A Different Fall

Before you leave the foyer in a Czech household, you take off your shoes and exchange them for 'house shoes' or whatever they call them (slippers/sandals). This is pretty common among lots of cultures, I know, but I can only speak for this one.

This custom extends to kindergartens and elementary schools as well. Everyday I teach kids adorned with Crocs, Birkenstocks, and other slipper/sandal type shoes that are only worn in doors. In the elementary school, (I only teach at one of these which is grades 1-9 and they call it primary school) each class has a giant cage in which the kids can hang jackets and change their shoes. Once safely equipped with the proper footwear, they are free to roam about the halls. Or you know, go to class. In this school, they allow me and other special visitors to keep their street shoes on. Which is good since I don't have a giant cage, and all of the others are locked by the time I get there.

The kindergartens are a different story. If you want to drop your child off at kindergarten, you walk them into the building, get them changed into their indoor shoes and apparently change there pants. (Maybe that's just a winter thing, but I've noticed lately the last few stragglers that are still in the foyer changing pants.) And then you walk your kid up to his or her classroom. Therefore, you must remove your shoes, or by the door, they have these little cloth bags to go over your shoes which you can use if you don't want to take off your shoes.

I don't mind walking around in socks all morning, so I go shoeless. This works well for running around and playing games (or chasing the kids that scream and run into the corner) but doesn't bode well for the transition between classrooms. Stairwells are not carpeted. Last week the inevitable happened. The static friction between my stockinged feet was less than the kinetic friction of the movement down the steps, and I slipped and bounced the rest of the way down. The only things bruised were my pride and my right forearm. I might start bring my Birkenstocks. Just don't tell them that I consider them 'all-terrain' footwear.

To je podsim?!?

That's right, the first title in Czech. I've had two official Czech lessons so far. The class only meets once a week for 90 minutes, so that tiny fraction of the time that I spend speaking Czech will probably not do much. I've been feeling rather pessimistic all week though, so forgive the melodramatic overtone of this entry.

This is Fall?!? is the translation of the title, because, apparently like most places in the world, it's been snowing this week. On Thursday it snowed the entire day. On Wednesday and today it's been raining and very very cold with occasional flurries. My spirits are probably just reflecting the weather.

This job is driving me crazy. Just when I think I have most classes on their way to being under control as far as behavior is concerned, they tell me I have a new class where the kids are the worst yet. It's not entirely their fault. They are surrounded by toys, so I suppose they can't help but get distracted. Thinking back to when I was a kid, if an adult yelled at me, I had to do all I could to keep from crying. I would never dream of laughing and running to the corner taking all of my friends with me. Granted, I never had someone yelling at me in a language I didn't understand, but I highly doubt I would take it any less seriously.

There are redeeming moments. There was the boy who left at the same time I did and ran alongside my bike waving goodbye. And the first grade class that loves me and is very well behaved. I go to that school everyday, and I feel like a celebrity since I go to most of the grades for 20 minutes a week. So all of the kids at least know of me as "the American" and I get a bajillion 'hello's' as I walk through the halls (usually getting lost because the class room my schedule says I should go to is empty).