A word which here means "so cold that even though you're wearing a total of 14 layers of clothing on your body, you still manage to get sick." It actually means "frozen." This is how cold it was in the Alps. We were there for four days and it was really cold. The coldest day was -19°C which is -2°F. While we were gone, it got down to -26°C in the Czech Republic, which is -14.8°F and nine people froze to death. So we were in the alps, about five hundred miles away from the house. We crossed Austria to get there which just makes you realize how small Europe is if you can drive through and entire country in one day. Anyways, we skied the first day. The second day I took pictures of the Alps and such. The third and fourth days I was sick with a cough, and fever and whatnot. My first host family are really good skiers, they were amazing. Also, skiing in the Alps is not like Ausblick at all, it took forever to get down one run it was ridiculous. It was a really nice vacation though, other than skiing we didn't do anything so there's not too much to report on.
Let's go way back to November since that was the last time I posted (sorry about that)
Since nothing really happened until the beginning of December, let's skip forward to then.
So, in December I went to Vienna twice, revisited Prague and experienced a Czech Christmas.
The first time I went to Vienna, it was with the president of Rotary and we spent the day there. We visited the Emperor's apartments and got to see where all the royalty of Austrian and all of its past incarnations lived. It was really beautiful and I really liked Vienna.
The week after that, I went back to Prague for a Rotary weekend. We got to see some of the city, although I had already seen the castle and bridge and square that we visited, but it was nice to see it again. Then we were given time to go shopping in and around a huge mall. We had about three and a half hours and that was lots of fun. Next we sang Christmas Carols for passersby to enjoy and then we went and had Chinese for dinner, it was excellent. Later we had another language test in which I placed third. I did get first in the speaking part. Then on Sunday we went home.
During the week after Prague, it snowed for the first time since I got here. It got really cold too. It felt more like Wisconsin, but then it all melted when it rained and was around 45°F. We had no snow for Christmas at all.
The Tuesday after I got back from Prague I went back to Vienna with school. This time it was with friends so it was way more fun. We toured around and saw some sights and then had about four hours to do as we pleased. First, we went to Starbucks. I had a brownie! It was delicious! Then we wandered around outside in the Viennese Christmas Market and tried the Punsch. Well, they tried it, I had a small sip, but got to keep the mug. Finally we had to walk back to the bus, on the way I was almost hit by a tram. So we made it back to the bus in one piece and then voyaged home. It was a lot of fun.
The most recent event was the traditional Czech Christmas that I got to experience just four days ago. Here in the Czech Republic, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so it was a little different from home. First we had the traditional Czech Christmas meal. It was fish soup, followed by sauerkraut soup, followed by carp for dinner. It was actually rather good. Then, after ringing the Christmas bell, we went and opened presents. After that we went and visited each of my host grandparents and then returned home for a while. At midnight we went to church and after that Christmas was over and we all went to bed. It was extremely interesting to experience.
Next month should be very interesting as well. The next big thing to happened is Silvestr, or New Year's Eve. Then we have Czech Independence Day on the first of January. At some point in January we have another Rotary weekend, although I don't know when or where. Starting in January, Rotary allows us to travel within the District, Czech Republic and Slovakia, alone so I'll be visiting all around. Finally, in January is the halfway point of my exchange. January 22nd marks five months since I arrived and a little more than five months until I leave. I cannot believe that it is so close, it still feels like I just got here yesterday. It's all going much faster than I would like it to, so I guess I'll just have to really enjoy it all before the downhill slide towards the time I return home.
