Elections and whatnot

OK so I'm going to indulge myself at your expense once again. It may take me a while to get to my point but please bear with me. I really do have a point to make and I'm not venting hostility or anything. 

                            Is it? I really hope so.

Obviously the elections are the big news. Here in CR they only really heard about Obama. McCain was pretty much ignored. Well it's over now so it doesn't really matter I don't guess. I might as well have full disclosure. I did not want Obama to win. I have serious doubts about what he really believes. But he's going to be the President now so I might as well get used to it. As I've been thinking more and more on this I have found some hope in the result.

For a long time now American politics have been nasty. I went to Washington in 1998 just in time for Clinton to get impeached. I voted for him but felt that he should resign for embarrassing himself and our country the way he did. I saw the way Democrats seemed to forget principals they argued strongly for simply to keep their guy in power. I was working for a Republican Congressman for whom I had and still have very high respect and admiration. I saw that these politicians were good people but any time people with differing points of view try to do anything there will be conflict. They are still people with flaws like anybody else and sometimes they screw up. This did not keep me from being as extreme and vehement in my dislike of Clinton as any of some of the worst folks though.

Then in 2000 things just got worse. With the whole recount business the tables turned. All the impotent rage we conservatives had for Clinton and the Dems was taken up by many people against Bush. I was working for a lobbying firm by that time and we could not figure out why the other side could not just acknowledge that Bush won fair and square. There was no attempt to come together from either side it seems to me now.

The term conservatives have is Bush Derangement Syndrome. In fairness those of us on the right had some Clinton Derangement Syndrome in our time as well.

But when 9/11 happened everything changed. This is obvious of course but it seemed that there were much more serious things to worry about than scoring political points. My friends in New York were forced out of their homes and were stuck with the fear that something else might happen. I remember talking on the phone with my buddy when in the middle of the call he said, "Someone said there's a bomb, gotta go" click. It was a false alarm but in the days right after that happened frequently.

I was at work in DC in our office on Pennsylvania Ave when it happened. It was so surreal that I wasn't scared or anything. It seemed like a movie or something. These things just don't happen. The office manager came around and pointed out that since we were a block from the FBI building and about 3 blocks from the Whitehouse that we would close down and go home rather than take any chances. I was more worried that our house guests hadn't left yet and that I'd get to see them before they took off. Pretty silly when I think about it now. I took the subway home. It didn't occur to me that it might not be safe. They were shut down not long after I got home.

Our house guests were a rock band from London who were supposed to play a concert in New York on Wednesday, September 12. Needless to say they did not leave. We just all sat and watched TV and tried to call our parents. No luck on that front. No cell phones could get through and even the landlines were overloaded.  Watching the towers fall on TV did not seem real. It just would not sink in. Then the news reported that one of the attorneys from our office was on the plane that hit the Pentagon. I just could not believe it. I didn't know her well but I did see her everyday. It's terrible but it never seemed to make an impression on me. She just wasn't at work anymore. That changed when we all went to her memorial service. That someone like her could be murdered like that made all those arguments we had with the "lefties," as we called them, seem petty and stupid. It looked like maybe we would come to reality and see that we were really on the same side.

Of course it didn't last. Many people now like to say they knew Iraq was a mistake from the start, that there were no WMDs etc. I'm not going to belabor that argument. But thanks to that war and the way it was prosecuted Bush Derangement Syndrome came back with a vengeance. I feel like it's unfair to Bush but what can you do? He didn't really help himself all that much either. But we seemed to be stuck with the negativity and meanness that politics had become.

So while I did not support Obama I am hopeful that we might be able to get past that. I think that since he won decisively it is clear that the country wants to move past the bitterness we've had in politics. Republicans are showing a willingness to call a truce. It's clear the country did not want what they represented. Hopefully they have gotten that message and will reform accordingly. Obama's acceptance speech is a good start. He seems to want to be magnanimous and is not looking to settle scores or punish his rivals.

If I'm going to be totally honest I do not think we would have this opportunity had McCain won. I just don't see Congressional Democrats the Moveon.org types being good losers. But we don't have to worry about how they'd have taken an Obama loss. Websites like 52 to 48 With Love are a good sign that since their guy won people on the left are willing to be friends again. I think everybody wants politics to be more civil. 

While I disagree that the USA was bad or had anything to apologize for, Obama's election is a signal to people that disliked America that we really are good people. So I may rankle a bit at the implication that we need to rehabilitate our image it's worth it if Obama is the leader he says that he is. He has the good will of everybody right now. I pray that God gives him the wisdom to say yes to his opponents in Congress when he can, to say no to his supporters when he should and that both sides will give him a fair chance to lead. And I pray both sides will come together and put away the animosity of the last 10 years. 

With the exception of the Russian President, the whole world appears to be feeling a lot better about America. Let's pray Obama can live up to those expectations. I'm cautiously optimistic that he can. Or at least I want to be. 

Dessert

Lest anyone think I'm having a hard life over here I just wanted to show you my dessert I'm having today. 

Yep, it tastes as good as it looks. They really like their sweets here in CR. Every supermarket as about 2 isles devoted to candy bars and chocolate. This one is some kind of mixed berry something or other. It's not really a tart or a cake. It's sort of like a pie with no crust. The little sign it was behind in the case said "Ovocny Rez" I have no idea what that means and when I said it to the waitress she made me point out what I wanted so maybe it means "Dessert" or something general. Oh the joys of monolingualism!

First Week Ever

So I've gotten through the first week. What have I learned so far?

1. I speak to fast.

2. I speak too much.

3. When someone looks you in the eye and nods, they may or not understand a word you said.

4. People here like to talk about politics.

5. People want to speak English but are not good with open ended questions. 

6. I really need to find some things about which I can ask specific questions.

7. I've got a long way to go. 

There's plenty more but #7 sort of catches all that. 

I went through the whole week asking each class if they had anything they wanted to talk about that day or at any time in the future. You could hear a pin drop. Then on Friday I got through a whole class in the same manner when Petr Konopik came to my rescue. He's one of the first people I met here. He helped put in the swings and leads the music from time to time. He stopped me and said, "I have a question about something that is not on the topic we are speaking on." Then went on to suggest a few things he would like to work on in future lessons. This opened the floodgate and we got tons of great suggestions. I was like, "Yes finally, thank you Petr!"

So now I've got a lot more to go on. I'm pretty optimistic about how things are going. I've got about three classes with about 10 people and a few with one or two. So I've got a good mix of things to do so it won't (hopefully) get into a rut. 

On a little side note. My wifi signal mysteriously went to nothing yesterday so I don't know how much I can post for a little while. Not that I was burning up the bandwidth as it is. I'm in a cafe around the corner from my apartment. Hi!

Oh this week is their 4th of July in a way. The current Republic was founded on 28 October 1918. It's not as big a deal here as 4th of July I don't think. Nobody seems to be all that workd up. But they do get the day off and so I might also. Although I only had one girl on Tuesday last week and she might be switching to a different day anyway. I may have every Tuesday off for all I know. 

Na Shledanou!

I'm Popeye the sailor man, I live in a garbage can. . .

That's not commentary on my living conditions. My apartment is quite nice. But that's how the little song we sang when I was a kid goes. I can't remember all the permutations of it. The only one I can remember is

I'm Popeye the sailor man
I live in a garbage can
I eat all the worms and spit out the germs
I'm Popeye the sailor man. Woo Wooo!

So why am I reminiscing about silly playground songs from my childhood? I ate big ol' plate of spinach today, that's why! For those of you that don't know me this is a big deal. So big that I would actually waste your time in my blog with it. I'm not big on green stuff unless it's a pepper of some sort. And leafy green stuff is an even bigger challenge. Then when you take said leafy green stuff and cook it for hours, I'm even less likely to eat it. Eeeww!

Well today I had an English class at Maranatha from 9:00-11:00 in the morning. Every Thursday they have a Communion then everyone eats lunch together. It's a really cool thing they do here. So I stuck around for that stuff after my class.

When I sat down to eat though I got an unpleasant surprise. The gave me a plate that looked a lot like this. So of course the first thing I thought was, "Uh-oh, that looks a lot like spinach. Oh that's not good. " But when someone is nice enough to offer you food you eat it. You don't turn your nose up like some spoiled brat. So I made up my mind that I'd just suck it up and power through the meal and hope that the dumplings, knedliky in Czech, would make the rest of it eatable.  Then I started eating it and I was like, "Oh. . . this is good! It must be something else. Maybe it's a bunch of chopped parsley and herbs. Alright! I can eat this, I can do it!"  So after I'd eaten about half of it I asked Slavo what it was. He said, "Spinach, duh!" Actually didn't say "Duh." I don't think they know that word here. But it seemed obvious to him that it was spinach and of course it was.

By the way, Czechs eat really fast. At these Thursday lunches I'm always the last one to finish. I don't know how they do it. Even the little old ladies eat faster than I do. And lunch is the main meal of the day here so the portions are quite large. They are an amazing people. They must think I'm a sissy. 

Anyway, the English classes are going well. It's looking like most people don't want to work with text books and do drills all class long. I'm psyched because that means we will get to talk about general stuff they like to talk about and I can learn what's going on here. Assuming of course that I can trick them into telling me what they like to talk about. But it's coming along and I'm getting much more comfortable with it everyday. 

More to come 

I'm a teacher now, or that's what I tell people anyway.

The classes are going pretty well. I had two today (Wednesday). It's really hard to get Czech people to talk. You can ask them questions and they just look at you with a totally blank expression on their face. It's pretty funny. Anyway I got through a whole class using these text books after I had asked if they wanted to use them or not. Then at the end they all said they didn't want to use the books. It worked out fine. They all just want to work on conversation and pick up a few new words that way. Which is great but the trick is getting them to talk. It's much easier when it's just one or two people. You can usually find something they like to talk about. But they won't tell you what they want to talk about. It's a challenge for sure but it is mostly funny to me right now. In bigger groups there's usually one or two people that will speak up but the rest just look at the table. I hope they all come back but I've been told to expect some people to only show up once. Which is a bummer.  But even after just three days and four classes I'm already much more comfortable with the whole deal.

Sorry no photos this time either. When I know my students are going to stick around I will try to get them to let me take their photos for the blog. Hopefully they'll be more cooperative than some people (wink wink) I know.

The Big Day

Well here it is. I've got my first English class in about an hour. Slavo and I have been getting it all organized and now it's finally going to happen. 

Fortunately I've got books to follow so I won't have to wing it. This class is made up of adults that want a more structured, grammar oriented lesson. That's cool we can do that. No problem. I hope. 

What will be tricky are the ones without the books. So far we don't have any but if teenagers start to come they will not want to do grammar 'cause they get so much at school and the teachers here apparently are not very nice. Evidently it's a bit scary to speak up in class because they get on your case if you're wrong. I have heard that many of English teachers were Russian or German teachers before and don't like teaching English. I hope that's not true.  But hopefully I can make it fun for everybody. I certainly won't be giving anyone a hard time for being wrong.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I love Muppets

OK so this is totally out of nowhere I know. But I came across some Muppet Show stuff on youtube. I always loved the Muppets. Never got into Fraggle Rock though. I'm that old that it was after my time. Ooof! That hurts.

Anyway it may seem dumb now but the Muppet Show was so great.
 

They had Dizzy Gillespie on singing Swing Low (Sweet Cadillac).  So we little dudes and dudettes got some culture. Check it out!  Just click here to see the video. Then come back so we can discuss. Make sure you come back though. It will be tempting to watch a bunch of Muppet Show and Dizzie Gillespie videos. It's cool I know but come back. You can play with that stuff later.

So that was so totally awesome! Wasn't it?

So maybe, just maybe Sesame Street and The Muppet Show contributed to me having a short attention span and the erroneous idea that learning should always be fun. It's totally worth it! I don't know if there's a DVD of the old show but there absolutely should be. One day I would like to have kids so I can show them stuff like this. That's not the only reason of course, no no. I'm not a complete weirdo. 

Hey! I'm not! Really! I know what y'all are thinking.

Bye Bye