Thats Miss Merriman to you!

I did it! My first day at the Prague British School (PBS) has come to an end...and I'm exhausted! Not because it was a hard day (it wasn't at all!) but because I couldn't sleep last night, finally fell asleep at like 2, and then woke up at 5.

The trip there was waaay more difficult than I thought it would (and as it turns out, more difficult than it should be). Everything worked out great at first, I got on the right metro, made the right switch to a different metro, found the bus stop, got on the right bus, got off at the right stop, but that's where it ended...looking at the map, it looked like the street PBS is located on is right next to the bus stop...it's not. So I found a couple random people walking and asked them one by one...none of them had ever even heard of PBS...great! It doesn't exist...perfect. I was about to give up and go home when I found a woman who didn't speak English. After finally conveying to her my destination, she told me to get on another bus and go a few stops and get off and...blah blah blah. She literally went on for about 3 minutes of "...then left then right then right then left then left then left..." except it was all with her hands because of the language barrier. I decided to just get on the bus and go from there. Once again, Jesus was right there with me and when I got off the bus, the first person I went up to asking for directions is a math teacher at the school! Needless to say, I made it there...and on time too....those are two very difficult feats for Kelsey Merriman (don't worry, I already gave myself a pat on the back). By the way....it turns out I took the longest way possible. Tomorrow I just have to take one metro and one bus...but thats no fun!

I am so excited about the school!!! Dave (the math teacher) took me in to meet Mr. Roberts, the head master and he said "This must be Kelsey Merriman!" What a relief that was...the school that doesn't exist remembered that I was coming! Anyway, he took me into his office and just chatted away for about 10 minutes and this and that and then got me hooked up with Mrs. Loppa who is the head of the English department. She rocks! She got me all hooked up with different teachers so I have a different teacher and different class for every class hour (period) of the day...no boredom for me!! She had me pick what years (grades) I like and she even told me what they were studying so I could choose my interest. She said I can observe, teach, assist, grade, whatever the heck I want to do..."Just let me know!" she said.

What I love so dearly about this school is that both the faculty and the students are from all over the world. In the English dept. alone, there is 1 Czech man, 4 British people, 1 German woman, 1 French woman, 1 Canadian woman, 1 Russian woman, and 1 American woman. They are also all pretty young and lots of fun. In between class, at break (there is a 1/2 break), and at lunch everyone hangs out in the English lounge and they are all so great!!! In some ways, it is like we are all on the same boat (except the Czech guy) because we are all trying to figure out this crazy wonderful place we call Prague. I love love love love the teachers....everyone is super chill and laid back but they are awesome teachers who are passionate about their students and what they are teaching. Oh! I almost forgot! There is a girl named Lindsey from Minnesota who is doing her student teaching there. It was her first day today too except she is staying until May. Its through a program at her school so she has other school mates in town but they are at different schools to student teach so it was fun to chat with her....hopefully we will get to know each other better and perhaps even hang out outside of the English lounge.

The students are great. They are super well behaved and they didn't make fun of me...which in my book makes them perfect :-) Plus they all have such different backgrounds and come from all over so I am excited to get to know them and hear about their lives. One thing that was strange was that the class sizes were so small! Granted, it was the Russian Christmas today so most of the Russian students were gone but one of my classes only had 3 students!!! I've been in small classes (yeah Whitworth!!) but not THAT small. It was slightly awkward at first but I got used to it by the end of the hour.

If you read this far you are probably bored to tears...but thank you for caring about my life and this trip! As to not look completly like a tourist on my first day, I didn't take any pictures of the school or any classes, but I will. For now...here is a picture of my laundry that I hung on the line all by myself. I liked it! I thought it was empowering. Perhaps I will save energy and not use/by a dryer ever again....naaaaaaah.