Well, things are moving right along. Next week are the graduation exams called maturitas. The graduating class must take exams in Czech, a foreign language and two other subjects such as biology, math, history, etc. There is a list of 25 topics for each subject. A topic is randomly chosen for each student. They have 15 minutes to prepare. For the English exam they are given a short reading. They must answer a few questions about the reading then they have a few grammar exercises to complete. After that they must speak about the topic for 10-15 minutes. Some of the topics are easy, such as "My Family" or "My Daily Program". Others are rather difficult, like "Generation Gap" and "The USA Throughout Time". The seniors are quite nervous. They have to be ready to speak on 100 different topics in one day. You must pass all four subjects to graduate. They don't look at the semester's grades. It seems quite stressful to me. I am a little nervous, too. I will be grading them along with one other English teacher. I do not know much about Australian or Canadian history. Nor do I know the land mass of the US in square meters or miles, for that matter! Maybe I should be studying this week, too!

I was in Prague last weekend. It was good to get away. This weekend is my only free weekend before I go home. So the countdown begins. I keep thinking of all the things I want to eat when I get home. Angela is coming in a few weeks. I am glad she is coming right before I go home. I think it will be a good transition for me. I know I will experience reverse culture shock when I get home and maybe this will ease it a little. I hope everyone is doing great. Have a good week!