Sunday, October 14, 2012

Prague first impressions

So I have been in Prague now for three weeks and I suppose I should share some of my thoughts on living and working in the Czech capital. It is one of the most picturesque cities in the world (I should probably start taking pictures) and I have been very lucky so far to have had great students. I am teaching adults and mostly those who are managers and the like so our lessons are quite interesting. At the moment I only have 1-1 lessons which has its pros and cons but at the moment it's quite good as the students are both engaging and engaged in the lessons. I don't work in the school per se as I work in-company and travel mainly from office to office on public transport.
Now this would come down as one of the negatives of work life here, public transportation in Prague is really great and it doesn't take too long to get anywhere in the city but I find I spend as much time on the metro as I do teaching which is slightly dispiriting. The other negative would of course be the salary coming from Saudi Arabia it is a bit of a shock to take home less than half of what I was making there and especially considering that I am actually teaching as opposed to babysitting but c'est la vie.
My other pet peeve is the tourists. They are everywhere here, following their guides with the umbrellas, they monopolize the most beautiful areas of Prague as they trudge through the central squares looking up at the building while grinding foot traffic to a near standstill. Locals avoid these areas at all costs because everyone knows the tourists will just get in the way, as well as drive up prices at the bars and restaurants. So that is a rather slight annoyance and with the winter coming I suppose there should finally be a little bit of peace and quiet in my beautiful new city.

4 comments:

  1. Complain, complain. You're living in the Golden City!

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  2. I forgot you never got to actually 'live' there--omg--enjoy yourself! I miss it there! Don't forget to check out Lucerna ;) I'm off to Brazil and the beach in 2 weeks for 6 months!

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  3. Karen I know it's the Golden City it would just be nice to enjoy it without fighting through hordes of grey hairs that can't seem to walk at something approaching a normal speed :D
    Danielle I am super excited for you! That should be an amazing adventure, are you teaching English or something else?

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  4. I look at your 'favorite books' list on your profile and think the Czechs will appreciate you. So much skepticism! They'll love it. :-)

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