A week in the life: Clay Edition

Since Megan did a day-in-the-life a while back, I thought I'd do a week-in-the-life post. 

I chose a week and not a day because my schedule isn't as consistent as Megan's. 

So, here's what a week looks like for me...

I'm not doing the same language class as Megan, but I'm spending as much time as I can studying Czech through various avenues. Mondays are my day at Archimedes Language Academy (which, by the way, is impossible for me to hear without thinking of Archimedes the owl from the Sword and the Stone, one of my favorites as a kid). 

This is a really cool language school. I meet one-on-one with a teacher once a week, but during the week have an iPad app that includes a Czech lesson and flashcards customized to what my teacher thinks I need. Below is a picture of my class room. It's a great way to learn.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm at a Czech language school not far from where we live and very close to the Economics University of Prague. It's a really small class, so there are lots of opportunities to speak and practice.

When I'm not in one of those classes, I meet one-on-one with a tutor named Karel and spend a lot of time studying on my own. Well, not totally on my own. Our cat Šarka (pronounced "Shark-a") likes to study with me, though she doesn't have much regard for what I'm working on. 

On Thursday afternoons I meet a guy named David at the Economics University where I help as his English partner. We get together for an hour or so and just talk, giving him an opportunity to practice his English. After a week of wracking my brain with Czech, it's nice to do something in English (though trying to explain reasons why we say some things the way we do can be a real challenge…). It's a great time. 

This is the view of Prague Castle from the Economics University. Sometimes I take this city for granted, and sometimes it just sneaks up on me and reminds me how cool it is.

We usually work in a few team meetings with the Kellers somewhere in the week. We're really gearing up for some new folks to join us in January. 

A few times I week I go for a run with my friend Marek. He's a great runner and is gracious enough to take it easy on me a few times a week. It's great to have a running partner. We've covered a lot of ground in Prague, including a few small races on weekends.

The weekends are always different. Sometimes they're crazy. Recently, Keith and I went to a conference on the other side of the country to learn about some awesome church-planting efforts going on here. It was a beautiful (but early) train ride there.

Since the conference was mainly for Czechs, they had a translator there using a mic/headphone system. Basically, a physical reminder of not knowing the language…

Other weekends, though, we have more time to relax. One of our favorite things to do is walk down to one of the farmer's markets. So many good things to find there.

Time permitting, this is about my favorite way to spend a Saturday afternoon - in my hammock on our porch with a book.

Then, Monday comes and we're back at it again! It's a very busy, full season of life. We usually coast into Fridays running on fumes, but feeling good. 

All in all, the weeks are good here.