Sorry...it's a long one!

Well, let's just see here. I have so much stuff to talk about, I'm not too sure where to begin. I guess I'll take you back to time not so long ago, when my sanity was slightly more intact...

It all began on a dark and foreboding Friday morning. I was up before dawn's early light; 4 a.m. to be exact, and I wasn't sure why. All was quiet, save the screaming in my head: "I DON'T WANT TO TAKE A TEST! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME! WHAT'S A PAST PERFECT PARTICIPLE? AHHHHHHHH!" Oh yeah...that's why. It was final test day. My legs felt like they weighed more and more, every step closer we got to school. I don't think I've ever really dreaded anything so much before. Well, maybe the time we ran out of Guinness on a Thursday night, and I went to Bob's on Friday knowing we were out. Anyway, the test consisted of two 90 minute parts. The first part was the grammar portion, and to be fair to myself, I didn't do badly -- I did far worse than that, I know it. I was pretty upset after the first part; and yes, that means I shed A tear. Let me just say that I hate English. I feel that we are completely ill-prepared in the rules and regulations of our own language (or something like that). I've decided that I'll probably end up teaching Spanish (since I suck at English grammar), for I seem to be able to randomly bust out some Espanol every now and again. The second half of the test was easy-breezy goodness, so at least I had some positive thoughts about the test (besides being positive that I was going to fail). Don't get me wrong here; I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I'm just trying to prepare for the worst case scenario. That way if I do poorly, I won't be surprised.

Moving on... After the test was over, we all waited for each other downstairs. We took our bottles of champagne (we each got one at the end of the test), and went to the park around the corner. I felt kinda bad though, because we decided to pop the corks all together; the old lady on the bench next to us nearly had a heart attack. Actually, to be quite honest, I didn't really care. The popping of champagne corks is one of my favourite sounds in the world--what's better than hearing 7 pop all at the same time (besides maybe 8)? It was a beautiful day, and we sat and laughed and laughed and laughed. Finally it was time to depart. We made plans to meet for dinner at a restaurant called the Hairy Ghost (LOVE IT!!!), where we had the best pizza ever. After dinner, we met Teacher Mila (or ex-teacher), and went to a great ex-pat beer garden that we all went to a few weeks earlier. We had a fantastic time; in my opinion, the highlight was watching Mila change out of his shorts and into jeans under the table...and yes, of course I watched (hey, he's not my teacher anymore). It started to get cold and windy, so we moved to a different bar where we stayed until Shiela, Coco and I had to depart for the airport. We were pretty tired, but held it together to make our flights to London. That's right folks, we stayed out all night long. Sorry Mommy...I was forced to, I swear it! It's hard being the responsible one; they all overpower me and force me to do things I don't want to, like staying out all night. I just have a weakness for that mischeivous, impish band of Pucks (as in the pagan trickster/half tamed woodland sprite who lead people astray in the nighttime woodlands). They can be changed, I know it!

Our flight to London only lasted about an hour and a half, and I have to say I was glad when we landed. Sky Europe may have cheap tickets, but the seats are ridiculously close together. Our friend Iain picked us up from the airport and took us to Dartford in the county Kent, which is about 45 minutes outside of central London. He was kind enough to let us stay there Saturday night. He took us to Greenwich Village and to his favourite pub/restaurant/beer garden called the Gypsy Moth. Greenwich Village is a super cute college town full of bookstores and street markets. It was a perfect day out too, which made it even better. We sat in the beer garden and talked and laughed and soaked up the sun for hours. Later in the evening, we headed back to Dartford for a delicious Indian dinner. YUMMY! The next morning, I was up early (as usual), and decided to take a walk around Dartford. It's a quaint little town, and I was rather pleased to stumble across Central Park. It's a gorgeous park that spreads out for miles. It was completely a-bloom (is that even a word?) in flowers of every color, all laid out and landscaped perfectly. I was the only person there, so I decided to sit on a park bench and do some much-needed writing. It was so peaceful and perfect, and I got to see the most beautiful sunrise. It was like I got a private viewing of nature's finest moment. Amazing!

When I finally got back to the house (for I got lost), I found that Coco and Iain were awake and semi-ready to go. We decided to head off to London so us girls could check into the hotel. We got to London around noon, and stopped to eat at a great pub called The White Hart. I had the best fish and chips ever, and Iain and Coco both had burgers. By the time we were done, I was so sleepy. We walked to the hotel, said goodbye to Iain, and went upstairs to take a short nap. When we awoke, we decided to walk around to see what was near the hotel. We stayed in Euston Square, which is about 10 minutes or so by Tube to central London. We wandered around; it was really a gorgeous day out, so that made things even better. Later, when we started getting hungry again, we found a restaurant called Green Man. It was a fantastic place, and we both fell in love with it right away. It was packed full of people (most of whom ran the London Marathon that day), and we met some fantastic people. The bartenders, Alex and Roberto, were pretty fantastic too (not to mention cute), and they took good care of us. We have so much fun always, and are so lucky to meet cool people. When everyone was being kicked out at 11 p.m., Roberto said if we stayed and finished our drinks, he and Alex would sit and have one with us. So we stayed and got to hang out after hours. It was so much fun!

Monday, we ended up sleeping in a bit because we were pretty tired still from Friday night. We finally left the hotel and embarked upon a quest to find a bank who could give me a cash advance on my credit card. For whatever reason, my bank put a hold on my debit card, so I couldn't withdraw any cash. Both our credit cards only worked in certain places, which really sucked because we couldn't take the bus or Tube. We finally found a bank with helpful people in it, and we were promptly informed that I would be needing my passport as well as my drivers license in order to get a cash advance. We walked all way the back to the hotel, got my passport, and returned to the bank only to find it was closed. As a matter of fact, all the banks we found closed at 4:30. SUCK! We decided to find a place to roost, since we told Iain we'd meet him somewhere, so we chose the Greene King. We had dinner and a couple of Guinness. Our bartender was very attentive to us (and go figure, very attractive), and Iain remarked that we must be pretty special, because he's never seen a bartender pay so much attention to a particular table before. In England, the bartender never waits on tables. We had to go order food and drinks at the bar ourselves, and someone else would bring out the food. We felt special, but we called it a pretty early night. The next morning, we ate a fantastic continental breakfast, packed up and checked out. We decided to leave early, because we didn't know how long it would take to get us to the airport.

Before we left the hotel, I had asked the manager if he could tell us which Tube to take that would get us to the airport. We wanted the most direct route possible, because we get lost all the time and wanted it to be easy. He assured us that if we took the Tube to Waterloo Station (where they filmed part of the Bourne Ultimatum), we could catch the train directly and we'd be on our way in no time. Sounded fantastic, so that's just what we did. When we got to Waterloo, we decided we'd better ask someone just to make sure that we were on the right track (literally and figuratively). The lady was very kind in telling us that we were told wrong. "That's ugly," she said, meaning that the manager at the hotel lead us astray. She reassured us that our tickets were good to get us to the airport and sent us back one stop to London Bridge Station. When we got there, we realized that we were definitely in the right place, and right on time, for we only had to wait a few minutes for the train. We boarded safely (and made sure Coco's 90 pound suitcase was stowed properly), and we were finally off. Sweet relief! The country side was beautiful, and we made about three stops before the station agents boarded demanding tickets. We showed David ours.

"Where you going?" he asked.

"Luton Airport," we replied meekly.

"Not on these tickets."

Ah shit... "But the lady at the station told us these would get us there," I said trying my best to sound fairly pathetic. "Where can we get the correct tickets?"

"See that station?" he asked, while pointing at the one we just left.

"Yes."

"That's the last place you could have gotten tickets."

For a split second, I really thought he was going to throw us off the moving train. But he ended up being very nice and selling us the proper tickets.

"From now on, be sure to check your tickets. You don't want to get slapped with a twenty pound fine," said he.

"Oh we will." We gave him our best innocent faces, and he smiled and went about his business. I have to say that our sigh of relief would have blown a small chihuaua away. Could anything else possibly go wrong? I didn't dare ask myself that question. And, nothing did. We ended up at the airport a good two hours ahead of schedule, ate lunch, went through security and waited until our flight was called.

It was actually nice coming back to Prague. Even though it's not really our "home" per say, we have friends here that were happy to see us, and that meant a lot to me. Really the only depressing part was knowing that we had to go to the old apartment and finish moving our luggage out. I hate stairs! Alas, it was the last time we had to climb that particular five flights, which is actually a great feeling. We got all settled in to our layover apartment, which we share with a gentleman named Marco. He's from London, and has been teaching English for about six years now. He's been extraordinarily kind enough to let us stay in the extra room in his flat for a few days, until our apartment is ready. I'm excited to finally have not only a real bed, but my own bed as well. No more sharing!!! Yay!

Now we are all about settling in to our own comfortable place, and beginning to look for jobs. Joy of joys. It'll turn out all right though, so we're not terribly worried. Right now, though, I'm exhausted and in need of some sleep. I'm off to Neverland tonight, and can't wait to meet Peter Pan! Oh the adventure!

Okay, so that was really random, but to be honest, I'd love to meet Peter Pan and live forever in Neverland.

Don't judge me people...

LOVE YOU ALL!

I'll be writing more soon. The continuing saga of the pigeons is never ending. It's war I tell you...war!!!

Spring is upon us. Everywhere I look there are signs of new life: a million green buds covering the branches of the trees, timid flowers poking their sprouts through the ground to evenutally reveal a beautiful abundance of colour.

The sun has shone for a whole week. Glorious warmth! The rays lift my melancholy spirit; I feel rejuvinated and alive. Today even the stairs are my friends, and I find myself tripping blithely up them, feeling victorious when I reach the top (even though I'm despartely gasping for sweet life perserving breath). I love it!

We have class in an hour, and I don't really want to go. I want to wander through the gardens, brave the enormous bumblebees (seriously the size of ping pong balls), and daydream. Alas, it is not to be. Ah well...at least we have a pretty good time in class, laughing at each other's ridiculouness.

A few weeks ago, Courtney, Ashleigh (fellow classmate), Jiri (Ashleigh's boyfriend), and I went and saw President Obama speak at Prague Castle. We were among a crowd of 25,000 people. It was amazing. The speech started at 10 a.m., but we arrived there around 7:30. I was glad we were early, for it took an hour or so just to get through security. Once inside, we stood and waited and people watched. It was amazing to see the set up of security. The Secret Service were everywhere in their suits and sunglasses. I started to laugh because they looked "just like the movies." There were snipers on almost every rooftop. I think they were ninja snipers. They were all dressed in black and had masks on. They carefully observed the crowds with their gigantic binoculars. I like to think they were watching me (Arrogant? Exhibitionist? Perhaps a little. What can I say...my dreams keep me going). I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb; not only was I wearing light colours (pretty much everyone was wearing dark clothing), but I am lily-ass white. I think my face shone like a beacon in a stormy night.

The speech was amazing, and I was so proud to be an American that day. He is a very eloquent speaker, and he moved me to tears. I was glad I wasn't the only one. I think I detected a sparkle in Ashleigh's eyes too. Yea for Obamova (as the Czechs call him)!!

To be continued...

Sausage...

By Courtney

This won't be a long blog by any means. I just had to tell everyone something very amusing...

Our entire class has a great chemistry, we all like each other...we all have a similar sense of humor...and no one is easily offended (thank Buddha). The other day, I hit my hand on an unforgiving piece of sidewalk that jumped up at me, which left a very ugly bruise and bump on the palm of my left hand...

I went to show it to one of our class mates Andrew, palm facing him, fingers spread, and he screams.... "OH MY GOD...IT LOOKS LIKE A SAUSAGE!"....I said, "No Andrew, that's just my thumb."

hahahahahaha. Oh I love it. I bring it up everyday in class when he least expects it...

Like I said...Not easily offended...

Off to class now, bye!
Love, COCO

Quicky McQuickerson!

By Courtney

Hello all!

It's 11:20 am on this side of the world. It is a beautiful sunny day. I just walked down to the corner market to pick up a few things. I smiled at everyone I saw, and they all smiled back. I think I might be making some progress.

Today in class will be my second time teaching English to Czech speaking students. Probably only three or four. But who knows, yesterday Morgen taught, thought she'd only have three, and SIX showed up. She did a great job. No sign of nervousness on her face or in her mannerisms. I've decided to do a lesson modal verbs, only because that's what we (the trainees) went over yesterday. It's fresh in my mind, and hopefully I can explain it as well as our instructor Olga did to us.

It seems as if during the day we never stop moving here. Always on the move, down the stairs, up the stairs, to the metro, to class, down to Tesco to grab a quick sandwich for lunch in between lessons. Then...when we finally arrive home, at last we have a moment to sit. Last night the internet was not working due to a quick spring thunderstorm. We sat, read the newspaper, ate ice cream, and drank some champagne. I worked on my lesson plan and Morgen finished a book she's read many times before. There really never is a dull moment, though we might only be sitting and reading. It's something that I personally never really took the time for back in the States. I truly enjoy the quiet time.

Good news! One of our instructors, Alena, asked all of us in class what are plans were after graduation. I told her, "I'm staying!!". She said, "Great! There's a Montessori school here in need of a teacher, would you like me to recommend you?". How could I say no? From the moment I knew I would be an English teacher, I've dreamt of teaching the little ones. Their bright faces and yearning for information is what I keep envisioning in my first lessons. To really make a mark in some youngsters life. To give them approval, and hopefully set them off on a lifetime of learning. So, I'll get my resume started, apply for the position, and then of course go through the hiring process, which is usually two or three interviews. I'll of course apply for many more. As many as I can get my grubby little hands on.

Morgen and I have been getting along so well, and I'm so thankful that she is here with me, as I'm sure she as that I'm with her. Yesterday I woke up to a not so happy message and started my day off completely on the wrong foot. Leave it to Morgen to get me out of my slump. An extra red bull and a pink Gerber Daisy is what she gave me. I'm so easy to please, thanks

MO MO!

This blog is a bit all over the place, but I hadn't written in a while, and wanted to keep everyone updated. I was going to write a detailed blog about the food in this country, but I couldn't get past the first paragraph. Let's just say...it's goooooooooood as well as aesthetically pleasing each and every time. If we were back home eating the way we are now, we'd have gained weight in a snap. But oddly enough, we've both lost weight. I fit into an old pair of jeans, and Morgen noticed some bagginess in hers. It's great! As much as I hate the stairs, they do a body good.

Well everyone, I guess it's time to catch the metro. Off to class, wish me luck!

-COCO

Czech beer... Friend or foe?

Definitely friend, unless you drink too much and then your head hates you the next day. You can drink two and be hungover the next day. The beer here is really great, but sadly I'm still very loyal to Guinness; I can't help it. It's just so good! Last night, Courtney and I went out with a few of our classmates to J. J. Murphy's (the Irish pub we found on our first day here). We had dinner and a few beers, and met an ex-pat named Christina who's here on a work exchange program for the year. After we left Murphy's, we went to Lavka (literally means little lava), and danced and danced and danced. We met a bunch of English gents and hung out all night. It was fantastic. We got home around 6:30 this morning, and as usual I only slept for about four hours. I'm wide awake now and being domestic. I washed all the dishes, have been doing laundry, and am about to sweep the floors. Who knew I'd be such a neat freak? I like the place to be clean. It makes me feel better, which is really weird because my bedroom back home was always a total disaster. Of course it was an organized mess; I could tell you exactly where everything was.

Anyway, tomorrow the President is giving a speech and my classmates (save one from Texas) and I are all excited to go. The speech is at 10, but we're leaving the apartment around 7. Courtney doesn't know that yet, but I figured a 6 a.m. wake up call would be good for her! It's going to be amazing!

It's quite lovely outside today. It's supposed to be almost 70 degrees. I can't wait for the trees to bloom. It's still pretty dreary here, especially when the sun doesn't shine. I miss spring in Yakima (although I don't really miss the allergies). I haven't had too bad of a problem here even though everywhere you go there's a hundred people smoking. Even the mall let's you smoke in the restaurants, which are little open-air places located in the center of each floor. I pretty much always smell like smoke; I'm not overly fond of that, but what can you do?

I am so proud of myself...I haven't gone into the men's restroom for two days! Yeah!! It's a miracle! Funny thing is, every time I go into the men's room, they don't seem particularly surprised to see a woman while they're doing their business. Europeans = laid back.

That's pretty much all I have for now. I have to go shut the windows; there's an army of pigeons sitting across the street giving me the eye. Creepy...

The picture is of Christina (the ex-pat), Courtney, Eric, and Sheila (our classmates), and Iain (English gent) and I.

I HATE PIGEONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morgen

Oh my dear god...there are freakin' pigeons everywhere in this city. It's disgusting. They are seriously the biggest, fattest birds I have ever seen in my entire life. They're so fat that can't fly too high, and if you don't pay attention, they will seriously fly right into your head. They're not afraid of people either, so if you're sitting on a bench they will come and peck at your shoes. They also wake me up at the crack of dawn, because they like to walk across the skylights and flutter their wings and coo and coo and coo and...well you get the picture. I told Courtney the bright side was if we were desperately starving, we could take comfort in knowing we could always eat like kings on meals of pigeon. She wasn't particularly thrilled about the thought (it grossed me out too).

Okay, enough about the birds. Class has been really interesting. It's weird to learn how your own language works. I feel like a first time student again. I didn't know half of the stuff we've learned this week. Our teachers are really great. Mila (a guy) is actually Czech, and he speaks English with a Czech/British accent. I have a hard time not copying the way he says things. Our other teacher, Keith, is a sarcastic smart ass, and he's really funny. We also get Czech lessons, which I'm pretty happy about. It's a difficult language, but it really helps to learn the basic phrases. We've found that people are a lot more receptive if you at least try to speak Czech. Even if they don't speak English, they're a little nicer.

I've already had a one-on-one tutoring session with my student Josef. Our first meeting went really well. He's very proficient in English; he just needs a little help with tenses and some grammar. We just sat and talked about politics, religion, the present state of the economy, different laws in our countries, travelling, sports, etc. I felt like I was on a first date (and to be completely honest, I really wish we were. He's very attractive...wink wink...and single!). I definitely don't mind that I have to meet with him every week!

Yesterday (Thursday), I taught my first class. My class was a little larger than Courtney's, with 5 students. My fellow classmates and Keith observed; surprisingly I wasn't nervous at all, which is something new for me. I created my lesson plan, kept things organized so I knew what I was doing, and away I went. I think it went pretty well. I wasn't actually nervous until it came time for feedback from my fellow teachers. Everyone said I did a good job, but gave my little things to work on like remembering not to speak so fast and to make sure I don't mumble. I was glad when it was over. After class, Ashleigh, Sheila, Courtney and I went to the pub and had a "Hooray! Our first lesson is over with!" beer. My fellow classmates are pretty cool people. Courtney and I hang out a lot with Ashleigh and her boyfriend, Jiri. The four of us have a lot fun.

Let's see, what else...oh yeah! Sunday, we're all going to see President Obama give his only public speech on his European tour. We're really excited about that. I think it's going to be fantastic to be a part of something like that. I've never had the opportunity to see a president speak before. EXCITING!!!!

I don't know what my problem is around here, but I have seriously walked into the men's bathroom five different times at five different places. The worst part is, I even pay attention to the signs on the door--men's bathroom, figure of a man. Women's bathroom, figure of a woman in a dress. Not hard, right? How the hell am I going to be able to teach English, when I can't even understand a universally recognizable sign. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Well, I think that's about all I have for now. I don't know what else to say, except perhaps
I HATE PIGEONS!!!

If you knew the words...

It's been quite a day here at COCO-MOMO Depot. Therefore this will be short & sweet. I felt a bit of guilt by not keeping up the blog, so here you go. Appreciate!

Morgen is writing her postcards. I am mostly thinking. Staring at my computer thinking. Listening to POE. Staring.

I am so completely drained right now! Class started on Monday, it was great, and has been every day since...only two days since but you get the picture... I feel as if I can relax juuuust a little bit for the first time this evening. Today I "taught" my first class. Not just one man in a conference room. But THREE people; in a classroom! Wow! Ha. It was more fulfilling than I had expected. I absolutely loved interacting with these three women; Jana (yana), Vera, and Blanka. And amazingly in the past year I have somehow overcome my fear of public speaking...the only part that I was nervous about was the fact that I had six other people staring at me, judging every move I made...MORGEN of course was one, the other five trainees and our instructor Keith.

The criticism wasn't bad at all. I got great input on what I did wrong, and what I did wonderfully. As I had presumed before I began, it was of course my nervous rapid fire speech and self-deprecating humor that took hold of the audience. It made the students laugh, and helped them be put at ease. After all, they are the ones learning a new language right? Right. One thing I was told to work on was "don't slip into an accent". Oops...he...hehe. Yes, apparently there were a few times when speaking to the students in ENGLISH, I spoke with a Czech accent. I don't know how, since I've never tried. But...oh well, whaddya do ya know? :)

So...no Czech accent, continue to insert foot in mouth, and I'll be just fine. Now...it's 11:20pm. I'm going to bed.

We have late class tomorrow which means soooomeone gets to sleep in. That's me...incase you were wondering.

I will leave it up to Morgen to give you a more detailed blog. Muaahahaha.

Hezky Den!