Ples 2015

Written by Jadon

 Ples is the Czech word for “ball,” and at its most basic level, it is the Czech equivalent of Prom—though much more structured and with an emphasis on honoring graduating students. For instance, students invite their families and friends, rather than a date; tickets cost about $10; and various scheduled events for and performances by students occur throughout the evening.

All the teachers are also formally invited by the students, and Brittany and I were excited to go. Excitement quickly mingled with nervousness, however, when we learned that both of us would be part of the performances…dancing a waltz, each with one of our graduating students. Fortunately, the Wednesday before Ples (Friday), time was set aside for dance practice in the gym. I am very lucky to have had such a wonderful and gracious teacher in my dance partner, because I would be lying if I told you I was better than a bad “waltzer.”

As she taught me the steps, promising it was fine when I stepped on her feet, I found that I was becoming less worried about being embarrassed and more worried about her being embarrassed at her graduation ball in front of her family and friends. This desire to be an (at least) adequate dance partner led to, that’s right, dance practice by myself in our living room, my empty office, and—I will admit—the more spacious classrooms after my students had left…

And Friday came; not without a few hiccups, but with much better prepared feet since Wednesday morning.

The first event of the evening was a choreographed ballroom dance by sixteen of our students, including my dance partner. Then all the 1^st year students (the freshmen) marched onto the dance floor, making a circle around each of their respective class teachers (there are five classes for each grade level at our school). To honor the 1^st years and welcome them to the school, a few words where said, and the class teachers pinned ribbons on each of their students. Pictures ensued, and the 1^st years marched out.

The Ballroom Dancers

 Then came the 4^th years (the seniors), but they did not just march onto the dance floor. One class entered dragging their class teacher to his execution, though he was spared long enough to take a big group selfie. Another entered to a synchronized walking lightshow. Another came on in cardboard engines and train cars, with their class teacher in a conductor’s hat, brandishing a whistle. After some ceremony, including some letters to the class teachers from the students (we think); each of the 4^th years was presented with sash signifying their new honored status. More pictures followed, as did parachutes.

The parachutes where quickly stretched across the five circles, and as the cheering rose and the colorful chutes moved around the room, parents, teachers, and friends rained money down on the five classes. At one point an entire wallet with credit cards and a cell phone fell past our balcony, though on accident. But my favorite part was the few students from each class elected to furiously sweep the floors for excess change, and try to keep up with their ever moving class parachute—a job much more difficult than it sounds, especially with the following classes sweepers lurking.

A couple of the parachutes ready to catch the money

 And then it was time for the dance.

The 4^th years all moved to the edge of the ballroom floor, and we lucky few moved into position.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t effortless and graceful, but I didn’t miss any steps. Well, except after our impromptu spin—I wasn’t good enough to even start thinking about a spin on Wednesday, and I believe the conversation during the dance on Friday went something like “Did you practice?” “A lot.” “Maybe, in a minute we could try a spin.” “Uh, (worried look on my face), how does it work.” “Like this.” And there it was.

And then the dance was over. It turns out three minutes isn’t really that long. I should also note, Brittany’s waltz had lots of spins, and I’m certain she looked much better than I did.

 

Me waltzing with Zuzana

Brittany getting ready to waltz with Michal

Anyway, after the student-teacher dance, the students dance with members of their families, and after that, the dance floor opens up to everyone, though the dancing is still ballroom based—the more Prom-like dancing is saved for the less showy after-party.

Finally, toward the end of the evening, it was time for “Midnight Surprise,” which is some kind of surprise performance by each of the five 4^th year classes. Complete with choreographed dance routines to popular songs, costume changes, and famous movie scene recreations, each of the surprises was followed by massive applause and cheering.

And that pretty much wrapped up the night. With the “Midnight Surprise” the atmosphere relaxed; families and teachers started their journeys home and students stayed to celebrate with friends and classmates. Well, wrapped up the first half. There was a big after-party planned at a different venue; but for us, we were heading home: more culturally informed, better ballroom dancers, and, despite our earlier nervousness, excited for next year’s Ples.

Praises:

- An enjoyable evening at Ples!

- We have officially finished our first semester (the semester ends in January here, not December) and submitted all our grades on time!

Prayer Requests:

- Drama Club. We're finished with the read throughs, so this week starts the real work of blocking scenes & memorizing lines

- Visa issues. We have, again, run into some snags with our visa. We will give a larger update when we know more details, but prayers for wisdom in decision making & peace with results. 

Next Year

Written by Brittany
When we were first talking about if we wanted to go live and work overseas, it was a difficult question. We had both done international traveling, separately and together, and we both knew that we wanted to travel more. But a desire to travel is not enough to sustain you through a year of living and teaching in a foreign place. As we thought and prayed about it, we came to the decision that we should to do it, but only for one year.

Once we made that decision, we looked for organizations that had one year contracts, but the best part about our contract was that if we wanted to extend to a second year, we could. There were no commitments past the end of the school year, which made us feel safe, but if we did adjust well and enjoy our work, we could stay longer.

And that is what we have decided to do!
The Huddlestons will be in Prague for the 2015-2016 school year!

Yay!!!!!!!!

Again, this was not an easy decision. We have adjusted well, we love our school and our students, we are definitely enjoying the extra travel opportunities, but we also miss home. We miss people and places and even our things. During the week following Christmas break, I think we were the most homesick we have been so far. So as we were trying to make this decision, we tried to look at what we should do, not just what we were feeling. Because feelings change, and we didn't want to make a decision based on our homesickness of the moment.

Our thoughts were these:
*Professionally, we should stay. We're creating a curriculum from scratch, and it seems almost unfair to create something like this and only use it once. It's a lot of work for just one year!
*Relationally, we should stay. We are getting to know our students better & better, and really that's why we came here in the first place. To create relationships with students and our colleagues. And while we've begun those, we can do so much more with another year.
*Personally, we should stay. This has been a major growing time for us both individually and as a couple. We are learning a lot and thriving in a difficult situation where it is very often just the two of us, and this is something we know we'll be able to look back on during future difficulties and say, "we did Prague, we can do this."
*Spiritually, we should stay. God is working hard on us, and we in turn need to work hard for Him. While we know we can do this back home, we can also do this here. And so far, as we've been settling in here, we haven't done as much in this category as we should, so we're looking forward to expanding ourselves in this way.
*Travelly, we should stay. (I know travelly isn't a word, but I couldn't break the pattern.) There are still SO many places we want to go and see, and while this is clearly the most superficial aspect of our decision, it definitely still has weight.

So even though we are missing birthdays and vacations and parties. Even though we miss our people. Even though thinking about Olive Garden & Cracker Barrel make us want to get on a plane ASAP. Even though we can picture all our stuff in our storage unit and just want to unpack it. Even though homesickness can be a real bummer and a real challenge.
We are staying. And we're excited!

PLUS, we will be in the US this summer during the month of July into the beginning of August! So, please come see us! Please join us for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, lunch at Olive Garden, and dinner at your house ;)

We are so grateful for all the support we've had these first 6 months, and just ask for that continued support over the next year & a half.

Praises:
- Finally a decision for next year has been made, and we are excited about what it will all bring!
- The winter weather here has not been nearly as difficult as we were thinking it would be (knock on wood)
- It may seem silly, but we've been able to do a lot more reading while we've been here, and for people like us, that's a big happy deal :D

Prayer Requests:
- Drama Club will be a continued request until the middle of April. We are so looking forward to seeing how it comes together & are very excited to be working with our students on this project
- Continued good health
- That connections we've made here will continue to grow and that new connections will form

PS. Karina, I hope this was exciting enough for you ;)

Holidays!

Written by Jadon

 The first week back at school, we ask many of our students about their holidays. Whether they told us stories about the family visiting their “cottage” (a second, smaller, more rural, vacation home of sorts), or stories of multiple Christmas celebrations due to parents being split-up, or just stories of spending Christmas at a grandparent’s house; family was almost always mentioned in their holiday events.

As I look back on my pre-holiday season mindset, I remember thinking that the upcoming holidays might be difficult, not only because we had to teach regular classes on Thanksgiving, but also because the holidays wouldn’t be the same. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays full of traditions—Yahtzee and Loopin’ Louie duels, opening Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve, Christmas parties/gift exchanges with friends, to name a few of ours—all of which are meaningful not because of what you are doing, but because of who you do them with. And this year, 4500 miles from home, we would be missing out on all those meaningful moments.

Or so I thought.

Not only were we able to Skype (a wonderful invention for people in our situation) with sixteen of my family member on Thanksgiving Day, we also “attended” a Christmas party of friends (pictured below), and got to have other various Skype meetings with family and friends around the holidays. But best of all, family came to visit! Brittany’s family made the long flight over here to Prague, and we were able to spend Christmas, Christmas Eve, and many other days with them. And, of course, we probably started some new traditions too.

Skyping with friends back in Bourbonnais! 3am our time/8pm their time

 

New Christmas tradition: fish & potato salad for dinner

 All in all, it was a much better holiday season that I was expecting. Yes, it was different, but it was good. And despite the distance, being with family made it so.

Praises:

- We received lots of Christmas cards! Thank you. It was really a blessing.

- We recently rediscovered a devotional book, which had gotten a back seat during our move from the States. We were in the middle of it, and are really enjoying getting back into it together.

- We have a working oven!! We got it just before Christmas, and it has been an exciting and timely addition to our kitchen.

Prayer Requests:

- We are the heads of the English Drama Club at our school, and we have now cast our upcoming play! There is a lot we have a lot to accomplish in the next few months.

- Dealing with occasional homesickness, while still remaining focused here.

- Continued good health

Czech Christmas: Carp in the Bathtub

Written by Brittany
For most Czech people, today (the 24th) is the main holiday. Today they will get together with family and eat their traditional foods of fish soup, carp, and potato salad. Their potato salad is a little different than what we're used to in the States, and my students thought it was really funny when I told them we traditionally eat potato salad in the summer at picnics, since to them, it is definitely a winter food.

The carp is the most interesting aspect of the Christmas celebration. There are carp sellers outside who sell live carp, which people then keep in their bathtubs until Christmas Eve. You can also ask the carp seller to kill the fish for you. I talked to several students about this. Some said their family has never taken home the carp live, others said they used to but everyone fought over who would have to kill the fish after they'd had it a couple days. And then there were some who said, "of course we keep the fish in our tub, why wouldn't we?" To which I really had no answer.

Carp Sellers out in Prague

Carp in the bathtub - to be clear, this is not our bathtub. I got this picture off Google.

NPR published an article about this tradition earlier this week, so if you'd like to know more, click here! The article is about Slovakia specifically, but many of the traditions are similar if not the same in the Czech Republic.

We are going to make the potato salad this year, but our bravery is not going to extend to the carp. We did buy some fish at the store which we intend to make in the same way, so we're going about 75% traditional.

The plan is to do a mix of Czech traditions (with the dinner tonight) and American traditions (still opening the majority of our presents on Christmas morning). My mom, step-dad, and sister are here to celebrate with us, and we are excited for our first Czech Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends & family back home! We hope you have had a beautiful Christmas season, and that you continue to celebrate and relax in the Peace of our Lord.

In conclusion, here's a new version of a favorite Christmas song. Many of you have probably already seen it, but it's definitely worth watching again! (And if you don't have Pentatonix's Christmas album, you really should buy it.) Merry Christmas!

Czech Christmas: St. Nicholas Day

Written by Brittany

This past Friday, December 5, was St. Nicholas Day here in the Czech Republic.

As my colleagues explained it to me, there are three "people" who are the main part of the day:
1. The Devil: his main job is to scare the children, making them think they've been naughty and that they will be taken away. He can also give lumps of coal (or potatoes) to the "bad" children.
2. The Angel: her main job is to reassure the children that the devil is lying, and that the children were good & they will be safe. She also asks the children to sing a song for St. Nicholas to help change his mind about the children being naughty.
3. St. Nicholas: once he has been swayed by the singing, he gives the children candy or presents and reminds them that they will come again next year. (My colleagues also wanted to be very clear that St. Nicholas is not Santa.)

St. Nicholas Day chocolates you can get at the grocery store

 You can see these three walking around together on December 5th each year, though where we were we only saw a couple little kids dressed like devils, and all the workers at our grocery store had devil horn headbands on.

I was also told that parents can hire the devil, angel, & St. Nicholas to stop by their house (as the man in the video below describes). That way their children definitely have the St. Nicholas experience.

This link is to a great video where a Czech man describes the holiday. There is also some pretty funny animation to go with it:
http://hello-unknown.com/special-editions/christmas/josefs-terror/

We'll try to keep updating with other Czech cultural traditions we learn this holiday season!

Christmas Card Reminder

Just a reminder to people who want to support us this season by sending Christmas cards: Cards would need to mailed by this weekend (Saturday, December 6) for us to receive them before we leave school for the Christmas holiday. But if you don't get them in the mail by then, please still send them! We'll just as happily open Christmas cards in January :)

Our address is:
Jadon & Brittany Huddleston
Gymnazium
Arabska 14
160 00 Praha 6
Czech Republic

Thanks to everyone we've already gotten cards & packages from! They (and you) are such a blessing!

Remembering: 10 Years Later

Written by Brittany

This week has been hard. Thanksgiving is always a hard holiday for me as I am surrounded by people and yet try to individually prepare myself for the coming and passing of December 2^nd yet again. And this year I have been working to come to terms with the fact that it has been 10 years, a full decade, since my dad died.

For someone under 30, a decade seems like a very long time. It’s over a third of my life. I remember past years having the thought, “Wow. Three years is a long time to be without a dad…but it will just get longer…one day it will be ten years.” And now that day is here. And now I think, “one day it will be 11 years…”

Reflecting on your Grief is an interesting, humbling process. I was 17 when my dad unexpectedly passed away, and I spent the next 4 ½ years, basically my whole college career, angry. Not at any particular people, not even at God, just angry. I went through the Grief Cycle a few times, each time really hating that it’s a Cycle, not just a Grief Line. Then I came back to anger and just got stuck. During this time I know I became selfish in my relationships, and I am blessed (and kind of amazed) that so many people stuck it out with me. I know I still struggle with that selfishness. And I often find myself wondering how I would have dealt with it differently if he had died when I was older, instead of a weird mix of child & adult.

Grief surprises you. I found myself preparing myself for days that I thought would be difficult, like my 18^th birthday or my wedding day. Only to pass those by with very little sadness, and then be totally caught off guard by other days that I didn’t think to prepare for, like 4^th of July or the day Jadon & I got engaged. And, as happens every year, the week leading up to today has been more difficult than today itself.

There are many things I’m still sad about. I’m sad that my dad will never meet and love Jadon. I’m sad that my dad never knew me as a teacher/wife/missionary/adult. I’m sad that I only ever knew my dad as a child knows her parent, and not as two adults know each other. I’m sad that he will never know my children. And I’m sad that it’s so much harder to recall the sound of his voice or the feel of his hugs.

I, of course, rejoice in the knowledge that he loved the Lord, and one day I will see him again. But if you’ve known Grief, you know that while that thought is a blessed comfort, it’s not every day. Some days Grief is just sorrowful and maddening and hollow.

Time and the Lord are such healers, and the day-to-day now is miraculously easier than it was 10 years ago. It is often easy to speak about my dad, to laugh about things he said, to share memories with those who knew him and those who didn’t. But there are also precious moments of remembering that are still very difficult.

I feel like as a 10-year veteran I should have more answers about How To Deal. But I really don’t. I found people who would love me in a very broken state, and I clung. I found reassurances from the Lord (Isaiah 41:13 especially), and I clung. I found humor, and I clung. And I found Grace, and I clung. 

I held on very tightly to things that kept me up. So I guess that’s my great advice: Hold On. Cling to people, and pets, and God. Cling to light, and humor, and joy. Cling to your teddy bear, and your favorite songs, and your 6-hour Pride & Prejudice miniseries. There will be days where you just barely stay afloat. And that’s ok. You Will Make It, even through days when all you can do is cling with your fingertips.

Each year when I taught at Olivet, on December 2^nd I told all my freshman students about losing my dad, and coming to school, and being so angry. I told them the biggest mistake I made was not being honest about how hard it was. And I told them that if they need someone to be honest with, then they should come find me. So I guess that’s some advice too: Be Honest. (And if you reading this need someone, come find me.) I wanted to appear strong, and in control, and “oh, I’m fine.” But that wasn’t truth, and I suffered more for it.

And one final thing I’ve learned: Remember Your People. The ones you’ve lost and the ones you still have.

At our wedding, Jadon & I had a tea station set up in memory of my dad, and there was a list of things I learned from him that I set out as a way to include him in that day. So that’s what I’ll end with. Some things that I wrote 2 ½ years ago seem truer now than when I first wrote them.

Thanks for reading. For my friends, mom, Katie, (and grandma) who have been around the last 10 years, thanks for all you did, even when you thought you weren’t doing anything. For all of us who feel the sting of Grief: Hold On. Be Honest. Remember Your People. 

One of my favorite pictures of my dad, an especially good one to place on a tea station :)

 Things my dad taught me:

·      Tea is not just for “tea time.” It is for all times.
·      Amazing Grace is the most appropriate song no matter the occasion.

·      It is always a good idea to be self-deprecating. Especially if you are a foreigner.

·      Be fluent in a language other than your own.

·      Keep track of your gas mileage – though I still don’t understand why.

·      Heaven is something we do not understand, something we will not understand until we get there. But it is good. And it should always be your goal.

·      If you want to make teenagers pay attention when you’re talking, mention kissing.

·      Story telling is the best way to communicate any truth.

·      Find your home and cherish it. The words “Welcome Home” are not to be taken or given lightly.

·      Everyone has faults, everyone makes mistakes, and everyone deserves to be forgiven.

·      The King James Version is the best version of the Bible. (Though I’m pretty sure he said this only because his name was James.)

·      It’s ok to cry.

·      You don’t always have to act your age.

·      Making time for your child is never the wrong choice.

Every time we said goodbye, at airports or in parking lots or even just on the phone, he asked, “What do you always remember?” Even when I got older. Even when I was a teenager and the answer was a little embarrassing. Every single time. “What do you always remember?” And every time I’d answer, never doubting, even now, that it was true: “Daddy always loves you.”

My dad taught me a lot of things, but one of the most important lessons was that just because you’re not with a person doesn’t mean you aren’t loved. Just because you can’t be together doesn’t mean you’re forgotten. And just because you may not see someone for months, or years, at a time does not mean that they aren’t looking forward to the day they see you again. If anything, they’re looking forward to it more.

An old favorite of me & my dad

“To have been loved deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”   -- J.K. Rowling