Czeching in

The wind of change swept the conkers from the tree. I picked one up. It was a shiny, tangible memory of childhood. Its round reassurance spoke of school mornings and the wonder of this cool brown treasure hidden inside a green spiky shell.

The reflection in the shiny exterior of the conker in my hand was imperfect, however – if not inverse. I was no longer the child, but the teacher. I was no longer the small human being wondering at the marvels of the world, but a big human being, who was supposed to explain these marvels – and yet was still trying to make sense of them herself.

I came home from St Petersburg at the end of August with a plan for next year but no plan for this year. Three weeks later, following a very rapid application and interview process, I flew out to the Czech Republic to start a job as an English teacher in a place called Liberec (pronounced Liberets), where I will be working until the end of June.

I did my TEFL qualification over the summer: an online course and three weeks ‘teaching English’ (mainly playing games) at a summer camp in Poland. Now I am working at Swallow School of English. Four mornings a week I go into various primary schools and teach kids aged between 6 and 14. The concept is an unusual one. I take half the class at a time for 20 minutes each and don’t follow a primary school syllabus or even use a textbook. Instead, I use Swallow School’s system of modules. These focus on spoken English and are designed to help children communicate in those areas of life they are most likely to need – not describing what’s in their pencil case, or worrying too much about the inconsistency of spoken and written English. In the afternoons, I have private classes of children at Swallow School’s own premises as well as 1:1s and 2:1s with teenagers and adults.

I arrived two weeks ago on Tuesday and started work on Wednesday. It was still dark when I woke up on the first day, and I had a sudden recollection of how it felt to wake up on day one of my first German exchange. Early morning, new country, school day. As I lay in bed, loath to get up, I decided it wasn’t such a bad thing to be reminded of. That exchange was one of the most memorable weeks of my life. That was when I fell in love with Germany.

Since then, my world has expanded. Over the last two weeks, time has expanded, too, from within the confines of the clock. Everything is new: each moment is full of sights and sounds and ideas.

Let the adventures begin!