The day started O.K., and ended O.K., but there was a lot of stress in the middle. On the train out to Řež, most unpronounceable town in the inhabited universe, I got a poem written, a sweet little piece that I like quite a bit, about trees and how they grow outward, there is no introspection in nature, and I liked the poem because it came to me pretty much all at once and I didn’t have to think about it.
Then my lessons at Řež went fairly well, because they always do. Not all the students are at the same level, but they are all pleasant, co-operative adult students. It’s an easy hour and a half.
The trouble started on the way back to Prague. The 10:53 was late and I looked up from doing a Sudoku puzzle and suddenly noticed that there was nobody else on the platform. That was odd. It’s not a busy station, but there are usually 10-15 people or so.
The next train is at 11:23, which meant I’d have to skip my brunch stop at McDonald’s in order to get to my kids’ classes on time. Then I saw the notice. My Czech is not perfect, but I got the gist, which was that the train was not coming. By this time one other person had arrived, so I pointed out the sign to her and she (being Czech) realized that we’d have to wait on the other side.
Northbound and Southbound trains had to alternate on one track, I guess due to repairs or something. Around the same time, I got a text saying the other teacher at the school was sick, so her classes were going to be combined with mine. Not a good day to be late.
Well, we crossed to the other platform, the train did come, and I got there on time, so that was one problem down. The combined classes were kind of wild, it was just too many children to control, so I tried games but, as was predictable, some students were so enthusiastic they were fighting with each other over whose turn it was, and the bad kids were just wandering around the room, looking for things to destroy. In the last group, who are 2nd graders, a couple of boys got into a tussle and knocked a table over and one of them went down, the bigger of the two actually. No injuries, but it sure did disrupt the class for a couple of minutes.
It started raining on the way home, a good, solid rain that lasted for hours. That was not stressful. The stress was over.
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