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.