So, the biggest experience i’ve probably had since i last wrote was going to the ballet last Saturday. It was my first ever such experience, and i gotta say, i was impressed.
The ballet was Romeo and Juliet, which was pretty cool. I’m not totally sure, but i heard it was done by Tschaikovsky, but i may be wrong about that. Whoever wrote it, they did a good job. I even recognized one of the songs, which was kinda weird. Musta been from a movie or something. But anyways, the dancing was really incredible. Some weird things, like seeing a dude dance and flutter around right before he dies, but some pretty neat stuff, too. I started to get a little bored towards the end, but i suppose i would do it again.
I would definitely do it again, though, if i was told it was at the Czech National Theater. The theater was incredible. It was extremely ornate and incredibly beautiful. I was amazed when i got out of the tram and saw the outside, and then even more amazed when i went in and saw what was inside. Unfortunately, i have no pictures of either, but hopefully will get a chance to take some shots of both at a later date. The tickets were cheap, too. 280 korunas for the show (about $14). It was a matinee, but that was all the better. Went with some of my classmates and my roomies.
Sunday, we went and played some ultimate Frisbee. Was fun, but it just happened to be the coldest day out of the last 10. But, hypothermia be damned, we went out and did it anyways, and had a good time. Prior to that, i went to church at the Cathedral located in the center of the Prague Castle. It is a very, very impressive structure. Rather simple and undecorated inside relative to many other European Cathedrals, but that seems to make it only the more incredible. It was very cold during mass, but it was cool to be in such an old building. I kind of zoned out while the priest was giving his homily, ‘cause he started in Czech. When i finally decided to try and pay attention again, he was speaking in German, then seemed to go to Spanish, which made me wonder if i missed the English part of the sermon. If i did, oh, well. The church was fun to look at, and i was off in my own place, anyways.
School this week has gone fast. Monday and Tuesday were our only in-class days. The rest of the week we’ve been giving lessons. Yesterday i taught my first advanced class, and had a good time. I talked about racism, and more importantly, racism in the Czech Republic. I had never taught any of the advanced students, and only knew one of them through Greg, so i was a bit worried that they might get offended, but all went well, and they seemed to be very into the discussion. Today, i taught my grammar lesson (we have to do one during the four weeks, and it is observed) to a beginner class. It was a bit challenging going from an advanced class, where they can follow you almost no matter what you say, to a beginner’s class, where if you say something they don’t understand or if they get confused, you’ve lost them for at least the next 10 minutes. The beginners are a fun group, so that’s good. I had to teach them possessive pronouns, and only got tripped up once when a student asked why sometimes there was an ‘s’ after ‘their,’ and why sometimes there wasn’t. I fought the urge to say, “because i’m the teacher, and i say so,” though that may have cleared things up for her better than what i ended up telling her. At the end of the class, my teacher who was observing me had to come up and clear things up for her, but i still got a better than passing mark, so i guess i did everything else okay.
That’s all i got for now. You should have received an e-mail with my address on it. If not, it’s on my blog now, so you can send me a postcard. I’m gonna try to get some out for Christmas, but i haven’t sent any yet, and that probably means they’ll show up after the fact, but i’ll do what i can.
‘til next time…
JC
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