TEFL Certified

Well, class is over!! I got my certification, I passed the course without any special credential aka “Strong Pass” or with distinguishment, but I busted my friggin’ ass and got ‘er done. It was such a fun time unwinding with my fellow classmates over champagne, beers, and of course Caroline’s vodka and Nebraska’s sangria. I woke up at about 12:30 to sore dancing legs (until about 3 am, more 80s and early 90s pop jams – Bonjovi “Living on a Prayer” being the ultimate fist pump song of the night), the need to fill my ‘frig, and wondering how the next couple weeks will turn out during the search for work.

I think about being in Prague, wondering how long I’ll stay, whether I want to live in a Spanish-speaking country so I can learn the language (for I will probably never learn Czech unless I am here for years and/or I marry a Czech woman), or whether the U.S. calls me back. I don’t miss home in the sense of being “home-sick”, but being away I realize how much the U.S. is home and how important a common language is. Just being able to communicate in English back home is something I took for granted so much because everyone speaks it in the U.S. Being in Prague, I kind of walk on eggshells not knowing if someone knows the language or not for my Czech is just God-awful. I know that if all else fails with teaching, I am going to apply for a couple Deloitte Mergers and Acquisition openings in Prague. I am qualified and sounds intriguing – why not?

Prague itself is a place of architectural beauty with the lovely Vltava River, providing an exquisite divide of the city. My evening at JazzDocks on the Vltava River was one with a great deal of philosophical inquiry, tasty beer, solid wine, and beautiful music played by Limbo. My buddy Christian and I were reminiscing about stories from back home a bit and thanking our lucky stars for being able to have the opportunity to be young and enjoy such a historical city that many feel is like the Paris of the late 20^th/21^st century. The cloudy skies, lack of sun, chilly temps (breaking 35F is a warm day, which there haven’t been many of), and icy streets do make me miss the “chilly” 55-60 degree winter days in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. However, I have yet to spend time in a place that appreciates the cheesiest of cheesy 80s ballads and awful early-90s pop music. There is something to appreciate about this even if I’m dying to go to a bar with some soul/funk or mid-90s hip-hop. At some point I will get classy and enjoy a classical music concert or opera, but it is fun to dance to some tunes out here and the Prague locals enjoy it wholeheartedly as well.

I am looking forward to the next couple days where I have no class nor damn lesson plans to prepare. My sleep schedule will hopefully become a bit more normal now and the next step is to apply, apply, and apply. For the next day and a half though, it will be a hockey game, perhaps the Kafka museum, a good cup of Joe, and the Super Bowl. I might be out of America, but America still lives in me and the Super Bowl is a must baby – and it should be a doozy. I am happy for the Saints and I got to respect and appreciate the greatness of Peyton and the Colts. Let the best man win.