It's 12:30 in the early afternoon and we've just returned from our lovely time in Western Bohemia. Above you'll notice the beautiful little town of Loket and the Loket Castle, one of the spots frequented by Charles IV. We stayed in another small town about 30 km from this gorgeous village. All in all, it was a very relaxing time with friends. It was great to get out of the city. I think we were both amazed at how lush and green the countryside is the farther you head west. Next weekend we'll probably have to go all the way to Germany to get our visas stamped. We're going to go spend a quiet Sunday afternoon together. Blessings to all.

Hi folks.

Wanted to let you know that Michael and i are headed to Sokolov, Czech Republic this weekend. A team of 8 ESI teachers are out west and there is a group of us headed there in a couple hours to have a party.

Things have been great. We have cleared and passed our one month mark here. We have just finished our 3rd full week teaching. It has been fun. Michael and i have found our own rhythm in this country and find we are having tons of delight with one another.

Pray for our "kids", that their hearts would be receptive to what the Lord wants to show them. Pray for this country- that its bonds would be broken and would once again desire its Creator. Pray for us- we always need help! :)

Until next time....Stay Tuned next week for our update on the Sokolov trip!
Have a great weekend.
Love katie

Okay, so we've had several requests to describe a "typical" day for us here and since I'm teaching this week on leisure vs. work, I thought it might be a fitting blog. So, here is an average work day for either Katie or I. Grab your popcorn and get ready for the non-stop action!

6:00 am - Get up, get dressed, grab a small bite and briefly review plans for world domination.
7:00 am - Hit the metro (subway) for six stops, grab a tram for a couple more and wind up in the teacher's lounge by 7:45.
8:00 am - 9:40am Teach either two 45-minute classes or one 90-minute on how to submit unknowingly to world domination.
10:00am-11:00 - Lesson planning in the teacher's lounge (or blogging if I've already covered my bases for the day).
11:00-1:30 - Teach two or three more classes (depending on the day).
1:30-2:30 - Another respite in the lounge, usually spent either lesson planning or inventing new and creative ways that will subconsciosly make my students think that I am the smartest man alive, which is phase 2 in my aforementioned world domination scheme.
2:30-4:00 - Teach final classes for the day.
4:00-4:30/5:00 - Fight my way onto the metro and cruise back to the other side of the tracks.
5:30 - Chill with Kate, make dinner, do dishes - you know how it is.
6:00 - 9:30 - Varies depending on the night. Usually go out exploring with friends or just chill and watch an episode of 'Alias' on our computer (which recently arrived, thanks to my wonderful folks). We don't have a t.v., but our laptop and small, but expanding, library or dvds usually provides some down-time. I'm becomming a big fan of all the 'extras' on dvds and hope to start a screenwriting class here sometime next month.

Well, that about covers it. I gotta go teach and manipula, uh, mold young minds.

Well, as I have not been incredibly faithful in my blogging duties, I decided to spend a bit of my afternoon time updating all of you beautiful people. Thank all of you so much for your birthday wishes, it was truly memorable. Kate made me a fantastic cake and we hunted down one of the only mexican food restaurants in Prague. But back to the topic at hand...

Forgive me if it's hard to blog here. I'm trying to fight the, "things are just too hard to explain" mindset. I keep hearing from my family and close friends that consistent updates help to deal with our absence, or at least make it more manageable. In reality, I enjoy writing about what's going on, largely because it seems therapeutic in some strange way and also makes me feel not so far from home. But there's still the realization that I simply cannot communicate the incredible spectrum of emotions and experiences that fall upon us everyday. I spend so much time trying to process and understand them myself, that I have no idea how I can put them into words for someone 6,000 miles away. But I will try...

So we've been here a month now and gone from Texas for two. Overall, things are both better and inexplicably different than I had anticipated. I love this place in a very strange way, perhaps how a father loves a problem child. The pendulum swings between elation and exhaustion. One minute I can't believe that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and the next I feel like I don't have the energy to go another round. Most of that is simply a combination of the workload and the stress that comes from being in a different culture. No big deal. It's getting exponentially easier as the days roll on by. I think the thing that perplexes me the most here from day to day is a sort of spiritual element that I'm really not used to. God seems both far and near at the same time. In a culture where His glory is so subdued, it becomes so imperative to keep the fire stoked in your own heart. I'm realizing how often I fed on the spirituality of others back home and how much I took simple fellowship of believers for granted. This place is a far cry from the Bible belt. Kate made a comment the other night that I thought described it well. She said that in the states you have to look hard for the pockets of darkness, where as here you have to search for the pockets of light. That's certainly true. You can feel the spiritual oppression in the air and see it in everyone's face. You can actually feel a physical heaviness here that makes it hard to breath, like someone sitting on your chest. But I believe that in the darkest of nights shines the brightest of lights and that this nation still belongs to the Lord. Please continue to pray for our hearts and those of our student's. For a reserved people, it's been amazing to see how welcoming people have been to us so far. God has definitely prepared our way. Grace and peace.

So, today is September 18th. and today is my love's birthday. He is great. Friends, Michael has been so amazing especially since we have been here.....through my tears, our killing raids of the spiders, and my new interesting foreign cooking- he has been incredible.

The Lord had a great plan for our lives when he brought us to the same youth group in middle school! Crazy how that happens.

So, today- thank the Lord for Michael. He is so special and deserves all our thoughts. Say a special prayer for him- for joy and love to overflow him. Thank you Lord for letting me marry the greatest man in the world....i am not biased. Happy Birthday love. lovekatie

Hello Friends!
What a Sunday. Thanks be to God for Sundays...to relax, do work, and enjoy family.

Well, i promised an update on the famous opera "the Battered Bride". Well, we didn't see the "Battered Bride", we saw the "Bartered Bride", which makes so much more sense. I laughed at myself. the issues and problems with not speaking the language, so i apologize to all who thought we might be going to see a terrible portrayal of abuse.

The National Theatre was great. it was decorated in the original theatre layout. (circular balcony seating, great architecture, gold overlaying everything) it was quite fancy. the opera was great too. it is the "epitemy of Czech Heritage" i have been told. It had the famous beer drinking song, which proclaims all joy and happiness on earth to beer. it had love, betrayal, circuses, and of course- supertitles, so we could understand what was happening while they were singing in Czech. We have decided though that we want to try a drama next. Michael was a tremendous sport. my hard-rocking husband did in fact like the opera, but wants to venture to new places with me. i think that is quite cooperative. :)

anyway, that is all for now. we are planning and preparing. we like teaching folks- don't get us wrong, but as you all know who have taught....the first year is the worst for time management and planning. but the kids are really wonderful, we are already starting to get seconds of passing opportunities. for example, my brilliant husband was teaching on Autobiographies and Epitaphs....... and of course, the only question to ask high schoolers first to prepare before his lesson, he askes them to write down 5 things they want to do before they die. wow.

no one had ever asked them that. and in that second he got to explain his 5 too. i think he's great, what an opportunity!

so, be encouraged. it's hard yes. but so worth it at the same time.
We love all of you. And we thank you for your prayers.
lovekatie

Here's to Jack, my best bud in the whole world!!

I truly hope you have a wonderful wedding day. I wish more than anything that I could be there to celebrate with you. We'll have to have a belated bachelor party upon my return. Until then, know that I love for the brother that you've always been to me. You've got a wonderful woman, I couldn't be more proud of your choice!

We'll be drinking a pint in your honor tomorrow!

Nazdraví (Cheers)!!

It's Thursday and I don't think that I've ever been more exhausted in my life. My hat goes off to all you professional mind-molders out there...teaching is tough!! First, depending on the class, a forty-five minute lesson can seem like five seconds or ten years and just when you think you have a free period, you have to pickup a class of german-speaking students because another teacher decided to go on a field trip. Second, the planning never ends and it's a mystery why one lesson can be a full success with one class and completely bomb with the next. Third, your twenty some-odd hours of lecture time turns into a fifty-hour week once you're through filling out forms, making copies, grading papers and commuting (i think I almost miss my stop every morning because I fall asleep on the subway, even while standing up and leaning against some poor old woman with ten bags of groceries). And lastly, you get paid NOTHING!!

This isn't a rant folks, it's the simple truth. We need to appreciate our teachers more, it's an exhausting profession. Well, I need to go write a syllabus. Ahoj.

So, it's Sunday. Hope all of you are enjoying your weekend.
We have spent the weekend with all our ESI teachers here in Prague. We have had our first of four retreats for the year. At the retreats we have a TEFL course, spiritual renewal, and of course food and fun.

Michael and I are glad to be back in the ghetto, it's more quiet here. We are working on lesson plans and coordinating our year schedules. (For all you teachers out there, i humbly say that i admire your work and resourcefulness) Teaching was good this past week. We briefly got a taste because we taught only one or two days. but the classes were fun. my young classes, (freshman), we terrified of having a native english teacher. my older kids were about my brothers and sisters age and felt more like peers. but, looking professional, being a teacher, and being from US has it's advantages here. i have a senior who is 20. i am only 23, making my authority a little shaky. but we made it a point to scare the pants off them and then in a month or so, we can be friends. If we were friends first, we would have problems with respect.

a funny story....
my last class on Thursday was a hoot. i walked in to what i was told was a "girl dominated" school, seeing that my class was 16 males, ages 16-17. wow. no girls. i literally laughed to myself. They thought it was quite humorous too. all i am going to say is remember the males when they were 16-17 in your classes, no females except for a young American teacher. it went well though. with that class, there actually can be great potential. (also, it's nice to talk about Michael even though he rarely is at my school -he can be a silent threat :)

but anyway, we are well. classes are good. life is good. i really love some new things here that i thought i would never grow accustomed to, even in two weeks! for one, the markets= i really enjoy walking around and seeing the food, hearing the American hip hop music playing in the little place and seeing the older women dance to it. (bread here is amazing)
and two- public transportation. not having to drive, pay for gas, etc. it's nice to walk everywhere or take the metro.

some more funny things.....
1. honest to goodness- a "Subway" opened up in Prague over the summer
2. KFC is "the" place to go in Prague if you are a czech
3. milk comes in boxes most of the time
4. i have not figured out how to use a gas oven. the stove yes.
5. the washing maching we have, which is a new model from Italy, takes 2 hours to run for colors, no lie.

we are thinking of you, love katie

p.s. mike and i got the free season tickets from our school for next weekend to the opera to see Smetana's (famous CZ composer) masterpiece- the Battered Bride. I'll send you the review....

Dobry den!

I'm just taking a break in the teacher's lounge in the middle of my first day of actual teaching. I have 16 classes a week, five of them being 90 minute periods and forty-five for the remaining eleven classes (why do I write out some numbers, but not others?)

It's a bit strange to be valued for something for which you can claim no merit. For example, we are the only two "native speakers" at our school. This small, simple fact has created no small amount of hype surrounding us. All the teachers smile and introduce themselves and are curious about where we're from and what states we've been to. All of the students whisper in the halls and stare curiously at the two new "Americans." The funny thing is, no one cares about our credentials, training or work experience. A college degree is a prerequisite to holding a position such as ours, but I think it's only a formality. They want us to teach about our American experiences and implicit knowledge or the culture, but nothing (or at least very little) related to what we studied all of those long nights in college. Everyone has been so genuine and helpful, but there is still something unsettling in knowing that I've done nothing on my own to get here-it's simply because I was born in America.

And then I realize my prideful need for personal accomplishment. My need to elevate myself with my inflated sense of post-collegiate self-worth. My need to feel important, not for who I simply am but who I've engineered myself to be. And the Lord quietly reminds me that he chose Michael Alpert, the stupid American, long ago to come to this foriegn place for His purposes, not my own. And He reminds me further still that He values me not for who I think I am, but for who I simply am able to be by His merits-a redeemed son of God. And then I realize that there's nothing wrong with being valued for things you cannot take credit for...it's quite nice actually.

sorry if the pictures are not working at the moment...we're working on it.

Come with us!!

We finally have some pics up to share with you. Click the "Prague Pics" link to the right and see our hood, our town and our flat. Be sure to check out both pages! Sorry about the picture size, we didn't have time to reformat them. Enjoy!! Hope it makes you want to come and visit us!!