I'm a little late to posting this one, but started to write it mid-month and have been adding to it since! Month 6 was FAST. Like woah I don't really believe it's about to be the start of...month..7...ew. As we know month 5 was slow and wow, things changed. It was full of chaos is good and bad ways and finished
off with a visit from the parents - the first people from back home to visit me here and see my new life! Lots of highs and lows but I've definitely felt an overwhelming sense of a fresh start, or a new beginning. Sadly, I think it's actually me just realizing the beginning of the end as I've now started to countdown the months I have left here. Lots of changes though with the weather, school schedules, visits from friends and family - lots of NEW things! Hence my phrase for Month 6: A New Leaf.
In general I think this month has been just what I needed in terms of being busy with things I enjoy, sinking back into a healthy routine, and ultimately having things to look forward to. Compared to last month things definitely felt less gray for me which was promising, but still mixed in there with a couple cold and depressing days. Anyways, lots of little things I took note of over the last 4 weeks:
I know I spoke about some confidence issues before and how some of those stemmed from troublesome skin. I've always dealt with acne and therefore also dealt with the millions of possible remedies and rarely found success. Well I've found a tiny little glimmer of success in some products I brought back with me from the US and I swear it makes such a difference in my mental health! Nothings fixed entirely, but to wake up this month to just a couple more days of clear(er) skin has felt goooood
Wordle has rightfully taken over my life. And as little as that may seem, it's been a fun little activity to do and share with friends and family each day. I've even started doing it with some colleagues in between classes and it's really an entertaining hobby of mine now haha
This month started out with a bummer having Fulbright's mid-year conference cancelled due to rising COVID numbers as well as the Lumineers concert which I was looking forward to for MONTHS. So so sad and disappointed, considering how gray month 5 was, but completely understand the decision. Things were looking messy here for a couple of weeks.
Learned from a friend here in Tábor how to drive stick shift one afternoon! Definitely NOT a confident driver but it's always something I've felt like I should learn and was so thrilled to have someone willing enough to teach me haha. We went to an airport parking lot for an hour or so as I stalled out many times but ultimately kinda got the hang of it??
Some other ETAs and I took a weekend trip to Bratislava, Slovakia! I'll definitely write a whole post about this because it was like a return to the homeland haha. My mom's side of the family was from there and no one's really returned, so it was a little surreal being able to visit.
This month was filled with so many random schedule changes at school which usually is nothing notable, but kinda kept things feeling exciting all month haha. It's the little things. I had a number of early morning starts (7AM) and some other days finishing quite early (11AM) which is always a nice feeling. To have a class cancelled or rescheduled is sometimes exactly the break you need.
One weekend was spent in Prague for a fellow ETAs birthday which ended up being such a fun weekend for us to get away. It was really chilled, just hanging out at an airbnb for a night and catching up with some other ETAs I don't often see.
Made a new friend at my Indian restaurant that I give way too much business too haha. Usually the waiters that work there speak a bit of English and we're kinda friends, I mean we just acknowledge each other and commiserate on the fact that Czech isn't our first language. But this month I met a new waiter who's English was fantastic, and now we're actually friends haha. He recognizes us when we come in and jokes around with us. It's nice to see some familiar faces around.
News from back home, but Taylor got a new puppy which was been a long time coming!! Always nice being surprised with a puppy FaceTime or some pictures. Makes me a little sad wishing I could be home to meet her, but does get me excited to head home in a couple months.
On Valentine's Day my mentor invited me to go to her daughter's dance class that happens to be a pretty regular thing for Czech high schoolers. It was the most precious thing I've ever witnessed and I think I could've watched for longer than the 2 hours we spent there haha. It was peak 15 year old awkwardness trying to classical dance with a boy/girl they probably had a crush on and I was laughing the whole time. It was amazing.
The ETA who lives close to me, Hunter, celebrated his birthday in town as well. And being friends with some of my teachers we all went bowling for a night. It was my 3 fellow English teachers and their partners all together which I don't think has really happened since I've been here? It was great to be all together and bond a little outside of the school environment which doesn't happen too often.
On a random Thursday and Friday I had a fellow ETA visit me here in Tábor! It was her spring break, but not mine, so she wanted to just come see the town for the first time. It turned out to be a great 2 days as she got to come to an English club at a cafe with some of my older students, a student pub with another group of my students, and even joined me in 2 lessons the next day at school. She wasn't originally planning on coming to school but my mentor was so inviting and last minute said she was welcome to join. So we did a lesson together on relationships, being Valentine's Day, and coming up with some funny red flags inspired by our twitter feeds. Some I can remember were "When they put ketchup on the fries and not on the side", "When they have a hairy back" and one from a boy student of mine..."When she speaks". I can not.
The weather this month has felt so chaotic. It's like when you've been sick for a while with like a dry cough and tight chest, but finally the mucus starts to loosen up and you're getting all the gross stuff out of your system. Yeah that's the best analogy I can thing of haha. Some days it's blue sky, some days its rainy with some rainbows, sometimes the gray sky feels like green lol, and sometimes it still snows a little. It's so bipolar but I know better days are coming!
Last weekend of the month, before my parents arrived, I went to Prague with a teacher from my school and her family for a couple museum visits! She's not an English teacher but always tries with me which I really appreciated and I was so grateful she invited me to go with her, her husband, and 3 kids. Her son ended up speaking perfect English so everything was translated for me, but it really felt like I was part of a family for a day. We visited a Buddha museum and also an education museum highlighting the history of schools in the CZ pre/post communism, etc. Super interesting!
This month was GOOD, don't get me wrong. But as I'm finally finishing up this post, it's a couple days into month 7, and it's kinda hard to focus on all the good with the very scary reality in Ukraine right now. It's the 27th as I post this, and a total war has broken out with such an unpredictable future. Being so close to the border is one of the most unsettling feelings I've had, and it's already overtaken my entire ability to focus on anything else. So I'm continuing to observe what's happening here, making sure I'm safe, and hopefully don't need to update on that in the future :/
Trying to stay positive and making sure I remember the good:
