Back in Brno

Čau čau!

I've been back here in the Czech Republic for about a week and a half, and what a week and a half it's been!  I finally have some free time and am able to give you a little update on what I'm doing, so here we go.

My last meal in RI with Mom: 2 dog special with fries!

I left on March 20th from Boston, flying through London to Prague.  I boarded the British Airways plane in Boston, sitting in the aisle seat with two seats to my left, in the second to last row of the entire plane.  Sure enough, two let's say "large" Scotsmen came booming down the aisle, counting the number of rows.  Of course they stopped next to me and said something along the lines of, "Hey da ooh dayur hair, arg sayts."  I translated that to, "hey there, oh, they're here, our seats."  Sure enough, I had the pleasure of sitting with these two.  I can't really call it sitting, though, because I had to actually lean out into the aisle so that they had enough room.  Seeing this, the very kind flight attendant let me sneak up to a seat in an entirely empty row in the middle of the plane right before take-off, as the rest of the plane glared at my good fortune.  There I was, sitting in the middle seat with a free space on either side of me, about to settle down to begin The Hunger Games (aka the reason I didn't sleep for 35 hours...I couldn't stop reading!).  Suddenly, a tap at my shoulder and the dorkiest looking middle-aged man you've ever seen.  Apparently his headphones weren't working, so he wanted to sit next to me and watch a movie.  I told him to go for it, and went back to my book.  Big mistake.  The entire flight, I was peppered with questions: Have you seen this movie?  Is it good?  What's it about?  What are you doing?  Is that a book?  What's its name?  What's it about?  Is it any good?  Didn't they make that into a movie?  Have you been to Europe before?  What time is it?

Imagine sitting next to a parrot.

Once we landed in London, I flew (pun intended) out of the plane and raced to catch my flight to Prague.  That went well, though one of the stewards could have been my cousin Charlie's twin.  I contemplated asking to take a picture with him, the resemblance was so striking.

I made it to Prague, got stopped by a very stupid customs officer asking me what was in my suitcase ("Clothes."  "How long were you in the US for?"  "Three months."  "Why?"  "I'm an American...I was in my country..."  "Did you purchase anything while in the US?"  "Is that a serious question?"  "What?"  "Are you really asking me if I purchased anything in the US?  Obviously I did, everything I own is from the US."  "Oh, I guess you're right.  Have a nice day." -- yes, that is the real conversation.  He was surprised by how brazen I was.), and then went to JoEllen's school to meet her.  We spent the afternoon in Prague, and then I caught the bus down to Brno.

Standing outside the airport in sunny Praha.

Things in Brno are good.  I stayed with Libor for a few days, in which time I went and visited one and only one apartment.  I now live there and it's great.  There're three of us in the apartment: me, Milan (from the Czech Republic) and Pavol (from Slovakia).  Milan also has an enormous Bernese mountain dog, Nero, who is really friendly and great to have in the apartment with us.  It's a nice place, a three-room apartment with a full kitchen, and we live in a quiet part of the city about a 7-minute tram-ride from the center.

Nero, one of my new roommates

I've already started working and have been working like a dog.  I'm teaching English at one school three days a week, and that's going pretty well, though I've only taught there twice so far.  The students speak English fairly well and understand most of what I say.  I then also did a demo lesson in an elementary school on the same street that I live on, teaching nine 7-year-olds for an hour.  We had an absolute blast, talking about animals and the noises they make (they're actually different between English and Czech, since every language has its own form of onomatopoeia), and then I taught them body parts and we sang, "Head and shoulders, knees and toes."  I was being observed by two teachers, and they enjoyed my lesson so much, they offered me a job with their school.  I now teach little kids (ages 5-10) on the other two days of the week, and though my first lesson was a little shaky, things are already improving there.  I'm also working for two translation companies, and will begin teaching some classes at other schools, as well.  After three months of no work, I have more than I can handle and lots of people contacting me with job offers, which is pretty great.  Who knows what the future holds!

With some of my friends in Černá Hora, a pub on Brno's main square.

This past weekend, my friend and former roommate in Graz, Olga, came to visit.  She's from Valencia, Spain, and is teaching Spanish in Graz for the year.  We hadn't seen each other since the day we moved out of our apartment in Graz three years ago, and we had a blast together.  She came on Saturday afternoon, and I showed her some of Brno.  I called my friend Martin, who is also Libor's cousin, who met Olga this summer while he was traveling in Spain.  I said, "Hey, what are you doing?  Want to come to Brno for the night?"  "I'll take the next train."  He really did, too.  It was great seeing him, I hadn't seen him in more than a year, and we surprised Libor when we all went out for a beer that night.  Martin went back to Ostrava on Sunday, where he studies, and Libor and I showed Olga more of Brno, despite the fact that it was snowing (if you can believe it).  Olga cooked tortilla española for me and my roommates on Sunday night, and then we ended the evening by watching The Sound of Music, which Olga had never seen in its entirety, and which now makes me really want to move back to Austria.  Monday we saw some more sites, and on Tuesday she headed back on down to Austria.  It was a great time with her here, and with some luck I'll get to see her again soon!

Martin and me.

Olga and me.

As for now, I'm in Linhartice, Libor's village.  We came here yesterday for the long Easter weekend and will be making our mrskačky (whips) tomorrow for Monday, when we'll go around whipping the girls to celebrate Easter.  Yesterday, Maundy Thursday, is known in Czech as zelený čtvrtek, green Thursday.  Starobrno, Brno's main brewery, started brewing green beer for the occasion years ago.  Since then, some other breweries have also started, and so Libor, his parents and I went to the village pub last night for some green beer.  I feel like a celebrity in the village since I've been here so many times and everyone knows who the Američan is.

That's about it.  Things here are going pretty well, I'm just enjoying a few days of relaxing after a long two weeks, and then Monday night it's back to Brno (after whipping the girls and many, many shots of slivovice), back to life full of teaching, translating and proofreading.

I'll let you know how Easter Monday goes, but as for now, Happy Easter to everyone!