The Prussia Periodicals

Flickr is being difficult. It only allows users to post a certain amount per month...

It was pretty easy except I forgot 'participle.' Sorry committed readers, hopefully tomorrow I will write more enthusiastically. I'll post on Facebook when I do. Thanks.

So I'm a couple days behind. All will be told over the weekend. For now, I should study modal verbs, conditionals, all the verb tenses, the difference between homophones and homonyms, and oh so much more. The final exam is at 1:00 today, or 7am for yall. Should be over in three hours and then I, somehow later, get my TEFL certificate.

Day 27: 1/27/09 So when I first came to Prague I was thinking I got live and work here. Then I had a phase where I didn't like the big city and I thought about moving into the countryside. But then I did go into the countryside and I'm not feeling that. So unless something crazy happens in Spain, I think I'm gonna come back to Prague and live and work here for a little while. I say a while because today I mailed an application to a spring and summer English camp in France. Usually, these things are just in the summer but this one is in spring as well! Basically, these camps have kids (in this case, French ones) and then native or qualified English speakers doing stuff with them like climbing walls, and other camp stuff and oh yeah, teaching English all the time. No French is allowed to be spoken when you are in the camp. Or at least I'm assuming its just frowned upon, its not like they're gonna kick me out if I say fiance, or chandelier, or... croissant. So hopefull...

Day 26: 1/26/09 Monday, bleh. Homework is due and classes to go to. I've never mentioned before our furnace. Andy and I have gotten used to gas heat so after a month, its not a huge deal but its still kinda cool. In the living room/ kitchen, there is a gas furnace on the wall. Always open, without a door, we can see right inside to watch the tiny blue flame flick around all day. But when hot water gets turned on or worse, when the heat kicks in, the one blue flame is surrounded by a plethora of blue flames, all heating up our apartment. I don't understand gas heat, but I have gotten used to it. Electric just makes more sense to me. Even when it kicks in at night, no one is talking, nothing is happening and I'm just kinda sitting or laying all quiet like. And then suddenly, whoogh ! The gas is turned on and it startles me. Well, it used to. Nowadays, I'm don't react except laugh when someone else is startled by it.

Day 25: 1/25/09::__My heart on my sleeve__ (I'm stealing your title, Caleb!) It has come to my realization just how much Americans take for granted. I speak from my own perspective, so I am not condemning anyone without rebuking myself first. Be it cheap electronics or a lack of conquered history, USof Americans have it good. Sometimes we just don't know it. Being far from home, I now understand all of the things I took for granted, or things that I did without knowing it. I took for granted English speaking TV channels, either a handful at my parent's without cable or in Lynchburg with cable. I sought entertainment and I could not find it as I would flip through eight or eighty channels and determine that nothing was on. Here, in my Czech apartment, we do have a TV and only two English speaking channels: EuroMTV and National Geographic. The latter is narrated by a British gentleman as stock footage of World War Two is played. But most of all, I took for granted, I assumed ...

Day 24: Jicin Today I traveled out to a little Czech town called Jicin, pronounced “yechin.” I rode the metro as far as possible to Cervy Most and boarded the right bus. I gathered from the other pasengers behavior that I was to say where I was going and then the bus driver would type in a small computer and it would say how much I owed for going that distance. Well when it was my turn, I said yessin not yechin. The driver gave me a funny look and as I struggled to explain, he pulled out a card with all of the destinations. I pointed to Jicin and he cried out loud, “Ah 'yeechin'!” I nodded and he charged me 110 crowns. A little over five dollars to go a little over one hundred kilometers. Traveling over hills and snow, the bus stopped two maybe three times along the way as I listened to music and did some writing. Within 90 minutes on the bus and a grand total of two hours, I was far from the hustle and bustle of Prague and at a quiet bus station. Scott, a teacher from a small ...

Thanks for those that voted. Apparently, I'm in the minority for hating the taste of mustard. And who said they would rather have nose hair reach their lips? Gross

Day 23: 1/23/09 Only one class today and then I went home, ate lunch in the form of a pizza which only cost about a dollar at Tesco. I booked a flight to Madrid Spain for the first Thursday of February, the fifth. The flight is only two and a half hours from Prague! It is a small world after all... And if sunny Spain doesn't work out, I have a job interview in Jicin of the Czech Republic. It is a smaller city (not a village or town, as I thought) to the north, about 100 kilometers, in “Bohemian Paradise.” If I knew all the words, I might sing Bohemian Rhapsody on the hour and half bus ride there. I'll tell ya more tomorrow when I return from the Czech countryside. I'll wear my nice sweater (hi Mom o/) for the interview as well as a big coat cause its still a bit chilly around these parts. Thought: Alfred Hitchcock said a good story is “life, with the dull parts taken out.”

Day 22: Its sunny! The clouds departed and the sun is shining! We had an hour break in the middle of the day so I ran to Old Town Square and took pictures. There was an old man playing a saxophone to a CD playing for background noise. But then he took the saxophone off and started singing in a nice baritone voice in Czech as he picked up a trombone, soon playing that. There are some days that I would like to try busking, or performing in the street for money. I'd probably be incredibly poor but it looks like fun. I need to book a flight for Madrid. A train would be great but a direct flight would be a lot less hassle. Thought: The dollar is fluctuating faster than... something that fluctuates a lot

A couple more pix... http://www.flickr.com/photos/36122886@N00/

Day 21: 1/21/09 Thought for the day: “Christianity is Christ as revelation of what God is and what man is to be.” Alva McClain Today, I had a bad teaching experience. Five students came in for a pre-Intermediate lesson and I made the mistake of trying to teach them about phrasal verbs. You don't know what phrasal verbs are? Well, apparently, I can't explain it. So you should just look it up online. But anyway, here we go: Phrasal Verbs are verbs that contain a preposition to make a phrase. Like: “wake up.” Up is a preposition and wake is a verb. So put em together, ya git phrasal verbs. Some of these phrasal verbs can be split up “wake up.” It still makes sense to say “Wake him up.” But if you try to add a direct object in the phrasal verb “eat out” it doesn't make sense. “I eat with you out”? Neh. Doesn't work. Enough grammar. I get it all day and you probably don't want to know. Oh, but our teacher always reviews everyone's lesson for the day and at the end, ...

Day 20: 1/20/09 Thought for the day: "a prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it." The Prince, by Machiavelli We had our third Czech class and the teacher was not impressed with our 'survival Czech' skills. She suggests we practice in the real world but whenever I saw “Dobry Den” to someone, they either repeat it and I'm fine, or they say a long shpeel of Czech and I have to explain in English I only speak English. We're supposed to say “neruzomite Cesky” but I can never remember that when someone's staring at me expectantly. So, everyone was going to a bookstore/pub/cafe/internet cafe for the inauguration. I tagged along constantly thinking of the Who: “meet the new boss... same as the ol boss.” But aw well. I'm glad our nation is at a point to elect a half-African man for president. It is tru...

Day 19: 1/19/09 Thought for the Day: AAAAaahhhh! At 8 am, I went into a Czech primary school and taught English as only a novice native English speaker can... poorly. At the very beginning of the class, all of the students put their stuff down and kept standing up. The teacher told me that I have to say “good morning children” and tell them to sit down. So I said “good morning children”, they quickly said back “Good morning teacher!” I replied, “You may sit down.” and they did, ready to begin. I introduced myself and where I'm from, then asking them to make name tages. But they already had them, so so much for wasting time on fun creative things. The teacher had asked me to talk about American schools so I did and sped through everything I had prepared. I even had a power point presentation with pictures I yanked off of the internet including photos of my elementary, middle, and high school. The only question that I student asked me was when does the day start. Besides that, they a...

1/18/09 Thought for the Day: How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84:1-2 In the barren wilderness of Prague I have found an oasis which is an international English speaking church. This Sunday morning, I went again and was not disappointed. Maybe its just a psychological thing, an experience that allows me to sing. But I believe its something much more than that. After a week of hanging out with people that are experienced in things that I never would have dreamed of doing, it is immensely refreshing to attend a service and then have lunch with a bunch of chill missionary kids in a food court, not a pub. After lunch, I went around and took some more pictures, including but not limited to: random buildings that I have no clue know in what they are, Vysehrad castle, two fancy churches, and the longest escalator in Europe. It rains in Europe. I've neve...

Day 17: 1/17/09 Thought for the Day: It is a bad idea to listen to Switchfoot when thinking about traveling... or you'll want to go everywhere! So I got an email. It was from Spain. I booked to arrive February 6th. Spanish countryside here I come! For dinner, we went to Loli's, our French classmate. Her place is nicer than ours with a terrace and a window that looks out upon Petrin hill and a far away Prague Castle.

Day 16: 1/16/09 Thought for the Day: Its time to clean your European apartment if cups are sticking to the counter We only had one class today. We went in for a session on CVs or resumes and getting a job in Prague. They told us not to do anything illegal like under-the-table payments but get a contract or some kind of agreement that the government wouldn't kick us out for. So we left the school around two which was nice cause its actually above freezing today! If I walked to close to the buildings, I might feel a cold drip of melted snow on my head. After class, Andy, Amanda and I went to Tesco, a vertical Walmart-ish store. The basement has food, the second floor has clothes, third has toys and house things, etc etc. We usually go there to buy groceries but today Andy bought some other things including a clothes line that is currently stretched across his bed room. (The cons of not having a clothes drier.) .. I'm thinking of Spain right now...

Day 15: 1/15/09 Another fairly easy day of classes at ITTP language school. I gave a lesson to 2 beginner level students. Two Czech ladies came in today and I tried to teach them some grammar. I didn't do a horrible job, well, at least I didn't confuse them beyond help. I used a warm up of naming animals alphabetically which they struggled in a little. I started off with Ape and they didn't know what that was but we continued after I explained. Bird and cat were easy follow ups and so on and so on. Getting into the grammar was difficult for me but they seemed interested in hearing the difference between “the dog barks” and “the dog is barking.” (Essentially present simple and present continuous). I had to explain what barking means so naturally I just barked and the class found that entertaining. But not as much as the game at the end. I blew up four balloons and had a big bowl. The object was to pull back the end of the balloon where you blew it up from between your finger...

Day 14: 1/14/08 I got accepted into that English speaking Spanish village. Do I want to do it? Yes. Will I? Eh... I dunno. I should find a real job first. Maybe not in the Czech Republic though. Its nice and all. And Prague is beautiful. I bet its even more pretty in the summer time when I could actually see the sun. But I'm here to experience Europe, right? So why not go down to Madrid for a week, when a cheap airplane ticket is only $80? I think I'll do it. And even if I land a job in Prague, I can always come back here. I've been searching the Internet for jobs. That's how I stumbled upon Pueblo Ingles. This day's grammar lesson was about Conditional sentences and Modal verbs. Its amazing how many little things there are in our language that we don't even know about. We just say it! Conditionals are used to introduce a condition. Olga, our Ukrainian teacher who speaks 5 languages, English being one of them, began with “Imagine if you're stranded on a dese...

Day 13: 1/13/09 Tuesday was it? I'm writing this Thursday morning cause I kinda lost some motivation but if people are really reading this thing, I guess I should pen my days if I have the time. Tuesday was a short day with some grammar lessons in the morning and with the afternoon off. We all went for some lunch at a near by place and just talked for over an hour. What about? The conversation ranged from what do we think about the course to cultural differences in obscenities. The four Americans, an English couple, and a French woman all talking about Europe, politics, and the difference between 'knockers' and 'breasts'. That night, I applied, on a whim, to a voluntary English speaking village in Spain. It's a place similar to English summer camps, where no one is allowed to speak anything besides English. But this is for business executives and they need to learn how to speak English better. So we native speakers, who are on such high demand (especially those ...

Day 12: 1/12/09 Getting up at 7am, I went to the old Jewish quarter of the city to a school where I had been assigned to observe an elementary English classroom. I had been told that these students were monkeys but they just seemed like normal ten/ eleven year olds. The teacher played Jeopardy with simple English questions such as “What do monkeys eat?” under the Animals category. And the kids usually got the answer right, using their English vocabulary. I was never that good in Spanish, not even in high school! And so, after observing this Monday, next Monday, I get the wonderful opportunity to teach them myself. Oh be still my aching heart...

Day 11: 1/11/09 There are few things that bring more joy to this writer's heart than knowing that his work is read. I suppose the next thing would be to hear that his work is appreciated, but that can be assumed, right? My spiritual life had dropped in tempo. To use a cliché metaphor, if I was the Energizer bunny, who keeps going and going and going, I had sunken into a mood where I probably couldn't even keep up with the droning bass voices of the Wicked Witch of the West's army. But then I found this English speaking international church not too far from my flat in Prague, and now my tempo has triplets and eighth notes! I got re-energized and I'm ready for the new week.

Day 10: 1/10/09 Saturday morning = sleeping in We tried to round everyone up for a visit to the castle but they either ignored all of our text messages or just didn't care. So it ended up being just Andy and me with Amanda showing up later. The castle itself was the same, but the cathedral doors were open... See pictures for more details. I spent most of this time looking up and getting a slightly sore neck.

Day 9: 1/9/09 Jak se mata? We had our first official Czech language lesson. The teacher came in and immediately started speaking Czech, writing vocabulary on the board and expecting us to answer. Hand motions and other things helped as she guided us to say the right things. I don't remember much but 'jak se mate' is an official 'how are you?' and shpalte is bad, dobry is good. I didn't realize it a couple days ago but I was feeling a little down cause I had a slight case of homesickness. Nothing to worry about, just a natural first big time far away from home for a while. Either that, or the grass really is always greener on the other side. I do miss all my friends and yes, even you. The scenery here is great though. To walk around a corner and come to a tower older than the US is still so surreal to me. The snow is gone from all of the streets and sidewalks. It still lingers in some parts of the city: rooftops in shadow, parks, underneath benches, etc. Even wi...

Day 8: 1/8/09 I have officially been in Prague for a whole week now! It feels longer though. A couple days ago, it felt like we had been hanging out together for weeks. Today, the rest of the class presented their lesson to two different students on a slightly more elementary level. I'm glad I had the ones I did, the spoke more English than the two today. But while everyone else is teaching, the rest of us get to peer criticize. Which is hard cause I don't know what they are doing wrong all the time. For the most part, we are all polite with each other cause we don't know everyone well enough to rag on them about every little detail. After class, I walked down the road a ways to a business building for my first business-English lesson. I started to walk up the stairs but a security guard came out of nowhere and starter talking very fast, very confusing, and very Czech. I very intellectually said, “Uh... I'm sorry?” He made a face and then said some more. I pointed at my...

Day 7: 1/7/09 I actually taught English today! Two Czech ladies came in for the free lesson from us lowly students and put up with us. When it was my turn to give the lesson, my idea to talk about directions had been taken by someone else. So I improvised. I asked them to pretend I was a tourist and tell me how to get to Prague Castle. And then back. They did exceptionally well, perhaps I should have asked them to do something harder. But my classmates thought it was good and I looked comfortable up there. I can blame all the embarrassing moments in front of people at college and camp for that. I said ya'll once and didn't always praise or correct them, which the trainers say is important. It was a short day but learned about more about different teaching styles, similar to what I've heard before. There's the Explainer, the Involver, and the Enabler. Looking back, I've had all kinds of teachers on this list and some used various tactics. Today, I bought an internati...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36122886@N00/sets/72157612230411967/

Day 6: 01/06/09 So Andy and I slept in again, but this time it was a bad thing. Classes started at 8:45. We know the walk only takes five minutes but we left at 8:41. And we entered the classroom at 8:47. That says how far away our flat is from the school... but still. We probably should've been there early. After all, to be early is to be on time! The day started with Mila teaching again and we started with the different types of certificates that students can pass in order to be proficient in English. The Cambridge exam system has many different levels and I'm not going to bother telling them to you. If you want, you can just look it up online. I don't want to type them all out. But basically it goes from Beginner to Advanced and then Proficient. Our teacher, the one telling us all about the English language is very proficient if that gives you an idea. We were taught a basic teaching style: WPPPW: Warm up/ Presentation/ Practice/ Production/ and Wrap up. After a short br...

http://www.freewebs.com/jprussia/anodetoacheerio.htm

Day 5: 1/5/09 The first day of classes. Because of a late night, Andy and I just slept in; he in the bedroom, I in the living room. Amanda comments on how big our place is but it is kinda small in comparison to the house in Lynchburg or the townhouse I had in the fall. Her place must be cramped. We do have a lot of 'negative space' as she put it. Must be a Massachusetts thing. At noon, we walked up the five million flights of stairs to the school after getting buzzed in at the door. Classmates include: Peter from New York, Pieter from somewhere in England, Chris from Birmingham, Sophi from Birmingham, Loli from France, Andy, Amanda, and myself. We are all friendly and an easy going bunch with a team of trainers to get us certified. Loli, though not a native English speaker is very capable of the English language and knows more grammar than the rest of us. Today, Anelka, one of the trainers, a native Czech speaker. The first things she said was in Czech. Dobry Den, something som...

Day Four: 1/4/09 A relaxing day. Woke up late, didn't bother trying to find an English speaking church, but I now know there is one three metro hops away. Andy was actually the one who reminded me. Paid in full the school bill with a little help from my friends: A, T, and especially M. Took pictures of Wencelas Square and I actually bought groceries today! Eating out at Czech restaurants isn't too expensive but the convenience of the home helps a lot. Yet still, after Andy and I paid our bills we met up with another of the students who paid hers, Amanda. We all went out to eat at a suggested place and fairly inexpensive. Czech food is good... We later came back to our place, hung out, and then saw Amanda off at the metro. Boring if your a tourist, but we are greater than they. We are expatriates. We just hung out. Because we live here.

Day 3: 1/3/09 It is currently Sunday morning at 2 am but for some crazy reason, I can't sleep. Maybe cause my sleep schedule is so whacky. Anyways, I met my roommate last night at Petr the owner of the apartment. We couldn't go into the real place for someone was still in it so we would spend one night here. Not too bad, except Andy and I experienced real European culture and slept in one bed. Thankfully, it was wide but still, very stereotypical European. The following morning, we went to a money exchange place at Petr recommended which didn't charge any commission which I thought was weird. So we both got good Czech money for our un-useful American money. Andy and I then split up after a quick tour of the nearby Wencelas Square. I went for the metro, couldn't find it so I went back up, where I, rather bashfully, ran into Andy again. Again we split up and I found another metro station and headed for Hradcany, the area with Prague castle. So I went to Prague castle agai...

Day 2: 1/2/08 I got up early before my 'roommates.' They came in last night around nine when I decided to go to sleep around nine cause I was tired after all the traveling. Then they came in again around midnight. No worries. At six, I got up, got ready, and got going by seven. I went directly to the metro station to the wrong place. Once I figured out where I was, I hopped on the next metro and took off for Old Town. Road signs are small and hard to notice... and in a different language so it took some time for me to figure out where to go. But then I ended up on the other side of N- road. I found myself staring at the St Charles Bridge. So I went across it. The Prague morning was dark and chilly but the sun was starting to rise. The sound of water flowing over a dam and birds cawing at each other was all I heard. Hardly any people were up, much less on the bridge. Someone is doing some reconstruction on the centuries old bridge, which is understandable. But what was not unde...

1/1/08: FRANKFURT Well, I'm in Europe. I'm currently writing from Frankfurt airport where I landed from my overseas and overnight flight. It might have been the turbulence or the screaming child two seats next to me, but for some reason I didn't get much sleep. Trying to start a conversation with the guy next to me, it went as follows: “So how are you doing?” “Good... you? “Yeah good.... You fly much?” “Yes.” And that was it. He didn't seem to be a big talker which was fine cause I wanted to sleep.. but couldn't. So instead, I watched a little of one of the flight movies: Fred Claus and wasn't deeply impressed. And of course it wasn't till we almost landed that I realized Monk was on another channel. And it was the episode where he was in the psych ward with Santa Claus. United Air must have thought it's the holidays or something. They passed out a late dinner and I had a good ravioli-pasta- thing. Its misty here so there's not much to see. I'm ...