Dresden, Germany- Mission: complete

On Wednesday morning two co-workers and I had a 9 am meeting at the Czech Embassy in Dresden to apply for our one-year work visas. This was great since you technically are only allowed 90 days in Europe as a 'tourist'. I arrived on 6th August, meaning I have until early November to get a permanent work visa. In order to apply for the work visa you need a number of documents, including a work permit from a certified employer. So, in order to have this work permit you need a job. Luckily, I have a job, a great job, that has helped me throught this long and complicated process of paperwork and pleasing the Czech office workers.

With less than a month left on my 'tourist' time, I am lucky to have made it to Dresden, Germany on Wednesday to apply for my work visa. They informed me that after the foreign police finishes my 'background check' that I will be able to pick up my official work visa (to cover the temporary stamp I now have in my passport) in a few weeks.

IJV not only helped with all of the paperwork but they also PAID for the work visa! I am extremely lucky to have such a cooperative and legitimate school to work for because there are a lot of places that don't even tell you where to begin.

I am thankful that all of it is over, especially since the process began at 2:30 am Wednesday morning when my alarm clock didn't go off... but I woke up at 2:53 am, threw some clothes on and was out the door to catch the 3:03 am tram that left my apartment so I could make the 3:30 am train that left Prague for Dresden. Talk about an early morning.

Since IJV arranged substitutes for our classes that day, Melissa, Tyler and I decided to stay for lunch and explore the city. Dresden is beautiful and I even got to use some of my sparse German vocabulary! Very impressed by the reconstruction of the city after it was completly bombed in 1945, it's clean public transportation, and of course their efficiency.

Happy St. Wenceslas day!

Actually it's not a happy celebration... see, Saint Wenceslas (the patron saint of the Czech Republic) was king, and on this day in 935 his jealous brother, Boleslav, murdered him in order to dethrone him and rule Bohemia.

So it is a national holiday and I didn't have to go to school! In honor of good King Wenceslas a few friends and I hopped a train to nearby Kutna Hora to do some sightseeing outside of the city. Just an hour train ride south east of Prague, Kutna Hora is home to a few cathedrals, a quaint town, and a church with decorations made of thousands of bones leftover from a mass epidemic and a couple of wars hundreds of years ago.

Check out my pictures here!

bad blogger remorse

I have been a very bad blogger, and for that I apologize.

Here is a recap of my first full week at IJV:
Monday- 7:30 am company course, followed by 3 hours of teenagers, then after 3 forms of public transportation was at another company giving tests
Tuesday- made a 19 year old girl cry during my class
Wednesday- 3 hours of post secondary students, extra lesson planning
Thursday- substituted for another teacher, got lost in a surprisingly modern office park
Friday- taught all of my students "TGIF"