Happy Hallowe'en

Ahoj hoj,

Sunday was another quiet day here in Prague, and so I have not much to update you on. The one thing that happened is that I officially became an Associate Member at IBCP, which is lovely. I really feel like I'm settling in here. In a less happening way, I also planned a few more lessons, and I should well ahead of myself when Dad comes, so I'll have AMTAP (as much time as possible) to spend with him!

In lieu of a real update, please feel free to read the following list of random facts about me. Who knows, perhaps it will turn out to be absolutely riveting, and you'll wish that I had quiet days all the time so that more of this delicious blog fodder would be provided! :)



TEN Random Things About Me:

10. I collect giraffes. I have quite a large collection, mostly living in boxes at the moment, but I do have one little one here in Prague with me. We cuddle at night.

9. I have become gyros addict. Mmmm gyros.

8. On days when I feel conformist, my socks match my shirt, because my mum told me that they're supposed to. On those iconoclastic kind of days - well, bright orange duck socks with a baby-pink button down, anyone?

7. On the subject of matching, my hair elastic generally will match the outfit I'm wearing (yes, I know I'm weird).

6. I sleep on a fold out couch/futon thingamajig. It feel more like a nest than a bed, but I like it.

5. I have succumbed to Robin's fate, and live in the living room of a one bedroom apartment.

4. I'm really bad about enforcing the doing of homework. I assign it, I ask for it the day it's due, but if you don't have it... well, what can I do? You're a grown up!

3. I have become slightly addicted to Buffy. I actually have dreamt about it for two nights in a row.

2. I like dark beer, not light beer.

1. Back in high school I swore that I would never teach EFL/ESL. I'm officially eating my words. Maybe I should take back all that stuff I said about never getting married, just in case...


NINE Places I want to visit:

9. Germany

8. Salzburg! (Hi Elly!)

7. Lichtenschtein (I don't even know if I spelled it right, but I'd like to see it)

6. New York

5. South Africa

4. Spain

3. Greece

2. The Maritimes (I've only been to Nova Scotia)

1. Scotland


EIGHT Things I want to do before I die:

8. Finish my Masters

7. Get my Occupational Therapy degree, and work in a Senior Citizen's home/centre organizing as much of the therapy/treatment as possible

6. Own my own home

5. Live abroad again

4. Get married (there! I admitted it! I do, in actual fact, harbor a smallish desire to get married)

3. Learn to ski or snowboard

2. Travel. Travel. Travel. (see the places listed above)

1. Make a permanent imprint on the hearts of as many people as I can; become known for my love of other people.


SEVEN Ways to win my heart:

7. Be a believer whose beliefs actually matter to him

6. Teach something new, but don't be an all-knowing jerk about it!

5. Be creative!

4. Coming from a small town never hurt anyone. If you don't come from a small town, try to embrace the "country boy" attitudes of caring about people and being willing to stick up for what's right

3. Hold my hand

2. Be confident. As Michelle said, determination and ambition (reasonable ambition... no "I'm going to take over the world!" please!) are very attractive!

1. Cherish me


SIX Things I believe:

6. Living each day moment by moment doesn't just reduce the stress of life, it also helps you enjoy it more

5. If you want to complain about something, be prepared to do something about it. If all you want to do is b**** but not deal with it, I don't want to hear about it.

4. If you want to become a part of a community, you have to reach out first. It's hard, but that's just the way it is

3. Grammar IS boring, but it's also necessary if you want to speak English fluently!

2. My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus

1. For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.


FIVE Things I'm afraid of:

5. Black birds. Not just blackbirds, but all birds that are black

4. The ocean

3. Aggressive panhandlers

2. Homesickness

1. Not getting into grad school


FOUR of my Favorite Items in my bedroom:

*In my case, it would have to be my "living room"!*

4. Pictures of friends and family

3. Sprinkles. (My giraffe).

2. My comforter - oh so snuggly

1. The few books I have!


THREE Things I do everyday:

3. Read

2. Plan lessons

1. Pray


TWO Things I am trying not to do right now:

2. Worry about grad school - it's in God's hands

1. Think too much about home. I'm here, and it's where I want to be, so I want to focus on my "here-ness" instead of my "not there-ness"

ONE Person I want to see right now:

1. My mum. See, I know that my dad will be here in 12 days, but I don't really know when I'll see my mum again. So I want to see her.



That's all folks!

Ciao ciao,

Elizabeth

Oh, There will be NO sadness here!

Ahoj hoj,

extraordinarily short post here, as there is nothing new to report, except for the fact that the Dueker-Huebert household has found an Official Cheerer Upper. His name is Ben, and he belongs to Megan's sister and brother-in-law. Come on now, how can ANYONE be sad when they see this:






Cutest. Hallowe'en. Baby. This. Year. (No worries, Jacob, you were JUST as cute at hallowe'en when you were little! But no more... now you are TOUGH and MANLY. Send me some pictures of you in your costume, Ok?)

So there will be no more sadness. At moments when sadness attempts to rear its head, it shall be warded off with this photo as a vampire is warded off with garlic (a little too much Buffy this weekend, perchance). Come on, get happy!

Send me photos if any of you decide to dress up this year!

Love,
Elizabeth

Ahoj hoj

Morning all!

This weekend is a long weekend here in the Czech Republic, and so far, it's been rather pleasant. I spent a few hours yesterday getting prepped for next, and I currently have nine out of twelve lessons planned and ready to go. I'm going to take care of the last three today. Then early next week (I may even start tomorrow) I want to start planning the next week's lessons. You see, I want to get well ahead of myself in order to have as much time as possible to spend with my dad who is coming in two weeks. Yes. Two weeks. I'm so excited, I could a) be sick, b) dance madly about the flat, c) sing "fourteen days, fourteen days, my dad's coming in fourteen days" over and over and over... d) all of the above. You decide!

Thursday night was pub night, and we met the new group of TEFLers from Oxford. They seem like a great bunch. They're all really friendly and funny, and since I didn't have to get up at 6 yesterday morning, I could actually stay and visit a bit with everyone. Hurrah! One of the women has some experience with speech therapy, so the plan is to pin her down next week and grill her about it. Just because I can. And because I'm currently obsessed with SLP, since I'm putting together 2 grad school applications. More prayers, please!

Yesterday night a group of us went out for dinner at this Tex-Mex place called Banditos. It was so good. One of the things I really miss here are old school burgers (like you can get at Moxie's or Red Robin's). Well, this place has amazing burgers. With steak fries. Oh. My. Goodness. It was great. Our pal Adrian had perchance had a few too many, and had us in stitches the whole night simply by being completely random. At one point, he was imitating Pingu (the claymation penguin) and was brilliant at it. Then he showed us exactly what a hypnotized chicken looks like. Shortly thereafter he demonstrated what his mother's vicious Yorkie does if you stop petting it (Kim, I thought of you!) - namely, it goes for your jugular. At one point, Rob sang Kermit the Frog's dancing song, and Kurt explained to us how Sesame Street teaches our children to make bad judgements (who's the meanest person on the street? Oscar. Who's the poorest one with no hygiene who most needs friends and support? Oscar). It was hysterical. I'm sure the restaurant half wanted to throw us out, because we were being a wee bit on the "loud" end of things.

I'm not sure what the plan is for today. There's a Hallowe'en party at an acquaintance's place... but to be totally honest, I don't really want to go! It might be a lesson planning, walking, going for an ice cream kind of day. It's also a "reset the clocks" kind of day - hello daylight savings time! Sunday I'm going to church an hour early to join the choir, which should be fun, I think. I'll try to remember to post another update tomorrow or Sunday, too, just to keep all you crazy readers happy!

By the by, I've been looking at the blog stats, and there are people all over the world reading this. How cool is that? It must be my brilliant writing and drily witty ways that keep them coming back. *struck by lightning*

Love you all!

Elizabeth

My life can't ALWAYS be exciting!

I know, I know. I keep promising daily updates, and then falling through. But my life just isn't always that interesting. There aren't always going to be companies that I can't find, nor men in their ginch doing home repairs. ;)

The past few days have been quiet, but good. Lots of going to work, and coming home. Some eating, some sleeping, some Buffy watching. Nothing too thrilling. I did meet up with Tiffany (another girl I met through IBCP) for lunch today, and she took me to this great creperie. It was excellent, and the prices were crazy reasonable. Now I'll have to to take Megan sometime.

Also, I got 3 phone calls from Skrivanek on Tuesday. The first two were especially delicious... I picked up two more classes! Just when I decided not to worry about more classes, God sends them. I kind of think that he was waiting for me to fully back off and let him handle it before he sent them to me. Now, come December, I only need 8 more contact hours. That's doable! The third phone call was less exciting, but still good. One of my students cancelled their Wednesday class late, but as they didn't give 24 hours' notice, I still got paid for it! Yippee!

To congratulate me on my new classes, Megan sent me an e-card. She wrote "May your students be motivated... or cancel late a lot." It's totally true. TEFLers generally like to teach, especially when your students appear remotely interested in learning English. But when you get that guy who refuses to do grammar, or the group who spends 8 of the 90 minutes speaking English and 82 speaking Czech... well, you hope that they cancel late. A lot. ;)

Despite the fact that this is no longer Czechoslovakia, the country still celebrates the creation of Czechoslovakia, and this Friday is therefore a national holiday. Hello 3 day weekend. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I have a bunch of lesson planning that I want to get done tomorrow morning, but beyond that.... Maybe someone'll want to go out to the castle (Karlsjen, I think, but I'm pretty sure I spelled it wrong), or someone will have some other good idea.

The Thursday that Dad is here is also a national holiday. Maybe we'll go to Dresden Thursday instead of Friday, especially since one of my new classes is also on Friday morning, meaning that I have to teach until about 10:30. Then again, maybe my Friday classes will decide to cancel (cancel late, please!) and I'll have both days off! Oi, better not get greedy. Just having the Thursday will be wonderful. Dad, I'm so excited that you're coming! Sixteen days if you count Saturday (which I don't)... so FIFTEEN DAYS! wOOt!

That's all that's new here folks. Love you all!

Love,
Elizabeth

I almost forgot about the funniest thing that happened today!

And why write only one post when you can write two!

After our 1st classes on Mondays, both Megan and I have a break, so we were back at the apartment, just hanging out. I walked over to the window to stare down at the street (and across into the neighbors' apartments... what can I say, I'm naturally curious!) like I frequently do, and I notice that the man across the street from us is doing some home repairs. He's using a power drill. And he's wearing ginch*. And nothing else. I stare, dumbfounded for a moment, hoping that perhaps he is simply wearing a flesh coloured unitard. Nope. This guy is using POWER TOOLS while wearing only his tighty-whities. And they aren't particularly white. Due to the dust, they are more like tighty-dirty-greyies. Say it with me people: ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. As all of this sinks in, I start babbling incoherently about it to Megan, while backing away from the window. After a couple minutes of incomprehensibleness from me, she approaches the window herself to figure out what on earth is going on.

"Oh," she says "now he's sanding."

"Ew!" I respond. "He's going to get sawdust in his..." Sat it with me again people, and this time with feeling. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Isn't home repair in one's ginch unsafe? Doesn't the WHMIS course cover this dangerous activity? Is this rampant in the Czech Republic? Do I need to start a one-woman crusade against this? Shall I commence the GAPTDM (pronounced "gapthim") program ("Ginch and Power Tools Don't Mix)? This is dangerous! Unsafe! Revolting!


...and yet it's such good blog fodder that I hope he's there again tomorrow....

Ciao ciao,

Elizabeth


*ginch is a slang term for one's underpants. I believe it is a fairly Canadian term, with it's roots in Ukranian or Polish

Two Months!

Well I have done it. I have been away from home for TWO WHOLE MONTHS. It feels as though I've been away forever! And in two months I have:
1) taken an intensive TEFL course (the material of which is covered in other courses over a span of 9 months)
2) gotten a job
3) gotten an apartment
4) found a church
5) developed a whole social network
6) managed day-to-day living in a country where I don't speak the language
7) not officially entertained the idea of getting back on the plane and heading for home ;)

So I hereby declare at the two month mark:

So Far, So Good

Today was a fabulous day. All three of my classes went very, very well, and I'm just so pleased. My "reluctant learner" has had a colleague join the class, and the colleague is a huge motivating factor. We had a great class, full of laughing and speaking English! :D And my evening class that I love just made me love them more. I told them that my dad is coming to visit, and they graciously permitted me to invite him to observe one of our classes while he is here. I don't know how he feels about that, but it was kind of them to at least say it was Ok for me to ask him!!

For those of you who have been praying about my contact hours, thank you. Things have now become a bit muddled, but I've made some decisions.
1) I'm not going to worry about starting any more classes until after the intensive course and dad's visit.
2) Money is going to be tight next month. I have limited hours at the moment, and I've had several classes cancelled this week due to a national holiday. Please pray that I will be financially responsible, and that God will provide for me throughout the month.
3) Thanks to the intensive course, I will have plenty of contact hours for the month of November (and therefore enough money for the month of December. I get paid on the 15th of each month for the previous month's work). That week will be a bit stressful, so please pray that I plan well, and that I survive it!! Praise God that he gave me this course, as it means my other weeks can be (quite) a bit lighter, and I don't need to worry.
4) I do not have enough hours in Dececmber. Please pray that God will provide new classes for me that begin after dad goes home (i.e. they begin the week of Monday, November 21 or thereafter).

Now, if you think back a couple of posts, you may remember my worries about when exactly this intensive course is. My colleague at Skrivanek said that it was (and I quote) "the week of the 10th." Um... the 10th is a Thursday. We don't usually talk about the week of the Thursday. Turns out that this is in fact what the client wants. I will be teaching all day the Thursday and Friday before dad arrives, and the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday that he is here. This works just fine for me! It is a bit disappointing that those 3 days are kind of written off (we will at least have the evenings, from 7 PM on to hang out), but I am absolutely thrilled that the Thursday and Friday are free. I get back to my apartment at 10:30 on Thursday, and at 9 on Friday, so we will have the whole day on those days to spend together! Yay! I think we're going to take the train to Dresden on Friday. Word on the street is that Dresden has a Wal-Mart. And in this Wal-Mart, there is toilet paper. The soft, white, cotton like toilet paper that has become like a vague and misty dream to me. I think some stocking up might be in order. :D

So that's my news for the day! A HUGE SHOUT OUT goes out to Hilary and Amber tonight. Those two brilliantly brilliant girls PHONED me last night. IT WAS SO EXCITING!!! Thank you ladies - you made my day! I think, judging from how well today went, you may have made several of my days! You rock!

I love you all!

Love,
Elizabeth

I'm having a secret!

And now I'm going to tell. A number of you know this already, but it is time to go public. First some background. *cue the flashback*

As you all know, I've been a bit homesick at times here, and settling in has been challenging. All around me friends are making plans to go home for Christmas, or to have family come and visit them here, and I've been making plans to go to other people's houses because I have no money and no visitors! I was hoping to talk my parents into coming for a visit, but they spent 5 weeks in Europe this summer, and my mum is currently in California, so they told me that they just don't have the money. Dad thought that mum might come in June, right before I leave, but he warned me not to get my hopes up, since the budget is tight for international trips!

Being as it's time for me to make a visit to another country, I decided to go and visit Elly in Salzburg. I checked that it was Ok with her, and posted briefly about the trip on my blog. I was really looking forward to spending a weekend with her, and just couldn't contain my excitement.

That night, I got an incomprehensible email from my father, something about asking if I was free for coffee. After reading it about 73 times, I realized what he was telling me. He is coming to see me. It was supposed to be a surprise. He was going to just show up on my doorstep, and ask if I was free for coffee. He didn't tell anyone, not even mum!* He was afraid that if people knew, they would leak it to me accidentally. It is all my fault that his surprise was ruined. The weekend I was talking about going to Elly's is one of the weekends he is here for. He didn't want me to leave the country just when he was going to be in it! I know he was disappointed to have the surprise spoilt, but I also know that now we are both very excited! Yayay!

Now I have to go and see Elly on a different weekend. I will definitely go and see her. First I have to sort out when my week-long course is (please God, let it be the week before Dad arrives, and not the week that he's here), and whether or not Dad wants to do a short trip to Dresden or something. I imagine these things will be sorted out by early this week, so I shall keep you posted.

And that's my exciting news for the day! And it IS exciting! It felt like Christmas Eve the night I got dad's email; I hardly slept. And I leapt up in the morning to re-check my email to make sure it hadn't been a dream. Today and tomorrow I'm going to try and plan all of this week's lessons, and then on Thursday and Friday I want to plan all of next week's lessons, so that I can get myself a week ahead. Please pray that I stay focused and motivated!

I love you all. Thanks for your prayers. You know, Garth Brooks says to thank God for unanswered prayers, and I agree. But also remember to thank God for answering unprayed prayers, like sending your dad to visit even though you didn't pray for it to happen because you didn't want to get your hopes up!

Love,
Elizabeth

*He did actually tell someone. He had to ask for a short-term leave of absence at work (they wouldn't be too happy if he just didn't show up for a week!!), so a few of his colleagues know that he is coming. But no one in his personal life knew! No one! Not even, I mean, especially, me!! :D

This little piggy went to market...

This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef,
and this little piggy had none.
And THIS little piggy cried Owwwww all the home.

Yup, the toe is still pretty sore. And I've got a lovely greeny-blue bruise coming along. I took a picture today, that I will post whenever I finish this film and develop, and then I will post it, and receive considerably more sympathy over my DISLOCATED toe (which has, as mention yesterday, relocated itself) than I darn well got yesterday! Yes, I'm whining. But I'm injured (sort of) in a foreign country without my mum, and I can darn well whine if I want to!! :D

Today was the ladies' retreat at the church, and it was wonderful. It started at 8:30 and wrapped up at about 6:30. We talked about a ton of stuff, and it was really nice to get to know some of the women a bit better. I can't get over how welcoming everyone is! And they absolutely stuffed us full of food, so I likely won't need to eat for, oh say, the next week or two. ;) The pastor's wife is a doll, and gives me hugs, so I like her already. It doesn't hurt that her name is also Elizabeth! I spent some time chatting with Tobogo, a girl from Botswana who is here doing her med degree. We're hoping to meet up for coffee sometime this week, which would be great!

Mum told me that I should look forward to seeing how God would answer my prayer about the contact hours, because he likes to do things that I'm just not expecting. Well, he certainly came through on that front. The class that I was so excited about picking up got cancelled. That was the bad news. The good news is that I picked up a 5 day 6 hours a day intensive course for November. The sheer number of hours that I will put in in those 5 days means that I don't have to pick up any longer term classes in the month of November. I will need those kinds of classes come December, but this course buys me some more time. This is wonderful, because I can also slowly pick up these classes throughout November, and end up where I need to be hours-wise without a panic attack. Yay! This 5 day thing is going to be a lot of work, but I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge. :) Thank you all for praying, and thank God for prayers answered in ways we never dreamed of. Please continue to pray that I will slowly pick up a few longer term classes.

That's really all that's new here, and I'm very tired, so I believe that I will say good night. Thanks to all of you who are emailing me; I love hearing from you.

All my love,
Elizabeth

Wow, something actually happened!!

Ahoj hoj,

'sup y'all? I know I've been saying that it's pretty quiet here, but today a few things actually happened!!

To begin with, I was walking into Megan's room this morning when I my foot made some serious contact with her bed. I heard a crack, and unlike the time when I was wearing my favorite bra and heard a snap and prayed that I'd cracked a rib as opposed to the underwire in this, my favorite bra, I prayed that the crack came from the bed and not my smallest toe. After prancing around and shouting some very unladylike words, I inspected the bed... but there was no crack to be found. I inspected my toe and discovered it was pointing in a different direction than it normally does. Owch. However, I had errands to run that couldn't be put off, so I carefully put on my shoes, and headed out. The toe and foot (actually, right up to my knee at times) is pretty sore, but I can walk Ok, so that's good. I stopped by Oxford TEFL, and my friend Josh was there. Josh used to be a medic, so when he asked to see my toe, I said ok. Off comes the shoe and sock, and voila, my toe had put itself back into place! Josh checked it over, and figured that I likely just dislocated it. It should be better pretty soon. Ok, I've had a cold, gastroenteritis, and a dislocated toe. I should be COMPLETELY healthy for the rest of the year!!

One of my errands was to head out to Skrivanek to see about the paperwork for my new class. I walked in, and Bara says to me "I have good news and bad news." I said to Bara "I had better sit down." The lady cancelled the class! Aaack! She says that she doesn't feel comfortable with a non-Czech teacher. Poop. The good news? I'm teaching a week long intensive course in November... 5 six-hour days. It'll be a lot of work, but even if I don't pick up anymore new classes (and I am so planning to pick up more classes) that one week will mean I have enough contact hours in November to get by. Yay!!! :D I'll miss 3 classes to teach this week-long thing, but Skrivanek will arrange a sub for two of them, and I can hopefully move the third to an alternate time so I can still teach it. I'm really quite pleased.

Because that week is going to be so intense, I figure I'll need a little vay-kay afterwards. Elly, how do you feel about me coming to see you the weekend of Nov. 18 (I think that's the date, but I have to doublecheck). I'm so excited to go and see Salzburg!

Please continue to pray that new classes will come available that actually fit into my schedule. Because this week long course is a one time only thing, please pray that those 10 other contact hours will come available. Actually, in the month of November I probably only need about 5 contact hours, and then 5 more in December. I appreciate all of your prayers.

All my love,
Elizabeth

PS - I know it's costly, but if any of you want to give me a call ever, just let me know and I'll email you my phone number here. :) Wishful thinking on my part, I know!

An Update Just for Kim OR Eight Weeks Gone, Eight Months Left to Go

Hi all!

A brief posting, as I'm tired, but Kim has complained that I've ceased posting daily. It's true! I confess! But not so much has been happening these days!

I will tell you a mildly funny anecdote, though. Yesterday I met with a student who is very friendly and polite. She works for a company called Milkpol. When I first went there, I thought to myself "I wonder what this company does? I wonder what the word "milk" means in Czech...." Turns out it means "milk." :) The company distributes dairy products throughout Europe! The whole office is decorated with cows, so I feel right at home there.

Anyway, we are halfway through our lesson on Wednesday, and we are right Smack Dab in the middle of a reading. All of a sudden, my tummy growls! It was pretty loud, so I said excuse me (this is what happens when all you eat in the morning is a yogurt... good yogurt, but only a yogurt). As soon as I apologized, my student says "do you want some cheese?" I said "no thanks" given that we were right Smack Dab in the middle of something, and I was teaching, and it was generally not a cheese appropriate time. Completely ignoring me, she leaps up, and races off. When she comes back she has a salad plate heaped with cheese. I smile weakly. She says that it's the company's finest cheese, and it comes from Poland. Feeling that I have to be polite, I nibble on a few small pieces, and try to get the focus back on, oh say, learning English, which is what I'm being paid to teach. (Sadly, being paid to eat cheese is not in my contract). At the end of the lesson there is still a goodly pile of cheese on the plate. As I get up to leave, my student picks up the cheese, runs out of the room, and comes back with it in a baggy! She absolutely insisted that I take it home. Now, I like cheese, and this Polish cheese was very nice, but it was quite rich, and by this time it was warm, too. Eeew warm cheese. I graciously thanked her, headed out the door, rode the bus with my cheese in hand... and dumped it in the next rubbish bin. :) Talk about a cheesy lesson. *groan*

That's it! That's the update for today. Catch alls y'all later!

Love,
Elizabeth

Wait! An Update!

8 1/2! You only need to pray for 8 1/2 more contact hours! I picked up a 90 minute one on one class today. Hurray!!

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens."

-Psalm 68:19

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 4:19

Thanks for your prayers, please keep them coming!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE,
elizabeth

Hum dum dum diddy dum

As you may have guessed from the title, nothing major is happening these days. Which, I must admit, I'm incredibly grateful for. A couple of weeks of quiet routine are just what I need. That being said, there are a few little things to tell you about!

Did you the Czechs are pokey? And I don't mean slow! My friend Courtney went to try and get a month long bus pass from one of the metro stations. She was having a terrible time sorting out which kiosk she needed to be at, and was endeavouring to get some assistance from a short tempered Czech metro employee when the employee jumped out from behind her little window, started shouting at Courtney (in Czech, of course) and poked her repeatedly to get her to move to the correct window. Poor Courtney almost cried!!

I also almost cried the other morning. It was 6:45 am, and I was in the metro, heading out to my class that's on the outskirts of Prague. I trot up to the doors to the red line, and lo and behold... they're locked! This has never happened before! Why are they locked? I need to get to work! There are multiple announcements being made, but they're all in Czech. I panicked for about 4 seconds, and then found a metro employee who spoke English. When asked what was going on, she cheerfully replied "there's a man under the train, so the line is closed!" She gave me a big smile, and asked where I needed to get to. She gave me directions for an incredibly round about way to get there. It took me soooo long to get to work, but my students are never on time, so no one noticed that I was exactly on time. When I asked my students about the occurence, they stated that throwing oneself under a train or tram is a very common suicide method here. How tragic! I suppose that it gets them the attention in death that they didn't think they had in life? While I did feel very sorry for the poor man, I was also a bit angry with him that he chose to do himself in right as I was trying to get to work!

Work is being a bit frustrating right now. I have enough classes to squeek by at the moment, but they keep getting cancelled! And if they cancel in advance, I don't get paid. This is fair, of course, but so frustrating! I really, really need more contact hours, not to have the ones I have get cancelled! Please pray that I will pick up another 10 contact hours, and that they'll stop cancelling my classes!!

I went out for dinner with Abbey (who I met at the IBCP Bible study) last night, and Megan joined us. It was such a great time! Abbey is very friendly and chatty, and so the three of us ate nummy cabbage soup (which is completely necessary now, because it has turned quite chilly here) and nattered away at each other in a most pleasant manner last night. She's going to be on fall break now, and I believe she's going to Brussels, but when she returns she's going to take us to a pancake house! Mmm... I haven't had pancakes since my birthday breakfast at Denny's with Hilary! How exciting.

But that's all that's new and exciting in my life. Hope you're all doing well. I'd love to hear from you!

Love always,
Elizabeth

I'm slowing down on the updating

Sorry about the lack of consistent updates, but now that my life is settling into more of a routine, there is less to tell you all about! :) Dad asked me yesterday to send him my schedule so that he could know what I'm doing, when. I thought the rest of you might also be interested, so here it is!

Elizabeth's Weekly Schedule

Sunday
- wake up when I like, but since I'm now on a schedule, it's usually between 7 and 8
- hang out
- church from 11-12:30
- spend the afternoon doing whatever it is I feel like doing!
- into bed between 9 and 10

Monday
- wake up at 6, shower and clean up
- first class: one on one class in Wenceslas Square (right near my house) from 7:30-8:30
- home to do a bit of planning, relaxing, and perchance a bit of napping
- leave ap't at around 12 to go to Skrivanek (my head company) to do my photocopying for the week
- go from Skrivanek to my next class: a one on one at an auto dealership about 20 minutes away from Skrivanek
- this student does not like to work very hard! He only wants to do conversation, but his English isn't good enough for that. I have to harass him to get him to do the grammar stuff!
- go from the autosalon to my next and final class; this takes awhile because the bus hits rush hour traffic
- stop for a croissant sandwich on the way to tide me over
- teach my last class: a public class of 4 or 5 Ss (students) that I absolutely love

Tuesday
- wake up at 6, shower and get ready
- 20 minutes on the metro to Opatov, then 17 minutes on the bus to my company
- teach a group class of Upper Intermediates: I like them and they work hard, but I get the feeling that they laugh at me a lot :)
- head back into town
- have the rest of the day for running of errands and such because I don't teach again until:
- teach at Oxford TEFL from 4:45 - 6. I go in a bit early to get ready for the class and to do all my photocopying

Wednesday
- get up at 6 - this is my loooooong day
- head out to a one on one class for 7:30; this class is advanced banking, which is very challenging!!
- go from that class to a one on one class out by the Auto dealership. I don't know much about this lady because we have only ever met once
- go from that class back to a neighborhood called Bila Hora, where I eat lunch and hang out for about an hour or so between my classes. Not enough time to go home, too much time to just sit in Bila Hora! Fortunately I have a library card, so I can now take a book with me and read.
- Teach at the Autosalon; we do lots of grammar on Monday, so I try and make it more conversational on Wednesdays
- go from the Autosalon to my public class, snagging a snack along the way
- teach my public class until 7:00 pm
- stagger home exhausted and fall into bed!

Thursday
- get up at 6 and get ready
- make the same trip I do on Tuesday, but this time to teach an intermediate class that I quite like
- have I mentioned that this company is a toy company? They're very relaxed, and there are fun things everywhere!!
- have the day to run errands, etc.
- teach at Oxford TEFL from 4:45 - 6:30
- pub night! My Ss and I go from class to the pub and sit and visit and wait for everyone else to show up to sit and visit with as well
- head home and fall into bed

Friday
- only one class today: advanced banking from 7:30 - 8:30. Drag myself out of bed for this class.
- Rest of the day free!
- Bible study at 6:30. Last week we met at the Pastor's office, this week it's at my place because the Pastor is out of town
- meet up with friends, or just head to bed because I'm tired

Saturday
- do whatever it is I feel like doing!


I really appreciate all of your supportive emails as I've been dealing with all of these emotions this week. I'm feeling better, and I think I'm starting to settle. Please continue to pray about the contact hours. Today I had two classes offered to me, but both are at times when I'm already in a class. How frustrating is that???? I'm financially Ok for the time being, but the lack of classes is really going to limit how much extra travelling I can do, which is sad. :(

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I will keep my eyes open this week for entertaining anecdotes. Oh, and I'm going to a day-long women's retreat on Saturday at the church, so I'm looking forward to that, and I'm sure I'll have an interesting update for you on Sunday! Just hang on through the more boring ones this week, knowing that better things are coming!

Love always,
Elizabeth

Good Morning Sunshine

Ahoj! How's it going on this beautiful Sunday morning. I think we're going to have another nice day in Prague. It's been very sunny lately, which is wonderful... and it definitely encourages me to be outside in the nature as my students would say. Czech students have an obsession with the word "nature." They like be outside in the nature, they like to go to the nature, and they're convinced that Canada's has very beautiful nature. They use "nature" all the time... and I'm at the point now where I can't even tell if they're using it correctly or not. It's kind of one of those things that you just don't bother correcting because it's never going to change!

I believe I last posted on Friday morning. Friday noonish I met up with Courtney and we went for a bite to eat and for a walk around the centre. Spending time outside really helps my emotions, and it's good for me physically, too. Actually, all of this Prague living seems to be good for me. According to the 2 Kc scale at the metro station, there is currently 15lbs less of me to love. Don't worry, you can redistribute your love over the remaining pounds! It's crazy that I've lost that much weight without trying, but it sure explains why my pants are too big!

Friday night I went to the IBCP Bible study. I was a little worried about getting there, and then meeting all the people, but it was great! Amber, you'd never believe it, but it was pretty evenly split between guys and girls. (In Edmonton these kind of things are dominated by women... it seems like no guys ever show up). We met in Pastor Gareth's office, which is a bachelor ap't that they rent in their ap't building. It's such a nice place! We had pizza for dinner, and then talked about the story of the rich young man in Mark 10. The discussion was great. The other students in the group are clearly very intelligent, and it was a pleasure to sit and talk about the passage with them. I felt very welcomed and accepted, and I can't wait to go back. In fact, Pastor Gareth is going away next weekend, and they need another place to hold the Bible study. It's going to be at my place! *lol* Talk about getting involved right off the bat.

The group also holds a Saturday night coffee night, which I missed last night. Megan and I had already made plans to go out to Rob and Marta's place to meet up with some people and just hang out. It was a really nice time, just sitting and visiting and listening to music. I never used to get my energy from people, but these days it seems like all I want to do is spend time with my friends! I'm so thankful that I have friends to spend time with! Rob and Marta live in a really nice little apartment, and some of their Czech and Swedish friends were there, too, so we got to meet a few new people.

Speaking of new people, one of the girls that I met at IBCP was at the Bible study Friday night, and we've decided to go out for dinner on Tuesday. How exciting! She's from the USA, and is here studying at Charles University. I can't quite remember what it is that she's studying, but I'm sure that it will come up on Tuesdsay. :) I'm taking her to the Soup Place, because it sounds like she's never been there before. You can't live in Prague and not eat at the soup place! It's against all the rules! You could be arrested!

So it's been a good weekend. I even got some major lesson planning yesterday morning, and plan to finish planning all my lessons for the week today. I still need more contact hours, so please keep praying about that. I'm starting to get a bit worried that I'm not going to make enough to support myself. Please pray that I'll be financially responsible as well!! :)

I love you all, and hope you all have a great day!

Love,
Elizabeth

#50

Wow, I've already written 50 posts.... How amazing is that?? :) It has been a quiet couple of days, but I wanted to get back to you guys and let you know how I'm doing.

My emotions are feeling a bit more settled as of yesterday and today. I don't think that I'm out of the woods yet, and I imagine there will be a few more weepy nights. However, mum's advice to just feel the emotions seems to be helping me to cope with them. I have also clearly decided what it is that I want, and I'm able to focus on that.
1) I want to be here.
2) I want to have a good year here. One where I don't just survive, but I flourish!
3) I want to enjoy my time here, savoring the experience of living abroad.

I think all of those things are possible, with Jesus' help. My job is to keep busy and focussed, and to hang on to him, and I know that he will provide and care for me. This is certainly going to be a growing experience, but I know that I'm up for the challenge!!

Enough of the feelings talk! More stories, Elizabeth, more fun stuff! Well, nothing too exciting has happened recently. Things are settling into a routine, and I really like that sense of rhythm. On Thursday, I taught two classes. I think that both went quite well. The first one was tough, because we were using a system of classifying questions that I haven't used before. I read up on it, and thought I was prepared, but there was a bit of confusion that had to be cleared up. Darn! Oh well. I am brand new at this, I guess I'm allowed a bit of confusion! The second class was sweet. It was just in the zone. My time management was great, the students were challenged by the tasks but were able to do them, and the game we played at the end worked beautifully. I LOVE classes like that!! Hopefully there are many more to come. :)

I spent a couple of hours at the pub night last night, visiting with students and friends. The Czech students have great senses of humor, and had me laughing the whole time. I also got the chance to visit with a few of the new trainees. It seems like so long ago that I was in the Oxford program, but it was really only 2 weeks ago! Man, time is weird here. It seems to go by so quickly, and yet it seems like I've been here forever. It's the strangest thing, really. :)

This morning I taught my very first business English class. Yay for leases and finance leases and purchase leases and open-end leases and.... Well, you get the point. :) The hard part is that, while I know the English, I don't really know the distinctions from the business perspective. In some ways I learned more this morning than my student did! This is going to be one of my most challenging classes. I'm definitely going to have stay ahead of the material so that I can teach this guy what he needs to know!

Tonight I'm going to check out the IBCP (International Baptist Church of Prague) Bible study. It's a ways away from where I live, but I think I'll be able to find it. God bless a good metro system and a good map! I'm looking forward to meeting some of the people who are my age. I'm really hoping to make some friends at church, and I think that this is a good opportunity.

Tomorrow night is a party at Rob and Marta's that I'm looking forward to. I always like seeing where other people live! Hopefully it will be fun.

And that's all my news, folks! I hope you all have a great day, and if you have a couple of spare minutes, drop me a line.

Love,
Elizabeth

Just Another Day in Prague-idise

Ahoj all!

Here I am in sunny Prague (and enjoying the sun immensely; I didn't realize how overcast Prague is most of the time). It's 10:32 AM, I've finished teaching one of my two classes for the day, and I don't teach again til tonight at 4:30. It's funny how "gappy" an EFL teacher's life is from Monday to Friday. No complaints, though, as I have the weekends off! :)

I'm still really struggling with all my darn emotions, though. It's so strange: from 5:45 am to about 7:00 pm, I'm fine. I'm busy and I'm happy and I generally like what I'm doing (it's a bit stressful being as I'm so new at it, but I like my students and I like teaching). Come about 7, though, I'm suddenly fighting back tears and just feeling incredibly sad. I've got more of a social life here than I've ever had before, I keep myself busy and surround myself with people I like, and I still feel like all I want to do is cry!! I suppose a lot of it is just how new everything is here. I'm doing all of these things all by myself all in a foreign country, and I'm just not getting settled in as quickly as I thought I would. I'm also stressed about a few things (you could all please continue praying that I get some more contact hours), and I tend to be very tired at the end of my days (getting at 5:45... icky) so those things contribute, too.

My goal right now is just to accept how I'm feeling, and to actually let myself feel the emotions. Mum swears up and down that if I just sit down and weep a little and say "right now I'm feeling very, very sad" that the sadness will lose its power. She suggested, and I agree, that right now I'm really learning what it means to have emotions, and to actually experience those emotions. For a long time, I think I kind of shoved the feelings under the rug until they got too big to hold back, and then had a major freak out. Not such a good way of dealing. Now I'm working on feeling them as they come, and then letting them go. Hopefully sooner or later (sooner, please!) I'll be able to let go of this sadness and homesickness, and just be content here.

I realize that this is a very quiet and rather boring post, but you're my family and friends, and I wanted to let you know where I'm at. Days are good, evenings are hard, nights are full of sleeping. Tonight is pub night, which is great, because I won't have time to be anything but happy and chatty as I hang with my mates.

Hope you're all having a great day!

Love,
Elizabeth

To Beauty 2 U

The title of this post is from a t-shirt Megan saw in the metro. We think it's supposed to say "Too beautiful 4 U"... but we aren't really sure. Any other ideas?

Something eventful happened today, so I thought that I would tell you all about it. Actually, I accomplished TWO difficult tasks today (red letter day!), so it's definitely time for an update.

Difficult Thing the First:

I got a month long bus pass. This requires a passport-sized photo, a passport, and 480 Kc. I did not have my passport with me (keep this in mind... it becomes important later), but I got the lady to use my driver's license instead. Now I can ride the metro hassle free for 30 days! Hurrah! It was actually less difficult than I anticipated, because there was no line-up, and the lady spoke fairly good English.

Difficult Thing the Second:

I went to get a library card. First, Megan and I rode to the correct metro stop. After a false start, we managed to find the library. I went in, found the little information office, and sat down to fill in the application, aided by a very nice Czech girl who speaks quite good English. She asks for my passport (I told you it was important!), and I say I don't have it, but I offer her my driver's license. Weep, weep! It is no good! If you are not an EU citizen, you must show them your passport! What is the POINT of having the Queen on all of your money, and paying taxes to support her Canadian offices when you can't use your driver's license to get a public library card in the Czech Republic??? I demand that the Queen rectify this immediately!

Queen or no Queen, my driver's license isn't going to cut it. Megan and I walk home, I get my passport, walk to the metro, ride the metro, walk to the library, head back to the information office... and it's a different lady. She tells me that I have to stand in this huge (!) line up to get a library card! What happened to the "no line up nice Czech girl helping me" thing? I liked that! I stand in line (for FOREVER), get to the front... and the woman speaks NO ENGLISH. She hands me a form that's all in Czech, says I need Canadian and Czech contact information... and sends me out of line to fill it out. Weep, weep! I can't understand the form, I lost my spot in line... alas! I head back to the information office, and sneak in. Avoiding eye contact with the "made me stand in line" lady, I tiptoe over to the nice, speaks English girl. She sits me down, and helps me fill in the form. I look at her with puppy dog eyes, imploring her silently to complete the process in this nice little office.... but she sadly sends me out to the back of the line.

I wait forever again. Get to the front... same No English lady. We make it work, though. I pay 1000 Kc deposit, plus 80 Kc for the card... and I have a library card! *sounds of the masses rejoicing* I took out 7 books! All in English! My day has been redeemed! Two difficult tasks accomplished! I am wonderful! All should be in awe of me and my library card getting abilities!!

Ok, Ok, enough hyperbole. I have a bus pass and books, and I'm happy. I'm going to a coffee night for youth from the church, and I'm happy. I teach 3 classes tomorrow that I'm pretty prepared for, and I'm pretty happy. It's a good day.

Love you all,
Elizabeth

Serious Lack of Title Inspiration

Morning all! I had no idea what to title to this post, but don't worry, it's not because I'm homesick or miserable. It's just that nothing too exciting has happened since yesterday.

I taught 3 classes yesterday, which is just right for a day's work. My first class was the one on one I was telling you about, and it went really well. The next class is supposed to have 2 students, but I've only ever had one so far. His English is relatively weak, and so I have to push him a bit. He does NOT like being pushed! But I try to keep the atmosphere really light and friendly, and we get along Ok. We did a fair amount of grammar in yesterday's class (no student likes grammar!!) so the plan is to make tomorrow's class more conversation focused. Any ideas for conversation games out there?? My last class is my favorite class. It's a public class, so these people are choosing to be there (as opposed to being forced to by their companies) and they are really motiviated. They're friendly and funny, and last night's unit was on humor, so we had a good time. The class runs from 5:30 - 7, so everyone gets pretty tired when they sit and do grammar exercises. I make them stand up halfway through and stretch and wiggle and laugh (yes, they are adults, and yes, they do it willingly). It helps wake us up!! It was awesome telling them jokes last night and having them understand them! Humor is so hard to understand in another language, so I was so proud that they got the jokes! We did spend a lot of time on grammar though, so it's a conversation heavy class next time.

I only have one class today (please pray that I get a few more classes still - my schedule is a bit light, making it hard on the ol' paycheque), and it was first thing this morning, so it's done and out of the way. It also went well. Last week, this class had 6/8 students come, which is great. 6 is a really easy number to work with. This week, only 3 showed up! Was I that bad? ;) Anyhoo, we worked together as a small group for most of the time, and there were a couple of times where we managed to really get the conversation going. How exciting!

Megan and I are meeting Courtney for lunch, which will be nice. I haven't seen her in a couple of days, which is just too long! Then we're heading to the library. I am DESPERATE for books. Desperate. In fact, if oh say, mum were interested in sending me something wonderful she could order me books online and have them shipped here! :D I'm sad, because I have to pay 1000 Kc ($50 CDN) deposit since I don't have my visa yet. Owch - especially since finances are tight right now. But I believe that me reading is a priority, and it IS only a deposit. Since I do tend to return my books and to not destroy them, I figure that odds are good I'll get the money back either when I get my visa or when I cancel my library card. YAY BOOKS!!!!!!

Ok, well I'm off now. I'll let you know if anything exciting happens. Thank you Grandma for your letter; it arrived today. You are the best letter writer ever. Listen to this people - 6 pages of actual news about my family and various things that they have been up to. It also included some very excellent advice, and some solid quotations to help me understand God better, and to beat the homesickness. No one, and I mean NO ONE writes a letter like my Grandma!! But you may all feel free to try, I'll happily read any attempts that you would care to make! ;)

Love you all - all of you who should come visit!

Love,
Elizabeth

'Cause I'm BACK - Back in the Pragueian Groove

Oh yeah, feeling waaaaaaaaaaay better today. Slept the night through for the first time after 4 nights of mostly being awake. I'm totally grooving on feeling like normal. It'll be completely back to normal once I'm off this restricted diet thing. As of today I'm allowed to slowly add in other things, so it shouldn't be too long before things are as they were before. Minus about 5 pounds of me. I already was losing weight when I got sick, but now my black belt won't go small enough for me, so I can't wear it. I'm torn between cheering (yeah, lost some weight!) and being distressed because that's one less belt for me to use to hold my somewhat saggy pants up!! :) It is time to find an alterations shop here, and have some taking in done.

I got up bright and early this morning (I have to get up bright and early every weekday morning. The Czech people like having language classes at 7:30 or 8 AM for some reason unknown to Canadians and Americans) and headed off to my first class. It went pretty well, I think. It's only an hour long, so it went by really quickly. We worked on business letters dealing with requests for information. We also came up with handy phrases the student can use when answering the telephone (yay for practical uses of English in the workplace) and talked a bit about a photo of her family. It's weird: my 90 minute classes feel slightly too long, but the 60 minute one was just about too short. Maybe 75 minutes is the key here.... Oh well, I don't get a say in it; I just show up and teach!

Two more classes today, one at the Autosalon (we're doing the present simple in the context of trade fairs... oh exciting!) and my favorite evening class (we're doing comedy/humor!!). The Autosalon class is one of my lowest levels, clocking in at a solid pre-intermediate. This is a challenging level to work with, because if allowed to talk about what they want to talk about, they can sound very competent. However, if you push them to use other skills (e.g. listening skills - listen to a tape, then answer q's about it), they really struggle. The trick for me is figuring out when they actually don't know something, or when they're just being too lazy to try and put the pieces together!! But the student (I've only had one so far, but there are supposedly going to be 2 today) is really nice, and I enjoy working with him. The evening class is indeed my favorite class so far, and I'm so excited to do humor with them. This includes the telling of 3 jokes - we'll see how that goes over!! Humor is one of the hardest things to grasp in a new language, so I imagine tonight will be challenging. Hopefully, it will also be fun!!

The Canadian BeerPizzaThanksgiving Celebration was postponed due to a lack of lesson planning by my mates. They all had to stay at home and work! The general Dueker-Huebert decision right now is to hold off for a couple of weeks, and hold a hybrid Canmerican (Amerinadian?) Thanksgiving. We may even attempt something of the poultry family roasted, if we can find cheap, one use bakeware. We're all too broke for the good stuff! I shall keep you posted.

Well, I hope this post finds you all happy and healthy. Kathie, how are you feeling? Also, please note the difference between this Monday and last Monday. God indeed can do miraculous things! Happy Turkey Day to you and yours!!!

Love,
Elizabeth

I'm not dead yet!

But I'm not dead yet! I feel happy... I think I'll go for a walk! - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Well folks, I made it through the Valley of the Shadow of Gastroenteritis or however you spell it. And I don't mean to be flippant or blasphemous; being sick like that has been the hardest trial yet. I was seriously contemplating calling up SAS and seeing which flight they could get me that would have me back on Canadian soil as soon as humanly possible. I'm on a number of interesting meds now... for example: a really yucky liquid thingy composed of all the bacteria that normally reside in your intestine. I'm on an antibiotic for infection that the Dr. believes is in my intestines, and this replaces the healthy bacteria that the antibiotic kills in addition to the bad bacteria. It seems to be pretty effective, though, so no complaints here.

Since I'm feeling better this morning (still not quite 100%, but much closer), I'm going to go to church. I really like my church here, and now it's time to get to know more people who attend there. My plan is to sit in the balcony this morning, since I think that's where most of the people my age sit. Maybe I can meet a few new people... maybe even a TEFLer or two! :D

Then I have to do a bit of lesson planning this afternoon. The introductory classes are mostly done now, so it's on to the tough stuff... actual lessons. With aims and stuff. And, you know, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Hm. ;) Actually, I have some good ideas for my classes, and I'm not too worried about getting them all planned up. The Edmonton Journal had a GREAT article in it (I read it online so I feel connected to home) that I can use in a number of my classes, so I'm very excited about that.

Tonight is "Mini Canadian Thanksgiving" at the Dueker-Huebert household. We're having... turkey and pumpkin pie! Nope, actually we aren't. Not enough dishes, time, energy, and ability to read Czech labels for that kind of thing. We're having frozen pizza (thawed and warmed up, of course) and beer and thankfulness. I'm having white rice or potatoes and chicken. Wow, do I love this restricted diet business or what? ;) I think it should be nice, and I'm looking forward to it. The Czechs don't have a "Thanksgiving" holiday, so I think I'll teach my Monday classes a bit about it, too.

In case you're curious, the Czechs also don't have Hallowe'en. They have a May 31 festival (I think it might be similar to Samhain, but I could totally be wrong... Karlie, any ideas here?) where they burn pretend witches and celebrate by drinking lots of Czech beer. And at Easter time, the children go door-to-door asking for Easter eggs and sweets. It's really neat!

Other things the Czech people do differently: no middle names. My students were quite confused when we did a reading about giving children a second name in case they don't like their first one. I couldn't figure out what was giving my students such a hard time... until I found out that none of them have a middle name! They also don't associate meaning with their names. I'm thinking I might run the Anglicized versions of their names through an internet database and do a lesson on names and meanings.

Also different: the slightly better quality toilet paper (as in, a step up from pages from non-glossy catalogues) is colored. Like pink, or yellow. And it is frequently scented. May I just say: ew! However it is nicer than the grey toilet paper which comes just above glossy catalogue pages, but below non-glossy. What I would give for some white, fluffy TP!! ;)

Well, I'm off to eat something (I'm starting to get my appetite back, yay!) and to do my hair. While the drowned rat look is big in Milan, it hasn't hit Prague yet. I love you all, thanks for your support and emails while I felt so wretched. Special kudos go out to dad, who has been a most excellent correspondent of late. He sent me pictures of Jacob modelling. So cute! (Great job Jake, you looked totally professional).

Love you all lots,

Elizabeth

Not much is new

Hi all,

sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but there isn't much to tell you. I've come down with acute gastroenteritis (I think that's how it's spelled) and spent yesterday morning in the Dr's office. I had a fever of 39.5C! Mostly I've been alternating sleeping with being in the bathroom. It's very, very difficult to be sick when I'm so far away from home, so please pray that I heal quickly, and that the homesickness will pass.

This is truly all I've been doing for the past day and a half or so, so I'll just end here. I'd love to hear about what you all are up to.

Love,
Elizabeth

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight...

that keeps me from getting, oh I don't know, settled in here!! *lol* Poor mum... she got a very depressed email from me earlier today. Starting this new job is more stressful than I'd originally anticipated, and I'm having some really fun bodily reactions to that. I didn't sleep much last night, as I had a terrible stomach ache and nausea. I went to a new class this morning on maybe 3 hours sleep, and with just a bun in my tummy. Oh, and 6 charcoal tablets from throughout the night... I think I may have overdone those just a bit. Let's just say that bathroom visits have been a bit blacker than usual. *lol* Ok, Ok, I know that was WAY too much info... but you have to vicariously share my pain!!

Nothing perks me up like being outside for a bit, though. It's 20C here this afternoon, and wandering along in the sunshine with a brisk wind tousling your hair; well, it cheered me up like only a phonecall from home can. Being that I'm still not feeling very well being out and about for an hour was exhausting. I think I'll finish this post up, and then have another little nap. But I don't want to nap too much; the last thing I need is to not be able to sleep tonight!!

I start another new class tomorrow. It's official: I'm up before 7 every weekday morning in order to make it to work on time. Say it with me folks: eeeew. But my classes seem really good, interested and energetic. Plus, they seem to like me. Yesterday I had two students tell me that I'm remarkably easy to understand; God bless the Canadian non-accent! We had to switch one of my classes to another time, and the staff at Skrivanek told me a couple of times that the lady from that class really likes me, and wants to continue working with me. Yes, yes, I'm tooting my own horn, but come on people, if it keeps me cheerful, you should encourage it!

Wednesdays are very long for me, which might be part of the reason why I was so out of whack last night. I have to be out of the house by 7:10 to be at a class at 7:30. I teach til 8:30, then have a two hour break. I teach waaaaaaaaaaaay out in Prague 6 at 10:30, so a lot of that 2 hrs is spent en route. Then I have a 2 1/2 hour break from 12 - 2:30. I found a cheap pub out at Bila Hora, so I think I will have lunch and plan lessons there on Wednesdays. Then it's into class from 2:30 - 4, an hour and a half break, and back into class from 5:30 - 7. wowzah. I can tell you one thing: I'm NOT taking on anymore 4 class days. One is going to be more than enough.

Tonight is good old Thursday night pub night. I'm going to go for a bit, just to see some friends and visit a little. But I'll have to be home early, since I have to be at class tomorrow at 7:30 am. :) Nothing helps with moderation like an early morning start. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends. I never used to get my energy from other people, but here in Prague I've come to rely on my friends when I'm feeling homesick. It's very unusual for me to want to be with people as much I have lately, but I'm enjoying it, and so will continue to chill with my mates.

Well, I really have nothing to say, and I'm just babbling on again here. I'm heading for my comfy (relatively, given it's a fold out couch) bed and a short snoozeroo. Email me!

Love y'all,

Elizabeth

Oh, and one more thing...

Here is Lucy and I at the movie theatre one day last week. This is who I'm spending Christmas with! Don't be fooled, though, this isn't the only post today. The one underneath of it is also new.

Love,
E.

Ah, Tuesday

I will commence by stating that Czech Tuesdays are MUCH better than Czech Mondays. Things went generally according to plan today.

I got up at 6, and got ready to leave for a new class. It's about 45 minutes of travel time, which is a bummer, but the scenery on the bus ride is amazing. I may have to go all tourist and snap photos out of the bus window!! This time, I actually COULD see the company from the bus stop... the bus stop is named after it!! I was a bit wary; the sign over the door said the right name, but the 'O' was a clown face wearing a hat... what kind of major VIP company is this?

Turns out they're the largest toy distributor in Eastern Europe. Huh. Who'd a thunk? Everyone in my class (including one woman in management) is quite young (30 or younger) and was wearing blue jeans. I love the relaxed environment!! The class is quite large (today I had 6 students), so I was able to get some pair work going, which was great. I really enjoyed teaching them, and I'm looking forward to having their class every Tuesday morning.

On the bus ride back, I got a text message (Grandma and Grandpa, this is when your cell phone shows you a message that someone typed to you. It's kind of like emails for cell phones). It said "Elizabeth, the company just called and said you didn't show up. What happened?" I just about freaked out! Yes, I KNOW I had some trouble finding yesterday's Autosalon, but I was on my game today! I was there early! I taught 6 people for 90 minutes! I was frantically texting her back when my phone beeped again and "oops! Sorry, there was a misunderstanding." *phew* I was really panicked for a minute!

This evening I taught a class back at Oxford TEFL (where I took my certification). It's a lower level class, so it took me a few minutes to get back into my graded voice (where I basically talk less, and give more directions like "read this" as opposed "ok, now look here... and we're going to read this so that we can discuss it...") but it went well. We talked about traveling, which is always a fun topic. And the students are quite competent, but tend to underestimate their abilities, so I had to really push them to get them to use what they knew!

Tomorrow is a very busy day for me. I have 4 classes: 2 new, and 2 old. The new ones don't take too much preparation, but the old ones require a bit more work. Also, two of them are way far away, so I'll be stuck out in Prague 6 for a couple of hours. My plan? To do some lesson planning there, so I don't have to do all of it tonight. ;) I also need to get to one of the school's to make some photocopies. Craaaaaaaazy! But I can plan for two lessons tonight, and plan the other two tomorrow on my break, and all should be well. Please pray that I get more organized as I get used to this schedule. I'm having a hard time this week because there are so many new things going on all at once.

I'm coping well, and today was indeed a good day, but I'm also feeling a bit stressed and homesick again. Any emails or snailmails or anything would be so greatly appreciated. I try to focus on just the next hour, or just today, but sometimes I think about being here for 9 more months... and I panic. So send me your good vibes, please!!

I love you all,

Elizabeth

Again with the hating of the Mondays

You know, Czech Mondays are like way different from Canadian Mondays. I never met a Canadian Monday that I didn't like, but here... well, I'd rather meet the Paperbag Princess' Dragon than another Monday!

Ok, Ok, it wasn't all bad. It was just bad until about 4. And it didn't start badly. It only got bad at about 1:30. So I guess it wasn't really Monday... it was just 2 1/2 hrs of Monday that really sucked. And now you're all curious, so I'll tell you what happened.

Today I met one of my new classes. I knew that it was a ways away from the metro station, so I gave myself plenty of time to get there. My contact at Skrivanek said that I would be able to see the company from the bus stop, so I wasn't too worried about finding the place.

So. I get on the bus, I'm going the right way, I'm feeling good. The bus ride is longer than I anticipated, but I'm still grooving. We seem to be heading right out of Prague, but all is good. I hop off at my stop, and ...

No Autosalon. Not a one in sight. As a matter of fact, all the signs say that I'm in Prague 6, but the address of the company is in Prague 5. I'm not too worried about this, given that my side of the street on Zitna is Prague 2, but the other side is Prague 1, but is still slightly disconcerting. I'm supposed to be able to see this place, and I can't, and everything that I can see is in Prague 6 and not Prague 5. So I'm panicking slightly, but I gamely head off up the hill to find someone who can tell me where to go.

I meet a man, and he says (very, very brokenly) that I need to go up another hill and turn right. Off I go. Halfway up the hill, I stop someone else and doublecheck (always, always do this. Pragueians do NOT know their own city. Quintuple check all directions). This woman tells me that I have to take another bus to get to where I'm going. I walk away, and start to cry. Then I meet a bus driver, who walks me in the direction that I was going when the first guy gave me directions. I cease crying, and feel better. Then he stops, gets out his phone, makes a lengthy phonecall in Czech, and proceeds to mime to me that I need to go all the way back from the way I came to where I talked with the first guy. I head off in that direction, and start crying again.

It is now the time that I am supposed to start class. I gave myself a solid 20 minutes to get from the bus stop to the "company that you can see from the bus stop" and instead I'm lost and crying. I contemplate getting on the next bus and flying back to Canada. This seems irresponsible. I look up the company's contact number to tell them I will be late, and discover I have no contact number. I phone Skrivanek. The first number won't ring through... instead I get a recorded message telling me that the "number you have dialled is either being cheeky, or you didn't get it right." Great. I try another number. Success! Someone answers. They proceed to tell me that I'm a total idiot for not being able to find this place, and then patronizingly tell me that they'll call the company for me and tell them I'll be late.

I go back to the original bus stop. No autosalon. I go down the street. No autosalon. I go up the street. My phone rings. The woman tells me that I should go down the street and turn right. I go up the street (knowing that there is NOTHING down the street) and turn right. I am now standing EXACTLY where I was standing when the FIRST man gave me directions. I turn around, look down the street in the opposite direction from where he sent me... and THERE'S THE FREAKING COMPANY. I didn't whether to cry with joy or frustration, so I decided that I'd probably cried enough, and quit that altogether.

I would like to note here that there IS NO POSSIBLE WAY TO SEE THE COMPANY FROM THE BUS STOP. I had to go around a bend, up a hill, and across the street to be able to see it!!

I wound up being 20 minutes late, but I pulled myself together. I was supposed to have 2 students, but only one was there today, so a lot of my plans for the class either didn't work, or didn't take enough time, which was super frustrating. However, I survived. I know that I NEVER have to have this particular day again, which is comforting. And I know that I'll be early for the next class, and it will go better.

What fixed my day was my evening class. They're the same group that I had last Monday, and they're great. There were 5 tonight (as opposed to 3 last week), and they all get along well, and seem very eager to learn. We had a good night, talking about different pictures that we had brought from home, and we played truth or lies, which is always fun. You make 3 statements about yourself, one which is a lie, and the other two are true. Your classmates then try to guess which one is the fake one. It went over really well. We also chose a textbook, so next week I can start teaching following a guideline, which makes me happy.

Well, this is a really long post, so I'll end here. Send me all your love!

Love you,

Elizabeth

Sorry I missed a day!

Hello again faithful readers,

so sorry to have missed a day, but sometimes these things happen. Actually, it's kind of the lack of these things happening that led to this thing happening; in other words, not a lot is going on to tell you about.

On Saturday, a few of us met up to go for lunch and then to a park somewhere to enjoy the "sunshine." That's in quotes, because there wasn't very much of it, and it was pretty chilly out. Rob really wanted to go and see a park on a hill that has the world's largest statue of a horse on it, so we all headed out that way. It was quite the hike up quite the hill, but the view was incredible, and I was much warmer after hauling my buns all that way up!! The statue is amazing. It's of one of the leaders of the Hussites (Jan Ziskov, I think) and it really is huge. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon; it felt really good to be outside doing something. I think I spend a bit too much time indoors these days; time to get back to wandering around the city!!

Yesterday I went to church in the morning. I met some nice people again, but didn't see the TEFL girl I met last week, so my plan for meeting up with her for coffee later this week fell through. There was a man there from Prague's Campus Crusade for Christ, and he was looking for volunteers to do work on conversational English with Czech university students, so I signed up for that. I certainly possess the skills to be of help to an English learning Czech student, and I think it's a great way to meet someone new.

Here's your anecdote for the day:

Yesterday, Megan and I ran out of toilet paper. On my way home I stopped by the Albert's to pick some up. They didn't have any of the smaller packs, so I grabbed an 8 pack. You have to pay for your bags at Albert's, and I didn't want to bother, so I just stuck the TP under my arm and headed up the hill. I realized that it was just about the time I said I'd "meet" dad online to chat, so I headed for the internet cafe. By the time I got there, I really needed to use the washroom, so I walked up to the young guy who runs the place, and asked where the WC was. He gave me the weirdest look, and pointed to the back of the cafe. As I turned to walk away, I suddenly realized why he was looking at me strangely. Here I was with EIGHT rolls of TP under my arm, asking where the toilets were! Poor guy. Hopefully he still lets me in when I want to use the net! :)

And that's all for today folks! Today I meet another of my classes, so maybe I'll write tonight and tell you about them.

Love,
Elizabeth

It feels like home

Morning all. It's all of 9am here, and it's beautifully sunny outside. I'm going to wrap up this post, have a shower, and get out into the sunshine. Goodness knows that it seems to occasionally be a bit limited here, which is very disappointing. I'm not certain what I'm going to do today, but I think I might check out Letna Park, which I here is lovely.

We had hoped that Adrian and Courtney were going to come over last night, but Courtney was under the weather, so that plan fell through. Instead, Megan and I hung out and watched some more Buffy. I realize that many of you think that this is crazy behavior, but please remember that we have no tv here. Which I might cope better with if I had something to read. Hm. Today I will also go to the Prague library, and try to get a library card. I'm going nuts with no tv AND no books! There's only so much time that I can spend with other people without getting seriously cranky.

I realized last night that this is the longest amount of time that I have ever been away from home. (I define "away from home" as "haven't seen my parents in person." ) To those of you who went away for university, I know this sounds a bit silly, but for me it's proof that I'm a hell of a lot tougher than I imagine. The last time I tried to go away for a month or so it was to Nova Scotia, and I phoned home every day, weeping as often as not. Now, that was 4 years ago, so hopefully I've grown up a bit, but still. This is just incredible. It also boggles my mind that I've been able to accomplish so much on my own. I finished my course, made arrangements for an apartment, and found a job. I have a group of friends, I've gone to church, and I'm dealing with all of the every day situations that arise from these things. Would someone fill me in.... when I did I become so capable?! ;)

Hopefully something funny and entertaining will happen today so that I can tell you all about it. For now, there isn't much to say, so I'll end here. I hope you all have a great Saturday... when you get started on it in 8 hours or so.

Love,
Elizabeth