:: Saturday, November 19, 2005 ::

Silver blue and frozen silence

I've been thinking that winter had arrived here in the Czech Republic, as temperatures have been dropping and this past week I had to update my suede jacket for chilly/gettin' cold weather to my big ski jacket/parka for it's-colder-than-a-three-tongued-horny-toad-out-here weather. But perhaps I was just jumping the gun. After all, it's not even Thanksgiving yet!

But what should I find when I woke up bright and early this morning? Nothing other than snow! On the ground! The weather had called for flurries, but flurries don't usually leave a deposit a fluffy white flakes on the ground. Usually, they're just fluffy white flakes blowing around in the air. Yet here they were. On the ground. Before Thanksgiving. It didn't even snow in Sweden last year until January, and I'm quite sure it hasn't snowed in Virginia yet! I even took a few pictures to share with everyone the winter wonderland of the Opatov panelak-land, from the three different vistas of my flat.

the back

the side

the front

So it seems I wasn't jumping the gun after all. I guess now it's time to break out the hats and mittens and boots, too. But winter's here. With snow! Woo-hoo!

Happy Winter, everybody!

:: posted by Rob 11:48 AM [+] :: 2 comments
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Schedule is pronounced 'shed-yool'

Because there may be some interest, I've decided to regale you with information about my current schedule as an English teacher here in Prague. The first thing you should know is that I don't teach in a classroom - at least 80% of language teaching here in Prague is in-company, which means teachers go to various businesses to teach their students at their work, and I am no exception. It also means that the majority of classes are either very early in the morning, before work starts, or in the evening, after normal working hours. So the hours aren't the best, but hey, since when were jobs perfect?

So let's look at a typical week for Rob, shall we? Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

My week starts on the weekend, when I spend either Saturday or Sunday planning my lessons for the coming week. In reality, this means I sit down Sunday afternoon or evening and spend the rest of the night rushing to get all my lessons planned! Time management has never been one of my strong suits...

Monday mornings, I get up at oh dark thirty, to get to the Metro by 6:30, so I can get to my first class at 7:30. This is at the tax law firm of Vorlíčková & Leitner. I teach 2 lessons and finish at 9:00, then usually head to Glossa to make photocopies and get all my materials together for the week's classes. I'm usually home by noon or so, and have the rest of the day free, which is quite nice. Monday evenings, however, seem to be popular times for other teachers not to want to teach, and so I frequently pick up substitutions during these times for a few extra crowns here and there.

Tuesdays, I get to sleep a little later, as I don't have to be at class until 9:00. I teach 3 lessons at VŠCR, or Vysoká škola cestovního ruchu, aka the University of Tourism until 11:30. Then it's back home for a couple of hours before I head out to Ringier, a newspaper publishing company, for 2 lessons from 2:30 to 4:00. Then I wander around for an hour and a half waiting for my last class of the day from 5:30 to 7:00. This is a 2-lesson conversation course at GTS, a telecom company, and I teach it Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. At least 2/3 of the time, no one shows up for these classes. On the good side, the classes can't be cancelled, so I get paid for the class whether or not anybody shows up. On the bad side, I still have to spend about two and a half hours traveling round-trip there and waiting for students before I can leave.

On Wednesdays, I have another early class from 7:30 to 9:00, 2 lessons for GTS again, but at a different location and with different people. Then the whole rest of the day is free until 5:30, when I return to my conversation class at GTS, assuming any students show up.

Thursdays I'm up at 5:30 again, as I have to be at the Hradčanská metro station at 7:30 to catch my car pool to Rakovník, a town 60 km west of Prague, about an hour's drive away. I ride there with two other Czech teachers of English, and we teach at the Procter & Gamble plant there. I have 4 lessons at P&G, from 8:55 to 12:00, but my fellow teachers teach there all day. Rather than wait all day for them, I instead wait about an hour at the bus station for a bus back to Prague, which takes another hour or so. It takes a big chunk of my day, and I only get paid for the actual lessons I teach, but fortunately my school pays me an extra 400 crowns to cover travel costs and the inconvenience of teaching outside of Prague. At 5:30, it's back to my last GTS class of the week. If no one has showed up on Tuesday or Wednesday, chances are that someone will be there this night. Similarly, if I've had students on both Tuesday and Wednesday, chances are no one will show up on Thursday. I have yet to have a week where all three days have been cancelled.

Thursday night is also pub night for students, teachers, and former trainees of Oxford TEFL, my teaching certification school. I don't get to see much of my former TEFL classmates, as we're all busy teaching, so it's nice to be able to get together at the Konvikt pub near the school once a week to catch up and also meet the new people in the program.

And finally, we come to Friday. First up, it's back to the law firm of Vorlíčková & Leitner for an hour (or 1.33 lessons) of class from 8:00 to 9:00. Next up is a 2-lesson individual conversation class with a very nice woman at Eurotel, another telecom company, from 11:30 to 1:00. Then it's a quick jaunt on the Metro to get to my Czech language course from 1:30 to 2:30. One of the perks of teaching for Glossa is that all native English speaking teachers get free Czech lessons. I've only had three lessons so far, but I hope I'll be able to start actually talking in Czech soon!

And that, friends and neighbors, is a week in the life of Rob. Constantly running all over Prague (and sometimes beyond), trying to find various offices and buildings, trying to make Czech-speaking receptionists understand who you are and why you're there, and then hoping for students to show up so that all of this wasn't for nothing. It's a hard life, but someone's gotta do it. And if the logistics and travel get a little annoying at times, I actually quite enjoy the teaching itself.

Now if I could just finally get my first paycheck...

:: posted by Rob 10:08 AM [+] :: 1 comments
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It's your birthday, it's your special day

Well, maybe not your birthday, but yesterday was my Polka dot's birthday. I had a class early in the morning, but I was able to come back home with flowers and, since she is currently "between jobs," spend the rest of the afternoon with her. In the evening, we ventured into the center of Prague to Red Fish, a highly-recommended sushi restaurant. And though it was a bit pricy (what with the Czech Republic being a landlocked country and all), it was well worth it. We had quite a large sampling of various nigiri and maki, enough to give my Polka dot a good idea of what different kinds of sushi there are, this being her first time ever having sushi. It was also her first time using chopsticks, and she did amazingly well, only dropping things occasionally and never asking for a fork. And afterwards, we headed to the traditional Czech restaurant McDonald's for some good ol' soft serve ice cream.

And finally, to top it all off, she had an interview today and was immediately offered a job which she starts this Thursday. It seems good things come in packages.

So here's a shout-out and a hearty congratulations to her. And keep your fingers crossed for her first day!

:: posted by Rob 10:00 PM [+] :: 2 comments
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We finally found you, Katori!

For those of you who love Japan, martial arts movies, or sadly, even the Power Rangers (and who doesn't?), all mixed with a little comedy plus a sprinkling of subtitles, I present: Rolling Bomber Special!!!!!1

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want your very own Army of Evil to help you destroy the Earth and fight the Earth Defender Freshmen!.

And after you're done watching that, hop on the Sudoku bandwagon at Web Sudoku. It's the craze that's sweeping the nation! (Also added to the link list on the left side, waaaaaaaaay down at the bottom.)

:: posted by Rob 12:28 PM [+] :: 3 comments
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