Mission: failed or accomplished?

Since my eyesight has been slowly deteriorating since about the 8th grade, and since glasses are fairly inexpensive here, Kate and I set out on a mission to find some new specs on Saturday. Kate's frames are exceptionally cool, so she was just planning on getting some updated lenses. I, on the other hand, felt that I needed something a bit new and different to accommodate my ever-increasing mop of hair that I haven't cut since last July. You know, I suddenly wanted to go with the thick plastic frames that would make me look a bit more grungy and sophisticated at the same time (though I'm not sure that I've ever been close to successfully pulling off either of those). I knew that my friends back home would make fun of me and call me a poser for jumping on the horn-rimmed bandwagon about two years too late, but I told myself that I didn't care about their opinion anymore and that it's okay to latch onto a fad if you do so as it's on the way out rather than in.

So Saturday found us at Eiffel Optic trying on all the styles that I desperately hoped would make me cooler. But as I tried on pair after pair of Buddy Holly-variations, I began to fall more in love with my all-too-typical, three year-old wire frames that had served me faithfully these years and that made me neither a fashion victim nor hero. So, being a fan of monogamy, I decided not to fix what wasn't broken. I got new lenses and called it a day...and then muttered "poser" under my breath as I passed a thick-rimmed loser on the way out.

Going Polish

Since we've been enormously blessed this month by the generosity of both the Stevensons and my rag-tag group of friends (who wouldn't let us pay for one single thing while they were here!), we realized that we actually have enough money to do some traveling over Easter. So, we're heading to Krakow in two weeks and we're actually staying in a real-live hotel! While we were thinking about heading west, we decided that there's less of a chance of us being this far east again in the near future. So, we decided that we'll explore as much of Eastern/Central Europe as possible and save the West for the future. Besides the great CR, we've already hit Germany, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia (though it was just on the border). We're excited about adding Poland to the list.

Rain

I've never been to Seattle before, but I would imagine the weather to be quite like that of Prague's today. It's been fluctuating between drizzling and pouring all day with a cool 30 degree (F) wind passing through the tall buildings. After seven classes today, all I want is my wife and a nice cup 'o joe. One more class to go...

Ahoj!
The crew left this morning (sniff) at about 5 a.m. to fly back to Dallas and College Station. We just got back from a weekend in beautiful Cesky Krumlov, where we all wandered through the fairy tale town and relaxed at open-air cafes. We even got to stay in a 16th century bastion for two nights (pictured above). We'll soon have a link to an extensive picture gallery of the week's adventures.

Katie and I would like to send our sincere appreciation to: Jay, Jeff, Clifton, Peter, Mike, Gina and Lindsey. You all really blessed us with your visit and we are truly looking forward to a reunion this summer (hopefully at Peter's or Mike's up in NYC). Oh yeah...and thanks for the little surprise you left in the bottom of our fridge. You guys are too much!

Tabula Rasa

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about whether it's easier to explain or exemplify Christ to someone who has no idea of who He is, rather than someone who has their head filled with just little "tidbits" or disconnected puzzle pieces or, even worse, bad theology. With our guests being in town this weekend, I've had many conversations about the differences in witnessing here versus witnessing in the Bible belt, or anywhere in the states for that matter. I often don't know if it's easier or harder. People here have just as many misperceptions about who God is as your average American, but it's more of a vague mistrust due to historical baggage or political shifts. When dealing with jaded non-believers in the states, I've found that they seem to formulate their opinions based on Joe Christian at their job, their past experience at Church X, televangelism or perhaps they're simply uninterested spiritually in what seems to be nothing more than an antiquated part of the culture. Of course they can say that the church is irrelevant to contemporary society, but I still see that as more of an experience-based conclusion.

Here, however, it seems that teenagers in particular want to alienate themselves from any form of organized religion, but they're not really sure why. They don't know enough Christians to play the "hypocrisy" card and when pressed further, they blame their disbelief on something much more distant and centuries old. When having the rare spiritual conversation with one of my students, I often feel that it's the greatest advantage that they're encountering Christians outside of an environment that is "culturally" Christian. It's also challenging to be more communicative (either in word or action) about your faith. My witness can't begin or end by simply having a fish on my car or a cross around my neck. It has to be a daily example of my ineptitude, imperfections and indellible grace that is all over every breath and step that I take. I wish I could say that I'm at this point, but the hammering process continues.

Surprise!!

Friday evening I was surprised, nay...shocked to walk into a friend's apartment in Prague and find five friends from Texas waiting to jump out and assault me with hugs and bean burritos. Jeff, my ever-so-cool ex-collegiate roommate of three years along with Jay, my music-loving ex-deejay all-around-awesome-buddy had been planning a trip to this side of the pond for over six months without my knowledge (although my wife was in on it). Also in tow were Lindsey (Jay's sister), Gina (Jay's co-worker) and Clifton (another awesome guy form the old college radio days). And it didn't stop there! Mike Miller, our friend from NYU flew in from NYC on Saturday followed buy his northern cohort, Peter. So, there are seven Americans in Prague here to hang out with us this week, all of which was a complete surprise to me. I can't tell you how good it is to see some familiar faces. We have video footage of my dumbstruck expression, including the food that fell out of my mouth when Jay looked up and simply said, "'Sup dude?"

Needless to say, I doubt that teaching will have my full attention this week. Katie arranged for us to take Friday off and we're all heading out to a small town known as česky Krumlov to visit a castle and spend two nights in a fourteenth century tower. Pictures will follow.

P.S. I had my first "guy's night" in eight months on Saturday. Cuban cigars and world-class brew. By midnight, we came to the conclusion that Absinth is really only a cleverly-marketed, Scope-tasting mouthwash.

Assessment

Can anyone relate to the difficulty of making a truly "fair" test that accurately assesses what a student has actually learned? It's a bit strange being just 9 months out of college and finding myself on the other side of the table: making tests instead of taking them. It's tough man! I remember some of my professors saying that they'd spend countless hours on a final exam, fine tuning questions and such. Granted, conversational English ain't rocket science, but a good test making technique is hard to master no matter what discipline you're in. My greatest hurdle so far has been making sure that all of the different versions of my tests are at about the same difficulty level. Because my students are so incredibly skilled in the art of cheating, I have to make about four different versions of the same test just to ensure that they're actually doing their own work. It makes me wonder why we place so much value on tests in the first place. The odds that ANY test has EVER accurately reflected what a student actually knows and understands about a topic are, in my opinion, quite slim.

So, in honor of test week, what's your favorite type of test question?
a. essay b. multiple guess c. fill-in-the-blank d. oral e. matching

Well, the fam just left...

It's Thursday morning, the 4th of March, here in Prague and the Stevenson family just left from their big European adventure. (I promise if anyone has seen the Chevy Chase 'European Vacation' this was not far from it)

It was great! We went everywhere around the city, saw the main sites, and even got to sleep in everyday. Mike and I also surprised Dad for his 51st birthday and mom as well, her's was the 27th, with tickets for for all of us to go to the Estates Theatre, Mozart's Theatre, to see the Marriage of Figaro. Ask dad, he was as happy as a schoolboy. Then of course we led them to many restaurants where they tried almost every Czech beer, and Meredith could even try them here! Danny was quite impressed with Prague, though he retained his unyielding 'coolness' the whole time. It was wonderful!!!

So fam, we love you. Have a safe trip. We look forward to seeing everyone else in July!
Kate