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We moved to Prague in the Czech Republic
in September 2007 to teach. We have certification from Hamline University in
St. Paul in TEFL, or Teaching English as a Foreign Language. We are employed
by an independent language school operating in the private sector of
business in the Czech Republic. Our students are adult business people. We
travel all over the city of Prague on public transportation, teaching them
in small classes in their offices and conference rooms.
Michele and Bernard Ziegeweid
Christmas 2009
For behold I bring you good news of great joy! Luke 2:10
Happy Holidays from Prague,
When we left you last year, we were anxiously anticipating a Christmas visit
from Joy and Faye and Nick. We had our traditional Christmas Eve supper of
soup and pecan pie and drank our wine out of Czech made Bohemian crystal
glasses, a Christmas surprise from Faye and Nick. We toured about the city
taking in the Christmas markets, eating street food and drinking hot wine.
Many games were played and crossword puzzles worked. From Prague Faye and
Nick took the train to Berlin to do a little more sight seeing. Joy flew
back to Moscow, and we boarded a plane for Rome.
We discovered a few weeks before Christmas that we would still have almost a
week after our visitors left before we had to go back to work. Bern
suggested we go to Rome, so we quickly bought plane tickets, reserved a room
in a bed and breakfast and it was arrivederci Prague. Hello Rome. Rome was
wonderful with friendly people, good food and wine and fabulous sights.
After living in Prague for more than a year, we thought we knew old, but
Rome is ancient!
2009 has been a fascinating year for us. The recession came a bit later to
the Czech Republic, but it definitely did arrive, and it did affect us. Our
classes were pretty normal until the end of February, and then the attrition
began. Businesses started to cut back and eliminate classes. Bern happened
to have more classes with Komercni Banka, one of Prague’s biggest bank
systems than Michele did, and as they slashed courses, his work load dropped
in half in about a month. But maybe because some teachers left due to
dwindling work, mysteriously in April and May some more classes were added
and about half of the losses were restored, so the 2008-2009 teaching year
was near normal.
One day last February Bern was wondering down a side street as he often
does, and he came to the Lutheran church we’d looked at shortly after coming
to Prague. At that time there was no English language service being held.
This time however there was a bright sign on the door announcing worship in
English Sundays at 11:00 a.m. with a pastor from Hastings, Minnesota. We
decided this was too good to be true, so we checked it out and were very
pleasantly surprised. The service is conducted using the green hymnal we
used in Arcadia for many years. But the best part is we quickly became
friends with Pastor John and Connie and discovered they are cribbage and
Hearts players. After a year here they returned to Minnesota in September
but were replaced by another retired pastor and his wife. They arrived the
first Sunday in Advent, so we are just getting to know them.
 Our
horizons have been broadened by travel again this past year. In May we flew
to Yerevan, Armenia, where we were joined by Joy and Alex. We told Joy we’d
like to travel with her, and she suggested Armenia, a country we could not
have visited without the help of her and Alex. There is very little English
spoken there, but Russian is the second official language after Armenian, so
they did all the communicating for us. They arranged the rental of a
spacious flat for the nine days we were there and also a car and driver for
five different trips out into the countryside. Armenia was the first country
in the world to establish Christianity as the state religion in about 300
A.D. and has remained a primarily Christian country since, which has
resulted in a lot of tension with its Muslim neighbors, Turkey and
Azerbaijan, so much so that its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are
closed. Because of this there is not a lot of tourism in what is a beautiful
and interesting country. This picture is of a monastery we visited in the
mountains by Lake Sevan.
Other destinations included Salzburg, Krems and Vienna, Austria with Faye’s
mother-in-law and father-in-law, Jim and Ona. We also had the chance to
visit Trier, Junkernhoh and Drolshagen, Germany, the towns the Ziegeweid
ancestors came from. Amsterdam was included in our travels as well. Seeing
the building where Anne Frank and her family were in hiding from the Nazis
for two years was a highlight for me since I taught her story to my eighth
graders a number of times.
We returned to Wisconsin in mid July and had a fairly relaxing time. We
managed to get to the eastern part of the state to visit the Fischers who
have been hunting deer with us for more than twenty-five years. They
entertained us royally including taking us salmon fishing on Lake Michigan
and to a Packer exhibition game. While in this part of the state we
increased our state park, forest and recreation area total by one when we
went for a hike in the Fischer Creek State Recreation Area. There are only
two left on our list to visit unless more have been built in our absence. We
also did a lot of visiting in the Arcadia area and had a Ziegeweid gathering
at Jim and Judy’s in August. As we did last summer, we stayed with our good
friends and gracious host and hostess, Ron and Nancy.
We came back to Prague August 30 to begin our third year of teaching. The
school for whom we taught for the last two years was bought out/merged with
another school, so there have been some changes. We are adapting and have
enough work to keep us busy, some days too much.
We have generally felt very comfortable and secure in our lives here, so it
was a bit jarring when someone stole Bern’s bike this fall from the little
overhang that adjoins our flat. The bike wasn’t cabled up, which was Bern’s
fault. He just didn’t think anyone would go to the trouble of stealing a
very unglamorous, used, middle of the road bike. Adding to the
inconvenience, his cell phone was on the bike when it was stolen. The phone
was replaced almost immediately. Shopping for a new used bike took a little
longer, but a nice replacement was found in time to enjoy a little riding
yet this fall.
We discovered that getting older has its benefits. No, we don’t mean that we
are at less risk of contracting the H1N1 virus. In honor of a milestone
birthday Joy and Faye gave us plane tickets to Paris where we spent six
absolutely delightful days in October. We took in all the usual sights and
then spent time sitting in little cafes enjoying good coffee and sweets.
Wandering down interesting little streets occupied us for some time also.
Now we are in countdown mode for our return to Wisconsin for Christmas. We
will be leaving here December 12. We’ll spend through the 28th in Arcadia
and then fly to Seattle to Faye and Nick’s. Joy and Alex will join us there
where we’ll celebrate New Years together. They announced they are getting
married, so we will start making wedding plans also. While in Arcadia Bern
will get in a day of deer hunting in one of the special t-zone hunts. I plan
to bake cookies and lefse with my mother an d
sisters. We’ll enjoy our Christmas dinner at Sandy and Charlie’s.
Due to our early return to Wisconsin, you can use our Arcadia address for
Christmas greetings. If you aren’t getting this letter electronically, you
may note an Arcadia postmark. Our current Arcadia address is:
P.O. Box 303
Arcadia, WI 54612
--Bernard and Michele
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