Karlovy Vary

Our trip to Karlovy Vary, the most famous spa town in the Czech Republic, began like any other ordinary weekend. We boarded a bus early in the morning and got comfortable for our 2.5 hour journey from Prague. With about one hour left, our bus was stopped by police officers. Apparently, the Czech Republic has random checks to make sure individuals have proper identification on them, however, we never witnessed this firsthand before. Everyone on our bus had to show some form of I.D., the most popular being either a European Union (EU) identity card or a passport. Twee and I have long-term residency cards for the Czech Republic, which serve as an equivalent when we are within the country.

The only difference between my Czech identity card and Twee's is the fact that she was born in Vietnam (although she has been an American citizen for a long time now). The police officer decided to target her and took Twee's card (along with three other people's passports) to be scanned and further checked with the Foreign Police database. We definitely freaked out a little bit. I mean, we both have the same cards, why did Twee's get chosen, and not mine, for further inspection? We became a bit skeptical of the police officer and wondered if she was racist. After all, there is a minority Vietnam population living in this nation, and maybe she has something against them?! She could have easily selected my card instead (as I did hand it to her second). It's interesting how things work out sometimes.

After this little scare, we arrived at our destination. We decided it would be a good idea to go to the hostel first and drop off our stuff. We chose a cheap place (a common theme with our travels), which was a bit far from the town center. The address given brought us to a dead end with Google maps, but magically, I spotted this sign with the name of our hostel with an arrow on a bannister along a river walkway. It was not a bright sign and it did not really stand out much, I just happened to glance in that direction and notice it, lucky us! The walkway brought us past a block of flats, and eventually we saw another sign, that told us to go on a dirt path and around a corner. It was sketchy, but it was daylight, so no worries. Later, we realized there was a much easier, shorter, and less sketchy route back to town. Despite the distance, the hostel owner was extremely nice and the place was very spacious and clean. We did notice this one little thing: a hole in the bottom of the bathroom door.

Perhaps there was a perfectly good reason that hole was there-- so one could open the door all the way into the room and avoid hitting the toilet seat, of course! (Can you say: ghetto?!)

After getting settled, we walked back into town and wandered around. Karlovy Vary is one of the most gorgeous cities in the Czech Republic! The architecture is mesmerizing and the colorful facades make it extremely picturesque. We fell in love immediately.

There were a few lovely gardens, parks, and monuments along the way.

In this park, the centerpiece shows the date, which is made from flowers and changed every day!

One of Karlovy Vary's top attractions is its colonnades, or structures with columns supporting a roof, that can be found throughout the town center. We ventured to all five of them. The first colonnade was our least favorite. Though the domed structure is exceptional, the fountain in the middle wasn't working, which was unfortunate. The Castle Colonnade did have a great view though!

Castle Colonnade 

The Park Colonnade was my favorite. I loved the architectural design and how it bordered a small park.

Park Colonnade

Park Colonnade

Park Colonnade

The Mill Colonnade was Twee's favorite. It was very Romanesque in style.

Mill Colonnade

Mill Colonnade

The Market Colonnade was beautiful and unique. 

Market Colonnade

Market Colonnade

Lastly, there was the impressive Hot Spring Colonnade, which housed a 14-meter high hot spring.

Hot Spring Colonnade 

Hot Spring

While, I'm on the topic of hot springs, these would be another one of Karlovy Vary's top attractions. One purchases a little trinket, fills it up, and drinks the water from various fountains throughout the town center. The water is supposed to have magic healing and cleansing powers to purify one's body. We both selected elephants, though there was an assortment of different animals, figures, and sizes.

Each spring had different water temperatures.

The temperatures ranged from luke-warm to unbearably hot, in which we actually had to wait a bit for it to cool down. All of the water contained salt, which was to our surprise!

We tried various ones, but ultimately, came to the same conclusion...

They were all disgusting.

Since Karlovy Vary is a famous spa town, we did indeed visit one; the Elizabeth Spa. This is one of two public spas in town. The private, and more expensive ones, can be found within the numerous hotels, but they do cost a fortune even with special packages. We went to the Elizabeth Spa twice. It contained a swimming pool, whirl pool, sauna, steam room, and relaxation pool, which was our favorite. There were massage jets for the whole body and this awesome waterfall stream, which gave great back and neck massages. One could purchase various spa treatments here as well.

The next day, we went for a hike through the woods to the Diane Observation Tower. It took us about 45 minutes to climb up to it, and was pretty steep.

About a quarter of the way up, we found these interesting structures. 

The observation tower offered the best views of the city. It was free to go up it, too!

Nature

Karlovy Vary

Diane Restaurant

Instead of hiking back down, we opted to take the funicular.

Funicular Station

Afterward, we took a tour of the Jan Becher Museum. This is where the famous Czech liquor, Becherovka, is made. 

Today, there are five types and we were able to sample three of them. The newest one, Fire & Ice, was just added this year. My favorite is the Lemond, which is lighter and more flavorful than the original. The original isn't too bad itself. KV-14 was like tasting poison.

One basically takes a short tour of the museum, then watches a 10-minute film about its creation, advertising, history, and current day production. They give you the three samples, or three full shots, during this 10-minute time period. Hence, our faces are extremely red because we were already pretty drunk after shot #2. Each type of liquor has about 40% alcohol in it. Good thing our bus home wasn't long after!

I <3 Becherovka.

Twee Had Too Much.

We had hoped there would be sunny weather for our trip, but we were delighted that it did not rain during our stay. We were able to explore and see and do everything we wanted within two days. It's definitely a destination worth visiting. Of course, Czechs love Becherovka, especially my headmaster. Taking shots of Becherovka or Lemond is a must for every school outing or event!

American Teaching Philosophies in Czech Schools

There's a lot of discussion, and to be frank, a lot of opposition, in the United States right now about the new Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), which are the first uniform teaching standards across the nation. In general, I think the nation is going in the right direction and I agree with preparing students for college and career readiness, however, I'm with many other teachers who disagree with how the new standards are being implemented. For instance, altering standardized tests before actually preparing students to take those tests. As a nation, our education system definitely needs to be reformed, but one cannot expect a miracle over night. I believe the new CCLS will be beneficial, but for the next generation of students, who will have time to learn the strategies necessary to succeed from kindergarten upward. Then again, it is nearly every teacher's dream to get rid of standardized testing altogether...

With that being said, I believe its relatively easy to incorporate these new standards into lessons. Sure, it takes some hard work and long hours for teachers, but the end products and student engagement are often worth it. For example, my colleague, Vašek, asked me to create an "American" project for one of his classes here in the Czech Republic. He gave me a handout surrounding the idea of an invention project, which I gave to students so they could jot down basic ideas.

Then, I transformed this simple handout into a more elaborate project and went over it with the students:

My vision for these students and this project included the following: a Power Point presentation, a prototype of the invention (though it did not have to actually work), and a commercial advertising their product. It culminated in a 3-5 minute oral presentation. Students also received rubrics that I created for each part of the project. Please note, the grading system in the Czech Republic (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, 4 = D, 5 = F).

For all intents and purposes of this blog, here are the commercials for the products, which is the only aspect of the project I will show you. Students worked in groups of 3-4 people, and I did the project with one of Monika's classes as well, for a total of 7 inventions/innovations. Some things to keep in mind: These are native Czech speakers who have been learning English since the third grade. They are equivalent to 8th and 9th graders.

Strength Potion

V. A. M. T. 

Teleportation App

Hot Cup

Mastermind Pills

Optimistic Glasses

Mega Bombastic Wallet

The Fronser

In terms of teacher preparation, I worked on the project for over a week on and off. I had a pretty solid vision of where I wanted this project to go because I have seen a version of it done before in economics classes while I student-taught at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. On the other hand, I did not have any of their resources with me, so I had to do everything from scratch. Additionally, I spent a long time on the grading rubrics. I compiled bits and pieces of various rubrics I found online until I made ones I was satisfied with in the end. The project incorporated some research by students, creativity and critical thinking, and real world analysis and application. 

The project was a great success and the students did fantastic work. I met with the students once a week for a total of five weeks to complete the project. Any work not finished during class hours was done after school or on the weekend, which was a new concept for the students, who barely receive any homework at all here. Additionally, it was quite difficult for students in the beginning because Czech students are not taught to be creative; they are taught to memorize information. This project really challenged them and forced them to leave their comfort zone. Most students had never done an oral presentation in English class before. Students do take information technology, or computer, classes, however, I did go over in detail how the Power Point presentations should be prepared. Unfortunately, I did not go over how to make a commercial in great depth, which is something I would definitely do in the future. Overall, I was very impressed with the work these students did!