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Time for an update from Praha...
On November 17th was the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (Fall of Communism in the Czech Repulic)... on this day in 1989, students peacefully marched the streets of Prague and it's named the Velvet Revolution because of how smooth happened... soon enough there came the Czech Republic and Slovakia- with a capitalist economy, privatization, right to own your property, and other economic reform. I went to the Nadroni Trida area and watched the march reenactment, concert, and fireworks. Exciting stuff, and it was cool to be there on an important day for the Czech Republic. When I get frustrated with the lack of English present in this major european city, I have to remind myself that 20 years they were teaching Russian in all the schools. There were no signs of English anywwhere, so really the country has come a long way.
The Monday before the holiday I had to attend a manitory teacher first aid class at Sunny Canadian... this was a bit odd. Although I am certified in first aid and CPR, some things came off as strange to the average person. This lady just had one of the CPR fake people and a powerpoint presentation full of somewhat amusing typos of the English language. Some of her instruction, however, just didn't seem right... For example(s).... She said if a child is choking you should dangle them by the ankles. I have never heard of this method, however I guess with gravity pulling the object down/out it kinda makes sense. Bara, my Czech teacher, said a friend of hers did this to their kid and it saved their life. She also covered burns, and instead of showing different 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree burns, this lady actually showed pictures of a horrible car accident with charred bodies still inside the car. Was this necessary? I thought it was cute where she had a slide about dehydration with a picture of a stein of beer on it....however, she went on to say if you are dehydrated that you need to DRINK a beer then water b/c the beer goes into your system faster. haha! I think the Czechs just love any excuse to drink. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than anywhere else in the world! Anyways, I did further research and my conclusion was that alcohol will always make your body MORE dehydrated. Of course showing a person with missing fingers to explain how lightning strikes are a common injury in the country was great. haha Then she went on to expalin how symptoms of epilepsy include episodes of "crap the pants." I could go on, but you get the point... Glad I got my training in the states.
Visas suck- On a more sad note, two of my dear friends and co-workers had to to leave the country this weekend. One point of advice to anyone moving outside the country- educate yourself on the rules, paperwork, timeline, deadlines for every aspect of the short term, long term, or whatever visa you are applying for. As a tourist is most European countries (called the Schengen zone), you have 90 days to be there legally, except you are allowed in Germany for 180 days. After that period you need a visa and be registered with the foreign police to be working and living in the country. To apply for a visa in a country, you need to go out of the country (kinda like you need permission to be there before you actually go there)... so us new teachers went to Dresden, Germany to apply for our long term visa in the end of August. What we all did not take into account was the process time and how you are not allowed to go past your 90 days even when you are waiting for your visa to be processed.... My tourist visa therefore, ended around November 11th (90 days from when I arrived), and I found out my visa was accepted and ready on November 6th. My friends arrived in Prague in May, and therefore had overstayed their 90 days, once they acted like they were living in Germany (where you can stay for 180 days), that ran out as well this weekend.... so to make an even longer story short, they were tired of waiting around for a visa that might not be granted. Of course one can stay here illegally (but won't be able to travel freely of course) or pretend to "loose" their passport (sketchy), but they chose to move on and hopefully come back soon. You can leave the Schengen zone for 90 days and your tourist visa will reset itself. Anways, I wish them safe travels and hope to see them soon!
Needless to say, that made this past week a bit of a sad one... However, the fact I'm sad about people leaving means I have met some wonderful people and have made some lifelong friends in my 4 months here so far.... truly blessed.
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