a strange predicament

I stayed at school until 5:30 on Friday afternoon. Actually, I should start that with the fact that I arrived at school at 7:15 on Friday morning, and then stayed until 5:30. That's probably my most extreme instance of work-aholic-ness that I have yet displayed, but in my defense I made it so I have nothing to do this week. Nothing to do planning-wise, that is. I was determined not to have to do too much planning over the weekend because that's what always takes the most time... and lo-and-behold, I managed it. This weekend the only thing I had to do was make two Powerpoints, and I was able to do that in a matter of two or so hours. Which left the rest of the weekend for me to explore Prague, plan my half-term holiday, and generally be lazy (without feeling too much guilt). Huzzah!

...but that then left me in a strange predicament today when I realized that during my free periods, I have almost nothing to do. I've already done all my photocopying and such, so where does that leave me? Then I realized when I got home today after a very unproductive day (well, minus the whole teaching four lessons part), and realized that I have a ton of marking I have to do. Minor details. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow during my 4 free periods.

Today I finally talked to my CT about one of my student's essays. I'd been putting it off because I was kind of afraid of what my CT might say - I was afraid he'd confirm my fears that this student would have to be confronted for both plagiarism and for getting the lowest mark possible. Which, really, shouldn't be a fear, but I digress. Anyway, my so-called fears were confirmed, and the student totally didn't even attempt the essay the way he was supposed to. So, I had to give the student detention, in which my CT and I both had a talk with him, and he's now getting a second chance to do the essay - this time the correct way, and without copying and pasting from Wikipedia. The thing that sucks the most is that this kid really is bright, he's just, I don't know, too scatterbrained? He can answer questions verbally just fine - it's the whole following-directions-and-writing part that he has yet to master.

So, this weekend I was able to do a lot of stuff and not feel guilty about it. I woke up at 7:30 on Saturday because I'd gone to bed so early on Friday, but that was fine because I still had about 10 hours of sleep. I went and checked out the two biggest cemeteries (in Czech: hřbitovy) along Vinohradská, the street off which I live. After spending a couple of hours wandering those cemeteries, I went to Hlavní nádraží, the main train station (literally, that's what it translates to) in Prague. I bought a ticket to Krakow and a ticket back to Prague from Berlin for next week.

[[ You might notice the gaping hole in that plan, i.e.: getting from Krakow to Berlin. Yet again, minor details. I'll get it when I arrive in Krakow. Anyway, that's what I'm doing for half-term holiday - going to Krakow (for the express purpose of visiting Auschwitz) followed by a two-day adventure in Berlin where I plan to see, at least, Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial, Reichstag, and the Brandenburg Gate. Of course there's tons of other things I want to see, but I'll only be there for 48 hours... ]]

Anyway, after I bought my train tickets for half-term, I met up with Chris and we (in order): went up the JZP Tower; visited the church at Náměstí Míru;  checked out Anděl (in a failed attempt to find some supposedly preserved Communist Propaganda); had dinner at a random Italian restaurant in Náměstí Republiky; and then wandered around Vyšehrad during sunset. If you look at a map of Prague, you'd realize that our adventure was, first of all, the most random set of things to do in 5 hours, and second of all, a lot of metro-riding and back-tracking and just plain expansive coverage of Prague.

Of course, I took plenty of photos, of which only a few I liked. So I'll share them with you:

The view I woke up to Saturday morning. It was super foggy and absolutely freezing. I loved it.

Chris and me in the JZP Tower elevator. It was like a funhouse with all those mirrors.

(Northeast) Prague from the JZP Tower. Neat shadows in the afternoon sun.

Olsanske Hrbitovy - the biggest cemetery I've ever been in. I only
visited about 1/8 of it, and that was only the old cemetery, with
awesome crypts and statues and so on that dated back to the early 1800s.

Vinohradske Hrbitovy - the cemetery closest to my apartment. It was so cool. That's basically the only good way to describe it.