Thursday, June 5, 2014

Coffee and Corks

I type to you from a lovely flat in Hradec Kralove. It has been a quick transition from being surrounded by 100 other interns in Malenovice to it being the four of us on my immediate team. This is where we get down to business, and I couldn't be more excited. 

After a day speaking in classrooms promoting English camp and in meetings, we met up with people from the local youth group at a cafe/restaurant. We sat around somewhat awkwardly, communicating in minimal English and sitting and sipping our beverages. 

My tea came with sugar packets. I take my tea black. I know, I'm extremely hardcore, but I need you to refrain from intense admiration and listen to this story. I look across the table at Vendy, a 15 year old, and at my unused sugar and say, "Here's the game. I flick the sugar and try to get it to hang off the table without falling." It's a pretty normal waiting around game. 

Soon, sugar packets are sliding from all angles among the 12ish people at the long table. Then, before you can say "Jenna-is-a-bad-influence," sugar packets are flying across the cafe paper football style. As our serious looking waiter approached, I stopped and avoided eye contact like a puppy full of shame. 

The waiter came back shortly bearing gifts. He brought corks and a metal bucket: the finest toys in all the land! We had a ball tossing corks into the bucket, at each other, and into each other's drinks. 



What had started as a sugar packet slide turned quickly into the waiter using an umbrella as a golf club to hit a cork into a bucket. A restaurant full of young adults was all at once filled with the wonder of five year olds. 

Sometimes language barriers work to your advantage. What a beautiful evening filled with joy and laughter and being taught words for flowers and medieval weapons in Czech. 


Love and giggles,
Jenna B.

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