If there were such a thing as an instruction manual for life overseas, the first rule should be: No Expectations. Not in a negative way, as if nothing will ever go they way you expect it to go, but in a realistic way, as in don't ever expect a thing to go any one way.
Case in point: When you have a signed contract, stating that you will receive a certain amount of money, you can expect to receive that amount come payday, right? No. Not right. Because when you are dealing with a language barrier, you never really can tell how things will go.
The word "net" has several uses in the English language. It can be the thing that catches fish. Or it can be the thing that goes swish after a made basket in a basketball game. Or it can mean the amount you are to receive AFTER taxes. In our case, it meant none of those.
You see, the powers that be thought that net meant gross. So the look of surprise on my face when I saw a very different amount of cash (which is how we get paid, gangster style) laid out before me made for a very uncomfortable situation in the cashier's room that day.
Don't worry, we got to the bottom of it. We made a compromise. And by compromise, I mean that the headmistress apologized and said that there was nothing she could do about it this year. She thanked us for teaching her a new English word: gross.
So, rule number one: No expectations. They only make for puzzled looks from the lady that pays you.
Tune in next week for the continuing misadventures of two English teachers living in Prague. Same Czech time, Same Czech channel.
