When the Parents Come to Visit

At the beginning of this month (the after that week where I went to five different countries), I had some wonderful visitors! My parents came over to spend my mom's spring break with me!

While my friends and roommates have had visitors that I have helped show around, this was the first time that I had guests! 

We were a little concerned, because my mother had discovered her passport was expiring the week after she got back, and technically, in the Czech Republic, your passport is supposed to be valid for three months beyond your stay. And I had heard a couple horror stories about people being not allowed to board their flights in Germany (where my parents were flying through) to  Prague because of soon-to-be-expiring passports. Being the calm and collected daughter I am, I assured my mother that everything would be fine and there would be no problems, as she was leaving before it expired...all the while I was inwardly panicking!

So, when their plane landed at 9:00 and they didn't appear, and started to get concerned. And then I waited...and all the passengers on the flight went their separate ways...and I still waited....and waited...and about two hours went by and they finally appeared. Thankfully, the problem was that their original flight had been delayed, causing them to miss their connection, not anything to do with the passports.

After a taxi ride to my flat and allowing them to rest a bit, we set out to see my Prague! Thankfully, Easter Monday is a holiday here, so I was off of school anyway!

My Parents Enjoying the View of Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge

One of the first places I took my parents was to one of my favorite restaurants in Prague, The Louvre Cafe. (Einstein used to hang out there!) After our late lunch, we walked down the Vltava to the Charles Bridge. This was on my father's "Must See" list. After walking across the bridge (and insisting the rub the statue that guarantees the visitor will return to Prague), we caught Tram 22 up to the castle. We walked through the castle, so they could see the beautiful view of MY city. :) I was so happy to be able to share my home with my parents!

The next day, my parents were so tired, I took pity on them and let them sleep and I went back to work. Wednesday, however, I took off to spend with them. We had yet to venture to Old Town Square, so that was our first stop. My father really wanted to see the statue of Jan Hus. Then, we grabbed some lunch and headed to the Jewish Quarter. I had never been there. It's closed on Saturdays, and typically Sunday is my "lay-around-at-home" day, so it was nice to be able to see a place I had heard so much about.

In many cities in Nazi-Occupied Europe, the Synagogues were destroyed and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. In fact, after the Jewish Ghetto was opened to the outside world, much of Prague's Jewish Quarter had already been destroyed. It wouldn't have been surprising if Hitler had finished the job. Instead, the six synagogues and the cemetery that remained were preserved to be a museum about an "extinct" people group. (Never mind that he was the one trying to make them extinct.) Today, these remainders of the Jewish Quarter are a museum about the Jewish Community of Prague--but thankfully, not about an extinct people group. In fact, at least one of the synagogues still holds services on Saturdays.

Our first stop in the Jewish Quarter was Pinkas Synagogue.This synagogue is a memorial to the 80,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Moravia and Bohemia. The names of all the victims are etched onto the wall. Standing there reading name after name after name was emotionally exhausting. All those lives cut short due to one evil mad man. It was horrifying. Pinkas Synagogue also has art work from Terezin, a concentration camp that was here in the Czech Republic. There was an artist there who held art classes for the children in the camp. The artist was later sent to a death camp, but left behind a suitcase filled with thousands of pictures the children had painted. (Also, Terezin was used by the Nazi's in a propagation film to show the Red Cross that "the Jews were being well treated and liked it there". This is the propaganda film that the one in "The Boy with the Striped Pajamas" was based on.) After this solemn time, we left the synagogue for our next stop--the Jewish Cemetery.

The Jewish Cemetery

For centuries, the Jewish Quarter was surrounded by walls, shutting the ghetto off from the outside world. The Jews were only allowed to bury their dead in certain areas. This meant when they ran out of space in the cemetery, they removed the tombstones, added a new layer of dirt, replaced the tombstones, and buried more bodies. I read someone that some experts think there may be as many as 100,000 people buried in this small space.

After visiting the cemetery, we went to the Jewish ceremonial hall and learned all about Jewish Burial customs. Then, we traveled to another synagogue to learn about Jewish daily life. Our final Jewish Quarter stop was the Spanish Synagogue (after taking a slight detour past some of my favorite stores--the ones I can't afford to walk into but drool over anyway-- Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Burberry, Hugo Boss...you get the picture). The Spanish Synagogue has to be the prettiest and most ornate synagogue in Prague. I think it is definitely my favorite.

Our next stop was my favorite gelato place, Cream and Dream. It was the first time my mom had ever tasted gelato. I'm glad I could be the one to introduce her to the yumminess! After that we wandered to Bethlehem Chapel (the final place on my dad's "Must-See" list). I had walked past the chapel before, but never had gone inside. After learning about all the different reformers-- Hus, Luther, Wycliffe, Tyndale, etc.--it was neat to be able to see where one of them actually lived and preached. My preacher father definitely enjoys that, as well.

On Thursday, I got to show my parents off at school. My mom used her English teacher abilities to do my read aloud (from "The Tale of Despereaux") and my dad used his electrical expertise to teach the introductory lesson for my electricity unit. He did this for me while I was living in Guatemala, and my kids there loved it, so I was excited for him to do it again. It helps that he actually knows what he's talking about. My knowledge of electricity typically extends to:

Light is not working.
Step 1: Check the fuse box. (Easy for short people to reach than the light bulb!) 
Step 2: If that is not the problem, then change the light bulb.
Step 3: If that doesn't work, call dad.

So, I'm very glad someone who actually knew what they were talking about had the chance to teach them a little. Electricity is certainly NOT my area of expertise!

My dad had my kiddos act out the parts of an electric circuit.

  Something I have appreciated about living in Europe is the amount of history available at our fingertips--especially when it comes to field trips! Fourth and fifth grade had just finished studying WWI before my parents' visit, so on Friday we went on our WWI field trip. Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in 1914. This sparked the war. Franz Ferdinand was married to a Czech lady and lived not to far from Prague at Konopiste Castle. We took the students on a field trip to the castle.

If you have ever seen the movie "The Illusionist", this is the castle that was used for the home of the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. We took the train to Benesov, the village close to the castle. From there, we had planned to take a shuttle to the castle, but a sign at the place the shuttle left from claimed it wasn't running (though we did see it later in the day). It worked out just as well to take taxis to the castle. My kids thought this was quiet the adventure, since we had learned earlier in our unit that the French had rushed their soldier to the First Battle of Marne using Parisian taxis. (It's just like the Battle of Marne, Miss Miller!)

Konopiste

The bear in the moat was another highlight of the castle.

We had lunch and then took our tour of the castle. There are three different tours to choose from. The first two are the cheaper ones. The last tour is more expensive--but it takes you to Franz Ferdinand's private quarters. We took the second tour. This took us to the apartments set aside for the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary (he never stayed there, but they were set aside for him anyway), the chapel, the armory, and the library. We also got to the lift (elevator for you Americans). The lift had a couch in it--which my kids raved about. Most of them agreed that their favorite place was the armory. My boys loved seeing all the different weapons that Franz Ferdinand owned. He was quiet the hunter. He killed thousands of animals--and the castle only had a 3% or so of what he killed. Still, antlers, animals heads, and trophies were all over the place. There were some chandeliers made from antlers that I suggested my mom tell her brother about (my uncle likes to hunt), but she didn't think my aunt would appreciate the idea. :)

The bibliophile that I am, my favorite part was the library....although I did find the ashtray made from an elephant's foot to be a little creepy and the elephant trunks hanging there as decoration to be disturbing. :S I also thought the chapel was beautiful. They also host weddings, so I may have pointed it our as a possible wedding location for the future. (Jokingly, that is!)

On Saturday, my parents packed up in the morning and we set off to visit my favorite place in Prague--Vysehrad. i love the views of the city from there, and it's not quite on the typical tourist path. (And it's also really close to CISP's new building!) After that we went to another of my favorite restaurants (The Hairy Ghost--I can never remember the Czech name). After walking back down to the bridge so they could pick up a few more gifts for people, we went back to my flat so we could meet the taxi to go back to the airport. Short visit--but so glad I had the chance to share my home with them. :)  

  

    

That Time I Was In Five Different Countries within a Week or What I did Over My Spring Break

 During Spring Break, it is normally the dream of students and teachers alike to relax and do NOTHING. For around forty schools from across the globe, this was not necessarily the case this year. On Saturday, March 23, teachers from international schools from countries all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas gathered at Black Forest Academy (BFA) in Kandern, Germany for the International Christian Educator's Conference to worship God together, to learn to be better teachers, to exchange ideas with schools like the ones where we teach, and to learn how to work with the amazing TCKs we all have. ICEC (pronounced I-kek, said letter by letter I-C-E-C, or called ICE-C--like a rapper) is a conference held by the Association of Christian School International (ACSI) to help international school teachers. (We like the letters--CISP attended ACSI's ICEC at BFA.)
 ICEC was AMAZING! One of the key note speakers was a man named John Dickson from Australia. He was an phenomenal speaker who was passionate about history, music (he used to be in a rock band), and God. He's also an author, so you should check him out on Amazon. Another keynote speaker from the University of Leeds, shared about C.S. Lewis's views on teaching and read us part of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. There were other sessions ranging from topics on teaching Third Culture Kids, using Pinterest in the classroom, and starting a Bilingual school to packing in a carry-on for thirty days (very useful for those of us whom travel a lot).

 One of my favorite parts was meeting teachers from other schools. And one of my favorite parts of that was the Excursion Day we had on Monday afternoon. We had the chance to visit Basel, Switzerland, Lucerne, Switzerland, or Alsace, France. Since I'd been to France, I decided to go to Lucerne, Switzerland (along with about 100 other people). It was cold and snowy--but a very beautiful city!

The Chapel Bridge

Mark Twain called this Stone Lion "The Saddest Rock in the World"

Quaint Building and Streets

The City Wall

With two of my fellow CISP teachers

 After ICEC ended, my roommates and I had decided we wanted to go someplace and relax. We had flown to Basel, and it was cheapest to fly back to Prague on Easter Sunday, so we searched for cheap tickets someplace else. This is how we ended flying to Nice, France on Wednesday afternoon.

 I knew basically nothing about Nice--other than it was part of the French Riviera, once had a castle that has since disappeared, and is located along the Mediterranean Sea. The hostel where we stayed was cheap BUT clean and located in the Old City. We were minutes from transit and the sea, so it was a great location. Sadly, it rained on Thursday (however, that was an improvement on the snow we had been getting in Germany), but Friday was beautiful and sunny. Adventure Buddy and I had ventured on a photo taking tour on Thursday, but on Friday we ended up going back to some of the same places to see what they looked like in the sun. We also took the time to take off our shoes and take some photos of ourselved wading in the sea.

The Sea

Sunny Day :)

Me and the Sea

Looking at the Sea

Rocky Beach--Not Exactly the "I'm Going to Lay-Out Here Kind"

Tentatively Entering the Water

 Our main goal for visiting Nice was to relax; however, I also had a secondary goal--to visit Monaco. I'd read a biography of Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) when I was in middle school, and when I realized the country she was princess of was smaller than my grandparent's farm, I decided that one day I must visit. Monaco is only about a 45 minute bus ride from Nice, so on Friday morning (before the photo taking venture) we set off to visit the world's second smallest country (I've been to the smallest--The Vatican), The Principality of Monaco. We got there in time to buy tickets for a hop on-hop off bus tour (thought, really, we could have walked--the country is less than 500 acres) and to catch a ride to the Prince's Palace for the changing of the guard. After watching the pomp of the event (and pondering whether they do it because people watch or people watch because they do it), we explored a bit of the area around the castle. One of my favorite places was the cathedral. It was here that Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier and here that they both were buried. For me the "Fascinated-With-Royalty" Person that I am, this was one of my favorite parts. (We had also seen the famous Hotel de Paris and Grand Casino Monte Carlo.) We caught our hop on-hop off bus and rode around (and under--many of the roads are tunnels, because land is so precious here) the ENTIRE (and I mean that literally) country. I looked at the map later and realized the tour took you from one end of the country to the other. 

Monaco

View from the Palace

The Prince's Palace

The Changing of the Guards

The Cathedral

Princess Grace's Grave

 Saturday saw us flying back to Germany and spending Saturday relaxing at a friend's flat in Kandern (as well as learning a fun German card game--and I hate most games, so saying a game is fun means something!). This morning we flew back home to Prague (after missing our exit and taking an accidental detour into Switzerland), rested and relaxed and ready to jump into the rest of the school year!

Ready to start teaching again! Yay!

 In case you were wondering, the five countries I was in during the past week were Germany, Switzerland, France, Monaco, and the Czech Republic.
 

   

February Happenings

I think CISP likes to squeeze as much as possible into February. :S

The first on the list of happening was the CISP First Annual Dance-a-thon. We're hoping to get a new building soon, and we wanted the kids to have ownership over what they were raising money for, so we allowed them to submit ideas to our development team and then vote on what the money would go toward. When I asked my kiddos for ideas, they suggested everything from beds for naptime (what naptime?) to mirrors at every desk so they could fix their hair through out the day (one of my BOYS suggested this one-and um, no!) to electronic whiteboards (can we say HAPPY TEACHER!) to new books for the library (YAY!!!!). The idea that won was the idea of a student common room. So, from 9 am one Saturday morning until 9 pm that night, students danced, danced, danced the day away.


We had volunteers teach everything from square dancing to swing dancing to the fox trot to the waltz. I was there from 9 am until just after lunch. I went home for a few hours, and then came back around 7:45 to cheer the kids on for the last bit. (That's when we broke into the "Hokey-Pokey" and the Limbo!)

I wasn't sure how my fourth graders were going to do, but since one of my kiddos stayed for the entire day (quite the feat for a 4th grader!), and several others were there for a good bit, AND since they turned out to do a pretty decent job of raising money, we ended up tying for FIRST place! 7th grade raised the most money--but 4th grade raised the most per student! SO proud of the awesome job my kiddos did! 

The next event of February was Winter Banquet. Winter Banquet is basically CISP's version of prom--or if your Czech, the Senior Ball (as in an actually ball!). The banquet is for students in grades 6-12, and also for parents and teachers. I love the fact that elementary teachers are not only allowed to attend, but also ENCOURAGED to attend! The banquet is held at a hotel. We start off with a nice dinner and then move on to an evening of dancing. Basically, it's a time to look pretty and have fun. :)

With my two wonderful roommates

Amazing co-workers and good friend!

One of my lovely fellow elementary teachers

Next up in busy February was 100th Day. Adventure Buddy and I got to work together to plan this 100-Fill-Fun-Filled Day. Here's a peek at some of our activities:

Fourth Grade eagerly waits to write a Googol (1 with 100 zeros after it)

We had 100 stations--writing your name 10 times, adding 10 stickers, etc.

Yay! We've been in school 100 days AND our kids are 100 days smarter!

Elementary proudly shows off completed 100 station papers.

 The final February event was the field trip to the Czech Christian school we have been partnering with this year. Field trips in Prague are FUN! We don't have a bus, so we use PUBLIC transportation. I occasionally watch the show "19 Kids and Counting" and in one episode the Duggar family was in D.C. They were talking about how difficult was to ride the metro with the family, because it was hard to make sure everyone got on and off at the same time. I can sympathize-a lot! To get to this school, we first rode the tram. Then, we caught the metro, and finally we took the bus. We had fun joining the Czech school for chapel and a movie, followed by games in the gym, and finally lunch. It was a fun day!