Ugh...

Lost my phone today. Think I left it on the bus. Really sucks, so you probably can't call me, I won't answer. Also sucks, cuz it's 130 and I shouldn't of had the coffee and tea so late. Tomorrow's gonna suck.

First Relaxing Day Back

Today was the first day that I got to relax and just enjoy myself. Though I had to wake up at 7 to come back to Kralupy, and though I was unable to get a little doggie today, it was good.
-I walked to the pound with two friends and the weather was perfect, and
-then I ran into one of my adult students on my way back and we walked around again and went for lunch and I probably had the best Svickova ever (it's tenderloins in "candle sauce" with dumplings). It's pretty much the best meal ever.
-Next on the agenda was to go home and crash, which is what i did for about 3 hours and it was oh so beautiful.
-I then was able to go to the local tea house with one of my good friends in town and chat it up for a few hours in the midst of a strange rainstorm which produced one of the most bright and solid rainbows ever, and it raised up right next to the church in town and we had a pretty view from how 2nd floor teahouse window. It was great and so picturesque. Hopefully I can put it up on my blog so you can see it.
-Following this, I came home and ate a beautiful dinner and came on the computer and chilled and talked and then proceeded to catch up on my missed episodes of Big Brother Allstar, which I have recently become obsessed with since being in America (thanks bro).
-And the best thing, I don't have to get up really early tomorrow!!! Going to get my visa, but not until noonish, so life is just a beautiful bowl of awesome. Check ya later. peace

Warmly Welcomed

So, I've been back now for about 4 or 5 days, and things have been busier than i had ever expected. But in a good way. :) It's been a lot better than just chillin and not doin anything. I've been able to hang out with several students, fellow teachers and friends, and recently, the new American teachers and my new roomie, Andrew. The last two days in particular have been interesting. Last night, we had a little bbq in back of the school with me, Andrew and the other American here, Paul. We chilled for a while eatin chicken and drinking wine and talking it up. We talked about just about everything about school, students, the summer, and whatever you can talk about for 6 hours.
And today, we went into Prague and chilled and lunched with some Americans and then i came back and we were to go out for yet another bbq in as many days. Though Andrew wasn't able to attend due to jetlag, but it was me, Lucka and Kamila (two students), their parents, and Kristyna (another student/sister of Kamila) and her bf. It was quite enjoyable. I was a little worried at first because I hadn't met their parents before, and some of them didn't know English very well, but it went really good. Lots of good food. We had it at one of their gardens. We chilled and talked and chilled some more. It was really a terrific night and I was just so happy to be there with such nice and generous people. I really can't believe how generous these people are here, that they would all cancel out their entire Saturday to prepare food and then cook it and spend time with someone who doesn't even speak their language. It's really unbelievable to me. One of the moms, who actually speaks a bit of English, told me she couldn't sleep last night because she was so nervous to meet me and speak English. But it was just so amazing, and I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay them for anything. It has just been such an honor, already, to be here and be in the situation I've been placed in. I just hope this isn't as good as it gets, as if everything just doesn't go down hill from here on out. I don't expect to be given special treatment, but just to be able to experience genuine Czech kindness. I could probably talk about this night for hours, bout all the enjoyment I had here, but like i said, I would be here for hours. Just use your imagination and that's almost as good as it was. :)

So, I'll keep everyone posted on my last free week before school starts, I should have pictures up of John sometime soon.

Flight and Recap

On my plane trip right now over the Atlantic somewhere. Just watche MI3. It was pretty fun. This has been a fairly enjoyable trip thusfar. I came on the plane and sat down in my seat and quickly started to chat it up with this girl who had an accent. Me being the one going to Germany, I asked if she was German, she says, "hekc no fool" she was Polish. Her name is Agnes. She's We've talked a lot, and it has made the trip more enjoyable. I'm just pretty pumped to finall yget back home and unpack. These past 7 weeks have been awesome, but I think it has been long enough. I need to unpack, see some friends, get John, and start school. . So, now looking back on the summer, I can reflect on some of the high points.
Best Moments:
- definitely gotta be hanging with my brother and my nephew
- hangin out in norman with my sis
- both the daquari nights with Brad
- my last night in Norman with a good friend
- talking deep stuff with Matt "the law student"
-plane ride to LA with the supporting actress of "Borat". (comes out nov.3)
-all the hookah nights

Music of the summer:
-How to Save a Life"- The Fray
"Taking the Long Way Home"- Dixie Chicks
These two albums are pretty much and have been what's given my summer some sort of normalcy. Something I can come back to over and over no matter what new experience the summer has thrown in my path. The first 3 songs on both are my favs.

(A few hours later)
So, now I'm in Munich waiting for my last connection... my 15th flight in the last 2 months!! I'm not flyin for a while, that's for sure. I'm really happy and excited to get back and be able to chill... finally! For the first time in 2 or 3 months i will see some kind of normalcy to my life, and it is a much needed acquisition to my life. wow. And I'm pretty sure that another thing that will be added to my Best Moments list will be my other new acquisition in a few days of my darling John (the new dog). Keep your fingers crossed.

Mistakes in Familial Speech

I've officially been gone for 45 days now from Czech Republic, and it has shown in my progress, or should i say the antithesis of progress. I have kinda realized how lacking I have gotten in my use of the Czech language while I've been in America. I try to keep up with some language by reading websites and stories, but recently I started to write a one or two people in Czech Republic and I was feeling like i needed to practice my Czech a little bit, and i was telling them how I have spent a lot of good time with my "grandson". Unfortunately, I don't have a grandson, heck not even close. Yea... i meant nephew. It was fairly comical though if you could imagine. i really have grown to respect my students horrible english in the sense that it's better than my poor excuse of knowing czech words that don't even fit together ever. :)

Hey O!

Hey everyone. So, we seem to have come upon quite an interesting topic for today... packing. So, I would like to firstly reference the dictionary.com's definition of packing. Due to the large quantity of definitions for "pack", I'm just gonna pick and choose which one is most widely accepted and most commonly necessary for the action:

pack- To form lumps or masses; become compacted.

So, this is my topic, and personally, I feel fairly experienced to talk about this subject for the time being, thus, here I am talking about it. So, let me tell you what my summer has looked like thus far. On the night of June 29th, I started a process that continues to this day. I started to pack for my vacation to the states. Never would I have guessed that this would play such a central role in my vacationing experience. I brought back two bags with me. My big blue and back check-on and my red backpack as my carryon. Once I got on the ground in Tulsa and finally got home, did i unpack? of course not! I just traveled overseas and it's night time and I'm flying to Florida in a day, why would I do that, I didn't need to! I'll just do it when i get back. So i took my backpack and went to Florida. You see, I had a secondary problem that I was already trying to find a solution for... when I moved to Czech Republic, I moved all my stuff back home that was mine and it was either in boxes or just kinda chillin about there. So of course, my dad wanted me to pack everything that I have ever acquired in my room up. Wow, what a chore. So, I never really had enough time nor room in my room to unpack my big check-on bag. So it sat and sat. I would take stuff out, and try and put new stuff in that I decided that I wanted to take back with me. wow, that's just what I want to do when I come home for vacation, is pack more. But wait, by this time, I was off for 2 more weeks in Los Angeles with... what?... of course my backpack packed with new stuff to take on my journey.

So, finally!!... after living out of my backpack for a week i Florida and living out of my big bag for a week at home and out of my backpack again for 2!! weeks in Los Angeles, I finally got home and after packing a bit of my stuff up in my room and after hours of getting stuff prepared to pack that I wanted to take back with me, I thought that I could finally live in some normalcy and things would be purely less vagabondish. But, wait... oh no, that surely wouldn't happen with me. A sudden occurrance at my headquarters quickly prompted me to get all my stuff at my house and bounce (This actually was the good thing of having never unpacked because since most of my stuff was already packed, I was able to get more stuff than I would have expected in 15 minutes. That's really the only pro I got for the situation). So, now, once again, I'm sitting, sleeping on random couches or beds with none other than my trusty-old backpack and check-on back by my side. Sidling up with 11 days left until I can fully get in the mindset of unpacking and sleeping in my own bed and wake up in the morning to one of the most beautiful things I have ever come across... drawers.

Any Suggestions!?!

Hey everyone. If I have ever desired a comment in my comment box from you, the time is now. School is about to start once again in a few weeks over here in the Czech Republic, and I was curious to know if any of you had any fun ideas about activities or topics that would be fun to go over (it can be beginner level or advanced). Anyways, just thought I'd throw that out at you all. Just give me something to play off of, a fun topic, an interesting idea. Anything will be awesome. thanks.

Beauty of Shoes

So, a few comments on shoes, because I'm sure that all of you have just been achin to hear about my new revelation about shoes (for me and the cultural significance in America v. Czech Republic). So, therefore, this entry is in two parts. First, my theology of shoes, and secondly, the cultural effects of my American ideology in the Czech Republic.

First: I like shoes, but I'm not the kind of person that is going to go out and buy an ungodly amount of shoes that I'm never going to use. For those of you that know me, I'm fairly cheap. I wear my shoes until they can't be worn anymore. And then I wear them for another year. I remember this past year I went to the mountains in these tennis shoes I'd had for 5 years, and my feet were freezing after the walk through the snow cuz the sole is basically off of it. My dress shoes (which are the shoes that I wear daily nowadays being a teacher, are torn completely in half on both shoes, but it hasn't kept me from trekking all over town and through the thick of everything in them to get where I need to go ANd last, but certainly not least, are my pride and joy, my rainbow sandals. I have had my rainbows for over three years now and almost have worn them everyday for those three years. 2 years ago, I wore the ends off where my big toe is, and I contemplated getting new ones, but they are just so comfy. And now, I have acquired a new big hole in my heel, so the problem seems to amout at a rapid pace and I'm pretty sure the next acquisition to the shoes will be the back half of one of my shoes breaking completely off, and then we'll face that problem when it comes to. With only having half a sandal, I might think more seriously about getting new sandals. But when I make a purchase in shoes, i'm in it for the long haul. There ain't nothing, and i mean nothin, that is gonna take me away from getting my moneys worth from those shoes.

Secondly, a few good stories from the Czech about shoes. So, firstly, Czech just can't seem to understand that Americans wear their shoes always. We wear the same shoes to work, the same shoes to school, and the same shoes at home, always! In Czech, you come to school, change into your inside shoes. You come home and take your shoes off and get indoor shoes or slippers. They always ask me, "but don't the floors get dirty from what you tracked in?" I say "yea sometimes, but then we just clean it" Sure maybe it's a better idea they have, but we're just too lazy and it's our cultural norm. It's funny sometimes though. I remember the groundskeeper was coming into my flat once to replace a broken window and he comes in with this hugely godforsaken-sized window, starts to walk in and then, "oh, sorry," takes time to slip off his shoes (so he's just changing my window out in his socks). It was a little strange to me, but comical nonetheless. Another story... we went to Ireland and we all stayed in a hostel and all the guys were in a room and we were beat. We all come in and lay down. Of course all those guys took their shoes off and laid in bed, but they didn't understand at all when I just laid in bed with my shoes on. I was just tired and didn't want to fuss with it. So... they are all weirded out and one of them finally says, "Zach, your shoes are on still". I said, "yea, i know, it's fine, I don't want to take them off" So, then i proceeded to tell him that it's not as important to always take off your shoes in America. Maybe I should have taken off my shoes and I would have been more comfy, but i just didn't want to, and I felt fine. So... that's my news about shoes.

Welcome August

Hey, so August is here and I only have to wait 19 more days until i go back to Czech. Hey, so quick update, I've recently been kicked out of my house by my dad and thus it has put a hamper on some of the things I've been plannin on. So, things are a little more difficult, but I have seemed to manage, thanks to a lot of help. So, maybe keep that on your mind for a bit. Take care.