Friends and family,

Can you believe it's already December 1?? Ask yourself honestly, "How is this possible?" Time is quickly picking up pace. I've been in the Czech Republic for over three months now, which is by no means huge in the grand scheme of things, but somehow seems big to me. Perhaps it's because I'm quickly about to outstrip the amount of time I've spent abroad previously--when I was in wonderful France for four months.

God is good, and time is one of his greatest gifts of all: time, and seasons. I am reminded of Ecclesiastes; there is a time for everything, a season for all things. November has been a season of change weather-wise, but a season of stability and consistency emotionally. The second week was when the (long-awaited) feeling of I'm beginning to feel at home here, involved, like there's a place for me, started to come. I met with Dana, a sweet middle-aged friend of my head English teacher Milena; she wants to practice her English, in exchange for working through some Czech textbooks with me. That was exactly the accountability and push I needed, because as much as I'd like to think I'm capable of enough internal motivation to study the language, it wasn't coming along so well. She is fun and friendly, and much better at English than she thinks. I went to a spinning class (not what I'd pin as my thing, but I like it and it's some physical activity to replace my sorely-missed running now that the weather is cold and wet). The instructor is the father of Lucie, one of my students; and he offered that I could go to classes for free in exchange for meeting with him and a few friends to practice English. I got a membership to a gym--small, but sufficient, with a sweet young lady who works behind the counter and speaks English. I was making friends! I was starting to have a life! And I hadn't expected to connect with other adults as well as I have been; kind colleagues, and these random people in my life that are a blessing already to me. How exciting!

Next was the Thanksgiving Retreat, a relaxing and wonderful time to see friends from training and catch up...to hear stories, laugh together, and have some serious conversations. It was a great reminder that I'm not alone here; I may be the only ESIer at the Gymnasium, but there are many, many wonderful friends who are not far. What a blessing the weekend was: sleep, hiking, an inordinate amount of desserts, Nertz, and speaking with other native speakers.

The pictures are from Thanksgiving in Sokolov '10: Sarah and I executed our plan of making Thanksgiving dinner for some of her colleagues and friends. The estimated group size grew from ten to 15...and Sarah and I were a little nervous! On top of preparing so much food, we have an oven that refuses to stay on one temperature, neither does it have a temperature label on the knob; and some ingredients were hard to come by here: we had home-made stuffing, fresh pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes someone had to get in Karlovy Vary, a different kind of brown sugar, a different kind of flour, a squash we had never seen before...and the couple who was baking the turkeys, put them in the oven only 40 minutes before we got there! But it worked out wonderfully; when is Thanksgiving dinner ever on time, and the small size of the turkeys made the wait manageable. Czech desserts, mashed potatoes, wine, sweet potato casserole, and English and Czech language abilities all across the board abounded. I told the Thanksgiving history to everyone (a much more rapt audience than most of my students, I might add), and came up with a few games off the cuff, Mafia included. It was a great success, and so much fun!

The snow has set in, and some days are very, very windy. My students, especially the primas (5th graders), love it: the other day, I came into the classroom to teach after the big break (20 minutes), and half the class was wet and sweaty and out of breath, explaining that they had just had a snowball fight: could they open the window? It was too hot in the classroom! And they proceeded to go over to the window, scrape snow off the windowsill and put it on their heads to cool off before I could do anything. Ah, well. Kids :) I love the Christmas season as much as they do, just for different reasons. Sarah and I helped decorate the church for Christmas: we hung up paper snowflakes we'd made, created garlands out of fresh pine branches (with a little help!), and set up a beautiful little tree with hand-crafted ornaments. What a wonderful, exciting season! I'll let you know more about it next month, after Christmas has happened! As some of you know, I'm wild with excitement to see my boyfriend Michael when he comes to visit and we can travel Europe together! How many Christmases to I get to say that happened??

Anyway, thank you for your wonderful support as always...I will need it much to get through the cold winter months once the novelty of the weather wears off! (Maybe my students will like their snowball fights all winter long, and their enthusiasm will rub off on me. Who knows.) As you near the Christmas season, and are already in the midst of the holidays, may you find joy in your relationships, in the surprises of life, in the simple pleasures, and in the hope of things to come.

Peace in Christ,

Jamie

Wow. I can't believe how long it's been since I posted an update...I apologize! Weeks turned into a month, and soon October flew by! Perhaps I felt that the novelty was wearing off, which is maybe a good thing...I'm settling into a routine, getting used to my students, learning (slowly!) to lesson plan, finding a niche. I by no means am fully adjusted, but Sokolov is daily feeling more and more like a home. The weather is getting colder; leaves were turning beautiful colors and now have mostly fallen, except for a few stubborn ones. I'm slowly learning random Czech words, and my students get really excited when I use them! They laugh at how I pronounce them, but tell me I'm saying it right...that seems like a contradiction to me, but whatever.

This month has been characterized by some good time spent with friends. I got to visit fellow ESI teachers in Cheb--Karina and Tammy, who live there and whom I've seen several times; but also Sally and Shelly, who teach in Prague and Ostrava and were visiting the same weekend. A friend from Wheaton, Peter, is traveling through Europe for several months and stopped in to see what I was up to; it was nice to catch up with someone from Wheaton. And I had a fall break at the end of the month, and took the time to go to Italy to visit high school friends Betsy and Jason. (I went the whole way by train and was so proud of myself! Ask for more details if you'd like to hear the story. Bottom line that it went well though.) Each instance reminded me how much I appreciate having a native English speaker to talk to :) I get used to how few people speak English here, which makes me all the more thankful for the people here that do--Sarah, my head teacher Milena, Che' from church, her husband Pavel...but also more appreciative of special chances to talk to friends in person. Unfortunately, my non-photo-taking tendencies manifested themselves and I don't have very many pictures from October...but Sarah and I made pumpkin bread, and documented it. We were very excited to see pumpkins (dýně) at the Kaufland grocery store, since people had told us they didn't have them frequently here. It was my first time baking anything with fresh pumpkin, and it was a great success! Nothing like baking therapy with a roommate :) I finished off the month with a lesson about Halloween in some of my classes; in Czech, it is becoming more common to celebrate it (there were just a few decorations around), but it is not widespread. We learned vocabulary and listened to the "Monster Mash" song, which they loved! Those are always my favorite lessons, when the students are really enjoying themselves!

Continued prayers for the language and settling in to the culture and job would be appreciated; while I am feeling more settled, one of the English teachers is pregnant and will not be teaching this year--a huge change and stress for the rest of the English department. As the newbie I got off easy, but my schedule has been changed a little, so in some ways it feels like starting over just when I felt like I was getting the hang of it. I lost one class of students I really liked, but am excited to get to know a sweet class of sophomore girls that I now have.

Thank you for your support and interest in all I'm doing! It really makes all the difference, knowing that even though I'm half-way across the world in a tiny town that so many people are thinking of me and praying for me. And I will try to not go a whole month again without an update ;)

Sarah and I had a long weekend, since Tuesday (today!) is St. Wenceslas' Day, a national holiday in the Czech Republic! We decided to venture off by ourselves, and after consulting with teachers at our schools, decided to visit the beautiful castle town of Cesky Krumlov. We weren't disappointed. The pictures are of us on one of the many bridges across the Vltava River (which winds around the town center), the cathedral tower, the castle from the castle tower, and the view from one of the bridges. Festivals seem to follow us wherever we go, and the square was filled with folk music and dancing (see the video), little booths of cute things to buy, and inevitably, the wonderful Czech fair food (ask me about the trdelnik, svarak, and hralusky, and palacinky). With the cobblestoned streets and the scent of food everywhere, people in costume and the castle always in view, it was not hard to imagine it as a medieval town. We toured the castle and heard all about the history of noble families and colorful characters that lived there; visited the museum of marionettes; wandered the castle gardens; and tasted various Czech dishes. And of course slept a lot--it's vacation after all. We did have a rather, mm, interesting experience at our hostel: we'd made a reservation online, but when we got there a drunken receptionist appeared, couldn't find our reservation, and put us in a room without noting that she had. Or something like that. We returned in the evening to find the (sober and nice) owner, who had just put somebody in our room...so we ended up on mattresses on the floor in a room of 6 British boys who didn't know we were there. They came back late, after we went to bed, and lots of whispering and surprise ensued...but it all worked out in the end. We had our own room the next night, thankfully. In all, it was a delightful weekend; and it somehow brought home the fact that I now live here, in the Czech Republic. This was just a weekend trip for me; and now I'm home again, in another Czech town. How exciting is that!

I've been teaching for almost a month now...it's nearly October! To be honest, it's still a bit of a struggle...I'm getting the hang of it little by little, but it depends on the day. Sometimes I love my job, and enjoy teaching a fun lesson; other times I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water and struggling through each class period. But I think I'm learning. I was so happy when a couple of students came up to me after class to ask questions: what's the difference between "must" and "have to"? If arachniphobia is the fear of spiders, what is the name for all these fears in general? I'm finding students that make my day by showing interest, answering questions, and participating, and of course a few (several in one class) that try my patience, but I'm stepping up to the challenge and being creative in how to engage them. Also, October marks 6 months of dating a very wonderful man...hooray! His support and love have been priceless over the past few months of this journey. As has the encouragement of friends and family...I miss all of you, and am so grateful for each one of you!

Well. Week one at the Gymnasium, accomplished. And what a crazy week it was. I've been waiting to update until I could sum up one whole week, although a lot has happened: last Friday was actually my first day of teaching, and then we went to Prague for the first ESI retreat which was so wonderful. It was great to see familiar faces again, and to swap stories and discover that I wasn't the only one with a silly food mix-up, or who felt like they had no idea what was going on at their school. I really enjoyed my first students on Friday, and wished that I could just see them all week long: but, instead, I have 15 different groups that I see, ranging from the equivalent of 5th graders to juniors in high school. A lot I see only once a week, a good amount twice, and only one class I see three times a week (teaching the whole class, instead of sharing it with Czech teachers). Monday and Tuesday were really rough: not only is this my first real job (sorry CPO, I don't really count you--you were too much fun!), but it's my first year teaching, which is supposedly hard, and it's in another country! I felt lost, I felt overwhelmed, I felt like a flop, I felt like giving up and going home. Tuesday, I walked into a classroom full of a huge, loud class, started introducing myself, and had a student raise her hand and manage to say, "Mr. (yes) Patrick, you know this is geography class?" My face must have been priceless, because everyone laughed...and then the real teacher walked in. A little mortified, I made my way to the office and found that my schedule had changed.

Now on the other end, I'm still nervous for the rest of the year, but I'm excited and like quite a few of my classes. I made my students laugh (this time intentionally!) by acting out words like "confident," "talkative" and "shy"; and by confessing that yes, Titanic is one of my favorite movies. I got them thinking and talking. I'm learning how to be more organized, but let myself relax sometimes so I don't stress constantly. I know there are many learning moments to come...and I've never been so grateful for a Friday in all my life! It's a party on patek!

Pictures: views of Prague (with Ashley and Sarah); the sunset out our window on our balcony; and me on my first day of school!

Dear Sokolov,

Where do I even start processing the week I've spend with you? Each day seems like a week in and of itself--so much happens, I learn something new, my emotions travel all over the scale...There is very little to complain about, a lot to be thankful for, and a multitude of questions cropping up. What wil it be like, starting to teach on September 3 at the Gymnasium? Will I train wreck on my first day? How do I figure out what to teach, how best to do it, and answers to questions I don't yet know I need to be asking? Who are my students? Will I ever be competent in Czech? When will I be able to navigate this cute but confusing town of simple buildings, twisting roads and forested hills? Will I feel at home, instead of overwhelmed and a little lost? What would I do without my teammate Sarah? Will we be able to pop in and out of the grocery store, instead of spending two hours figuring out what things are? Who are our neighbors on the 12th floor of the tall green building? Where's the running trail we've heard so much about? How cold is it going to get? When will we feel comfortable enough to go to a restaurant? etc. etc. etc. Just settling in seems like a job in and of itself--it takes enough time and physical and emotional energy. It's about taking each day a step at a time, and remembering what has gone well: I have my school schedule; we found our way home when we were lost on a "short cut" bike trail; we got Sarah a Czech SIM card with help from the dictionary, a pen and paper, and a very patient T-Mobile man; we got our groceries and have enjoyed eating gourmet salads and watching an episode of Friends every night; we're learning a little Czech every day; jet lag has not been so bad; we've met some very kind and welcoming English-speakers.

You're making me think a lot about a)humility, and b) expectations. First, I didn't realize how much French I knew when I studied abroad there...it's crazy knowing about ten words of a language, and trying to live in that country. We wondered what kind of flour out of three choices to pick for baked goods, and had no idea how to ask. We are stopped by a man asking something (at least we look like we might be Czech, right?), and have NO idea of any word that came out of his mouth. I think I had a little bit more confidence in my adjustment abilities than was justified. It's ok to feel completely lost, and take time to settle in. It doesn't happen in a heartbeat, even if you've spent time abroad. Good to know. I will be embarrassed, and I need to step out and make mistakes!

Second, expectations...I know the ESI motto at training was "low expectations," but that's a lot harder than I anticipated. Even if my expectations are vague, they are there--of how I'll be feeling during this adjustment period, of what my head English teacher will be like, etc...and I'm realizing I'm waiting for something to click, to feel at home and wanted and needed here, but maybe I shouldn't spend the whole year waiting for something. Maybe I should just take what comes, but not be passive about it--I can examine my attitude about it, I can be positive, I can take the opportunities that come to do something new or spend time with someone or try a new activity in the classroom. I'm definitely nervous about this upcoming year...but I can only take it a step at a time, and remember that I'm supposed to be here and I won't regret this adventure. So thanks, Sokolov--I'm excited to get to know you a lot better in the coming months, see what you're like, interact with you, and see how we're both changed! At least, I'm sure I will be.

Sincerely,

Jamie

Here are (finally!) a few images from my training experience here in Pasadena...it is quite the adventure! I'm terrible at being the one to take pictures, but it's always worth it when I do.

First, have you ever had fried chicken and waffles? At Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles? I know, it sounds weird, but it's really delicious! Might be my next comfort food recourse!

Next: the Santa Monica beach...chilly and windy, but still worth it to jump in the Pacific Ocean. Even when the lifeguard tells you you're on the wrong side of the lifeguard tower, interfering with the surfers.

Gina, Sarah and I getting ready to feast. Mmm.

Hello, dear friends and family!

The time of my departure is fast approaching. As I prepare for the upcoming season of my life, I am so grateful for how the Lord is providing. He is faithful to bring in the financial support to cover the start-up and training costs. I am learning to trust his provision and timing, which is very challenging but such a good lesson to learn! One that I'm sure he will continue to teach me as I leave my comfort zone and must rely on him fully to take care of me in the midst of new, exciting and challenging circumstances. I hope to update this blog with information and pictures at least once a week, and this may be more up-to-date than my emails; I'll see how the rhythm settles in. I can't thank each of you enough for your interest, prayers, encouragement and support! I am so blessed by the team the Lord has raised of partners in ministry!