Job search Brno

The Brno job search is on a much smaller scale than the Krakov one, just 8 schools on my list, and 6 of them within walking distance of the main square. Also, bearing much more fruit. Several have already said they're looking for teachers and I've got a paid individual lesson and a demonstration lesson on set-up for early next week. One place is willing to pay me about 25000 crowns a month, but several other schools have been low-balling me with rates of less than 200 crowns an hour. Still waiting on responses from a couple others.

Oh, question for the masses: it's standard to do a demonstration lesson for your potential employers, especially with a lack of employment history. I've had one person who's done this for many years advise me to demand a fee for the demo lesson, even if it's a low rate. The reasoning being that you put effort and time into your appearance there, sometimes passing up or rearranging other job search duties, thus deserving compensation, as well as establishing the idea you're negotiating from a position of strength (discouraging them from trying to pull a fast one farther down the line). What do you guys think of that idea?

A couple schools are just outside the touristy part of town in the southwest, just off Vlhka Street. I got kinda lost looking for them, so I saw a part of town that I didn't know about before. It's a little bit isolated from the central part of the city because of the way the trams run and the placement of a couple high traffic streets. There's still some light industrial kinda stuff going on, car shops, factory buildings, building material wholesalers. Cheaper, shoddier looking versions of businesses you see elsewhere, too. When things get old and neglected at home they get overgrown, green, a little grungy. When things get old and neglected here they get gritty. Chunks of facade fall off, exposing old masonry. There's more dust and dirt around the buildings, there's actually garbage to be found in the basement window wells and busted doorways. Turns out this is also the gypsy part of town. You start to see lots of kids just hanging out. There are people just sitting on the front stoop or at a table and chairs arranged on the sidewalk. Some of them have worn or dirty clothing, something that's not normal here, but mostly you can tell they're gypsies because they all look like Mexicans or Indians (the American kind). The area definitely has that lower income, socially outcast vibe to it. There are signs of gentrification, too. Some buildings have been recently re-plastered and repainted, with shiny nameplates for the businesses inside and intercom-buzzers required for entry. Some frou-frou businesses starting to pop up, too: boutique furniture showrooms and dance schools.

It's really hot again, 35 degrees today. Pulled a mad dogs and Englishmen in the gypsy part of town. When I got home and changed out of my clothes I had big, white salt deposits around the waist of my pants. Makes me glad I chopped off all my hair the other day.

Have I mentioned the pervasiveness of herna bars here? Gambling, slot machines, is legal and you'd think it was big business. You can't go more than a block or two on any busy or central street without seeing a “herna bar non-stop!” sign. (They are literally open 24 hours a day.) I haven't been in any except for Salvatore's, a small one that's also got some internet computers in the back, but the machines play these amazingly irritating sound effects and use lots of lights. They kinda remind me of pinball machines. Some are really big, glitzy affairs, others seem like nice, low-key, little bars that have just got some machines pushed over in the corner.