I've now been at school nearly two months (I hit the two-month mark yesterday---wild), and I can say it's gotten better. It's not that that it was ever bad, per se, but things are significantly less confusing and calm. Now, if I can't find my class/classroom, I give a little shrug and park it in the hallway with my Czech book. Let me tell you, the first week was beyond frustrating. I needed to create a personalized schedule, but every day the principal went, "Don't worry, you're not even a student here, really just more of a guest." Well, as absent of any justification as that was, I still desired to have a definite schedule before exams started up. At long last, my English teacher and I headed down to his office to speak with him, and about an hour later, I had one liable-to-change schedule in my hands. She plucked me out of all the sciences and a couple other less frequent classes, such as geography (that one's a shame, I was so curious as to what exactly that class entailed). Now I am in math, history, Czech, English, first-year French, and first-year Latin. The first three my only task is to occupy a seat. Their math is all some strange form of algebra I'd not encountered, and I'm pretty sure the teacher doesn't know my name. English I read paragraphs and lists of vocabulary so they can hear the American accent. They have tapes to listen to, but it's all British. I love tape time! The laughable accents are either the mangled child of Brummie and Scouse, or over-the-top tweed. French and Latin are the only classes in which I actually participate. French class is great. The teacher speaks English and can translate for me when I need it. Latin, however, makes up for the easiness of the French language. The only reason I signed up for that class is because I felt bad about my skimpy array of classes. The only reason I stayed in that class is because I paid for the book. We meet only once per week, but the pace is unreasonably quick, especially when you consider that these are mostly freshmen. I'm getting dangerously close to knowing more Latin than I do Czech... It's actually easier for me to translate from Czech to Latin than vice-versa, because I know Latin declension and word order and I have yet to tackle the Czech. I spend hours, hours each week translating the wretched textbook into English and conjugating, declining until I'm ready to scrape my eyeballs out with a spork (that my have been a bit graphic, I apologize). The other students have a leg up, as they already know when the nominative/dative/genitive/ablative/accusative are appropriate, for Czech shares those. I'm totally green. It's also terrifying, as the class mainly consists of the teacher going down the rows, spewing out Czech or Latin terms and verbs to translate. But it's the translating of Latin sentences from the book into Czech, on the spot, that is most awful. On the bright side, the teacher, who doubles as my Czech teacher, loves me for trying.
I would deliver my soul to whoever invents three-way index cards.
Now for some differences in the Czech school system. For one, they have 13 grades instead of 12. This means that I have foregone my senior-dom in total. I go to a gymnazium, which is the highest level of high school. Students who do not pass the entrance exam go to vocational schools, such as commerce (rough translation), language, tourism, or agriculture. Within gymnazium, there are two levels. The "lower" students enter at (American) sixth grade and stay on eight years; the "higher" enter at 10th grade and are there for 4. I am in grade 7A, meaning I am in the lower level. Of the exact disparity between levels I'm not really aware, but I don't think it's too large. You stay with your class all day, only splitting for languages: English is compulsory, and again, there's an A and B class, and my grade chooses between German and Russian when they enter. French is also offered, but only to certain classes I understand. There are still some things on which I am not clear. Latin is optional, but due to scheduling conflicts most kids are forced to drop it after a couple of years. Everyone takes biology, chemistry, and physics each year - I thank the Gods the American system wasn't like that.
In the classroom, a more traditional style of teaching is practiced. Everyone stands up when the professor/teacher (some students call them Mr. or Mrs. Professor) enter. The teachers then lecture, and the students take notes; discussion is rare. Oral tests are common, which to me seems downright terrifying. This is all amplified through the use of chalkboards. Oddly enough, some classrooms have SMART Boards, like French (and we actually use them, whereas in America they tend to just get slid off to the side), yet there are no whiteboards, not a one. Strange leap.
Enough of school. Let's talk about what I've been up to. I've visited a couple castles/country homes, however one would refer to them. Hluboká was fantastic. It's apparently very in demand for weddings, what with its pretty gardens, ironwork, and white stone.
I've been to Prague three times now. The first was for a Simple Plan concert around the start of school. I didn't see any of the city that time. My host sister and I went as a last event of summer. Turned out, the band had released a new album...awkward. Thankfully, they didn't ignore the fact the year is 2011 and they are Simple Plan and so they played mostly old songs. I've never been into their music, but it was a good time nonetheless. I next visited a few weeks later, to see some exchange friends. I didn't go into any of the tourist attractions, just walked by. It's definitely one of the situations where you don't bother visiting all these incredible sites since you can do it almost anytime. We did, however, share lunch at TGI Friday's. Horrible, I know, haha. I decided to Rubio's-it and get a chicken quesadilla (do they even have quesadillas at Rubio's? I got Mexican, anyway)and Vanilla Coke. Those tricksters, they just put vanilla syrup into regular Coke. The third visit was very short, as it was after an AFS camp three weekends ago. Myself and a large group of AFSers hung out on the cobblestones of Old Town Square (Staroměstské Naměstí) for a while and then I went to the pub for a but with a couple people before catching my bus back home. This was my second time traveling to Prague alone, but it was a bit of an ordeal finding my bus stop, which was at a different station this time. After leaving the metro station, I followed the "Bus Tickets" sign farther into the night, and then found that I was kind of nowhere. After a few 360 turns I found a board with stop numbers and bus numbers/destinations. Problem was, I couldn't see where the actual stops were, ahah. It was dark out, okay? I decided on one direction, which of course was the wrong one and led me to a home and garden supply store, whereupon I freaked out for a few seconds. I eventually found one of the stops which service my town, but the schedule made no sense - I couldn't see my departure time, but luckily I found a guy walking around and managed, in broken Czech, to find out that he was on my bus. So I made it home that night :) Prague really is such a postcard. The spires magnificently rising above everything are a sight. And Charles Bridge...so old-world. It's probably my favorite of Prague's many attractions.
A month or so ago I took a day trip to Vienna with my host sister and grandmother. We walked past all the famous buildings, churches, and shops. Stephansdom was beyond beautiful, even though some of the outside was obscured by scaffolding. The city's beauty is matched by its people, truly. They are overall the best-dressed and most attractive bunch of any other city I've been to. Here's the thing, though: while Vienna boasts so many credits, I felt no feeling toward it, at all. Maybe it was too pretty and clean, too German(and maybe I was way intimidated by its inhabitants), for me to want to live there or visit again. I don't know.
Two weeks ago, I went to a concert in a bigger city about an hour away. It was a pretty popular pop-type Czech band called Charlie Straight. They sing in English, nice for me. Since the "concert hall" was so small we got to be really close (like 4 feet) to the singer. I returned to that city last night, for a ballet with a schoolmate. It was a part ballet, part modern dance interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was fantastic, I loved it!
The biggest news on the friends/social life front is that I have a fellow American in my town! I just found out a week ago. Somehow we knew not of one another's existence for practically two months. She goes to the agriculture and tourism high school, which is how we didn't meet right away. She is my age, from Kentucky, super nice, super funny, just awesome. It makes me so happy she's here. We've hung out a couple times now, and it is actually helping rather than hindering my Czech. I pretty much only speak English to people here, since my Czech ain't so great and people don't wish to try it with me, and if I go out, they handle the seating and ordering. With Callie, I can be a big kid and order myself sans embarrassment, plus we discuss Czech grammar and the like together. On Friday, we spent two hours at one of her classmate's houses hammering out language questions and issues over coffee. Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted and flustered by the end.
Classmates are definitely nice and far from cold, as Czechs are said to be, but I don't hang out with them outside of class all that often. I had one guy who I had been hanging out with pretty frequently until a couple of weeks ago, when suddenly the dynamics shifted and that was the end of that. I've gone to the cafe a few times with friends and toured around with people a bit. Friday night I went to a birthday party for a few people, one of whom I didn't know. It was pretty much the same as an American party, except for a Czech birthday practice which I think we should adopt (or not, it would probably be awkward the be the birthday person). The "attendees" form a line before the person(s) celebrating their birthday and, one by one, they shake hands or maybe kiss the person, say something sweet, and wish them a very happy birthday. To the girl I didn't know, I shook her hand and awkwardly supplied, "Happy birthday, I like your pants."
As for my free time, I mostly go to the library and translate my Latin book, study Czech, or look at books with lots of pictures. A couple nights a week I go to spinning, and when it's not raining I go on a run. I was delighted to discover that up my road are fields and hills with a bike/tractor/small car path winding through. Someday I'll have to take my camera with me, at sunset. It's gorgeous.
In conclusion, sans the two times I've been verbally assaulted by elderly Czech women at the bus stop, things have been very splendid indeed. Our trip to Hungary never happened, but that's okay, because my exchange company is offering a three-day trip to Budapest in the spring. There are ones to a number of European cities and then ski trips and such. I'm hoping to go to Budapest and also Krakow. I only have two days of school this week, as Wednesday and Thursday are "Autumn Holiday" and Friday is a state holiday, commemorating the formation of Czechoslovakia. I don't have plans yet, but perhaps, maybe, I'm hoping, I'll go to Prague and see some friends.
XOXO
Oh, and I've been collecting Czech Curiosities on a page in my planner, so expect Part II sometime this week. Also, my computer refused to import the photos from my camera so that's why there's only one of my school, taken on my phone.
Anna - loved this post; you are truly a writer in the making! However, what the hell is "nominative/dative/genitive/ablative/accusative"? Perhaps a glass of vino will help in the translation. OK, I just tried that: didn't help, but tasted nice. And glad you're integrating/downsizing your social media choices: anyone who seriously has time for Facebook, Twitter, and TwatBook is simply not truly participating in real life, e.g. a real job and family commitments ;) Though, triple-indexing translation cards for hours in the Latin library perhaps sounds a little too much like "work" to me. College will be a breeze ;) BTW, thanks for Skype call (now THAT is indispensable). See you, Dad.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you again. The last of our fall colors is blowing away today...not too cold, but I expect it will be tomorrow..Halloween. You know this is always a blustery, sleety day. Little Dominic is dressing up as a pumpkin. Cheline has now moved to the Winegart "farm" and the other boys have costumes from Mary...They should be stopping by Monday night. Will be fun to see the littlest buy all dressed up.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to hear how different Halloween is celebrated in the Czeck Republic.
Keep writing...love to read your blog.
Hugs & Kisses...