Gelato and the Art of Radiator Maintenance

Well, friends, I have just returned from a 9-day journey to Croatia, and I find myself at a loss as to where I should begin my tale. This is going to be a long one… so go ahead and stretch, maybe grab a glass of water. I’ll start when you’re ready.

The trip included 45 people in all: 22 students, 5 teachers, and 18 others including friends, families, and children of the students and teachers involved. Our 15 hour ride began at 9pm on June 17th. The ride was long, uncomfortable, and often awkward due to the fact that most students were afraid to use their weak English skills around Jason and me. Nevertheless, we arrived safely in Istra, Croatia without trouble.

The next 7 days were really great. Most days involved relaxing on the beach, throwing Frisbees, reading books, and slathering sunscreen. Though the trip was advertised as an “English Camp,” there were actually only three sessions of English training over the full course of the trip. As it turns out, the other teachers saw it as an English camp simply because Jason and I were coming, which would then force students to interact with us in English. Most of the time the students were pretty cool about it, but like most of my year in the Czech Republic, there were long spells during which I just kind of sat back and smiled, wondering in my head what everyone was talking about.

For those of you who still (understandably) associate Croatia with the ethnic and religious tension of the 1990s, let me assure you that other than a few tourists trying their hands at a little archery, there was no danger whatsoever where we stayed. There was also a danger of obesity I suppose, due to the over-availability of some of the most wonderful gelato ice cream I’ve ever tasted… Croatia is over course only a hop, skip and a jump away from Italy, where this wonderful dairy sensation originated. But I digress.

The beaches in Croatia are beautiful, though a bit odd in that there is no sand. None. Sunbathers often seek the perfect tan atop cement slabs or loose gravel. It wasn’t until I saw the beaches for myself that I understood why so many of our Czech co-travelers brought inflatable mattresses and foam padding with them. Regardless of my inability to build the perfect “asphalt castle” I had hoped for, the week was relaxing and wonderfully uneventful. Below, you will also find pictures of a boat trip Jason and I took with a bunch of students, as well as a few of the towns we were able to visit.

The real adventure came during our journey home. We left the hotel at 6pm on Saturday aboard a bus called the “Omega.” Around 7:30, this marvelous vehicle got a flat tire. Following a series of uninformed mishaps on the part of the driver and the two guys who volunteered to help change the tire, the radiator was also severely damaged. Don’t ask how it happened. After 3 hours on the side of the road, the driver claimed that he had temporarily fixed the radiator problem using a coil of steel wire and (I’m not kidding) Scotch tape. We then drove to the nearest gas station. Let me pause to mention that this gas station was situated in the middle of Ljubljiana, Slovenia… unimportant to the story, but pretty fun to mention anyway.

By about 2am, the driver was claiming that his quick radiator fix would be suitable for getting us 1 hour of traveling at a time… he figured we could just stop every hour, fill it up with water, and continue on. The teachers, who incidentally had been arguing and calling other knowledgeable Czechs in the meantime, agreed that this was just a bad idea. Despite lawsuit threats from the bus driver and his crying wife who had also come along for the trip, the head English teacher went ahead and called for another tour bus to come pick us up… from 9 hours away. Much to my dismay, it was also decided that a late night hike into the center of Ljubljiana was a bad idea. Those who were able, went to sleep soon thereafter.

For reasons still unknown to me, around 6am, this lame, half-full bus, was escorted to a nearby semi-truck repair facility. At some point, I guess, somebody decided it was a good idea for half of the students and teachers to stay at the gas station, and half to go to the repair facility. I woke up around 8:30 in a bus in a huge warehouse full of dismantled industrial machinery and truck parts. For the next 5 ½ hours, along with 15 or so students I sat, read, and played frisbee on a little landscaped island in this repair compound wondering when we would actually return home. Go figure, the rescue bus from Prague got lost on the way. Why on Earth the bus’s radiator couldn’t be repaired or replaced in those 5 ½ hours is beyond me… but nothing else up to this point made much sense either. I’ll just continue to smile and nod and wonder what everyone is talking about.

A trip that should have taken 15 hours at most turned into a 32-hour ordeal. It was an odd journey… stressful, tense, hilarious and bizarre. But what a cool story.

Jason and I amidst our group of 8th and 9th grade girls. We all opted to take a 9-hour boat trip along the Istra (northern Croatia) coast. We spent a whole lot of time on that little boat, and not nearly enough time exploring the little towns, but it was a pretty great trip nonetheless.

The port city of Rovinj, Croatia. I wish we'd had more time to explore this town, because what I saw in an hour was pretty amazing. Also, because I was responsible for a group of 14 and 15 year old girls, most of my time was spent looking for ice cream and souvenirs. Alas, 'twas a beautiful place.

While lost in the port city of Porec, a group of students and I found our way into a maze of these great little alleys. I'd tell you to visit if you ever find yourself in Croatia... but I'm confident I could never find it again.

Meet my new friend, Stepan... son of one of the Czech English teachers on the trip. He's 4 & 3/4, and can count on ten fingers the number of English words he knows. Our coversations consisted almost entirely of Stepan: "Ciao Miku!" Mike: "Ahoj Stepane." Stepan: "Miku, Hi. My name is Spider-Man."

Nukes, Drinks, Holes, and Plans for the Next Few Months.

As of right now, I am officially done with classes for the year. Pretty strange, really. I said goodbye to my favorite class this morning, which was no fun, but I am excited about teaching them again next year. Othe classes have been really great this past week as we have had class parties and games and end-of-the-year stuff.

Yesterday, however, was a pretty phonmenal "Czech day." By that I simply mean that quite a few things happened that reminded me how different the American and Czech cultures can really be...

My day began at 6:15 with the screeching of an unwelcome alarm clock. After a quick bite and a shower, I headed up the teacher's office to print off a paper one of my nuke students asked me to proof-read. I figured I could print it, and look it over while on the train to the research center. Little did I know that this paper was in fact a detailed nuclear research write-up, outlining the possible faults of current nuclear cooling systems in use around the world. The thing was full of jargon like nothing I've ever seen before. 40 minutes on a train and waiting in the classroom waiting for students to arrive put me about 5 pages into the 19-page paper. Unreal.

I have two classes at the nuke research center. The students are all really great, though some of them occasionally tiptoe over the line of nerdy, "I never really leave my flat and office" kind of lifestyles. The first class is the greatest... they're always really interested in open conversation and love to laugh. For our 8:30am class party, I brought some water and juice and oreo cookies. Milan, on the other hand, saw this as a much bigger event, and brought two bottles of wine. Zdena managed to cook three plates of cookies and cakes. We talked and munched and sipped chardonay and champagne for 90 minutes. The next class, a group of middle-aged men, also brought a bottle of wine and cookies. Let me go ahead and sum that up for you... by 11:00 in the morning on a Wednesday I had had 3 glasses of wine with nuclear scientists in a secure nuclear research facility in the heart of the Czech Republic. Its experiences like this that I will a) never be able to reproduce in America, and b) never forget.

Immediately following my last day at the nuke center, I met with two of my graduated students for lunch. We trudged through a torrential downpour for 15 minutes, only to find that the restaurant owners had decided not to open for lunch that day. 40 minutes later, with my socks so wet they squished when I walked, I stepped into a little pizzeria just outside of Prague.

By the time lunch was finished, the rain had stopped. I hopped a train back to Kralupy around 3pm and planned to head straight to the couch for a nap. I was, however, distracted along the way by a group of people in the middle of town. Apparently, a water main had broken during the previous night, and needed to be dug up. The result was a hole 15 feet across, 10 feet wide and a good 15-20 feet deep. In America, police would have quardoned (did I spell that right?) off a full city block to keep people safe and out of the way. In the Czech Republic, on the other hand, this is a major event. There was no caution tape or barrier to speak of, though there were construction trucks parked to keep traffic out. When I got there, there were probably 25 people standing around watching a huge backhoe in action. There were old men laughing and pointing, awed little kids sitting with their legs dangling into hole, and a bunch of workers sitting in the bed of a pickup drinking beer while one worker continued to operate the backhoe and dig the aforementioned crater in the middle of the street. If I had really wanted to climb down into the hole and watch the action at an arms-length distance, I'm confident nobody would have stopped me.

The rest of the day was pretty normal... I took a nap, made some dinner, hung out with one of Jason's classes while they had a party in our flat, did some grading, played pool with two other graduated students and crashed around midnight. What a great day.

So tomorrow evening, Jason and I will be heading to the lovely shores of Croatia with a big group of students, teachers, and other random Czechs. We'll be there for 9 days. The Croatia trip will be followed by 3 days in Kralupy and Prague, and a 15-hour flight back to Cleveland. I'll hit the Cleveland airport around 4pm on the 30th. My plans for the summer is as follows (tentatively)...

July 1st - Turn 24.
July 2nd - 8th - Relax, visit friends, eat Mexican food, Papa John's pizza, American hamburgers, and Bob Evan's breakfasts.
July 9th - 11th - Head down to Cincy to see Scott and Kristen get hitched.
July 13th - August 1st- Head out to Los Angeles to train new teachers and meet my new teammate for next year.
August 2nd - 12th? - Spend time with a certain Joshua James Florio.
August 18th - 21st - Back down to Cincy to see Joe and Josie tie the knot.
August 22nd - Fly back to Prague.

I'm hoping to see as many of you as possible while I'm home... I'm hoping to get an American SIM card for my cell phone shortly after returning home, which will soon thereafter be posted here. Feel free to give me a call, I'd love to grab a bite to eat or even just hang out.

This was a pretty long post, eh? Thanks for hanging in there and continuing to read. I like you guys a lot. Talk to you soon.

My nuclear scientists. Yes, those are wine glasses. I'll discuss that further in the near future. Funny story. Anywho, this is Me, Milan, Jan, Monika, Zdena, and Petr. Of my two nuke classes, this was my favorite.

The best students are the ones who will construct a human pyramid in class without hesitation. This is my 6G class (high school freshmen/sophomores). Bottom row: Jirka, Petr, Tomas, Jan, Josef, Pavel. Top row: Jarda, Martin, Misa, Lucka, Bara.

Recipe for fun is as follows:
Using an iron hanger in place of the traditional roasting stick, hold 1 whole onion and one full block of fat over an open fire until the fat and onion juices begin to drip from the stick. Quickly place the two over one thick slice of rye bread until the juice stops dripping. Repeat until bread is saturated. Once the bread is soaked to your liking, garnish the bread with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and a whole lot of secret hungarian seasoning. Eat. Repeat until satisfied... or dead. You've had yourself a successful hungarian fat fry.

My friends, Erin, Signe and I atop the Krumlov castle at sunset. Pretty amazing.

The City of Cesky Krumlov as seen from the Castle... you may remember an earlier post about this beautiful place when my parents and I ventured through. Though winter was really incredible here, spring made it one of the most beautiful places I've been.

This is me hard at work. One of the maturita (graduating) classes had a relay race through the school for teachers and students. I'm sorry to report that the teachers came in third (out of five).

To celebrate the end of the graduation exams, my 8G students had a party in the park across the street from the school, beginning at 9am. You may be able to spot the keg in the background. Yeah, go ahead and re-read that... a keg party... across the street from the school... at 9am.