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!!
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