I'm not feeling well :-(
Ya know when you feel like you are getting cold? My throat is starting to hurt and my body is kind of achey. I'm on my way home to load up on airborn and vitamin C but currently, I feel pretty yucky. No good for a beautiful day in a beautiful city. Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers for my health
Love you all
Kels
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Weekend Recap
My weekend can be summed up by a Zen proverb that says, "Every step of the journey is the journey". While the actual events were a little disappointing, what led up to them was worth the while.
Saturday I went to Kutna Hora. A small little town south of Prague that is supposed to be adorable! As it was to be my first train experience in Prague, I looked up the schedule online, found the departures and arrivals, train station location, and allowed myself 1/2 hour to get there. This would not be the first time on my trip that I would underestimate the time.
Apparently, there is more than one train at the "main" train station! Who would've thought! So I arrived with 5 minutes to spare (that's 5 minutes to buy a ticket, figure out which platform to go to, AND get there) and ran to the information booth. The lady in the information booth sent me upstairs and then the lady at the upstairs booth sent me downstairs. This was my first moment of SEVERE frustration in Prague. I wanted so badly to yell "SO WHICH IS IT?!!?!?!?". Instead, I choose a smile that said "Wonderful! I love running up and down the stairs when I am late. Thank you for this opportunity" and went back down. Oh, I forgot to mention...the Kutna Hora train station is not called "Kutna Hora"...that would be too simple...and I didn't know what it was called, hence the trouble finding it. I decided to pull out my famous "Do you speak English" system and ask the other travelers. Except I forgot that when you are in a hurry, you lose all capacity to speak English. It looked something like this: "Do you speak English " (10 times)..."no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no". Finally...."NO...but how can I help you?" Sounded like English to me, so I went for it. Can we pause and remember I am still under the same 5 minute time crunch. Ok. This is the exciting part, he told me I was on platform 6 and so I literally sprinted a 5k through the train station. You should have seen me go!! Who knew I could run so fast!!! Unfortunately, this story has a very anticlimactic ending as I missed my train. Long story short (although it doesn't seem like I've shortened it much), I found a train that went to a station called Colleen (definatly not spelled like that though) that was close to Kutna Hora. Ok God, is this some kind of joke!! I missed my train out of lack of poor planning and now I am going to a station with the same name as my mother!! My EXTREMELY organized, NEVER late, ALWAYS planned out mother. Funny....really funny.
When I got on the train I heard some people speaking English...American English!! How sweet the sound! So I got up and went to say hello. As it turns out, they were in the same boat! They missed the train to Kutna Hora and were now going this new round about way. Guess what else? They were students from Western!!! Yeah that's right....Western WASHINGTON University. What a small world. We decided to spend the day together and it was SO much fun! We finally got to Kutna Hora and were all equally disappointed. This "adorable" town was more like a dumpy ghost town. We saw 5 people the entire time we were there. However, the big perk of Kutna Hora (rather, the ONLY perk of Kutna Hora) was....drum roll please....the bone church!!!
The bone church or Kostnice is a church filled with designs and...things...made completely out of human bones. The bones are from 40,000 humans that were piled up inside the church for years because they had run out of burial space in the cemetery. It looks like they hired the Addams family to decorate. SUPER cool and SUPER creepy all at the same time!!
The chandelier : contains at least one of every type of bone found in the human body.
Coat of Arms
Entrance to the church
After the church we went and had coffee next door, hopped on the train to go home, and then went to dinner back in Prague. It was so fun to be around a group of American girls that are my age!!
Yesterday, Sunday, was my big ski adventure. A couple of teachers from PBS were going skiing and invited me to come. We got on a charter bus that reminded me of an airplane. Let me explain: The flight attendant-like lady did a safety demonstration, she passed out headphones for the movie, she passed out beverages, and there were assigned seats. All for a 1-hour bus ride. Strange.
We got to the ski resort town of Leberec and found a place to rent (or "hire") stuff. I decided that since I already knew how to downhill ski, I would try x-country. DUMB idea. For once on this trip Kelsey can't you stick to what you know!?!? Nope! So I rented all the stuff (which, by the way, was only $10 for EVERYTHING...crazy!!) and we hopped on another bus and went up to the mountain.
The mountain (and weather) was BEAUTIFUL!! But the snow...not so beautiful...horrible actually. All of the x-country trails were iced over and I couldn't even stand up and I thought I was going to break something. I finally found a 100ft long trail that had ok snow and went up and down a couple times until I got bored. The good news is I brought a book...the bad news is there isn't a lodge...just an outside, stand-up PUB! I spend the rest of the afternoon sitting out in the snow reading and FREEZING my butt off!! I was very excited to get back to my flat that night and take a hot bath. Oh well, it was a funny learning experience I guess. I'm glad I went though, the scenery was beautiful and I got a chance to see another part of the Czech Republic.
4 things I'm excited about:
Short day at school because they have exams
I'm meeting up with my American friends for dinner tonight
The McMurray's got their pink slip to go get their Guatemalan princess Lucy Jane!
Martin and Jane come home today!!!!
Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers
Love Kels
Saturday I went to Kutna Hora. A small little town south of Prague that is supposed to be adorable! As it was to be my first train experience in Prague, I looked up the schedule online, found the departures and arrivals, train station location, and allowed myself 1/2 hour to get there. This would not be the first time on my trip that I would underestimate the time.
Apparently, there is more than one train at the "main" train station! Who would've thought! So I arrived with 5 minutes to spare (that's 5 minutes to buy a ticket, figure out which platform to go to, AND get there) and ran to the information booth. The lady in the information booth sent me upstairs and then the lady at the upstairs booth sent me downstairs. This was my first moment of SEVERE frustration in Prague. I wanted so badly to yell "SO WHICH IS IT?!!?!?!?". Instead, I choose a smile that said "Wonderful! I love running up and down the stairs when I am late. Thank you for this opportunity" and went back down. Oh, I forgot to mention...the Kutna Hora train station is not called "Kutna Hora"...that would be too simple...and I didn't know what it was called, hence the trouble finding it. I decided to pull out my famous "Do you speak English" system and ask the other travelers. Except I forgot that when you are in a hurry, you lose all capacity to speak English. It looked something like this: "Do you speak English " (10 times)..."no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no...no". Finally...."NO...but how can I help you?" Sounded like English to me, so I went for it. Can we pause and remember I am still under the same 5 minute time crunch. Ok. This is the exciting part, he told me I was on platform 6 and so I literally sprinted a 5k through the train station. You should have seen me go!! Who knew I could run so fast!!! Unfortunately, this story has a very anticlimactic ending as I missed my train. Long story short (although it doesn't seem like I've shortened it much), I found a train that went to a station called Colleen (definatly not spelled like that though) that was close to Kutna Hora. Ok God, is this some kind of joke!! I missed my train out of lack of poor planning and now I am going to a station with the same name as my mother!! My EXTREMELY organized, NEVER late, ALWAYS planned out mother. Funny....really funny.
When I got on the train I heard some people speaking English...American English!! How sweet the sound! So I got up and went to say hello. As it turns out, they were in the same boat! They missed the train to Kutna Hora and were now going this new round about way. Guess what else? They were students from Western!!! Yeah that's right....Western WASHINGTON University. What a small world. We decided to spend the day together and it was SO much fun! We finally got to Kutna Hora and were all equally disappointed. This "adorable" town was more like a dumpy ghost town. We saw 5 people the entire time we were there. However, the big perk of Kutna Hora (rather, the ONLY perk of Kutna Hora) was....drum roll please....the bone church!!!
The bone church or Kostnice is a church filled with designs and...things...made completely out of human bones. The bones are from 40,000 humans that were piled up inside the church for years because they had run out of burial space in the cemetery. It looks like they hired the Addams family to decorate. SUPER cool and SUPER creepy all at the same time!!
The chandelier : contains at least one of every type of bone found in the human body.
Coat of Arms
Entrance to the churchAfter the church we went and had coffee next door, hopped on the train to go home, and then went to dinner back in Prague. It was so fun to be around a group of American girls that are my age!!
Yesterday, Sunday, was my big ski adventure. A couple of teachers from PBS were going skiing and invited me to come. We got on a charter bus that reminded me of an airplane. Let me explain: The flight attendant-like lady did a safety demonstration, she passed out headphones for the movie, she passed out beverages, and there were assigned seats. All for a 1-hour bus ride. Strange.
We got to the ski resort town of Leberec and found a place to rent (or "hire") stuff. I decided that since I already knew how to downhill ski, I would try x-country. DUMB idea. For once on this trip Kelsey can't you stick to what you know!?!? Nope! So I rented all the stuff (which, by the way, was only $10 for EVERYTHING...crazy!!) and we hopped on another bus and went up to the mountain.
The mountain (and weather) was BEAUTIFUL!! But the snow...not so beautiful...horrible actually. All of the x-country trails were iced over and I couldn't even stand up and I thought I was going to break something. I finally found a 100ft long trail that had ok snow and went up and down a couple times until I got bored. The good news is I brought a book...the bad news is there isn't a lodge...just an outside, stand-up PUB! I spend the rest of the afternoon sitting out in the snow reading and FREEZING my butt off!! I was very excited to get back to my flat that night and take a hot bath. Oh well, it was a funny learning experience I guess. I'm glad I went though, the scenery was beautiful and I got a chance to see another part of the Czech Republic.4 things I'm excited about:
Short day at school because they have exams
I'm meeting up with my American friends for dinner tonight
The McMurray's got their pink slip to go get their Guatemalan princess Lucy Jane!
Martin and Jane come home today!!!!
Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers
Love Kels
Friday, January 11, 2008
Date Night!
Yup that's right! I went on a date...by myself!! Nothing says fun like a weepy romance and a bag of stale popcorn--for 1! But staying home on a Friday night didn't sound much better and I was too tired to go check out the club scene so...movie it is!
I looked online until I found a movie in English (and that's REAL English, not dubbed in Czech with English subtitles) and settled on "P.S. I Love You" or rather "P.S. Miluji Te". When I walked into the theater, the first thing I thought was "Kyle would LOVE this place!!!!!" Not only did the concession stand sell beer, but they also had 4 different kinds of popcorn to choose from: salty, sweet, cheddar, and cheese and bacon. I was boring and got salty.
Carrying my treats, I found the right theater (after translating my ticket stub that had entirely too many numbers) and went to sit down. However, I soon figured out that it wasn't a free-for-all but reserved seating!! Examining my ticket a little bit more I found a "D6" and went and sat down in row "D" seat "6". The problem with reserved seating isn't that you can't sit wherever you want...no...the problem is that, when you're alone, you don't get to choose whom you sit next to! As luck would have it, I was surrounded by 4 couples: left, right, behind, in front. The couple in front were making out like animals while the others were snuggling and holding hands. Great. The awkward 9th wheel.
The movie started and all the previews were in Czech and they were more like commercials than previews. Instead of the newest Denzel flick, it was orange juice and instead of the sequel to Narnia it was a cell phone company. They threw in a little porn in right before the movie just to spice things up...boobs galore!
The movie was wonderful and Hilary Swank's character reminded me so much of myself. If you have ever been to a movie with me, you know I do not shy away from my emotions. So I began to cry....well cry is an understatement.... I began to WEEP! Tears just streaming down my face. I'm sure everyone else felt the same way, but they just had their significant others to help them deal with the emotions...at least thats what I told myself.
Now I am home and so ready for bed!! Tomorrow? Czesky Krumlov I think....
Miluji Te!
I looked online until I found a movie in English (and that's REAL English, not dubbed in Czech with English subtitles) and settled on "P.S. I Love You" or rather "P.S. Miluji Te". When I walked into the theater, the first thing I thought was "Kyle would LOVE this place!!!!!" Not only did the concession stand sell beer, but they also had 4 different kinds of popcorn to choose from: salty, sweet, cheddar, and cheese and bacon. I was boring and got salty.
Carrying my treats, I found the right theater (after translating my ticket stub that had entirely too many numbers) and went to sit down. However, I soon figured out that it wasn't a free-for-all but reserved seating!! Examining my ticket a little bit more I found a "D6" and went and sat down in row "D" seat "6". The problem with reserved seating isn't that you can't sit wherever you want...no...the problem is that, when you're alone, you don't get to choose whom you sit next to! As luck would have it, I was surrounded by 4 couples: left, right, behind, in front. The couple in front were making out like animals while the others were snuggling and holding hands. Great. The awkward 9th wheel.
The movie started and all the previews were in Czech and they were more like commercials than previews. Instead of the newest Denzel flick, it was orange juice and instead of the sequel to Narnia it was a cell phone company. They threw in a little porn in right before the movie just to spice things up...boobs galore!
The movie was wonderful and Hilary Swank's character reminded me so much of myself. If you have ever been to a movie with me, you know I do not shy away from my emotions. So I began to cry....well cry is an understatement.... I began to WEEP! Tears just streaming down my face. I'm sure everyone else felt the same way, but they just had their significant others to help them deal with the emotions...at least thats what I told myself.
Now I am home and so ready for bed!! Tomorrow? Czesky Krumlov I think....
Miluji Te!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Just another day in PRAHA!
Today was a great day! The sun was shining, I wore a cute dress to school, and I didn't get lost...not once!
I have realized that my life has a soundtrack and when I think about the different moments in my day, a new song comes to mind. Perhaps it's because I have always wanted to be a movie star!! But either way, I believe music adds meaning to an otherwise ordinary situation. Every morning I listen to KT Tunstall, "Suddenly I See". It's my power song and after listening to it I feel ready for the day! However, I must say, David Gray has been my soundtrack for this trip thus far. But I was walking home from school tonight and feeling a little sad and lonely and Kendall Payne "I Will Show You Love" came on and reminded me that I am not alone...no matter how I may feel.
My favorite thing about the students at PBS is that they never call you by your last name (Ms. Merriman) but instead, they just say "Misses". It is absolutely adorable! (Say the following aloud with a British accent) "Misses, what pages do we read?" "Misses, when is this due?" "Misses, how was your holiday?" I love it!!! It reminds me of Mary Poppins!
Today in creative writing, the students were reading a short story by Bill Bryson about his life growing up in Iowa. Only one student in the whole class is a native English speaker so there are dictionaries in case they don't know a word. I was looking around the class and noticed that one of the Czech students looked very frustrated and was flipping through the dictionary furiously. Finally, he raised his hand and said, "Misses! I don't know what this word means and I can't find it anywhere in the dictionary". It turns out the word was "purdy" (like pretty with a southern accent). We tried to explain this to him but he didn't really get it. Haha!
On my way home today, I sat next to a man wearing a nice suit, carrying a briefcase, and reading the paper...ya know, your typical business man! When he stood up, he grabbed his briefcase and I saw that there was a huge picture of Batman on the front of it! Go figure!!!
The beautiful city!
The dancing building: named because it looks like two people are dancing...some people call it Fred and Ginger named after the famous dancing duo. Oddly, it blends in perfectly with the old architecture that surrounds it
I have realized that my life has a soundtrack and when I think about the different moments in my day, a new song comes to mind. Perhaps it's because I have always wanted to be a movie star!! But either way, I believe music adds meaning to an otherwise ordinary situation. Every morning I listen to KT Tunstall, "Suddenly I See". It's my power song and after listening to it I feel ready for the day! However, I must say, David Gray has been my soundtrack for this trip thus far. But I was walking home from school tonight and feeling a little sad and lonely and Kendall Payne "I Will Show You Love" came on and reminded me that I am not alone...no matter how I may feel.
My favorite thing about the students at PBS is that they never call you by your last name (Ms. Merriman) but instead, they just say "Misses". It is absolutely adorable! (Say the following aloud with a British accent) "Misses, what pages do we read?" "Misses, when is this due?" "Misses, how was your holiday?" I love it!!! It reminds me of Mary Poppins!
Today in creative writing, the students were reading a short story by Bill Bryson about his life growing up in Iowa. Only one student in the whole class is a native English speaker so there are dictionaries in case they don't know a word. I was looking around the class and noticed that one of the Czech students looked very frustrated and was flipping through the dictionary furiously. Finally, he raised his hand and said, "Misses! I don't know what this word means and I can't find it anywhere in the dictionary". It turns out the word was "purdy" (like pretty with a southern accent). We tried to explain this to him but he didn't really get it. Haha!
On my way home today, I sat next to a man wearing a nice suit, carrying a briefcase, and reading the paper...ya know, your typical business man! When he stood up, he grabbed his briefcase and I saw that there was a huge picture of Batman on the front of it! Go figure!!!
The beautiful city!
The dancing building: named because it looks like two people are dancing...some people call it Fred and Ginger named after the famous dancing duo. Oddly, it blends in perfectly with the old architecture that surrounds it
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Quick note!
Today felt like a really long day and I'm tired. Nothing very exciting to report...
School.
Nove Mesto (New Town).
Shopping.
Dinner.
....hopefully bed follows soon after :-)
xoxo
School.
Nove Mesto (New Town).
Shopping.
Dinner.
....hopefully bed follows soon after :-)
xoxo
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Flying Solo
<------Look at my carrots!! They aren't washed, cut, peeled, or rounded into little stubs!! Cool huh? I feel like a bunny I absolutely LOVE my school!!!!!! The people are so much fun and today was wonderful. My new and improved route makes life so much easier and I don't arrive at school feeling like I've just run the Boston marathon. Plus, the cool thing to do is where running shoes and then when I arrive, change into my nice shoes....actually I don't know if thats the cool thing...but it will be soon, just wait and see!! The best part of today? I got to fly solo in the classroom! Thats right...I was a real live-on my own-don't mess with Texas-I know everything about "To Kill a Mockingbird"-teacher! Let me back up... apparently they don't have subs at the PBS so when someone is gone the other teachers cover different classes during their planning period. That may sound convenient but I guess it causes tension and teachers get frustrated with each other if they are gone too much or what have you. ANYWAY, one of the teachers came to school and wasn't feeling well so they sent her home last minute and guess who got to fill in??....yours truly :-) I only taught 2 classes because they really aren't supposed to let me do that but they were desperate but it was great. Teaching a class is 110% more fun than watching a class be taught. Things went pretty well considering that I had no time to plan anything. However, I did have some classroom management problems with the 7th graders (high school here is 7-13). For the life of me I could not get them interested in Anne Frank! I did everything.....write your own diary, role play, what do you enjoy, what would you do if you were her, blahblahblah. They hate it!!! In my opinion, 11 year olds are too young to read that book but thats what they were assigned to so I did my best. They kept laughing and talking in Czech (they were probably making fun of me and I didn't even know it) and finally one of the girls said something in Czech and I looked at her and said "Hey!" and she freaked out and said, "You understand Czech?!?!"....of course I replied "I sure do! Now pay attention!!" Suddenly English became our primary language. At the end of the class they asked "Do you like us?!?!" to which I replied "Yes...I love you...but you are driving me crazy...now leave!!" and they laughed and packed up their stuff. It was a lot of fun but I struggled with showing them who was boss. In April, the school is performing "Grease". I went to the rehearsal during lunch and it was so funny!! Imagine a whole bunch of students, with English as their second or third language singing "Summer Lovin'" completely off cue! It was so cute!! One of the requirements for this course is that I have to write a vision statement for this experience. Currently my vision statement is "To get a British accent...". That's all I have so far but I think its a pretty legit vision statement. Some of my favorite British quotes of the day: "He has a fancy for her" (vs. He has a crush on her) "Well that is absolutely brilliant!" (vs. That is great!) "Would it be happy to have her in your class?" (vs. would it be ok to have her in your class?) "Do you have a plasty?" (vs. do you have a band aid) I am having the time of my life. I thought I would be more lonely and homesick but...praise God...I haven't been at all! Confucius once said, "No matter where you go, there you are". I have realized that more this trip then I ever have before... and how beautiful it is. I believe that everyone should take time in their life to be alone. To just BE; studying your solitude while listening to the one who created you with passion and purpose. We get so wrapped up in everything around us that we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. Thank you to everyone who made this experience possible for me....mom, dad, Jitka, Pavel, Jane, Martin...you are all so wonderful and I feel blessed to have you in my life.
My flat (well actually, Martin and Jane's flat...but I kinda feel like it's mine)... The living room
A padded door in case I go crazy....look at all those locks dad!!
The kitchen
Look! The toilet has its own room! The sink and shower are in the next room!!!
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