...because i knew you, i have been change for good.

Today has been rather emotional. If I was a crier, I would have probably cried after all three of my lessons, and then after each time a student (or students) gave me a card or small gift. I was trying to find Claire, the head of the English department, and all my year 8s stopped me and basically were begging me to stay and asking how they could keep me there (which Claire then suggested they steal my bags!). Definitely was getting teary-eyed and not sure what to say to those awesome students.

I had a lovely conversation with one of my year 8 students at the start of lunch, where I got the chance to tell her never to stop asking the questions she asks (let me tell you, she asks questions like crazy, but they're all great questions) and to continue doing what she's doing because she's going to go far. So that was really nice to get to talk one-on-one with one of my students before I leave.

My geography co-operating teacher/one of the assistant heads of the school gave me a bar of Swiss chocolate. Helen (my English co-operating teacher) gave me a hockey jersey from her hometown team in Nottingham! So I have acquired two jerseys in my time here... awesome!

I've been trying to tie up all my loose ends, which basically means handing out gifts to the people who helped me most, and tracking down those who wrote me letters of recommendation so that I can put them in my file. I almost want to hide until the very end of the day, until everyone's left, so that I don't have to say good-bye for real. I'm so excited to be going home, and so excited to see everyone, especially now that I realize I've been gone for going on 4 months! Time sure does fly. But I'm going to miss the heck out of this school and out of the staff and out of the students. The students keep saying 'Don't forget us!' and I really don't think I could.

This has been an awesome adventure all in all, even when I was super homesick and even when I was stressed out beyond belief. I can't believe it's all over at 3:19 today... that's 20 minutes from now. As soon as that bell rings, I'm done - ready to begin searching for jobs at home and getting my certificate and being an honest-to-goodness real teacher. Woah.

The end of the beginning...

I can't believe that in exactly a week, I will be stepping on a plane and finally heading home. I can't believe that I have been in Prague for 12 weeks. I can't believe that I haven't been in the good ol' U.S. of A. since August 5. I can't believe that I'm almost done with my student teaching. I can't believe that I will get my teaching certificate when I get home.

It's CRAZY!

The beginning of this journey, oh so many months ago, was surreal. It wasn't until I actually stepped out of the plane in Prague (in the insane heat, which - little anecdote - I am so glad only lasted about 2 weeks) that I realized that I was actually doing my student teaching in Prague. I definitely remember being grumpy my first week in Prague. I just wanted to go home (there was some serious homesickness right then)! But when I first met my CT and the others in the Humanities department, I immediately felt welcomed and suddenly found myself looking forward to the start of school.

The students have been absolutely awesome. There's not a day that's gone by where I haven't found something hilarious or rewarding (it's always rewarding) or challenging or inspiring about them. When they say 'Miss, don't leave!' or 'Miss, we're going to miss you!' or 'Miss, you're the best teacher ever!' I just have to smile. I will remember these kids as my first students, the ones who didn't quite understand just how very much I was hardly keeping my head above water, trying to be a duck (you know, calm on the surface but paddling like mofo underneath!). It's been such a tough journey - it's still a tough journey (I'm still trying to finish my lesson planning for the week - and look what I'm doing instead... :).

Overall, I can't think of a better experience student teaching. No way would I have been afforded the opportunity to work with students from so many nationalities (Czech, Polish, German, Russian, Georgian, Danish, Canadian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Slovakian, Italian... the list could go on an on) or with so many first - second - and third languages. I swear, these are some of the most impressive students you'd ever meet. I definitely have the bug to work at international schools...

I feel like I gained an invaluable experience here in Prague. While I may not have fallen completely in love with the city, I most certainly enjoyed it as much as I could. Either way, this whole experience has reaffirmed my love of travelling (though maybe I'll take a break from it until next August...), and it's reaffirmed my love of teaching (as if that ever needed reaffirmation!). I don't think I could ever list all the things I've learned here, all the ways I've changed as a person and as a teacher.

It's going to be another adventure going back home and having some serious culture shock. What do you mean, I'll be able to understand all the signs and announcements and the cashiers in stores? What do you mean, I'll be able to smile at a stranger and not have them give me a death stare? Ha! I can't wait, though, to see my family and my friends and be back at band practice. And then, once I get used to A-mur-i-cah again, I'll start looking for a job. Thus starts a new chapter in my life!

I will post a couple more times here in this blog, since I still have a week left, haven't finished talking about Berlin, and have my Auntie Barb and Uncle Rob visiting this weekend (so excited for that!). There will be more photos, and probably a lot more sentimental thoughts as the week comes to an end. But in case I don't say it later, or to all of your faces, etc... thanks for checking up on me throughout my adventure and being so supportive. I couldn't have done it without you!!!

Berlin, part 1

Because I haven't yet finished editing my photos from my trip to Berlin, I'm going to split my post about Berlin into two. Plus, I loved the place. Absolutely, truly, totally loved it. So the more I get to talk about it, the better!

As soon as I arrived, I suspected that I was going to love the city. People actually spoke English (well), and everyone I interacted with in the first couple of hours were super nice. I got to my hostel too early so I went to this restaurant right beside it and ate there, and not only was the waitress super friendly, the food was delicious! And then I checked in to my hostel, and the owner (it's a tiny hostel, and really just operated by one person) was extra friendly too. So I had a great first impression of Berlin which carried over to the rest of my time there.

I spent all of Thursday wandering around Berlin. I probably should have paced myself a bit, but I just wanted to see as much as I could. Which meant that I did as much in one day in Berlin as normal people would probably do in about three days. But it was totally worth it, and I was okay with not being able to walk the next day. :)

I started my day by eating breakfast at a little coffee shop a block away from my hostel called 'Coffee Corner.' I liked it so much, I ate there again the next morning. Then I walked from there to the East Side Gallery. The owner of the hostel had warned me that it was a long walk, but I figured I was up at 8am anyway, so a long walk wouldn't be so bad. I didn't quite realize how silly that was until the next day. I think I walked about 3 miles to get to the East Side Gallery, but at least that gave me a chance to see some really cool street art and a bit of the residential side of Berlin.

The East Side Gallery, for those of you who may not know, is a roughly 3.5km chunk of the Berlin Wall that is still intact. The eastern side has been turned into this art gallery of sorts, with different chunks of it being painted by different artists. The vast majority of art on the wall is dedicated to warning about something like the Wall happening again, or freedom, or changing the world. I really quite liked it. Occassionally there's a bit of graffiti on top of the art, but in general people are respectful of the art and leave it be. The western side of the wall is another story though. When I got to the end of the gallery, I peeked at the other side and took a picture of it.

Then I discovered I was at Berlin Ostbahnhoff, the same train station I had arrived in the night before. I had a donut at Dunkin Donuts (another reason why I loved Berlin, haha!). Then I hopped on the S-Bahn (the above-ground transport system, sister to the U-Bahn, or underground train) and made my way to Brandenburg Tor (a.k.a. Brandenburg Gate). It was there where I decided once and for all that I loved Berlin and have to go back there.

Seriously. I've read about it, I've seen pictures of it, but it wasn't until I stepped out of the S-Bahn station and saw it for the first time that I was struck by how awesome the Brandenburg Gate is. Not because it's huge and imposing and quite beautiful, not because the American Embassy is conveniently situated just to the left of it. I think it's awesome because of the history that's there, from being built as a one of the entrances to the city of Berlin in the late 1700s to its damage in World War II to being a landmark while the Berlin Wall was up. The very first thing that popped into my head when I got there - and, yes, I am probably the biggest Political Science/History/Ronald Reagan nerd you'll ever meet - was that, 'Holy man, Ronald Reagan was here once. This is where he said those immortal words: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'

After I spent a good long while marvelling at the gate, taking pictures, and popping into the souvenier shop that's located just beside it, I decided to continue on and find the Holocaust Memorial. Joe, one of the teachers at my school who lived in Berlin for a while and persuaded me to go visit it, told me that the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is probably one of the best memorials he's seen. And after having been there, I have to agree.

This is what it looks like when you walk from the Brandenburg Gate to the memorial. Even though there isn't any sign saying it's the Holocaust Memorial, I could tell at first glance. First of all, it's huge - about one city block squared. Second of all, I was immediately reminded of thousands of caskets, the higher columns almost like they were stacks of caskets. I wandered around the entire memorial until I found the entrance to the below-ground portion, and went inside. While the above-ground portion is a lot of art, the below-ground museum is the true memorial.

It's separated into about 6 or 7 rooms. The first room is a general timeline of events of the Holocaust. The next room has glass panels on the floor, mirroring the ceiling, which itself mirrors the columns above ground. The glass panels in the second room have farewell letters written by Jewish victims of the Holocaust. They are haunting and impactful, written by people who knew that they'd never see their loved one again. After spending some time sitting in there and reading as many of them as I could, I wandered to the next room. In that third room is the story of about 10 different Jewish families who were victims and survivors of the Holocaust. The next room is the Room of Names, where you can sit and see a victim's name projected onto the walls and listen to a short biography. This room is continuous, and they said that if they were able (which they don't believe they ever will be) to get short biographies like this of every single victim of the Holocaust, it would take over 6 years to listen to them all. After I listened to a few of the biographies, I went to the next room which highlights a bunch of the sites of the biggest executions of victims in the Holocaust, such as Auschwitz. After that, you enter a room which is about 'the Holocaust remembered today' where you can find out information about other memorials throughout the world, and look up information about survivors.

After I spent about an hour inside, I went back outside and wandered through the memorial, or 'Field of Stelae' some more. And took more pictures, of course.

After the Holocaust Memorial, I walked (again with the walking, despite being advised against it!) to the Topography of Terror, then Checkpoint Charlie. The Topography of Terror is another remaining section of the Wall, as well as the destroyed remains of some Nazi SS buildings. The remains of the buildings were closed - apparently, usually you can go down and see it closer - so that was kind of disappointing. But the wall was, yet again, pretty cool. This one didn't have much graffiti on it, but was partially destroyed, as if it was about to be torn down until someone stopped the destruction half-way through.



I was already calling my half-term holiday my 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' tour, because the book (which I've been reading with my year 7 English class) starts in Berlin and ends in Auschwitz. The Berlin Wall reminds me of the book, though of course the wall was constructed well after WWII. Really, it reminds me of a quote from the author, John Boyne, who said (on the back of the book): 'Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.' Isn't it fascinating how people don't learn from the past? Perhaps that's why I'm such an ardent fan of history, because it both fascinates and horrifies me that we humans continue to be divided by such innane things as political ideologies or religious divides. Of course, they aren't innane to those extremists who trigger such divisions.

Checkpoint Charlie was exactly what everyone who's been to Berlin had told me it was: a tourist trap. It's not even the original structure that was there in the height of the Cold War. But it's worth going to see just the one time, and seeing the (re-creation) of the world-famous sign (above). Glad I went, but definitely not the highlight of my trip! Though, I will admit that I like the fact that I can now say, 'Yeah, you know, I had lunch at Checkpoint Charlie while I was in Berlin...' No big deal, I'm just this little world traveller. :)

So then, after lunch, I headed back to the Brandenburg Gate and walked to the Bundestag, Germany's parliamentary building. You can't see it well on this photo, but (a) the building was HUGE, (b) it says 'Dem Deutschen Volke' (The German People) above the entrance, and (c) there's this MASSIVE glass dome above it. You can't go inside unless you've reserved tickets, so that's something I'll have to do when I go back to Berlin in the future. But it was rad to go see the building, because not only do I love the history of the building, but I also love architecture... and this was a sweet building.

So that's about half of my trip to Berlin. It only covers up to about 1pm my first day, but I haven't finished editing my photos from the rest of the trip, and I've already written a ton here. So I'll leave you with that, and hopefully I'll be able to tell you about the rest of my  trip soon enough. If only my laptop would stop freezing ever half hour...