute lesson and should be easy, although we are not sure how much English they really know so it should be interesting/challenging. Surprisingly I am not nervous, just excited!
The first day of class was awesome! Our TEFL course instructor is an incredible teacher with so much enthusiasm and a hugely engaging personality and sense of humor.The eight hours flew by (partly because we got an hour and a half lunch) and before I knew it it was six o'clock. I sincerely loved every minute of it. I feel like I am meant to be here and am so excited for everything!!!
After class, Stu and I took a walk across the street from our apartment and found a bike/walking path similiar to the Boise greenbelt that goes along a small river/stream. I'm not sure how far it goes. Tomorrow we plan on going for a run on it in the morning.
On our evening walk, we cut off the path and found ourselves in a small Vietnamese grocery store with all different fresh fruits, vegetables, and rice noodles.Choosing not to buy anything there, we headed up along the street to the main shopping mall and bought some groceries we needed, including a beer we split on our walk back to our apartment. You can walk practically anywher in Prague with a beer or mug of mulled wine (or whatever your drink of choice is) since there is no open container law. Pretty neat!
When we got home, I opened up what I thought were chicken breasts, that turned out to be chicken legs... the only meat I could find that looked like chicken breasts... I still have a lot of work to do on my Prague vocabulary! :)
Nashledanou!
xoxo,
Courtney
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Czech Grocery Shopping
I am exhausted. It has been a non-stop past five days since we arrived in Prague! Exploring the city by foot for hours on end, eating fried cheese sandwiches and sausages for every meal, drinking mulled wine and lots of Pilsner beer throughout the day and into the wee hours of the morning, all while trying to get to know everyone in our TEFL course has officially wiped me out.
I wanted to do a blog post on every experience that I have had while here but it has been difficult to find a moment to even sit down and rest! Definitely something that I am not used to!
Grocery shopping was the hardest thing that we have had to do since being here. It was challenging and frustrating trying to figure out all the different Czech food labels. We had the hardest time in the meat section. Apparently they don't have ground beef in the Czech Republic, but they have ground pork! Stu pointed out that all the beer was sold warm; not refigerated. In the beer aisle, there was a small freezer that kept frozen foods (pizza, ice cream, vegetables, and fish.)
They also do not have plastic bags; you have to bring your own reusable grocery bags and quickly bag your own groceries as the cashier is ringing up your items. Then you have to carry everything by foot to where you live.
After we did all of that we went to the "Walmart of Prague", Tesco, by bus to find items like towels and kitchen supplies that we needed. We took a bus there, about ten minutes, and passed row after row of massive communist-era apartment buildings. I will get a pic soon
I wanted to do a blog post on every experience that I have had while here but it has been difficult to find a moment to even sit down and rest! Definitely something that I am not used to!
Grocery shopping was the hardest thing that we have had to do since being here. It was challenging and frustrating trying to figure out all the different Czech food labels. We had the hardest time in the meat section. Apparently they don't have ground beef in the Czech Republic, but they have ground pork! Stu pointed out that all the beer was sold warm; not refigerated. In the beer aisle, there was a small freezer that kept frozen foods (pizza, ice cream, vegetables, and fish.)
To get a shopping cart, a 5 or 10 crown coin must be inserted into a slot on the handle of the shopping cart to unlock it from the others. When you're finished with it, a key from another shopping cart goes into the slot to push out your coin and locks the carts together.
After we did all of that we went to the "Walmart of Prague", Tesco, by bus to find items like towels and kitchen supplies that we needed. We took a bus there, about ten minutes, and passed row after row of massive communist-era apartment buildings. I will get a pic soon
Thursday Night to Sunday Night
I wish I could write down more of the details since we have been here but it is way too much to write so I will quickly summarize Thursday to Sunday.
Thursday night: my brother arrived and we went to the center for St. Patty's day. It was raining and miserable and we had no idea where we were going so we just wandered around until we found a pub to have a drink and after found a stand that served fried cheese sandwich we had seen on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
Friday day: Carson, Stu, and I took the metro to the Prague Castle, got lost, and ended up wandering again in the freezing, pouring rain. We decided to find a "locals" pub near the Castle. At the pub we met a family from the States that had lived in Prague for the past year. The woman was an English teacher and the man worked for a tecnology company. They were extremely encouraging and gave us a ton of advice; it was so incredible to hear all the wonderful things a family of ex-pats had to say about living and working in Prague. We left and went to another place next door and had mulled wine.
Friday night: I made BBQ pork meatloaf (which was phenomenal if I don't say so myself :). Then Stu and I met up with people from our course, went to a random pub off a metro stop, had some beers, and got to know everyone.
Saturday: Met up with a group of girls from our course in the center and wandered around Prague, got mulled wine and sausage, and saw phenomenal views of the city.
Saturday night: Went out to dinner with everyone at a trendy restaurant, then went out to some pubs/clubs, drank absinthe, and danced. We took a tram back around 3 am that was packed with people who had been out at the pubs. My feet hurt so bad from wearing my high heel boots that I had to take them off and walk from the tram to our apartment in my socks.
Sunday: Brother had early flight. Stu and I met a Czech man that his mom's friend connected us to. We met him at an international church that he and his wife are a part of. We are going to meet them this Wednesday for dinner. At 2 pm, we went on a walking/orientation with everyone in our course throughout the center. By 6 pm, we were wiped out and came home and crashed on our bed. We ate dinner (BBQ chicken and salad that I made) with our roommate, Lauren, and now here I am typing with Stu laying next to me asleep.
Time for me to go.. tomorrow is our first day of class!! Ahhh!
Thursday night: my brother arrived and we went to the center for St. Patty's day. It was raining and miserable and we had no idea where we were going so we just wandered around until we found a pub to have a drink and after found a stand that served fried cheese sandwich we had seen on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
Friday day: Carson, Stu, and I took the metro to the Prague Castle, got lost, and ended up wandering again in the freezing, pouring rain. We decided to find a "locals" pub near the Castle. At the pub we met a family from the States that had lived in Prague for the past year. The woman was an English teacher and the man worked for a tecnology company. They were extremely encouraging and gave us a ton of advice; it was so incredible to hear all the wonderful things a family of ex-pats had to say about living and working in Prague. We left and went to another place next door and had mulled wine.
Friday night: I made BBQ pork meatloaf (which was phenomenal if I don't say so myself :). Then Stu and I met up with people from our course, went to a random pub off a metro stop, had some beers, and got to know everyone.
Saturday: Met up with a group of girls from our course in the center and wandered around Prague, got mulled wine and sausage, and saw phenomenal views of the city.
Saturday night: Went out to dinner with everyone at a trendy restaurant, then went out to some pubs/clubs, drank absinthe, and danced. We took a tram back around 3 am that was packed with people who had been out at the pubs. My feet hurt so bad from wearing my high heel boots that I had to take them off and walk from the tram to our apartment in my socks.
Sunday: Brother had early flight. Stu and I met a Czech man that his mom's friend connected us to. We met him at an international church that he and his wife are a part of. We are going to meet them this Wednesday for dinner. At 2 pm, we went on a walking/orientation with everyone in our course throughout the center. By 6 pm, we were wiped out and came home and crashed on our bed. We ate dinner (BBQ chicken and salad that I made) with our roommate, Lauren, and now here I am typing with Stu laying next to me asleep.
Time for me to go.. tomorrow is our first day of class!! Ahhh!
Friday, March 18, 2011
First Day in Prague
Gosh, where do I begin? I guess I will start off from where I left off... we took the shuttle from the airport to Prague 9 to the Hotel Pivovar next to where TEFL Worldwide Prague is located. When we got to the hotel lobby, the receptionist told us our room wasn't ready yet. Due to overexcitement and eagerness, we had forgotten to get out money at the ATM to pay for our apartment, fortunately there is a big shopping centre right up the hill from where we are staying with pretty much everything we need. We left our bags in the lobby and trekked up the hill, disillusioned by the long trip we had just taken.
The shopping centre has a grocery store (called Billa), coffee shops, shoe and clothing stores, a food court, electronics, and pet store. Also, the metro, tram, and bus stops are all right outside of the shopping centre! How convenient! :)
Once we paid for our apartment, our room was ready and a Czech woman from the program showed up to welcome us and help us to our apartment. Our apartment is in the same complex as the school. We are lucky... some of the other students in the program are 20 minutes from here.
To get to our apartment we have to go up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator), so by the time we get to the top our hearts are racing and we are out of breath! We have our own large room with two twin beds that we pushed together. Our matresses are not really matresses, they are a simple pad/cushion. Not the most comfortable but will do.. Another interesting thing is that we do not have a shower, only a bath tub, which should be interesting to use every day.
On the menu? Strange Taste Chicken Balls!? Um... excuse me....
We hit the hay once we got back to our apartment around 9 pm. We were wiped out!
Next post... Prague grocery shopping adventures!
The shopping centre has a grocery store (called Billa), coffee shops, shoe and clothing stores, a food court, electronics, and pet store. Also, the metro, tram, and bus stops are all right outside of the shopping centre! How convenient! :)
Once we paid for our apartment, our room was ready and a Czech woman from the program showed up to welcome us and help us to our apartment. Our apartment is in the same complex as the school. We are lucky... some of the other students in the program are 20 minutes from here.
To get to our apartment we have to go up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator), so by the time we get to the top our hearts are racing and we are out of breath! We have our own large room with two twin beds that we pushed together. Our matresses are not really matresses, they are a simple pad/cushion. Not the most comfortable but will do.. Another interesting thing is that we do not have a shower, only a bath tub, which should be interesting to use every day.
Once we got settled in to our apartment, unpacked our bags, bathed, and relaxed, we met a couple who had arrived the same morning for dinner. We walked up the street and saw a Chinese restaurant thinking it would be cheap.
On the menu? Strange Taste Chicken Balls!? Um... excuse me....
I ordered chicken curry which tasted nothing like Chinese food. (Just salt). The waitress brought a calculator to the table and four "Chinese shots of wine" and without writing us a check told us how much we owed. Once we left we realized we had been ripped off. To say the least we will not be going back there again.
We hit the hay once we got back to our apartment around 9 pm. We were wiped out!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Destination: Prague
The day has finally arrived! The day we move to Prague!
Stu and I met at the Boise airport with all of our bags. We checked our giant suitcases and said our goodbyes to our parents, not knowing how long it will be before we see them again.
To get from Boise to Prague we had to change planes three times.
Our first layover was in Denver where once we arrived we had to collect our bags at the baggage claim and re-check them. Let me tell you, it is hard carrying three pieces of heavy luggage any distance! Once we got through the United Airlines check-in line and to the desk, I set my 63 lb bag on the scale. The agent told me that it was going to cost $200 to check a bag over the weight limit on an international flight. Our mouths dropped in disbelief. Luckily, I had an extra tote in my bag, so we put the heaviest items in the tote, and dropped the suitcase weight down to 50 lbs. We still had to pay $100 for both bags plus the $50 we had to pay on Southwest. (FYI: Moving abroad is not cheap!)
We had our next two layovers in Toronto and in Frankfurt. Toronto was hassle-free and very easy to get to our connecting gate. Frankfurt was a much more stressful since the airport was very crowded and difficult to navigate. Trying to get to our connecting flight to Prague felt like we were going through a giant maze of hallways and crowds of people speaking foreign languages. We had to navigate through many different halls to get to passport control, then proceeded to a neverending security line, and then finally to our gate. We were exhausted by this point and all we could talk about was how bad we wanted showers. However, this was not the end of our journey. To board our plane, we had to take a bus to our plane that was parked next the runway.
After 20 hours of flying and navigating our ways through airports and planes, we finally made it to our destination: PRAGUE!
Once we arrived at the Prague airport, it was smooth sailing from there. We easily found all of our bags waiting for us in the small, crowdless baggage claim area, exchanged our US dollars we had on hand, and without getting asked any questions about our stay. It was so relieving to see our shuttle driver waiting for us when we came out with two yellow signs with our names written on them. We were so amazed at how easy it was and thankful that we had the shuttle because trying to lug all of our bags on the metro would have sucked.
We are in our new apartment at the Hotel Pivovar and excited to explore Prague! I so have much more to share about our experiences since arriving but I will have to wait until later as we are going to explore now!
Cau!
Stu and I met at the Boise airport with all of our bags. We checked our giant suitcases and said our goodbyes to our parents, not knowing how long it will be before we see them again.
Bags checked!
As you can see in the picture, I was exhausted from my intelligent decision to pull an all-nighter, packing and rearranging my bags, the night before our trip!
To get from Boise to Prague we had to change planes three times.
Our first layover was in Denver where once we arrived we had to collect our bags at the baggage claim and re-check them. Let me tell you, it is hard carrying three pieces of heavy luggage any distance! Once we got through the United Airlines check-in line and to the desk, I set my 63 lb bag on the scale. The agent told me that it was going to cost $200 to check a bag over the weight limit on an international flight. Our mouths dropped in disbelief. Luckily, I had an extra tote in my bag, so we put the heaviest items in the tote, and dropped the suitcase weight down to 50 lbs. We still had to pay $100 for both bags plus the $50 we had to pay on Southwest. (FYI: Moving abroad is not cheap!)
We had our next two layovers in Toronto and in Frankfurt. Toronto was hassle-free and very easy to get to our connecting gate. Frankfurt was a much more stressful since the airport was very crowded and difficult to navigate. Trying to get to our connecting flight to Prague felt like we were going through a giant maze of hallways and crowds of people speaking foreign languages. We had to navigate through many different halls to get to passport control, then proceeded to a neverending security line, and then finally to our gate. We were exhausted by this point and all we could talk about was how bad we wanted showers. However, this was not the end of our journey. To board our plane, we had to take a bus to our plane that was parked next the runway.
After 20 hours of flying and navigating our ways through airports and planes, we finally made it to our destination: PRAGUE!
Once we arrived at the Prague airport, it was smooth sailing from there. We easily found all of our bags waiting for us in the small, crowdless baggage claim area, exchanged our US dollars we had on hand, and without getting asked any questions about our stay. It was so relieving to see our shuttle driver waiting for us when we came out with two yellow signs with our names written on them. We were so amazed at how easy it was and thankful that we had the shuttle because trying to lug all of our bags on the metro would have sucked.
We are in our new apartment at the Hotel Pivovar and excited to explore Prague! I so have much more to share about our experiences since arriving but I will have to wait until later as we are going to explore now!
Cau!
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