Nasledanou From Praha

(This was written Saturday morning, while still in Prague. I am now back in New Hampshire and will write a post-Prague Post then. Later I will also re-upload all pictures on this blog to the actual copies.)

Yes, Boston has its charms and quaint feel and I love that dirty water as much as any Bruins, Revolution, and Red Sox fan loves it. Prague, however, I love in a different way. I love how the streets go forever in zig zags and twists and yet it’s almost impossible to stay lost; I love how people don’t just walk around fakely smiling but the second you even say “dobry den,” they visibly brighten; I love how the city is a valley and no matter where you walk when you walk up you’ll get a view over the loveliest orange rooftops; I love the democratic spirit and the possession these people feel for their country and I love how proud they are because they have something special here and they know it.

Yesterday was my last full day in Prague, so my coursemates and I hopped on an 9:05am bus to Ceske Budojovice. This small town is more often known by its German name, Budweis and it is home to the original Czech Budweiser. The name is familiar because Anheser Busch took the name from the town for its cool sound and began producing subpar American beer. This has caused lawsuits and anger, especially considering the people of Ceske Budoovice know that they produce damn good beer.

Our morning bus was some sort of local or city bus so it was fairly uncomfortable, took 3 ½ hours and stopped in every little, tiny town between Prague and Ceske Budojovice. As one is in Northern Bohemia and the other in Southern Bohemia, there were a lot of stops. I spent most of the time looking at the beautiful countryside or, alternatively, the inside of my eyelids.

When we finally made it, we got a map of the town and saw that it was in fact tiny and the distance was walkable. So relieved to get an opportunity to stretch our legs, we walked the 2 km from the bus station to the Budvar Brewery. Just in time for the 2 pm walk-in tour, we took some pictures, got our tickets, and waited for an English speaking tour guide. Our tour ended up being about 15-20 people and was dually done in both Czech and English.

It was so interesting to again visit and beer brewery and see how it was different from, ironically, the US Budweiser Brewery. Budvar’s factory was spilt up into different buildings connected by various pipes. In addition, we were all incredibly impressed by just how green the company was. Having been state owned since the split up of Czecheslovakia, they seem very committed to buying local product and reusing waste. They collect, clean, and refill old bottles and all raw material waste and yeast is sold for Czech agricultural waste and cattle feed.

We went into the brew house’s basement and saw where the young beer was placed to mature. It was freezing! They keep the whole cellar at 2 degrees Celsius year round. Down there though we were able to try unpasteurized Budvar Premium lager straight from the tanks. One can only have the unpasteurized beer at the factory because its shelf life is just 5 days. It was absolutely amazing!

At the end of the tour we went to the brewery’s pub to get some much needed lunch and discovered, to our delight, both cheap prices and the unpasteurized beer. I had the Czech specialty of Beef Gulash and Bacon Bread Dumplings. It was super delicious, very filling, and presented beautifully. The pub was cute and had a nice, relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed relaxing and chatting as we ate.

Afterwards, we wandered back a different way into the small town. I’m not even kidding when I say it was adorable! We found the giant town square with its clock tower and brightly painted buildings. Stopping, we took a ton of photos and just enjoyed the view and the walk. Everything about the town was cute and relaxed. It was a nice break from the relative bustle of Prague.

We lucked out on the bus ride back and managed to nab a Student Agency bus. It was 10 kc (or about 65 cents) more expensive than the morning but it was so worth it. It was a beautiful coach bus with comfortable seats and free espresso drinks! I had a delicious cappuccino as I enjoyed the scenery after a brief nap. To put it as clearly as possible: I had thought Prague was beautiful but the Czech countryside blew me away. It was stunningly filled with rolling hills, farms, and tiny little towns with their orange roofs and tiny gothic churches. As the sun began to set, I was surrounded by beauty and just relaxed through our 2 hour ride home.

The bus dropped us off in Prague 5 so we were able to quickly walk home and snap some great sunset pictures from a bridge over the Vlatava. After stopping for some snacks, we headed back to our apartments, leaving my one coursemate and I to pack. I managed to get to bed around 1:30 am! Thankfully, I slept pretty well and woke up ready to start the day.

So I said my goodbyes to my coursemates and just sit now saying my goodbyes to my now cleaned apartment. I just love how the cleaning lady (who speaks about as much English as I speak Czech) communicated this morning, gesturing movements and thanks, etc. Rather than frightening me, this non-verbal communication and use what you know language has become a fun challenge that I’ve become comfortable with it. It also just involved a lot of us laughing at ourselves. I feel both excited and depressed. Oh Prague, what have you done to me?

Nasledanou for now (=sample of Czech-lish, or just how I speak when here),

Fallon

I'm So Excited And I Just Can't Hide It!

Dobrý den!

My Tefl International TESOL Certification and I!

I sit here in my apartment and I absolutely cannot believe that 4 weeks have already passed me by. Today my coursemates and I prepared our last lessons together and taught an enthusiastic advanced class about surviving in the wilderness and Christopher McCandeless (Into the Wild). We all had a blast and the lessons couldn't have gone better. My final meeting with Jeremy went great and I have some bright future possibilities opened to me now because of this course, the work I've done, and the 10 pounds of paper I have to put in my previously-already-at-the-limit suitcase.

I'm writing words to all of you that I'm still having trouble processing. I came back home and was chatting to my mother before I thought, hey I should tell her I passed! It's slowly filtering in and not just from our post class celebratory dinner at the cutesy official Pilsner Urquell restaurant where apparently my dress was, ahem, appealing to a table of drunk Czechs. We found this hysterical as we left. A cherry to add to the day, no? hahahaha I'm just going to laugh about that now; it's easier than realizing it's all ending.

Yes, I miss everyone back home and can't wait to see them and get back in the grind, but I will miss Prague. This city is beautiful and so friendly if you give her a chance. Even if you can only say Dobrý den, it'll go away to earning you appreciative smiles. I know now as I look back on my time here that this is not my last time in Prague; she's grabbed ahold of my heart for good.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Czech Republic and my coursemates and I are heading to České Budějovický. Check back for a full review tomorrow evening (when I will be avoiding packing).

Nasledanou,

xoxo

Fallon

Can You Hear Me, Major Tom?: Being Understood and the Art of Pretend

Before I begin, I would like to say that if you don't get the reference in the beginning of the title, look it up now or we can't be friends. If you have none, you need David Bowie in your life. Legit. *ahem*


Dobrý den!


Jak se máte? I'm doing pretty well myself, though I have been exhausted with classes and having to prepare and write my one on one project. Sixteen pages and two nights up past midnight and I am definitively done with the project. It was actually a lot of fun - the one on one teaching, not the writing 16 pages about the kid's language - and helped me improve my teaching skills. I've just fallen more and more in love with Prague and feel reluctant to leave in just a few days. I'm tired and my mind is begging me not to take anymore classes for a while, but this is a place that gets under your skin, especially after you get lost, poured on, finally find iced coffee (which was totally an iced latte) after three and a half weeks, and get laughed at for telling a bunch of old ladies to write horoscopes. Yes, all that in response to how I am. :) It's a Czech thing that I like, a lot.


Last Friday, I'm not going to lie, was tough as nails. We reviewed our language tests and frowned at our low scores and need to memorize phonemic tables and the actual reasons certain tenses were used (so much for Sunday off...). Then we worked on our lessons and prepping materials for what ended up being possibly the most difficult lesson for my one coursemate and I. The third lucked out and got an hour and half with the advanced students while she and I got to spend an hour each teaching the pre-intermediate students. This would have been great; however, only two showed up and they did not like each other. Not that I blame the one student as the other lady is seriously annoying as hell. She tries, but she is random and distracting and always tries to go on and on. Being between pre-intermediate and advanced, she knows more sometimes and yet makes really basic mistakes. It's not her weird knowledge gaps, however, that make her irritating. That's just all her. I think if they had just gotten over it and actually SPOKEN to one another it would have gone better. We can't change them, I learned, so I should have just done everything as a group of three instead of making them do kind of awkward pair group. They were at least interested in the subject and in the end, they got it and were happy; it was just really, really awkward and even more so to observe and be unable to jump in to help as my companion hit ruts as well.


Needless to say, we were so over Friday and decided to go out for dinner anyway. We wanted beer, prosim, preferably right then. It was nice so we began to walk and bitch and muse our way downtown to the three-week rumored "train restaurant."

Nothing at that moment was cooler than a TRAIN that brought us beer.

The message of this photo is go to Vytopna if you're in Prague.

And to compound all that awesomeness, they had Chicken Cesear Salad, which I have wanted for perhaps two plus weeks. It was an epic way to end the day. As you can see a little bit in the background of the picture of me below, the train tracks ran all the way around the restaurant. The entrances onto the terrace, kitchen, bar, etc had motorized bridges that the employees had to time to lift using computers. They also had a Thomas the Tank Engine train going about! It was so cute and while pricy for here, was still very affordable (pricy for cheap students, so like tourist price not like 5 star fancy).

On Saturday we all pulled ourselves rather reluctantly to school. We were pleasantly rewarded with two facts: we were getting to do English Exams, grammar teaching redux, and music today and we were getting out early. Jeremy had about as much desire to be teaching on Saturday as we had for learning. Nevertheless, it was actually a great day. I learned a lot of super useful methodology and the music session was really relevant to the one on one lesson I was writing for Tuesday. Sure, we grumbled a bit about the whole thing, but we worked hard and learned a ton. And yes, we liked it.

I stubbornly decided that hey, since Sunday's my last weekend day in Prague, I'm going to do a little sight-seeing anyway, even if I have to study for my exam and work on writing the one on one write up later on. The forecast for Prague and Karlstejn loomed eerily: rain, more there than here. While I was saddened that the weather meant no castle as the small town literly contains a castle, tourist shops, and nothing else aside from the opportunity to hike 20 km to a monastery and the neighboring town for the bus (it's very, very small). It was already professed to be a quite difficult hike even when in hiking gear due to the fact that it was hilly and involved a small river and a creek or two; with lots of unpredictable rain and mud on the trail from the days before, it wasn't possible in sneakers. So, I moved on and chose Prague Botanical Gardens.

Adorable park bench swing just inside the gardens.

This turned out to be a brilliant, unregrettable choice. Firstly, outside of Prague, it was visbly pouring with huge storm clouds that swarmed at about the distance as Karlstejn. Secondly, the gardens were absolutely STUNNING. While they were a pain to get to - and finding the bus while the info man tried to find someone who spoke English (he tried Russian, I tried Spanish, no dice) was an adventure that I succeeded on after realizing I'd gone out the wrong way [Follow the signs for BUS - ZOO. It'll take you 20 seconds, I'm just an idiot] - they were worth it. Still technically in Prague, and in Prague 7 (the same as my school, amazingly enough), they were in the boonies and visibly kilometers from the city center. It felt and looked like I was in the country as the bus took its 20 or so minute trip out towards the gardens (and the zoo, if you ever want to go there).

Dizzying view down the vineyard into another garden of some kind.

It began as a beautiful day in Prague. The sun was high and the sky where I was was blue with white puffy clouds. As I hiked around the garden and took a grotesque number of photos of flowers the sky darkened. Everyone looked up as the rumbles began, but no one left or even sought cover. The cloud sprinkled a bit on us and wandered off to storm elsewhere. I continued my journey and played with fate a little bit to take some pictures in the Vineyard and finally find the Japanese Garden.

It may have been filled with kitschy displays, but it was beautiful and relaxing.

You can't see the sky, but it's saying, "I'm about to pour on you, bitch."

Clouds had filled in and it started to drizzle as I duked into Fata Morgana Greenhouse after I took the nature trail hike there (also known as the badly maintained supply road they just call a trail because you can walk up it). I was transported into a tropical rainforest complete with butterflies (that the signs made look frighteningly like something else...as the Czech word for butterfly looks like the English word for itthatshallnotbenamed). There were huge boughs of leaves and brightly colored plants. Lilies floated in a pond and water cascaded down an inside waterfall while fish from Asia, Africa, and the Americas swam in the underground tanks below.

Now it looks like I'm at the Hawaii Botanical Gardens again!

I was happy and content and sat outside (it was dry again) with my cornetto thinking about the beautiful flowers everywhere. Then I felt raindrops. When I looked up I discovered those charming white clouds that had come back had been replaced with angry gray clouds, that then turned black and released holy hell on me. I pulled on my rain jacket, cursed leaving my umbrella in New Hampshire, and made my way to the bus stop. It looked forlornly at me professing over an hours wait. I found out after walking further to the stop I had come from that that stop was the Botanical Gardens stop that the buses did not always go to. The next stop was the zoo stop and there sat 3 buses headed to the metro station. I was saved from the rain, though soaked to the skin through my jacket.

When I made it back to the city part of Prague 7, the sun was shining strong again and I took the chance to head to Letna Park. As is the case with Prague, when it rains the city becomes a ghost town in anywhere that's not touristy, but the second the sun comes back out, the city becomes alive again. Slowly people began walking their dogs again so that by the time I reached the park, it was quite lively. I made my way to sunny picnic table that was already mostly dried off, claimed it with my dried rain jacket, bought a cheap beer from the stand, and proceeded to work on my one on one write up exactly where Jeremy had suggested - "Go, go do your TEFL in a park!" Time passed pleasantly and I even got some normal reading done. I highly recommend Jack London's Call of the Wild! I may not be quite finished with it yet but I am quite enjoying it.

Following that I went for a walk and found the famous metronome that replaced what was once the world's tallest statue of Stalin after it was torn down by the pissed off people of Prague.

Yes, it says "TEARS OF STALIN" in giant hollywood sign letters.

I headed down the hill and made my way to Prague one to do some shopping and find the Czech food festival in the Old Town Square. In my mix up of which direction is which square, I managed to go a weird way towards Wenscalas instead of Old Town (not that it was a bad area or even all that unpopulated) and was accosted by a creepy Venezuelan who in between harassing me, groping me, and trying to kiss me, tried to get into my purse after I refused to "give a donation." In response to "besitos? besitos?" after he had pulled me into a hug I could not get away from, I retorted "CLARO QUE NO" and stunned him into letting me the f go. Just 'cause you don't speak Czech, buddy, don't me I don't speak Espanol. I'm totes fine and nothing was stolen, I was just massively creeped out. I made it back to the Old Square and found the food festival. At that point, I was hella ready for something to eat and something to drink. On the bright side, I had the BEST open coal grilled Czech sausage to date. It was absolutely delish, especially when paired with Ferdinand pivo (no judgement here, please - creepy dude). Then I went home and showered after walking past normal Spanish speaking cute old tourists and feeling better about the world (until I had to study for linguistics again...haha).

The weekend was over and Monday brought more class. We took our linguistic exams and I jumped up to pass with 97%! I lost one point for being an idiot (writing past when obvious have is in the present, ahem). All of did well and passed with flying colors, which made Jeremy and us very happy. The day was comprised of theater techniques, Business English - which was hard and not really up my alley at all - and visuals. These sessions were useful and highly interactive so we warmed up and laughed at the theater video woman who's teacher language made us cry even if she made some valid points when she got to them. Show, don't tell my friend. 

Tuesday brought Hana, a doctoral candidate in TEFL, who taught listening and young learners (up through high school!!). She was FABULOUS and I couldn't have been more thrilled with everything I learned from her. It also brought Text Drive Materials, our intro to the materials project, and my one on one lesson. I am very pleased with how it went! He was so motivated, even if he made fun of my mistakes and being told he had to pretend to be Major Tom and yes, he really had to write a sequel song. You tell me you want to do poetry, boy, and by golly, I'll get to it after all that pesky article work you asked for! He really improved and was totally nailing articles in his song even though he complained that "it takes time to write a song!" and clearly 15 minutes resulted in one stanza and one scratched out (but totally grammatically correct!) stanza. He did well, I did well, he stole my bad stanza and thanked me for the lesson, saying he was much more comfortable with articles. Needless to say, that last bit made my day more than even getting to teach poetry and use "Space Oddity" by David Bowie in a lesson could. BECAUSE I AM A TEACHER SAP, I KNOW (-> comment directed towards my mother who is so making a sarcastic comment at this moment).

Today, unfortunately revealed some issues that required Jeremy to go home to England on Friday and that made us all a bit sad. He was surprisingly wonderful to us as we turned in our portfolios and spent the whole day designing all our own material and preparing for our giant lesson on Chinese Horoscopes. His encouragement and suggestions pulled us through and resulted in three well done, super fun lessons with three much more communicative and happy pre-intermediate students. Courtesy the class, the lion, cat, and mouse have all been added to the Chinese Zodiac, haha. ;) It went really great and I know we were proud of how positively they reacted to the lessons and how they loved it even though it was a huge challenge due to the massive amount of new vocabulary (Dear Nat. Geo. for Kids - totes tone down the vocab! Love, ELL teachers who are using your articles).

Tomorrow is our last day and will be filled with materials creation for our last lesson with the advanced class. I miss the old ladies already and I know I'll miss the mixing pot of cuckoos in the advanced class as well. Nothing's quite like the one gentleman's related...eventually...digressive stories.

I'm lying here now, completely unable to believe tomorrow is the end of it all.

On the Esplanade during a walk on Sunday showing the cloud dichotomy and Prague Castle.

Despite the sun, it was raining on me when I took this picture.

All good things come to an end, I suppose.

Nasledanou,

Fallon

And by Tomorrow...

I meant Friday around midnight, apparently. Sorry about the delay in posting! I have been tired and a little stressed out. Our occasional observer/trainer told us that the third week was the stressful one and he wasn't actually kidding, at all. Lessons have been tough and with the transport strike, it's been a week of unknowns and all kinds of calamity. I still love it and Prague is still beautiful, perhaps more so due to its love and embrace of democracy for all its idealism. No matter what you may have thought of Prague before, it's seriously a place to visit. They have come so far and are so extremely proud of their advancements since the end of communism; it's a country where darkness lasted for a long time and after it all, the country rose up and seems to shout: "Look at me now! I finally made it!"Whenever I see the displays about it, I can't help but be overwhelmed.

Post-ramble: I'll now return to the regularly scheduling blog-about-everything-Prague with loads more pictures.

Last Sunday began with rain, so I proceeded to sleep in and then go out anyway. It quickly became, as Prague seems to become, beautifully sunny and quite hot. The blue skies surfaced and fluffy white clouds floated about while the stormy morning was soon forgotten. I chose to adventure today to Wenceslas Square, a place I had not yet been.

Protip: If you started singing the Christmas Carol -> (Good King Wenceslas last looked out on the feast of Stephan...), you are correct. He was not, however, ever king of Bohemia (what is now the Czech Republic) as his brother murdered him to become king instead. Duke Wenceslas was shortly after death canonized by the Church. *ahem* I hope you enjoy all my fun history digressions. ;)

Also affectionately known as "the horse," the statue of Wenceslas is a popular place to meet.

If it were me, I might use the National History Museum (a la the GIANT building in the background) as a point, but then, what do I know.

(Protip: The Metro stop is MUZEUM, hence why I didn't realize where the square was at first.)

Wenceslas Square is a huge rectangular strip that becomes pedestrian only about halfway down. It leads to winding roads of shops and restaurants. If you wander in one direction it dumps you about 20 minutes later in the Old Town Square and if you go off a bit you end up at the banks of the Vlatava River. On the other hand, if you go up the square...I don't know where you go...I think you'd end up near my school.

I chose, clearly, to wander down and weave through the tourist boutiques and do a little shopping. I stumbled up this market I'd been hoping to refind so I could uncover some much rumored deals. At this point it was still drizzling though Czechs and tourists alike were still out and about, shopping and walking and keeping faith that a summer storm is always short.

Awesome market in Praha 1! (Find it yourself, trust me.)

I spent a lot of time, and quite a few korunas here. The goods were nifty, some in the shops and others not, and at quite good prices. The stall vendors were very nice. Some spoke English and others spoke just Czech. I did a lot of *gesture* prosism (look at price and hand money) diki, nasledanou. (Translation: that please, thanks, goodbye). They seem to like my very bad Czech; it earned me some smiles at least. I try. :) I also think Czech sounds really, really cool.

I decided, after listening to my stomach grumble in protest at the sight of some huge Czech cherries, to go grab myself a beer and something to eat. I had my first Czech sausage (which became the following day, the first of two) and first Budweiser/Budvar (Original Budweiser from the Czech Republic). Anyone from Prague will tell you, truthfully, that the American Budweiser stole its name from the town in the Czech Republic because it sounded cool. The problem was as follows: that town totally had a brewery and made great beer and was just one upped by a bad American brewery. So, if you are in the US or Canada or sometimes the UK, they will call this Budweiser either Budvar or Czechvar to avoid confusion. (In case you didn't get the whole Czechs-like-their-beer bit, their's is a lot better).

The cute stand in Wenceslas Square I bought the klobasa and beer at. :)

I thought these were a touch sketchy...and then you smell it and then you go buy your sausage and shut up. Amazing.

As I was enjoying the sights and sounds of the busy square, I took a moment (read: went to the expensive but cool trolley cafe in the middle of the square so I could sit down) to relook at my guidebook and decide what to do with my shopped out life. This day turned out to an impromptu tour of some of Prague's remaining communist relics.

Behind me (the 1989) is the hard to find but moving marker of the Velvet Revolution.

There was a candle burning below for Freedom in Iran.

This marker indicates how far through Prague the student-led, democratic protest got before being shut down by the secret police. This marked the turning of tides for good in the Czech Republic and ushered in democracy at full throttle. It means a lot to the people here. Despite being a small monument, ever person I saw duck under the underpass to go by it (it had started to rain a titch again) looked at it with contemplation in their face; it was this movement that led these people to today. This year is especially moving as it marks the 20th Anniversary since the Fall of Communism in the former Eastern Bloc.

On a side note, maybe I should rename the blog Prague's History and Beer? I jest, I jest...but seriously...

After a side trip to watch the Astronomical Clock's hourly show, I concluded another several hours of walking and headed home to cook some pasta with broccoli and some sort of sauce that was in Czech but was good, whatever it was. [Grocery shopping in a foreign country is often an adventure...]

I woke up Monday rested, ready to explore again, and discovering my ceiling was to be fixed. While the latter still, well, hasn't happened (because the roof workers cannot do their job, my poor landlady), I did manage to learn that the transport strike was cancelled at the last minute due to insufficient public notice and potential public inconvenience. That meant should I get tired after my 2 1/2 hour walk to the park (the time being so long given the fact that the guidebook gave bad directions and I was lost a lot), I could take the Metro home! :)

I have seen almost all of Prague and had left as my one desire to see Kampa Park. From the map, it appeared to be a cool island surrounded up the Vlatava on one side and a creek on the other. If you ever go to Prague, note that it's not really an island and is very shore connected (though there's a little bridge unless you go through a hostel's parking lot). The cool island I spent 45 minutes trying to get onto is, I believe, still part of Kampa, but is not what the writer meant and therefore I couldn't find the "little bridge." To get onto the awesome island park, walk on the left side of the big bridge crossing the Vlatava (if you are going from Nove Mesto to Mala Strana) and go down the stairs (the right side has no stairs = I got lost).

Why you should go to this island.

I pulled out the blanket, my lunch, and Call of the Wild. Sitting/laying down with this spectacular view, I relaxed for 2 blissful hours looking out at the nifty paddle boats and beautiful Charles Bridge. It was in these moments that I felt possessively at home, and proud, of this city. Laying in the park, I felt truly like I belonged in Prague and that, in some ways, I belonged to Prague.

Me, at the island park, overlooking the Charles Bridge.

On Tuesday, it was back to the grind of learning and enjoying it. Phonemes and tenses flitted about the room and we fought with them, trying our best to come out as linguistic masters. Wednesday brought stress as two of us were down to the lesson planning wire before our one on one interviews, where I was then stood up by a roughly 75 year old man. Who apparently had another student call in for him but who left a confusing message with no info as to who she was. I'm not sure why he picked someone who's English is quite poor to try to leave a message referencing the wrong way...but it's water under the bridge. At the last minute, I switched a different advanced student who had shown up with his beginner friend to try to get some English as lessons on Thursday (the actual transport strike) were cancelled. Good for me? He's less random than the old man and genuinely passionate about adding English to his growing collection of languages. Good for him? He gets to do the project twice (ie. 4 free one on one lessons instead of 2). Extra good for me? I GET TO TEACH HIM POETRY BECAUSE HE WANTS TO WRITE SONG LYRICS!! I will now calm down, though to be honest, I've been super excited since Wednesday about this and I will be excited until Tuesday when I get to teach him again. That followed by directly teaching a massive class of 8 beginners after not having seen the other two lessons due to the late one on one, made for a nervewracking lesson that actually went very well.

Thursday was the real transport strike and in attempt to not fall even more behind, Jeremy left us with a pile of work and lesson planning that meant work to do all day long. I spent the day fighting my computer so I could finish watching Miracle before checking my email/facebook/ESPN/Twitter so I could be assured of/excited about the BRUINS WINNING THE STANLEY CUP, taking two walks around Prague 2 and Vyserad (where I commandeered a park bench to do more work), meeting a crazy Californian Potraviny owner, eating fake but good Thai food at Yam Yam and meeting a table full of Scots, and staying up late doing more work. That made today, Friday (I'm ignoring the time right now), a day for a lot of review in class and more teaching. This post is long enough for me to leave today's mishaps, adventures, and (of course) after course dinner/omgweneedadrinkafterthis, until the next one.

I now will go to bed and hopefully survive class tomorrow. I love democracy, I do, but you went and made me have class on Satruday...

So with that, I bid you nasledanou and enjoy my final remark,

Fallon

(Vyserhad)

Franz Kafka once said, "Prague never lets you go...this dear little mother has sharp claws." I know what he means and to be honest, am happy to.

And Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Dobrý den!


If you are up on your poetry, or live in the state of New Hampshire, you'll know the title was a quote from Robert Frost. It's a beautiful poem, even if it gets stuck in my head from having countless friends who memorized it in class a few years before I moved there. If you don't know what I'm referring to, click here:
Frost Recitation

The sheer amount of walking I've been doing the past few days about ends the comparison to the Frost poem as it's been hovering around 70 here in Prague. Amidst the threat of rain and occasional shower and downpour, I've been surrounded by sunshine and the bluest skies I've seen in quite some time. It feels a bit like New England in the randomness of its weather. I think Prague's getting the rain out of her system now though, as a sudden storm formed and now rages against my clamped shut windows.

I know that it's been quite some time since my last post, a week to be exact, but I have been busy and exhausted. With our long classes and giving lessons and trying to remember to cook dinner, it's sometimes a bit hard to think about what I could possibly write about, unless you would like to read an entire entry about TEFL teaching, which I doubt. Nevertheless, find something to write about I have as it's Tuesday and I have a whole weekend's wandering through the orange rooftop city to report back on and to make up for my silence, I've got loads of photos for you.

With a promise of sun and maybe a few clouds, my coursemates and I made the trek to the basis of Petrin Hill and gazing up at the giant slope before us, laboriously clambered to the top. It wasn't a very long hike, perhaps 30 or so minutes, but it was incredibly steep. The view, as my guidebook promised, was very, very worth it.

That's the view from the ground. Did I mention there was an Eiffel Tower to climb?

My one coursemate and I chose to encourage our legs for another climb and took the stairs up Prague's own miniature Eiffel Tower. It was built in 1908 for the Prague Jubilee Festival and, as far as we could tell, if the highest point in Prague, towering over even the immense spires of St. Vitus' South Tower. It was easy enough to get to the first observation deck but as we continued on to the top (after some time taking countless photographs), we felt vertigo in our bones from the dizzying view below and the sudden swaying of the tower in a breeze we had not felt before. Nevertheless, we made it and what a view of Prague.

Look, mum, still smiling despite the butterflies in the pit of my stomach!

Swarms and swarms of nervous butterflies.

Despite the vertigo, it was wonderfully worth it and the most beautiful views I have seen of the city. Right after we climbed down, we wandered off to the rose garden and hid a bit from a short and (thankfully) light summer drizzle. Roses of every color imaginable were blooming everywhere. We managed to catch it in almost full bloom and my coursemate and I could not stop taking photographs. The buds were open to the sun and just gleaming...

This photo doesn't even begin to do them justice. 

Imagine, if you can, hundreds and hundreds of roses all lined up in rows.

Despite being enthralled, we chose to head down the hill and give the rest of Mala Strana (lesser town, or old town) a stroll. The sun had come back with a vengeance and well, we couldn't get enough of the view and when in Prague...

We took a beer break and had our first Czech dark beers.

After cooling down and resting halfway down Petrin, we made our way back down the winding lanes and dirt paths until we found the bottom again. It began to rain again just in time for us to need our map, so we dodged in and out of overhangs and awnings to orient ourselves and try to stay a touch dry. We were three of almost everyone who took the same approach to the showers. It never got very bad and the lack of umbrellas told us it should be over soon, and it was. By the time the sun decided to pop back out, we had found our destination, tucked away as described, across from the French Embassy:

The John Lennon Peace Wall.

A living and daily transforming tribute to Lennon > Lenin and Love > Hate, this stunning wall is covered from top to bottom in everything from Beatles lyrics to names. First used while the Czech Republic was under communist rule, the John Lennon Peace Wall became a place for hope and protest. Despite its many attempts to cover it up and catch offenders, the Soviet Secret Police were never able to stop this wall from being repainted. A beautiful tribute to free speech in a country that truly embodies and deeply values the chance it now has to be democratic.

"You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. 

I hope one day you'll join us, and the world will be as one"

We concluded our Saturday by further exploring of Mala Strana on a quest for a good, Czech pub. My guidebook offered a promising recommendation for a pub we could not pronounce. Luckily, the author gave great directions and the pub had its name painted in giant green letters on the side. Our meander was not concluded and our grumbling stomachs not sated by chicken schnitzel and fried cheese until we had first had a photo shoot in front of the US Embassy.

Protip: I still have no idea what that other building on the hill with the US flag was.

Fun Fact: This building was owned by an Austro-Hungarian Prince before being bought by the US government in 1925. Most embassies in Prague was old palaces and are in the "Castle District."

If you are ever in Mala Strana in Prague and are looking for a good, cheap place to get good, Czech food and ice cold Czech beer, definitely hit up Vsebaracnika Rychta. The atmosphere is calm and friendly. It's a definite place for families and friends. You will not have to eat for two days after coming here and you won't mind because it's delicious.

All right, so I absolutely have to go to sleep or I won't wake up in time for class tomorrow. Look forward to the adventures of Sunday - Wednesday tomorrow evening, including some reactions to my one-on-one lesson interview (ah!).

Please, please, please follow and/or at least comment so I know what you're all thinking/liking/disliking about the blog.

Until tomorrow, nasledanou!

Fallon

Exploration, Phonemes, and Grammar

Dobrý den!

As I lay here relaxing after a long day of class, I realized I had yet to blog about my tourist adventures this past weekend and class this week. It was a lot of fun exploring Prague more and seeing some of the sights!

On Saturday, Sari and I decided to head to the Old Town and see the square with its Astronomical Clock and beautiful church as well as some famous buildings in the area like the Municipal Building, a gorgeous concert hall. As well as being famous for beer and ice hockey, Prague is know for Astronomy [Kepler lived here], Kafka, and classical music. It's such a diverse city with so much to offer!

After climbing the clock tower, I was greeted with the following dizzying view of Prague sprawled below:

In the distance, old Prague Castle watched from its perch on the hill:

The view was absolutely intoxicating and worth the climb and being squashed to pieces by everyone else. According to the gentleman working who played the bugle to announce the hour (and clock show), it it always that busy. On the bright side, as a college student I got a 50% off discount on my ticket [this is common everywhere here] so it only cost 50 kc, or about $3.40. I have so many pictures and let me tell you, I did not want to come back down!

Our next step was to wander around the tower to find the clock itself. A giant beauty that told a morality play and the month with its astrology sign instead of time stood before us. The picture below captures only the bottom half, which was filled with beautiful script. Rumor has it that the clock's designer was blinded so he could never make a more beautiful clock.

My face says: Henchman was forever inspired my obsession with clocks and time.

The heat was starting to get to us, so we found a small (and expensive!) garden cafe. It was tucked away such that the noise right outside in the square's surrounding streets didn't touch it over the lightly playing Coldplay and Keane. I had an incredible berry mousse (which was topped with a giant cherry that appear to be grown in the Czech republic) and had my first taste of Pilsner Urquell. It was very refreshing! We were able to relax for quite a while in the shade and regain our energy.

We ended our long day of walking with a trip through the Jewish Quarter and a walk up the Vlatava river and back and forth across the famous Charles Bridge. I took the following cheesy and iconic photograph:

We actually stumbled upon a market today in the Old Town that was filled not only with fresh fruit and veggies at good prices but tons of gifts and handicrafts. We think it's open Tuesdays and Sundays as Sari stumbled upon it on Sunday as well. I know where I will be doing some shopping!

After a bit of rest (read: doing my homework) and grocery shopping (right, I needed to buy food so I could have lunch this week...), Sari and I met up for another beautiful walk around Vyserhard. I have so far walked around and through the castle grounds 4 times and have always found something new. It's secretly endless and unabashedly beautiful. I sincerely enjoy having a castle 15 minutes from my house. It's views over Prague and perfect placement for an extraordinary sunset have it contending as my favorite spot.

Sunday morning I woke up fairly early again and prepared for another day of wandering through the tangled streets. Today I felt excitement in my bones: I was going to the castle! Prague Castle is phenomenally old, with original parts dating to 800, and is, with all of its surrounding buildings and gardens, the largest castle complex in the world. It is also the seat of the President of the Czech Republic. I would finally be sating my love of Ancient history and seeing what those imposing spires staring down at me were all about.

The answer was, actually, rather unconventional. The palace is a large, rather simple building outside with gorgeous, tastefully modest rooms inside and a fantastic museum about its history [as the castle was added onto and changed throughout its long life]. Within the castle complex, the cobblestone streets twist in and out between government buildings, shops, art museums, and displays of countless coats of armor and weaponry. You could on some spears still see the lines of dried blood from the battle of 1142.

This impressive display lay above the handicraft shops, historically restored display "pub" and "goldsmith," and a house that Franz Kafka once lived in. These cute houses were repainted in bright colors, showing the commitment to restore Prague to its past glory, along the Golden Lane.

I continued along and suddenly rising up were those spires that taunted me. It was not the palace, which sat simply off to the left or St. George's basilica which was modestly nestled to my right, but the imposing and gothic St. Vitus Cathedral. It dominated the third courtyard with the sharp spikes that shot into the blue sky. Its commading presence and startling size make it almost too impossibly beautiful to truly describe.

This picture doesn't do it justice. And the inside? Too beautiful for words. Go here before you die.

Among other things, Prague Castle offers an incredible view over the city. From what I can tell, the top of the church (which I did not climb as it wasn't actually included in the full price ticket), is the 2nd highest spot in Prague. The highest appears to be the mini-Eiffel Tower atop Petrin Hill, where I will go this weekend, weather permitting. Whilst looking out from the balcony on the castle that opens out from the beautiful hall where Czech presidents are now inaugurated, I saw this tiny little flag in the distance...

...and thought fondly of home.

I dragged my tired and hungry self to the metro and had some delicious Thai food and Stella [which still reigns as my favorite beer, sorry Czechs] at Yam Yam up the street from my apartment. I had a chicken curry with onions and carrots with perfectly sticky rice. Every time I walked past, I craved Thai. It was nice to feed that craving and relax in the shade. The service here is such that, if you have finished they will clean it and ask if you want anything else, but other than that, they leave you alone to slowly eat your meal, people watch, and browse through your tour book.

The evening ended with laundry and another long walk about Vyserhard where Sari and I swapped tales of our adventures and stories of our tired bodies. It's a beautifully exhausting city and it is easy to imagine never having enough of it.

The past two days can be summed up fairly quickly, in a somewhat, I hope, humorous fashion. It falls best into the following list:

• No matter how well you teach it, Jeremy, I will still hate IPA with all of my heart and soul thanks to Professor Greene and that wretched excuse for the midterm. When you have to memorize a chart while frantically downing Red Bull and running around a white board in Mugar at 1 am, you do not like the phonetic alphabet. [Though I admit, the song lyric activity where I got to write out part of Eleanor Rigby was fun. See, I can do IPA. I cooperate. Mostly.]
• To make up for it, I LOVE grammar, a lot. I think fixing sentences is super fun and I was quite eager to know about tenses and hear someone who knew what he was talking about really clear up that passive and active voice mess and say why I could and SHOULD teach my students both.
• To prove I'm not kidding, I own the following mug [thank you, roomie]:

• Teaching writing seems like it will be fun, so I'm looking forward to combining that with some contextual grammar this week.

So, in summary, these past two days of class have been very intense! We are really getting into the nit picky details and learning how to be better teacher. After learning how to work with the course books we did impromptu grammar lessons and learned about time lines and how it's a lot harder than watching Jeremy do it. We keep talking about how it's a learning process over our coffees and waiting for Friday and our trip to the beer garden if the three upcoming teaching lessons don't kill us first...haha.

Nasledanou!

Fallon