Wow. This month FLEW by. I vividly remember writing about month 3 and thinking to myself how slowly time in moving. But I swear I just blinked and here we are, about to start month 5 what the heck!! I'm writing this as I get myself ready to go home to the US for Christmas and just feeling like I really need to get this out haha. This last week of lessons for me has been those typical fun Christmas activities with my students even though they have a couple days of school left next week. But for me it feels like those
school days right before our long break where everyone is really just having fun, playing games, and listening to Christmas music. Classes have genuinely be entertaining this week, getting some competitions going, sharing Christmas cookies and hearing about their traditions. But in the midst of this fun I'm feeling a weird bittersweet feeling. Of course I'm excited to go home and see friends and family, but there's actually a part of me that wants to stay. And I'm surprising myself that I feel this way. Some of the other ETAs are really dying to go home and rightfully so because some aren't having the best time in their towns/schools. But I think I'm just feeling really grateful because I'm really loving this new life I've created here. Of course there's ups and downs but I feel really solid in my relationships I've formed with teachers and students, and almost feel like I'm cheating on them by going home haha. Two of my students came up to me just after my last class and gave me a hug saying how sad they are it's their last class with me and they'll really miss me. Like WHAT. It's just Christmas break?! And you're gonna miss having CLASS?! See, that just makes it all worth it for me. They're really some of the sweetest students and I realized I'm genuinely going to miss them too!!
So anyways, things like that inspired my word for Month 4: Lucky. So much has happened this month (as always), good and bad. And all of that combined has made me feel so extra lucky to be here:
Christmas lessons this week have actually been so fun. In most of my classes we did this scavenger hunt/Christmas vocabulary wordsearch thing and it reminded me of back in high school or elementary school when we would have these fun competitions before Christmas. It's been so fun to see their excitement over little things, hear the differences in Czech Christmas, and listen to some American Christmas music since that's what they love too :)
One of my classes had a surprise for me, so at the end of our class they all took out homemade Christmas poppers or whatever you call them. They didn't really know what they were but thought they were an American tradition and wanted to surprise me with something I do every year. How CUTE! It was kind of funny because I knew what they were, but it's not really a tradition I've ever done so I just kind of assumed they were introducing me to something Czech haha. And they were like...uh...this is your thing. I don't know- it was so funny and so sweet they wanted to do something like that for me!
A group of girls in one of my classes bought me a whole bag of Czech candies to bring home, and another one made me a box of Czech cookies to do the same! It's so cute to see them get excited about showing me something new and taking the time to think of me always makes me feel so special. Relationships with my students in general have been awesome this month. I've gone to get hot wine with a couple different groups, out to cafes, or just walks around town. It doesn't feel forced at all and I'm feeling extra grateful for their generosity!!
I really fell into the Czech cookie tradition which is much more intricate than I thought haha. I was invited on two separate occasions to bake cookies thinking it would be just a nice afternoon. Each time we made like 7 cookies from scratch, decorated them, ate them haha. It took hours but drank some hot wine, listened to music, and I really felt like I was in a home finally.
Joining sports club at my school has been such a highlight of my weeks. Every Thursday I come back to school in the afternoon and play volleyball with 2 teachers I'm pretty close with and a handful of students. Another ETA close to me joins too and we have fun barely speaking any English but just playing. We'll usually go to a pub afterwards too.
Finally after 1 whole month of transit, I received my long lost package from the US with my winter coat in it!! Such a complicated process but honestly took up my entire month haha.
Buying Christmas presents in Tábor has been an unexpected fun activity for me this month. I'm not the best at buying gifts, but since my family wasn't able to visit me anymore I had to do all the shopping on my own. It got me thinking about home, excited about sharing stories and pieces of my new life, and also got me into some stores I always walk by but never enter. And I have to say, all the shopping was pretty successful :)
Funny anecdote from classes this week: In the word search activity I mentioned, one of the clues was "Someone who takes care of sheep" and almost all my groups wrote "pimp". Uh....um. I was thoroughly confused. My teachers thought it was hilarious and then explained to me that the Czech word for pimp literally means to take care of sheep. So that was interesting.
After volleyball this week we had our final weekly pub visit and just felt super special that my teachers were sad to see me go. They forced Hunter and I to take a shot for good luck on our flights haha
I mentioned this in my Thanksgiving post a bit, but this month was unfortunately filled with a lot of Fulbrighters being frustrated and annoyed. I was fortunate enough to not relate to most of the complaints, but being surrounded by a lot of negative energy was really draining this month. Hopeful things will improve after Christmas!
So this month was a lot. As usual! But with it being the holiday season I found myself looking forward to a lot as well. It helped the time move faster for sure, because I think it's fair to say I really did need a break. I think subconsciously the reason it's gone fast is because I have this big trip home ahead of me, and I know it's something I need. So with that, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll be back in the Czech for New Years and will probably need to recap my emotions coming back. See ya then!
Annnnd cue the pics:
