World Cup Fever:
I caught World Cup fever when I watched the United States play England with my mate Gary! Here we were; a Brit and an American...friends...with our two countries competing for position in the World Cup games. We were in George Payne with a bunch of other Americans and Brits all routing for their respective teams. When it came time for the national anthems to be sung I found myself belting out my own! Crazy...there was something about singing my national anthem in a bar in a foreign country that made me feel extremely patriotic. I can say that that I've never really thought about nationalistic pride but at that moment I was hit with a bolt of "GOD Bless America!" I got a little teary eyed at that moment. The game was awesome. The US put on a good showing and tied England. So Gary and I got to remain friends:-)
World Cup Fever Continued:
Following my tendency to become a little OCD I threw myself whole-heartedly into the whole World Cup frenzy. I cheered for England against Germany. Germany killed them. I cheered for Brazil against Chile...(although I did chant with the Chileans because their chants were better than the Brazilians), I cheered for Paraguay against The Netherlands, I cheered for Spain against Germany and finally I cheered for Spain against the Netherlands! It was AMAZING to be in Spain when they won the 2010 World Cup championship! Barcelona was alive with the fever and I was caught up in it! Amazing
So World Cup started early and ended late. In between life continued to provide rich experiences. In June I was up for a teaching job in South Korea and disqualified for the teaching job in South Korea. Also in June I interviewed for a post in Prague and was offered my first EU job teaching in Prague starting in August. So my adventure continues on.
Career Moves:
The day I received the email regarding the position in Prague was indescribable. I'd kind of resolved that I was going to go home for a couple of weeks and then head down to Panama for six months. Why Panama...well it was cheap, easy to get to, close to South America and did I say CHEAP to live. The offer from Prague wasn't perfect but it did allow me to stay in Europe with a work contract in a city much cheaper than Barcelona AND get the experience I needed AND possibly meet the residency requirements for the EU if I choose to stay AND teach business English and NOT young learners AND did I mention stay in Europe...yes! So, the only catch was that I had to have my CELTA completed in order to accept the position. As luck would have it I enrolled myself in a CELTA course and started my certification in July. So there was no reason why Prague would not work.
I can say that I did and do have some concerns about Prague but I am hoping that it is just the jitters one gets from the unknown. I really want to have a good time there. It is a beautiful city so that is a plus but Eastern Europeans are a cold lot...maybe that is a little unfair but the time I went to Prague was met with a frosty reception. And although I don't always gauge my decisions on "how many other black people are doing this". It is very obvious that Prague does not have a huge black population. I'm a little worried about reception...but I hope that I can make good expat connections and then build on meeting Czechs as I learn a little bit of the Czech language.
