Halfway through my morning tea... more insights

So, I'm drinking my tea and eating breakfast (rye with peanut butter and a banana), and I look at the sticker on the banana. Turns out I'm eating a Chiquita Banana from Ecuador. Dude. As I am only halfway through my megacup of morning tea, I am way too impressed by this banana's journey... and it occurs to me that, if this whole teaching English thing doesn't work out, I can always travel the world as a banana.

BUT, speaking of odd conclusions and conversational twists, I have another gem from my "Italian Car" student. Last week we were talking about kids and adoption in class. We were talking about who would want to adopt kids and why and how hard it would be when "Italian Car" bursts out with, "I want to adopt a donkey."

No, I'm not kidding. And neither was she. The entire class did a double take, and I thought I was going to have to excuse myself from the room so I could laugh. (I'm not so strong that I wasn't already laughing, but I was doing my damndest to contain it to civil levels...).

In her defense, when she explained it it did make sense. Turns out there is an endangered species of donkey at the zoo that people can sponsor... that is what she was talking about. Still... her comment made the fridge (along with my Twisted English Daily Calendar advertisement about an English school in Mexico that "speaks broken English fluently").

BUT ANYWAY, I was talking to my mom (Skype) last night and we were talking about my bathroom. (Huh?) Let me just say that my apartment has the best bathroom--I don't think that I will ever live in another place that has a bathroom this nice. The tub is HUGE (and there is a shower! Yea! Most bathtubs here just have a little shower head that you have to hold over your head when you sit in the tub--not the most effective or efficient way of getting clean) and there is a washing machine (Granny understands). In fact, the bathroom was what cinched the deal... I was still a little uncertain about the location of the apartment (though it has turned out to be a good location too), but when I saw the bathroom, I knew that I had to live here. So, in honor of my bathroom (and because my mommy said I should), I'm posting a picture of it:


It is not a great picture, but you can see the washing machine and the super awesome bathtub.. which are the main things (I guess the other thing--which I had not really paid much attention to at first but which has proven useful--is the window right above the toilet that opens into a narrow shaft).

Now, one thing that I don't particularly like (but which is not unique to our apartment) is the water's occasional tendency to just stop. This usually happens in the middle of rinsing out shampoo (or while elbow deep in dishes and nasty water and soap). It usually starts again in a few seconds (but not so quickly that there is never any fear about having to go to work with sudsy hair/elbows). The other thing (I know I said one thing, but I guess this is part of the one thing) is the water's tendency to not always be a comfortable temperature. Sometimes when I am halfway through my shower, the water will get unbearably hot or freezing cold. The hot water usually goes back to normal (after taking off about five layers of skin)... the cold water, on the other hand, is usually there to stay. There have been a couple of times when I've had to go to work not as clean (or as warm) as I would like.

Anyway, the tea, bread, and banana are gone, so I need to get to work. I have a week's worth of classes to prep today (fun, fun, and more fun). Hopefully I will have more energy today--I've been feeling completely drained for the past week.

Oh, and I have next Tuesday off, so I'm trying to decide what I should do with my weekend. Right now I'm thinking about the grad tour of Cesky Krumlov and Cesky Budeovicka (about three hours south of Prague). There is not really enough time for me to go to any of the other ten zillion places I want to see, so... I think this might be the best option... that is, if I have the energy for it.