Time Flies

Since it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve last written, I will sum up some highlights of my time here. Two weekends ago we met a great group of expats at Zlute Lazne, a kind of man-made “beach” along the river. We were going to stop by and ended up staying all night. It was a night of drinks, dancing, bon-fires, and new friends.

Dan being burried in the Sand

Kate and I on the "beach"

The week after was spent in class, planning, and teaching in the evenings. The students are amazing and we’ve gotten to know them well through one-to-one lessons that we are required to complete for our certificates. I met with a University student and we worked on a little grammar and a lot of slang. I also met with an older gentleman who is trying to get a new job so we worked on interviewing. The TEFL class has definitely been more stressful than I thought it would be so many-a-night has ended with a couple pivos in local beer gardens.

We, of course, went out last Friday night, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely Saturday. A handful of us have taught an amazing mother and son and they invited us to their cottage for the day. Cottages are extremely common as travel outside the city used to be very restricted. We took the train to a small city about an hour outside of Prague. We spent the day outside, and took a long hike in the woods to look for mushrooms to gather. This is very common in CR but we were about a month early in the season and came back empty handed. We hung out the rest of the day, working on English, learning about each others' lives, and eating, eating, eating. We ended the evening roasting Czech sausages on the fire. I was so pleased to have this experience; a peak into the lives of the Czech people. They are warm and thoughtful and wonderful.

Our student Vlada and his Younger BrotherCzech Woods

The Boys

Iain and I Looking for Mushrooms

Our students, Vlada and Jitka

This week has been our last week of teaching and I’m so pleased to be done with the stress of lesson planning and being observed. I passed the dreaded grammar exam and tomorrow is our last official day of class. Wednesday night we had a celebration dinner with all of the TEFL teachers and students. It was great to hang with the students outside of the classroom. These people are amazing. They all have a drive to learn English, all for very different reasons.

This weekend is our last night Prague and I am getting extremely sad to leave the city and especially all of the amazing people I’ve met. It hasn’t hit me that I will be in China by Tuesday. The plan is to spend the weekend hanging out in the city and saying farewell to friends. Stay tuned for a recap.