First Week

The first week of the course is done! Oh boy it has been more work than I thought it would be and I was challenged every step of the way. I have had two Czech lessons now and they have been so helpful. I have actually used all the phrases that I have learned.

Speaking of new phrases... I have learned a few new ones from my fellow classmates. For example, I guess we are the English speaking country that uses "Z" as the last letter of the alphabet. The other countries say "Zed". Hmmm.... I think that is weird but they thin we are weird. My roomie Tina uses a lot of different phrases that I am not used to either. When she wants to vaccume she says "hoover". To paint her nail she says "nail varnish". Instead of saying line, (as in standing in line) she says "que". I think that I am starting to pick up a Canadian accent from my friend here named Katie. She is from Vancouver and we hangout a lot. She and I are sooo much alike that it scares us sometimes. Ha ha ha.

Class is harder everyday. THis week we have spent a lot of time on learning the phonemic script. I had no idea that the English language had 24 vowel sounds. Most of us thinkof the six main ones that we learn in school. Also we have had to learn grammar all over again. Such as past perfect tense and verbs and what kind of verbs they are and why we use them. There are actual formulas that my professors are teaching us to make sure that our sentences are correct.

I taught my first class all alone. Well there were fellow teachers watching me and one of my professors observed too. It ws amazing. I had a group of intermediate students and I think that they really liked me. After the class I had to meet with my professor to see areas that I need to work on and he told me that he had to think realy hard on what I had to do better. In fact he said that I wowed him more than anyone else that he has seen in a long time. He also told me that I had a natural ability to teach that shines as soon as I start. Basically he told me that I could teach and not even have to take the class but that he was glad I was there and that he might want to recruit me to stay there and work at the school! Ha ha ha. I was on cloud 9 after that. I was so worried that he was going to shred me apart.

I have a one-to-one student that I meet with for the first time this next week. His name is Tibor and I will tutor him for the next couple of weeks and then I have to write basically a huge term paper on it. It is going to be great to work with a student one on one. I will know more after I met with him Tuesday! Hopefully I will get a picture of him on here too :)

THis weekend my classmates and I went out on the town. Friday night we went to a night club called Karlovy Iazne. It has about 4 or 5 levels of dance floors and music. It was amazing. There were go go dancers and lounges. Also there was a huge dance contest goingon that I watched most of the night. I met a group of people from Denmark. They were so nice. We all had a great time. Saturday night Katie cooked us all a light dinner and we all sat around and talked. Most people (mainly the guys) were hungover from the night before! Ha ha ha. Today I did a little more sight seeing. I had my first authentic Czech meal and it was out of this world! I had bread dumplings, potatoe dumplings, cabbage, duck, and a beer.... total = $8! I had so much leftover that I will eat it for dinner tomorrow night.