I'm really sorry about dropping the ball on the blog this month. It's pretty pathetic when my dad tells me they're considering renaming me Jared due to my lack of blog activity.

Here in the Czech Republic, it's květen - the month of blooming flowers. It's been beautiful here, but it's also been like a whirlwind. I have been super busy and the time has been flying by. I've actually been a little exhausted from the pace.

I owe you a couple of pictures from the witch-burning, which actually took place at the end of April - here they are:

Before

After: Ding, Dong

I've seen a lot of new things this month. On Armistice Day, May 8, I went to Terezin. It's an old fortress town which was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis during the war. It is famous as the setting for the Nazi propaganda movie which attempted to paint a picture of concentration camps as happy destinations for Jewish families. Of course, the reality was much different. This trip was, predictably, quite depressing and sobering - although the surrounding countryside was extremely beautiful.

I've really been enjoying my experience in the Czech countryside. I get to see a different side of the Czech Republic when I'm travelling to the villages around Mlada Boleslav than I see in Prague. The spring brought lush green to the fields and beautiful flowers - the Czechs love gardening, and I love admiring their gardens!

Here are a few random pictures from my wanderings - some snails I found one morning while I was jogging, and a picture from a walk through a huge old cemetery in the center of Prague. Also, a couple of pictures of myself, so you know I'm really still alive :). I've still been seeing the hedgehogs, but I'm happy I've decided not to harass them. In fact, I ran into a little ježek (their Czech name) on my way home this evening and stopped for a minute to talk to him.

This month also brought a new teaching opportunity. My private student in Mlada Boleslav, Miroslav, has a Czech-Australian friend, Petr, who runs an intensive English weekend program in a town called Poděbrady, about an hour from Prague.  Petr needed more teachers, so Mira gave him my phone number and he called me to see if I would be able to come work there for the weekend. I did, and it was a great time. It was nice, because I was teaching adults, which was a nice change. I love teaching kids, but it's nice to have a balance.

The teaching there went well and I'll be going back next month to teach again for the weekend. The program takes place once a month. Poděbrady is really pretty - it's a spa town, based around the natural springs there. The town has a promenade stretching through the center in front of the train station with fountains and flowers all around, and there are plenty of places to go for a nice walk or bike ride along the river. For the weekend, we stay in a hotel where the classes are held and meals are provided there. It's quite nice.

The only difficult part about the weekend teaching was that it meant I had no day off for two weeks straight. I also was very exhausted by the extra lesson planning going in to the weekend. It should be easier next month, since I know far in advance I am going to do it and can start preparing now.

On my first day off after the two-week marathon, I took a day trip with my friend Bob to Kutna Hora, a town about an hour from Prague which is most famous for its "Bone Church". I had been excited about seeing this since before I even left the United States, but I just got around to visiting. It was the perfect day to go as the weather was fantastic.

We first visited Kostnice, the Bone Church. It is so weird! Apparently some dirt from the Holy Land got scattered in the graveyard of this church at some point, and it became a much sought-after place to get buried. Eventually, the cemetery was extremely over-crowded, so the monks had to take up some of the older bones to make room for new ones. Legend has it one crazy monk started putting the exhumed bones into patterns. Apparently this really took off, and now the church is estimated to contain the bones of up to 40,000 people, which are arranged into bizarre architectural and decorative formations.

One of the most famous features is the Bone Chandelier, which is said to contain at least one of every bone in the human body. It's truly bizarre when you see it up close and start identifying the bones. Who knew that if you arranged hip bones and skulls in a certain way they resemble flowers? Who thought of turning pelvises and spinal cords into sculpture?

After gawking at the Bone Church and taking a bunch of pictures, we walked about a half an hour to the center of the town, where we visited St. Barbara's Cathedral. Kutna Hora was a medieval mining town, and St. Barbara is the patron saint of mining. This is a gothic cathedral, which many say is the most spectacular of its kind in the Czech Republic. I have to admit it was impressive. I especially appreciated the ancient frescoes in some of the chapels and the beautiful windows. The view from the hill the cathedral sits on of the town and countryside surrounding is really breathtaking.

Finally, we went for a tour of the silver mines. The tour was conducted in Czech, but they gave us some pages of information in English, so we were able to follow along. We put on hard hats and white robes and followed the guide 65 metres down into the old mine shafts - it was pretty tight squeezing through some of those tunnels! They asked to make sure we didn't suffer from claustrophobia before we were allowed to begin the tour.

The website I had used to get information for the trip to Kutna Hora had suggested a restaurant, so after the tour of the silver mine, we followed their advice and went there for dinner. It was really great! We sat outside in the sun, and ordered yummy, fresh grilled food. For an appetizer we had grilled goat cheese with cranberry sauce, served with toasted baguette. For my entree I had grilled pork loin with tarragon butter and grilled asparagus. So delicious. It was a great trip.

The next day I went to my meditation group, then took a long walk with my friend Leila - it's becoming our Sunday routine. The weather was fantastic again that day, so we walked for hours. She showed me a couple of parks I hadn't been to, and a couple places with really nice views. This picture shows a nice view of Vinohrady, one of Prague's many beautiful neighborhoods.

As usual, I have to plan a few lessons and get everything in order now for my classes tomorrow. In the morning it's off to Mlada Boleslav again for the next couple of days. I forgot to mention that last Thursday, Marta, the teacher I work closely with at one of the schools in MB, invited me to her house after class. She has two young children, both of whom I've had the pleasure of teaching. She also has a beautiful home, and she made delicious blueberry dumplings, cakes and sandwiches for me - a great hostess! We talked and visited and played games with the kids. It was a really nice time. She mentioned going to see one of the local castles or something soon.

I'll really try not to go so long without writing again... it wasn't intentional, I just got really busy there for a little bit. Still, it's not an excuse - thanks to everyone who reads this stuff and misses it when I don't post - I'm glad you are reading!

Booze, Whips, and Witch Burnings: Just Another Holiday in the Czech Republic

I have to say I had an excellent week teaching in Mlada Boleslav. All of the kids were awesome, and all of my lessons went well. I was observed on Thursday by one of the Wattsenglish coordinators, and I think the lessons were great. I know Misa, the regional coordinator in MB, was really happy with them. It was just a really good week, even kids that can sometimes be difficult were behaving well - both my regular first grade classes were being little angels, it was wonderful.

Beautiful tulips in Kněžmost village

Mlada Boleslav

Spring has finally taken root here. All of the trees are in full bloom. The weather has been amazing. On Thursday after my classes, I went with Michaela (the coordinator who was observing my classes) to the area known as "The Bohemian Paradise". It's an area not far from Mlada Boleslav that's known for its beauty and is a popular place for hiking and rock climbing. While Michaela went for a jog, I hiked down to this sandstone "castle" - it's not really a castle, but sandstone cliffs with stairs and rooms carved in. I guess robbers (or whoever needed a place to hide) used to hide out there hundreds of years ago. It was really cool, and the views on the hike were beautiful.

By the way, while we were having a snack at a restaurant here after the hike/jog, Michaela pointed to those mountains in the background and said "That's where the residential camp is that you'll be working at this summer!"

Today was also a beautiful day. In the morning I went to an International market organized by expats.cz, a website for expats in Prague. I was a little disappointed by it - from the descriptions I read online I thought it would be a lot bigger. Still, I got a book to read. It's historical fiction about the life of Egon Schiele, an Austrian artist whose work I saw while travelling there (see my posting of Vienna, Day 3). After the market I went into the center, and my friend told me the directions to a nice park. I went there and napped in the grass along with many other people. Then, I walked along the Vltava to Old Town Square and went to an exhibition of Alphonse Mucha's work that I'd been meaning to go to for a long time. I really enjoyed it.

One of the reasons I love Art Nouveau is that it didn't only consist of paintings and drawings - it encompassed architecture, furniture design, jewelry design, textile design, you name it. It was especially interesting to see Mucha's drawings of objects: there are many drawings of elaborate silverware and serving dishes, for example. He just drew everything so beautifully. My most exciting discovery was this detail of a page full of jewelry designs. I fell in love with this sketch of a ring. I've decided that someday, if I ever get married or have some extra money lying around, I'm going to have this ring made (maybe with the stones not protruding quite as much). How cool would it be to have a wedding ring taken from Alphonse Mucha's own design? Unbelievably cool.

Also, check out this print that I saw today: do you see any resemblance to the keytag image for the necklace I'm currently working on?

I need to share with you a little-known fact about the Czech Republic: they have the most politically incorrect holiday traditions I've ever heard of.

First, there's the Easter tradition. Let's just have a look at this nice children's illustration: here, we see some Easter eggs, tulips, a couple of chicks, a rabbit... nothing out of the ordinary.

"But wait," you say, "what is this thing at the bottom? I don't remember seeing one of these before. What is it? What is it for? What kind of nice Easter tradition could it be associated with?"

Well, folks...

This is what we refer to in English as a "whip-stick". Here is a picture of a couple of kids dressed as rabbits with a whip-stick. And another picture of a traditional whip-stick being made:

Hmm, what is the purpose of this whip-stick? It looks innocent enough, especially with those pretty ribbons tied on.

Well, the purpose of the whip-stick is to run around and whip the woman-folk. Why, you ask? Well, because it's good for them. It brings them health and beauty! Traditionally, on Easter morning starting at about 8 AM, all of the men in the village fashion these whip-sticks, then go around from house to house, whipping all the girls and women in the village. What happens to the men? Well, they are given shots of hard liquor, of course! The women, after they receive the whipping, are to give the men a shot. It's like trick-or-treat, except with booze and whips! Gotta love it.

I thought that with Easter behind us, the holidays would start getting a little more normal around here, but don't worry... the Czechs have all kinds of weird-ass traditions up their sleeves. Next, we have the traditional Burning of Witches, April 30th. On this day, everyone in the village gathers to build a huge pyre, and at dark, the witch it burned on the pyre. When I first caught wind of this tradition, I was a little taken aback. Witch burning?? I thought that was, like, a dark period in European history, one we don't necessarily want to go around recreating as a fun event for the whole family.

But, when in Rome, I suppose...

Most schools will be out for Monday and Tuesday for the holiday, so the little girls at the school I teach at on Friday were celebrating early. They were all dressed as little witches and had their faces painted or spiders drawn all over themselves. I told them they could draw one on my arm, and I was suddenly swarmed by five third-grade girls and covered with spiders and spiderwebs. They even drew them on my face and chest. I got a lot of strange looks for the rest of the day, especially when I got back to Prague that evening!

I have to say, I am very interested to see this witch burning festival.