22 September 2010

Interviews

I had an interview yesterday with a Czech Public High School! I rode the metro and a bus from Praha 9 down to Praha 4. It was about an hour and during that time I kept asking myself "what am I doing?" I passed old Communist housing and dirty streets and overgrown vegetation while I traveled farther and farther away from the city-center. I could not get a handle on my emotions and fears and questions about how I landed in the middle of the Czech Republic.

Once I arrived at the school, about 20 minutes late, I thought I wouldn't have a chance. I'm inexperienced. I'm young and showed up late. (Although it wasn't entirely my fault) I tell the secretary who I am and she leads me upstairs to an office where I meet a "Czech" English teacher. He then escorts me to the Headmaster who doesn't speak English. I sit at one end of a very long table and he at the other end. The English teacher translates.

It was the most bizarre interview I've ever had. I was never actually "interviewed," instead I was handed a class schedule, asked if I liked it, then they started calculating pay and taxes and such. The one interview question I was asked was about my TEFL class, but it was more of a filler question..they didn't seem too interested. They were, however, thrilled that I brought along a notarzied copy of my college diploma. I signed away my life (not literally), but I do have to go to the Czech Police Department for a background check and to a Czech Doctor for a physical.

So....I have a job.

I'll be teaching 12 lessons a week to high schoolers. I will get each set of students only once a week, as the "Czech" English teachers will have the students more often to teach them grammar and such. So I get to teach all the fun stuff....speaking, listening, and American culture. Yay! The pay is really, really bad. I don't want to ever hear about American teachers complaining again. But, thankfully, I may be an English tour guide around Prague. God has been so good to me! I not only will learn and grow and most likely be stretched by teaching high schoolers (and probably embarrassed most of  the time), but I also get to talk about history and art in THE best historically preserved city in Europe! I'll keep you updated. On Saturday I get to shadow a tour all day and take notes for my own script. :)

Love&Laughs,

H

3 comments:

  1. I am so proud of you!
    I am proud of you for trusting your creator.
    I am proud of you for even having the guts to have an interview with a headmaster who does not even speak English.
    I am proud of you for picking up your things and moving half way around the world with no certainties except that God is the ruler of the world and he loves you with every bit of Him. (bad english? possible.) I <3 you darling.

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  2. Congratulations! I'm glad to hear you're on your way :) It'll get better and better every day. Eventually you'll stop counting the number of weeks you've been away from America, and then you'll stop counting the months, but I don't think we'll ever stop counting the years. Enjoy the ride. Let me know if you have any more questions.

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  3. i know that this is an old post but i reead it and i think ur very brave ,braver than me and it's good that u continue even when you have doubt in your mind! ur r an inspiration actually :-) so keep it up plz

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