I’m now starting my second week in Poděbrady, I can’t
believe how fast time flies here! When I walked into the classroom today, I was
relieved to see Zusanna standing there instead of the teacher we’d had for the
last two and half hours on Friday. (We have roughly four hours of lessons every
morning, 8.30-10, then a 30 minute break, then lessons again from 10.30-12,
then a 10 minute break and our last
lesson from 12.10-12.55, when we usually play a vocab game.)
At break time, as becoming a habit, we went to the corner
shop, where they sell coffee and a pastry for 20 korun, which is about 66p! I
don’t really like coffee, but it keeps me awake through the rest of morning
lessons, and I like the apricot doughnut you can get with it! Our vocab game
that day involved splitting up into teams. One person from each team would go
and sit at the front of the class, and Zusanna would hold up a word behind
their head, and the rest of the team had to describe it to them in Czech, so
they could guess it. We chose Jones, who has acquired the nickname “ chodí slovník” which is intended to
translate as walking dictionary, because the Czech word for nearly everything.
Because of his knowledge, and our awesome description skills (haha) we managed
to get 6 points and beat the Russian teams!
At lunch we headed to an old haunt, the restaurant by the
river, to be told, only once we had our drinks, that only the main meals were
available on the two course daily menu, and that despite only getting one
course instead of two, we still had to pay the same price. Needless to state we
weren’t happy, but ordered anyway. It took forever for the food to turn up, and
when it did, it was drowned in garlic. We all decided we weren’t going to go
back.
That afternoon, we went on a boat trip to a place called
Libice, which is the site of one of the very first settlements in the Czech
Republic. Afterwards, we had a drink at a sort-of café next to the river, where
Mike tried grog, which turned out to be hot water, rum and lemon, which was a
bit of a let-down. Since our arrival in the Czech Republic, we’d all been
fascinated by its appearance of the drinks menu, imagining some sort of cool
pirate drink. Whilst we were drinking, it felt like we were set upon by wasps,
and in order to try and avoid them, I ended up walking around constantly! After
finishing our drinks, Jones, Sheffield!Nic and I decided to walk back to the
kolej instead of getting the small train like everyone else. It was a really
lovely walk, along the river and in the sunshine, and we ended up back at the kolej
before the others!
Mike’s Daily Antics
Disclaimer: I would like to point out
that Mike did not object to me posting about his daily antics, and that upon
talking to him it becomes clear he is extremely bright, yet never shows off
about it. He is just a bit lacking in common sense.
Unfortunately, since I walked back to the kolej, I didn’t
see this actually happen, but I was told about it later by S, who was there.
Everyone had got onto the little train (or vlakek, in Czech)
and the road train had been driving along for about 10-15 minutes, when
suddenly S noticed Mike didn’t have his rucksack with him. So she asked him
where it was, to find out that he had left it at the café where they had picked
the train up from. Cue S having to pass the message up the train to our
teacher, Zusanna, who was also on the trip, who in turn had to wave her arms
out the window and yell “STOP!” to get the driver’s attention. Mike then had to
run back to the café and then walk back to the kolej as the train wouldn’t wait
for him!
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