On the concept of feet barely touching the floor

Hello, anyone who may still be reading. I completely understand if you'd given up, what with the ridiculously and rather rudely long gap between the last entry and this. My apologies - it has been what can only be described as hectic at least, mental at best, here in Prague. My life as an EISPer has well and truly begun, and I am starting to feel I've worked there for rather longer than just three days! For the right reasons, though, definitely the right reasons.

An assortment of photos this time - not sure of the order in which they'll appear, but you can treat it as a matching exercise - a Couchsurfing picnic in Riegrovy Sady park; my desk; one of my favourite streets in Prague so far; and most bizarrely of all, the gym which I have just joined. About which, more later.

So, EISP. Ho hum. Over the last six years since starting at Mountbatten I had totally forgotten, or maybe just misestimated, what it is like to be the small fish in a big pond. Starting all over again has been a shock to my system, and that's even before the students arrive (next Monday). The most frustrating aspect is definitely having a list of things I need to find out, and absolutely no idea whom to ask to find out said things. Luckily EISP is a very small building compared with my previous place, and so when you do eventually find out whom to ask, it does not take very long to locate them and ask them. The trouble is, most of the time they do not know the answer! However today was a much better day than Monday in that respect - today I stayed in my classroom and gradually throughout the day, people came to find me and tell me all of the information that I needed to know. Very handy.

Some key facts I discovered today. One: I have just two or three students in my IB class - nice. Two: my photocopy card does not work - not so nice, though only temporary. Three: my projector is in school and will be installed tomorrow - double bonus. And four: next Friday I am off timetable for the 'IB students' induction weekend', seeing as I am a Year 12 form tutor - which is basically a long walk. Along the lines, I dare say, of 'Mr Pennicott's LONG WALK' for anyone familiar with the delights of Mountbatten Year 7 Camp. And with my D of E hat on, that will suit me just fine.

Speaking of D of E, I was very much relieved, reassured and excited (all at the same time, that was tiring) to find that the D of E crew at EISP seem every bit as relaxed and chilled as my old Mountbatten crew. Helen, Sarah and Anuska welcomed me with open arms and are keen for me to get involved with a couple of camping weekends coming up in the next months, which is brilliant news. I love doing D of E and would definitely not have wanted to lose that.

Today was spent getting EVERYTHING out of all the cupboards in my classroom, looking at it, and deciding between 'file' and 'chuck'. It was a big effort, but with the radio on the time soon passed and at the end of the day I was mightily pleased with the result. Everything in its right place. (and have you ever thought about how weird it is when you are abroad but are hearing traffic updates on the radio about the blockage on the A34 southbound carriageway just before the Milton Interchange? I almost thought I was back in the 'Shire... good old R2)

The weekend seems so long ago, but it was a nice one. I didn't achieve anything much beyond a supermarket stock-up, a long walk through the most enchanting cemetery I've ever visited, and a nice multinational picnic with several CSers. A very relaxing weekend though, to give me the feeling of being 'at home' in my new city.

Tomorrow I shall be trawling through the IGCSE and IB syllabus websites, downloading mark schemes and preparing medium-term plans. This is the reality of expat teacher life, let me tell you! I plan to make sure I'm ready this week for the new start and the arrival of the dreaded students, so that the weekend can run as smoothly as last.

Hope everyone reading this is very well, and enjoying what remains of the summer holidays (teachers) or just the summer (unless it's rained all the time, in which case, sorry to have mentioned it).

Love to all x

First views of EISP

A quick post today as I am so, so , SO frustrated by my absolutely awful internet connection not working, that I just can't be bothered to spend ages typing now. Sorry about that. I will head to some sort of wifi place this weekend sometime and update. The engineer is on his way tomorrow morning between 8am and 11am to try to fix it, but people, don't hold your breath.

This internet thing has been the main and, to be honest, only frustration of moving here. And it's not even as if I use it very much! It's just the fact that phoning the UK is so expensive and it's free on line, and also the fact that I'm paying for it and it's just rubbish.

Ok, spleen vented! Above are 2 pics of my classrooom and 1 of our staffroom at EISP - it's been a very interesting two days of Induction - but much more about that later.

And -quick - publish while the router's little green lights are still flashing!

Love to all x

Ceska Posta - or the Bitter Disappointment of thinking someone's sent you a parcel, only to discover that it is a Gas Bill.

Two very interesting photos here, one of my transport pass (nice pic) and one of the perplexing form I received in the post yesterday telling me to go the Post Office to collect something. Disappointingly, the 'something' turned out to be a completely incomprehensible letter from Prazska Plynarenszka (or similar), the Gas Company, which I assume is a demand for payment although it may not be. And there I was, hurrying to the post office with a skip in my step, wondering which of my lovely friends may have sent me a parcel! Ha ha, I can dream eh!

Recently I have been spending a bit of time getting to know my new friends and colleagues out here. Our merry band is growing and the last additions will arrive tomorrow night, upon which I assume we'll go to our traditional First Night haunt, a fine pizzeria called Red Flower down on Vinohradska. Chris, I, Katie, Lyn and Aileen were all treated to our first official Welcome to Prague dinner there, so it's time to do the same for Tara and possibly the mysterious Dave. (this is a person who we think will be working with us, but haven't heard from for some time. We're sure he's here somewhere!)

Life is forming some kind of routine right now - a morning run every couple of days, today's being the sixth so far and noticeably easier than the previous attempts; followed by a coffee and some Internet time, then lunch (rohliky, syr a synka, voda, chipsy); after that some kind of 'afternoon activity' or jobs which need to be done (usually involving form-filling); then a rendezvous around 6pm for beer and food. It's a nice life, really! Yesterday I found myself declaring to Chris that I was looking forward to getting into the routine of work, but when I think about it, I'm more than happy really to live my life in this gentle pattern, needing to be only where I decide I need to be...

We think that we are going to try to do a Wednesday Night Social each week, to get us through the first few difficult weeks of our new jobs, and to make sure that we spend at least some time not doing work! In addition I've got the weekly CS meeting on Thursday nights to look forward to, so it's shaping up to be a healthy balance of work and fun already. I like that (as you all know).

I have a happy succession of visitors lined up already: kicking off with Sir Anthony of Constable mid-September, followed hot on the heels by Pauly M, and proceeding to good old Mum n' Dad in October. Anyone else who fancies a City Break, I have a lovely orange sofa all ready and waiting for you!

Tomorrow is the Great Internet Connection Day, and then I may do another walk in the afternoon, now that the Storm of All Storms has broken the heat and it seems to suddenly be Autumn. And then... Thursday... it's off to EISP for my first day!

Thank you for reading - apologies for poor content of late - rest assured that there will doubtless be silly stories aplenty once work gets going! The difficulties of merely pronouncing the names of our International students will, I am sure, be worth noting...

Love to all x

POZOR! Thunder and lightning!

I agree that some photos of the Great Prague Storm of 2010 as witnessed last night would be more interesting than a photo of my new chairs, but I was scared of water-damaging my camera by getting it out in the middle of the rain deluge! So new chairs it is. (The one on the left was constructed by Chris as a demo, the one on the right by me, so I know which one I won't be sitting on!).

Last night's storm has to be my main talking point today, simply because it was just fantastic! Not since the Grand Canyon (another story) have I seen such powerful lightning, heard such thunderous thunder (ok, I'm tired and my adjectival power is waning) and got so utterly drenched in the rain. You know that photo a couple of posts ago, of me coming home in the rain? Well, let me tell you that that was 'a light shower' compared with last night's downpour.

And the most amusing part is, for the first instalment of the storm which apparently produced marble-sized hailstones, I was locked away three floors down in the basement of a gig venue watching Beirut play a fine set, and so I and the rest of the crowd had no idea what was going on outside ! Until the stage manager pulled Beirut offstage early due to 'a leak coming through and water falling on the amps, and therefore danger of electrocution'! The crowd and I were thinking, hmmm, a leak? Dodgy pipes? But then we got up the stairs and released a collective 'aaaaah!' when we saw what was going on.

This will be a short post due to a) the internet cafe closing now around me and b) the fact that I need to brave a Czech post office between the impending hours of 18.00 and 19.30 to collect my mysterious package, which wouldn't fit in my post box and so the postman left me a complicated Czech notice telling me (I assume) about it. Wish me luck - more blog tomorrow when I am hopefully much less tired.

Love to all (and better weather) x

Why I don't drink Absinth, and other lessons in life

Good afternoon readers. (If there is anyone still reading - thank you for sticking it for so long.)

Well, it's the Saturday after the Friday night before, and I've ventured out of my tiny little area of Praha 10 and come into the Big City Centre for a change of scene. After much bureacratic wrangling, form-filling and downright confusion I now have my travel pass so I don't have to do *quite* so much walking any more. So it made a nice change to just jump in the tram and head down to Karlovo Namesti, to try a new cafe. I'll be walking back though, to balance out the mid-afternoon Gambrius which is helping me write this blog.

So in the photos, you can see 3 different watering holes that we found last night. They seem to have entered the blog in exact reverse chronological order, so consequently the bottom one is from the first pub we went to - an excellent venue where all the pieces of paper you can see above the bar represent the choices of beer available. Unfortunately I can't remember its name, but we were taken there by my new Assistant Headteacher so I can always ask him! The picture of Lyn (a new colleague) pouring her beer is from a venue imaginatively named 'The Pub' , where you have your own beer taps on your table and just serve yourself, then pay up your total at the end. And the wall of photos is in Vagon, the dirtiest and most excellent rock club I have been in for a long while!

Our group consisted of Tony, the Assistant Principal at EISP, and his partner Debbie, whose aim was to welcome me, Chris (SLT), Aileen (Head of MFL), Lyn (Science teacher) and her partner Katie to Prague with a few choice ales. And a very nice evening it was. We shared stories of our respective first few days in the city, tales of finding keys to apartments (me), walking a lot (me) and shipping 500 pairs of shoes from the UK (not me - I brought four). All my colleagues seem very nice and friendly indeed, and I look forward to working with them as from this coming Thursday.

Afterwards Katie, Lyn and I headed to the aforementioned 'Pub' and then on to Vagon. I love that place. It's not quite the Dorchester - more rocky, more old-school and much MUCH bigger - but clearly has lots of history to it and loads of interesting photos on the walls which I shall have to devote some time to it. Best of all in my opinion, it is inconspicuously located in the basement of some sort of shopping centre and it just makes me laugh how you descend the stairs ino this enormous seething mass of long hair, beer and loud rock music, which ordinarily you may walk on past and never notice! Amuses me, anyway.

So in Vagon Katie bravely (stupidly) tried Absinth, which I here and now promise I shall never do myself. She went from utterly disgusted to hilarious laughter in very quick succession after the shot, which was fairly funny to see, but I feel I am just too elderly and dignified for those sorts of shenanigans now. Best to observe and comment rather than partake in these moments, I would say.

After a predictably monsoon-like walk home, I dried off and crawled into bed at around 4am. A good night was had by all.

In other news, I mentioned earlier that I have acquired a Travel Pass! This was one of my prouder moments of wading through bureaucracy. As advised by all consulted sources of information, I presented myself at Muzeum station with passport photos and passport, ready to sign and procure a 90-day pass. I enquired, and was told to go to Mustek instead. So I walked to Mustek (fortunately it wasn't raining - it was that other form of Czech weather, blisteringly hot) and knocked on the window of a booth where a terrifying-looking woman was busy reading the Czech version of Take a Break. I asked her as best I could for 90-day pass. She paused, harrumphed, snarled at me and said .... 'NE'. Baffled, I thought I'd try another of Mustek, labyrinthine metro station that it is. So finally I found the correct booth, joined the long queue, and was presented with a complicated-looking form entirely in Czech. At this point I almost gave up, took the form home and saved it for another day. But no! I decided I wasn't going to be beaten. I'd walked half an hour for this pass, and really wanted to get the tram back home. So I found a quiet corner of Mustek, stuck my Ipod on and spent some quality time with my best friend, my slovnik (dictionary). I managed to work out what everything on the form meant, eventually, fill it in, queue up in the by now even longer queue, and - hallelujah - obtain the pass! Valid till 10. listopad (November - see what I mean about there being no similarity between Czech and English?) the pass gives me open and unlimited access to all city centre transport. Pleased with this not inconsiderable triumph, I celebrated by riding the transport home rather than another half an hour walk.

Tonight involves a quiet night in , and I am going to work out how to turn my oven on and try to cook something in it.

Tomorrow I am meeting another new arrival, Katie, at the airport and then going with some CSers to see the band Beirut play. Really looking forward to that.

Hopefully the next post will be more interesting, and less about beer.

Love to all x

Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be... a tourist

Greetings from a very hot and stuffy wifi cafe where I have come to update this blog (and wade through more Czech e-bureaucracy).

Today I decided I'd had enough of sleeping, studying Czech and buying stuff for the flat, and decided to go on a hike. Well, a 'city-hike'. With my camera strapped to my rucksack strap, just like a professional tourist.

I left the flat at about 9.45am and it was already roasting hot outside. Seemed to spend most of the morning going up hills... and then back down them again... and then up more hills... and sometimes along the top of the hills but then pretty quickly back down once more... you get the picture. By the time I got home, about 1pm, I was exhausted.

The hike did however confirm what I had suspected - that Prague is an incredibly green city, really. Within the bustle of the city, the rumbing tramlines and the downright frightening traffic, there are parks, gardens, grassy areas, hills, vineyards and many other peaceful green spaces which always make me feel more relaxed when I take the time to wander through them. Today I found the vineyards not 15 mins walk away from my place in a lovely hillside park. There was a cafe bar place perched high above the vineyards, which I did not visit today but have definitely earmarked it for another time. This is the third picture you can see above.

The other two pictures (grapes, and the church) were taken up at Vysehrad area, the site of the ancient 'original' Prague citadel. Walking up to the top was quite hard work in this heat, but the views were definitely reward enough. I spent some quiet time wandering the impressive cemetery and finding Dvorak's grave. After some much needed rest in the shade of SS Peter and Paul Church, I made my way home via the centre of the city just to wake myself up after all that greenery!

Apart from wandering, the last few days have mostly involved studying Czech. I feel I am making some small form of progress, managing as I have to ask for stamps at the post office in perfect Czech, and to buy some new shoes without resorting to English (and feeling smug when some others in the shop tried to use the International Language of Loud American, and failed when the shop lady flatly refused to speak anything other than Czech). But keep in mind that any amount of progress is always ridiculously small, where learning Czech is concerned, and that just when you think you're getting some way towards being able to use numbers, you will be confronted in a shop with a price that doesn't sound like any Czech number you've ever heard of.

But thanks to good old 'Czech step by step' and a few hours at the desk, I can now tell you in my best Czech that I like swimming (which is true) and that my mother is ill (which, at this point in time, happens also to be true) . Tomorrow's lesson - saying what you like to eat and drink. Now that sounds more useful!

Love to all x

Grandma's Meatball and other delicacies

Good day, one and all. Indeed it IS a good day today - blue skies, bright sun, no rain... just a shame I chose this morning for a 13 hour sleepathon really!
The picture you see here is from the Couchsurfing Tea Tasting morning which I attended on Sunday - we tried the newly-arrived Japanese teas and Janko (the tea master) gave us an explanation of his teas and how they were harvested, and explained the different flavours. It was a lovely sociable morning with many other Couchsurfers from all different places. If you are unfamiliar with Couchsurfing see www.couchsurfing.org - a great way to make new friends in your city.

Since then I have mostly been eating. Chris and I have tried a different restaurant each night, if I can remember the order rightly since my arrival (A WEEK AGO - how time flies) it was pizza, Czech, pizza, Chris's cooking, Czech, Czech, Indian. I must keep a list of all the interesting specialities and downright silly menu translations I come across - favourites this week include Cheap Cheese, Hidden Meat and Grandma's Meatball. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, neither of us was quite brave enough to tuck into Grandma's Meatball, but I am sure there will come a time...

We ate Indian last night and commented on the fact that it was 'like being at home' - that just about sums up English food for you! It was quite tasty but not my favourite meal out so far - that would be the 3 kinds of fried cheese eaten a couple of nights ago. Now you see why I have been driven to take up running. Happily I do actually seem to be losing weight despite the meals, but then, if you live at the top of a hill and walk up and down it at least 3 or 4 times a day, you've got to be on to a winner on the fitness front.

I'm off to my local GE Moneybank today to collect my debit card which has apparently arrived. I have to say, it was surprisingly (thankfully) easy to set up the bank account, largely owing to the fact that Chris had already done his and so paved the way with the lovely bank ladies for me to do the same - what a charmer. But the whole process went exceedingly smoothly and soon I will have spending power! Which will come in handy when we make our return trip to Ikea and I furnish my flat with two bright red chairs I've got my eye on.... yes my first ever trip to Ikea was yesterday, though we were carless so just had a look and decided what to buy when we return with transport, and finally I saw what all the fuss was about! What a great place. I shall have to go back. (The lure of 20kc fried cheese in the restaurant is just too much to resist).

So today's adventures involve the bank, and then purchasing some sturdy walking shoes as my poor feet need some support! Who knows what tonight's dinner will serve up - there was talk last night of playing Czech Menu Roulette - involving deliberately not obtaining the English menu and just choosing something, anything, at random.

But if it ends up being Grandma's Meatball, I think I'll go hungry, thanks.

Hoping everyone is well x