Rijen

First, I would like to say how much I miss the thanksgiving season… especially the Macys day parade… I can’t believe my friends are in New York, marching in the actual parade… and I can’t even watch it!

heres the link if your interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37BQnob1PbQ

Ok, so now that that has been said, things here have been going strong. Golfing, unfortunately, didn’t happen. But I did get to spend a quiet weekend with one of my future host families. On Saturday night I went out to the pub with Eva Hrabalova and then to the club for the snow night. It was definitely the best part, but I still can’t rid my room of tiny white fake snow. Sunday we went to the anthropology museum in Brno. It was interesting... but im not sure the translator they gave me was meant for normal english speakers, or that is, unless you have ever herd the term "latitudinal incisions" before. That evening I went shopping at a grocery store for the first time. I might be strange, but I thought it was a lot of fun: P I also helped them prepare their grandparents grave for all saints day, which was the following weekend.

The next weekend was the weekend of Halloween. Friday night, I carved yet another pumpkin with Dina and Martin at his house, and then rushed to my scout meeting at 6:30. I got through the door at 6:45, and was one of the first there J Saturday we woke up at 8 to meet Kristinka at Olympia mall in Brno for a day of mother daughter shopping day. I got some new cloths and got to try their hot chocolate and terra masu….. deeelicious. That night I went to a Halloween dance in Zlin that was organized by my friend Lucas. Spent the night at my counselor’s house and hung out with his family on Sunday. We went out for lunch at the Zlin chateau restaurant. Despite the less than timely service, the food was amazing! I had this chicken and apple dish with a potato biscuit…. I would eat it every day if I could, it was THAT good. For dissert I had hot chocolate with chili powder and some fruit fondue. J no wonder people gain weight on exchange… the food is just so delectable :P

That afternoon, Nicole and Lucas took me to the Zlin zoo. It was so fun, even tho I am pretty sure we were the only ones there… it might have had something to do with the 8 degree weather… but I don’t know… this was followed up but a short trip to a smallish carnival. Lukas and I rode the HAWK and then we all rode the bumper cars… too bad we weren’t allowed to bump the bumper cars… but nobody told me till afterwards… whoops! :P

The weekend of the 14^th and 15^th, I spent time with the Kromonovi family. They have two daughters who both went on exchange to Canada, so I had plenty of people to talk with. They picked me up on Saturday morning and we went out to Telč. Telč is famous for its super old buildings, and a lot of old Czech fairy tales. We toured the garden and ate lunch at the local restaurant. Next we went to Pani Kromon’s relative’s house for some treats and a walk around the lake. We found a super awesome “geocach” and I got a new pin for my rotary jacket. Afterwards we went to Olympia to see Michal Jacksons “This is It”. Good movie accompanied by another delicious (free) hot chocolate. The next morning I went back to their house for lunch and we made cookies J this time I got to make oatmeal raison… it was a good to have a little taste of home.

The following Monday I went to the family rotary meeting at a little club about a half hour from Kroměříž. A few moments after I walked in, my host parents stared excitedly calling my name and beckoning me toward the corner table. It turns out my friend Tim, a fellow exchange student, was there too. I hadn’t seen him since Strecno, so it was really cool to talk to him and catch up on what we had been doing. We also met my friend Hanna’s Canadian host family from her exchange/future mother and father in-law. They were both really interesting people, and since Tim and I were some of the few English speakers there, we got to spend some time getting to know them. They told me that Hannah and their son are getting married in Kroměříž in early July, and invited me to the wedding… It might be pushing it, but I really hope I’ll be able to attend!

this is Tim btw :P

Wednesday I took part in an aerobic competition… I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I was there, but it was actually not much different than a normal aerobic class… except with judges of course :P not being able to understand the instructor made things a little difficult, but I still made it to the second round(of course this might have had something to do with the fact that I knew the judges ;))

Friday morning I went with Eva to Brno for the morning, and then met up with Tim to catch a bus to our second rotary weekend in Jindřichův Hradec. After a not uneventful bus ride, we arrived at the hostel just 2 hours behind schedule. Everyone had already eaten, but luckily we didn’t miss our Czech test ;) ooo and i actually did quite well, i got 50 out of 54!

The weekend was just a lot of hanging out with the other students and having fun. On Saturday afternoon, we carved pumpkins. my groups pumpkin won 1st place! We were all suppose to make something for the thanksgiving feast on Saturday night, and we were told there would be a kitchen to cook in. well there was a kitchen, but it was lacking in a certain few things I usually like to have when cooking… such as hot water and measurements to say the least :P but as I have heard so many times “blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape”. So bend, we did, and it didn’t turn out so bad. There was only time to bake one batch, so I offered out the dough. I think everyone seemed to really enjoy my cookies and dough.

On the way home we stopped at the McDonalds drive thru for my first hamburger in CZ. Maybe it’s just me… but I’m pretty sure McDonalds tastes the same no matter where you are.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>>

1) There are amazing water commercials here. There is one with a huge group of dancers dancing in water and through waterfalls, and there is another with a model walking thru a fancy restaurant in a dress made only of water. They make drinking water seem so much more glamorous than I’ve ever seen before.

2) The majority of the milk we drink comes in little square boxes, and is not refrigerated. They are bought by 40 or 50 at a time, and we keep them in the cellar until we need them. Cold cartons of milk are not hard to find, but we only buy it if we have a special purpose for it.

3) Nobody knows what cookies are! I made a batch for my class, and people kept asking me what they were, and then made a funny face when I said they were “cookies”…. They thought they were small cakes or something to that accord.

2 months!!

so as you might have guessed, yesterday was my two month mark, and im feeling great :P

i dont remember my exact going ons , but ill give you the general overview.

at the begining of the my, my host sister who studies in prage came into town with her boyfriend. that saturday we went to climb the radagast mountain. it was a couple hour drive to get there, but once we arrived, it was a full days worth of hill climbing. about half way up was a huge statue of the pagan god Radagast (also the inspiration for radagast beer). and not 10 meters away was an out door cafe stand selling, you guessed it BEER! altho i didnt get to try it, i was informed that it was very good :)

once at the top it was about 5 degrees Celsius with heavy winds. we walked up to the little church to take some picture, then hurried to the hotle for some warm soup and tea.

yet another amazing view :)

the following weekend, my parents threw me a "welcome to czech!" party and invieted everyone involved with my rotary exchange here in CZ :P

it was a little late, but definitely not unappreciated. i finally succeded in baking chocolate chip cookies, and everone at the party seemed very impressed :)

that tuesday, my religion class went on a full day trip to olomocs. i believe it is the third largest city in CZ, and has a rich religious background. we visited three churches and one museum. after that we were set free for lunch. a couple girls i had not met before invited me to join them and we had some great half czech half english conversation. after lunch we got back on the bus and went home.

on friday i had my first private czech lesson... it went really well, and my teacher is really great. i cant wait till i can actually converse with my class mates! its gunna be great :P

last weekend, i went with Dina and her friend to my first cinema! actually its not too exciting, considering our local cinema is more like the Warner theare in morgantown, but i was cool. got to see "inglorious bastards", ironic because it was an american movie that was not dubded... but since it took place in europe, it was a mix of German, French and English... with only Czech subtitles... consequently, i only cought about 1/3 of the dialogue :P

on Saturday my friend Kristine from Trabec spent the night and we did a little carving pumpkin carving, followed by another movie in Zlin. it was quite crazy :D

this week at school has been quite... routine :P but i have been trying to eat school lunch more ofter, and its actually not too bad, the only problem is that they have huge portions! got out of school early today due to confirmation, so it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on the blog!

this weekend im scheduled to go golfing with the Hrabalovi family. i have never golfed before... so this should be fun!!! :D

i like bennys "3 differences" he does at the end of each blog, so i think im gunna give it a try :)

1) shoes are not worn in school. just like at home, you get to school and switch straight into slippers, and then change back when its time to go... its so comfy!

2) EVERYONE carries pocket sized tissue containers, and it is perfectly socially acceptable to loudly blow your nose whenever need be. im not complaining, i love a good, clear nose. it always beats constant sniffles, but it took some getting use to :P

3)whenever a teacher enters the classroom, the entire class stands, and doesn't sit till the teacher says so... i dont quite understand it, but its working well so far!

4) (i know its too many i just really wanted to say this one) there is not a bell that rings to signify the changing of classes. instead, a little song plays over the intercom... the first time i heard it, i had to ask what was going on :)

Update :)

ah, its abou time i wrote again, i have had trouble finding the time :P

My weekend in zlin was wonderful. On Saturday we went to Brno and toured Hrad Spilberk. I went to my first mall here in Czech. we had some ice cream and did a little bit of shopping. they had some great stores but I didn't recognize most of them. On Sunday I visited the old Bat'a factory. I couldn't believe the view from the top of the 21 building! At home we had a delicious lunch and I got to spend some quality time with their dog, Creepy :)

that week was pretty much uneventful. I went to my classes, and began to attend double dance lessons on Wednesdays :) Thursday was Ondrej and Eliska's 26th anniversary, so we went out to eat at a lovly restaurant in a neighboring town. That weekend Hana and her cousin Vladena came to town from Prague. They stayed here for Friday night, then on Saturday we hopped the vlek (train) to Stramberk for their grandmas 80th birthday... We stay at her house, yet again it had an amazing place... I guess Czech is blessed in that way. Most of the family was there that night, and I actually found some people to talk to... there were many little kids there that knew about as much czek as I do :P Everyone was there for a special mass on Sunday and a party afterwards. The Debef clan is a really great bunch of people :)

This weekend was super busy :D

Friday I attended my first scout meeting. We are planning for a ball this winter :) after that, I went to a local pub to celebrate Dina's 19th birthday, and from there went to Sludy. Eliska, Ondrej, myself, and a doctor friends drove to Trebec on Saturday morning to meet a group of doctors and their families for their yearly get together. We toured a pivovar and I met a girl who night be going on exchange next year :) at night we ate an excellent meal in the cellar of the winery we were staying at. Sunday morning we left for home where Zuzanna invited me to spend the day touring with some Dutch Rotarians that were in the area working on a program with autistic children and wanted to see the town. They were wonderful to talk to and I might (miiiight) get to visit them in Amsterdam this spring. I have my fingers crossed X-).

zuzanna Me only picture i got of the dutch Rotarians :P

Today was a Czech religious holiday honoring their patron saint, good king Vaclav, so, not school :P today we just relaxed in the house and tried (and failed) to make chocolate chip cookies.... but no worries, we have another attempt scheduled for this week. Wish us luck!

I miss everyone at home! i hope everyone is well :)

<3>

all that jazz

So, an update of my going ons (for the 2-3 people who actually read my blog ;-))

I went to my first official Rotary meeting two Mondays ago, and got to hand over my Morgantown North flag and a very special Morgantown pin I was fortunate enough to have found. I was told I would receive their flag at my next meeting. I think the meeting was mostly about me, but my Czech is still quite shaky, so I just sat there and tried to look like I understood them.

School started the next morning. I went for the entirety of 3 hours in which I met my main teacher, and went to first day of school mass. Since then school has been going very well and everyone had been very nice to me. Dina and my English teacher have been a huge help. Schedules are really wacky but I usually just follow the heard of kids and try not to get lost.

Last weekend my second host father drove me up to Strecno, Slovakia for my inbound orientation, where I got to see tons of people in cluding a girl from my district who when to Slovakia, and Jacqueline!!

That was a BLAST. We traded pins and cards and had fun getting to know each other.

Saturday we went took a boat ride (I got to help drive)to the Strecno and took a tour. It had a really amazing view

but the castle itself was rather uneventful. I got home Sunday night, watched a couple classic Czech movies and passed out.

Wednesday I went to my first dance class "Vyucovane Tance". The class teaches classic dances, and almost everyone around my age attends. it is also a class for proper edict, so we were all required to dress in formal suits and cocktail dresses. Eliska and Dina helped me pick out a beautiful pair of heals and advised me on my dress choice. Afterwards some friends asked me to join them for drinks at a pub down the street(all non-alcoholic in case anyone was wondering), and we had a really nice time.

Yesterday Zuzanna took me to an exercise ball class that meets each Thursday, and I think we are going to make that a habit. She is a English teacher, so she helps me with my Czech too. And

When I got home we had a nice dinner with Jitka and her husband.

Today I had my first music class at school. I'm not positive, but I think I joined the school choir... it looks like fun; hopefully it will fit in my schedule. Now I’m packing for a weekend at my Petr Lukovic's (my counselor) house. I haven’t really gotten to talk to him much, so I think this will be a good time to get to know him and his family, can’t wait :)

Going strong

On Tuesday(aka the day of many stairs) Dina and I went to see Arcibiskupsky zamek a zahrady v Kromeriz, the local chateau. She said this was where royalty would go if they ever came to Kromeriz, apparently almost every town in Europe has one. After walking up about four floors worth of a spiral stone spiral staircase to get to the top, it had a really great view of the city, we could see everything! We were going to go on a tour of the living spaces, but it was in Czech… I think I will probably visit again once I have a better handle on the language J

Next we went to Květná zahrada v Kroměříži. It was about a 20 min walk from town, but very worth it. It was a very large zahrada (garden), with some amazing gardeners. All the bushes and flowers were perfectly trimmed into unique beautiful larger pictures. All the different gardens were connected by tall bush lined paths. After all that walking we stopped for some bonaqua before we headed home.

Wednesday we hung out in the local park (the one with the animals), and went home for lunch. Eliska and Ondrej took us to a neighboring city for the evening, which was called Velehrad. We toured a “Fortified settlement of the Great Moravian Empire era” that graciously provided me with a description in English J Down the road we visited the Velehrad church which had a lot of information on the two men who brought Christianity to the area. Las t of the day we went to a garden in the neighboring city and took a tour of the palace. For dinner I got try a local non alcoholic plum beer, it was quite a treat.

Thursday we visited the Andy Warhol museum in town and ate lunch with Eliska, Ondrej, and Arika (work associate). That night Dina and I helped Eliska make fruit dumplings for dinner.

Yesterday Martin drove Dina and I out and we all went roller blading on a trail.

Today we went to the Kromeriz harvest festival. There were costumes, customs, and much more. I got to see many traditional dances and even got to meet the mayor of Kromeriz (he gave me a harvest festival bouquet :P).

Afterwards Eliska took me shopping at the harvest market in the town square, where I tried this honey drink that she really likes. I got to use a pay to pee koupelna for the first time… it was strange, but they were very well kept facilities :P to end a very lovely day, we went out to a very nice kavarna for drinks. I got something called an, “American Lemonade”(above). I’m not sure why it was American, but it was tasty J Eliska and I just got back from church at Pana Maria and are now getting ready for dinner.

School starts next Tuesday, and rotary orientation is next weekend, lots to look forward to :P

the first few days...

I departed Pitt airports on Friday the 20^th at 12:40 after my slightly teary and painful goodbyes to my mother and best friend Amber. Then, I was off to gate 82D for my first flight to Detroit. On my flight there, my seat buddy was a wonderful young man, originally from Croatia. We exchanged stories of where we were going and had a very nice conversation, mostly him assuring me that Slavic languages are not that difficult and once I got a handle on one that the others would come easily (:P)

At Detroit airport I met up with three other rotary exchange students that were to board my next flight to Amsterdam. There was Brian, who was headed to Ostrava CZ, Neil going to a city near Prague, and B who was on her way to Poland. I was lucky enough to be sat next to Neil on the longest flight of my trip. We talked, socialized with our neighbors and watched a lot of movies. Unfortunately this meant there was little sleeping involved…

Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we had to say goodbye to B and hurry to our last plain to Prague. All three of us found seats together on the small plain and had a great time listening to everyone around us (who was awake at 6:30 AM) speak Czech. In Prague, Brian boarded a plain to Ostrava, while Neil and I found baggage claim. Customs was nothing like I had expected… I was thinking that we were going to be asked to show passports and paperwork to large scary men, equip with guns and non sympathetic looks in their eyes. In all actuality there was one short chubby man, who asked us if we had anything worth over $500 in our luggage, and sent us on our way.

My father, Ondrej, arrived shortly after I did at the airport. He greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and helped my carry my luggage to the car. The ride home was beautiful, but not altogether unfamiliar. In fact, I would have to say that I looked almost exactly like any highway you would find in WV or PA… I slept for about half of the ride and awoke 5 km from Kroměříž (actually pronounced closer to ko me jeej).

Kroměříž is a very beautiful town. I live down the street from Pana Marie (Virgin Mary chapel) and share a back yard with and engineering high school. My home is like nothing I have ever seen. It is beautiful and as I am told it dates back more than 300 years.

I got to meet my mother Eliska, sister Barbra, and brother Martin immediately when I walked thru the door. They were more than welcoming and I was given a tour of the house straight away. Since it was Barbra’s last day before her exchange we had her favorite meal and talked about Seattle. We stayed up late watching movies and I bid her farewell at 3am on Sunday morning.

Yesterday, Sunday, Ondrej and Eliska took me for a tour of the town. I got to see my school and lots of cute little shops. They also took me to a zoo/park/garden type thing in town. It was so strange… There were peacocks and various birds running wild everywhere, but they had a random baboon, cats, hamsters and deer locked up in cages. That night I got to meet one of Barbra’s best friends Dína, who speaks English very well and is going to help me to meet people and get into activity clubs.

Today she is took me to a “western camp” she works at. It was made to resemble the Wild West. I met two girls she works with and they offered to take me to a dance club Wednesday evening J

I am very excited for school to start on the first… I am going to be in their 2^nd year of gymnasium, and I hear that I will be taking a basic dance class… I can’t wait!

In case anyone is wondering... i leave for Czech in 4 hours... and i have absolutely no idea what to expect... i thought i knew before.... but now i realize just how clueless i really am....

"not gunna lie", i m a bit terrified...

sorry, i guess this was really more of a twitter type comment... :P

pre flight jitters

i leave tomorrow.... does any one else find that a little daunting? dont get me wrong, i am unbelievably excited... it just seems a little unreal right now...

late last week i finally got to skype with my first family in Czech, the Debefs... i have to say that that was probably the most nerve wracking 3 min of my whole summer. Lucky for me, they seem super nice, and very understanding. When asking if there was anything special that i should bring, Bara, conforted my by saying, "you are my sister, you are my parents daughter, be quiet"

thank you Bara, you really helped calm my nerves :)

i can only hope, i wasnt to take the quiet thing to literaly :P

gifts, check

cloths, check

visaed passport, check

now all i have left to do is make it to the airport in one piece!

dum da da dum!

Alrighty.... so... guess what?

ok, i know you, you'll never guess it :)

i got my itinerary on monday!!! im so relieved that everything is going as planned (so far)

i will be leaving from Pitt airport on friday the 21st at 12:40, and after a couple transfers, will arrive at Prague airport at 8:45 the next day.

Today was monumental for two reasons,

jedna: I finally began to pack!

dva: i have officially started saying my goodbyes.. (sigh)

wish me luck on both accounts...

to everyone in the states, im gunna miss you!

and to those in czech, see ya soon!!!

(ps. i promiss ill actually have something interesting to say once i get there :P)

A picture or two (posted 7/1/09)

Alright, so no new information, but I thought I could put up some pictures, so everyone has a better idea of where I'll be :P

Here is the Czech flag:



Where Czech Rep. is in Europe:



Where Kroměříž is in Czech Rep.



And lastly, a little view of the main square (like 3 blocks from my first home :))



I'll be going to a district orientation the weekend after next to meet with other out bounds... I can't wait!