Adding the Extras

Written by Brittany (Sorry if this post is weirdly highlighted. I can't figure out how to fix it.)

Since our last blog post, we have managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. Settling into a routine here, and finally adding "extra" things to our schedules. Between the 25th-30th of September, we went to a classical music concert, sightseeing at Prague castle, our first Sparta Prague hockey game, and a Shakespeare performance. (To see pictures of our busy week: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.912944754927.1073741837.69601108&type=1&l=9465abf401) We also began drama club, and I began meeting with some students after school. This has been a fun week adding in all the extras, and also a pretty big "oh yeah, this is what it's like to have a busy life!" Jadon adds tutoring this coming week, and then I think we'll have all the main extras added in.

Prague Castle

English Drama Club met for the first time for a little over an hour on Wednesday afternoon. It was a great experience! There are some students who have graduated from the high school, but continue to come back for drama club (they go to nearby universities). They, and other younger students who have been in EDC before, are a great resource for us, as they know how everything works. We played a couple "ice breaker" games with them, and finished with an acting game they chose. It seems like this is going to be a wonderful way for us to get to know students better and to build connections.

Cultural Tidbit: Nearly every Czech female has a last name that ends in "ova." It essentially means "belonging to." So the female "belongs to" her father/father's name. And when you get married you'd have your husband's last name, plus "ova." So if you had a brother and a sister (or husband and wife), they would actually have different last names. It would be something like Dan Mifka and Denise Mifkova. Interesting, isn't it? We have also seen the last name changed with non-Czech names, like book authors or fictional characters. Here's a "real world" example for you: 

Praises:
- Drama Club! We are really looking forward to how this shapes our year & our relationships.
- We have one full month of school under our belts! Only 9 more to go ;)
- Making time for fun extras (hockey games, Shakespeare performances, etc.)
- In under three weeks we will be traveling to Paris for four days!!

Prayer Requests:
- Our stove and our washing machine decided to quit on us this week. Our landlord has been to look at them, and hopefully they will be fixed soon. (Silver lining: we are supposed to be given a microwave to tide us over until the stove is fixed! We have really missed having a microwave!)
- Health. We have been passing colds back & forth the last few weeks, and Jadon currently has a cough he hasn't been able to shake.
- Visas. There were law changes this summer, and the way visas & employment cards work has changed. Thankfully we have experienced people working with us, but it looks like getting our new visas & employment cards may be more complicated than we expected. (Though with our Chicago visa history, we really shouldn't be surprised.)
- Health Insurance Cards. We still do not have cards for our Czech health insurance through the school. All the forms have been sent in, so we're just waiting for the insurance company to send them back to us.