It could have been worse..

..maybe. No, it really could have been.

Today marked my first real day of internship. Although the internship would have been hard without the language barrier, it made it that much more awkward. The people were friendly, the kids didn't seem to want to shun me, and I had a chance to learn about the social work academic program in the Czech Republic. But that gnawing and overwhelming awkward feeling just couldn't be shaken off.

I did have an opportunity to talk with another volunteer who is a student of social work in Prague. He explained that their program takes a 3 week break in the middle of the semester for them to complete their clinical hours. This is equivalent to our program that has us complete clinical hours the entire semester while still in classes.

Apart from this knowledge, I did also speak with a couple people, but found it strangely more comforting to be surrounded by people speaking Czech then to speak English. Perhaps it's just my horrible guilt at not being able to speak their language and therefore causing them to go out of their way to accommodate me, but I'm hoping that this immersion will prove beneficial in language and content.

Additionally, I'm including the next series of photos for my photography class. There are only 2. The first is an "unconsciously" taken photo, and the second is a consciously framed photo (that was the assignment..). Opinions requested. It'll help me prepare for the criticism in class, not to mention if I need to edit something now, I'd like to be told by all you instead of a roomful of strangers :]

The first is unfortunately a tad blurry, but I guess that is the trade off for just snapping a photo.

Frantically trying to cross the street before being hit by an ambulance.

 

Update: this is the photo I actually submitted. I felt the colors were too good to pass up and create it in black and white.