Monday, March 13, 2006
A Fun Weekend
So this post is to give you a description of what the pictures below are all about. I know this description is a little late, but I was on spring break and just returned. That also means that there will be a whole new batch of photos to install and discuss coming up later this week I hope. So they follow "a fun weekend", mainly photos from Friday night and Saturday night. So Friday night was special because it was the seniors' Ples, held in a ballroom in the "Culture House". This is the prom equivalent that the final year students- classes 4.C and 6.A plan and put together. Ples is like prom only in the fact that it is a dance geared mainly for the older students. It, however, is a much different experience. For starters, there is just a lot more alcohol. Prom nights for many students will begin and end with alcohol outside of the dance, or the little they sneak into the dance; but at Ples alcohol is served and encouraged by all. Also, while Prom is attended by the older students, the younger students lucky enough to find dates, and the unfortunate teachers who get roped into chaperoning the dance, Ples is attended by all: most teachers, parents, family members, friends, friends of the family, etc. After dinner at Pizzaria Queen, we arrived at the dance a little after 7pm. At the beginning of the evening, the seniors came out to music from the musical Chicago and had actually choreographed a dance involving all of the final year students in semi-authentic 1930's outfits. Afterwards each of the seniors were announced by name and baby pictures shown across the screen in front. Very cute. They walked to the front and were presented with graduation sashes and flowers. Now they just have to actually graduate. The night continued with festive dancing and trying to steer clear of the students that were too drunk.
The next morning we crawled out of bed and made our way up to Prague to continue the festivities there. The next thing worth mentioning was the dinner on Saturday night. We dropped a heafty sum of money to eat at a Brazilian restaurant where you get all the meat you can eat, and then some. And they serve it to you on swords! After that we just went to the Fat Koala (English translation), a trendy bar downtown, and tried to not think about food or meat or dancing or anything we had overloaded on that weekend. And so this was a relatively brief description of a fun weekend.
The next morning we crawled out of bed and made our way up to Prague to continue the festivities there. The next thing worth mentioning was the dinner on Saturday night. We dropped a heafty sum of money to eat at a Brazilian restaurant where you get all the meat you can eat, and then some. And they serve it to you on swords! After that we just went to the Fat Koala (English translation), a trendy bar downtown, and tried to not think about food or meat or dancing or anything we had overloaded on that weekend. And so this was a relatively brief description of a fun weekend.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Things were a little tight with 10 people changing clothes in our flat before Ples. Well, things were not really as bad as they look here in this picture, but it was jammed! 
(picture out of order) Sam, Kass, Laura at the Fat Koala on Sat. night. 
At dinner enjoying some great pasta or some mediocre pizza. 
(L to R) Ben, Amy, Christian, Katie, Kass. At dinner at Pizzaria Queen down the street from our flat. 
(This picture out of order) After all the senior presentations, the dance became filled with students, friends and family dancing. 
Lucie (student) and Amy and the slab of meat Lucie won in the Ples raffle. 
Dancing their little hearts out. It was a surprisingly well put together dance considering they had to coordinate it for 60 people. 
The dance coming to a close. Note the 1930's style hats on the boys. Very impressive. 
After dancing, all the seniors paired off and walked through the cheering crowd to recieve sashes and flowers, and then formed a ring around the floor. 
The seniors with their purple Maturita sashes and flowers. I sure hope they all pass the Maturita, otherwise those sashes mean nothing. 
Our lovely Ples dates. From left is Amy, Katie, Sam, and Kassidee who have come down from the big city to experience the small town, and smaller Ples, wonders. 
Ben, Jake, and Me. Jake is an American who taught at our school last year and came out to visit the area, timing it very well with the Ples. 
Ben dancing with a 4.C student, Veronika, during the student-teacher dance. My dance partner never came, and I'm still not sure who it was supposed to be. Oh well. 
The 4.C class picture. I teach each of these students, a lot more than once for English, English Conversation, and Biology...three different subjects. 
So this is how I am seen by my students. The 4.C class drew cartoons of all of their teachers, and this is how I turned out! 
Laura and me. If we were ghosts, I assume this is what we would look like. 
At the Brazilian restaurant in Prague Saturday night where we were fed meat on swords until we couldn't stomach the thought of more! This is one of the swords. 
Amy on left, Sam in middle, and Me on right. If you look closely you can see a large sword on my plate, I am getting fed. 