Feb 9
A lot has happened since I last wrote, but getting internet at the apartment…that has yet to happen. A week ago today, Nathan, a Fulbrighter from San Diego came over. He brought good luck, I think, because suddenly an effective wifi connection appeared on my laptop. It worked perfectly Friday, Saturday and before we left Sunday morning.
Mid-day Sunday, I left for the Fulbright Mid-Year Conference. We lugged my small suitcase with four days worth of warm clothes and my laptop the five or six blocks to the tram, then took the tram to the Fulbright Office. Russ went backed to the flat briefly and then left for the Airport-Hotel to spend the night before an early flight back. I have heard an inkling that the Hotel experience was not without problems, but I haven’t yet heard what they were.
I, on the other hand, had a totally smooth and quite interesting trip by bus to the south Moravian town of Velke Bilovice in the wine district. There were about 22 Fulbrighters (including families), four Fulbright staff members, and a Czech member of the US Embassy staff on the bus. Three families brought kids..ages 4-months, 2, 3, and 8. I had not met most of the people before. Several don’t work in Prague and had come in to catch the charter bus to the conference. Others had arrived after the party last Friday.
The countryside was snow-covered as soon as we got outside the city. The road was clear, thank goodness. Along the way we crossed the central highlands, rolling hills and forests with many open fields and, at the highest points, some very pretty, snow-covered spruce and white birch forests. In the open fields we saw jack rabbits and, in places, many, many raptors. There were also a couple of herds of small deer. Of course, my biology and botany may be totally off, but those are my guesses at what I saw.
The highway is made of concrete slabs that have expansion cracks, which of course are not at all expanded in this cold. So the bus ka-thumped along in a road rhythm that was a somewhere between sleep-inducing and insanity-producing.
We stopped in the south Bohemian city of Brno and picked up the rest of the Fulbrighters and staffers. As we approached the city, huge concrete high-rise appeared out of the fields. These are apparently the Soviet era housing projects of Brno. They are totally incongruous with their environment. Another 10, or so, folks joined us...then on to Velke Bilovice near where Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic meet.
The conference was at a small conference center. It was comfortable, except that there was only one internet connection for all of us to share. It was an extra computer in the hotel manager’s office, so if he was having a meeting, or had closed up for the day…no internet at all.
We were joined by a bus full of Fulbrighters and their families from Slovakia. There were about 80 of us I think. Some were high school teachers. Fulbright has a program in which high school teachers exchange jobs and houses for a year! They had some tales to tell, both about the exchanging experience, and about their teaching situations. They taught in very different places. Jen teaches in a vocational school sponsored by Citroen car company. She didn’t know why they sponsored it. All but two of her 120 students are boys. She teaches them English. Most will not go on to universities.
Megan teaches in a very high-end gymnasium where all the students will probably go to universities. They have every possible bit of technology and equipment. The others were in between, but in good schools. In her presentation, Kylowna from Los Angeles, compared the Czech students’ Senior Prom-type dance with the one at her LA school. All the students in the school come in the Czech dance…and all their families. Everyone drinks beer, of course. The students are honored for being in their final year and as they walk up to be honored, people throw coins at them…really heave them so the students have to duck and weave to avoid them.
The Fulbright Lecturers each described what they have been teaching since the fall and what lessons they learned…for example, you cannot expect that the students will read 70 pages of organic chemistry articles, in English, for each class, and that they totally do not get the idea that it is unacceptable to tell a classmate what the answer is on a test. Apparently, you can be having a test in a biomechanics class and students will just ask each other to explain things to them so they can get the answer. So, the only choice is to design the course to include collaboration on all assignments and tests because they will collaborate whether you plan it that way or not. Good to know, if you want to avoid a frustrating experience!
There were also some pretty interesting presentations about people’s research and teaching. From Karla, I learned about Toyen, a Czech/French artist with major sex issues. Tom read from a short story he is working on. Mark publishes a poetry journal back home and teaches contemporary literature here. David gave fascinating presentations on teaching languages. I'd like to take Steve's class on family and aging policy, and Srdjan's on public health. The doctoral students talked about their dissertation research, and most of them could have used some coaching on how to present. They haven’t learned yet that the audience really doesn’t want to know everything!
The restaurant where we had the welcome dinner was vaulted brick, like the winery tunnels we visited the next day. We toured the Knights Templar Wineries…pretty cool. The tunnels where their wine drums are housed were built in the Middle Ages. We also had a snowy visit to a very cold castle, with a nice warm green house.
When I got back, last night, the flat was 14 C because we had turned down the heat before leaving. It takes a long time to heat back up. I have it up to 20 so far, on the way to about 22. Otherwise, it was good to be back. I was able to catch Meg and Arnold and Ismini by Skype. I reached Peggy, but while we were talking, the wifi disappeared, just as suddenly as it had appeared last week. I feel very isolated when I do not have internet.
The wifi goddess did not smile on me this morning either. So I went to the Bohemian Bagel Internet Café and sent a few messages. I spent the rest of the morning exploring my options for Intensive Czech for Foreigners classes. I think I have located a good one for me. It will be two mornings a week, two hours a class, starting in a week. I also bought myself a three-month Metro pass. That was a bit of a task. I couldn’t find the right Metro stop at first, but a friendly ticket agent with good pantomime skills put me on the right path. After that, it was only a matter of standing in line a while. Since the wifi was still not working in the afternoon, I decided to metro up to where I will teach and see if I could get online there.
I got lucky. The secretary was in, even though it is semester break here until Feb 20. So I spent the afternoon in the comfort of e-space. On the way home, I passed a sale and a warm green sweater called to me, so I bought it. I’m happily wearing it now, waiting for the temperature to reach my goal. I stopped at the Potroviny (mini market) for some bread, eggs, and beer…I am going native with the beer but not yet with sausage and potatoes…so I settled for an egg sandwich for dinner.
The weather was quite tolerable today. I was able to go without a scarf for the first time. I think it might be almost up to 32F.
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