Presented to me by the seventh grade class in Kostelec

Here I am, sitting here. It’s Thursday evening – the weeks since leaving Germany have gone quickly. The year, in fact, has gone quickly.

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was being welcomed with coffee and cake into the bosom of my school in Weimar, shaking hands with the staff who would be my peers and colleagues for the next eight months. Now, it’s over, and has been for the last two weeks. An odd feeling, for tomorrow I’ll be heading home properly. It really will be the end of it all.

What though, have I been doing for the last couple of weeks? Well, as I said – in the Czech Republic.

Last week, Monday to Wednesday, I felt as though I’d just switched countries and was continuing my previous job. I was helping out at an elementary school in Kostelec.

The classes were, unlike in Germany, up to 15 years of age here. More of an extended primary school than an elementary school, I suppose then.
The classes were all very friendly though, as were the teachers. They all welcomed me into their lessons as if they knew of my arrival for some weeks before, which they certainly didn’t – five or so minutes it seemed was the norm.
The students were all enthusiastic, if somewhat ‘bored’ in school (or so seemed the general consensus), which made a change from Germany.

Although I took a sort-of ‘centre stage’ position in a few of the lessons in which we were talking about weather, a lot of the lessons (of which there were lots – 15 or so over the three days), I simply conversed with them all. They all seemed to enjoy this, even if they weren’t confident in speaking at all – they spoke generally in Czech, and thus the teacher did the speaking. This was sort of thus pointless, but whatever floated their boat. I was happy to be a bit of a novelty for a few days.

As I left on Wednesday, I felt as though I’d enjoyed having a bit of structure to my days again – but if I had to do that for any longer period of time, the very real language barrier – my complete lack of Czech – would have become an issue. I still am a little novelty around here it seems, as random young people still say ‘Hello’ to me in the street every now and again. Feels good!


A very interesting, fun and enjoyable few days – as was the rest of my time here: Visiting a WWII bunker close to the Polish border, a set of caves near Brno, a few castles, the Adrspach rock complex, Prague’s castle and surrounding grounds, getting cuddles off the family dog, plus much more.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back in the UK. It’s bizarre to think that this ‘is it’, as they say. The end of my year abroad proper. It’s been an amazing year – one that, despite its ups and downs, I’d not change for the world.

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