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!

lets get this party started! (actually posted on 6/15/09)

Alright, so i never do the blog thing, but I've heard its good to start before i actually go, just to get the hang of it.

School just ended at the beginning of this month and I haven't had much free time since. I went to Kennywood with Christian and JR Wolfe's family once and I just got back yesterday from a week long trip to Las Vegas with my closest friends, Christian and Amber. Things we bumpy at times, but I really had a blast, and I think they did too. Next week we are off to Chicago to see the city and drop Christian off to go back to Germany. At the beginning of July all the out bound exchange students in my district will be meeting to get some final information about our exchanges, meet some people going to the same countries as us, and receive our BLAZERS! I'm excited :P

Learning the language has been a bit tough, but I'm slowly working on it but mostly the vocab, not so much grammar. If anyone knows of a Czech teacher or has any suggestions or helpful ways to learn the language, I would love any help I could get :)

As for information about my exchange I have already received...

I was facebooked by my future host brother from my first host family about a couple months ago. He told me that I will be staying in a smallish city about 45 min south of Brno called Kroměříž. It has population of about 30,000 people and lots of historical buildings. Arcibiskupské Gymnázium v Kroměříži (aka the Archbishup Gymnasium). It is a catholic school about 6 min from my first home. I am really excited. My host mother is a neroligist and my father is a dentist. I have learned that I will have 3 siblings: Martin (24), Hana (22) and Barbora (18). The oldest two have already moved out, but are expected to come home for a visit or two :) Barbora will be going on her own exchange to WA state, so I am afraid I wont be getting to see much of her :-/
I have also started talking to some other girls who are going to Czech from the US and we have discussed our location and families. It turns out that most of them are located to the south of Prague, unfortunately that's about 2.5 to 3.5 hours away from me... I'm just can't wait for another person close to Brno to appear :P

Na shledano!
(good bye!)