The day after I wrote my previous post, I had a great few days at school and socially and simply felt more uplifted and happy to be where I am. On Thursday, the third grade music class I co-teach was cancelled in order to watch a presentation on hedgehogs! It was funny to me, since I had crossed paths with such a hedgehog by the museum on my way home from Prague with Laura the week before. The lady who was giving the talk had brought a hedgehog along with her at school, and I saw one in the grass on my way to school or something the following day, so I am pretty psyched about that.
Also new at school, two of the grade levels I teach in have acquired two sisters from Russia, one in the third grade and one in the sixth grade. I can't imagine how hard it must be go into a country when it is not your choice, where you don't speak the language and be expected to learn things so quickly. The girls are very sweet, though, and seem to have positive attitudes. The 6th grader knows some basic English which is helpful and apparently Russian is close to Czech so they should both be ok, but I'm spending as much time as I can working with the third grader and trying to subtly push her into the social sphere of our third grade class...so far, so good.
This past weekend, I went out seeking adventure with Laura. We were extremely tired and almost did not leave our house, but we did and decided to go to the first bar that looked half decent that we haven't been to yet. We looked through the windows of the first promising one and thought it might be alright. We slowly walked by while continuing our debate when some guys in the window knocked waved us in. They looked friendly enough, and everyone's a stranger when you travel, so we decided to join them for a bit. It ended up being a group of about 6 or 7 guys in which a few of them knew a lot of English, while most of the others knew only very basic things. Only one guy knew practically no English. We ended up going to the disco that's close to our house with them and had a great night, accidentally staying out until 4 or so. On Saturday, I woke up at 9:30 and went rock climbing with Dustin for a few hours. In the afternoon, I went to the soccer/football game with Matěj. Laura and Katrina went as well, and so did the guy from the bar/disco who speaks next to know English but would like to learn from me. I saw all of them there and it was an easy win =).
After the match, Matěj and I joined Katrina and Laura and their friends for a birthday celebration in a restaurant/bar for a few hours before meeting up with Matěj's group of friends from athletics along with a few others. We usually all meet up after every football match, so it was good to see them all again. I was going to go to a hookah bar with one of them last week and rock climbing with another one tonight, but I was/am too tired on both occasions. I did, however, go horseback riding with one of the girlfriend's who I have hung out with several times before yesterday. I help her practice English, and she is teaching me how to ride properly =). I am very excited about it. I also met up with Ivo and Jana (a couple among the doctors that I am friends with here) separately this weekend for drinks and some coffee, respectively, and very much enjoyed that.
Yesterday, I was invited into the woman downstairs' (who we call grandma) living space, and she was enthusiastic to show me a picture of her husband and two black labs when they were still alive, all of the dresses she crocheted for her old dolls, the Christmas presents that she was working on for her grandchildren, etc. She then proceeded to show and then teach me how to crochet. Mind you, she speaks about as much basic English as I know Czech, so...it was mostly through visuals repetition, and laughter that we communicated...but it was one of the most surprising and relaxing hour and a half's that I have had here, and I look forward to visiting her at some point this week to show her what I have made with the materials she gave and lent to me.
Speaking of those, I think I'll practice now.
Yest
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