The Polish Experience

Hey, so last weekend, went to an nice little city on the far edge of Czech Republic to visit some friends, and while we were there, my friends Ben and Stephen (currently residing in Pribram) decided "What the hell, we're 45 minutes from Poland, let's get that sucker marked off our list" since we had never been. So, therefore, we went and ended spending like an hour on the border town walking around and then walking about an old castle ruins site there. It was super awesome. Poland is a beautiful country. . . Actually it resembles Czech a lot. Well, at least the border town does. One bad experience is that we totally forgot to find out what the conversion rate was on Polish Gold (yes, that's their currency name), so we ended up not spending any money because we weren't sure if it was way expensive or not. Anyways, fun time.

The Two Most Important Phrases in Czech

So, some of you may be wondering "What the heck is this Czech Language that Zach is learning?" Well, maybe it would help to demonstrate a little bit of it for yourself so you can get a little insight on life. It's actually a pretty easy language. Once you learn the two most important phrases, which by the way can be used almost always in any context whatsoever, you will not be able to be labeled as a silly foreigner and everyone will think that you are truly a native Czech.

So, the first and arguably the most important word in the Czech language is the simplest of words: Prosim (Pro-seem). This word has a multitude of meanings, such as:
-Please (the most important, used almost at the start of every sentence)
-You're Welcome
-Excuse Me/Hey man, can I ask you a question?
-What's that?/ Dude, I totally didn't hear what you said, hit me up once more.

And the second is perhaps more colloquial, and being around Czechs only in more informal settings will you hear this, and trust me, you will hear it a lot! Along with Prosim, this phrase has many different meanings depending on the context. "Ty vole" (tee vo-lay) which translates literally to "You ox" is the second most important phrase in the Czech language. Here are some of it's meanings:
-You're an ox (not usually a good thing, but always used on the informal setting, usually between friends)
- Can be substituted for just about every curse word, yet I think maybe it's not as harsh as saying the actual curse word.
- Whoa!
- No way dude, you serious! That's crazy.
- (used when someone scares you or you are frightened by something)
- Oh gosh...
- I could really use a break
- God, why me?!

So, as you can see, the language is fairly simple. Just learn these three easy words and use them in every sentence, and your life should be pretty simple in travelling through Czech Republic. Hope things are floatin well, and feel free to get in touch soon. I always can find time to talk to you. Peace.

Finishing Touches on the Beauty of Radial Bliss

So, as promised, the lingerings of the photo interpretations and matching to their captions aren't as long as you had hoped, I'm sure. As promised, as lives dissipate, pictures congregate, therefore, here they are. (You can place them in their proper place in my update newsletter and kmaybe put it in word format and make two collumns, and then you'll see just how awesome my update would have been.

(Me and my wonderful students at our party in my flat before Christmas)


(view from Stoh, the steepest slope in the Czech Rep.)

(us in the meeting room on one of our numerous singing excursions, in Czech of course, during the ski course)

(This is 11 people crammed into a very small SUV in snow gear heading off to the mountains to ski)

(lunchtime on the slopes with my students Marek, Juraj, Iva, Martina, Anicka, Aya, and Honza. Can you pick out the twins here?)

(Iva likes to show off a lot)

(Mark after he was bet that he couldn’t make it to the top of Stoh (3300 ft) in 30 minutes. He lost.)

Sylvester and the Hereafter...

In explanation to the title, Sylvester is the name they give over here for New Years Eve. "So, what are you doing for Sylvester?" they will ask? And I respond with... "What the heck you talkin about? But yea, Sylvester has come and gone, and the new freakin year is here, two thousand freakin six, kinda crazy I think. Still hasn't hit me. Been here for a little over 4 months now, and life is cruisin along. Recently got ahold of one of my best friends I hadn't talked to in a few months yesterday, and it was, as well, very refreshing to talk to someone with whom I can really share a friendship with and know that life is still performing at a normal pace back home. Though, after talking, it is difficult not being home and being a part of life back there where I feel that I fit in so well and can speak great English to everyone, and even if I ain't all grammatically correct, they ain't gonna correct my English none. :) Started back at school today and it was good. Good to see my students again. Funny story: So, today I was teaching my 8th grade class (little background: at the beginning of the year, this class was really horrible. Never listening, always talking, don't give a crap for anything, that sort of thing. And then a few of the boys got in trouble for doing some bad things on a school trip. So this class has had a bad rep with the whole school and the teachers, and there were a bunch of specific meetings about this class several months ago. And I admit, I was in the same boat as all the other teachers. It's the only class I ever had to yell at. Kinda pissed me off once. But anyways, over the past few months, I have been a little more strict and instituted a little discipline policy, and they have been becoming pretty awesome. I have seen some of them out about the town and talked to them a bit. So, I was actually excited to see them today, since they have recently started to become one of my favorite classes as of lately, and they didn't disappoint me). I came into class and there is this one little kid, Martin, which is probably one of the funniest kids alive. Loves speaking English, yet none of them are real good, but he is real outgoing and likes to make people laugh so he tries talking a bunch. Anyways, he wasn't here for the last week of school because he injured his kidney or something, but it was good having him back and the rest of them. And, so... I was talking about the holiday and we were talking as a class, and one of the students, Tereza, asks abruptly, "Can I make photo you?" I was a little confused and responded, "You want to take a photo of me? (started to laugh a bit) Um... sure." So, I'm sitting at the front of the class and this other girl named Tereza jumps out of her seat and comes to the front to get in the picture. (Ok, I guess she wanted in the picture. A little strange, but cool) Then Martin, says "Can I be in photo?" Sure Martin. So he climbs over his chair and comes up and sits on the desk as well. So the three of us are sitting there in front of the class with the class watching as Tereza takes a picture of the three of us. I was laughing pretty hard at the situation. It was pretty darn funny. Maybe it's not the funny to you, because I'm not that good at telling stories, but then again, that's your own fault for reading the story this far.

So anyways, another interesting thing today was that because I didn't have my night classes tonight (yay!). I got the night off. Yet, I still wanted to have my Czech Language Conversation Class that I have every Tuesday with Hana, and she did as well, so we went to the local tea house (which is freakin sweet by the way) and we talked in Czech mainly (which I always feel bad about since it's supposed to be half Czech half English but oh well) and we ended up being there for like 3 hours. So it was definitely rockin sweet. I really love Czech and it is a lot of fun to speak. This is usually a high point in my week, and this week didn't let me down. So it was super.

Well, that's really all I have to say. New Years Eve was cool. Went out on the bridge and there were fireworks going crazy everywhere. It's usually a pretty dangerous occasion, and you have to watch your head. There is no central fireworks display so everyone just has their own fireworks and sets them off anywhere there is free ground. So about 1215 your pretty much couldn't see anywhere in Prague because there was smoke freakin hazing over the entire city. It was pretty crazy. Anyways, hope things are finding everyone well, and feel free to hit me up and let me know how you are doing. Talk to you later. Peace.