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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.