Prague!! You are one of the most beautiful, mysterious, magical cities in the world, and I want to spend all day every day exploring everything you have to offer! Instead, I must savor the snippets of time we have together as I spend my days within the walls of TEFL, learning about auxilaries and modal verbs, present perfect continuous and eliminating that ever-present "teacher talk time." While the city lies patiently in wait, us TEFLers have had some pretty good time to bond in the classroom, learning all we can from our two British teachers, who have informed us that the one area we Americans generally lack in proficiency is correction. "The British... are great at correcting. Students make a mistake, and they're right on it. You Americans, you think everything's awesome, just AWESOME! The student can't speak a word but you think they're just awesome!"
Speaking of cultural differences, I have had some time (running from school, to tutoring, to the coffee shop to work some more) to interact with and observe the Czech culture. While I generally run around smiling (even feeling haggard after a long day and lugging around laptop + school bag..I'm in Prague, for goodness sakes! of course I'm smiling!) ... Czech people don't smile on the street, or generally make eye contact, or put up a front of niceties. Which is different, but almost refreshing in a way, because you get the sense that people are real; there's no b.s.-ing around here! The grocery store clerk doesn't flash a wide fake smile and ask how your day is going. They just get things done, and you know what? It's easier for me, because I can get by on a few words Czech and (maybe) nobody knows the wiser :) Also, there are SO many dogs here! I mean, everywhere. And they don't use leashes. Or pooper scoopers. Going running is like dodging bombs on the ground.
Off to bed; this has been the longest week in history, and I speak for my entire class when I say that we are completely wiped out!! We're having a party at our apartment tomorrow- celebrating our roommate's birthday that was on Wednesday, and inviting all the TEFLers over because we deserve a celebration for making it HALfWAY to teacher-dom! in just 2 more weeks I will be a real teacher AND finally have time to travel...watch out world!
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