Out on the town...

Firstly, both the job fair and my interview went very well yesterday. I think I expressed myself well during the interview, which consisted of two parts - a general interview and a second part focusing on methodology questions. The school (IJV, an acronym for something much longer and harder to say in Czech) is located on Wenceslas Square, right in the center. I got there really early so I had a lot of time to wander around. Now that the course is finished, it's really sinking in that this will be my home for the next couple of years. I love to simply wander, seeing what I find. My favorite thing yesterday was a door I found tucked in a hallway of Lucerna shopping mall, a giant labyrinth of shops, restaurants and clubs. It is all in one building, but it has many hallways, and the hallways are left open to the air so it is only semi-enclosed. IJV is in the Lucerna complex.

The door I found

After my interview I ran around Prague looking for something very specific - a folder or binder large enough to fit my University diploma into. It sounds like it wouldn't be that hard, but for some reason OU issues unusually large diplomas, so I had to run around to several different places to locate something suitable. I was so excited when I found it! I need to take the diploma with me to some of my interviews, and I don't want it to get all beat up.

Later, I added another diploma to the folder - my TEFL diploma! At around 6:30 everyone from the course met at the school to receive our diplomas and celebrate together and with the staff. It was really fun. A few of the girls had come up with nicknames for each person in the class, which they "presented" us with...extremely silly. Some examples: The Czech Casanova - our native Czech, Michal. Dame Ginger - Lorna, who is very classy and has long red hair. Spongebob Sex Pants - Darryl, who likes to wear his Spongebob pajamas underneath his trousers to combat the cold (which we can all agree is quite sexy). My nickname is The Bohemian Beader, for obvious reasons.

Our class

Marissa and I

Sasha, myself, and Michal "The Czech Casanova" Severa

It's sad because many of the people from the course are leaving or have already left - Leann, one of my flatmates, left early this morning for Fiji by way of England. Alex H. and Kerre left for Finland this morning. Steluta also left today. Tahnee is leaving for Australia by way of Germany and France (actually I said goodbye to her one second ago). Most of the British folks will be leaving after the weekend.

It is a testament to how much I love these people that I agreed to go out to the clubs after we received our diplomas last night. We first went to a place called Deja Vu, then to a place back at Lucerna (the complex I'd been wandering around earlier in the day). The second place was an 80s music dance club; they had ridiculous 80s music videos playing on huge screens to accompany the songs. For those of you that know me, you may know that I fear dancing. It is a rare occasion when I decide to do it (although I usually have a good time when I do). Since it was a special occasion, and I'm all about facing and conquering my fears these days, I spent a lot of time being silly on the dance floor last night. I had a really good time. I always surprise myself by what I can do sober and still have fun. When I was drinking I thought nothing could ever be fun if drinking wasn't involved, and if I was afraid of something I would just drink a bit extra to give me the courage - which usually ended badly. Now I do some of the things I used to get nervous about and find that I actually enjoy them. I can't say I'll be going to any clubs again any time soon, but I'm really glad I got to spend time with everyone on our last night as a group.

The downside to going out in Prague is the lack of smoking bans. I've gotten so used to being able to go out to a show and not worry about smelling horrible the next day. Not so in Prague - everything I was wearing last night smells awful. My hair smells, my coat smells, and I had to put all of my clothes including scarves in the wash. Right now my coat is out on the balcony airing out... I put it out there when I got home last night, but I just smelled it again 10 minutes ago and it still smelled like an ashtray so I gave it a hefty coating of perfume and put it back out there again. Ick.

The only thing I really have to do this weekend is look over the lesson plan I wrote for one of my job applications. On Monday I'll be demonstrating part of the lesson during my interview. I'm hoping that I'll get a job either with the place I interviewed yesterday (I will know by this Friday) or with the place I'm interviewing on Monday. Both are large reputable language schools that help with the visa process. For now, I'm going to be lazy for a while.