Dresden

During one day of my week long stay in Prague me and my fellow travelers took a day trip to Dresden. Dresden and Prague are very close, only about a two and a half hour long train ride, to one another. The train ride was very beautiful. We traveled through villages in Germany and the Czech Republic that were literally cut out of the mountains and rocks. A hill would have a section of it cut out like a birthday or wedding cake might, and in its place there would be a house. In many cases this would occur running along the hill horizontally as well as up the hill vertically, creating a layered effect. I had never seen anything like it before; it was amazing to see how people could change their surroundings to suit their needs.
Another interesting thing that occurred on the train involved a man from the Czech Republic and a German Boarder guard. The German Boarder guard was going through the train checking peoples passports and stamping them. The Czech man had gotten up just before the checks started and was moving around. When he encountered the German boarder guard he did not have his passport with him, needless to say this was not a good thing as far as the German was concerned. The Czech man started talking to the German guard in German but the guard was speaking English. After a few seconds of this the Guard yelled at the man "Only English!" The man then spoke perfect English somewhat dejectedly and I chuckled to myself.
Occasionally teaching English I am frustrated by my students lack of understanding about how important it is to learn English. If the students learn English they will be able to get a much better and higher paying job then they would otherwise. They will also be able to communicate with people from the rest of the world. But I can't get too upset, they are only kids after all, most around 15 or 16 years old. And when I was there age I didn't care about what was going to happen three or four years in the future, an eternity it seemed then.