A Few Lazy Weeks and a Day in Prague

So, how do I start this story of our adventure out? It has been a while since I really had anything too interesting to share. We have been trying to take it easy with the expectation of the arrival of Andrea’s mother and brother. We have a great amount of traveling planned for the two weeks or so they will be in Europe. With that in mind, and the expenses attached to the traveling, we have made the wise decision to limit our adventures. Our excitement for the last couple of weekends have been limited to Novy Bydzov and Hradec Kralove besides today when we ventured to Prague for the day, I will share that experience in the end, but first I will tell about the weeks leading up this day which has been filled with wonderful new experiences.
Let me start with an update of how school has been going for Andrea and me. Andrea is still having a difficult time with discipline and not receiving much help from the majority of the people she is working with. There are a few people at her school she raves about, cannot stop sharing with me different stories about how these particular people are endlessly helpful, but as a whole, as well as in my school, the system for disciplining students is just not very well established. Especially considering, neither Andrea nor I speak the language and are able to confront students as we may like. I have definitely had a much easier time with my students. I would say my presence alone, being bigger than all the students where Andrea is smaller than many, has been a huge factor. Plus, because of a lack of support I have had to make up my own tactics for dealings with misbehaved students. And I’m sorry Mom, I know you will not agree with this one, but I will share it anyway because it worked. I have not had any major problems with this one grade six student since.
This one student was really misbehaving, he was pushing a quieter “less popular” student around and then I caught him spitting at the same student. So, in turn, I made the student sit in the middle of the classroom on the floor. I have the desks in my class arranged in a horseshoe. I made the student sit on the ground the entire class then made him stay on the ground as my grade seven class walked in to start class. The student was humiliated as the students from the seven class laughed at him. I know my disciplinary ways are not good, but they have been working and as I have not been getting much help, I feel some of the steps I take are needed. Lastly, which is good, I have been working on my patience with the students. I am sure this is a lesson all teachers learn at one time or another during careers, but I have discovered the more upset I get, the wilder the students get. So, I am learning a great deal of patience and my not getting loud with classes is definitely paying off.
Besides the trials and tribulations of dealing with the discipline of our school children, like I stated, the last couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful, but I will share some of the high points. I have had a lot of fun playing with the basketball team of Novy Bydzov the past couple of Fridays. I am only allowed to play in their practices, which amount to them playing 5 on 5 for a couple of hours. There are actually some very good players and it has been fun bonding with the players who speak English to actually a decent extent. Everyone on the team is extremely nice. I do not think I will ever be able to play in any of the actual games because I have to register with the Czech Republic and the cost of registering is 500 crowns, not quite in my budget considering I would only to be able to play in maybe two or three of the games the team has left because of all the trips Andrea and I have planned on the weekends; I just don’t think spending the money to register is worth it. Practicing with the team on most Fridays is a nice consolation and is good exercise.
Basketball has been fun, but even more than that is being able to spend time with Andrea. Now that my parents have been so gracious as to send me my Mom’s laptop, Andrea and I have been able to purchase movies to watch at night and have been able to rent some newer movies a couple of times, which is, even back home, one of my favorite activities. Not much beats lying in bed lazily on a Saturday evening with a bag of microwavable popcorn and watching a movie. We have also had a few very nice occasions to go out with a few new friends we have made during our giving of private lessons. Just this Friday, the day before our intense adventure in Prague, we had the opportunity to spend the night, after I finished basketball with one of the individuals I tutor, Libor, and his girlfriend, and, Veronica, a girl whom Andrea tutors and her boyfriend. So, the six of us went out for the night. It was a great time. We went to a quiet restaurant attached to Novy Bydzov’s ice hockey arena, definitely an interesting place. The whole evening was wonderful. You would think the conversation would halt on several occasions due a language barrier, but no, the conversation flowed throughout the whole evening without anymore pauses than you would find in conversation amongst people who all speak English as their native language. Libor has to be one of the nicest people I have met in my life. Not only did he surprise Andrea and I by paying for our entire tab that evening, but he was already planning to go to Prague the next day and he gave us a ride into Prague, saving us much needed money, a truly special individual. I do not want to finish this part of the story without writing about Veronika, the women Andrea tutors, and I believe Andrea has become friends with. She is equally as nice as anyone I know and has been one of the few people Andrea has been able to build a friendship with here in the Czech Republic. I think it means a lot to Andrea to have a friend she can go out with every once in a while.
Let me get to the exciting part, our day in Prague. It started off pretty uneventful. We had Libor drop us off at probably the biggest mall we have been too since we have begun our stay here in Europe. For me, I am sorry to say, not my favorite thing in the world, but I cannot complain, for the majority of the time I sit in café writing while Andrea shops. The big downfall of these malls we keep going to is that Andrea cannot seem to find one thing she likes within her price range and with each failed attempt to find a cute sweater, the perfect pair of boots, or the ideal pair of “skinny” jeans Andrea’s hopes of finding, her spirit is dampened. So, we left the mall and headed toward the city center to recover from a failure to produce the ecstasy from any type of new clothing articles. Once we arrived in Prague’s city center, we dropped the heavy bags we were carrying in a locker at the train station (we were going to be heading back to Hradec later that night) and made our way to the Christmas markets of Prague’s Old Town. I will be forever grateful we dropped those bags off and you will read why in a second.
First, before I write about our big adventure in the Christmas Market, let me tell you how my spirits became dampened. Unlike Andrea, who enjoys shopping in clothing stores, I find my enjoyment in bookstores and, on our route to the Christmas Market we passed probably the biggest bookstore in Prague and it has a rather large section of English books. While Andrea looked and found disappointment in a few more clothing stores, I sat in the bookstore reading a Kafka book with no hopes of purchasing it. Then once Andrea found me in the bookstore and we were trying to leave, I passed a book I want to read but cannot buy. It was horribly saddening. And once we were back on the streets on our way to the Christmas Market, both our spirits had taken a shot.
However, Andrea came back alive quickly as the streets were jam packed, or at least I thought they were, in Wenceslas Square, and Andrea thrives in big crowds where I am the complete opposite and just become anxious and irritated. So, as we made our way through the street on our way to Old Town, as we were pushed, shoved, and prodded, without giving permission, Andrea’s mood raised and mine fell. The final push into the Old Town square was like nothing I had ever experienced up to that point in my life. The crowd moved in slow motion as hundreds of people stacked themselves upon each other to get into the square. I have an extreme dislike of crowded places so you can imagine the time I had. Andrea, on the other hand, had a smile on her face the whole time.
Arriving in the Old Town square at the Christmas Market did not make everything all worth it to me until I am reflecting upon it now. Dealing with the enormous crowds, the inability to move an inch without running into someone pushing a stroller or drinking the hot wine was, to me, just annoying. Who would attempt to bring a child in a stroller through such crowds? It was just stupid to me; strollers being driven through hundreds, if not thousands of people, where was the common sense? The market was a sight to see, though. And the gigantic Christmas tree, despite it not being lit, was beautiful. Andrea enjoyed herself immensely and I got to experience something so unlike anything I would ever even think I would.
It was on our way out where things got a little bit more hairy. I thought attempting to walk down a different street as an exit strategy would make more sense. I was dead wrong. The crowds were thicker, the people more aggravating as they pushed their way through. Andrea told me after about an hour of making our way out of the mess that she had not even been on her feet the majority of time. The crowd was so tightly packed she had been carried off her feet through the hordes of people. The only imagery I can give you is large groups of cattle in a narrow line between two closely placed fences, being driven into a slaughter house.
Above all the complaints I had and still have, I am glad I experienced it, no matter the height my frustration and annoyance reached, it was well worth it. It was what I hope will be a once in a lifetime experience, but those words sum it up, “A once in a lifetime experience.”
We had a nice, quiet dinner to complete our day in Prague and then we hopped on the train back to Hradec Kralove. All of the things Andrea and I have been experiencing together have at points been testing, but I would not trade them for anything in world. I love it here and I wish I could share each and every moment we have had with everyone I know and love in person. And remember you should be getting some very detailed blogs within a few weeks as Andrea’s Mother and Brother arrive in Europe, we will be travelling to Munich, Brussels, and maybe even, Amsterdam, for New Year’s Eve. I know I am excited!