Birthday Party

So today was my birthday party. I was pretty worried before just because I wasn't sure who all was coming, but i knew that there was going to be a language barrier. But that all was part of the fun.

So it ended up being me, 3 girls from my class, and 2 exchange students from Thailand. I had invited 3 other girls, and maria, the exchange student from Brazil, who I hope to become better friends with, but they couldn't make it for various reasons. It turned out well though.

I spent this morning making brownies. They turned out good (looked a little intersting -I have photos I'll post later), and I think are definitely different than what you find here. Buying ingredients was interesting. Things come in different forms. Anyway, we had brownies, chocolate cake made by my host mom, czech pizza (good with paprikas, ham, and a strange ketchup tomato sauce) and mineralku. We ended up playing cards (I taught them cribbage, and maybe it will end up on three continents =) Oey and Mint taught us a thai game, and then Pavla, Silva and Misha taught us a czech game). Trying to teach cribbage in english is difficult enough, but this ended up being german, english with some czech thrown in! After all of this, we went walking through Neplachovice, talking about various things. It ended up going really well.

And presents. Here, it is customary to give flowers, so I got some flowers, but also some other cool things. When you give a present, you take the hand of the person you are giving it to and wish them good health, a happy life, and love, and friendship etc. It is different, but definitely a cool custom. I took pictures of the things I got, and will post them later. They are given as small gestures, so usually are just a small something, but it is meant with a lot (see above with handshake). That was cool.

I'm really glad I took the step and invited people over, even when I was nervous. This is a year of me reaching out, and trying new things, and then taking what I learned home, and finding out what it is I like from both places, and then using that as the slightly modified Becca. I am keeping an open mind and trying new things, because if I try it once and don't like it I don't have to do it again.