MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas! My mom came to visit, and our plan was to fly to Amsterdam yesterday, but I came down with the stomach flu, so unfortunately (especially for my mom) we are just sitting around the house. I did get to experience a traditional Czech Christmas dinner last weekend, however. Some of my roommate's high school students cooked for us. Traditional Christmas dinner in the Czech Republic is carp. Yes, the fish. Something I never thought I'd eat. But I had carp soup, and it was pretty good. We also had potato salad, which was delicious!! And lots of cookies and candy for dessert. There is no Santa Claus here- they say that baby Jesus brings the gifts. So what usually happens is everyone sits down for dinner (which they have on the 24th) and then someone makes an excuse to leave the room and they ring a bell- which means the presents have arrived!

Something interesting that I've noticed here is that nobody gets offended when you say "Merry Christmas," even though the Czech Republic is 59% Atheist/Agnostic. In contrast, 59% of Americans consider themselves to be religious, yet there is this pressure to say "Happy Holidays" so that we don't offend anyone. Am I the only one that finds this a bit strange?

Anyway, I will hopefully be over the flu in the next few days, and Mom and I can start having some fun. Maybe we'll take a few day trips. I'll keep you posted!

Tis the season...

Just wanted to share some pictures and a video of Christmas time in Prague- Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Hope all of you reading this had a great Thanksgiving!

I think this was my first Thanksgiving that I didn't spend with family. My roommates and I had a Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Saturday. Both of my roommates are also from the States. They teach English at a high school in Prague, and invited some of their Czech students to come and experience a Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I think it would have been stressful enough to try to make Thanksgiving dinner for the first time without my mother, without being in a different country where you can't find the ingredients you would normally use, or, maybe you can find them in some specialty shop, but you have no idea where that would be! Or, you don't know what the Czech word is for the ingredient that you need (i.e., Sage). So we had quite an interesting experience trying to prepare food for over 15 people.

My roommate ordered a 15 lb turkey online from a British shop, and scheduled a time to pick it up. But, when she went to pick it up on Friday, the man in the shop told her they didn't have any more 15 lb turkeys (even though she had ordered one), so she would have to get a bigger one. So she decided on an 18lb turkey, and the man brought it out, holding it up by one drumstick. It wasn't wrapped or anything. She asked if he could please wrap it up, and he did, but he charged her extra for it!

I wanted to make cheesy potatoes- now, as most of you know, I am not a big fan of cooking, nor do I consider myself skilled in this area. Since we don't exactly have the convenience of Cheese Whiz, or a microwave, I attempted to melt a large quantity of cheese in a saucepan on the stove. I grated the cheese first- seemed like the logical thing to do. And I added a stick of butter, minced onion and some sour cream. I needed a can Cream of Chicken soup but we don't have cans of soup here. The cheese never really fully melted. It was very "stretchy." But I thought maybe after I put it over my potatoes and baked it for awhile it would be okay. So I put it all together, put some corn flakes on top and hoped for the best. After about 45 minutes I checked it, and there was a THICK layer of grease on top. I mean, my roommates and I were scooping out the grease with a measuring cup. What I didn't know was the cheese here is about 30% fat. So I could have totally skipped the butter and it still probably would've been a disaster. So, we removed some grease, threw in some more corn flakes, and baked it awhile longer, but it really didn't help. It got a little crispy on the bottom, but the rest was a puddle of grease. So we strained the cheesy potatoes (I will try to post a picture- it was hilarious), and we all tried a few of the crispy bites, but in order to avoid a heart attack, we threw them away. We had a few issues with the turkey as well- it barely fit in the oven- the pan we had to cook it in did not fit in our oven, so we had to improvise. And the ovens are different here- a lot of heat comes from the bottom, but not much at all from the top. We really weren't sure if it was done or not, but the more we cut into it, the better it looked, and it tasted great. Everyone enjoyed it, so overall it was a success!

Karlovy Vary

Last Saturday I took a day trip to Karlovy Vary, about 2 hours away from Prague by bus. I really enjoyed it. It is a spa town that has had quite a few famous visitors. It is also known for its mineral springs. Drinking the water from these springs is supposed to "cure" you. You're supposed to drink it out of a special cup (see the picture below). It doesn't taste very good, but I guess that probably means it's good for you...

Differences...

I thought I should start sharing with all of you some of the differences between the USA and the Czech Republic. I'll start with food and school.

Food (and other related items)

• Water is not free at restaurants. Furthermore, BEER is cheaper than water.
• There is so much yogurt!! In one of the bigger grocery stores, there are at least 2 aisles devoted to different flavors/brands of yogurt. I dare say that I may not be able to try them all in the 9 months that I am here :)
• In most of the stores, there is only one kind of milk- no 1%, 2%, skim...just milk. It comes in something that looks like a water bottle, but a little bit bigger.
• There are cans of beer in the vending machines.
• The peanut butter is not nearly as good. And it comes in a small jar, and it's expensive. Oh, how I crave a big jar of JIF.
• The chocolate is way better. After all, I am in Europe.
• The bread and pastries are great. The best thing is when you get to the store right when they bring out the fresh bread, rolls, etc. that are still warm. And most of you reading this probably already know that bread is my weakness.
  
• The cashiers at the grocery store sit down. You have to sack your own groceries, and sometimes you have to buy the bags.
• At most restaurants, the napkins and silverware are in a glass on the tables.

School

There are a lot of differences in the school system, which makes it quite interesting for me to try to teach, especially when I have no experience anyway...

• Children take their shoes off while in school. Then have special sandals or little slippers they can put on. A lot of the teachers do it too.
  
• Writing is very important. Children learn cursive before anything else. They have to write with a fountain pen, and their letters have to be perfect. So when I write words on the board in print, they sometimes have no idea what they are. They also don't cross their t's. And while they have to use fountain pens, they still have these big pencil cases with colored pencils, markers, rulers, scissors, etc., So when I tell them I don't care what kind of utensil they use, they go crazy! They make each letter a different color.
• At the school where I teach, children have school only in the morning (for 4 hours, I think), but they don't really have recess. They do have breaks in their classrooms, and there are games and toys they can play with. But that means that just because they're in a classroom doesn't mean that it's time for class, which makes it difficult for me. In the afternoons children go to more "elective" classes, like English, art, sports, or they can go to the "After School Building."
• And here's the one I'm still trying to wrap my brain around: the endings of people's names change (Czech words in general change, depending on how they're used). For example, I have a student named Anna, but to call on her in Czech, I would say Anicka (ah neech kah). I just found this out a few weeks ago at a seminar, and now I understand why my students sometimes have no reaction when I call on them.
  

Paris

Last weekend the other English teacher and I went to Paris because we didn't have to work Monday-Wednesday (fall break). We took a bus there- it took 15 hours but it was way cheaper than taking the train or flying. It is still crazy to me to think that I am living in a place where I can just pack up and go to Paris for a long weekend! There are some pictures below, and more can be found HERE.








Here is a video of the Eiffel Tower at night:

Peeing Statues??

I think you will all get a kick out of this- I had heard about these statues of men that are peeing into a pool shaped like the Czech Republic, and I had to see it for myself. Apparently there is a number you can send a text message to asking them to write something for you. Enjoy!!

A Few Pictures

Waiting in line...

A lot has happened in the few weeks that I've been here, so I'll try to catch all of you up without writing a novel. There were a few things I had to get in order once I got here, like picking up my trade license (this is something that states I'm an English teacher and can be employed in more that one place), and also getting my visa looked at by the foreign police. This has to be done within 3 business days of arriving in the Czech Republic. So I went with my boss, Marek, to the foreign police office, which is kind of like the DMV, but soooo much worse. There are people waiting/sleeping inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs...how are this many people coming to the Czech Republic at the same time??!! Anyway, Marek was thinking there might be an easier way, so we tried several other offices in the building that had much shorter lines, but they all told us to go back downstairs. One woman started to help me, but she said I didn't have enough proof of insurance (I didn't get an insurance card with the travel insurance I purchased- it's all electronic). So I called the insurance company to see if they could do anything, but the best they could do is email me a letter within 48 hours stating that I had purchased the insurance. So we went back downstairs and stood in a line for the info desk. That alone took forever! When we finally got to the desk, the man told us the same thing- they couldn't do anything w/out better proof of insurance. But he gave me a number nonetheless. So we left the place and ran all over Prague trying to figure something out. I finally called my mom, she found a receipt for the insurance and scanned and emailed it to me. Then we had to find an internet cafe, pay to print the receipt, and then rush back to the foreign police. It had been 4 hours and they still hadn't called my number. We waited another hour, and when they finally did call me back they just stamped my visa, no questions asked! Didn't even look at my proof of insurance!!!! Unbelievable. But at least it worked out!!

Hello!

Hello Everyone!

I finally got around to starting my Prague Blog. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you up-to-date with some funny stories and pictures.

I have been in Prague for two weeks, but it feels much longer! I am enjoying it so far. I am teaching 5 English classes: two 2nd grades, one 1st grade, one for adults with learning disabilities, and one for the employees of the organization for adults w/ learning disabilities. It's keeping me quite busy so far, but I'm sure it will get easier the more I do it. I don't have any classes on Fridays, so hopefully I'll be able to take some trips on the weekends.

I have several stories to share already, but for now I'll leave you with this: the first picture I took in Prague- this is something I've never seen before- looks like it might be the V.I.P. section of the public bathroom, but I certainly want no part of it! :)