Coming to Prague

My decision to leave my job working for Adidas the spring of '00 was something I would do again in a second. A co-worker came to me holding a small newspaper clipping she had thought I would be interested in. It was an ad from the backpaqe of local newspaper with a job posting to teach English in the Czech Republic. I thought the idea sounded pretty exciting. I had already been on a day bus trip to Prague on a previous trip to Europe. I had gone with a group of senior citizens for a day tour and lunch at an exclusive restaurant. I was only there for a few hours, but it had definitely sparked my interest and I knew I wanted to come back. Once I got home, I went to the company's website to find out more about the program. It was a 4 week TEFL course in downtown Prague that guaranteed job placement at the end of the course. It was roughly $400 USD and I had to go through the application process which included an essay on why I wanted to be an English teacher. I'm sure the essay had little impact as to whether or not the school would accept me into the program, since the strength of the dollar at the time, I was sure they wouldn't be turning too many people away. I was soon accepted into the next course in June of that year. I had started doing research on the city and also stumbled across an intensive language course that conveniently started one month before my teaching course was to begin. I decided that it was time to push forward with my plan. I started selling and giving away anything that I could not take with me. Which included some great Taylor Made golf clubs that I got for next to nothing while working at Adidas. They were hard to let go, but how was I going to pack them around? The plan was to go and start a new life in Europe. I had no plan of returning this time to the U.S.. I was determined to make it work. I bought a ticket to Prague, round trip (just in case) that had me scheduled to come back in 3 months. My plan was to take the month long Czech course, then get certified to teach English in Europe. I wanted to experience Prague for a while and later move to Germany to settle down and get a good teaching job. In about 3 weeks time, I had sold just about everything I had, except for my clothes, a suitcase and my dream. I gave my two week notice which seemed to be an eternity. I will never forget that day of walking down the concourse at the airport. I thought, this is it. My dream of moving to Europe has finally come true.