June 18, 2010

June 18, 2010

So, I have neglected to write to tell you about my last full week of school. I really have let my mission of writing a post for every day fall through, and for that I apologize. However, you didn’t miss much during the week; for the most part it was a typical week. It is now Saturday morning and let me get you caught up with what has been happening here in Novy Bydzov.

I will start by letting you know how my week with my classes went. For the most part all my classes ran smoothly. It has been a really easy week. I can’t remember if I told you, but what I am doing for the final weeks of my classes is having the students write down information about themselves then I have or am going to record them on the little video recorder my parents bought me. Well, for my first three days, Monday- Wednesday this is what my classes amounted to. I informed my classes they would have to write as much information as they would like to share and that during their final class I would be recording them. It worked out that I found out I would not be having certain classes again next week, like my course at the other school I teach at in Novy Bydzov and nearly all my classes on what was supposed to be my final day on Wednesday, and for these particular classes I decided to make them write me goodbye letters. Some classes took them seriously and share very nice sentiments and nice information about themselves. Other classes, one in particular, didn’t take writing me seriously whatsoever. I had one boy in one of my 9th grade classes simply write I Love You in magic marker all across his letter. It was frustrating at first, but then as I thought about it, it was rather funny and I hope I will get a chance to share with many you who read these letters.

As for what were my final classes on Thursday, to Smidary and Chlumec, the students had already written their messages and the recording of them went perfectly at the school in Smidary. I think I got about 77 or so students on video. Some of the videos are hilarious. I will make sure to show them to as many people as I possibly can. My teaching at Smidary did not end on a good note though. Let me explain, the school was to pay me in cash to make it easier for me as far being money back to the States. Well, I walked down to the secretary and she gave me my pay and I noticed my pay was about half of what it was supposed to be for the month. I have to miss next week’s class because I am flying back Thursday morning. So, with that said, I taught 3 out of the 4 weeks I was supposed to teach in the month of June. But, when I tried to explain to the Headmaster and the Assistant Headmaster through the English teacher as an interpreter I believed I should at least be paid for the three weeks in the month of June I had taught they told me I would only receive half of my pay because my last week of classes was halfway through the month. Therefore, instead of being paid for the actual amount of classes I taught I was being paid based on the period of time I taught for that month. I know my explanation is not the best, but what it comes down to is the school in Smidary screwed me on my payment for the month of June. Anyway, I told Helena on Friday about this situation she was infuriated, she has been so helpful over these 10 months here in the Czech Republic. She went straight to the secretary in the main school I teach in and I guess the secretary called the school in Smidary, the school in Smidary refused to pay what I was due, and the secretary got in a huge argument with the school and told the school in Smidary that they were cutting all ties with the school and they would never help them out again and that there was no way they would ever send another one of the Native-English speakers to their school again. I feel bad I was the start of this drama, but I was not happy I had been wronged by the school in Smidary. The most tragic part of the situation, and this not to said to come off arrogant, but you could see in all the videos I was able to capture from the students in Smidary how much they truly enjoyed having a Native-English speaker at their school. I can’t even count how many of the students came up to me and asked me to pose in a picture with them. On that last day students were even coming up to me and asking me to sign their student pictures, some students even bought up to me blank sheets of paper asking me to sign the blank slips. It was really funny and it is a shame it was all ruined over a little money.

That is all I will write about my final day in Smidary. As for my final day in Chlumec, the students actually showed up, all seven of them, this is the class which for the last two weeks no students have been showing up. Anyway, I had these seven students do the same activity I had been doing with my other classes, they wrote for about a half hour then I recorded them. Although some of the students didn’t take it very seriously the videos still turned out rather funny. For this class I wrote on the board the subjects they should touch on in their speeches like school, family, hobbies, and their city. Probably, what I thought was the funniest part of this was that under school I gave them a little suggestion as to what to write. I wrote on the board, “Mr. Corbin is my favorite teacher. He is so funny and clever.” Not all the students added it to their speeches, but some did and hearing them repeat the words I wrote was funny regardless of whether they meant it or not.

As for my private lessons for the week they all went the same as they always have. All of my conversations went very well and it is nice that I have been able to see an improvement in all of the adults I have been giving private lessons.

Now, let me touch just a bit on what I did yesterday. Well, first all of my classes in Novy Bydzov all got cancelled due to the fact the school was having an open house where all the student’s parents could come into the school and see all types of exhibits the students had put together. They had exhibits for students who excel in physics, chemistry, biology, music, dance, sports, and many more subjects. I actually walked through the school, despite them not asking me to do an English exhibit, before I attempted to head to Nechanice for my final lesson in that school. I was highly disappointed though. I had really enjoyed my classes in Nechanice, it was somewhat of a hassle getting there and back for just one forty-five minute class, but the students and teachers I worked with were so friendly and had such a passion for learning English. My disappointment came in the fact that the bus which took me to Nechanice never came, I waited at the bus stop for nearly forty minutes, but it never came. No bus meant I had to have my school in Novy Bydzov call Nechanice and cancel my final class, I really would have liked to get those students on the video camera, and they worked so hard on their speeches.

With no classes all Friday I went back to my apartment and fell asleep for just a half-hour before I was to meet the friend I give lessons to. I had told him I would help him at his house. I met him at three o’clock and we went to his house, which is in the next village over. The plan as far as I was aware was to help him dig a trench for the foundation of a wall he was building. He called it a fence, but when you are using 50 pound cinder blocks to build a “fence,” it is a wall as far as I am concerned. Anyway, the trench had to be three-feet deep. I will never again in my life think of three-feet as a short distance. Even before we started digging though, when we arrived there was a truck with all sorts of building material I had to help him unload. The unloading of the truck took about an hour, it was not hard work, but it was then time to start digging this trench. Like I wrote it had to be three-feet deep, but it had to also be about fifteen-feet long. We were lucky it was an overcast day and not hot, we were in for some of the hardest work I can remember. The dirt we dug in was not dirt at all; it turned out to be all extremely hard clay. We worked at it for about three hours and I was actually surprised at the amount of the trench we were able to finish. We got about 70 percent of the work done. I was completely exhausted, with blisters on my hands, my back sore and my arms hurting, but I told him I come back on Sunday to help him finish. I am not sure yet if he is going to take me up on my offer, but in the end hard really is good exercise and it made me feel nice helping out a friend. And after we finished for the day his girlfriend made us dinner. She made us hot dogs and eggs. She put mustard on my plate and I was very close to asking for a new plate, with my excessive dislike of mustard, but I didn’t though. I sucked it up and just made sure none of my food came anywhere near the mustard. Once dinner was finished we just sat around, watched some television, and talked for awhile.

It was about ten o’clock by the time they dropped me off at my apartment. I was completely worn down and I am still feeling it today a little. I felt bad, but I didn’t get a chance to speak with Andrea once that day. Luckily, Andrea called me on my cell phone. It was nice to talk to her for a bit even though my exhaustion would not allow me to hold an intelligible conversation. I just really can’t believe it is less than a week until I see her again in New York City, I can’t wait to see all my family.