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
