Secret Czech Identity

If I had been born in Czech Republic, my name would have been "Stela Purnellova."

Each birthday has a coinciding Czech name, and every female gets -ova added to their last name. No matter what. Czech people even do it to foreign names -- Paris Hiltonova. Britney Spearsova.

Bizarre to think that even if I was named Amanda, all my official documents would say "Purnellova."



Adventures of Amanda and Supermarket are going well. No big screw-ups lately.... been buying good milk, un-gassed water, a nutella/white chocolate mix, even found pepperoni!!!!!! Oh and I have taught myself the art of the French Press coffee. So I am learning things.

Speaking of, I had my first shot of Slivovice, which is a traditionally Moravian (western Czechville) plum brandy. Ew ew ew. It was horrible. I would rather do absinthe any day!
I still have to try Becherovka (a Czech digestif) and I need to find a decent kolache. The cafe at my school sells pre-packaged crappy kolaches. More like odd-shaped muffins.

One of my teachers is from Kunovice, which is where a portion of our family is from. Her name is Alžběta Černušková - which is pronounced Alzh-bet-ah Cher-new-shkova.
Anyways, my other tutors are Gregor and Dunstan, who are Scottish-German and British, respectively.

I just taught my third lesson today (all focused on the difficult grammar of Narrative Tenses -- betcha have to google those huh?) -- it really went well though. Again, got some really positive feedback from my tutor and colleagues.

Wrote a 6-page grammar paper this weekend......... well lemme tell you, that was loads of fun. This week, it's a paper on how students learn and how to curtail lesson planning for those motivations.

Making some pretty good friends here.... got my little gang of Corydon, Nathan, Katie, Helen and John which is pretty solid -- nice mix of the USA, UK, Russia and Canada. I have a feeling over the next 3 weeks we will become a pseudo-family. There have been talks of having a big international pot-luck this weekend -- everyone making traditional national dishes and having a potluck dinner party with games and everything. So I hope this actually does happen... we see each other every day for hours on end, but we don't really get to socialize much outside of class or talking about English or our lessons. And during the week, we are just so damn busy -- we all teach on different days, always planning lessons, never getting enough sleep, etc etc etc.


My next lesson is on Wednesday and it's an hour long (all those so far have just been 40 minutes). I have to do a 60-minute lesson on vocabulary dealing with crimes/burglaries/theft etc...... yeah don't ask!!!! This coursebook has some odd topics (i.e. my first lesson was on speed-dating, second on astrology/palmistry, and today was on flying). We are also switching observing-tutors, so I will get feedback from a different tutor this time. I am excited about this because it gives me the chance to get feedback from someone who hasn't seen me teach yet and who may have different opinions/suggestions.

I love how this program doesn't have "criticisms" or "negatives"..... everything is "positives" or "suggestions". lol Sometimes I think I would learn better if they just flat out said, "OK that sucked. Never do that again." Tough love works for me.

Anyways, I'm going to get back to lesson planning!!!!!!!!!!

Tak zatím!!!!!!!