Brno Orientation

I am currently in the Moravian city Brno for my teaching orientation. I have now officially met all the English Teaching Assistants (ETA - my official job title). I will meet the research Fulbrighters during our second orientation in September. All the teachers seem very intelligent and nice - everyone is excited to be here and to meet each other!

Today's orientation consisted mainly of icebreakers, as well as discussions about what makes a good teacher and classroom environment. However, we did go over some interesting cultural norms! These cultureal points were actually some things I have already encountered during my stay here. For example, it is totally acceptable for men and small children to urinate in the street. I happened to see this last night when I was walking home from dinner. Two men were happily urinating on the side of a building! On the other side of the block there is a club named The Moulin Rouge and as you may be able to discern from the title of the club, prostitution is also legal here. Additionally, the age of consent is 15, in contrast to the age of 18 in the United States.

Another norm is wearing slippers in schools and as a guest in homes. Apparently this means wearing nice slippers, not the kind that are in the shape of a dog or make your feet look like dinosaur feet. The reasoning behind this is that when you enter the school and it is raining or snowing, a person would change out of their wet clothing and keep the hallways clean and clear of slipping hazards.

I also learned about the three main types of high schools in the Czech Republic. There are gymnasium schools (most like a typical US high school), technical schools, and vocational schools. Attending gymnasium schools are very competitive and some have specialties similar to magnet programs. The technical schools are for people who have a career path. Usually students at these schools travel distances and/or live in dorms while attending these schools. I am teaching at a math, science, and engineering technical school, which manly has male students. Many students will live in a dorm-like situation and may go home on the weekends. From what I can tell, out of the ETAs I am living in the largest city (Plzen) and I am the third closest to Prague. Most ETAs are teaching at gymnasium schools in small towns about 10,000 people or less and Plzen's population is about 180,000. Whether this is a blessing or a curse I have yet to decide.

To revert back to my current living situation and location, I am staying in a nice hotel with a roommate who went to Pomona College (also in the same consortium as Pitzer College). She is awesome! Our hotel is about a five-minute walk from Masaryk University, where our orientation takes place. After orientation all of the ETAs met up with a few English literature students and took a tour of the city. This included climbing 200 steps to the top of a baroque church. There was a great lookout at the top! Then we went to a restaurant named Beer Monkey. In Czech the word for Monkey and the verb to be drunk sound similar, so this bar's name was a joke. This concluded a long day!

The next few days will also be long and filled with orientation and adjusting to my new home in Plzen. Initially, I will not have internet in my apartment, so bear with me! Hopefully, I will get out another post soon!