Tennis Anyone?

I took this picture today from the balcony of the school. After a long day of working and testing students i walked up the school stairs with no one at school anymore and saw the doors to the balcony open, I went out there and just decided to relax and soak up the silence. i just think it looks cool. no photo cropping was done. i'm just a magical artistman.

Back to Square One con espanol

I've finally realized and come to grips with my Spanish Language ability. I was excited the other day because they extended the subway in Prague to a cool shopping center, so i went there and was in search of something I thought if any place had it, they would. There's a big supermarket there and I went there and to my luck, I found what I had been looking for. I had found it!! In clear print, it read... Frijoles Refritos (or refried beans). I had been looking for them a few weeks ago when i was cooking dinner for some friends, but we had to make due without them for mexican night, oh well. it was still good.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was when I was trying to read the can of beans. It was all in Spanish. No problem, but it was, I couldn't even speak anymore. My English accent is so strong and it just feels disgusting to me when I read it. But it was so easy, and it's much easier than Czech pronunciation, so it should be easier for me, but it's not. Oh well. Life doesn't treat us well sometimes.

But then I'm thought of the reason I stopped with spanish 5 years ago... because i decided I didn't like the language. So... then... I guess I'm not really that sad at all.

To London and Beyond

Wow, What a trip! Sorry for the delay in relayin you all the crazy info, but I needed some time to regroup and refresh myself before i began to inform you about the interesting and crazy time of the trip. First... pros and cons of the trip:

Pros:
- Amazing weather the entire time!!

- Fun talks and time with students

- ... that's about it.

Cons:

-stupid travel agency

-stupid tour guide ("umbrella lady")

-always late everywhere

-not enough time


Now let me tell you about the experience we had there. So, to start off, we left on Wednesday at about 230pm... wait... scratch that... the bus was 3 hours late, so we left closer to 6. About 4 hours into the trip, we had a problem with the engine. One of the belts broke. And had it not been for one of the adults on the trip who had a nice flashlight, the drivers woulda never fixed it i believe. Thus, we missed our 530 am ferry time and instead hit the 1030 one up. And therefore got to london at about 130ish. Fun times. We saw all the fun sights. Quite briefly though. Nothing of significance to note about though. We saw most of the fun stuff I suppose.

We were 2 hours late meeting our British families so some of them were a bit perturbed, but that's ok I guess. But there were some arguments between our teachers and the British people, so that was fun to watch, the next night was even better. The British speak with an accent (no problem for me to understand, but a bit of a problem for our English teachers at times I thought) and especially our tour guide to understand. To state it simply, our tour guide couldn't really speak english too good. Therefore, Whenever we had to communicate with British, whether it be for tickets or anything of that sorts, I would make sure and be there just to make sure everythign was understood and that they understood us. Big point to make: Our guide could speak English a bit, but even me, when i tried to speak in my teacher voice (nice and slow and simple), she usually didn't understand, so i stopped speaking English cuz she was just too stupid. My students asked me "why doesn't she speak to you in English?" That's simple, cuz I knew she could understand me when i spoke Czech and of course I understood her Czech, no problem.

Second day we spend in Stratford where Shakespeare was born and we spend 3.5 hours looking at his grave and the business of his sister's husband's business and then we went to the grand city of Okford and spent there less than an hour. That's good planning if you ask me :) More problems ensued with the British families after a long traffic jam along the highway.

The next day we visited the Tower of London and then headed to Paris. We got to our hotel at 10pm because apparently, our tour guide said that that was the time that this 24/7 hotel stopped having receptionist services (good job stupid). We got there in time instead of having time to stop by some store and pick up some good food for the following day.

Next day we spent in Paris. Beautiful day and great weather. Lots of great times, just long. from 9am to midnight. Wow, long day. I think everyone was ready to go home, but it was nice. Back home was 13 hours and a really relaxing (not) bus ride. I tried to sleep but always woke with a bad neck cramp. Ah... what a way to bid farewell to my InterEuropean travels. We got back about 2pm and I had to work from 4-8pm. Monday was a beautiful day :)

Let Me OUT!!!

To a Island of Desperation

So, after a long time coming, I'm finally getting to go to the British Isle. The famed island that has caused so many world problems. But I don't blame them, they all seem like good people. I'm actually looking forward to getting to be able to see the place. Not as excited as other places, but i still feel like it's a necessity in life. The infamous island that I only know by air looking over the not so vastness of it. It'll be cool, but I'm not getting my hopes up, which could also be a good thing.

We leave tomorrow by bus. We're going with the school here and taking 30 students. It will be an interesting time I feel because it's like 16 hours or something like that to the English Channel and then another 2 hours after the ferry ride. And I just hope it will be a good time. We'll see lots of places and try and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. :) We'll visit London, Shakespeare's birthplace which is apparently a big hotspot for tourists, and Oxford, where the famous British Greats, such as Beowolf and his friends corralled each other day and night at. From here we'll travel back across the channel and head down to Paris where we plan on spending a day visiting the sights. Luckily I've already been here, cuz i feel that one day isn't enough to spend here. But it'll be an enjoyable time nonetheless, and then we arrive back home Monday around noon. Whoa, it'll be a fast trip to admire some kinda cool places.

Don't worry, I'll let you all know how it goes. I'm looking forward cuz most likely this will be my last big trip before coming home, so I'm ready to relax and just kick back and be happy. Ok. so that's it for now. Talk to you all next week.

Find the Odd One Out

Top 10 "Hells On Earth":

10. Baghdad, Iraq

9. Dhaka, Bangladesh

8. Yakutsk, Russia

7. Mogadishu, Somalia

6. Chernobyl, Ukraine

5. OKLAHOMA CITY, USA (but apparently it's not as bad as...)

4. Pyongyang, North Korea

3. Bujumbura, Burundi

2. Linfen, China

1. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Now, you can check out the website here http://www.askmen.com/fashion/travel_top_ten_200/226_travel_top_ten.html

The opening paragraph says this: While most travel brochures wax lyrical about the world’s paradises, they often leave out those cities that the industry would rather forget. Whether it’s violence, pollution or an inhospitable climate, some places just don’t function as cities in the modern world, let alone attract a throng of flip-flopped tourists through its airport security. These places are simply known as hells on earth.

So, the next time you moan about a sun-drenched resort not having poolside service, take a moment to think about how much worse your vacation would have been had you visited this lot of hells on earth.

Now, they claim that OKC is so bad because of our "weather". But come on. to say that OKC doesn't "function as a city in the modern world", you've got to be kidding me. It just makes me laugh when I think of which cities OKC is worse than.

So, for example: You would have a happier, more fulfilling life living in the radiation-enriched Chernobyl, or the war-torn Baghdad, the anarchical Mogadishu, or the bustling broken-down Siberian city of Yakutsk. Or Bangladesh, a poor place also. Words can't describe. So... i guess I'm leaving the Czech Republic and I'm gonna be moving to the epitome of sadness.

New Views to Behold

As many of you know, I visited the eye doctor a few weeks ago to get my eyes examined so as that I could acquire a new pair of lenses (due to the fact that mine were all scratched up and 6 years old and really weak) and to order some new contacts since I was done with those as well.

Anyways, today was the special day and I am now the proud new owner of smaller, lighter, stronger, prettier, more expensive, less scratched (actually i dished out a little more dough for the special lenses that are actually scratch-proof) and happier. That's right, I'm a happy boy who has perfect vision once again.