And so it begins...

Tomorrow is the first full day of classes, and I am so excited! I will see four of my six class levels, and five of my nineteen classes. This includes one of my three seminar classes that I will be teaching to the older students, the ones with whom I am most likely to have opportunity to form relationships (their age, pub talks, longer classes, etc., all contribute to this). As I start the school year, please pray for me, that I will be confident, creative, effective, friendly, and able to manage my all of my classes. Please pray for each of the students I interact with this first week of classes -- that I may radiate a certain light to them, a light familiar only in that Stephanie (my predecessor) also had it because we both find it in Jesus. Pray that this light will be something attractive and something that evokes curiosity. Through that curiosity, may many fruitful lessons in classroom and conversations out of it be had this year. Please pray with me that God will provide ample opportunity to invest in some of my students' lives and that they will allow me to be a part of theirs: by attending pub talks, by inviting me to their extracurricular performances or sports games, by baking brownies and watching movies in my flat. Most importantly, please pray for continual patience on my part throughout the year, that I may constantly remember that each of my students, no matter how frustrating or annoying, is a child of God and is individually loved and cherished by Him. Thank you so much for remembering me and the school I am serving in your prayers.

Annnnnnd now.... a little bit of fun from my students! Last year, Stephanie had the classes write me some letters filled with advice about living in Prague, questions about me, and even a few hints about what their hopes are for this year. This was right after Stephanie read them an introductory letter I wrote and showed them some funny pictures of me. I hope you enjoy their comments (they have quite the sense of humor)!

Helpful tips:

Be careful of blind bus driver.

Drink beer. Save water.

Be careful of Jan…

Don’t look back into the sun.

Keep your wallet shut.

Be careful, there are a lot of thieves.

Don’t be friendly to Mrs. Nogkova

Stay calm.

Eat chocolate – eliminate stress.

Be cool.

Beware of pickpockets.

Like Czech beer (start with Cerny Kozel, continue with Gambriness or Budvar and finish with Plzen)

Learn some Czech (ty vole, jdi do pidek, hovado, jeste jedno, hovno) (By the way, these are all bad words or insults -- I guess it's good to know them in case I hear them!)

Czech students are always loud, sleepy, clever, and they like to cheat. They like their phones and speaking Czech.

You truly show some nerve by coming here, but for getting out of this safe you will need much more, so sayeth [__]. (I think this one may fall more into the threat category, but I'm pretty sure he was joking :) )

But…beware of our pickpockets, Prague is really dangerous after dusk.

We have the best beer on the world.

You must be carrefull of pickpockets in Prague.

Questions:

Why did you study religion? Are you Christian?

Do you like the evil characters from Harry Potter?

Do you like zombies? Or vampires?

Are you interested in fashion?

Do you like Linkin Park? I do!

Do you like crazy people? because we are…

Do you like stupid people, because "Speedy" is…

Do you like pop art?

Are you coming in peace?

How was it in New Zealand?

Do you like cat steak, perverted IT teacher, broken computers and mad students? So welcome to the GEKOM. (abbreviation for the school)

How is it in the USA?

What is your favourite song?

Do you like Prague?

Have you got black boyfriend?

X^2 + 2x – 7 = 0 It is the best?

Hints and Expectations:

We are looking forward to you!

Have a nice holidays.

We are looking forward to work with you.

We are the best because we are smart, funny, very good looking, charming, and very good at English.

We like playing games, lunchtime (lunchbreak), the end of lessons, and holidays.

Teach the students how to speak.

I’m really looking forward to meeting you. You look nice.

You look crazy in the pictures so we’ll see if you really are.

We don’t want to run…

Or to sing…

Bring us some photos from Chicago!

I hope you are not stranger than us.

I hope you are at least as good as Hunter was.

I hope that you will like our strange, crazy class.

We hope that your lessons will be as funny as your expression.

I hope you will be good for us! You look really good!

I hope you will like us!

I think, it’ll be amazing year.

I think you are crazy, but you’ll see who are the strangest people on the world. You have a lot of luck, you studied as a psychologist, I think.

We are looking forward to you and our cooperation. We hope, that’s will be nice year for everyone of us.

You remind me of someone famous, hope I’ll remember.

----------------
Now playing: Chuck Berry - School Day
via FoxyTunes