August 21st is this Saturday. The one year anniversary of the day I left to go on the wonderful, amazing, eye-opening, adventure of a lifetime. What will I do to celebrate it? Probably sit and look at all my pictures; the photo album Rotary gave me at my going away party, the hand made year book my classmates gave me on the last day of school, and all the pictures on my camera which document all the places I got to see during my year. I know it will be very sad. There will probably be tears.
It's been hard being back.
It no longer feels like home.
When I came back I didn't expect it to be so difficult to get back into the swing of things. I actually expected it to be much easier than when I arrived in Uhersky Brod, but it's been so much harder. Everything here is exactly the same as when I left... everything except for me. Which is exactly the opposite of how it felt when I arrived in Europe. It felt like everything was perfect and I was out of place, disrupting everyone's lives and sticking out like a sore thumb. At first my first host family, the Hornaks, didn't feel like family and I resisted ever saying that I was going home when I was returning from somewhere back to their house. Now I no longer refer to my house in Wisconsin as "home." It doesn't feel like my home anymore, it just feels like the home of my first host family again. Now Uhersky Brod feels like home and Wisconsin feels like being on exchange. I feel as though everyone is going about their lives with their routines as usual and I just can't find my place again, like I just don't fit in anymore and am out of place. Sometimes I want more than anything to just be the old me and to be able to just go about my life as I did before exchange, but usually I just want to go back home, to Uhersky Brod. I wish I could just "wake up" and be back in the Czech Republic, back with my Czech friends, back with the exchanger friends and my host families and my small town and foreign language. I knew that reverse culture shock would be hard, but I didn't expect it to be this hard. Certain aspects of America now revolt me, like how big the portions are at restaurants, and how fast food is everywhere, but I also appreciate some aspects of America more now, like our individualism and our national pride. I know that eventually I'll feel at home in Wisconsin once more, and that the reverse culture shock I'm experiencing will eventually pass, but for now I feel out of place and a bit lost. I know I'll one day find my place in the world, I know that no matter where I go I'll always be American, but I also know, deep in my heart, that a part of me will always be Czech.
Ahoj Česká Republika, já ti nikdy nebudu zapomenout.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tea Time!
...we entered the United Kingdom. Having exited the Chunnel we continued on to Bath in Wales. Driving on the left side of the road is weird. Very weird. We arrived in Bath and went to the Roman Baths that were left there from when the Romans ruled Britain. It was very intersting there. Apparently the Romans thought that the hot spring was a gift from the Gods and built a temple there to the Goddess Minerva. Today you can't go in the water because it's gross, but the water still flows and you can go right near it. We spent a couple hours there and then we drove to just outside of Cardiff to meet our host families. Deja-vu anyone? Host family number five was just one woman named Angela. She was really nice and a good cook, although since she smoked all my clothes smell like smoke now. On Wednesday we went to Caerphilly in Wales and we went to the castle and then to a beach. The castle was really fun. It was real ruins so we climbed all over the rocks and on the sides of the castle. On Thursday we went to Cardiff and went to another castle. After the castle we were given free time and Amy and I went and had really great sandwhiches at this little restaurant. After Cardiff Castle we went to the Museum of Welsh Life and looked around there for a couple hours. On Friday we drove four hours to London and spent the day touring around. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, and we ended the day at the London Eye. Having completed our visit of the UK we headed back to the Czech Republic. Now that I'm back here I've only got four days until I come home.
Dobrý Den! Er... Bonjour!
At noon on Sunday my friend Amy, a group of kids from her school, and I left from the city of Kroměříž to Paříž, better known as Paris. Paris was the first stop on our trip to the United Kingdom, but it was my favorite part. We arrived about 21 hours later, having driven through the night, and our first stop was La Sorbonne, our the University of Paris. We walked around the campus and then were given free time. Amy and I went and had coffee and a baguette for breakfast in a little french cafe. At the end of my sentence in French instead of saying s'il-vous plait, I said prosim. This happened multiple times during the day and was ridiculously irritating, Czech has just completely taken over my brain. In case you didn't know s'il vous-plait and prosim, both mean please, the first is French and the second Czech. After coffee we continued to Les Jardins Tuileries and from there we went to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was beautiful, the stained glass windows there are amazing. We then took a boat tour of the city on the river Seine and saw le Louvre, Le Tour Eiffel, and Le Musee D'Orsay. After the boat tour we walked to the Eiffel Tower and then we had some time to walk around because our guide had mixed up the time of our reservation. So we walked around and took pictures and layed around. At two we began our ascent of the Tower and eventually made it to the top. The view from the top was amazing and we stayed up there for a couple hours. After buying souvenirs we descended via the stairs (bad idea) and then got back on the bus. On our way out of Paris we drove bast L'Arche de Triomphe and then drove to the north of France to spend the night. The next morning we drove even farther north, to the very tip of France to take the Chunnel to England. Amy and I were very excited to be able to speak in English again and the Chunnel was very interesting. Having boarded the Chunnel, bus and all, we started to move. The ride isn't very long, only about forty five minutes and halway through...
Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' on the River
The Vltava River to be exact. On Thursday the 14th Amy and I travelled to České Budějovice for our final Rotary event of the year. We went canoeing on the Vltava River, which is the main river in the Czech Republic and runs through Prague. The weather had been awful all week so we were a little worried about the trip. On Thursday we just set up camp and then got to hang out with everyone and picked our canoeing partners; my friend April and I canoed together. On Friday morning we got up and packed up camp. Then we shoved everything into the canoes and were off. The weather had cleard up in the morning so it was nice and sunny and warm. We canoed from ten until two through the gorgeous countryside of the Czech Republic and at two we stopped for lunch. We all had Fried Cheese, a super Czech meal of just two squares of fried cheese and french fries. Around three we continued canoeing on through some rapids and it was a beautiful afternoon. At five we arrived at our camping spot and re-set up camp. Next was dinner; soup and noodles that we cooked over a gas fire thing. Then we just hung out with the other students and cooked our first s'mores in ten months over the communal fire. On Saturday morning we got up at nine and packed up the tents. Everyone was leaving at ten to go canoeing...except for Amy and I. We were leaving at ten to go back home because on Sunday we had to leave for Paris. Having said our goodbyes to the other exchangers with whom we had shared this amazing year we left for our final trip via public transportation together. Now, if you've read some of my other blogs you may know that we aren't exactly public transportation capable. We had finished canoed in Český Krumlov and at eleven we took a bus to Ceske Budejovice. From CB we took another bus to Prague, where we promptly got lost in the Prague subway system for two hours trying to get to the train station. After that little mishap we were a couple hours behind schedule, but we got a train to Brno and four and half hours later were back in Brno. My host family had been shopping in Brno that day and had waited for me to arrive before they left. Total time spent in transit: 11 hours. We had made the exact same trip on Monday in only 6 hours. And here I was thinking I had mastered public transportation.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Distrikt 2240
Recently we had our last trip together with all of the exchange students from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We went to Český Krumlov, Krakow, Auschwitz, Bratislava, and Třebíč.
We started out in Cesky Krumlov with just the students from the Czech Republic to meet the Outbounds, or future exchangers from the CR. Most are going to America with others going to Canada, Brazil, and Taiwan. They were a really great group of people and I'm sure that they'll have fun on exchange. We toured the city and ate some cake things that the city is famous for which were excellent. It rained of course because it's been raining here since I got back from Italy so it was chilly and bad weather for the whole trip until the very end.
On Sunday we drove to Krakow, Poland. It was once the capitol of Poland and is very nice. It rained there too, but that didn't stop us from seeing the castle, three churches, and a huge tower which we climbed up, 500 steps there and back. We spent the day there and have our first thick crust pizza in almost ten months which was excellent. I had a great time there and was very pleased to learn that I was good enough at Czech to understand some Polish. I could understand some of what they said, but I could read and understand more than I could hear and understand. Next we went to Auschwizt. It was horrible. Just being there was dreadful. We saw where they slept; in wooden barns that were originally designed for horses and had holes underneat the walls. We went and saw the chambers where they were gassed and the enormous memorial for them. Then we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau which was even worse. We took a complete tour of the concentration camp and saw the death wall where people were shot or hanged. Then we went and saw all the prison cells and the torture cells. One way of torturing them that we saw was to twist their arms behind their backs and then tie their wrists together and then hang them by their wrists for hours. They also shoved four people into a cell that was a vertical rectangle and people died of suffocation and starvation. All along the walls of this building were pictures of the prisoners who died there and it was horrifying. We continued on to the living quarters and saw how they evolved from rooms with straw on the ground to wooden bunks by the end of the camp and saw newspaper clips that described the camp to inform the rest of the world to the horrors that were taking place there. The second to last section was the part where they displayed all the things taken from the prisoners right before they were executed. There was a room full of shoes, one full of luggage, one full of pots, one full of combs and brushes, but they worst was the room full of human hair. The Nazis would shave of the women's hair before killing them and then they turned the hair into cloth and sold it. The final room was full of children's toys and then we continued to the final rooms of the camp; the gas chambers. There were showerheads from the "showers" that the gas came out of and blood on the walls from people trying to escape. We saw the cremators that they Nazis used to destroy the bodies. We learned that some people urinated on cloth and then covered the children's mouth and nose with it in an attempt to save them. We also learned that not everyone was dead when they were put into the incinerator. The trip to Auschwitz was definately the worst and most unforgettable trip I've ever been on in my life and I never want to go there again for the rest of my life.
We continued on to the mountains of Eastern Slovakia. We hiked in the mountains for five hours and it was gorgeous. It stopped raining for the time that we hiked so it was instead just really really muddy. Needless to say, I fell. I slipped in the water and fell onto a slanted sheet of rock and still have bruises and cuts on my arm from it. We ended up climbing to the top of a small waterfall and then once we got to the top it started raining again. Almost everyone fell at least once. Once we were all wet and tired we continued on to see the famous Ice Cave nearby. Even though we were soaked and nobody wanted to go Rotary decided to drag us there and then underground. It was very pretty and interesting to learn about, but I would have liked it better if my shoes hadn't squelched with every step I took. The next day we continued to Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia. We had lunch there and then toured for a half hour. Bratislava is not a pretty city; they never really changed the buildings after communism so it's mostly gray and ugly. We learned that a long long time ago kings used to be corronated in Bratislava. After Bratislava we drove to Trebic in the Czech Republic for the District Conference.
District 2240 (In Czech Distrikt 2240) consists of all of former Czechoslovakia; so the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This is the part where all the exchange students were together. On Saturday we toured around the city of Trebic and then we went to the conference where all the Rotarians were waiting for us. We put on a little show for them. First the Slovak students sang a song in Slovak and then we sang a song in Czech. Then we had two students narrating and we were introduced. After that four students, the two best speakers from Slovakia and the two best from Czech were called up and asked to speak about their exchange. I was the last to speak and I was asked to speak about making friends here and how hard it was to overcome the language barrier. After that the asian exchange students sang a song together. To end all the students sang and danced together and then we had lunch with the Rotarians. After we lunch we saw our one billionth church and then we had free time. At five we all dressed in our formal clothes and attended the Rotary dinner at Chateau Trebic. We toured the chateau and spent time with all the Rotarians and each other. Finally, on Sunday, it was time to say goodbye and we all left.
It was weird, having to start the goodbyes. One girl is already home and another leaevs on Monday so it really is the beginning of the end here in Europe. My return date is Thursday, July first at 8:30 p.m. at General Mitchell International Airport and I'm am really excited to come home! On Monday all the exchange students still here are going to attend a concert in České Budějovice and then on Thursday we're all going rafting on the Vltava river. A week from Saturday I leave for Paris and then London. When I get back from London I have my farewell party with Rotary and then I leave three days after I get back fron the UK. I can't wait! I'm ready to have English back! :)
We started out in Cesky Krumlov with just the students from the Czech Republic to meet the Outbounds, or future exchangers from the CR. Most are going to America with others going to Canada, Brazil, and Taiwan. They were a really great group of people and I'm sure that they'll have fun on exchange. We toured the city and ate some cake things that the city is famous for which were excellent. It rained of course because it's been raining here since I got back from Italy so it was chilly and bad weather for the whole trip until the very end.
On Sunday we drove to Krakow, Poland. It was once the capitol of Poland and is very nice. It rained there too, but that didn't stop us from seeing the castle, three churches, and a huge tower which we climbed up, 500 steps there and back. We spent the day there and have our first thick crust pizza in almost ten months which was excellent. I had a great time there and was very pleased to learn that I was good enough at Czech to understand some Polish. I could understand some of what they said, but I could read and understand more than I could hear and understand. Next we went to Auschwizt. It was horrible. Just being there was dreadful. We saw where they slept; in wooden barns that were originally designed for horses and had holes underneat the walls. We went and saw the chambers where they were gassed and the enormous memorial for them. Then we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau which was even worse. We took a complete tour of the concentration camp and saw the death wall where people were shot or hanged. Then we went and saw all the prison cells and the torture cells. One way of torturing them that we saw was to twist their arms behind their backs and then tie their wrists together and then hang them by their wrists for hours. They also shoved four people into a cell that was a vertical rectangle and people died of suffocation and starvation. All along the walls of this building were pictures of the prisoners who died there and it was horrifying. We continued on to the living quarters and saw how they evolved from rooms with straw on the ground to wooden bunks by the end of the camp and saw newspaper clips that described the camp to inform the rest of the world to the horrors that were taking place there. The second to last section was the part where they displayed all the things taken from the prisoners right before they were executed. There was a room full of shoes, one full of luggage, one full of pots, one full of combs and brushes, but they worst was the room full of human hair. The Nazis would shave of the women's hair before killing them and then they turned the hair into cloth and sold it. The final room was full of children's toys and then we continued to the final rooms of the camp; the gas chambers. There were showerheads from the "showers" that the gas came out of and blood on the walls from people trying to escape. We saw the cremators that they Nazis used to destroy the bodies. We learned that some people urinated on cloth and then covered the children's mouth and nose with it in an attempt to save them. We also learned that not everyone was dead when they were put into the incinerator. The trip to Auschwitz was definately the worst and most unforgettable trip I've ever been on in my life and I never want to go there again for the rest of my life.
We continued on to the mountains of Eastern Slovakia. We hiked in the mountains for five hours and it was gorgeous. It stopped raining for the time that we hiked so it was instead just really really muddy. Needless to say, I fell. I slipped in the water and fell onto a slanted sheet of rock and still have bruises and cuts on my arm from it. We ended up climbing to the top of a small waterfall and then once we got to the top it started raining again. Almost everyone fell at least once. Once we were all wet and tired we continued on to see the famous Ice Cave nearby. Even though we were soaked and nobody wanted to go Rotary decided to drag us there and then underground. It was very pretty and interesting to learn about, but I would have liked it better if my shoes hadn't squelched with every step I took. The next day we continued to Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia. We had lunch there and then toured for a half hour. Bratislava is not a pretty city; they never really changed the buildings after communism so it's mostly gray and ugly. We learned that a long long time ago kings used to be corronated in Bratislava. After Bratislava we drove to Trebic in the Czech Republic for the District Conference.
District 2240 (In Czech Distrikt 2240) consists of all of former Czechoslovakia; so the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This is the part where all the exchange students were together. On Saturday we toured around the city of Trebic and then we went to the conference where all the Rotarians were waiting for us. We put on a little show for them. First the Slovak students sang a song in Slovak and then we sang a song in Czech. Then we had two students narrating and we were introduced. After that four students, the two best speakers from Slovakia and the two best from Czech were called up and asked to speak about their exchange. I was the last to speak and I was asked to speak about making friends here and how hard it was to overcome the language barrier. After that the asian exchange students sang a song together. To end all the students sang and danced together and then we had lunch with the Rotarians. After we lunch we saw our one billionth church and then we had free time. At five we all dressed in our formal clothes and attended the Rotary dinner at Chateau Trebic. We toured the chateau and spent time with all the Rotarians and each other. Finally, on Sunday, it was time to say goodbye and we all left.
It was weird, having to start the goodbyes. One girl is already home and another leaevs on Monday so it really is the beginning of the end here in Europe. My return date is Thursday, July first at 8:30 p.m. at General Mitchell International Airport and I'm am really excited to come home! On Monday all the exchange students still here are going to attend a concert in České Budějovice and then on Thursday we're all going rafting on the Vltava river. A week from Saturday I leave for Paris and then London. When I get back from London I have my farewell party with Rotary and then I leave three days after I get back fron the UK. I can't wait! I'm ready to have English back! :)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
SPQR
We arrived in Italy around 9 a.m. On the bus to the hotel I finished reading "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodie Picoult, which turned out to be a very good book. We went to Naples first, supposedly the birthplace of pizza. We had pasta. We toured around the city and saw a castle, Mt. Vesuvius in the distance, another castle and then we went for lunch. Instead of staying on the nice safe main road for lunch, my group decided, once again against my wishes, to wander down the back alleyways for lunch. We ended up at this little restaurant that refused to serve pizza until eight at night so we had pasta instead. It wasn't very good. I had better pasta later though so don't worry. Then we went and had Italian gelato which is the most delicious thing ever. We ended up having it twice a day everyday that we were in Italy.
After spending the night in Sorento we went to Pompeii the next day. Pompeii was extremely interesting, the city was so advanced. They had sewage pipes in the walls of the city to avoid stinking up the place, advertisments painted on the walls for food and politics and even running water. It was amazing how well preserved the city is, but hey, what else are burning hot clouds of volcanic ash good for? We did get to go see the people who were preserved which was horrifying/intriguing at the same time. They told us how the people died and it must have been awful. The heat of the volcanic ash before it started to fall on them was so high that it burned all the oxygen out of the air so that no one could move and they all were suffocating. While in the process of suffocating the volcanic ash fell on, burned, and encased them. Inside the houses some of the walls are still preserved with their original colors. It was odd to see and old Pompeiian house with pretty red and yellow painted walls and murals as well. After touring all around we went to the actual city center which was enormous and took pictures there. After lunch, we continued on to Mt. Vesuvius itself. It's kind of cold at the top of a volcano. We walked to the top which was sort of hard because it was a rather steep climb, and the top is just a big hole. I was hoping for maybe some lava or something like in Hawaii, but it's just a crater. Some of the rocks inside the crater steam though which was interesting. I took some rocks from the top and we climbed all over the cooled lava. From the top you can see a nearby town which I think is a rather dumb idea considering what happened to Pompeii, but to each his own I guess. After Vesuvius we all climbed back into the bus and drove to the outskirts of Rome to spend the night.
On Sunday we were originally slated to see the Vatican, but instead we toured the city of Rome, because Rotary said so. First we went to the Basilica of St. Giovani Laterno and then the Colosseum. The Colosseum was amazing. It was so big and inside they were able to flood the arena and fight on boats. We walked all around it and it was cool to know that I was walking where Romans had walked. I was literally doing what the Romans do when I was Rome. After lunch we went to the Forum Romanum or the ancient city center. It was gigantic. We walked around for an hour and a half and then got lost trying to find the exit and found Rotarians instead, who showed us the exit. As we were allowed to wander around the Forum Romanum in our own groups only half of us managed to find the right exit while the other half was lost for and extra hour and a half. Due to their geographical incapability we didn't get to see the Pantheon. From the Forum Romanum we continued on to Angel Castle from Angels and Demons. It was rather nice and had a great view of the city from the top. I felt as if I too was on the hunt for the Illuminati. (Not really) Anyways, next we went to the Di Trevi Fountain which I was told by every girl on the trip is in the Lizzy McGuire movie. It was a pretty amazing fountain that had a lot of symbolism. Apparently it tells the story of the Taming of the Waters in which Oceanus gives water to the people and the other statues show it's benefits such as not dying from dehydration and no longer reeking. We ended the day by going to the Spanish Steps which I had never heard of before and don't have a nice view at the top.
The next day we toured the Vatican. You start in the Vatican Museum and from there it leads to St. Peter's sqauare. Except for the Vatican Museum is enormous and it took my group three tries to find the exit to the square. We wandered through the huge halls which are all filled with gorgeous art and ended up in the Sistine Chapel, this is try number one, after looking around, and taking some illegal pictures, we took the left exit that put us back where we had started. After sitting in a little garden for some time we decided to try again. Try number two ends with us taking the same path as the first time but accidentally going into the egyptian art exhibit which put us back in the same place we had started from. Why the Vatican even has an egyptian art exhibit I don't know. Finally we managed to find the Sistine Chapel again and take the right exit, the one that has guards by it, wander down a big empty hallway, interrupt some sort of holy procession, and make it to the square. It's a really big square. We didnt' actually go into St. Peter's Basilica because we spent so much time being lost, but it was still a pretty square. The obelisk there is huge and we got to see where the smoke comes out when a new pope is being selected. Following the Vatican we had free time for four hours and then we left Rome.
On Tuesday we visited Siena in Tuscany and had really great pasta. I also bought some wine there which should hopefully be good. We were only there for about two hours so we didn't do very much other than eat lunch that day. We continued on to our next hotel and then had a very late dinner. Afterwards we finally had Italian Tiaramisu, which is REALLY hard to find there, and it was spectacular.
For our last day in Italy we went to Venice. It was weird seeing a city with no cars at all. We had the whole day to just wander so we spent the day trying to find an affordable gondola ride. Apparently it's usually 100 Euros to ride a gondola split between five people. Since we didn't want to pay 20 Euros each we waited until much later to go. After getting some more gelato I bought gifts for people and a ceramic Venetian mask for myself. Apparently Venice is famous for masks, which I was unaware of. We asked our gondalier why this was and he said that it was because of the black plague when people wore masks with long noses in an attempt to protect themselves. Venetian people decorated theirs the most and became famous for them. Yes, we did eventually find a gondalier who would take us for 10 Euros each and so we took a gondola ride. It was not as amazing as the movies make it seem, although it is very cool. We went around through the back canals and then out onto the main waterway. Earlier we had been sitting eating gelato on the banks of the main waterway and a policeboat came speeding by, causing huge waves to splash us. As we went down the main waterway in our gondola we saw the theater and all the houses that have doors that just open to water. It was very odd to see steps that just keep going down into the water and dissapear too. The water in Venice is apparently really gross and filled with oil, garbage, and human waste; luckily our gondola didn't capsize. After the gondola ride it was time to say goodbye to Venice and Italy and we got back on the bus for the overnight ride back to the Czech Republic.
The whole trip was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it, except those that made up the first 36 hour bus ride, and I hope that one day I can return to Greece and actually see Athens, and tour around Italy some more. My trip to the Ukraine has been cancelled because the entire town has set out to convince me not to go so I finally gave in and said fine I won't go. Rotary, the Kovariks, my English teachers, and all my friends were telling me not to go so I'm not. Also, as we would be spending the night at the top of a mountain I needed winter clothes, which I no longer have since I sent them home with my mother. So the next trip is to Poland, we'll be touring Krakow and Auschwitz with the future exchangers from the Czech Republic. After that we tour Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, with Rotary. That's in two weeks so I'll posting again soon.
After spending the night in Sorento we went to Pompeii the next day. Pompeii was extremely interesting, the city was so advanced. They had sewage pipes in the walls of the city to avoid stinking up the place, advertisments painted on the walls for food and politics and even running water. It was amazing how well preserved the city is, but hey, what else are burning hot clouds of volcanic ash good for? We did get to go see the people who were preserved which was horrifying/intriguing at the same time. They told us how the people died and it must have been awful. The heat of the volcanic ash before it started to fall on them was so high that it burned all the oxygen out of the air so that no one could move and they all were suffocating. While in the process of suffocating the volcanic ash fell on, burned, and encased them. Inside the houses some of the walls are still preserved with their original colors. It was odd to see and old Pompeiian house with pretty red and yellow painted walls and murals as well. After touring all around we went to the actual city center which was enormous and took pictures there. After lunch, we continued on to Mt. Vesuvius itself. It's kind of cold at the top of a volcano. We walked to the top which was sort of hard because it was a rather steep climb, and the top is just a big hole. I was hoping for maybe some lava or something like in Hawaii, but it's just a crater. Some of the rocks inside the crater steam though which was interesting. I took some rocks from the top and we climbed all over the cooled lava. From the top you can see a nearby town which I think is a rather dumb idea considering what happened to Pompeii, but to each his own I guess. After Vesuvius we all climbed back into the bus and drove to the outskirts of Rome to spend the night.
On Sunday we were originally slated to see the Vatican, but instead we toured the city of Rome, because Rotary said so. First we went to the Basilica of St. Giovani Laterno and then the Colosseum. The Colosseum was amazing. It was so big and inside they were able to flood the arena and fight on boats. We walked all around it and it was cool to know that I was walking where Romans had walked. I was literally doing what the Romans do when I was Rome. After lunch we went to the Forum Romanum or the ancient city center. It was gigantic. We walked around for an hour and a half and then got lost trying to find the exit and found Rotarians instead, who showed us the exit. As we were allowed to wander around the Forum Romanum in our own groups only half of us managed to find the right exit while the other half was lost for and extra hour and a half. Due to their geographical incapability we didn't get to see the Pantheon. From the Forum Romanum we continued on to Angel Castle from Angels and Demons. It was rather nice and had a great view of the city from the top. I felt as if I too was on the hunt for the Illuminati. (Not really) Anyways, next we went to the Di Trevi Fountain which I was told by every girl on the trip is in the Lizzy McGuire movie. It was a pretty amazing fountain that had a lot of symbolism. Apparently it tells the story of the Taming of the Waters in which Oceanus gives water to the people and the other statues show it's benefits such as not dying from dehydration and no longer reeking. We ended the day by going to the Spanish Steps which I had never heard of before and don't have a nice view at the top.
The next day we toured the Vatican. You start in the Vatican Museum and from there it leads to St. Peter's sqauare. Except for the Vatican Museum is enormous and it took my group three tries to find the exit to the square. We wandered through the huge halls which are all filled with gorgeous art and ended up in the Sistine Chapel, this is try number one, after looking around, and taking some illegal pictures, we took the left exit that put us back where we had started. After sitting in a little garden for some time we decided to try again. Try number two ends with us taking the same path as the first time but accidentally going into the egyptian art exhibit which put us back in the same place we had started from. Why the Vatican even has an egyptian art exhibit I don't know. Finally we managed to find the Sistine Chapel again and take the right exit, the one that has guards by it, wander down a big empty hallway, interrupt some sort of holy procession, and make it to the square. It's a really big square. We didnt' actually go into St. Peter's Basilica because we spent so much time being lost, but it was still a pretty square. The obelisk there is huge and we got to see where the smoke comes out when a new pope is being selected. Following the Vatican we had free time for four hours and then we left Rome.
On Tuesday we visited Siena in Tuscany and had really great pasta. I also bought some wine there which should hopefully be good. We were only there for about two hours so we didn't do very much other than eat lunch that day. We continued on to our next hotel and then had a very late dinner. Afterwards we finally had Italian Tiaramisu, which is REALLY hard to find there, and it was spectacular.
For our last day in Italy we went to Venice. It was weird seeing a city with no cars at all. We had the whole day to just wander so we spent the day trying to find an affordable gondola ride. Apparently it's usually 100 Euros to ride a gondola split between five people. Since we didn't want to pay 20 Euros each we waited until much later to go. After getting some more gelato I bought gifts for people and a ceramic Venetian mask for myself. Apparently Venice is famous for masks, which I was unaware of. We asked our gondalier why this was and he said that it was because of the black plague when people wore masks with long noses in an attempt to protect themselves. Venetian people decorated theirs the most and became famous for them. Yes, we did eventually find a gondalier who would take us for 10 Euros each and so we took a gondola ride. It was not as amazing as the movies make it seem, although it is very cool. We went around through the back canals and then out onto the main waterway. Earlier we had been sitting eating gelato on the banks of the main waterway and a policeboat came speeding by, causing huge waves to splash us. As we went down the main waterway in our gondola we saw the theater and all the houses that have doors that just open to water. It was very odd to see steps that just keep going down into the water and dissapear too. The water in Venice is apparently really gross and filled with oil, garbage, and human waste; luckily our gondola didn't capsize. After the gondola ride it was time to say goodbye to Venice and Italy and we got back on the bus for the overnight ride back to the Czech Republic.
The whole trip was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it, except those that made up the first 36 hour bus ride, and I hope that one day I can return to Greece and actually see Athens, and tour around Italy some more. My trip to the Ukraine has been cancelled because the entire town has set out to convince me not to go so I finally gave in and said fine I won't go. Rotary, the Kovariks, my English teachers, and all my friends were telling me not to go so I'm not. Also, as we would be spending the night at the top of a mountain I needed winter clothes, which I no longer have since I sent them home with my mother. So the next trip is to Poland, we'll be touring Krakow and Auschwitz with the future exchangers from the Czech Republic. After that we tour Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, with Rotary. That's in two weeks so I'll posting again soon.
Opa!
Turns out nobody in Greece really says that. I don't think I heard it once when we were there. How dissapointing.
Anways, the day after my mother left I went to Greece. It started with a 36 hour bus ride, but we'll skip that horrible part. We finally arrive on Monday afternoon and went straight, not to a hotel, but sightseeing in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and home to some nice ruins. We saw the White Tower, a statue of Alexander the Great, the Arch of Galerius and the ruins of the ancient city center. Then we had free time to get lunch and wander around, we all had Gyros which were great.
The next day we were scheduled to go to an old Monastery and Delphi, but due to some unforseen construction we were forced to cancel Delphi and head to the Monasteries for the entire day. The monastery was very impressive. It is located at the top of some mountains, literally build at the very top. The stairs that lead to it are built right into the side of the mountain which was terrifying, but had a very nice view. My favorite part was the wooden bridge with nothing underneath it. The monks that live there still send a rope down everyday to bring up their daily supplies from the bottom of the mountain, we got to see the pulley system that they use. When we got there all the girls had to put on skirts out of respect for the area and then we got to just wander around. We got to see where the monks lived and a museum of religious artifacts which were really old. The monks have been living there for at least a thousand years and at the beginning it was just one monk and his two apprentices who lived in a shack at the top and the actually monastery building was built much later. After the monastery we got back on the bus for a long ride to the outskirts of Athens, where we would be staying that night. After checking into the hotel where we would be staying, we had free time again to go eat dinner. A group of us ended up going to this little family-owned diner and had spectacular zedziki and bread. A woman there spoke English and was able to teach us a couple words in Greek.
The next day we were scheduled to visit Athens, but that was cancelled due to rioting in the capitol that resulted in the deaths of three people. We all wanted to go and participate, but unfortunately Rotary had our saftey in mind... Instead we went to the Corinth Canal which had really blue water and later to the ampitheater at Epidaurus. We all walked to the top of the ampitheater to test out the acoustics while Rotarians made nosies at the bottom. They were so good that we could hear a Euro drop onto a rock, paper being ripped, and a match being lit. Then a girl from our group went to the bottom and sang and it was very nice. Next we went to the museum there and looked at all the ancient statues that once stood there. Upon our return to the hotel we went out for dinner again...to the same place. I was outvoted and we all went to the same restaurant that we had gone to the night before, which serves only seafood. Not my favorite dinner of the trip.
On Thursday we were going to see if we could give Athens a whirl, but to no avail. Instead we went to Delphi and then the port of Patra, the most dangerous city in Greece, and were allowed to wander there for lunch before taking the ferry to Italy. Delphi was not that impressive. I think it must have been at one point, but now it's just a pile of rocks. And a lot of pillars. Anyways, we walked to the top of the "mountain" that it's on and saw lots of ruins. All the steps in Greece are slippery because they're so smooth and it's hard to walk up them. At the top is a little arena and then went back down and went to the museum. Then we left for Patra. In Patra we went for some pasta and stayed in groups to avoid pickpockets and murderers, luckily we all made it back safely and got on the ferry. We took the overnight ferry from Patro to Brindisi in Italy and stayed in four person cabins. It was my first time on any sort of large boat which was interesting. We all stood out on the top and waved goodbye to Greece and then played in the wind. Onboard the ferry to Italy were Italians! Who spoke English! I was sitting with my Canadian friend Paige and then the Italians asked me if I too was Canadian. I said no, I'm an American. To which they replied, "But you obviously have Japanese parents." *Insert me rolling my eyes here* The number of times I have had people ask me if I'm South American or Asian is astounding. I don't even look Asian. It wouldn't be so irritating if they didn't all start with, "So do you speak Spanish?" No. I don't speak Spanish so get over it.
Anways, the day after my mother left I went to Greece. It started with a 36 hour bus ride, but we'll skip that horrible part. We finally arrive on Monday afternoon and went straight, not to a hotel, but sightseeing in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and home to some nice ruins. We saw the White Tower, a statue of Alexander the Great, the Arch of Galerius and the ruins of the ancient city center. Then we had free time to get lunch and wander around, we all had Gyros which were great.
The next day we were scheduled to go to an old Monastery and Delphi, but due to some unforseen construction we were forced to cancel Delphi and head to the Monasteries for the entire day. The monastery was very impressive. It is located at the top of some mountains, literally build at the very top. The stairs that lead to it are built right into the side of the mountain which was terrifying, but had a very nice view. My favorite part was the wooden bridge with nothing underneath it. The monks that live there still send a rope down everyday to bring up their daily supplies from the bottom of the mountain, we got to see the pulley system that they use. When we got there all the girls had to put on skirts out of respect for the area and then we got to just wander around. We got to see where the monks lived and a museum of religious artifacts which were really old. The monks have been living there for at least a thousand years and at the beginning it was just one monk and his two apprentices who lived in a shack at the top and the actually monastery building was built much later. After the monastery we got back on the bus for a long ride to the outskirts of Athens, where we would be staying that night. After checking into the hotel where we would be staying, we had free time again to go eat dinner. A group of us ended up going to this little family-owned diner and had spectacular zedziki and bread. A woman there spoke English and was able to teach us a couple words in Greek.
The next day we were scheduled to visit Athens, but that was cancelled due to rioting in the capitol that resulted in the deaths of three people. We all wanted to go and participate, but unfortunately Rotary had our saftey in mind... Instead we went to the Corinth Canal which had really blue water and later to the ampitheater at Epidaurus. We all walked to the top of the ampitheater to test out the acoustics while Rotarians made nosies at the bottom. They were so good that we could hear a Euro drop onto a rock, paper being ripped, and a match being lit. Then a girl from our group went to the bottom and sang and it was very nice. Next we went to the museum there and looked at all the ancient statues that once stood there. Upon our return to the hotel we went out for dinner again...to the same place. I was outvoted and we all went to the same restaurant that we had gone to the night before, which serves only seafood. Not my favorite dinner of the trip.
On Thursday we were going to see if we could give Athens a whirl, but to no avail. Instead we went to Delphi and then the port of Patra, the most dangerous city in Greece, and were allowed to wander there for lunch before taking the ferry to Italy. Delphi was not that impressive. I think it must have been at one point, but now it's just a pile of rocks. And a lot of pillars. Anyways, we walked to the top of the "mountain" that it's on and saw lots of ruins. All the steps in Greece are slippery because they're so smooth and it's hard to walk up them. At the top is a little arena and then went back down and went to the museum. Then we left for Patra. In Patra we went for some pasta and stayed in groups to avoid pickpockets and murderers, luckily we all made it back safely and got on the ferry. We took the overnight ferry from Patro to Brindisi in Italy and stayed in four person cabins. It was my first time on any sort of large boat which was interesting. We all stood out on the top and waved goodbye to Greece and then played in the wind. Onboard the ferry to Italy were Italians! Who spoke English! I was sitting with my Canadian friend Paige and then the Italians asked me if I too was Canadian. I said no, I'm an American. To which they replied, "But you obviously have Japanese parents." *Insert me rolling my eyes here* The number of times I have had people ask me if I'm South American or Asian is astounding. I don't even look Asian. It wouldn't be so irritating if they didn't all start with, "So do you speak Spanish?" No. I don't speak Spanish so get over it.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Maminka
Well by now my mom should be in Stockholm waiting for her flight back to Chicago. My mom got to come visit me for ten days and we were in Uhersky Brod, Prague and Berlin. Due to the volcanic ash cloud over Iceland my mom was twelve hours late so we missed out on spending a day in Vienna. She arrived in Vienna at ten p.m. and we got back to Uhersky Brod around midnight so it was straight to bed. The next day I showed my mom all around the town and on Friday I took her to see school and then we went to Buchlov Castle and Chateau and grilled out for dinner. On Saturday we drove to Prague and my host family showed us all around. We went to Prague Castle, Charle's Bridge, OldTown Square and then we just wandered around a bit. On Sunday we had a really good American breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, syrup and orange juice. At two thirty we took the train to Berlin and arrived around seven forty five. There, we met up with a nice family that we stayed with for three days. Their daughter is on exchange in Brookfield and goes to BEHS and our church. My mom knows her host family and offered to take her winter clothes home to Berlin and we got to stay with her family. They were extremely nice. They showed us all around Berlin. On Monday we went to a museum called The Story of Berlin which a comprehensive history of the city. It was extremely well done and the section about when the Berlin Wall was in the city was ridiculous. It's extremely hard to imagine the city when it was divided because, obviously, it no longer is, so when you go there it's hard to get a feel for what it must have been like to live there back then. After that we went back to the house because it started to rain. Later we went out with Claudia, the woman we were staying with, and we went to Potsdamer Platz to see the last remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall that are still standing where they were when they were first built. Potsdamer Platz is now a huge Sony Center with nice shops and a movie theater, but it used to be the wasteland between East and West Berlin. On Tuesday we went to a church that was destroyed to make way for the Berlin Wall and then reconstructed once The Wall fell. It was only partly reconstructed, but still very interesting. Later we went to the German Parliament building. It's an extremely unique piece of architecture. On the top of the building is a large glass dome that has two spiral staircases going up and large pyramidal mirror pointing down towards the bottom of the dome. As you walk up one of the staircases you can see the city and an audio tour explains what is what and its history. The dome is directly above the Parliament chamber where parliament meets so you can see where they sit because there's a large hole in the floor of the dome with glass over it. I really enjoyed it. On Wednesday we took the train back to Uhersky Brod from Berlin and that took the whole day. Then on Thursday we went to Olomouc which is the city where my current host mother went to university. She showed us around and we saw where she studied and a couple churches. Then for dinner we went over to the Hornaks', my first host family, house and my second host family was there as well as the president of Rotary club Uhersky Brod. We had a traditional Czech meal and then stayed and talked for a while. On Friday we went to the Komensky Museum. Jan Amos Komensky was a revolutionary educator when he lived and he wanted to make learning more like a game. He traveled Europe reforming the education system in many countries. Uhersky Brod is one of his three possible birthplaces. After that we went to meet the mayor and then went for lunch with a couple other Rotarians. It was another traditional Czech meal of duck and potatoes. After that we had some time to relax and mom packed. Then for dinner we went with one Rotarian and had a really good dinner. Finally we came back and mom made sure she had everything all ready to go for the morning. We all got up at two a.m. to take her to the airport and we got there around five for her seven o'clock flight to Stockholm. I slept on the way back and now I have to go because I leave for Greece tomorrow and haven't started packing yet. I'll be sure to post again once I get back and I had a really fun time with my mom.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Velikonoce
A.k.a. Easter.
The Czechs have a very interesting take on Easter so I'll tell you about it. They think that it's funny that we hide eggs and then go look for them, instead they whip each other... much more logical. Anyways, the guys make these whips out of willow branches (see pictures on Facebook) and then they go into town and whip the girls to ensure a healthy year. When you hit the girl she is supposed to give you something like chocolate or alcohol. A Rotarian invited my host family and I to go to her house and see how the whips are made and so that I could have my very own. It was extremely interesting to see and to learn how they're made it's a very complex process. First you need a minimum of twelve willow branches and then you take another and wrap it around the bottom, binding all twelve together. Next you take four of the twelve and bend them into a helix shape and then make it stick to the rest of the whip. Finally, you braid the remaining eight branches together and tie it together at the top with a bow. It doesn't sound very complex when reading about it, but it is in real life.
So on Easter Monday we went over to all the Grandparents' houses and whipped the grandmas, female cousins, and aunts and they gave us a lot of chocolate and goodies. Afterwards we sat around and had coffee and wine and talked about Easter and how different it is from Easter in America.
Way before this, on Saturday I think, my host mother and I dyed eggs. For those of you who don't know, my third host mother is an art teacher at a local school so she knew how to paint the eggs and all the detaily stuff. The dyes here work much better than the ones in America I noticed. I was given the task of blowing the yoke out of the egg so that it could be painted which ended with a cup full of egg insides and me all out of breath. Next my host mother melted some crayon bits in order to paint with the wax and then she got down to business. She painted a bunch (See pictures on Facebook) and then she gave me an orange one to keep, which I really like. I sat and took pictures, not being the artsy fartsy type myself. It was a nice Easter overall, I got to know a lot of my extended host family which was nice. Easter marks the last school break until the end of the year which means that we're getting close to the end. One trip I forgot to add to my list last post is the school trip we take. Each class takes a trip together for three days near the end of the year so I have that to look forward to as well. I hope you all had a great Easter, I know I did!
The Czechs have a very interesting take on Easter so I'll tell you about it. They think that it's funny that we hide eggs and then go look for them, instead they whip each other... much more logical. Anyways, the guys make these whips out of willow branches (see pictures on Facebook) and then they go into town and whip the girls to ensure a healthy year. When you hit the girl she is supposed to give you something like chocolate or alcohol. A Rotarian invited my host family and I to go to her house and see how the whips are made and so that I could have my very own. It was extremely interesting to see and to learn how they're made it's a very complex process. First you need a minimum of twelve willow branches and then you take another and wrap it around the bottom, binding all twelve together. Next you take four of the twelve and bend them into a helix shape and then make it stick to the rest of the whip. Finally, you braid the remaining eight branches together and tie it together at the top with a bow. It doesn't sound very complex when reading about it, but it is in real life.
So on Easter Monday we went over to all the Grandparents' houses and whipped the grandmas, female cousins, and aunts and they gave us a lot of chocolate and goodies. Afterwards we sat around and had coffee and wine and talked about Easter and how different it is from Easter in America.
Way before this, on Saturday I think, my host mother and I dyed eggs. For those of you who don't know, my third host mother is an art teacher at a local school so she knew how to paint the eggs and all the detaily stuff. The dyes here work much better than the ones in America I noticed. I was given the task of blowing the yoke out of the egg so that it could be painted which ended with a cup full of egg insides and me all out of breath. Next my host mother melted some crayon bits in order to paint with the wax and then she got down to business. She painted a bunch (See pictures on Facebook) and then she gave me an orange one to keep, which I really like. I sat and took pictures, not being the artsy fartsy type myself. It was a nice Easter overall, I got to know a lot of my extended host family which was nice. Easter marks the last school break until the end of the year which means that we're getting close to the end. One trip I forgot to add to my list last post is the school trip we take. Each class takes a trip together for three days near the end of the year so I have that to look forward to as well. I hope you all had a great Easter, I know I did!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
U Ondrůšku/Králíkové
Soooooooooo... I figured I should probably update this blog again since it's been a while since last time. This post will be all about my second host family the Ondrůšeks. Vladislav is the father, Dana is the mother, and Kamila is their daughter. I lived with them from January to halfway through March. Vladislav, known as Vlada, is the Financial Director of a large company that produces large machinery based in Uhersky Brod. Dana is the secretary to the headmaster and a school in Uhersky Brod. Kamila is about six months older than me and goes to the same school I do. They live a mile away from school so the walk home was LOTS of fun. We drove to school every morning though so that was nice. Their house is amazing. It's very modern. Everything is black and white and chrome and I really liked it a lot. It looks just like a house out of a magazine. It was also three stories high. which meant lots of stairs. I also had to continue wearing my house shoes, which I officially dislike, because the floors were all hardwood and if you only wore socks you would fall. I know... I fell down the stairs. Anyways, they weren't home very much which means I was alone a lot. Vlada usually worked until seven or eight and Dana would come home for like five minutes and then go run errands or work out until seven or eight. Kamila was always in her room so I rarely saw her so it was pretty much like being alone all the time. Kamila is very quiet and shy (so I've heard) so we didn't really talk, ever. The only time I would ever see her was in the morning before school and after school I would see her for like ten seconds on the way to the kitchen or something. Vlada and Dana don't know English at all so I really had to speak only Czech, resulting in major improvements there which is nice. I recently wrote an article for the paper about how political campaigns change in relation to the changes in technology which was a very interesting topic. The Ondruseks NEVER ate. They didn't cook dinner so I was left on my own for that one and they never at breakfast either. So I usually ate two chocolate croissants at school every morning and then a Nutella sandwich or PB&J for dinner. One meal a day + Walking a mile everyday = minus nine kilos. So none of my clothes really fit me anymore and it's annoying. There's not much more to say about them because I didn't spend a lot of time with them. Since they were never home I never really talked to them, and since Vlada was convinced I couldn't speak Czech at all he always yelled when he spoke to me which was really annoying so I kind of avoided that. On the weekends we didn't do anything special. We were always just at home and every Sunday Vlada and Dana would go skiing and leave Kamila and I home alone. Anyways, I had to leave them two weeks early so I went to live with my English teacher: Milena Králíková.
Milena Kralikova is also my Czech tutor so it was really nice living with her. We would speak Czech and if I didn't understand something or wanted her to explain some piece of grammar or something she would speak in English. I lived with her and her boyfriend for two weeks and it was really nice. At first it was weird having people around after school again and having dinner, but I got used to it again after a while. On the weekend we went to the movies twice and saw The Box, which I didn't understand at all, and then we saw Up in the Air, was was OK. Anyways on my last day living with her we went to a holocaust exhibition put on by some girls from my class. It was in the Jewish synagogue that was partially destroyed, and later rebuilt, in WWII. After the exhibition, I moved to my current, and final, host family: the Kovaříks.
The Kovariks consist of Petr, the father, Jana, the mother, and Viktor, their son. I don't know what Petr does, I asked, but didn't understand the answer so it'll remain a mystery for a bit longer. Jana is an art teacher at a nearby school and Viktor goes to the same school as I do, he's fifteen. I've only lived her for a week, but so far everything is going well. We get along really well and Jana is a great cook. We just had a dinner of spaghetti, homemade tomato sauce with chicken pieces and sauteed vegetables, with Italian wine. It was really good. Viktor doesn't have any siblings so with me here he doesn't really know the "sibling boundaries." He doesn't really know when to leave me alone and when I don't mind if he's around. Like, when I was writing an email home, he came in and just was like hi and I was like I can't write in English and speak in Czech at the same time. It's a bit odd, but I expect it'll get better as time goes on. They have two cats, Blackie, and...Blackie. One's a girl and one's a boy. I'll write more about the Kovariks in a later post after I've lived here longer.
So three months from Saturday, Daniel's birthday by the way, I come back to America. It still feels like I just got here yesterday and if there's one thing I've learned while on exchange it's that a year is not long at all. Anyways, before I come home I've got a lot planned so I thought I'd give you a list of where I'll be and when:
April 9-10 My friend April from Pisek is coming to visit me
April 21-May 1 My Mom comes to visit!!!! We'll be in UB, Prague, and Berlin!
May 3-13 Greece and Italy with Rotary
May 18-23 Backpacking in the Ukrainian mountains with school
May 28-30 Krakow in Poland with Rotary
June 4-6 District Conference with Rotary in Trebic
June 17-20 Canoeing/Camping on the Vltava River with Rotary
June 20-27 Trip to France and England with my exchanger friend Amy
July 3 I come home!
So there's my list of what'll I'll be up to for the last three months of my exchange. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on Facebook so you guys can see.
Milena Kralikova is also my Czech tutor so it was really nice living with her. We would speak Czech and if I didn't understand something or wanted her to explain some piece of grammar or something she would speak in English. I lived with her and her boyfriend for two weeks and it was really nice. At first it was weird having people around after school again and having dinner, but I got used to it again after a while. On the weekend we went to the movies twice and saw The Box, which I didn't understand at all, and then we saw Up in the Air, was was OK. Anyways on my last day living with her we went to a holocaust exhibition put on by some girls from my class. It was in the Jewish synagogue that was partially destroyed, and later rebuilt, in WWII. After the exhibition, I moved to my current, and final, host family: the Kovaříks.
The Kovariks consist of Petr, the father, Jana, the mother, and Viktor, their son. I don't know what Petr does, I asked, but didn't understand the answer so it'll remain a mystery for a bit longer. Jana is an art teacher at a nearby school and Viktor goes to the same school as I do, he's fifteen. I've only lived her for a week, but so far everything is going well. We get along really well and Jana is a great cook. We just had a dinner of spaghetti, homemade tomato sauce with chicken pieces and sauteed vegetables, with Italian wine. It was really good. Viktor doesn't have any siblings so with me here he doesn't really know the "sibling boundaries." He doesn't really know when to leave me alone and when I don't mind if he's around. Like, when I was writing an email home, he came in and just was like hi and I was like I can't write in English and speak in Czech at the same time. It's a bit odd, but I expect it'll get better as time goes on. They have two cats, Blackie, and...Blackie. One's a girl and one's a boy. I'll write more about the Kovariks in a later post after I've lived here longer.
So three months from Saturday, Daniel's birthday by the way, I come back to America. It still feels like I just got here yesterday and if there's one thing I've learned while on exchange it's that a year is not long at all. Anyways, before I come home I've got a lot planned so I thought I'd give you a list of where I'll be and when:
April 9-10 My friend April from Pisek is coming to visit me
April 21-May 1 My Mom comes to visit!!!! We'll be in UB, Prague, and Berlin!
May 3-13 Greece and Italy with Rotary
May 18-23 Backpacking in the Ukrainian mountains with school
May 28-30 Krakow in Poland with Rotary
June 4-6 District Conference with Rotary in Trebic
June 17-20 Canoeing/Camping on the Vltava River with Rotary
June 20-27 Trip to France and England with my exchanger friend Amy
July 3 I come home!
So there's my list of what'll I'll be up to for the last three months of my exchange. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on Facebook so you guys can see.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Kolona
Aka, the grand finale of dancing lessons. Yes, on Thursday my dancing lessons concluded. (Finally!) It began at seven o'clock and went until two the next morning, we don't have school this week so it wasn't a school night. We all had to buy flowers for our dancing partner and they had to buy a ribbon for us with our names on it. All the girls had to have these gigantic white dresses, my English teacher said that they were almost all wedding dresses. I'm very surprised I didn't step on and rip anyone's dress. I'll put up pictures and you'll see why. We walked in with our planned entrance, hand in hand, then in a small circle, then two big ones, then exchanging the flower and the ribbon and then starting to dance. We danced for a little while and then the band took a break so we could go have refreshments and such. I also danced with my host mom during the Mother Son Dance, sorry mom you weren't there to protest. Later, some professional dancers came in and performed and we all watched. It was after this that I lost my partner and so I was finished dancing for the night, I didn't see her again after that so I can only assume she vanished. Kolona continued for a while and I sat and talked and had refreshments. Later, I danced with a couple girls from my class and after Kolona had ended we all went out to Uherský Brod's club and hung out there. It was a pretty fun night, and now I have Tuesdays free again.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Pec Pod Sněžkou
So last weekend I went to Pec Pod Sněžkou. It was a Rotary weekend so all the kids on exchange in the Czech Republic went. As usual, Amy and I had problems getting there, although I guess they're funny memories. Amy is the girl who lives in Kroměříž, a city about an hour north of me. We usually go to Rotary weekends together. Anyways, back to our bus problems. Here in the Czech Republic they don't seem to understand the concept of large signs at the bus stations for you to know which stop you're at, instead they have the order of the stops of the bus in big letters. We didn't know that, so Amy saw a big sign saying Hradec Kralove, which was our first stop to transfer buses, and she thought it was our stop. So we got off the bus. Ten seconds later the bus starts leaving and we realize A) This is not our stop, and B) Our bags are still on the bus. So we run after the bus yelling and waving our arms and manage to stop the bus and get back on. We then made it to Hradec Kralove ok and transferred buses. After an hour and a half of riding the second bus, we think we're at the right stop again, so we get off and get our bags this time. Unfortunately, we are one stop early. After calling the Inbound Coordinator he tells us to just walk to the hotel, Big Mistake. Two and a half kilometers walking on iced over snow in moccasins later we made it to the hotel, an hour and a half late, but we had made it.
Friday night we had dinner which was ok. Then we went back to the hotel and had free time for a little bit. Then, we had to take our final Czech language test. We also discussed the upcoming Greece/Italy trip and rules for traveling around alone, which we're now allowed to do. Having completed the test at midnight, we all went to sleep.
On Saturday we went skiing. We could choose skiing or snowboarding, advanced or learning to. I picked learning to ski. So, I learned to ski. It was pretty fun, I did a pretty good job, only falling a couple times and it was a really good time. At lunch we learned that one girl fell down and broke her wrist. I managed to not break any of my bones. After a couple hours of free time we went and had dinner and then went bowling. It was really fun. For some reason I'm a much better bowler here than I am in America. Then we went back to the hotel and got our test results, I was third best again. After discussing how we were all going to get home the next day, we all went to sleep.
On Sunday we all went home. My host dad picked us up and we stopped for lunch. He had ostrich and let me try it, it was pretty good. I had steak and my host mom had sushi. She didn't use the chopsticks that were provided, and I was mildly disappointed. I don't know what else to post because nothing has been going on here. I just go to school and then every other Monday I have Rotary, every Tuesday I have dance lessons, and every Wednesday I have piano. On Thursdays I have Czech lessons, and Friday and Saturday I go out with friends. Pretty much a normal life. Just not in America. I'll be posting again soon.
Friday night we had dinner which was ok. Then we went back to the hotel and had free time for a little bit. Then, we had to take our final Czech language test. We also discussed the upcoming Greece/Italy trip and rules for traveling around alone, which we're now allowed to do. Having completed the test at midnight, we all went to sleep.
On Saturday we went skiing. We could choose skiing or snowboarding, advanced or learning to. I picked learning to ski. So, I learned to ski. It was pretty fun, I did a pretty good job, only falling a couple times and it was a really good time. At lunch we learned that one girl fell down and broke her wrist. I managed to not break any of my bones. After a couple hours of free time we went and had dinner and then went bowling. It was really fun. For some reason I'm a much better bowler here than I am in America. Then we went back to the hotel and got our test results, I was third best again. After discussing how we were all going to get home the next day, we all went to sleep.
On Sunday we all went home. My host dad picked us up and we stopped for lunch. He had ostrich and let me try it, it was pretty good. I had steak and my host mom had sushi. She didn't use the chopsticks that were provided, and I was mildly disappointed. I don't know what else to post because nothing has been going on here. I just go to school and then every other Monday I have Rotary, every Tuesday I have dance lessons, and every Wednesday I have piano. On Thursdays I have Czech lessons, and Friday and Saturday I go out with friends. Pretty much a normal life. Just not in America. I'll be posting again soon.
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