The City of the Dead

More Pictures from the Graveyard

There were lots of people there because instead of Halloween they have the Day of Souls, a day to remember the dead. People were clearing leaves and brush off graves, leaving fresh flowers and little candles. It was a beautiful place and so huge. It really was like a city.

Week 2

Not a lot to report from week two of teaching except that everything is a lot less stressful as I go into rooms of familiar faces, rather than complete strangers. Many of the classes are with really nice people. The settings range from corporate fishbowl type rooms with a glossy table and whiteboard, to a living room type setting where I sat on a comfy couch, chatted and drank tea with 2 lovely ladies. Also got a sweet one-time gig with a pilot who needed to practice his English for a test the next morning. Since it was around 5:00 we just went to a swanky pub (very old with original Art Nouveau decor) where he bought me beers and told me about life under a Communist Regime. As a pilot he regularly smuggled things like toilet paper into the country. Getting paid to drink beer and chat, I think I've found my calling.

Weather here is getting chilly and wet. The shadows are darkening early in the afternoon and when I walk out of my building in the morning the day exists as only a hint of light over the rooftops.

Family Photos - Abigail has the red shirt, Jill the brown shirt, the guy with the Sox hat on is Hunter, and I'm the guy not smiling. The huge yellow couch has been my bed for almost 2 weeks.

me, Fil, Lukas

Me and Hunter - the J.Crew shoot.

PLEASE HELP ME OUT WITH BUSINESS LINGO (details in caps below)

Well this last week has been a whirlwind of activity, though it's felt good to be out in the real world, finding work, housing, etc. Right now I'm staying on my friends'(Abigail and Jill) couch, along with our friend Hunter, and we are all living like a nice little family (Family photos to be posted soon). We all run around the city all day, then meet back up at 'Hotel Rwanda' to have dinner and discuss our various successes and failures. Some favorite topics are; 'Crazy roommates we've had since living in Prague', 'Humiliating attempts at crossing the language barrier' and 'Are any of us really sure we want to teachers? Really, though?'. And so forth.

I've gotten work through 3 different language schools (typical for English teachers here) and all told have about 20 hours of work a week. It's nice and spread out, though some lessons will mean getting up pretty early in the morning to catch trams, trains and the odd rickshaw. (The rickshaws here are basically a big bicycle where the driver sits up front and pedals and the passengers sit in the back under a see-through enclosure.)
One of my jobs will be to go to the airport twice a week and teach Air Traffic Controllers airport lingo. Which means I have to learn tons of terminology and then present it in a clear and enjoyable way. I've got a 70 page manual to work from, as well as the movie 'Airplane' on DVD. 'Day One - inflating your copilot'.
The other jobs involve going to businesses all around Prague and teaching small groups of business-folk. Some will want to learn business English, but mainly it'll be teaching them how to schmooz at parties in London or the US. I may need some input from anyone involved in this world.
OKAY - CALLING ALL BUSINESSY-TYPE PEOPLE. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR TOP 5 OR 10 BUSINESS WORDS OR PHRASES THAT I SHOULD TEACH CZECH BUSINESS PEOPLE. (read above paragraph). I WILL POST ALL ENTRIES, SO MAKE THEM GOOD.
Here's some inspiration. I found it on Boston.com.
"This is our new sexy system. It is the belt and suspenders of our operation and when we open the kimono for the client, we will set the expectation moving forward. As our operation bifercates, we will take the low hanging fruit to the mat and run it up the flagpole to see if it flies and then escalate. Onesy twosey the clients will bop by. If we have a question we should take a walk to discuss deliverables and push back. We should support this from womb to tomb. The expectation is to get it on your radar so that you will have the bandwidth for deliverables."