V-Day and Mobile Fun

So, i'll start with a warm Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. First off, I would like to inform everyone that I'm totally sportin a new awesome mobile phone (my old one totally sucked and it was totally a necessity), and yes, no worries, still same number. I know all of you have been just dyin to use some major long distance recently. So, anyways, it was a fun experience, let me tell you about it. So, I went to the local Eurotel store in Kralupy yesterday, ready and armed with my wonderful Czech language skills. First I spent some time looking at the phones and looking at the prices and finding a good one for a good price. I must say, none of them were really cheap. Finally, one of the men came over and I told him I needed to buy a new mobile. He was cool, and I asked him which one was good and cheap and he pulled out the catalog, which was awesome and he showed three phones to me. After talking and asking questions for a bit, and not understanding hardly any of his answers at all, I asked him if he spoke English, of course, he didn't. Doesn't matter, I said, though like hell it didn't! So, I continued to ask him more and more questions about the phones, which ones had what and why one was better than the other and why was it cheaper, you know, the usual questions. I caught some of his answers, but hardly any really. He just pointed at pictures. All I caught him saying were, "It's just...'' and then it all went to crap. Anyways, all in all, I was a little saddened because I didn't understand him, but I did feel accomplished because, though i didn't understand hardly anything of what he said, I know he understood all my questions and what i was saying, which made me feel good. Very good actually. So, it was a good experience overall,and... I got the new phone, which is totally rockin my world right about now. Sweet!!

V-Day Fun
So, as today is Valentine's Day, I thought I would mention something that happened today. It actually has nothing to do with Valentines Day, but oh well. So I gave my 8th graders a survey of how they thought class was and what they liked and disliked about it. If you can remember, at the beginning of the year I mentioned that this class was my worst class and I was having a lot of trouble with them, and actually yelled at them once. But for the past few months, things have flip flopped and they are wonderful, though they are very loud a lot, but what to expect from the class that is notorious in the school as "the worst class in the school". So, as time has come on, they have found that I speak some Czech, and they were pretty shocked about it. So, by now, they've caught on to not saying inappropriate things cuz i usually understand them, and then they feel really stupid. So, back to my story, like half the class put down on their survey of likes of the class as "access". Access? What the heck does that mean? Access to the class? Is it very accessible to the school? Just as accessible as most of the other classes actually. So, after asking a friend, I learn that this word has a second meaning, "approach". So, apparently they like my approach to how I handle class. Sure, why not? I mean, they can do and say whatever I want and I don't understand anything. But anyways, this whole mess don't make much sense. But it's good to know that since they have changed their attitude a bit, things have gotten a lot better and I think it's because they have begun to like me a bit more and see that they can't really get away with anything, cuz I'm starting to understand stuff. One kid (the big problem guy) even said that he wouldn't change anything and he loves the class and it's "ideal". Ahh, ideal, great. Anyways. hope things are well. I got a new phone.