Last night the international office at HWR (Dave’s school) had an outing to the Berliner-Schultheiss Brewery.  Tickets were a bit steep at 10€ a piece, but it ended up being completely worth it!  The night started a little precariously- it took close to an hour and a half to reach the Brewery via public transit and everyone was ready to get started when we arrived.  They began the tour with a short film about the history of the Brewery and then we walked throughout the plant looking at the brewing tanks, storage systems and finally bottling plant.  Our guide was a master brewer himself and knew his stuff!  I asked him what his favorite beer was and he said there was no way he could ever choose, but he knew that German beer is far superior to other beer.  He asked where Dave and I were from and when we said we’d been living in Boston he made mention of Harpoon and their famous IPA.  We were surprised and excited that he knew about Harpoon, he probably thought it a little ridiculous how excited we were, but oh well.

Tasting followed the tour portion of the outing.  I’ve been to my fare share of brewery tours and typically tastings get you just a couple beers or maybe a pitcher or so to share- not in Berlin.  We were led to a warm, beautifully lit room in a historically preserved buildling (basically it was one of the only things left standing in Berlin post WWII) with 6 delicious beers on tap and another array in bottles.  We were told we had an hour and a half to drink as we pleased- UNLIMITED BEER for 1.5 hours! Of the 25 or so of us in the group probably 20 of the students were undergraduates studying abroad- needless to say people got pretty drunk.  I tried to contain myself, but did end up having 6. I think Dave beat me by 1 with 7. The Bock and the Markischer Landmann were my favorites and Dave liked the Schultheiss best, but all were delicious!

It’s Monday, November 14th, and I am back in Berlin.  It was with bittersweet feelings that I caught the train from Prague here yesterday afternoon. On the one hand, I’m thrilled to be back with Dave and get to see him everyday.  I really love our flat in Berlin and am looking forward to all the wonderful Christmas festivals and traditions the Germans are so famous for.  On the other hand however, I had an absolutely fabulous time in Prague. I met some amazing people, learned so much through the TEFL course and loved getting to live in my favorite European city again.  Luckily Prague is only a 5-hour train ride away and now I have 20 amazing friends all over the world that I can plan to visit in the future! Dave and I are also in the process of planning our first Euro-trip together (we’ll be visiting Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam at the end of the month)…so some great things to look forward to!

Well back to the last week or so in Prague…

I think the last post I wrote about my time in Prague was about teaching.  As the last weeks of the course progressed teaching was on the forefront of everything. In addition to the usually twice-weekly teaching sessions we were also required to complete two grammar sessions for our classmates.  And while I think I can admit that my grammar has improved these last 4-weeks, it’s still pretty abysmal.  So though these lessons were shorter in length they took just as long to prepare for. And on top of all of the teaching we had a grammar test to prepare for on the last Thursday of the course. Needless to say it was a pretty packed last couple of weeks.  Fortunately everyone in our group passed the course (apparently there is typically a 5% failure rate) and we got to celebrate our achievements together with a graduation/champagne toast on Friday night.

TEFL Prague: Oct-Nov 2011

While we did spend a great deal of time working we also got in a bit of fun as well.  I’m pretty sure everyone was nocturnal the 3rd weekend in Prague.  On Friday night we started a club called the Roxy before moving to two other venues.  We left the last club just after 5:00am allowing us to catch the metro home (which closes from 12:00-5:00) instead of waiting for the tram.  Because of the late hour of our departure we didn’t make it up until close to 3:00 in the afternoon.  We spent the evening “eating breakfast” at Bohemia Bagel and then doing a little shopping downtown.  Since it was our last “full weekend” together in the city we decided we had to go out again.  We started at the oft frequented beer hall before it was decided that we had to try out Karlovy Lazne at some point on the trip. I’d been before and wasn’t too keen on paying 150 korunas to go again (it’s a little overrated), but someone found us coupons and we were able to get in at a discounted rate.  It was packed as usual, but also a lot of fun.  For those of you unfamiliar with Karlovy Lazne it’s a 5-story club that claims to be “The Biggest Music Club in Central Europe”.  Every floor plays a different type of music and it’s always slammed with tourists. We spent most of the night on the “oldies” level, which essentially played Michael Jackson’s greatest hits on repeat.  We danced so long we eventually closed the club and had to be bounced out at 6:00am.  Again we were able to hop on the metro home and made it into our beds as the sun began to rise.

We had to be a bit more active on Sunday than Saturday though.  Sunday night the whole TEFL group had bought tickets to the HC Sparta Prague game at 5:00pm.  Following the game everyone was coming over to the hotel for a group-wide potluck.  I got up around 2:00, ran to the store for some additional ingredients- made my guacamole and then helped clean up and prep for our guests. The game was awesome!  Sparta was playing the 3rd place team and the both were highly skilled.  It ended up going into overtime and then through 3-rounds of shoot-outs.  Unfortunately Sparta ended up losing in the shoot-out, but it was still an awesome game.

After the game we headed home to stuff our faces with amazing food from the potluck. Everything was delicious, but my favorites were the Greek salad, veggie burritos, buckeyes and homemade Czech pastries!  All sooooo good- remembering the meal is making me salivate right now:)

After the fun of the weekend it was time to get down to business come Monday.  Lessons to plan, grammar to study for and jobs to begin finding.  The early part of the week was spent working and enjoying our final “family” dinners at the hotel. Particularly memorable was the batch of fried dough Tamara made on Wednesday- so greasy and so good! Thursday brought final grammar presentations, the grammar exam and then my final teaching section. I had an elementary group (their English is extremely basic) and was a bit worried about the listening lesson on health and healthy lifestyle.  The video they had to watch talked about things like ayurvedic medicine, but everyone seemed to comprehend the material and my concept checking went really well.  I finished the lesson by asking about the what type of people were healthy.  I thought I’d get answers like “athletes”, “runners”, “vegetarians” etc…but they took it to mean nationalities.  Most agreed that Czechs were pretty healthy as were those living on the Mediterranean. When I asked about unhealthy people they didn’t have much to say so I suggested “Americans?”  That got a big laugh and lots of nods!  It was a relief to successfully finish up my last lesson, but now I’m in the process of job searching…hopefully something will come up soon!

After the my final lesson (and confirming that I’d successfully passed the course) I headed home to get ready for dinner out on the town.  All 20 of us headed out to find some traditional Czech food and beer. We took a few wrong turns in our search for food, but eventually found a delicious spot not too far from Old Town Square.  I had my final plate of goulash (can never get enough!) and enjoyed trying some of the other dishes as well!  After dinner most of us headed to Cheapu Rouge for more drinks and some dancing.

Since half of the class had already completed the program a number of us went out sightseeing and souvenir shopping on Friday.  It was sunny out, but freezing!  After taking in the sights for a few hours we headed back home to get ready for the evening’s graduation/champagne toast.  We met at the school at 6:30 and it essentially turned into one big party.  Everyone passed the course so we were in fantastic moods and ready to party with everyone one last time.  After hanging out at the school for about 2 hours we headed downtown where we all got down at Dejavu.  Some of the staff and teachers went with us and we even met up with some of the former TEFL Prague graduates- it was a great night.

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The next day was my last in Prague and I decided I want to do my last bit of sightseeing solo.  I went back up to Pohorelec (old stomping grounds) and tried to find my favorite little chocolate covered banana chips (couldn’t find them, but got some chocolate/cinnamon covered almonds that might even be better!).  After my search for candy I meandered down to the castle and then back down and into the city.  I was only out for about 3 hours, but it was so cold I felt like it was longer!  That night we did games and drinks up at the Villa and then went out to Nebe for a last hurrah!  Most of our number was still around so I got to say most of my good-byes.  Even though we’d only known each other for 4 weeks we spent almost every waking minute together during that time and I got to know a lot of people really, really well. I was sad to leave, but know that we’ll keep in touch and will now have 20 wonderful places around the world to visit!

I’m well into my third week of my TEFL course now and it’s hard to believe that the course will be finished in just a week!  I have learned so much in such a short time and have a new appreciation for the work that goes into teaching.  I’ve always been a huge proponent of education and had great respect for teachers, but never knew how much preparation went into sometime as short as a 45-minute lesson.  Everyone in the program spends 4+ hours on the development of our lesson plans and then even more time actually writing and planning out details.  We’ve been told that it only gets easier, thank God!  One of our course teachers said that his first year of teaching it took him forever to plan anything, but every year it got easier.  What use to take him 2+ hours now takes him about 10 minutes. He has so many resources and such an advanced gauge of how students at different levels process information. Hopefully I’ll develop similar abilities with time…

In addition to our 2-4 lessons a day we each teach twice a week. One group teaches Wed/Fri. and the other Tues./Thurs.  The first two weeks I was in the Wed/Fri group, but I’ve switched to the Tues./Thurs. section for the final two weeks. Thus far I’ve taught Elementary, Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate classes.  Every class has been unique and rewarding, but I think the upper-intermediate group has been my favorite.

In addition to the rotation of groups, we also get the opportunity to plan and execute a variety of different lessons.  I’ve taught reading, listening, speaking, writing and grammar. I enjoy the reading and speaking activities the most and absolutely abhor the grammar sections.  I do have to admit though that my grammar has improved a bit and the lessons we’ve had on it weren’t as bad as I anticipated.  I’ve found that as long as you have some context with your grammar it tends to go over easier, i.e. a story students can pull examples out of or a video clip that shows a specific tense or form.  Next Thursday we have our big final exam/grammar test so I’ll be spending a good deal of time this next week learning even more about things like past perfect, 3rd conditional and future perfect simple…sounds exhilarating doesn’t it!

Teaching has been much more challenging, but much more rewarding than I ever imagined.  I still can’t imagine a job that I’d love more than the job I had at Northeastern (I still miss it terribly!), but I think teaching will be an invaluable way to see education from a new perspective.  I’ve been on the administration side of schools for the past four years and am curious about the faculty perspective.  I’ve started to search for jobs in Berlin, but haven’t had any luck yet.  I’m hoping to send out many more resumes this weekend and hopefully I’ll get a bite soon.  I’m going to try and not worry too much though, but rather enjoy the rest of my time here in Prague with my lovely classmates and teachers!  Weekend here we come!

Dave came to visit this weekend and I was SO happy to see him! Two weeks is a long time to be apart and it was so good to be together again. He got in on Friday evening and we started the night off right away- drinks with everyone from the Hotel! After a few ice cold pivos and some shots of a traditional Czech liquor, Vaječný Sen (translation: Egg Dream) we headed up to meet the rest of group downtown.  We ended up spending most of the night at a club in Wenceslas Square, sharing some beers and Absinth shots.  The rest of the group headed to another club around 1:30am, but Dave and I headed home so we could get enough rest for a full day of fun on Saturday.

True to plan we woke up early on Saturday ready to get in some sightseeing.  Of course- we had to stop by Bohemia Bagel for a post night of drinking breakfast (delicious as always!).  After breakfast we walked through Old Town Square, checked out a cute street market and then jumped on the 22 tram up to Pohořelec. I wanted to look into to visiting Strahov Monastery, but it was closed for lunch break.  Rather than waiting around we decided to venture up Petrin Hill and visit the observation tower.  Basically we did the reverse of what Maddie and I did last week.  Last week we walked up the hill and then took the tram back down.  Dave and I opted for the easy ride up and a stroll down (much more my style).

After our lovely and lengthy stroll we headed into the city of Prague to check out some of the biggest tourist attractions.  Since we’ve both been to the city before we were able to be a bit more relaxed about our touristing (but I still managed to get in some good photo ops!  We stopped on a park bench for 45 minutes or so, soaking up the sun and watching locals enjoy the afternoon.  We made a slight detour to the Lennon Wall, walked over the Charles Bridge, back into Old Town Square and then made our way home.  We saw a lot, including something I hadn’t seen before- the Love Lock gate.  Legend has it that when you find your true love you carve your names on a lock and lock it onto the gate. You then throw the key in to the canal, “locking” your love forever! We overheard a tour guide telling her group that the locks started appearing in 2009 and have grown in popularity since.  I thought it was a romantic and touching site. Dave and I didn’t have a lock on us, but I found one lock in the shape of a heart with the words, “For lovers only” and decided it could be our symbolic lock.  Maybe one day we’ll go back and add our lock to the masses!

After a long morning of walking and taking in the sites we came back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.  Instead of napping I found out that South Park Studios (the official website will full length South Park episodes) plays full episodes in Europe!  So of course I had to catch up on the new season…For those of you who haven’t traveled internationally- most free streaming sites, like Hulu, NBC, ABC etc…don’t work in Europe.  So finally finding a way to watch high quality episodes of my favorite shows was a fantastic find!  We didn’t have much time though because we were meeting up with about 10 people from our group for an evening soccer game (or “football match”) between AC Sparta Prague and Mlada Boleslav.  The game was a lot of fun, though Sparta was suppose to win and got their asses kicked! We got half litre beers and sausages for 75 korunas (a little less than $4 American) and noticed that it cost 80 korunas for the soda and sausage deal.  Man I love being in a country that takes their beer seriously!

The game ended around 8:30 and Dave and I departed from the rest of the group for a late dinner.  We stopped in at a fantastic and traditional Czech restaurant a little outside of Old Town Square.  I got goulash (my 5th plate in two weeks?!) and Dave ordered something called the Peasant Plate, which was essentially a pig knuckle, i.e. a giant pig knee. I was a little nervous to try it, but it was pretty delicious. I love my adventurous carnivorous man- always getting me to try new things!

We wanted our final day together in Prague to also be low key.  Since we both love zoos- when we lived in D.C. we lived only a 15 minute walk to the National Zoo and walked through about once a week- we decided to check out the Prague Zoo.  We’d heard good things about the recent renovations and were not disappointed!  The zoo is huge, well priced and beautiful.  We spent more than 3 hours wandering around, checking out animals and enjoying the beautiful Fall day.  My favorite animals were, of course, the elephants.  Dave was excited to see the moose (a Maine thing I guess), but unfortunately they weren’t out.  Luckily he was greatly impressed by the polar bears and claimed they made up for missing the moose.  We also both loved the seals, mountain goats, gorillas and birds of prey.  In the birds of prey area they have a spot for visitors to view the animals with no net or fence.  Because they’re birds of prey there was some pretty rank smelling rotten meat carcasses lying around their pen, but they were fascinating to watch.  The only part of the zoo I didn’t like was the free roaming bat section.  You walk into this spooky, dark cave (for nocturnal animals) and in one section bats are able to fly freely around your head.   Needless to say I was not impressed and made a beeline for the exit.  Dave thought it was pretty funny, but we’ve had two experiences in the past year with bats in our room/house and I’d be happy to never see another one again!

After the zoo we ate a hearty Czech lunch consisting of many beers and some fried cheese.  Later that night we went out with a few people to catch the Patriots v. Steelers game at an “American style bar”.  This place was more like the basement of a dirty frat house, but it did have the game.  Though the end result was less than ideal (the Pats lost), it was still a lot of fun to get our “real football” fix.  We got back pretty late, but because Day Light Saving Time took place across the EU this weekend the game ended an hour earlier than usual- just for this week though!

Overall it was a wonderful weekend and it was so good to be together again.  Dave left early yesterday morning and by time I woke up I already missed him.  Only two more weeks until we’re reunited forever! Good thing we’re both loving our programs and are super busy- the next two weeks are going to fly by!