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! :)
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