I have really got to stop making promises about when I´ll update my blog. Srsly.
1. Let´s revisit the "Czechs only drinking flavored water" once more. I just find this so interesting. I mean, it´s everyhere...you´re going to the gym? Bring an empty water bottle along and have it filled up there with one of the fifteen syrups on display. My host sister does this every spin class, which is so perplexing as she could fill up at home, with syrup, for not 7 crowns. Once I forgot my bottle and so I bought one there, and when I didn´t want flavoring (which just isn´t thirst-quenching) the woman looked at me so strangely - as do my classmates when I take plain water at lunch. We used to just have sweet tea, milk, and juice (all too sweet and I don´t like milk), and so I was so excited when we got "pure water" - it's actually specified on the jar - a month ago. I´m the only one who drinks it, haha. Our syrup at home has changed for the holidays to orange-cinnamon.
2. They have different animal sounds. Some are the same, but the most egregious error is the cow, who goes "boo". Among the others are a dog´s "hoff", and a frog´s "kvah".
3. Their automatic doors don´t exactly live up to their name. Always I feel like I´m going to slap my body right against the glass, they open so late.
4. "P" owns the thickest portion of the dictionary.
5. Girls wear nude nylons, with frequency. Every day I see schoolmates rocking the Princess Di, underneath sweater dresses and skirts in the winter and Daisy Dukes in the summer (at least this last instance only occurs at school). I don´t have a pair of my own, nor would I expect do any of my friends back home.
6. They haven´t any need for top sheets. Just a bottom sheet and a duvet. Simplifies the process of making your bed, I suppose. Don´t think I haven´t done my homework on this, guys! Whenever we visit castles and the like, I scope the bedding in the royal chambers for sheets. Each time it´s none, nada, nic.
7. It´s never just one door: "Door/doors" comes only in the plural, dveře.
8. A "goodbye" is necessary in all situations. Whenever you exit a store, save large grocery or department stores, you call, "Na shledanou!" I guess we sometimes do this in America, but it´s always "Have a nice day!" - "goodbye" is much more personal a term. The most strange place this is practiced is the studying room at the library. Each person extends a farewell as they pack up their books.
You also always mutter a "Good day" upon entrance.
9. The words for sunrise & east/ sunset & west are the same. Don´t you just gush over how poetic this is? I do, haha. Similarly, there is the same word for month & moon.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry
Ahoj znova :) It's been a long, long time since I last posted. Please accept my heartfelt apologies. It's just that I'm constantly recounting my experiences in letters and emails (I also began a journal, but that quickly turned into one medium too many) to people back home that this blog gets neglected. I do think I've landed upon a solution, however: reading something utterly tedious and mind-numbing on the internet which is sure to send me straight to this page's URL. I picked the wiki on Latin declension.
Let's talk about school first. My first two days made the first day of American high school look unbelievably productive. We didn't go to any classes, just talked about schedules and sat around wondering a) where our teacher just went and whether she'd ever be coming back, b) what we ought to be doing right now and c) when lunch was scheduled to be, and whether we even had it. The first day felt utterly ordinary, as if there had never been a break. No one was hugging or freaking or lamenting the passing of summer - quite a contrast to the first day of school in the U.S., which is always so "OMG *squeal and a hug* HOW HAVE YOU BEEN HOW WAS YOUR SUMMER UGH I CAN'T BELIEVE WE NEVER HUNG OUT CUZ YOU'RE LIKE MY BFF! HAVE I TOLD YOU YOU'RE THE PRETTIEST GIRL AT SCHOOL, I MEAN SERIOUSLY *squeal*AH BRB ONE SEC...CHRISTINA GIRLFRIEND HOW ARE YOU, YOU LOOK AMAZING, UGH I HATE YOU FOR BEING THE MOST GORGEOUS PERSON I'VE EVER MET...WAIT WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T I HUGGED YOU YET!!!" Nope. None of that. Czechs are always just so chill, I don't understand how.
I've now been at school nearly two months (I hit the two-month mark yesterday---wild), and I can say it's gotten better. It's not that that it was ever bad, per se, but things are significantly less confusing and calm. Now, if I can't find my class/classroom, I give a little shrug and park it in the hallway with my Czech book. Let me tell you, the first week was beyond frustrating. I needed to create a personalized schedule, but every day the principal went, "Don't worry, you're not even a student here, really just more of a guest." Well, as absent of any justification as that was, I still desired to have a definite schedule before exams started up. At long last, my English teacher and I headed down to his office to speak with him, and about an hour later, I had one liable-to-change schedule in my hands. She plucked me out of all the sciences and a couple other less frequent classes, such as geography (that one's a shame, I was so curious as to what exactly that class entailed). Now I am in math, history, Czech, English, first-year French, and first-year Latin. The first three my only task is to occupy a seat. Their math is all some strange form of algebra I'd not encountered, and I'm pretty sure the teacher doesn't know my name. English I read paragraphs and lists of vocabulary so they can hear the American accent. They have tapes to listen to, but it's all British. I love tape time! The laughable accents are either the mangled child of Brummie and Scouse, or over-the-top tweed. French and Latin are the only classes in which I actually participate. French class is great. The teacher speaks English and can translate for me when I need it. Latin, however, makes up for the easiness of the French language. The only reason I signed up for that class is because I felt bad about my skimpy array of classes. The only reason I stayed in that class is because I paid for the book. We meet only once per week, but the pace is unreasonably quick, especially when you consider that these are mostly freshmen. I'm getting dangerously close to knowing more Latin than I do Czech... It's actually easier for me to translate from Czech to Latin than vice-versa, because I know Latin declension and word order and I have yet to tackle the Czech. I spend hours, hours each week translating the wretched textbook into English and conjugating, declining until I'm ready to scrape my eyeballs out with a spork (that my have been a bit graphic, I apologize). The other students have a leg up, as they already know when the nominative/dative/genitive/ablative/accusative are appropriate, for Czech shares those. I'm totally green. It's also terrifying, as the class mainly consists of the teacher going down the rows, spewing out Czech or Latin terms and verbs to translate. But it's the translating of Latin sentences from the book into Czech, on the spot, that is most awful. On the bright side, the teacher, who doubles as my Czech teacher, loves me for trying.
I would deliver my soul to whoever invents three-way index cards.
Now for some differences in the Czech school system. For one, they have 13 grades instead of 12. This means that I have foregone my senior-dom in total. I go to a gymnazium, which is the highest level of high school. Students who do not pass the entrance exam go to vocational schools, such as commerce (rough translation), language, tourism, or agriculture. Within gymnazium, there are two levels. The "lower" students enter at (American) sixth grade and stay on eight years; the "higher" enter at 10th grade and are there for 4. I am in grade 7A, meaning I am in the lower level. Of the exact disparity between levels I'm not really aware, but I don't think it's too large. You stay with your class all day, only splitting for languages: English is compulsory, and again, there's an A and B class, and my grade chooses between German and Russian when they enter. French is also offered, but only to certain classes I understand. There are still some things on which I am not clear. Latin is optional, but due to scheduling conflicts most kids are forced to drop it after a couple of years. Everyone takes biology, chemistry, and physics each year - I thank the Gods the American system wasn't like that.
In the classroom, a more traditional style of teaching is practiced. Everyone stands up when the professor/teacher (some students call them Mr. or Mrs. Professor) enter. The teachers then lecture, and the students take notes; discussion is rare. Oral tests are common, which to me seems downright terrifying. This is all amplified through the use of chalkboards. Oddly enough, some classrooms have SMART Boards, like French (and we actually use them, whereas in America they tend to just get slid off to the side), yet there are no whiteboards, not a one. Strange leap.
Enough of school. Let's talk about what I've been up to. I've visited a couple castles/country homes, however one would refer to them. Hluboká was fantastic. It's apparently very in demand for weddings, what with its pretty gardens, ironwork, and white stone.
I've been to Prague three times now. The first was for a Simple Plan concert around the start of school. I didn't see any of the city that time. My host sister and I went as a last event of summer. Turned out, the band had released a new album...awkward. Thankfully, they didn't ignore the fact the year is 2011 and they are Simple Plan and so they played mostly old songs. I've never been into their music, but it was a good time nonetheless. I next visited a few weeks later, to see some exchange friends. I didn't go into any of the tourist attractions, just walked by. It's definitely one of the situations where you don't bother visiting all these incredible sites since you can do it almost anytime. We did, however, share lunch at TGI Friday's. Horrible, I know, haha. I decided to Rubio's-it and get a chicken quesadilla (do they even have quesadillas at Rubio's? I got Mexican, anyway)and Vanilla Coke. Those tricksters, they just put vanilla syrup into regular Coke. The third visit was very short, as it was after an AFS camp three weekends ago. Myself and a large group of AFSers hung out on the cobblestones of Old Town Square (Staroměstské Naměstí) for a while and then I went to the pub for a but with a couple people before catching my bus back home. This was my second time traveling to Prague alone, but it was a bit of an ordeal finding my bus stop, which was at a different station this time. After leaving the metro station, I followed the "Bus Tickets" sign farther into the night, and then found that I was kind of nowhere. After a few 360 turns I found a board with stop numbers and bus numbers/destinations. Problem was, I couldn't see where the actual stops were, ahah. It was dark out, okay? I decided on one direction, which of course was the wrong one and led me to a home and garden supply store, whereupon I freaked out for a few seconds. I eventually found one of the stops which service my town, but the schedule made no sense - I couldn't see my departure time, but luckily I found a guy walking around and managed, in broken Czech, to find out that he was on my bus. So I made it home that night :) Prague really is such a postcard. The spires magnificently rising above everything are a sight. And Charles Bridge...so old-world. It's probably my favorite of Prague's many attractions.
A month or so ago I took a day trip to Vienna with my host sister and grandmother. We walked past all the famous buildings, churches, and shops. Stephansdom was beyond beautiful, even though some of the outside was obscured by scaffolding. The city's beauty is matched by its people, truly. They are overall the best-dressed and most attractive bunch of any other city I've been to. Here's the thing, though: while Vienna boasts so many credits, I felt no feeling toward it, at all. Maybe it was too pretty and clean, too German(and maybe I was way intimidated by its inhabitants), for me to want to live there or visit again. I don't know.
Two weeks ago, I went to a concert in a bigger city about an hour away. It was a pretty popular pop-type Czech band called Charlie Straight. They sing in English, nice for me. Since the "concert hall" was so small we got to be really close (like 4 feet) to the singer. I returned to that city last night, for a ballet with a schoolmate. It was a part ballet, part modern dance interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was fantastic, I loved it!
The biggest news on the friends/social life front is that I have a fellow American in my town! I just found out a week ago. Somehow we knew not of one another's existence for practically two months. She goes to the agriculture and tourism high school, which is how we didn't meet right away. She is my age, from Kentucky, super nice, super funny, just awesome. It makes me so happy she's here. We've hung out a couple times now, and it is actually helping rather than hindering my Czech. I pretty much only speak English to people here, since my Czech ain't so great and people don't wish to try it with me, and if I go out, they handle the seating and ordering. With Callie, I can be a big kid and order myself sans embarrassment, plus we discuss Czech grammar and the like together. On Friday, we spent two hours at one of her classmate's houses hammering out language questions and issues over coffee. Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted and flustered by the end.
Classmates are definitely nice and far from cold, as Czechs are said to be, but I don't hang out with them outside of class all that often. I had one guy who I had been hanging out with pretty frequently until a couple of weeks ago, when suddenly the dynamics shifted and that was the end of that. I've gone to the cafe a few times with friends and toured around with people a bit. Friday night I went to a birthday party for a few people, one of whom I didn't know. It was pretty much the same as an American party, except for a Czech birthday practice which I think we should adopt (or not, it would probably be awkward the be the birthday person). The "attendees" form a line before the person(s) celebrating their birthday and, one by one, they shake hands or maybe kiss the person, say something sweet, and wish them a very happy birthday. To the girl I didn't know, I shook her hand and awkwardly supplied, "Happy birthday, I like your pants."
As for my free time, I mostly go to the library and translate my Latin book, study Czech, or look at books with lots of pictures. A couple nights a week I go to spinning, and when it's not raining I go on a run. I was delighted to discover that up my road are fields and hills with a bike/tractor/small car path winding through. Someday I'll have to take my camera with me, at sunset. It's gorgeous.
In conclusion, sans the two times I've been verbally assaulted by elderly Czech women at the bus stop, things have been very splendid indeed. Our trip to Hungary never happened, but that's okay, because my exchange company is offering a three-day trip to Budapest in the spring. There are ones to a number of European cities and then ski trips and such. I'm hoping to go to Budapest and also Krakow. I only have two days of school this week, as Wednesday and Thursday are "Autumn Holiday" and Friday is a state holiday, commemorating the formation of Czechoslovakia. I don't have plans yet, but perhaps, maybe, I'm hoping, I'll go to Prague and see some friends.
XOXO
Oh, and I've been collecting Czech Curiosities on a page in my planner, so expect Part II sometime this week. Also, my computer refused to import the photos from my camera so that's why there's only one of my school, taken on my phone.
I've now been at school nearly two months (I hit the two-month mark yesterday---wild), and I can say it's gotten better. It's not that that it was ever bad, per se, but things are significantly less confusing and calm. Now, if I can't find my class/classroom, I give a little shrug and park it in the hallway with my Czech book. Let me tell you, the first week was beyond frustrating. I needed to create a personalized schedule, but every day the principal went, "Don't worry, you're not even a student here, really just more of a guest." Well, as absent of any justification as that was, I still desired to have a definite schedule before exams started up. At long last, my English teacher and I headed down to his office to speak with him, and about an hour later, I had one liable-to-change schedule in my hands. She plucked me out of all the sciences and a couple other less frequent classes, such as geography (that one's a shame, I was so curious as to what exactly that class entailed). Now I am in math, history, Czech, English, first-year French, and first-year Latin. The first three my only task is to occupy a seat. Their math is all some strange form of algebra I'd not encountered, and I'm pretty sure the teacher doesn't know my name. English I read paragraphs and lists of vocabulary so they can hear the American accent. They have tapes to listen to, but it's all British. I love tape time! The laughable accents are either the mangled child of Brummie and Scouse, or over-the-top tweed. French and Latin are the only classes in which I actually participate. French class is great. The teacher speaks English and can translate for me when I need it. Latin, however, makes up for the easiness of the French language. The only reason I signed up for that class is because I felt bad about my skimpy array of classes. The only reason I stayed in that class is because I paid for the book. We meet only once per week, but the pace is unreasonably quick, especially when you consider that these are mostly freshmen. I'm getting dangerously close to knowing more Latin than I do Czech... It's actually easier for me to translate from Czech to Latin than vice-versa, because I know Latin declension and word order and I have yet to tackle the Czech. I spend hours, hours each week translating the wretched textbook into English and conjugating, declining until I'm ready to scrape my eyeballs out with a spork (that my have been a bit graphic, I apologize). The other students have a leg up, as they already know when the nominative/dative/genitive/ablative/accusative are appropriate, for Czech shares those. I'm totally green. It's also terrifying, as the class mainly consists of the teacher going down the rows, spewing out Czech or Latin terms and verbs to translate. But it's the translating of Latin sentences from the book into Czech, on the spot, that is most awful. On the bright side, the teacher, who doubles as my Czech teacher, loves me for trying.
I would deliver my soul to whoever invents three-way index cards.
Now for some differences in the Czech school system. For one, they have 13 grades instead of 12. This means that I have foregone my senior-dom in total. I go to a gymnazium, which is the highest level of high school. Students who do not pass the entrance exam go to vocational schools, such as commerce (rough translation), language, tourism, or agriculture. Within gymnazium, there are two levels. The "lower" students enter at (American) sixth grade and stay on eight years; the "higher" enter at 10th grade and are there for 4. I am in grade 7A, meaning I am in the lower level. Of the exact disparity between levels I'm not really aware, but I don't think it's too large. You stay with your class all day, only splitting for languages: English is compulsory, and again, there's an A and B class, and my grade chooses between German and Russian when they enter. French is also offered, but only to certain classes I understand. There are still some things on which I am not clear. Latin is optional, but due to scheduling conflicts most kids are forced to drop it after a couple of years. Everyone takes biology, chemistry, and physics each year - I thank the Gods the American system wasn't like that.
In the classroom, a more traditional style of teaching is practiced. Everyone stands up when the professor/teacher (some students call them Mr. or Mrs. Professor) enter. The teachers then lecture, and the students take notes; discussion is rare. Oral tests are common, which to me seems downright terrifying. This is all amplified through the use of chalkboards. Oddly enough, some classrooms have SMART Boards, like French (and we actually use them, whereas in America they tend to just get slid off to the side), yet there are no whiteboards, not a one. Strange leap.
Enough of school. Let's talk about what I've been up to. I've visited a couple castles/country homes, however one would refer to them. Hluboká was fantastic. It's apparently very in demand for weddings, what with its pretty gardens, ironwork, and white stone.
I've been to Prague three times now. The first was for a Simple Plan concert around the start of school. I didn't see any of the city that time. My host sister and I went as a last event of summer. Turned out, the band had released a new album...awkward. Thankfully, they didn't ignore the fact the year is 2011 and they are Simple Plan and so they played mostly old songs. I've never been into their music, but it was a good time nonetheless. I next visited a few weeks later, to see some exchange friends. I didn't go into any of the tourist attractions, just walked by. It's definitely one of the situations where you don't bother visiting all these incredible sites since you can do it almost anytime. We did, however, share lunch at TGI Friday's. Horrible, I know, haha. I decided to Rubio's-it and get a chicken quesadilla (do they even have quesadillas at Rubio's? I got Mexican, anyway)and Vanilla Coke. Those tricksters, they just put vanilla syrup into regular Coke. The third visit was very short, as it was after an AFS camp three weekends ago. Myself and a large group of AFSers hung out on the cobblestones of Old Town Square (Staroměstské Naměstí) for a while and then I went to the pub for a but with a couple people before catching my bus back home. This was my second time traveling to Prague alone, but it was a bit of an ordeal finding my bus stop, which was at a different station this time. After leaving the metro station, I followed the "Bus Tickets" sign farther into the night, and then found that I was kind of nowhere. After a few 360 turns I found a board with stop numbers and bus numbers/destinations. Problem was, I couldn't see where the actual stops were, ahah. It was dark out, okay? I decided on one direction, which of course was the wrong one and led me to a home and garden supply store, whereupon I freaked out for a few seconds. I eventually found one of the stops which service my town, but the schedule made no sense - I couldn't see my departure time, but luckily I found a guy walking around and managed, in broken Czech, to find out that he was on my bus. So I made it home that night :) Prague really is such a postcard. The spires magnificently rising above everything are a sight. And Charles Bridge...so old-world. It's probably my favorite of Prague's many attractions.
A month or so ago I took a day trip to Vienna with my host sister and grandmother. We walked past all the famous buildings, churches, and shops. Stephansdom was beyond beautiful, even though some of the outside was obscured by scaffolding. The city's beauty is matched by its people, truly. They are overall the best-dressed and most attractive bunch of any other city I've been to. Here's the thing, though: while Vienna boasts so many credits, I felt no feeling toward it, at all. Maybe it was too pretty and clean, too German(and maybe I was way intimidated by its inhabitants), for me to want to live there or visit again. I don't know.
Two weeks ago, I went to a concert in a bigger city about an hour away. It was a pretty popular pop-type Czech band called Charlie Straight. They sing in English, nice for me. Since the "concert hall" was so small we got to be really close (like 4 feet) to the singer. I returned to that city last night, for a ballet with a schoolmate. It was a part ballet, part modern dance interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was fantastic, I loved it!
The biggest news on the friends/social life front is that I have a fellow American in my town! I just found out a week ago. Somehow we knew not of one another's existence for practically two months. She goes to the agriculture and tourism high school, which is how we didn't meet right away. She is my age, from Kentucky, super nice, super funny, just awesome. It makes me so happy she's here. We've hung out a couple times now, and it is actually helping rather than hindering my Czech. I pretty much only speak English to people here, since my Czech ain't so great and people don't wish to try it with me, and if I go out, they handle the seating and ordering. With Callie, I can be a big kid and order myself sans embarrassment, plus we discuss Czech grammar and the like together. On Friday, we spent two hours at one of her classmate's houses hammering out language questions and issues over coffee. Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted and flustered by the end.
Classmates are definitely nice and far from cold, as Czechs are said to be, but I don't hang out with them outside of class all that often. I had one guy who I had been hanging out with pretty frequently until a couple of weeks ago, when suddenly the dynamics shifted and that was the end of that. I've gone to the cafe a few times with friends and toured around with people a bit. Friday night I went to a birthday party for a few people, one of whom I didn't know. It was pretty much the same as an American party, except for a Czech birthday practice which I think we should adopt (or not, it would probably be awkward the be the birthday person). The "attendees" form a line before the person(s) celebrating their birthday and, one by one, they shake hands or maybe kiss the person, say something sweet, and wish them a very happy birthday. To the girl I didn't know, I shook her hand and awkwardly supplied, "Happy birthday, I like your pants."
As for my free time, I mostly go to the library and translate my Latin book, study Czech, or look at books with lots of pictures. A couple nights a week I go to spinning, and when it's not raining I go on a run. I was delighted to discover that up my road are fields and hills with a bike/tractor/small car path winding through. Someday I'll have to take my camera with me, at sunset. It's gorgeous.
In conclusion, sans the two times I've been verbally assaulted by elderly Czech women at the bus stop, things have been very splendid indeed. Our trip to Hungary never happened, but that's okay, because my exchange company is offering a three-day trip to Budapest in the spring. There are ones to a number of European cities and then ski trips and such. I'm hoping to go to Budapest and also Krakow. I only have two days of school this week, as Wednesday and Thursday are "Autumn Holiday" and Friday is a state holiday, commemorating the formation of Czechoslovakia. I don't have plans yet, but perhaps, maybe, I'm hoping, I'll go to Prague and see some friends.
XOXO
Oh, and I've been collecting Czech Curiosities on a page in my planner, so expect Part II sometime this week. Also, my computer refused to import the photos from my camera so that's why there's only one of my school, taken on my phone.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Zámky, Hrady
First off, digression. That's the word I was searching for two posts back. It came to me two days ago.
I need to talk about my host family's animals at some point, and since this is going to be a completely random post anyhow (what happens when you cruelly neglect your blog during a busy period), now's a good time. We have 4 dogs at home: 2 Tosa-Inus (big dogs) and 2 little fluffy dogs. Here's Maggie, love of my life:
My favorite pet, though, is far and away Merlin the Parrot. He talks and whistles and screams (yes, I swear he does). He's a bilingual parrot, in fact. He can greet you with a "Good morning". Usually, though, he just shrieks and shrills. Somehow, it's lovable.
I also have a babička now, I just realized! Not quite as fantastic as having a babushka would be, but I'll take it. She's the grandmother I told you about before, and she stills feeds me too much and talks at me in Czech as if I understand. I shot myself in the foot a few days ago with her. She had made the sweet knedlíky again (these things are going to kill me - literally, too) and I made a huge fuss over them - "Ohhhhh knedlíiky yum yum YUM wow, those were delicious!" - because I felt bad about never being able to finish the meals she makes and also never understanding what she's saying, you know. But now she thinks I like them, and I see long nights of knedlíky-eating as the clock ticks like it's 2000 and I'm staking out over cold broccoli. I screwed myself over food-wise again that night at dinner. We were having these kebabs and it was dark out (we eat on their patio often) and as I was about to put food into my mouth, Martina went, "You know, you don't have to eat that." I was all, "Lolz it's just a larger-than-usual mushroom no biggie I got this." "...." "What is it, exactly? It's some sort of mushroom, right? It's good, I like it (not true, I get grossed out by mushrooms as it is and this was SO BIG)." After dinner they told me they were happy I liked it, most people don't like chicken livers. Shivers. My family loves to be accommodating and purchase things that I like, so the next day, at the grocery store (wherein we abandoned our shopping cart once again) (Omg how many parentheses can I use in one post), we bought 2 packages of chicken livers.
Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Ah blogs shouldn't be easily available to anyone with a computer or else you get non-entries like this one.
Now for some updating on what I've been doing. I'm going to cover school and the Simple Plan concert in another post since there's no way you have the optical stamina for all of it at once.
A week or so ago we went to Červená Lhota, a castle-chateau-manor place an hour or so away. The word in Czech for those old houses that aren't King Arthur castles but are too old to be called just mansions is zámky. King Arthur castles are hrady. CZE doesn't really have too many hrady (or what I would deem to be hrady), since they're into colorfully painted establishments and not gray stone fortresses. Anyway, this home was so neat - all red. Czechs loooove the color red. Red roofs are super common here. I'll stop talking and just post up pictures. There aren't any of the inside, unfortunately, since photography wasn't allowed. If it were, I would certainly have taken a picture of the giant, woolen dust bunnies we had to wear on our feet for the tour. Czechs and their slippers.
Most of the castle was built in the 1500s and 1600s.
It's nestled in something of an island atop this river.
A couple days later, Valí and I went to the castle in our town. It's the JH "zámek a hrad". If you can't decide, why not just call it both, right? We didn't take a tour, just strolled about in the two courtyards.
The stones here are fake - it's just gray paint. Czechs and their paint.
Czechs and their lots-of-things.
Gorgeous dome over the well. Way to keep it classy.
The gold'-leafed auditorium of sorts. I guess the balls actually took place just below this room. There's a man-hole in the floor so the sound can travel through.
Courtyard no. two
Rondel- the rotunda
Oh, hey. Behind me is the pond\small lake Vajgar.
Reverse side of the rotunda.
River behind the castle.
We biked around a bit of my town afterwards so I could take some pictures for you.
My town, on the edge of Vajgar. Further "in" is my school and the main area with all the shops, but there's some stuff behind (that river, which flows into Vajgar), to the left (the castle) and to the right (the hospital, apartments, some shops and restaurants, a pizza parlor called Pizza Herb)
The town's main square. It's not actually as big as it seems here.
I love all the differently-colored buildings in this country.
Main Street, sort of. It leads to the "up" square.
Yep, we've got our own board shop.
Dahaha when the properties of reflection escape you.
Some more of the main street
The smaller square, aka Down Square.
Someday soon I'll take a picture of my school.
Like I said, I'll post again in a few days. I've got to go to bed now, since I have to get up early for tomorrowś spur-of-the-moment day trip to Vienna with Martina and Valí.
XOXO Čau
I need to talk about my host family's animals at some point, and since this is going to be a completely random post anyhow (what happens when you cruelly neglect your blog during a busy period), now's a good time. We have 4 dogs at home: 2 Tosa-Inus (big dogs) and 2 little fluffy dogs. Here's Maggie, love of my life:
I also have a babička now, I just realized! Not quite as fantastic as having a babushka would be, but I'll take it. She's the grandmother I told you about before, and she stills feeds me too much and talks at me in Czech as if I understand. I shot myself in the foot a few days ago with her. She had made the sweet knedlíky again (these things are going to kill me - literally, too) and I made a huge fuss over them - "Ohhhhh knedlíiky yum yum YUM wow, those were delicious!" - because I felt bad about never being able to finish the meals she makes and also never understanding what she's saying, you know. But now she thinks I like them, and I see long nights of knedlíky-eating as the clock ticks like it's 2000 and I'm staking out over cold broccoli. I screwed myself over food-wise again that night at dinner. We were having these kebabs and it was dark out (we eat on their patio often) and as I was about to put food into my mouth, Martina went, "You know, you don't have to eat that." I was all, "Lolz it's just a larger-than-usual mushroom no biggie I got this." "...." "What is it, exactly? It's some sort of mushroom, right? It's good, I like it (not true, I get grossed out by mushrooms as it is and this was SO BIG)." After dinner they told me they were happy I liked it, most people don't like chicken livers. Shivers. My family loves to be accommodating and purchase things that I like, so the next day, at the grocery store (wherein we abandoned our shopping cart once again) (Omg how many parentheses can I use in one post), we bought 2 packages of chicken livers.
Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Ah blogs shouldn't be easily available to anyone with a computer or else you get non-entries like this one.
Now for some updating on what I've been doing. I'm going to cover school and the Simple Plan concert in another post since there's no way you have the optical stamina for all of it at once.
A week or so ago we went to Červená Lhota, a castle-chateau-manor place an hour or so away. The word in Czech for those old houses that aren't King Arthur castles but are too old to be called just mansions is zámky. King Arthur castles are hrady. CZE doesn't really have too many hrady (or what I would deem to be hrady), since they're into colorfully painted establishments and not gray stone fortresses. Anyway, this home was so neat - all red. Czechs loooove the color red. Red roofs are super common here. I'll stop talking and just post up pictures. There aren't any of the inside, unfortunately, since photography wasn't allowed. If it were, I would certainly have taken a picture of the giant, woolen dust bunnies we had to wear on our feet for the tour. Czechs and their slippers.
A couple days later, Valí and I went to the castle in our town. It's the JH "zámek a hrad". If you can't decide, why not just call it both, right? We didn't take a tour, just strolled about in the two courtyards.
Czechs and their lots-of-things.
We biked around a bit of my town afterwards so I could take some pictures for you.
Someday soon I'll take a picture of my school.
Like I said, I'll post again in a few days. I've got to go to bed now, since I have to get up early for tomorrowś spur-of-the-moment day trip to Vienna with Martina and Valí.
XOXO Čau
Friday, August 26, 2011
Czech Curiosities, Part One
Swimming Pool Etiquette: near non-existent. Kids (and sometime teenagers and adults) will cannonball into the water a foot from where you're sitting by the edge of the pool. Splashing is sincerely welcomed by parents. Fortunately, it's been so crazy hot – today it's supposed to be 97 degrees out – that it feels good.
Gum, toothpaste, etc., is menthol-, rather than mint-, flavored. Orange Aquafresh, anyone? Unfortunately, my mouth's forever tasting like a cough drop.
Every adult Czech male sounds the same. It's true. All of them.
**I think this is just my host family** They leave the shopping cart at random locations in the grocery store while they shop. Seriously, we're examining taco seasoning while the cart chills in the refrigerated vegetables section.
Sweetened Condensed Milk...for a snack? It's sold in tubes by Piknik brand, and you chow down on it, tube nozzle-to-mouth. Every six-year-old and Paula Deen's dream come true.
Czechs eat ridiculously fast. I don't even know where they put the food. I am quite literally shoveling food in, yet I still finish minutes after the rest of my host family (and yes, we're counting in minutes, because here, a meal is gone in 5 minutes flat). The other day we had sweet knedliky, or dumplings, that my host grandmother made. I asked for three, received four. Valentína and Martina finished all of theirs in a couple minutes. About ten minutes later, I had barely finished my third. Just so you know what a feat this was, the dish consisted of:
They can't get enough of Bruno Mars. Or Shakira and Adele. Europa 2 plays Rabiosa, Someone Like You, and an array of Bruno Mars songs each hour of the day. They some really great older stuff though, too.
They're even more obsessed with the word "so" than we are. The word is "tak" in Czech, and, like its English equivalent, it can be used as "So...what do you want to do today?" or as "Omg, you look so pretty!!" It's used ALL over the place.
Everyone drinks flavored water. Looooooove this. I haven't had a glass of water straight up since arriving at my host family's home.
More to come later, I've racked my brain enough for now.
To give you a quick little update on what I've been up to lately, yesterday I went into České Budejovice to report myself, and paid a man $150 to take my fingerprints and...yeah, that's pretty much it.
Today we are going to the pool again.
We didn't go into Prague like I said we would because it's been too hot. We are going on the 2nd, though, for a Simple Plan concert. And possibly December 7th, for Rihanna? Tickets are sold out here, but not in Austria, so we should get on that. (I guess they make only a certain amount available to the Czech Republic. Interesting.)
School starts the first of September. Eeeeeek. On the bright side, if I were in the US, it would have begun yesterday.
I taught my host mother to make the "th" sound. Although, now it kind of just sounds like she has a really gnarly lisp, haha. She has a totally German accent when speaking English, I love it. Valentína sometimes remembers to do the "th", and I think most Czechs can do it, it's just that it takes a lot of extra effort.
There are still a plethora of Czech sounds I can't make.
Tic-Tac has released a new flavor, Grape. It is delicious. A strong competitor against Orange, I daresay.
XOXO
NOOOOOOOOOO "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green just came on the radio. My ears, my ears...What loony from the crazy bin sent this cross the Atlantic?!?! Whoa, I've never heard it with the F-word before. It so doesn't fit the beat of the song, haha.
Gum, toothpaste, etc., is menthol-, rather than mint-, flavored. Orange Aquafresh, anyone? Unfortunately, my mouth's forever tasting like a cough drop.
Every adult Czech male sounds the same. It's true. All of them.
**I think this is just my host family** They leave the shopping cart at random locations in the grocery store while they shop. Seriously, we're examining taco seasoning while the cart chills in the refrigerated vegetables section.
Sweetened Condensed Milk...for a snack? It's sold in tubes by Piknik brand, and you chow down on it, tube nozzle-to-mouth. Every six-year-old and Paula Deen's dream come true.
Czechs eat ridiculously fast. I don't even know where they put the food. I am quite literally shoveling food in, yet I still finish minutes after the rest of my host family (and yes, we're counting in minutes, because here, a meal is gone in 5 minutes flat). The other day we had sweet knedliky, or dumplings, that my host grandmother made. I asked for three, received four. Valentína and Martina finished all of theirs in a couple minutes. About ten minutes later, I had barely finished my third. Just so you know what a feat this was, the dish consisted of:
- 3 or 4-inch diameter dumplings stuffed with a peach and raspberry filling
- A good two-thirds cup of some sort of cheese curd sprinkled atop
- Roughly a quarter-cup melted butter drizzle
- A healthy dollop of cream
- Cinnamon-sugar over top, to ensure we hit the 1000-calorie mark
They can't get enough of Bruno Mars. Or Shakira and Adele. Europa 2 plays Rabiosa, Someone Like You, and an array of Bruno Mars songs each hour of the day. They some really great older stuff though, too.
They're even more obsessed with the word "so" than we are. The word is "tak" in Czech, and, like its English equivalent, it can be used as "So...what do you want to do today?" or as "Omg, you look so pretty!!" It's used ALL over the place.
Everyone drinks flavored water. Looooooove this. I haven't had a glass of water straight up since arriving at my host family's home.
More to come later, I've racked my brain enough for now.
To give you a quick little update on what I've been up to lately, yesterday I went into České Budejovice to report myself, and paid a man $150 to take my fingerprints and...yeah, that's pretty much it.
Today we are going to the pool again.
We didn't go into Prague like I said we would because it's been too hot. We are going on the 2nd, though, for a Simple Plan concert. And possibly December 7th, for Rihanna? Tickets are sold out here, but not in Austria, so we should get on that. (I guess they make only a certain amount available to the Czech Republic. Interesting.)
School starts the first of September. Eeeeeek. On the bright side, if I were in the US, it would have begun yesterday.
I taught my host mother to make the "th" sound. Although, now it kind of just sounds like she has a really gnarly lisp, haha. She has a totally German accent when speaking English, I love it. Valentína sometimes remembers to do the "th", and I think most Czechs can do it, it's just that it takes a lot of extra effort.
There are still a plethora of Czech sounds I can't make.
Tic-Tac has released a new flavor, Grape. It is delicious. A strong competitor against Orange, I daresay.
XOXO
NOOOOOOOOOO "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green just came on the radio. My ears, my ears...What loony from the crazy bin sent this cross the Atlantic?!?! Whoa, I've never heard it with the F-word before. It so doesn't fit the beat of the song, haha.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Host Family! And Salad.
Hellooo, I am in Jindřichův Hradec! This is my second night. I don't have photos of the house, but I will soon-ish, probably. I'm a bit nervous to walk around my house with a camera, haha. Let's see....from the beginning?
Yesterday afternoon, our families came to the hotel. Valentina and my host parents were there, and they are perfectly wonderful. My host mom even cried a little bit, d'aww. On the car ride home, we talked a bunch – about what, I can't remember – and it was only minimally awkward. The radio, as you would expect, is all American songs. Some old-ish, some new. Right now, in my host sister's room, we're listening to Cupid's Chokehold. Wait–počkej!– it just changed to If You Seek Amy. Speaking of which, the f-word isn't bleeped out on the radio here. The volunteers at camp used it more freely than most of us in the States would, which I guess makes sense as it isn't their own language. My host father doesn't speak English and is a workaholic they say, so I can't tell you much about him at the moment, only that he appears nice, hah. My host mom is very kind, smiley, appears younger than she really is, fit, amazing. Valí is super nice, a hip–hop dancer, funny, and pretty. She and her mom speak a good amount of English; their accents are adorable. They say that they love my accent, that it makes English sound so pretty. I'm so flattered! Apparently they don't like the sound of the British accent. I told them every American would love to hear that. Valentína always has her iPhone to translate the rarer words which is definitely helpful. It's our best friend. Náš nejlepší kamarád. Yes, friend is kamarád\kamarádka here, ahah. Her English is much better than she thinks it is, and definitely better than most Czech kids her age, as she has a weekly tutor. The only thing is that she uses "there" for both there and here, which makes for some communication mix-ups, haha.
The house has a big yard with a tarped pond, lawn, and garden, and a table with a flower bed beside it, where we ate dinner this evening. The weather right now is really hot, like 34 degrees Celsius. I am told anything over 30= hot. I share a room with Valentína. Her waterbed is fabulous. We all share a bathroom, but Czechs apparently shower at night usually, so it shouldn't be a problem. They even hired a carpenter to install a big dresser-type-thing into the wall of a closet they had been using as storage for my clothes. Oh, and I'll have a bedroom of my own in a couple of months? Yeah. They had been contemplating building one for a while now, but put the plan into action recently. Also, they bought me some toothpaste, towels, body wash, Elizabeth Arden lotion that smells amazing oh my God, and a rack to put it all on. Also, they just last week put in an American-style glass-walled shower. C'est fantastique. Oh, and the Czech....I don't know so much right now, but AFS says in 3 months I will be able to understand what's being said. The downstairs of the house looks quite Swedish – modern furniture, nice Siemens appliances, all-around clean.
I live outside of JH in a village called Otín. It's a five- to ten-minute drive from the city. The city of JH is über-cute. There are pastel-colored buildings, cobbled streets, and two town squares. Naměstí Míru and Naměstí Soměthíng. Down Square and Up Square. We drove past my school, which is a gorgeous white stone building. I guess the inside isn't quite so spectacular, or so Valí says. There are 90 or so people per grade; I don't know where all the kids went, haha. Some go to different vocational schools, but still. For a 25,000 person town, this boggles my mind. I guess it's normal though: a Czech volunteer whom I was talking to at camp, upon hearing that there around 700, maybe a bit less in total, students per grade in my town of 21K, asked, "Is there anyone in the city over 18?!" School begins the 5th of September, a bit late for Czech schools.
When we got home last night at a quarter to 4, they showed me the house and then I showered and unpacked before leaving to dinner at 5. We ate at the Černej Pt'ak, or Black Bird. They had salad! And not just iceberg lettuce and cucumber, the works. I had pork with chantarelles in a cream sauce, delicious. They provided me with an English menu, but my host brother (Oh, his name is Jan and he is on holiday here for a couple of days. He normally lives in Prague. He's very nice and helps translate when Valí or Martina don't know a word as he spent a year in England four years ago, when he was 22. He plays ricochet, which is like racquetball, and runs. Martina's mom is here too. She lives in the city, is young, and offers me too much food.) I fell asleep shortly after getting home, at 8:30. I slept for 14 hours, and am now done with sleeping forever.
Valentína fixed me her normal breakfast of cereal and bananas over yogurt. The yogurt here is better than the American kind, somehow. At home, they don't drink normal water, but water with a splash of German elderberry syrup. It's delicious. I need to get some sort of indoor shoes. I keep on forgetting to not go barefoot inside. You have to at least wear socks. Also necessary are slippers for school. Weirdness. I'll have to get some soon. A couple hours later we ate lunch: chicken in a cream sauce and salad, super good salad with peppers and mozzarella and arugula and tomatoes and balsamic. We had elderberry water again and a dessert afterward, a Kinder bar. They're German chocolate bars filled with puffed rice and some sort of white, creamy, nouget-type heavenliness. God, it's good. After we had that (Valentíina and I), Martina went, "Ice cream?" Uh, I'm going to have to pass on that if I am to retain any hopes of not gaining ten kilos while I'm here, thanks.
Brief sidestory. (What's the word I mean? When you break away from whatever you were saying for a minute or two. I've just spent 10 minutes performing a fruitless search on thesaurus.com.) The European conversions are throwing a wrench into my life. I'll ask how far someone's city is from mine or Prague or something and they'll be like, 140 km, far away. I'll take your word for it. I have no idea what km mean as the math takes too long, and even if it were in miles I wouldn't know what to do with the information. Give me hours in a car. The whole Celsius thing will also take some getting used to, as will the 24-hour time. They fortunately use both here, but the kitchen clock is 24-style.
I'd forgotten, before lunch we went into town to buy me a swimsuit, Sim card, and withdraw money. Yes, I forgot my swimsuit. I don't know where it went, I folded up and set it in the pile...it's so strange shopping here, as the prices are so "high". 1 USD = 17 CZK (koruny, or crowns). I withdrew 1,000 koruny at the ATM, which yields $58.75. The machine I used didn't charge me any fees. After lunch, Valí, Jan, and I went to the waterpark "aquapark". We were there for a few hours. Czechs are definitely thinner overall, and between all ages. It wasn't just young people that were thin, but the middle-aged too. Young men are more muscular (duh, but you know what I mean) and thin than young women, who generally aren't that toned. The little kids, though, look straight out of a Russian gymnastics school, seriously. After a couple of hours we went home, showered, and had dinner: a panini with super good, kind of Asian-tasting chicken, lettuce, water chestnuts, AVOCADO, and onion. My host mom loves avocado, yayyy. She says sometimes she eats it Cuban-style, on its own with honey and vanilla sugar. Sounds glorious, right?
After dinner, which was around 8, Valí and I went up to her room, and we've been on our computers ever since. :)
Tomorrow I think we might go to the aquapark again, as well as get a Sim card since T-Mobile was closed and buy Simple Plan tickets. They're coming to Prague on Sept. 2nd. Ohh, and we might go to Prague (Praha) on Thursday. Valentína's uncle lives there and will show us around. Woohoooooo.
Na schledanou!
XOXO
Yesterday afternoon, our families came to the hotel. Valentina and my host parents were there, and they are perfectly wonderful. My host mom even cried a little bit, d'aww. On the car ride home, we talked a bunch – about what, I can't remember – and it was only minimally awkward. The radio, as you would expect, is all American songs. Some old-ish, some new. Right now, in my host sister's room, we're listening to Cupid's Chokehold. Wait–počkej!– it just changed to If You Seek Amy. Speaking of which, the f-word isn't bleeped out on the radio here. The volunteers at camp used it more freely than most of us in the States would, which I guess makes sense as it isn't their own language. My host father doesn't speak English and is a workaholic they say, so I can't tell you much about him at the moment, only that he appears nice, hah. My host mom is very kind, smiley, appears younger than she really is, fit, amazing. Valí is super nice, a hip–hop dancer, funny, and pretty. She and her mom speak a good amount of English; their accents are adorable. They say that they love my accent, that it makes English sound so pretty. I'm so flattered! Apparently they don't like the sound of the British accent. I told them every American would love to hear that. Valentína always has her iPhone to translate the rarer words which is definitely helpful. It's our best friend. Náš nejlepší kamarád. Yes, friend is kamarád\kamarádka here, ahah. Her English is much better than she thinks it is, and definitely better than most Czech kids her age, as she has a weekly tutor. The only thing is that she uses "there" for both there and here, which makes for some communication mix-ups, haha.
The house has a big yard with a tarped pond, lawn, and garden, and a table with a flower bed beside it, where we ate dinner this evening. The weather right now is really hot, like 34 degrees Celsius. I am told anything over 30= hot. I share a room with Valentína. Her waterbed is fabulous. We all share a bathroom, but Czechs apparently shower at night usually, so it shouldn't be a problem. They even hired a carpenter to install a big dresser-type-thing into the wall of a closet they had been using as storage for my clothes. Oh, and I'll have a bedroom of my own in a couple of months? Yeah. They had been contemplating building one for a while now, but put the plan into action recently. Also, they bought me some toothpaste, towels, body wash, Elizabeth Arden lotion that smells amazing oh my God, and a rack to put it all on. Also, they just last week put in an American-style glass-walled shower. C'est fantastique. Oh, and the Czech....I don't know so much right now, but AFS says in 3 months I will be able to understand what's being said. The downstairs of the house looks quite Swedish – modern furniture, nice Siemens appliances, all-around clean.
I live outside of JH in a village called Otín. It's a five- to ten-minute drive from the city. The city of JH is über-cute. There are pastel-colored buildings, cobbled streets, and two town squares. Naměstí Míru and Naměstí Soměthíng. Down Square and Up Square. We drove past my school, which is a gorgeous white stone building. I guess the inside isn't quite so spectacular, or so Valí says. There are 90 or so people per grade; I don't know where all the kids went, haha. Some go to different vocational schools, but still. For a 25,000 person town, this boggles my mind. I guess it's normal though: a Czech volunteer whom I was talking to at camp, upon hearing that there around 700, maybe a bit less in total, students per grade in my town of 21K, asked, "Is there anyone in the city over 18?!" School begins the 5th of September, a bit late for Czech schools.
When we got home last night at a quarter to 4, they showed me the house and then I showered and unpacked before leaving to dinner at 5. We ate at the Černej Pt'ak, or Black Bird. They had salad! And not just iceberg lettuce and cucumber, the works. I had pork with chantarelles in a cream sauce, delicious. They provided me with an English menu, but my host brother (Oh, his name is Jan and he is on holiday here for a couple of days. He normally lives in Prague. He's very nice and helps translate when Valí or Martina don't know a word as he spent a year in England four years ago, when he was 22. He plays ricochet, which is like racquetball, and runs. Martina's mom is here too. She lives in the city, is young, and offers me too much food.) I fell asleep shortly after getting home, at 8:30. I slept for 14 hours, and am now done with sleeping forever.
Valentína fixed me her normal breakfast of cereal and bananas over yogurt. The yogurt here is better than the American kind, somehow. At home, they don't drink normal water, but water with a splash of German elderberry syrup. It's delicious. I need to get some sort of indoor shoes. I keep on forgetting to not go barefoot inside. You have to at least wear socks. Also necessary are slippers for school. Weirdness. I'll have to get some soon. A couple hours later we ate lunch: chicken in a cream sauce and salad, super good salad with peppers and mozzarella and arugula and tomatoes and balsamic. We had elderberry water again and a dessert afterward, a Kinder bar. They're German chocolate bars filled with puffed rice and some sort of white, creamy, nouget-type heavenliness. God, it's good. After we had that (Valentíina and I), Martina went, "Ice cream?" Uh, I'm going to have to pass on that if I am to retain any hopes of not gaining ten kilos while I'm here, thanks.
Brief sidestory. (What's the word I mean? When you break away from whatever you were saying for a minute or two. I've just spent 10 minutes performing a fruitless search on thesaurus.com.) The European conversions are throwing a wrench into my life. I'll ask how far someone's city is from mine or Prague or something and they'll be like, 140 km, far away. I'll take your word for it. I have no idea what km mean as the math takes too long, and even if it were in miles I wouldn't know what to do with the information. Give me hours in a car. The whole Celsius thing will also take some getting used to, as will the 24-hour time. They fortunately use both here, but the kitchen clock is 24-style.
I'd forgotten, before lunch we went into town to buy me a swimsuit, Sim card, and withdraw money. Yes, I forgot my swimsuit. I don't know where it went, I folded up and set it in the pile...it's so strange shopping here, as the prices are so "high". 1 USD = 17 CZK (koruny, or crowns). I withdrew 1,000 koruny at the ATM, which yields $58.75. The machine I used didn't charge me any fees. After lunch, Valí, Jan, and I went to the waterpark "aquapark". We were there for a few hours. Czechs are definitely thinner overall, and between all ages. It wasn't just young people that were thin, but the middle-aged too. Young men are more muscular (duh, but you know what I mean) and thin than young women, who generally aren't that toned. The little kids, though, look straight out of a Russian gymnastics school, seriously. After a couple of hours we went home, showered, and had dinner: a panini with super good, kind of Asian-tasting chicken, lettuce, water chestnuts, AVOCADO, and onion. My host mom loves avocado, yayyy. She says sometimes she eats it Cuban-style, on its own with honey and vanilla sugar. Sounds glorious, right?
After dinner, which was around 8, Valí and I went up to her room, and we've been on our computers ever since. :)
Tomorrow I think we might go to the aquapark again, as well as get a Sim card since T-Mobile was closed and buy Simple Plan tickets. They're coming to Prague on Sept. 2nd. Ohh, and we might go to Prague (Praha) on Thursday. Valentína's uncle lives there and will show us around. Woohoooooo.
Na schledanou!
XOXO
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Orientation
So, apparently the hotel we are staying at, Mlýn Brejlov along the river Zasáva, has internet, I just found out...this is going to be short again since I am about to go to bed, as it's around 2 AM.
Athena, the other girl from the US, and I on the flight from Zurich to Prague:
On Friday after the rest of the AFSers arrived we took an hour-long bus ride to the hotel.
Sooo cute--taken from the internet.
We did some group stuff (I can't remember) and went to bed. There are around 60 or so total exchanging to CZE via AFS, but 20 will not come until mid-September (Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, a couple other countries). Here now are represented the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Japan. Saturday we woke up, talked about exchange, sort of the usual what-to-expect and such, ate our first überCzech meal: knedlo-vepřo-zelo (dumplings, pork, sauer kraut). Their dumplings here are less heavy, more spongy and are sliced, like bread. It looks like this, except ours was with red cabbage and the knedliky were white:
Next we talked some more, and then had a country-by-country talent show. Athena and I did the cup game, you know where you tap and move around the cup making a rhythm and then exchange it at the end. With red Solo cups from America, of course. We then took a night walk through the woods, came back, wrote letters to ourselves, and chilled and talked with everyone for a while. The weekend has been your typical camp, so there's not a whole lot to say about it of interest to you. There are more photos, but they weren't taken on my camera so as soon as I receive them I'll post them up here. Tomorrow, well I guess today, we meet our host families.
\excitement
yeah, my keyboard, when switched to Czech, doesn't have a forward slash. Anywhere. I don't even know what backslashes are used with, but I have one.
I will update again and soon once I am at my house. :)
Athena, the other girl from the US, and I on the flight from Zurich to Prague:
On Friday after the rest of the AFSers arrived we took an hour-long bus ride to the hotel.
Sooo cute--taken from the internet.
We did some group stuff (I can't remember) and went to bed. There are around 60 or so total exchanging to CZE via AFS, but 20 will not come until mid-September (Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, a couple other countries). Here now are represented the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Japan. Saturday we woke up, talked about exchange, sort of the usual what-to-expect and such, ate our first überCzech meal: knedlo-vepřo-zelo (dumplings, pork, sauer kraut). Their dumplings here are less heavy, more spongy and are sliced, like bread. It looks like this, except ours was with red cabbage and the knedliky were white:
Next we talked some more, and then had a country-by-country talent show. Athena and I did the cup game, you know where you tap and move around the cup making a rhythm and then exchange it at the end. With red Solo cups from America, of course. We then took a night walk through the woods, came back, wrote letters to ourselves, and chilled and talked with everyone for a while. The weekend has been your typical camp, so there's not a whole lot to say about it of interest to you. There are more photos, but they weren't taken on my camera so as soon as I receive them I'll post them up here. Tomorrow, well I guess today, we meet our host families.
\excitement
yeah, my keyboard, when switched to Czech, doesn't have a forward slash. Anywhere. I don't even know what backslashes are used with, but I have one.
I will update again and soon once I am at my house. :)
Friday, August 19, 2011
V Praze
Just wanted to say that I am at the Prague Airport now, waiting for the rest of the exchangers to arrive. We almost missed our connection, but all's good now.
:)
:)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Pilot
I'll follow the format of every other exchange blog and tell you a little about myself. I suppose my name is a fair place to begin. I'm Anna, American, 17 years old, and tomorrow at 5:50 AM I leave to the Czech Republic for my senior year. The line between excitement and anxiety has since faded and I don't know how I feel at the moment...hopeful and also afraid, afraid of what, exactly, I can't identify.
My program: AFS (American Field Services).
My placement: Jindřichův Hradec, a half-hour's drive from Austria. A town of around 20,000 people, roughly the size of my town here, that being Kalispell, Montana, USA.
My family: Host mother, Martina. Her boyfriend, František. Host sister, Valentína. Valí will be turning 15 in September; we'll be attending the same secondary school (gymnázium) in JH, though our home is outside of town, in a village called Otín. This is all very GoogleMaps-able, just so you know. :)
Contact!
I won't be using Facebook while abroad, so if you're a relative or friend and want to keep in touch\receive a postcard from me at some point, you can email me. Send your address and I'll gladly send a letter or postcard. My email's in the sidebar at right. If you want to send me mail, I'd also happily oblige you with my address :) You can email me for this or ask one of my parents for it. My skype address is anna_elizabeth_h - remember that I am 8 hours ahead, so you had best talk to me beforehand to arrange a time.
I think it might be helpful to write a quick Czech pronunciation guide to give the mental reading voice in your head a leg up.
The biggest rule is that the emphasis is always laid upon the first syllable, giving speech a general downward intonation. For us English-speakers, this is unbelievably weird.
Czech's (and a few other Slavic languages') idiosyncratic characters:
ě - puts a "y" sound before the e. Like "yeh" instead of "eh". děkuju (thank you) = dyeh-kwoo.
š - sh. František = Fran-ti-shek
č - ch. Česká Republika = Ches-kah Re-poob-licka
ž - zh, like in leisure or pleasure. žena (woman) = zhenna
ň - puts a "y" sound after the n sound. úroveň (level) = oo-roh-ven-yeh
ř - a rolled, Spanish-like "r" immediately (simultaneously) followed by a ž\š sound. The most difficult sound you will attempt in your life
ý - ee. pěkný (pretty, lovely, nice) = pyeck-nee
á - ah, in the short "o" way, like the o in mom. já mám (I have) = yah mahm
í - ee
é - eh, but longer
ů, ú - oo. úraz (injury) - oo-ruhz
c - ts, like the last sound in cats. vejce (egg) = vay-tseh
j - y
ou - oh. na shledanou (bye, in the au-revoir sense) = nuh sled-uh-noh
d', t' - adds a "y" sound after the d or t. náklad'ak (truck) = nah-kluh-dyahk. Say it aloud, it's fun.
I think language-wise this about covers everything.
Now let's talk about packing. I am allowed a seemingly nightmare-ish carry-on of 22 pounds and a checked bag of 44. I ended up with a lot of extra room, somehow, and therefore got to bring a few more unnecessary clothing items plus The Collected Poems of WB Yeats. I still have half my carry-on empty and my larger suitcase is far from pushing its maximum occupancy. For any outbounds reading this, the rolling technique is a great one. I also shoved socks into every shoe, nook, and cranny I spotted. That said, it's definitely not space that's your enemy, but rather weight; i.e., get yourself a mother of a tote and stuff everything into that -- jewelry, chargers, journals, language books, laptop. Also, don't think you have to pack, like, 2 weeks ahead of time. As usual I did my homework just before deadline. Easy-peasy.
Before weeding, my room looked like this:
Pretty sure half of those 44 pounds are in toiletries.
The finished product...
I have a few-day orientation when I arrive in CZE so I'll be next posting sometime in the following week.
XOXO
My program: AFS (American Field Services).
My placement: Jindřichův Hradec, a half-hour's drive from Austria. A town of around 20,000 people, roughly the size of my town here, that being Kalispell, Montana, USA.
My family: Host mother, Martina. Her boyfriend, František. Host sister, Valentína. Valí will be turning 15 in September; we'll be attending the same secondary school (gymnázium) in JH, though our home is outside of town, in a village called Otín. This is all very GoogleMaps-able, just so you know. :)
Contact!
I won't be using Facebook while abroad, so if you're a relative or friend and want to keep in touch\receive a postcard from me at some point, you can email me. Send your address and I'll gladly send a letter or postcard. My email's in the sidebar at right. If you want to send me mail, I'd also happily oblige you with my address :) You can email me for this or ask one of my parents for it. My skype address is anna_elizabeth_h - remember that I am 8 hours ahead, so you had best talk to me beforehand to arrange a time.
I think it might be helpful to write a quick Czech pronunciation guide to give the mental reading voice in your head a leg up.
The biggest rule is that the emphasis is always laid upon the first syllable, giving speech a general downward intonation. For us English-speakers, this is unbelievably weird.
Czech's (and a few other Slavic languages') idiosyncratic characters:
ě - puts a "y" sound before the e. Like "yeh" instead of "eh". děkuju (thank you) = dyeh-kwoo.
š - sh. František = Fran-ti-shek
č - ch. Česká Republika = Ches-kah Re-poob-licka
ž - zh, like in leisure or pleasure. žena (woman) = zhenna
ň - puts a "y" sound after the n sound. úroveň (level) = oo-roh-ven-yeh
ř - a rolled, Spanish-like "r" immediately (simultaneously) followed by a ž\š sound. The most difficult sound you will attempt in your life
ý - ee. pěkný (pretty, lovely, nice) = pyeck-nee
á - ah, in the short "o" way, like the o in mom. já mám (I have) = yah mahm
í - ee
é - eh, but longer
ů, ú - oo. úraz (injury) - oo-ruhz
c - ts, like the last sound in cats. vejce (egg) = vay-tseh
j - y
ou - oh. na shledanou (bye, in the au-revoir sense) = nuh sled-uh-noh
d', t' - adds a "y" sound after the d or t. náklad'ak (truck) = nah-kluh-dyahk. Say it aloud, it's fun.
I think language-wise this about covers everything.
Now let's talk about packing. I am allowed a seemingly nightmare-ish carry-on of 22 pounds and a checked bag of 44. I ended up with a lot of extra room, somehow, and therefore got to bring a few more unnecessary clothing items plus The Collected Poems of WB Yeats. I still have half my carry-on empty and my larger suitcase is far from pushing its maximum occupancy. For any outbounds reading this, the rolling technique is a great one. I also shoved socks into every shoe, nook, and cranny I spotted. That said, it's definitely not space that's your enemy, but rather weight; i.e., get yourself a mother of a tote and stuff everything into that -- jewelry, chargers, journals, language books, laptop. Also, don't think you have to pack, like, 2 weeks ahead of time. As usual I did my homework just before deadline. Easy-peasy.
Before weeding, my room looked like this:
Pretty sure half of those 44 pounds are in toiletries.
I have a few-day orientation when I arrive in CZE so I'll be next posting sometime in the following week.
XOXO
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