- I am going to be a terrible parent. But not as terrible as some parents of kids I teach (I don't have real stories about this but some of the parents are just absurdly messed up).
You may ask how I know this. My first reason is that a few weeks ago, I let a child fall in the toilet. Yes. Fall in the toilet... completely. She JUST turned 2 and she's adorable. I shouldn't have favorites in the classroom but she IS my favorite, head and shoulders above the rest. She's still in diapers but if you set her on a toilet, she knows to pee. Anyway, we went to the bathroom as a class and she took her diaper off and hoisted herself up. I turned around to help another little girl and heard a splash. When I turned around, Tereza had plopped into the toilet.
The day after this, I was still beating myself up about how this little girl got drenched in toilet water and I'm doing an art project involving water color painting with the kids. Another child tugs on my sleeve and asks me a question so I look down and talk to the child... then I look back up. All the water from water painting is GONE. At first I looked around for a spill... but then I realized that Tereza had a brown stain around her lips from drinking it.
There has also been a few instance with food allergies, but those havent been my fault. For instance, the school provided me with a list of children in my class and their allergies. One little boy is allergic to salmon. Not such a huge deal but his mom prefers he not eat any fish, so on days when the lunch is fish sticks or something, he gets an alternate lunch. The other day, the kids got a roll and 2 slices of pineapple each for their snack. I was trying to convince Daniel (the boy the school said is allergic to salmon), who JUST turned 2 last week, to eat some pineapple. Around this time, his mom walks in and it like "no! no no no! he's allergic!" I had NO idea. but thank god he didnt eat any.
On to the next thing I've learned...
- Food habits are drastically different.
This probably sounds like, "DUH!" but I don't mean that in the really obvious way it sounds.
First of all, the other day I was eating lunch and as part of my lunch, I'd brought an apple with a bit of peanut butter. I was in the staff kitchen, relaxing and enjoying my lunch when a Czech teacher walked in. She got about 1/2 way through the traditional Czech phrase to say when you see someone eat ("Dobre Chut!") before she blurted out, "What ARE you eating!?" She'd never heard of eating an apple with peanut butter.
The next day I was eating the same thing only I was in the staff lounge. A British teacher walked in and goes "Is that an APPLE?! With PEANUT BUTTER!? I've never heard of such a thing!"
Apparently only Americans eat apples with peanut butter.
The next example: Thursday night I went to a friend's birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I wasn't so hungry, so I ordered an appetizer: nachos with cheese, guacamole, and salsa. I got cheese Doritos with guac that was more like green sour cream and salsa. Lesson learned. (But seriously people, doritos are NOT nachos)
- When someone talks in a language you don't understand, it's a fantastic opportunity to use your imagination.
Whether it's on the subway to work, sitting in a pub, or listening to my 2 year olds enthusiastically babble at me, I often times have no idea what is going on. At times, I concentrate on hearing the language and working to understand a bit more about the incredibly complex linguistics of Czech, at other times, I just tune everything out and use the time to think, but often, I find myself using body languages, gestures, tone, etc, to imagine what the person MIGHT be saying. It's a fun and absurd game, especially because most of the time I imagine really ridiculous stories.
- Grocery shopping is an entire afternoon affair.
I will never complain about grocery shopping in the States again. Grocery shopping here requires multiple steps. First, I have to make a grocery list. Then I spend some time on google translate for any item that I would not be able to recognize (baking soda, sour cream, etc), then I go to the store and realize that they either don't have what I translated something as, or that I can't tell exactly what I am buying... for instance, I bought black beans the other day but the can also had bacon in it... I waste a lot of food away when I buy something and realize it is NOT what I thought it was and I have no idea what to do with what I bought. I have always been creative in the kitchen but this is a whole new level.
- Mailing things is nearly impossible.
Ok, I highly doubt this is true but my searches thus far have not yet resulted in a postal employee who speaks English and my attempts at Czech have received shoo-ing away or blank stares. I've bought lots of you postcards, many of which I've been trying to mail for nearly a month. :(
Anyway, this weekend has been nice. I went to a "Dress as a Famous Person" party on Friday night and I dressed as Audrey Hepburn. It was tons of fun but I was exhausted so I left around midnight. Yesterday I cleaned and walked around a bit, and read a lot.
Today I lounged until afternoon and then went to meet my co-teacher to explore more of Prague. I took the metro to Malostranska and met up with Nikola. We walked just around the corner from the metro to Wallenstein Garden (Valdstejnska zahrada) which is a gorgeous palace garden. It's one of the prettiest places I've seen in Prague. From there, we wandered to Vajanovy Sady, another garden/park area that is also home to 14-15 peacocks. It was also beautiful and very peaceful. You could pretty much forget you were in a city which is always nice. Next, we wandered through Mala Strana, which is one of the most historic areas of Prague (which is saying something!) and roughly translated means "Little Quarter." Much of the area feels very "small town" which is interesting in such a big city. I saw the outside of St. Nicholoas Church and then we wandered across Kampa, an island in the main river, Vltava, that runs through Prague. From there, we saw the statue of the Holy Infant Jesus of Prague in the Church of Our Victorious Lady. After our walk, we stopped for apple strudel and tea and then parted ways but it was a great way to spend my Sunday afternoon and I feel very lucky to have a co-teacher who also wants to hang out and show me Prague.
I'll do my best to do better at blogging!
