One month later...

I'm still alive! Last Tuesday was one month to the day from when I arrived in the country! I've managed to survive for one whole month in a completely foreign country. There are many things that happened this month that you haven't heard about yet so I'll tell you about some of the bigger events.

A couple weeks ago we went to a home for the mentally disabled. We stayed for a couple hours and talked to the residents and pretty much just befriended them. They were amazing people. Every single one was extremely nice and friendly. It was difficult for me to speak to them because I can barely speak and their disabilities impaired their speech for the most part. One of them made flowers and bracelets out of beads and thin copper wire by hand. They were absolutely amazing. I bought one of each and I am keeping them safe because I feel that they're very important. They're much more intricate than you can imagine and I could never make one in a million years. Overall it was a spectacular experience I had a lot of fun, and we will definitely be seeing them again during the year.

I can't remember if I posted this on my blog or just emailed it home so I'll post it potentially again. My host family has invited me to go skiing in the Alps! Originally we were going to ski in France, but it was changed to Italy because Italy is closer. Personally I couldn't really care less because it's skiing in the alps either way and I cannot wait to go! We will be going for about four days and will be driving there. It's about twenty hours, only a little bit more than coming to visit the family down south. Can you believe their continent is only as big as our country? It's hard for me to comprehend.

During the first couple of weeks of me being here I went to a barbecue with my host family at the home of the president of Rotary Uherský Brod. While there I was introduced to my second and third host families. They're all really nice people and seem really excited for me to stay with them, little do they know... The third host parents don't speak English and by that time I hopefully won't need it very much if at all. I leave my first host family on January 1, 2010. In my opinion the second host family gets jipped as I stay with them from January 1, 2010 only until March 1st. Then it's third host family until my return flight home. Strangely enough I have been thinking a lot about things I want immediately upon my return home. Like to drive instead of walk, and to have a really big yard. And an air conditioned house. And my job back, and junk food again. These are all in addition to my family and friends of course. I know that, other than family and friends, everything I want sounds dumb but those are the things that I want the most and what isn't really present in the Czech Republic at all. I also miss paying with my debit card and having coins be worth nothing. Here, everyone pays with cash and coins can be worth up to $2.50.

Lastly, I am beginning to understand Czech! I can understand and participate in basic conversations now. Group conversations and school are still really hard and I get tired out very quickly. My vocabulary is still not huge and I need to learn the seven cases but I can speak in all three tenses now. A huge problem with learning Czech is that almost everyone speaks at least basic English. The problem isn't that they're all dying to speak English to me, the problem is that I know that if I don't know a word in Czech I can just say it in English and be understood. A few people do want to practice their English with me and that's fine with me because not everyone does.

Well that's a bit of what you didn't hear about from the first month here. I have a ton of pictures that need to go up on facebook I just haven't had any time to but they'll be up soon I promise. On Friday I went to the Dinopark in Ostrava, a nearby city, so I'll be posting about that soon, along with my upcoming dance classes with my school class.