Adventures in Europe

2010-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hey friends! I can't believe that January has come and gone. Where on earth is the time going? I'm excited for Feb to be here...yet at the same time I meet it with trepidation. Let me tell you why...On Feb 22 I have to tell Teach Overseas if I want to stay another year. And I have NO idea what to do. I'm not one for decision making in general, and this decision is not any easier. I've gone back and forth between wanting to stay, wanting to go home (wherever that is), wanting to live in Prague, wanting to stay in Ostrava...I can honestly say that I have no idea what to do. And I don't want to make this decision all about me. Really this decision needs to be about where God wants me to go...but right now God is not being exactly clear. So this is where you all come in. Please pray for me. I really don't know what God has in store for next year, but I want to follow His guidance. Please pray that God will direct me on which path to choose. Thanks friends for all your love and support! I really appreciate it! Bye for now...and I'll let you know whatever happens in 2 weeks!

2010-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

The ESI (Teach Overseas) address has changed!!! Here is the new address!

Educational Services International / TeachOverseas
639 N. Soldano Ave.
Azusa, CA 91707

Jan Newsletter

2010-01-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

Veselé Vánoce a šťastný Nový rok (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!)

I can’t believe that it’s the New Year already. 2009 has sure flown by! So has my time in the Czech Republic. It’s been four months since I moved to Ostrava, Czech Republic and life has never slowed down. Since I’ve reached the halfway point of my stay here I thought it high time I updated everyone on my life in Central Europe. So here it goes…..

Life in the Czech
Oh goodness, (insert sigh) how do I begin to describe life here in Central Europe? Different, challenging, hard, adventuresome, stretching, wonderful…these are only a few of the words that I can think of. In many ways life is not that much different from how I would live in the US. I buy my groceries at a local supermarket, work in an office building, hang out with friends, travel around the country, go to church, and spend time with my teammates. But there are little differences in my weekly routines…I walk to the grocery store instead of driving my car, I take public transportation to hang out with friends or my teammates, I travel the country by trains and not planes, and my church is in Czech and not English. Everything is increasingly becoming more familiar as the months go by. The language is still one of my biggest challenges. It’s been four months and I still feel like I understand nothing. Every once and a while I give the ladies at the grocery store weird looks when they rattle off numbers in Czech and look at me expectantly while I’m just trying to figure out how much I owe them. But the more I listen and study the more I pick up. I also receive Czech lessons at the school I teach at, which helps me to pick up the language.

There is much I love about living in Central Europe, but I have narrowed it down to three. 1) Riding public transportation. While taking the bus or the tram all the time can become a drag, I’ve found that generally I love riding public transit. And while I do miss jamming out to tunes while driving my car I don’t miss driving my car…too much. 2) All the cool people I meet from other areas of the world. I am very blessed to be living in a city with a substantial English speaking community. Not only do the other teachers at Fishnet all speak English (of course because they teach it!) but I have also met various Young Life workers from America and another choir ministry leader from England. These people, as well as my four teammates, are fast becoming my community over here in Ostrava. And I’m also blessed to know the other ESI (Teach Overseas) teachers in Central Europe. I view them as my extended community. It is comforting to know that there are many people to turn to for help, or to just listen when I have a particularly challenging day. 3) Traveling! Everyone knows that I LOVE to travel. And so far in these past couple months I have been able to go to four new countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Although I haven’t spent too much time in any of these countries I have enjoyed all the places I have gotten to see and the people I have gotten to visit. My highlights have been spending five days in October in Prague (what a beautiful city!), Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, Christmas in Budapest, Hungary, and Salzburg, Austria. If you want to know more about some of my crazy adventures in these countries (i.e. driving over a sidewalk in Krakow or visiting the spas in Budapest) please ask. I’d love to tell you!

Teaching and Ministry
Any experienced teacher will tell you that your first year teaching is always your worst. I didn’t really understand that statement until I began teaching. Throughout my life I’ve always had high expectations of myself, and I didn’t realize that I had high expectations of my teaching ability until I did not meet those expectations. I never thought teaching would be easy, but I never thought it would be that hard either. I’ve always been good at what I do and I expected to be good at teaching too. Well…let’s just say that I fully believe that statement now. It’s not that teaching is going horribly, it’s not. I truly love my students and enjoy the time I spend with them. The hard part is not really knowing what I’m doing sometimes. I’ve never been a teacher before and I’ve never taken classes on how to be a teacher, so I’m slowly learning how to actually teach. It’s confusing and frustrating and at times I want to pull my hair out. But then I have a day where my lessons go well and I have a great time with my students and it makes all the pain and frustration worth it.
As most of you know, I teach for a Christian language school called Fishnet. I have 10 different classes with students ranging from high schoolers to adults to business men and women. While the constant change and variety in my students is overwhelmingly challenging at times, I love them all and enjoy the time I spend with them.

I came to Ostrava knowing that God wants me here for a purpose. I’m still not sure what that purpose is and what God has in store for me here, but I am learning to be comfortable in the unknown, to trust that God has it all under control. Ostrava is blessed to have many avenues of ministry available for ESI teachers to get involved in: Young Life, choir ministry, English clubs, etc. And while I believe all of them are great I feel led to concentrate on teaching and building relationships with my students. While it has been hard to get to know them really well since we only meet once a week I am excited to see what will happen in this New Year.

Prayer Requests
I truly thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for praying for me. I could not be here without all your support. Please continue to pray for me as I follow God’s guidance in my life. Here are some of my prayer requests:
-That I will teach in such a way that my students will learn
-That my students will see God’s light in my life
-That God will use me to bless my students, my teammates, my community, and my co-workers
-That I will continue growing in my relationship with God and continue to trust Him
-That I will follow God’s guidance and plans for me next year

Thank you again for all your love, prayer, and support. Feel free to write! I’d love to tell you even more about my time over here!
Blessings and peace be upon you,
Heidi Michelle

Christmas Holiday!

2009-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

So my Christmas vacation (or holiday as they say here in the Czech) got off to a slow and rather unplanned start. My last class was on Thursday and after taking in some fun Czech Christmas parties my roommate Leah and teammate Emily and I packed up and headed to the train station to catch our train to Budapest, Hungary. Well.......we got there and the train was 40 minutes late. So if we would miss our connection in some other random town that I can't pronounce. So we decided to go home and wait for another train that would get us in to Budapest around 2:30 am. 2:30? Not that bad right considering. Oh, but no! We take a closer look at we realize that we would have to spend 3 hours at the train station in Brno and get in to Budapest around 8:30 am. So we X that idea because none of us want to spend 10 hours on a train and 3 at a station. So we opt for number 3: leave at 2:30 AM from Ostrava and head straight to Budapest and get there at 8:30 am. At least we don't have to switch trains and it's only 6 hours. And we all agreed that it will be nice to get into the city while there is light outside and no night buses that only run once an hour. I can only shake my head and laugh at traveling in a different country.

So my plans for this Christmas break is to spend the first couple days (and Christmas itself) in Budapest with my roommate and some other ESI teachers. First Christmas away from home...but it's looking to be a good one! On the 23rd we are planning on spending the day shopping in Vienna (I love that I can say that-"Oh I'm just popping over to Austria-no biggie") and then on the 26th Leah and I will be going to Bratislava to spend some time with our ESI friend Ashley. Then Leah, Ashley, Ashley's friend from America and I will all being going to Salzburg, Austria where we will meet up with another ESI friend Deanna. I'm pretty excited to see all the fun places from Sound of Music and to visit the church where Silent Night was written. It's going to be a great break! Then Leah and I will be going home to Ostrava on the 1st of Jan. Gotta rest and relax and prep for classes to begin again. So those are my plans and I will keep up updated on whatever happens! Have a very Merry Christmas!

Auschwitz-Birkenau

2009-11-05T02:44:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I know its been about a month since I last wrote something here. I am sorry for my lack of updates. Hopefully I'll get better as time goes on. And I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures so you can see what is going on here in the Czech Republic. All in good time I hope. But I did want to talk a little about my recent trip to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Krakow is only a couple hours away from my home in Ostrava, CZ and so some friends and I decided to drive there to see the lovely city and visit the concentration camp that is close by. Driving itself was an adventure (and another story for another time). The city of Krakow was beautiful and perfectly relaxing. My friends, Steph, Alyssa, and Anneka and I ran around the city taking pictures and popping our heads into various stores and coffee shops. It was nice not to have a plan or schedule of what to do when. Hence why the day was so relaxing.

Our only plan was to stop by Auschwitz-Birkenau on Sunday before driving home. As morbid as it sounds I have always wanted to visit a concentration camp. There is something about WWII that fascinates me. And as a student of history I believe it is something that I must do, especially since I live so close to it. So heading into the weekend I was unsure of how I would react when we got there. Would I bawl my eyes out? (I'm a rather emotional person so I expected a flood of tears) Would I throw my hands up in the air, disgusted and frustrated with the existence of evil in the world? Would my heart break inside of me, feeling the pain and anguish of those who had passed through the gates of the camps? What would I do and how would I feel? I just didn't know. But I expected tears and a heaviness of heart.

So when we arrived we joined an audio tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Auschwitz looked much prettier than I expected. The buildings were made of red brick and there were trees everywhere. I had expected more desolation and was surprised to see trees and such. Granted I still would not have wanted to live there...but it was nicer than I expected. We spent the better part of 2 hours walking around this camp and looking at the displays set up in the buildings (also called blocks). Auschwitz had been turned into a museum with a variety of displays, showing the history of the camp and those who were imprisoned there. I enjoyed hearing all the stories and thought the information was helpful. But I didn't get to process anything. We were rushed from exhibit to exhibit that nothing really sank in. The whole time I also kept thinking, "I've seen this before. Why is this so special." And I felt horrible for thinking that. It's just that I've been to Holocaust museums before and have studied atrocities in history and now I was walking through a place that FELT like a museum. I had to remind myself that it wasn't just a museum...this is where those atrocities ACTUALLY occurred. It was hard to make that sink in. I think the one moment that made everything hit home was when we went to the camp prison. Our guide was explaining that in the basement there were various types of cells in which to punish, torture, and kill prisoners. After walking through the building and seeing the cells and then walking to the back where guards would herd prisoners from this building outside to kill them I was speechless. Words really can't explain what and how I was feeling. Sometimes I think I still don't know what exactly I felt at that moment. The whole tour we heard so much information that it is still hard to make sense of it all.

After seeing that camp we got on a bus and drove to Birkenau which is only 1 kilometer away. Now Birkenau looked like what I expected a concentration camp to look like. Flat, muddy, no trees, and desolate. It was evening time so there was a thin mist that covered the camp. It just looked and felt completely desolate and had this eerie and foreboding feeling about it. It was really weird and rather surreal to be standing in the place where people were turned to the right and to the left-death or life (which was more like hell on earth). It was just really weird to be standing in a place where so much pain and suffering took place. And all I could think about was how we have not evolved that much over the past 65 years. Sure nothing to the extent of the Holocaust has happened since then, but people are still murdered, brutalized, raped, and tortured all over the world. The pain and suffering that is so prevalent in the concentration camps and gulags of the past exist all over the world. And really, why do I need to go to a concentration camp to see the reality of evil, pain and suffering when all I really have to do is look in front of me? Don't get me wrong here...I think it is important to see these places so we always remember the past. I just wonder why we tend to create a chasm between the past and the present and concentrate so much of the suffering of the past when it exists right in front of our faces.

So I'm not sure what I expected to learn by going to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and I am not sure if I learned anything. But I hope it has made me more aware of the present. And really this is why I chose to study history...to understand where we are today and how to prevent making the same mistakes all over again. So history is really all about the future. But what does that mean for the present?

So those are my random thoughts about my trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I don't promise to have any answers, nor do I always need them. Sometimes the journey is the questions.

PS...if you want more information about Auschwitz-Birkenau my friend Alyssa found some guys blog about the camps. It is really informative and explains more about what is at the camps-the exhibits and stuff. Here is the website to his blog:

http://scotteurope2009.travellerspoint.com/8/

First week down....aplethera more to go

2009-09-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

So i have just finished my first full week of teaching. I have 8 classes with 19 hours of teaching. So far everything has gone great. Lesson planning is still a challenge for me but I'm sure it will get better as I get used to the books I am using. I am teaching youth and adult community classes as well as adults at 2 different businesses. All of my students are at the B2 level (upper intermediate). So it is nice that I can reuse some lessons. All of my students have such great and varying personalities. It will be fun to see how the year progresses and how I relate to my different classes. But they are so much fun to talk to and they make me laugh...so life is good.

Tomorrow I have Friday Fellowship with teachers from Fishnet (the language school i work at) and other Americans and Brits here in Ostrava. I look forward to this time of fellowship every week. I am really blessed to have a great community of people here in Ostrava. One thing about living abroad that i truly love is how many different people you meet from different countries. I have become friends with a couple people from Britain and some of my teemates and I met a girl from Hungary today. She is super sweet, speaks amazing english, and does not have many friends here in Ostrava. So it is nice to be a blessing to others, as well as be blessed by them. I am excited to get to know her more.

So not much else going on right now. I'm trying to concentrate on being a good teacher (that means being well prepared for my classes) and seeing how God will use me to bless my students. It's a comfort to know that God has placed me here for a reason...i sometimes just wish He would let me in on the secret :) But I have to say I am excited to see what is going to happen. I am growing so much in my relationship with God. Before I left Pasadena I asked God to make me trust Him more and all I can say is that He is answering this pray in not too subtle ways. But I am excited to see where this will take me in my life with God.

Well I have a three day weekend since Monday is a public holiday. I'm hoping to get out and see a town close by, or maybe a castle. So I will keep you updated! Have a great weekend everyone and God Bless!

YA for teaching!

2009-09-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to let everyone know that I've started teaching and my first couple of classes have gone really well. I had a youth class this afternoon (about 11 teenagers) and it was a blast! They make me laugh. I know I'm really going to enjoy this class. I'm confident my other classes will go great as well. I will give you all more of an update later. But thank you for your prayers...they are felt...and please continue to pray for God's guidance through this crazy adventure.

life goes on

2009-09-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

Dobry Den (good day) from Ostrava! I am now in my second week of living in this amazing city. So far I've just been settling into my new flat (apartment) and getting adjusted to the city. My school also provides free Czech lessons which is extremely helpful. I'm not sure how well I'll do...but at least i'm trying. I start teaching next week (probably) we're not completely sure on our schedules. So keep me in your prayers as I begin lesson planning and figuring out crazy English grammar :) Gotta go! But i'll keep you all posted!

2009-08-24T06:37:00.001-07:00

I've arrived in Ostrava! I have tons to tell you all but for now I'll let you know about the pictures i've posted on facebook. Check them out! the address is:

http://www.facebook.com/editpicture.php?success=1#/profile.php?id=98300737&v=photos&ref=profile

have fun!

Ostrava will be home

2009-04-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

So I know that not many people are looking at my blog yet, but I just found out today that I will be moving to Ostrava, Czech Republic. I am SUPER excited! It's on the eastern side of the Czech Republic close to Poland and Slovakia. Since I've never heard of this city before I decided to do some google research and found out that it is the 3rd largest city in the country, is the capital of the Moravian region, and is a huge industrial city. If you want to learn more this youtube video is pretty helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RnAZyojBuE&feature=related

Have a great day!

Let the Adventure Begin

2009-03-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

So I'm not there yet. I won't actually be leaving until mid August, but I thought I'd get a head start on this blog thing. I've never done this before and all this is like Greek to me, so bear with me here. But I hope this will be a place that I can share with you all some of my thoughts and feelings as I begin the next step in my life. College will soon be behind me and I will be moving on to the next stage. I plan to move and teach abroad with Teach Overseas. I will be placed in Central Europe somewhere, hopefully the Czech Republic. So that's what this is all about. I hope you have fun tracking with me over these next year. Well I guess I put off my homework enough for now...I'll write more later.