We're back!

We returned late last night from the small town of Hodonín near the border of Slovakia. A good time was had by all. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving feast (the hotel restaurant kindly made me a steak as a poultry substitute:), inspiring anecdotes from fellow teachers, a bit more TEFL training, hearty worship and probably the first American football game that the tiny population of Hodonin has ever seen. My team won with a memorable victory of six to one.

We also had a talent show, which has been an ESI Thanksgiving tradition for quite some time. Kate and I did Waterdeep's 'Psalm 18,' followed by our little rendition of Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual Healing' and dedicated it to a couple of past Czech teachers that choose to spend a few days with us on their honeymoon. Being newlyweds ourselves, we couldn't pass on anopportunityy to celebrate the awkwardness of spending part of a honeymoon with 40 other (largely sexually frustrated and single) missionaries. Big thanks to Priya and Neal for planning a refreshing and genuinely enjoyable retreat.

Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday!
Grace and Peace to you all, Michael and Katie

Pre-class musings...

I listened to Alkaline Trio's latest cd this morning on the metro, cleverly entitled "Good Mourning." Why is it that sardonic and dark music is sometimes strangely uplifting? If you've heard the disc, then you know what I mean. Maybe it's because we gotta keep the gators fed man (anyone ever read Stephen King's essay, "Why We Crave Horror Movies"?).

The "real" Thanksgiving Story...

Since it's that time of the year and students love talking about American holidays, I decided to do a mad-lib version of the Thanksgiving story and have my students supply the needed words. It may be unlike the story that you rememeber, but they found it to be quite hysterical (after all, I end up being a dancing Indian Chief). Since our school computer is outdated, I can't italicize the words on the blog, so the student-supplied words will be in "-" marks. I haven't edited anything, what you'll read includes the exact words that they gave me. So, you'll understand if it sounds a bit strange. Enjoy:

In the United States, the "21st" Thursday in November is called Thanksgiving Day. On this day, Americans give thanks for the "flying carpets" they have enjoyed during the year. Thanksgiving is usually a family day, celebrated with big "lakes" and happy "circles."

The first American Thanksgiving was held "on the moon" in 1621. The people of "the moon" had come to America from "Tahiti" in 1620. In their native land, they had been called "the Sri Lanka Penguins" and they believed in a simple style of worship rather than that of the Church of England. After they were "sneezed on" for their beliefs, they moved to "the Matrix" were they had the freedom to believe what they wanted. The "Sri Lanka Penguins" called themselves Pilgrims because of their search for religious freedom.

The Pilgrims did not know how to survive the hard and dangerous "ducks" in America. During their first winter, about half of them died and only "1,985" remained alive. One day, and Indian walked into their village and brought the Pilgrims "toilet paper." The Indian Chief, named "Mr. Alpert" taught the Pilgrims how to hunt, fish and "dance." The "cook" of Plymouth decided to have a day of thanksgiving to God. He invited the Indians and Chief "Mr. Alpert" to join them for their feast.

The Indians accepted and brought "rat" meat for the feast. The Pilgrim men went hunting and returned with "snakes" and other wild animals. The Pilgrim women prepared corn, cranberries, squash and pumpkins. They all ate and celebrated for "77" days. The holiday was "crazy."

The End

Mondays...gotta love 'em.

Boys' weekend was great as was girls' weekend for the girls. This will be an insane and short week for us. We will be attending a Thanksgiving Retreat (and co-leading worship) in a small town near the Slovak border. Of course we'll give you the goods when we get them.

So, my husband is great, huh? I mean, the pictures, his famous life on the internet- he's a hero.
And he left me today for "man weekend". I also read his "colon" update. I promise i will try and keep the news from all of you. :)

It's friday around 4:30pm. and a funny thing that has happened in the past few weeks- it is black outside and has been for 30 minutes. i guess this is normal. But come around 9pm, it feels like it should be morning. i am heading over to my new friends- Priya and Sarah's house. it's not often i get to see women without the company of men. i am not complaining, but i was trying to explain to Michael that "seeing girls a lot is not the same as girls night." Do you women agree??

There is something great about being women. I mean, lately, partly from the Bible Study i am in, I feel women are supposed to be these quiet, flowery, peaceful humans. Even if i tried- i could never succeed. But why do we have this view? I mean, why can't we be happy the way the Lord created us- different. Some of us loud and forthright, some of us truthtellers with or without peace, some of us crazy and spontaneous.

I think we are called to have "gentle and quiet spirits". "SPIRITS". Not personalities. How bland would the world be with all gentle and quiet women running around. I know the house i grew up in would have never survived. Maybe Queen Elizabeth would have never been Queen. Who knows?

I just think as a society, sometimes we try and be alike. But for what reason?

Ah well- just my thoughts today. Now I am going to a "girls night". Filled with fatty foods, loud music, crazy movies, laughter and vivacious women!
katie

College Days...so random that I just had to post it



So I was surfing the web at school and somehow (I really have no idea how it happened, since I wasn't looking for anything in particular) I saw a web page description that read "cool hand luke pics." Since I love Cool Hand Luke (the band, and the movie in fact, but I'm referring only to the band here) I clicked on the page. As the pictures were slowly loading (due to our ultra-slow connection) I started to say to myself, "That place looks familiar." As the pictures became more clear, I thought, "I think I was at that show." Soon, they were fully loaded and I scrolled down the page only to see a picture of me and my friends in the small audience in our first year of college (I'm the one in a black t-shirt and white sleeves behind the guy sitting cross-legged on the floor).

First of all, I had no idea that any pictures were taken at this show. Secondly, this particular show has become quite legendary amongst me and my friends as one of the, "best shows ever." It featured a very young Cool Hand Luke, who were not much older then we were at the time. They've since nabbed a record deal and have developed quite well, but that was definately one of the most passionate hardcore shows I've ever seen.

A word to the wise...you never know when or where an old picture of yourself might turn up for the world wide to see. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I'm leaving my wife...but only for a couple days. We're having a 'guys' weekend in Sokolov (western Bohemia) and Kate and a few other girls are having a 'gals' night in Praha. There's nothing like chilli and Czech beer to clean out the old colon. Details to follow...

Thought for the day
I'm teaching a class on 'man and the environment' this week and threw this quote at my kids: "When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can't eat money." Thoughts?

Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. Most of the are from Budapest. Only the last three are from Vienna, since my camera's battery died before I could capture too much (doh!). It's a shame too, since I think that Vienna is the most beautiful city I've seen yet. I wish I could speak at length about the historical facts regarding the various churches, palaces and statues that you see here. Unfortunately, the tour was in Czech and, although we had a translator (thanks Katka!!), it was still a bit difficult to remember all the dates and such. We did buy a couple of books so we can return on our own time and make sense of everything that we saw.

I'll post some pictures of our students soon. They proved to be quite fun travel companions. It's interesting how mature and responsible the teenagers are here. That's not to say that teenagers aren't so in the states, but there's no way that a school or a church would take forty teenagers to a foreign city, give them maps and say, "See ya in a few hours!" And at the end of the day, everyone on the bus (teachers, students, bus driver, etc.) were toasting champagne and hot red wine to, "a good and beautiful day." I just sat there and thought how many people would be fired in the states over what seems to be a very joyous and innocent thing here.

Well, gotta go get some school work done. I'm sure Katie will give you her thoughts and reactions soon. Oh yeah, one more thing: if you ever have the chance to go to a bath house, I would highly recommend it. Sadly, photography is strictly prohibited (probably because too many old men wear small speedos), but it was quite a relaxing experience. Ciao for now!

Success...full success!

Well, we're back and planned to post plenty of new pictures, but our trusty internet is down. I'm in an e-cafe at the moment and thought I'd inform all of you lovely people that it may be a few days before we can blog again.

Nevertheless, the class trip was quite an experience! Budapest was great and Vienna is one town that I think I could devote some serious time to some day. A few highlights to pique your interest until we talk next:

-Leaving at 11:00 p.m. and driving through the night is actually quite fun, especially when you get to watch a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson movie in Czech while you're cruisin'
-Regarding European thermal bath houses: the stories are true...
-Hungarians know sausage
-Austrians know hot red wine
-Czechs know how to have a good time
-More to read and see in the near future...

Youth ministry goes international!

Since it seems like few really want to comment on the whole sexual sin issue, I guess it's time for another blog...

This week brings a few new exciting things:

1. Tonight is the second Fall 2003 installment of Cafe Coze (translated to "Cafe What?"). Since I miss the freedom of hanging out with kids outside of a student-teacher relationship, I've recently got involved with this small group that's co-sponsored by ESI, the European branch of Young Life and Campus Crusades. Basically it gives public school students a chance to practice English and indulge in thought-provoking discussion with Americans, Brits and other Czech student's their age. While it's not overtly evangelistic (which I kind of like), many Czech students have been introduced to other Czech Christian teenagers and have gotten plugged into one of the large, local youth groups (Youth Praha). Last month was a blast and this month will hopefully be even better!

2. Katie and I are leaving tomorrow for our jaunt to Vienna and Budapešt with a couple of our senior classes. This shoulddefinitelyy be an interesting experience. We're leaving at 11:00pm and driving on a bus through the night to Hungary, then heading straight to Austria. We'll let you know how it turns out.

3. We've decided to celebrate our first honeymoon out-of-country (I can't believe it's been almost a year!). We went to a couple of travel agencies yesterday and are trying to decided between Rome, Istanbul, Malta and a few other smaller locations in Italy. Any suggestions??

Well, more classes await. Blessings to all!

Something for Everyone

If you've ever been to Prague, or somewhere like it, you know that it's a very sexually-charged environment. Indeed, the European marketing strategy regarding sex appeal must be to leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. Because of this, our in-country director often purchases books on the issue of sexual temptation and purity for the ESI reference library. She recently purchased a book entitled Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Purity One Victory at a Time. She asked Katie and I if we would both read it and write a review to be published in our monthly newsletter so that others could decide if it's a worthwhile and helpful read. Having read a few of these types of books in college, my first thought was, "Great, another book that beats around the bush and uses soft euphamisms for serious issues." I was wrong.

This is a book that hits all the bases in sexual temptation and is not afraid to use words other than "lust" to hit its target. Indeed, Katie commented that the first few chapters are designed to shock you into realizing very quickly that these three authors aren't writing to the faint of heart. But it's not just its blunt nature that makes it useful, it actually has some pretty practical steps to take if your seriously struggling with sexual sin.

I realize that this blog is quickly turning into the review that should be elsewhere. I simply wanted to mention this book and issue for a few reasons. First, I've had friends who have been involved with porn-free youth and other organizations and I've seen the statistics on how many men, including pastors, struggle with pornography and other sexual sin. It's staggering. I also remember that almost all of my close, mature guy friends in college, including myself, dealt with this monster in a very serious way at one time or another. I also know the statistics on how many marriages are torn apart by something as simple as surfing the web where one shouldn't. Second, this is a fantastic book to read simultaneously with your wife. I would challenge all of you married couples to try it, even if this hasn't been a problem area for you. The discussions that this book has spawned between Katie and I have been quite fruitful and beneficial to us both. It also has interviews with many Christian wives that can be quite informative and eye-opening for a husband to read.

As fair warning, let me say that there are several of those ridiculous Christian spin-off books that the lame-o Christian publishers love to use to milk a successful idea 'til it's dry. Don't bother with the workbook or any of that other crap. Just run to amazon and pick up a used copy for ten bucks. Also, I don't know that I'd recommend this book for anyone under 15 or 16. There is a young men's version, which may be part of the aforementioned spin-off scheme, but it's by the same authors, so it might be worth reading.

Edith Wharton once referred to the "hypnotizing effect of routine" and, after a week back from a week off, I'm starting to understand what she meant. When you get used to an unusual amount of free-time, it makes it damn near impossible to thrust yourself back into your work shoes, back into the motions of commuting (via public transportation, mind you) and especially back into the "on" mode that is so necessary when you teach 60-80 different students a day. However, once you have thrown yourself into that current again, it is so familiar and, yes, "hypnotizing." I say this only because I have taught seven different classes today, all with different lessons and I cannot bring myself to recall one specific detail about any class. It's all a blur. That can't be good.

Tuesday 4/11/03
a little teaching story...

So, it's our first week back after the long 10 day break. It's been a struggle readjusting to the 5:45 wake up time....it's amazing how quick your body can get out of practice.

This week is chaos. It's the week after break, nothing is in rythym, kids are crazed. To try and teach a full lesson, like i mistakenly did on Monday morning, is foolishness. I gave a midterm before the break, i think my kids brains, and honestly mine too, is fried. So, i decided to forgoe my plans for the week, after one lesson on Monday and reworked the entire week into speaking games and fun. These not only help English, they help the mood, the atmosphere, and everyone's temperament.

And here is where our story begins...
I have this class. (Most of you know I work at the lowest of the low schools- as far as level and behavior) But most of my classes are great kids, just teenagers. But this one class is a sore in my side. They are about sophomore age, 4 girls- 10 boys. These boys are the "tough" boys of the school, the rowdy "all the teachers groan when they think of them" boys. They are decent in their English level, they are not in the least stupid. But when it comes to class I spend more time shutting them up, rather than having them speak. And it's a conversation class? They want me to let them speak? Crazy!

But, honestly, there is a little smile in my mind when I think of them. Maybe it's because they have more personality in one class than most of my "good" behavior classes. So, today, I was dreading the games I had chosen to plan. "Am I crazy?" "This is going to be insane!"

And it was! It was also wonderful.
We play this game called "I never...". One person stands in the middle and says "I never.....". Then if you have done it, you run speedily across the room to a new seat. There is one less chair, and the new person gets to stand in the middle.

Most of my classes that have played this have been very nice to one another. They giggle, or very timidly "fast walk". Not today. These kids were tearing one another, throwing one another on the floor, holding shirts so people couldn't run, one chair got flipped over with a person in it! They were screaming at one another if they messed up the rules. They screamed, and laughed, and yelled. I am sure the faculty thought I was not even in the room, and they kids were just being wild-men. But no, i was there, playing too. This one boy- my lowest leveled boy, the same one who slightly teared up (unknowingly to everyone else) at the beginning of class when he saw his almost failing midterm from the previous week- ran straight into me and got his chair. "Good for you" i said. and he apologized greatly.

My point in this story is love. I think sometimes we think loving people means telling them how to behave like everyone else, putting all the "good " kids in the same catergory. I think when we say we love kids....we mean the youth group kids, or the honest ones, or the "fast walking" ones.
What I learned today is that.... we really need to love the ones that run into us, push someone over, and scream ferociously.

By the way- I have never seen them listen and pay attention like I saw today. At the end of class, we had 5 minutes. I asked them if they wanted to pack up their things.

They wanted to continue playing.
love katie