We don't speak no Americano

So I capped off a long Thursday of teaching/tutoring with a conversation lesson with a 17-year old Czech girl. She was showing me her homework for the night: a reading from her textbook about the "Do's and Don'ts of Visiting America." Intrigued, I read it with her, and found it more than interesting to gain an outsider's perspective on my homeland, the land of the Trenta Latte. (still can't believe anyone needs 32 oz of coffee in one cup?! That one will probably go in the new edition of this textbook.)

For example:
1) Americans love to line up.
2) They place a very high value on confidence/self esteem
3) Expect to see flags atop every school, library, gov. building..etc, as Americans have a very high sense of nationalism and are taught from a very young age to say the Pledge of Allegiance and never to let the flag touch the ground

(so yay, these all sound good!)

Until the kicker:

4) Don't expect Americans to know much about your country, or even where it is.

Ouch. I don't even sense any witty irony from that statement; just plain, hard fact in their very serious and not-messing-around textbook. Alright, well this is why I'm here! I'm here to learn about the world, expand my sense of culture, truly understand the geographical differences between the itty bitty European countries, and maybe even learn some Czech while I'm at it...and maybe change this perception of Americans, just a little?

But I won't lie; when I got home, all good intentions of lesson planning went out the window as I did something I haven't done since I've been here, and perused "Texts from Last Night" and "Damn you Autocorrect" (a random website documenting the ridiculous texting typos/auto-corrections on the Iphone.) Laughing my head off in a subconscious need for a warm, fuzzy little bath of ridiculous, crazy (often rather crude) yet lovable American culture, before mentally returning to Czech-land, to learn more about the ways of the rest of the world... in a mission to reduce the population of "ignorant Americans" by at least one.

New Years Resolutions?

So it's been more than awhile!!! I spent Christmas in Greece with 2 of my roommates and 1 other friend, and it is the understatement of the year to say it was amazing! We were based in Athens, and took off for several 1-2 day trips to Delphi and the island of Santorini (um, hello paradise! Like, where is left to go after this, huh??! Kidding, only kidding :) Anyhow, so we returned and it was time for New Years in Prague!! Now I had heard several things about this New Years here, and most of them had to do with Prague being one of the most dangerous places to spend the last/first night of the year! To make a long story short, the "dangers" seemed far less scary and more exciting after a bottle of champagne, so off we went to ring in 2011 in the streets of Prague's center, with fireworks and explosives of all kinds going off all around us in very near vicinities. Good times! And yes, I still have both of my arms and legs, thanks to a good luck charm I bought in Greece that is supposed to ward off the "evil spirits" (or in my case, bouts of extreme klutziness/blondness that lead to lost cameras, mystery bruises and interesting stories.) Thank you, tourist shop lady, for your cunning sales pitch. If anyone needs a good luck charm, it is me.

Anyhow! New Years! I for one, am a HUGE fan of resolutions. I love the idea of making changes, or just starting a new project and sticking with it! I love fresh beginnings! So I am taking a photo every day this year, and have also started a physical "life scrapbook" which sounds completely nerdy, but totally appeals to my artsy side (AKA preschool crafts.) Random happy thought of the day yesterday? I love how my imperative stop on the way home after 3 glasses of wine at happy hour, is at Tesco for glue sticks so I can glue things in my book. Priorities!!!

Also, I love adverbs. I was just thinking about this yesterday. I mean, I am an English teacher, so really is not all that weird to think about parts of speech (except for the fact that I was thinking about it not in the classroom, or during planning, but during my leisurely walk TO happy hour.) No, but really. Adverbs are the winner in the "who is the best part of speech" game (that I'm sure none of you have ever played, but I'm sure it would be a hoot.) Everyone always talks about doing things, doing things, doing things, but what about the way we do them? I mean, it's one thing to "run" but how about to "run adventurously? Or to "run suspiciously"? Alright, enough of this; I just wanted to clarify my current love affair with adverbs, and fully reveal the true dweeb that I have become over 24 years of existance. (Yes, I am bringing "dweeb" back. And don't say it never was!!) Could this be more stream-of-consciousness? Probably. I'm going to get back to lesson planning (catching up on "Pretty Little Liars"), dreaming of finally buying a mattress pad and having my first full nights sleep in 4 months, and laughing myself to sleep to the thought of my preschool kids body slamming each other (and loving it) on the sledding hill.... love. my. job.