Teaching in Oxford, Part Two

Last summer I spent a month in Oxford doing some English teaching for a summer school. This year I decided to repeat the experience.

Regions of the Czech Republic

I decided to set a goal of visiting all of the 13 Czech regions.



List form is better for this, so region, town and date visited. I may later add articles about some or all of these places, too. Regions/cities in red are those which I have not yet visited, with transport options from Prague, to motivate me to get there!

Central Bohemian Region - Prague
Southern Bohemian Region - České Budějovice Student Agency Bus (Na Knizeci, 140 mins)
Pilsen Region - Pilsen (06/06/2009 - second visit)
Karlovy Vary Region - Karlovy Vary (07/06/2008)
Ústí nad Labem Region - Ústí nad Labem (21/06/2010)
Liberec Region - Liberec (25/04/2009)
Hradec Králové Region - Hradec Králové (23/06/2010)
Pardubice Region - Pardubice (15/06/2010)
Olomouc Region - Olomouc (30/04/2010)
Moravian-Silesian Region - Ostrava (27/05/2010 - second visit)
South Moravian Region - Brno (21/06/2008)
Zlin Region - Zlin (01/05/2010 - third visit)
Vysočina Region - Jihlava (08/06/2010)

Great Gorilla Race - Prague

As I was waiting for a bus a few days ago, I saw a hilarious advertisement for a gorilla run. Unable to contain my excitement, I managed to persuade my friend Angela to join me for this first-of-its-kind event, due to start just days later at the historic site of Prague Castle.

Karting: Jinonice

I always like a race, especially on karts. Matt visited me in Prague, which presented a perfect opportunity to go head-to-head. Unfortunately, despite being May, we were not blessed with good racing weather. We overcame this problem by selecting an indoor circuit. So, Matt, Marek, a student of mine, and I went by bus to the end of one of the lines in search of this racetrack. Initially there was nothing to be found, just a few warehouses...

Metro Pub Crawl - Prague "A Line"

Having heard stories of groups of lads making their way along the length of Prague's shortest metro line, line A, I decided to look into it further. Although the line consists of 13 stations, we decided it would be possible, as long as we took small beers at the intermediate stations, reserving the pleasure of big beers for the first and last pubs!

For this challenge, I was joined, at the beginning, by Angela and Diego.

The Prague Half Marathon

Having become a little chunky due to time spent living in the Beer Republic, coupled with my ambition to one day run a Half Marathon, late December 2009 was perfect timing for me to enter the 2010 Prague Half Marathon.

Training started early on a Saturday morning, January 2nd. A regime of 3 visits, weekly, to the gym became habit, impeded only by two weeks of flu and one week of having a sprained ankle - only two weeks before the race, too!

Auditioning

It was a Wednesday morning in Prague. My colleague and friend Brian told me he was attending an audition at lunchtime and he was looking for company. He didn't give me much more information, but since I had a gap in my schedule, I thought I would tag along. I'd never been to an audition before...