How Blessed I Am.

While most of you are stuffing your faces with lunch back in the US, I'm sitting here on my balcony, listening to my roommate share his tunes with us and enjoying the cool summer evening. It's amazing.

The second day of class went well...just learning more about lesson plans and teaching and all that jazz. We had a different teacher today, and I think we'll have him tomorrow and Thursday. I have my first one-on-one teaching lesson on Friday with a photographer from here so I'm interested to see how that goes. I would have had one tomorrow but the guy is on holiday so I have a little longer to get ready that most of my classmates.

We had lunch at a local place that a guy from our school told us about so I have my first taste of real Czech food. It was beef with a gravy sauce and bread. It was quite tasty, I must say. I forgot to take a picture of it, sorry.

Well, I think that is all for today. Hope you are splendid. I leave you with a picture I took yesterday of the Muzeum. The sky was amazing...it's been very cooperative these past few days.

Like the First Day of Kindergarten All Over Again!

It finally started...our TEFL class at ITTP started today and it was quite interesting...in a good way of course! Kami, Tyler and I left the flat a little early to make sure we got there on time, and since we were a little early, we had some time to hit a coffee shop and get our morning started right! I had a delicious cold coffee and Kami tried real cappucino for the first time...no Toot-n-Totums here!

So we arrived to class to find all of our new classmates. There are 13 people total in the class, nine males and four females. The majority of the people are from the US but there are other countries represented, including Scotland, Australia, Romania and England. It's very exciting to have a good mix and get to know people from other countries. Besides our roommate, there is another guy from Georgia (went to Valdosta State...Titletown USA!!!) and two people from New York, a guy from Connecticut, another from Arizona and a girl from Seattle. A good mix, I'd say!

Alena, the leader of the school, did a brief intro to the course and then a guy from a school in Moscow came to tell us about their program for English teachers. It was very interesting, but I'm thinking Kami and I won't opt to go there. Good info though. After lunch, a czech girl came to give us a lesson in Czech. It was nuts. She did the whole lesson speaking only Czech so we had to figure out what she said according to her cues and body language. It was crazy. Two things were accomplished with this, we learned some basic Czech and we were able to see how our students will feel when we are only speaking English to them. (So it can be done...teaching without knowing the language).

So that was pretty much it! I cooked our first dinner tonight and that was good...felt good to actually cook and not eat out. I made spaghetti and it was quite yum! Actually, it was pretty much the only thing I was certain was something I knew I could made without having to read the directions. Haha.

We also adopted a new roommate. His name is Ewen and he's from Scotland and we are happy to welcome him into our home. I kind of feel as though I'm on an episode of Real World, but hopefully I won't have to deal with that kind of drama they do. Ha. It's all good though, just hanging out!!

Oh yea, another thing. I guess that my right foot was a little jealous of my left, so it developed a blister on the same toe as the opposite foot...it's amazing...sense sarcasm! It's ok though...the walking is great...it's just the feet, they're still adapting!

So I guess that is it for the day! More to come...

I Know Why Europeans Are So Skinny!

After 12 hours out of the apartment and about 9 of them walking around and climbing stairs, I now know why Europeans are so skinny...they are always in motion. It's great though. My body is wondering what I'm up to and feeling tired, but hopefully soon it will be up to speed and moving wonderfully. Eventually, the blister on my toe will heal as well...let's hope at least!

Today was an exciting day. Kami and I rose early to be part of the first group of tourists (yes, I love being a tourist!) at the Prague Castle. When we got to the Prague Castle...which is not just one building, it's gigungus (however you spell that...even though it's not really a word...haha). After buying our ticket, we went to look at the cathedral, which in my opinion is the highlight of the castle experience. We noticed a sign that said they weren't open for visitors until noon but since it was Sunday, they had mass at 9:30am. Even though neither one of us is Catholic, we thought it'd be an interesting experience, so we proceeded into the cathedral for mass. And yes, it was in Czech...so we pretty much had no clue what was going on at all. We just followed the people around us and did what they did. I don't know if that is sacreligious or not, but we just wanted to experience it...I mean, how many people do you know that have gone to a Czech mass service?!?

So after that, we wondered around and took some great pictures. The castle is on a hill that overlooks the city, so we were able to get some great pictures of the city. It was awesome. At noon, the castle did the changing of the guard, so we watched that for a bit. By that time, there were a bagillion tourists, so we didn't have too good of a view of the changing of the guard, but what we saw was interesting.

After taking a million more pictures, we headed down to the city and Kami was craving a Big Mac, so we found a McDonald's for her...haha...they're everywhere so it wasn't too hard. It's actually close to the Starbucks we went to yesterday...haha. They're really everywhere! :)

So anyways, we had a few hours to kill until we went to an English-speaking church so we just wondered around in the town and on the Charles Bridge...which is a huge pedestrian bridge over the river that runs through town. It is really insane to me all of the tourists...I knew it was a popular place, but it's just incredible all of the people representing so many different cultures in one town...not much like Tuscola, Texas! Haha.

A few months ago, Kami found an organization that did missions in Prague so she emailed them to see if they'd be there and we could go to their church and stuff, and they recommended an English-speaking church to attend while we're here. Faith Community Church wasn't the traditional church with pews and all, but it was a good experience. From what I could tell, some Americans started the church three years ago or so and have been hosting summer interns since and ministering to English-speaking folks since. There were about 30 people or so and there was a guest preacher, an American missionary that is doing work in Vienna right now. I thought it was a good sermon and the music was good and everyone was very friendly. Afterwards, their thing is to go to the beer gardens...I know, kinda crazy...but Kami and I went so we could chat some and get to know about these expats. They were really nice and one girl, Alice, is teaching English in Prague at local businesses so she let me ask a lot of questions and find out what we are to expect. It was good just to talk to someone who has done a TEFL class and that could tell us kind of what to expect.

So after hitting the grocery store on the way home, Kami and I finally made it home 12 hours later and pooped. We start our class tomorrow at 11am, so that'll be fun. I'm ready to meet all of our classmates and get started on another adventure.

Until next time America...

Getting Our First Taste

Well, we're definitely in a foreign land. Asking everyone if they speak English before we can ask for help and not being able to know what you order at a restaurant are usually indications you're not at home. Ha. Kami and I visited our second local cafe around our apartment and were unable to communicate at all with her. After pointing to a word in our phrasebook, she said ok and we just trusted she'd bring us something. Ha. It turned out being ok, some chicken and potatoes, but it was a little scary there for a minute.

Also, for any of you that are thinking about traveling to Europe, you need to know about the water. If you order water or buy water, you need to know that most people drink their water 'sparkling' here, or with bubbles. It is SOOOO gross!!! My first water I had in Lithuania was like this and I had the great chance of getting it again today at the pub. So let's just say I'll be carrying around water with me from now on! Enjoy your bubbleless water and your free water Americans!!

We then had to the chance to get our first taste of the 'pretty' side of Prague. After our roommate Tyler arrived, we headed down to the center of town to find the school in prep for our meeting with them tomorrow. Well, we got a little lost on the journey but ended up seeing some awesome buildings and getting a few pics along the way...my first of the journey! Here are a couple, you can see more on my photo site (this site is hard to post pics so it's just easier to do on Picasaweb).

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to the castle to see the changing of the guard...that'll be awesome. We are also meeting with a guy from our school so hopefully we'll know more once that happens. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Goodnight.

The Day Has Finally Come!!

We're here. Kami and I finally landed in Prague after two flights and 13 hours...but we made it!! Yay!!!

Today has been quite hectic. After spending 13 hours on the flights, we got to Prague to find that one of Kami's bags didn't make the journey with us and was stuck at our connection site, Amsterdam. So, after chatting with the Czech Airlines people, they told her it would be there on a later flight so we decided we'd go back after we got our keys and found our place to live.

Well, that was all quite an adventure in itself. We taxied to one of the metro (it's like a subway) stations to meet the landlord for the keys, we realized we were a half-hour late because of the baggage situation so the landlord had already gone. So, we found a payphone and couldn't figure out how to use it because of whole 'it was in a different language' issue. We then asked several people if they spoke English so we could find a phone to call the landlord, and finally a nice Czech girl helped us (and notified me the payphone wasn't working, so it wasn't my fault). So after our long journey, we finally got the keys and thought we were set...

Little did we know that either we couldn't read directions or our apartment owner couldn't give them, either way, there we were on the streets of Prague, dragging our suitcases up and down stairs and ramps and about to pass out with no luck in finding our apartment. I finally found a guy to ask, who spoke no English, but he managed to point me in the right direction.

So there we were....after losing luggage, missing the landlord and begging Czechs to help us, and wandering aimlessly around the streets to find our apartment, we were finally in...and sooooo happy!!! It was like a Heavenly moment when we walked through the door...such a good feeling to finally find where you are supposed to be!! I really felt like I was in a movie, just trying to find my way in a foreign land. It was quite an adventure.

After dropping off our luggage (thank goodness), we headed back to the airport in hopes that her back had been on the next flight, but no luck with that. Then we were starving since we hadn't eaten since the flight, and Kami wanted pizza so we found one close to our apartment. Well, they didn't have an English menu and the waitresses weren't too up on their English, so I just took my chance by ordering the Pizza Il Carne and Kami went with the standard pepperoni. It turns out Czechs make pepperoni a little different than we do...it was a cheese pizza covered in all sorts of peppers...like gross!! Not a happy time for Kami...who knew pepperoni wasn't standard. Mine turned out ok and I shared some with Kami, so it was ok. Don't think we'll be going back though...the waitresses weren't too excited about having us there.

So now here I sit, relaxing and taking a load off my feet...it feels amazing. Tomorrow, our roommate Tyler comes so that'll be excited. Hopefully in the next 12 hours, we'll know something about Kami's bag and can get that taken care of...then we can actually see some good parts of the city. We've seen lots, but nothing too out of the ordinary...airports, metros, buses. We're definitely ready to see some beautiful sites so hopefully we can do some of that tomorrow.

I know, I know...you're wondering where my pictures are...well, I haven't even taken one since we got here. It's been too crazy. Maybe tomorrow.

Anywho, I'm pooped and this has gotten way too long, so I'll end now! The point is we made it here and we're ready to experience Prague to the fullest!!