You can tell me by a flower (teacher and proud:)

Every working day I spent some 90 minutes comuting between my home and work. When I am too tired to read on the subway, I sometimes watch people around me and play a silly little game of trying to guess what their job is. I am actually not very good at that - well dressed people are always "manager kind," sleepy people "baker or worker kind" an weird looking "teacher kind." There is one day, though, when I am sure I can tell teachers without any doubt and that day is today - the last day of school. On this day all teachers on the subway have full arms of flowers that they get as a present from their students for yet another year of their work. In the past I have always watched teachers on this day with envy. Today, I proudly drove back home as one of them with roses, lilies and sunflowers on my lap and smiled at all the other "colleagues" in our vagon. I even started to talk to one of them and wished her holidays full of rest ("Dont we deserve it!" we both agreed) I will give out most of the flowers to my mum, Ales´s mother, Olga and my neighbors this afternoon and leave for Israel tomorrow night. All being well, on Sunday morning, I will be davening Shachrit at my makom kavua in the corner of the Conservative Yeshiva.

Unfaithful with Facebook

I haven´t posted anything for some time here - partly because of the usual (too much work) but also because of my new account on facebook The last month was a bit less busy than the time between Pesach and Shavuot, mainly thanks to the fact that I consciously cut down on both on my jobs not to drive myself nuts. I started to roller skate again, went to the movies several times, tried to read and meet friends and thus managed to get back to normal with both my sleep and my asthma.

I went to Budapest for a couple of days to observe Hebrew classes in the Budapest Lauder school. Next year, I shall be teaching Hebrew to the 1st and 2nd graders of my school according to a special program called Tal Am and I wanted to see it in practice before I go for a teacher´s training course in Israel this summer. During the trip I stayed in a flat of my Paideia friend Barna. Meeting him and his girlfriend Anna was yet another delight.

At that time my friend and occassional chavruta Ales came back from Israel, much to my delight - it is great to have a bit of intellectual challenge around the Shabbat table again (those of you who know him know what I am talking about.)

The school is almost over, which is hard to believe. This Sunday is the first Sunday in a long time when I woke up without the familiar uncomfortable feeling of knowing that I would have to spend the whole free day getting ready for the long week of teaching. Today in the afternoon, I shall be leaving with my 7th graders and my colleague and friend Vítek for 3 days of a school trip to the mountains. Šimon, one of my kids, prepared am ambitious night game for the whole crowd based on the TV show "Lost," which makes me even more anxious to go.

After I come back (G-d willing), I have 3 more days of school (which means tidying up and getting ready for the holidays) and than on Motzei Shabbat I am leaving for 4 weeks in Israel. I will spend some time studying in The Conservative Yeshiva and some time taking part at the Tal Am seminar. Needless to say I cannot wait to go. This time I am mainly looking forward to taking some time off doing yet another thing that I like - studying and walking.