hello! and greetings from the beautiful city of prague!
i thought i would write and say hello to all you wonderful people back at TU and let you know a bit about how things are going on this side of the atlantic...
so far, in the almost 2 months that i've been here, i have have had an unbelievable time! every aspect of life has been wonderful, and not without its fair share of excitement. i'm sure that in due time, i will grow weary of being yelled at by every old czech woman in a language that i don't understand and can only inaccurately reply in, but for now its still somewhat amusing and amounts to an endless supply of funny self-depricating stories! the small amount of wisdom i've gathered in this time has taught me that life abroad cand either lead to immense culture shock, or completely new levels of being able to laugh at yourself...and for now, i've chosen the second....
my flatmates and flat are really fantastic. as odd as it might sound, i live in my school. they have converted an old portion of the school that is no longer used for teaching into a 4 bedroom flat for foreign teachers, and its wonderful. its really great to be able to roll out of bed in the morning, walk through a strange door in our flat (we call it narnia) and suddenly be in our school.
the school also is great. students here have to take entrance exams to get into gymnaziums, and so they tend to be grouped in their school based on their level of academic ability, and i got lucky in being assigned to one of the best schools in the czech republic. these kids are incredibly motivated, really participate a lot in class, and can suck up better than i ever imagined someone could suck up to a teacher. this in many ways, is a dream come true. however, it also produces a fair amount of fear. as previously stated, these kids are overachievers to the highest degree (example: "ms. mann--i dont' think you give us enough homework..."...seriously). so while this can be great, i live in fear that my students will somehow discover what a fraud i am. for example...my shocking lack of comprehensive english grammar...terrifying. the most prevalent fear, however, arises in my american literature classes. for reasons that have never been explained to me, i am teaching three sections of american literature this year, and while i really do enjoy teaching it, i think that my students are under the impression that i, well, studied english literature and therefore have some degree of credibility in teaching it. daily, i fear that they will somehow through their brilliance come to find out that in reality, i prepare for most of my classes by scraping my memory for schards of high school literature knowledge, reading about 4-5 literature text books, and consulting my lifesaving source of all information: the internet. nevertheless, all fear of teaching aside, i really do enjoy it and think that the students here are a blast.
the rest of life here continues to go well. i've started taking czech lessons once a week--which is exciting, though incredibly difficult. my roommates are great people, i've made some czech friends who are fun, and czech beer is delicious. all and all, i'm giving this life decision two enthusiastic thumbs up.
i'll stop there to keep this email from reaching epic proportions (to any of you who hear frequently from mr. alex peterson, you know what i mean......). but i would sincerely LOVE to hear how you all are doing--any communication from back home is truly exciting and makes me feel a bit closer to home. so please, send emails whenever you get the chance. i will leave you with a short, but funny story, about amusing encounters w/ crazy czech beaurocracy....
so i got a letter (in czech) in the mail the other day. unaware of what it said, i took it to a friend who speaks czech. basically, it said "if you do not report to the foreign police in 3 days with your passport, you will be arrested." that's a scary letter to get. the only thing scarier is actually the foreign police. you arrive at around 5 am in order to make sure you are seen that day, and you wait in a freezing cold corridor with about 200 other immigrants from all over the world, none of whom speak the same language. impatiently, i waited for my number to be called, and 3 hours later, i got to see someone who somehow managed to communicate to me that i had been issued the wrong visa, and had thus been working illegally for nearly a month and a half--something she insisted we fix immediately. so, i got a brand new visa, and left (to my delight) un-arrested.
so yes....i will stop there. if you get bored and would like to see lovely pictures of life here, you should check out this website: www.picturetrail.com/amy_mann.
again, i hope you all are well and would love to hear from you!
naschledanou (bye!),
amy
GO ASTROS!