It is Saturday afternoon. I have been studying Czech for several hours and now my eyes and mind are tired. The class is really great. We actually started studying last Tuesday. The first day was really fantastic. Our teacher, Pani Katerina, was super. She only spoke Czech and expected us to understand. And the most exciting thing was that mostly I did understand. On Wednesday, we learned that we would have two teachers. Our second teacher, Pani Rodka, spoke a lot of English and went really slowly. This was sad for me because when she used so much English, I stopped understanding the Czech. She was our teacher Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I realized from talking to students in the other classes that we were going much slower than they were. I was alarmed!! So, Peter urged me to change classes to one that was going faster. On Friday I did this and Monday I start in a new class.
I know several people already in the new class. Katerine is a french woman who has been living in Prague for 6 months. We met on the first day of class. The University had given us all a letter confirming our attendance in the class. The letter also contained the time and place of our first meeting. It said “February 4 at 9:00 am in Albertov 7 (which means number 7 on the street Albertov). So, I walked down the street Albertov and passed number 3, then number 5, and finally arrived at number 7. I walked in and looked around. There were no signs or indications of where I should go. I saw another girl standing there and asked her whether she knew where the intensive language classes were meeting. She smiled and showed me a letter identical to mine and said that she had asked someone in the building the same question and they had told her to go out of the building and walk down three buildings. This was as confusing to her as to me but we walked outside. We walked down several buildings, we saw Albertov 5 and Albertov 3 and then we stopped. We decided that the person she asked had to be wrong and decided to go back and ask someone else. As we were nearing the building, a woman came out. So I asked her if she knew. She laughed, showed us the same letter as ours, and told us that some person inside had said to walk down several buildings to 3A. This was Katerine.
So, we walked down past Albertov 3. The next place on the block was not a building but a gate. We had almost passed it when I saw a small sign that said “Albertov 3A/7.” So we went in there and at the end of a lane there was a building with a sign welcoming all intensive language students. We were still laughing when we walked into a crowed room and were handed registration forms. We sat down together, realized that the forms were completely in Czech and started laughing again. Fortunately, on my other side there was a girl who apparently knew enough Czech to fill out the form. So I looked at her answers, figured out what the questions were and told my two new friends.
After we finished filling out our forms they told us we could go home. This surprised both Katerine and I because we thought we would be there all day. They also told us we needed to bring three pictures of ourselves the next day so they could make student ID’s for us. I didn’t have any pictures. Katerine only had one. So we decided to go together to get our pictures made. Katerine drove us to this place way outside Prague to do it. We got them and returned to Prague. The next day we were laughing really hard when we found out that we really only needed one picture.
So, a long story to say that Katerin is in my new class. On Friday afternoon she photocopied her notes so that I could study them over the weekend and be prepared on Monday. As we were leaving she said “Oh…well my notes might not be the best for you because I translate half the words in French.” 
So today I spent about an hour looking up the words in her notes that she translated in French.
Another girl named Lena is in my new class. She is 20 years old and from Germany. She is really funny. We were talking on Friday about all kinds of things and she asked me why I was in Prague. I said “My husband…” She immediately interrupted me ” You’re MARRIED!?! …well, I suppose it is not SO unusual but..” At this point I realized what she was thinking - she thought that I was really young -something like her age or younger and was shocked that I was already married. Other people in the group didn’t realize this right away and there was lots of laughter that Lena thought marriage was SO BAD. Then I said ” well, you know, I’m not so young as you might think.” She was really surprised that I am 29.
There is also this guy that is not in my new class or my old class but he buys coffee every morning from the same machine as Katerine and I. The first morning we met him he was dying for some coffee and was standing on line talking about how finding this machine was the best part of his day so far. So we started talking and found out that he is in Prague on business - he wants to open a Burito restaurant in Prague. He is from northern California but acts like an easterner. When Katerine asked him his name, he said “Aaron.” Katerine said something about how interesting new American names are. Aaron said “What!? New!? American? My name is about 6000 years old. You know Moses? The guy in the Bible? His brother’s name was Aaron.” It was really funny, Katerine didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I think she was really surprised at the strength of his reaction. So during most morning breaks the three of us buy coffee and food together.
I am really looking forward to my second week of class.
I have been spending my evenings with friends here in Prague. On Monday I hung out with Lina and her daughter Arina, who is about 20 months old. Arina just learned my name which makes me really happy. She calls me “Duda” and we play lots of games together. When I was at their house on Monday, she wanted to play “bye bye”… which in Russian is what you say when putting a baby to bed, maybe something like “sleep sleep time” (not like “bye bye” in English which is “paka paka” in Russian). So she wanted me to lay on the bed under the covers and pretend to sleep. Every time I got back up she would call “Duda, Duda, bye bye.” She is really sweet and it is amazing to watch her growing up. Every time I see her she knows a new word or can do some new thing. After playing Bye Bye, I went with Anton to Monday Beer Night - which is the evening when all our Czech friends meet to hang out.
On Tuesday, I was really tired after class but went walking around the city with some friends. I left early though because I couldn’t even keep one thought in my head! On Wednesday, I went for a Russian lesson with Olga after class. It is beginning to be really good because we are mostly speaking only Russian - and I am learning a lot I think. I have to figure out how to keep time to study Russian and well as Czech. So far they seem to be reinforcing each other. Thursday, (after a 3 1/2 hour nap) I had dinner and then went out for beer with Ostap and Lena. We stayed out longer than I should have and drank one too many beers. So Friday I had some small headache all day. I was worried it would affect my learning in class, but since I was still in the slow class it was no problem except that I was more impatient. Last night, I met Lena, Ostap, Lina, Anton and Arina for dinner and then went to see our Czech friend Veronika who recently came back from Germany for a couple of weeks.
As you know Peter is in Moscow. He will be there for one more week. I think things are going pretty well for him there. He got his new passport and stared the process of making visas to Czech and to Germany. If all goes well, they will both be ready before he comes back next Sunday. If not, his parents will send them to Prague after he comes back. So he doesn’t have to worry about changing his airplane ticket.
Shelby is coming to Prague tomorrow morning. She will stay with us for a little more than two weeks. So tomorrow morning I will get up early and go to airport to pick her up. I am really excited.
