Class and hip hop battles

Yesterday was our first day of class. No one really knew what to expect, but I think we were all relieved to find that the Language House was an actual school and not some big internet scam...you just never know. The school is fairly small and modest. The staff are nice and energetic, which hopefully will make the 8 hours of class/day pass a little more quickly. There are 15 people in our group. Most are from the US, but there are two girls from London and one from Canada. In the morning we did a lot of "ice breaker" activities and got a run-down of what to expect in the next month. In the afternoon, one of our teachers took us on a tour of the city. It wasn't an historical tour, but more of a practical tour to show us around town to help us survive our next month here. It also gave us all a chance to chat and get to know one another a little better. The tour took us all throughout the city, including Old Town square and a walk around the castle in Prague.

view from the castle

cathedral at the castle

After the tour, we had a "welcoming dinner" at a restaurant down the street from the school. Though hard to believe, it is true that Czech beer is cheaper than water. At this restaurant, a half liter of beer was the same price as .2 liters of water, a little less than $2. So, to be economical, most of the group decided to go with the beer. We still have a very limited understanding of anything Czech, and few menus seem to have much English, so I have some difficulty ordering from menus without any pictures. In the end I decided to order a mushroom gnocchi dish, which turned out to be delicious. At then end of our meal the teachers bought everyone a shot of Czech liquor, the name I am not going to attempt to write. Immediately after the shot, one of the teachers announced, "Now that I have you all liquored up, here's your first assignment..." How nice. We were told that we would need to teach a "skill," of any kind, to the class the following day.

After dinner, two guys in our class, Iain and Steven, invited Kate and I to an open mic hip-hop battle they wanted to perform at. It was located at a dive bar down the street from our hotel. We weren't sure what to expect, but decided we couldn't miss the opportunity, and agreed to tag along. The bar was dark and dingy, but the people were friendly and welcoming (at least those I could understand). Kate and I were impressed not only at our friends' bravery, but also at how well they did. These guys seriously have no fear. Their rap aliases were "slick willy" and "stevie 2-step." Though most people in the audience had no idea what they were saying, there were several people jamming and dancing around during their sets.

"Stevie 2-step"

"Slick Willy"

Most of the people there spoke broken English at best. We met one guy wearing an LA Lakers hat. During our conversation we made a reference to basketball, after which he looked confused and acted as if he had no idea what we were talking about. When we pointed to his hat he said, "oh, I just wear this for show." Overall, the night was a blast and we were extremely glad we went.

the guys getting ready to go on

this guy ran the show, he was our favorite, just look at that outfit

We had our second day of class today, and although we got a late start on our assignment, all of ours seemed to go remarkably well. For my "skill" I taught the class how to do "alternate breathing" while swimming freestyle. It looks like all those years of teaching swimming lessons has finally paid off!

For the most part, we have a really great group and everyone seems to get along pretty well. We start student teaching with actual students on Thursday. It will be a shorter session, only 15 minutes per teacher. We start giving full lessons (45 min) on Monday. I'm finally adjusting to the time change and am able to sleep through the night, thank goodness.