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.

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.