One week back in Prague

Monday-Friday of this past week I was in Prague for meetings with the Czech Fulbright staff and all of the other Czech Fulbright grant recipients. It was great to finally meet everyone and to hear about their own crazy and unique experiences these first few weeks. Despite our different situations, there have been some commonalities. It seems that everyone has both loved and been challenged by their new lives here in the Czech Republic. It was also nice to take a break and spend some time in Prague with some other Americans for a change.
So, to recap the week: On Monday, my flatmate Pavel took me to Ostrava where we had a "man breakfast" that consisted of some delicious, and fatty, pork knee, rolls, and beer. What can I say, it's the most important meal of the day. After being driven to Ostrava, I took one of the Pendolinos, the nicest trains in the country, (thank you taxpayers) from Ostrava to Prague. Once in Prague, I bummed around in town with another Fulbrighter, had some Thai food, and then went to my place of residence. The place where we were all staying was incredible (see picture). The name of the hotel was Villa Lanna and it was surrounded by various embassies and important places, the most notable being the Chinese Embassy, the UAE Embassy, a major police station, and the U.S. ambassador's residence. That first night we had a nice dinner in the dining hall and then went out for drinks. Tuesday was chock full of meetings about Czech History, education system, etc. which was informative but a little too brief for my taste (they covered the entire Czech History in under forty-five minutes).That night we went to the opera 'Don Giovanni' in the Estate Theater where it originally was premiered by Mozart (see picture). I had never been to an Opera before, so that was an awesome experience. On Wednesday we had meetings in the morning on Czech culture which mostly consisted of a dancer showing movies of her performances where she laid in a pile of dirt, nude, and had what appeared to be a seizure. It left me with more questions then answers. Afterward, we had more meetings in the U.S. embassy about safety, health, etc. and were then left to our devices that evening. I spent most of my time having drinks with some of the other Fulbrighters and the embassy staff and then later went out for Indian food. We were all trying to get as much culinary variety as possible while we were in Prague. It got a little bit expensive but it was worthwhile, the Thai and Indian almost cured my cravings for quality Mexican food. On Friday we had more meetings in the morning, a tour of Prague in the afternoon, and then that night we had a reception at the ambassador's residence. The ambassador's residence was incredible. It is one of, if not the, nicest homes I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. I felt extremely fortunate just to spend a couple of hours at the place, let alone at an official state cocktail party. The next morning everyone said their goodbyes, and I hopped back on the Pendolino and two other connecting trains, after much frantic ticket buying, running, and last second boarding, to get back home. That night I was pretty wiped and disgruntled from the trip, but my mood soon changed when I saw that the package that my parents had sent the week earlier had finally arrived (see picture). It was great to get some little snacks, magazines, and other things from home (Cheeze-its and cheap Wal-mart granola bars have never tasted so good).
Sorry I haven't been able to update everything more frequently. Things have been crazy busy. If things ever settle down I'll update the blog more regularly but until then, once, maybe twice, a week is all that I'm able to do. Thanks for reading and keep the comments coming!

First Week of Teaching

Sorry for this being a little late. I had some technical difficulties, lost everything I had written, and had to start from scratch.

Today my first week of teaching at the agricultural school in Opava ended. It's been a whole lot of fun and immensely interesting. It varies from class to class and teacher to teacher but it seems as though my job will mostly involve me just talking, a skill that I've always been good, (sometimes too good), at. I've grown accustomed to walking into classrooms of whispering young men and giggling young women of ages fourteen to twenty-two, depending on the class, and giving my personal information to blank stares, accompanied by even more snickers and mumblings. (My usual spiel is as follows: "Hello everyone, my name is Alex Bednar. I am twenty-two years old. I enjoy listening to music, reading, writing, traveling, running, and watching Basketball and American Football. I am from Nebraska. Nebraska is one of the fifty United States of America. Nebraska is located in the center of the U.S. Nebraska is known mostly for its American football, corn, cows, farms, and for being very plain and relatively boring. I just graduated from University and I would like to one day be an American History professor. I came to the Czech Republic to improve my teaching skills, learn more about Czech culture, and take a break from school. If you have any questions about the English language, the U.S., or anything, don't hesitate to ask.") After I step off my soapbox, I ask the students questions and watch them shrug their shoulders and turn ten shades of red. Occasionally I get an answer in pure and nearly perfect English, other times in nervous Czech, but usually I get absolutely nothing but an embarrassed student squirming in his/her desk. Sometimes I have to talk about a specific topic while other times I can speak about whatever I'd like. Some teachers have prepared lesson plans with lots of responsibilities for me, while others seem to make everything up as they go and only want me in the classroom as a resource. Everything depends on the teacher, the class, the day, and everyone's moods. I'm having a whole lot of fun with the unpredictability and variety of everything. It's also fun because the students can ask me questions as well. Usually kids that didn't understand my introduction speech ask questions that I've already covered and most of the other students are too shy to ask anything, but other times a brave student will ask about certain U.S. bands, why I picked the Czech Republic, U.S. politics, etc. and even braver students will ask if I'm single, do I like Czech beer, what do I think of Czech women, etc. Every class and every day are different and that's great for me. The other thing I've really enjoyed about teaching are the constants that can be found in almost every high school/college around the world. Even though Czech culture, language, and education systems are completely different from what I'm familiar with, the students are still awkward teens with faces a bloom with zits. Some wear pants that are way too baggy, while others wear jeans that are much too tight. They are usually armed to the teeth with the latest technology, headphones in ear and phone in hand. Strangely, seeing those pimpled but proud faces brings me some level of comfort and eases my homesickness. Kids are kids almost everywhere in the world.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of my first school with this post. I didn't have any chances to get a snapshot of the building or classrooms without feeling like a total American and/or creep/perv.

I'm still getting settled into my home here in Hradec nad Moravici (see pictures). The family I'm living with have continued to be wonderful. They spoil me constantly and are always extremely friendly and accommodating. I've been walking and running more and more often around the town to see the sights and get a feel for my surroundings. The town has one of, if not the, best castles I've seen here in the CR (the Hradec part of Hradec nad Moravici). There is also a nice little river that flows through town, (the Moravici part of Hradec nad Moravici), that has an excellent bike path where I have really enjoyed running, (I'll have a post up about running sometime in the future).

On Monday I head back to Prague for a week of meetings with the full Fulbright staff and all of the other Fulbrighters. I'm happy to head back to one of my favorite cities in the world. I get to see an Opera, have a brunch at the U.S. embassy, and stay at a fairly swanky hotel all on the governments dime, (thanks fellow taxpayers!). Seeing as how I'm going by train, the trip down to Prague should be an adventure as well. I'll make sure and keep you all updated and take lots of pictures.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry Everyone

I'm sorry everyone, I've been a miserable blogger. I really feel awful about it. Before I had a blog of my own, I would see un-updated blogs and scoff at how lazy and uncommitted their authors were. I told myself that one day I'll have my own blog and it will be the most updated blog ever. Well over the past few weeks that dream has died. I was so busy with classes, homework, activities, and traveling that I didn't have a free hour to sit down and update all of you folks back home on my whereabouts and condition. And then when I did have some time, the month of internet I'd purchased ran out. And after that, I spent a few days traveling and settling into my new home here in Hradec and meeting all of my new bosses at my jobs in Opava. I have some more time now and find myself in a more static position so I'll be able to update you all much more frequently. My plan is to put out regular posts every Sunday and Thursday. So lets just put those rude weeks of silence behind us and move on to more consistent blogging.

I apologize ahead of time, this post in mainly a quick and dirty review of the past few weeks. Future posts will be more detailed and they'll have a little more variety to them, I promise.

My language course in Prague ended roughly one week ago. In the last couple weeks of class my Czech improved, (slightly), I got used to the routine and style of the class, and continued to go on to various places of interest in and around Prague (see pictures). I graduated with an A but definitely didn't deserve one. I was the worst in my class by far, (and I was in the lowest level class). I'm extremely glad I took the course though, I can't imagine where I'd be without the limited Czech that I now have. I know just enough Czech to get myself into trouble, because if I say "Nemluvím Česky" (I don't speak Czech) everyone automatically assumes that I can in fact speak the language and I'm just being modest, since most foreigners don't even bother to learn that simple phrase. But I digress... At the end of my course there was a big graduation party with a feast, (see picture). The food was great and a Swedish girl and I got to teach everyone the word "Smorgasbord". After the feast I had to part ways with my friends, (see other picture). I truly made some great and interesting friends from around the world, (they were the other reason I was glad I took the course). Being with other foreigners in a foreign place really eased my transition into the Czech Republic and they always kept me socially busy. By the end of the course I was sad that we were all parting ways, but I was also ready to get settled into my new home.

After everyone left I had a few days to roam around the city and be more of a traditional tourist. I woke up early one morning and went to Charles Bridge (before the swarm of tourists hits), I wandered around Prague's Old Town, visited the Museum of Communism, and shopped for souvenirs for the fam. After that I had a meeting with the other Fulbright ETA's and some of the Fulbright staff to discuss the Czech school system and some of the troubles we may run into. The meeting was brief but it was nice to finally meet everyone that I had been emailing all summer. I met both of my supervisors, Kate and Karel, at the meeting as well. They were both extremely friendly and excited to have me at their respective schools. Kate has been especially great, she's helped me with everything from getting my bus pass to getting a bicycle and she even took me on a ride in a small four person plane to see the Moravian Mountains. It was an incredible experience. I'll post pictures of the plane when I get them. She also let me help her train her two hunting dogs, which was great because I've been missing Oscar, (my family's dog), back home.

I got settled into my new home about three days ago and I couldn't be happier with the situation. My flatmate, Pavel, speaks English and is a great guy, and his parents, who live above us, are the nicest people. All three of them are always giving me food and are constantly concerned about my well being and comfort. Essentially they are spoiling me with home grown fruit and vegetables, homemade food, and providing me with everything from a mirror to slippers.

I've visited both schools where I'll be teaching, but I haven't taught yet, (that starts tomorrow). So far I've enjoyed both schools for different reasons. The agricultural school is much more casual, the students and ambiance reminds me of a high school back home, I'll have more responsibilities as a teacher, plus they've given me a set schedule of where and when I'll be each week. The other school has better facilities, the students seem to have more skills in English, and every week that I'm there my schedule will change, (I'll even be going into music, biology, and history classrooms). I have a feeling that I'm going to really appreciate the variety that the two different schools will provide me. These first couple weeks of classes will probably just be introductions and a short personal biography from me, (which I have yet to prepare). But as time goes on I'll be dealing mostly with English conversation and writing. Any tips you guys might have on topics for discussions on the U.S., holidays, culture, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

So once again I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to update the blog and I promise that it won't happen again. I hope that some of you are still there and willing to put up with my poor punctuation and ramblings. I'll be updating every Sunday and Thursday from now on and I promise to go into more detail instead of brief overviews like this post. Thanks for reading.

Things that Terrify me #2

This is the door to my room at Kajatanká dormitory here in Prague. Aside from being the regular entrance into my private chambers, it was also my first impression of the place where I would be living for the next month. It terrifies me. It doesn't scare me for the half-torn stickers with foreign sounding words, or the text sharpie-ed onto it bathroom graffiti style. I'm not even frightened by the male genitalia so carefully and painstakingly applied to it by some unknown artist, etched in like home-runs on the bill of some fat little-leaguer's baseball hat. What's terrifying to me is that two of the three are crossed out like lost lives in a poorly executed game of pac-man. What went on in this room that required three phalluses to be applied to the door and two of them to be x-ed out like naughty kids on Santa's list? I don't want to know or need to know, but it scares me.

In other news, class is going well and I've been having a great time here. I'm going to try to get some more posts up next week on several different topics. Thanks for reading.

Trips and Tours

One of the best things about my summer language course in Prague is the free weekday tours and weekend trips. Three times a week and twice every weekend the school's administrators and teaching assistants take us students on tours around Prague or trips to surrounding areas outside the city at no extra cost. Although I usually end up exhausted and sweaty, it's always been worthwhile. The first trip I went on was last Wednesday and consisted of an arduous, but beautiful, walk around Prague's much, much smaller Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower of Prague was nice but generally unimpressive compared to the real thing. What was nice was the view (bottom picture). Something that I found very interesting from the first tour was a church with a "magic", (their words not mine), wooden statue of the baby Jesus that has protected the church from being destroyed over the last five or six centuries (second to last picture, it's really small and in the center). Its about the size of a GI Joe and has its own wardrobe of robes given to it by various popes and other important Catholic officials over the years. Our guide told us that a couple hundred years ago, one of the priests was playing dress up with the splintered savior, (sorry, I couldn't resist), and its arms fell off. That night the priest of the church dreamed that only a person of pure spirit could reattach the arms. He was disappointed to find that there was no one holy enough in the whole city, and the arms were never reattached. After hearing this I walked up to the spruce son of God, (again, I'm sorry), and snapped its arms back in place...just kidding. It turns out that its arms were already attached when I saw it. I don't know if it was all just a legend or a story to amuse us, but I was pretty bummed that I didn't get my time to shine in front of the lumber lord of lords, (last time, I promise).
The next trip I went on was to a Czech museum with the fourth largest equestrian statue in the world, (impressive, I know). I forgot my camera that day but there wasn't a whole lot to show. The giant statue outside of the building was covered by a tarp for repairs and they wouldn't let us take pictures inside the museum. The museum was very modern and informative, and it even had English translations. It was very nice to learn a little more about the recent history of the Czech Republic and how it is now just starting to overcome all the struggles that it was forced to face over the past century.
The weekend trips were a little more exciting for me. On Saturday, I started off by traveling several hours to the castle of the Austrian diplomat and chancellor Metternich (third from bottom up). This place was very, very cool. Sadly, I couldn't take any pictures inside though. Metternich begged, borrowed, and stole 'gifts' from around the globe while he was working in international politics and was a good buddy of Napoleon. I saw everything from libraries with thousands of ancient manuscripts to Roman busts of philosophers and statesmen, Egyptian sarcophagi to Samurai suits of armor, Turkish guns to Ming dynasty Vases, Italian Renaissance tapestries to Greek statues of Psyche and Cupid, a lock of Napoleon's hair to medieval pikes and claymores, and the list goes on and on and on with amazingly awesome things. Later that day we traveled to the spa town of Mariánské Lázně whose 'curative' spring water has drawn some of the 19th and early 20th century's most powerful, artistic, and brilliant people, (Twain, Goethe, Chopin, Edward VII, Dvořak, Dumas, Kafka, and Kipling just to name a few). As you can see from the pictures the town was incredibly beautiful and it was a blast just walking around and staring at the architecture (pictures four, five and six from the bottom up).
On Sunday I traveled about an hour to the silver mining town of Kutna Hora to see a couple of churches. The first was an awesome Gothic church that was/is a rival to St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (pictures four and five from the top down). It was paid for by the villagers with the leftover slivers of silver, (say that ten times fast), after the ore was turned into currency. The second church was a little more strange. For a long time the church housed over 30,000 bones in its crypt from various battles and the plague. One day in 1817 some extraordinarily creepy monk(s) thought that they would put those leftover people parts to good use and display them in even creepier ways to teach the locals about how fleeting life is. The walls were literally covered with human bones (the first three pictures). There were columns, vases, a chandelier, coats of arms, etc. made out of human remains. It was incredible and disgusting all at the same time; a lot to take in. Some people on the trip were having a hard time with it all. I, of course, was humming: "them bones, them bones" and eating beef jerky. I drew some dirty looks.

First off I'd like to apologize for the way that the pictures are arranged. I meant for them to be in correct order. Once again, I'm sorry but I can't comment on the comments. I don't know why. I do really appreciate them though. It's really humbling to know that people care about my day to day activities and well-being. Thanks for reading and all of your kind words.

Czech Lessons

Have you ever sat in a classroom and felt as if the teacher were speaking in another language? That maybe you had accidentally walked into the wrong room, were having a mild nightmare, or were possibly the victim of some elaborate practical joke? If you have, than you know exactly how I felt on my first day of Czech lessons at Charles University...except I guess in my case, the teacher was actually speaking in an entirely different language: Czech. When I sat down in class last Monday, I expected the four and a half hours of class to consist of a Czech teacher who spoke in English giving my classmates and I an overview of the Czech alphabet, maybe some vowel and consonant pronunciations, and perhaps, if we were all doing well, some simple vocabulary words. It was a beginner course for English speakers, how bad could it be? I was mistaken, it turns out it could be pretty bad. Shortly after I set my pen on the desk, the teacher, Hanzo, began speaking Czech. No English, just Czech. He spoke at least as fast as an auctioneer and sounded about twice as foreign as a Japanese game show. I sat and stared at him like I would a Spanish soap opera, it sounded nice but I didn't understand a word. Pretty soon the words that were streaming from his mouth started to sound like questions, and worse yet he was looking at me. I knew that I wouldn't be able to give him the answer that he wanted to hear, but I had to say something in Czech to maintain any shred of credibility I had with my new students and teacher. I reached into my limited Czech vocabulary and chose the word "prominte" (excuse me) hoping that that could buy me some time. The teacher repeated what he had said earlier, only slower and with greater diction, I had to think fast. This time, after several minutes of flipping through my five dollar english-czech two-way dictionary, I answered with "nerozumím, jsem z Americky" (I don't understand, I'm from America). The teacher then rolled his eyes and skipped me, (a reaction I've grown familiar with in my years of schooling). It ended up being the most difficult first day of any class I've taken in my life, the teacher didn't even speak English for the first forty-five minutes. Since that first day, I've slowly begun to pick up words here and there and have spent quite a bit of time studying on my own. So I'm learning, just very slowly. And although the classes aren't any less difficult, they've become more manageable. It's very much an international classroom (1 from Israel, 3 from the U.S., 1 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Italy, 1 from France, and 2 from Greece), and all of my classmates are pretty sharp. I'm definitely the dunce in my class but a dunce in a room full of egg-heads is still pretty bright, (or at least that's what I keep telling myself).

The pictures with this post were all taken right outside the place where I go to school, with the second to last being my actual school building. It get's pretty easy in the third hour of class to stop paying attention and stare out the window at Prague.

Once again, thank you for all the comments.

Things that Terrify me #1

This is graffiti written on the inside of the door to the water closet, (room with a toilet), in my dorm room. It terrifies me. I don't know what "Piko" is, why I should "take it", and what makes "it so easy". I don't know if I want to know either.

P.S.
For some reason I can't comment on my own posts. I just wanted to say thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them.

*UPDATE*
I was informed by a friend that "Piko" is slang for meth. This makes the graffiti at least twice as terrifying.

-Alex

Adjusting

I'm sorry that it's taken me a few days to get a new post out, I've been busy acclimating to my new environment. Since I arrived a few days before my classmates, I spent the first two or three days here getting a feel for my surroundings. I walked about 5 miles in every direction down multiple streets to build a mental-map of the area that I'm in. I found some nice parks, shops, and a fairly cool old monastery. I'm not going to lie, these first few days were a little rough. I was dealing with some sleep problems and a little home sickness, but both have progressively improved as I've met more of my new classmates and kept busy with school activities. I always forget how much I take advantage of the comfort and convenience of home and how I don't fully appreciate the people and places that I'm most familiar with until I'm separated from them. That's my sentimental post for the month.
The activities for my class started yesterday at an older portion of Charles University in the center of town. There was an orchestral string quartet playing music by Dvořák, (probably the most famous Czech composer who was also extremely influential in American classical music), some speeches by some of the campus big-wigs, a placement test, and then a dinner that night. The music was exceptional and the surroundings were equally awesome, but I got absolutely nothing out of the forty-five minutes of speeches that were all in Czech, a language I don't speak and am taking this course to learn. The purpose of the test I took was to separate the 202 students from 39 countries and 4 continents into different groups based on our Czech language skills. Since I've never been known for my skills especially when it comes to foreign languages, as my Spanish and Japanese teachers can attest, I turned in the exam blank with only my name, country of origin, and perceived skill level (beginner) written at the top. I think I was the first person to leave the lecture hall out of the whole group of students, my mom would be proud. After turning in the test I went outside and met a few other guys, (one from France, one from Germany, and one from Greece), who had all done the same. Despite our lack of Czech skills we all spoke English and decided to go for a walk around the Old City portion of Prague and have a beer. Later that night all of the students and faculty had a party where we chowed down on some finger food and wine, while representatives from each country sang an impromptu song, (I was part of an attempt at "When the Saints Go Marching In" sang by the five or six U.S. students). This morning I showed a few of my new classmates the places I had found near campus and took a quick but practical tour of Prague given by one of the teacher's assistants.
Thanks for tolerating my ramblings and poor punctuation skills, it means a lot to me that some people back home are taking even a passive interest in what I'm doing. From now on I'm going to try and write about my happenings every other day.

Arrival

And so it begins. After surviving two annoying, fat, Italian kids that took turns slapping and kissing each other while simultaneously arguing about who should be playing spiderman on their PSP, waiting hours in Cincinnati for my second plane to change its tires and then having that very same plane burn the tread off while doing donuts on the JFK tarmac for several hundred minutes, running to catch my third plane as they were closing the door (Home Alone style), and then lugging my four pieces of luggage across Prague--I'm finally, more or less, safely nestled in my dorm at Charles University ready to start the Summer School of Slavonic Studies. The accommodations at Kajetánka dormitory are spartan but I have a great view and a cool new roommate from Belarus who's willing to share his wifi and show me the places to get "cheap food and beer". Now that I'm here, I have around three days to explore the city before my classes start. I'm planning on doing the normal touristy stuff while also trying to get a lay of the land and how the transit system works. I'll try my best to keep you all updated.

-Alex