AND... SCENE

So today I finished my last class of the year. I had a fun little party with my 2.G students (6th grade). They were sad that I wasnt coming back next year, and to be honest, I'm a little sad. I know home is where I need to be, but knowing this may be the last time I see many of them.. It's not easy. It's been a pretty emotional week. Goodbye's are never fun. But with the sadness, I am excited of the next stage in life. I have no idea where God will take me. For now its Dallas, but very quickly that could change.

So this afternoon me and joseph are meeting up with the whole Czech team to have our end of year retreat. It will be really good to see everyone one last time all together. I volunteered to do the end of year slide show. So I thought I would post it so any of you who want to watch it, feel free!

ESI slideshow from Aaron Rector on Vimeo.

give and take

So as my final days in Czech Republic are upon me. I was getting a little nostalgic. Thinking about leaving this place after being here a year. Then very quickly after, I started thinking of things about here that I am very happy to leave behind. So I thought it would be good to make a list. Things I will miss and things I'm ready for in America.

Things I will miss:
half liter beers for a dollar... all the time, everywhere
Subways, Trains, and trams
Bo Bagel breakfasts
Walking through Old town square early in the morning the morning after it snowed, before anyone is there.
Svíčková ( an amazing czech dish)
People walking so much more to get around
Talking at Pubs
Dancing at Lucerna
Great conversations with students



Things I am ready for in America
A bathroom that is INSIDE of my flat
No more Czech winters
Not having to walk a 4 miles twice a week in Czech winters at 7:00 am
People wearing deodorant
Somewhere to go eat breakfast! (besides bo bagel)
Having a normal schedule
An abundance of Cheddar Cheese and Sushi
Watching sports! holy crap. This long without watching only ONE basketball game.

I'm sure there are more I will add on later. But this is enough for now.

Even with this list. I will be sad when I leave here. With all of its ups and downs. Czech Republic will hold a very special place in my heart for a very special time in my life.

updating for 5 months

these are my blog updates over the past 5 months... these are from emails or personal journals.. because i am bad about updating... more to come.After talking to a friend, I realized I really need to keep up with this. So.. they are late, but here they are.

April 14th, 2009 part 2

The Great Train Robbery
If you havent read the post leading up to this, we were in Poland for Easter... and so the story continues.

I think I am a pretty cautious person. I am alert, attentive, and I definitely am protective. So when we got on the train Saturday night to head back to Prague I took it to heart when the nice old ticket taker on the train told us to be careful of thieves.

So back up a second. By Saturday we felt that we had seen much of Poland, spending 3 full days there, and Britt, Frank, Ashley, and I really wanted to make it to church service on Easter at our own church. So we decided to cut the trip short by a day and leave late Saturday night on the overnight train. Gina, however decided to stay one more night with our friend Maggie.

So we are in a sleeper car for the overnight train back. Next to us there is a group of American girls studying in Europe. We say hi and retire to our room. For the trip, Frank and I did what we always do.. buy beer, because.. really it makes the trip so much better. So the ticket guy comes by pretty soon after we take off and tells us to make sure to lock our door at night because "the gypsies" could come and rob us. (I put gypsies in quotes because obviously it could be anyone but they blame all thieving on the gypsies).So we look on the door and realize there are like 4 locks on it. one at the top. Two in the middle and one on the ground. One of them in the middle was a hardcore deadbolt that no one could have picked. So we took this picture because we were shocked at how crazy the locks were.

So now that we were safe and locked inside we felt safe. So we started drinking. The girls werent drinking and frank and I started. However Frank was drinking very slow. We were all talking and having a good time, and when I finished my beer, I just picked up another one. Not to mention before we got on the train, we were at a restaurant eating dinner, and I definitely had at least 2 beers there. So we are traveling and I am just drinking and drinking.. pretty soon I open the last beer and Frank's like.. "man, I've only had one. Did you drink all of them?"

I was drunk. I didnt mean to. I wasnt planning on it mom and dad, but I was. I tell this part because it matters in the story.

So after some arguing between me and Ashley (you would be arguing if she told you "you cant prove to me that vegetables exist, scientifically.") We all went to bed with the door securely locked.
**BANG BANG BANG**
I look down at my watch and it is 5:30 a.m. Me and ashley (who slept on the bottom two beds) open the door and see the ticket man standing out in the hall.
"The gypsies. The gypsies."
And then he takes off down the hall... Weird. Well I decide to take this opportunity to walk down the hall to the restroom. As I am walking back I see in the empty room next to ours a purse sitting on the seat. Weird.
So I go back in the room and lay down. a few minutes later the ticket man walks by with the purse in his hands. He gestures with the purse. "Gypsies steal." and offers it to us seeing if it was one of the girls purses. We shake our heads "no" ... just catching on that the purse had been stolen apparently.

So we start to talk. "Nothing of ours got stolen did it?" we start looking around. My ipod is still by me. My $700 nikon camera is sitting on the floor right beside me. "looks like everything is here."
Then ashley says. "Well, guys, this morning I woke up and our door was wide open. did anyone go out? in the middle of the night?"
None of us had.
So then we get a little nervous, when the American girls next door poke their head in.
"Did you guys get anything stolen?"
"we dont think so"
"Well one of the girls had their purse taken off of them while they were holding it asleep and they took $300 out of it and her camera and her ipod and some other stuff in our room."

So we all start looking around and we check everything, and sure enough, Ashley had $5000 crowns ($250) and some other Polish money taken out of her wallet. We look around and dont see anythign else that was taken.
"so how did they get in?"
The ticket guy comes into our room and comes and looks at our window. The lock on it had been broken.

So this is what happened:
We all fall asleep. I am a very light sleeper, but because I had too much to drink, I was out and not getting up. At about 3:00 am we were stopped in Ostrava for about 45 minutes. While we were there, someone broke in through our window. came through and took money out of Ashley's purse. Went out of our door, leaving it wide open and went into the American girls room next to ours. ( who hadnt locked theirs well.) They took the purse from one of the girls and took it into the other empty room. Emptied it out and left what they didnt want there.

Crazy... and the worst part of it all was after we got home, we went and ate at our favorite American Breakfast place. As we were leaving, the sun was coming up. so I reached in my bag and I realized they stole my sunglasses! :) ok.. so it wasnt so bad.. but they were armani.. and really cool.

So anyways... But it was Easter... and Jesus has risen!

April 14th, 2009

A Polski for your thoughts.
Spring is finally here.. warm weather means being able to go outside and not freeze instantly.
So this past weekend was our Easter break, and it was a memorable one to say the least. Britt, Frank, Gina, Ashley, and I decided we wanted to take advantage of our long weekend. (we actually get thursday, friday, AND monday off!) So we decided we would make a trip to Poland, Krakow to be exact.

The train ride is about 9 hours, so the best way to get there is to get an overnight train. So on Wednesday night we all met up at the train station in Prague ready to go, but when we got to the ticket counter there were no more sleeping cars available on the train. (now in our defense, we were going to reserve them before, but we heard from some very experienced traveler's and friends that we wouldnt need to.) So we had to settle for one compartment with no beds for the 5 of us for 9 hours. We knew this wouldnt be fun... so frank and I did the only reasonable thing.
Bought beer.
However, even the beer did not help after a few hours when everyone wanted to sleep.. without going into many details.. either make sure to get a sleeping car.. or agree that no one will sleep, because except for britt, who can sleep through and on anything.. it was a miserable miserable night.

However, we arrived the next morning in Krakow and made our way to our hostel. Granted it was 6 in the morning, and no one except britt had got any sleep to speak of. and we wanted to crash for a few hours, but sadly we couldnt check in until noon... so we had 6 hours of walking around.

So we decided to go find breakfast. So we went and got money out of the ATM and thus began the 20 ours of complete and uter confusion. See.. to convert from US dollars to Czech Crowns to Polish zloty (which we continued to forget the name of, so we started just calling them Polskis .. which is actually what you call just polish people.. like Americans or Czechs. The girl at the hostel front desk didnt think it was too funny) got very very VERY confusing... I still blame it on the lack of sleep.

So we went to breakfast and when we got our bill we started converting the money and what the general consinsus was that the food in Poland was extremely expensive. our average meal was 300 crowns (or about 15 dollars).. we couldnt believe it.

So we realized we werent going to be able to eat out much while we were there. So for the rest of the day we walked around beautiful Krakow. Saw the biggest Market Square Center in all of Europe, covered in booths and decorations getting ready for Easter. It was awesome, but extremely expensive for everything. We were starting to freak out a little and thinking we might have to cut our trip short because we didnt want to spend that much money for 3 days.

However, that night Gina... level headed Gina... realizes that we were converting everything totally wrong, and that meal that was 300 crowns... was actually about 100. We are idiots.

So with renewed spirits and an abundance of cash! we spent the next 2 days walking around the city and even going out to visit Auchwitz which I reccomend to anyone. It is a very sobering place that no one can understand until they go. Ashley's friend maggie (who also teaches in Czech) even met up with us. So Saturday night we get on the train to go back.. and what follows is a crazy story.

Ashley, Frank, Britt, Me, Gina

This amazing looking kid playing the accordian on the street.

The beginning of the epic train robbery

March 21st 2009

Back in Czech

I'm back after an awesome break in the states. I had a blast. Sunday came flew down from New York just for the week. The week was filled with Family, Friends, pregnant sister, a Rocketboys show, watching the Mavs beat the Wizards, hookah, real tex-mex, and driving a car!

Ahh.. so many things that I have missed over the past 7 months. It definitely was a great break to give me the push I need to finish out the year. Sorry to any of you I didnt get to see while I was in town!

February in Cezch!

February 25, 2009
Hey everyone,
So I realized the other day that it has been way too long since I have written everyone. Life has gone into overdrive here and the weeks are passing like days. It is hard for me to believe that it is the end of February.
So Life has been good thus far. January was filled with end of semester exams, grades, and balls (their version of prom, but there are 4 of them each year and not at the end of the year). So January was a very busy month. Here in Czech, the semester doesn't end until the 3rd week of January, and as many of you teachers know, it is a busy time... Sadly I didn't realize how busy it was.... And ps... any of you thinking of being teachers. Don't assign 7 page long papers to non native speakers and give yourself only a week to grade them all before the semester ends. :)

Along with work, I have made leaps and strides in my relationships with my students. I think after the initial shock and terror of being a teacher wore off, I have now been able to focus on getting to really know some of the students. Most of my weekends are filled with going bowling or out to pubs with the students. I can see that they genuinely want to know me and why on earth I would leave America to come live in this small town... its a great way to bring up my faith.

So now for a story. This will take a little bit, but it is really one of the most memorable experiences since I have been here.
I teach a class of adults on Tuesday nights. I have got to know them pretty well. So early in December two sisters in my class invited me and Joseph to come to a Hunter's Ples with them in mid January.
"What is a Hunter's ples?" I asked.
"It is a ball (dancing ball) for a group of hunters in a small village close by."
"Sure, why not." I answered.
Jump forward a month and Joseph and I get dressed up and a car picks us up at 7 prompt and drives us to a small village about 10 km away. And just to put it in perspective, Kralupy, where I live, has about 20,000 people. this village had maybe 1000 people. There is one pub in the village.
So we arrive and there is a town hall type place above the pub. Upstairs we walk in, check our coats and are introduced to the coat checker as one of our students nephews. They walk us into the next room and this is what we saw. 3 men, dressed in green Hunter's jackets and green fedoras with feathers sticking out of them. They stood proudly next to a homemade rack, for lack of a better word, on which about 40 pheasants, ducks, and rabbits hung by strings. On the floor in front of the rack, was a bed of fir branches, on which lay 3 wild boars, and 4 wild deer. The ones on the floor were gutted, the birds and rabbits were not. We were amazed!
"What are these for?" we asked.
"You can win these in a raffle. Only 5 crowns a ticket." (about a quarter)
So... we... being stupid guys had our eyes set on the huge 200 lb. boar. Because, I mean... how often can you say you won a boar in a raffle, then took it home and cooked it over a spit (which is what we quickly decided we had to do because that is what they do on Lost)
So we bought 20 tickets and the night started. A terrible 3 piece band, with no drummer but an accordion, guitariest and piano player, started to play. And the people danced! Everyone got out there and started to dance, and it wasn't long before they pulled Joseph and I onto the dance floor.
Now in a room of 60 Czech people, the Korean-American and very bearded American with shaggy hair stood out like a sore thumb. So we started dancing.. and the way that many of the old people here dance, they get in big circles and just kind of side step back and forth... But then they started to push Joseph and I into the middle. To which we just decided to dance as stupid as possible. So we would do as many dumb moves ie Moonwalk, the running man, the lawnmower... accracross circle. All the while pulling in 40-70 year old ladies to do them with us. It was classic.
Everyone was having a blast. And joseph even did an impromptu dance with a girl we were with. They were the only two on the floor for the song and everyone thought it was hilarious.
So at the end of the night, they finally got around to doing the raffle. They went through all of the small prizes first, then finally they started on the wild animals. By then there were probably around 100 people there and so we thought our odds were pretty good to win something, but we had our eyes set on that boar!
number after number missed us until it was the last one! The biggest boar! They called out the number
"202!!!"
WE .... didn't win it. It was a sad day. HOWEVER! one of the people in our group one a wild rabbit and gave it to us. Awesome!
Long story short, a day later my headmaster comes walking up to school (on a Sunday) and sees me in front of the school with a trashcan, a knife, a rabbit head, and blood all over my hands. It was brilliant!

So that's a quick story about our experience at the Hunter's Ball.

Here is me showing off our prize rabbit, very tired from the night.

and joseph never fails to take an awesome picture

Prayer Requests: There is a bad flu bug going around. I have been trying to work extra to stay healthy, but interacting with so many people everyday, I'm worried I will get it. Also, please be praying that God is preparing something for me when I move back home. I still have until the middle of July, and while that is a long way away, time is flying by here.

I thank you all so much again for your prayers and your support. God is working in this place, sometimes it is hard to see, but I feel that "behind the scenes" peoples lives are being touched for the Kingdom.

On my last note, I am coming home for a 10 day visit on March 6th. I will be in the DFW area for most of the time. I would love to see any of you that want to grab lunch and catch up. please email me because I am trying to schedule out some stuff so I have plenty of time to catch up with the family.
That's all for now! Here are some pictures from a few of the events with the students. nothing special, just so you can see some of the stuff that is going on.

Love you all!
Aaron

December 24, 2008

December 24th, 2008
Merry Christmas Everyone!
It is officially Christmas. I am hanging out with Brady, Joseph, and Frank here in Prague watching a Christmas story, which is a sort of must on Christmas (even though I dont really like the movie too much.) I just wanted to tell all of you I miss you all very much this time of year. I hope everyone has a great holiday season. It is great to have a break from teaching and just relax with my brother and friends. It's hard to believe I am already halfway through with my time... wow. Alright.. it is time for me to get to bed. Santa is coming tonight!
Aaron
ps, the snowman was a few weeks ago when we had a big snow here in Prague.