I finally meet the Machovi!

With my sister, Alisa

With Amanda and Colin, the disheveled

With Linsy and Jena, the criers

And of course, with my wonderful parents, Ken & Carol


So after having a much-larger-than-deserved-or-reasonable-for-a-6:00am-departure bon-voyage crowd at the Eugene airport on the last day of July (and $50 paid to United Airlines for my over-sized and over-weight bag--whoops!), I arrived in Washington DC for orientation. At the hotel in Alexandria, I discovered that I was paired with one of the other Czech teachers in a 5th floor room, which turned out to be much more of a boon than I would have imagined sharing a small hotel room with a complete stranger could be! Hana and I seemed to hit it off immediately, and she quickly escorted me to the ballroom where I could meet Jan and his family, apprizing me, "He has been asking for you all day!" To say that I was excited to meet him would be an understatement; I could barely contain my enthusiasm. (For those of you who know, picturing the jumping-up-and-down-and-clapping would be an appropriate mental image of me as I entered the ballroom.) Several people warned me not to try to hug them when I met them as the Czech people, in general, tend to be much more reserved and that hugging is a particularly intimate gesture for them. I'm sorry to say that all that wonderful advice completely escaped me when I saw them, but luckily they didn't seem to mind.

I found Jan (Honza) to be very much as I had imagined him from his emails. He was very prepared for our conversations about final details, direct in manner, and genuinely interested in everything we discussed. Marketa, on the other hand, was even better than I could have hoped--she was hesitant to speak at first, due to her limited English, but watching her roll her eyes and make jokes at the expense of her husband and children made it clear that she and I, clearly, have a lot in common. Add to this two of the most beautiful children I have ever seen, and my overwhelming feeling by the end of the first evening together was regret that we would only get to spend three days together. I would love to have the opportunity to get to know them all the way that my friends and family in Oregon will, as well as have the experience of working with Jan at school. Alas, it is not to be.

The time in Washington, D.C. went very quickly, but we were able to go into the city one evening to spend some time on the Capitol Mall. The Czech teachers had taken a bus tour of the city the afternoon of my arrival, but hadn't had much time to get out of the bus to really examine the various monuments. Thus, all three Czech teachers and their various family members and I Metro-ed in to see the Jefferson Memorial, specifically, as well as some of the other monuments they had missed. I was excited to see the World War II memorial, which had not yet been built on my last visit to the city.

It was a typically sticky and hot evening in Washington as we emerged from the Metro station onto the mall, looking directly towards the Capitol building. I was somewhat surprised when Jan asked me to identify the building--he had done so much research on the U.S. and Oregon that often in our conversations I felt sure he was better informed than me. We turned toward the Washington Monument and began our exploration. As the de facto tour guide of the group, I quickly discovered that in my memory of the Mall, the monuments were MUCH closer together! By the time we walked to the Washington Monument and halfway around the tidal basin to get to the Jefferson Memorial, it was clear that was going to be the extent of our sightseeing in order to catch the last hotel shuttle of the evening. I felt bad for over-selling the evening's agenda, and disappointed that I didn't get to see the WWII memorial, but it did give us a few more hours to discuss differences between the U.S. and Czech Republic, and offer what would hopefully be useful suggestions about transitioning between the two countries to each other.

Nela, Jan, Me, Marketa & Simon at the Washington Monument



Thus, it was with very mixed emotions that I boarded the shuttle to the airport on Friday morning to catch my flight to Prague. Was it possible that the people I would meet in the Czech Republic would be as warm and friendly and funny and interesting as the three Czech teachers I had met in Washington? Had I adequately prepared the way for Jan and his family to settle in Eugene? Did I have any idea what I was really getting myself into?

Whatever questions and worries I had dissipated at Reagan National Airport due to a great sign of impending happiness and luck: at the Delta check-in counter, BOTH of my suitcases were over-weight and one was over-sized (still, obviously) to the tune of $185 and the gate agent put them both on the plane without a word and without charging me a dime, even after my less-than-vigorous protest, saying, "Don't worry about it--I'm feeling generous." WOOHOO!!! And with that, I went and had two Coronas because even if Czech beer is really good, a year without Corona is a LONG time.