So I'm not actually leaving on a jet plane, but this song encompasses a lot of what I am feeling right now about leaving the other exchange students in Opava.
All my bags are packed
Im ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome
I could die
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Theres so many times
Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Evry place I go, Ill think of you
Evry song I sing, Ill sing for you
When I come back, Ill bring your wedding ring
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
Ill be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say
Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
But, Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Words and music by john denver
So tomorrow at 5, I leave to go to Brno to stay until I have a new family. There was the possibility of staying with Mint until then, which I sort of want to do just to be close to her, Maria and Oey, but I think I'm ready to be in a new place. I just feel like I'm leaving my best friends all over again (and it was hard enough one time).
čtvrtek, listopadu 23, 2006
středa, listopadu 22, 2006
well...
So lately i haven't been spending that much time at home because things are just awkward. Basically right now it's just a place to sleep. But today when I got home Pavel said, Friday we are driving to Brno with all your things and you are going to go live with Eva (one of the volunteers) for a while. This is really strange and really sudden. I have no idea what is going on. I don't know if I am leaving Opava for good, or just temporarily or what. So now I have to pack, and tell my teacher, and my basketball coach, and my drumming instructor and everyone. I don't know what is happening. This is not a feeling I like.
pondělí, listopadu 20, 2006
neděle, listopadu 19, 2006
Unexpected News
So I just thought it would be good to update on something kind of big. I think for everything this is kind of unexpected, but I am changing families. There are multiple reasons that I won't go into detail about at this current time, but maybe later. Anyway, I'm not sure when exactly I will be switching, or where I will be, but when I have more news I will let you know.
čtvrtek, listopadu 16, 2006
Just a little update...
So I had a question in the comments about what ostrey means. It means spicy. It is important to the previous story for a reason I think I forgot to mention. Mint, one of the girls from Thailand, is in love with "extra ostrey ketchup". You can't get a lot of spicy things here, and that is probably the spiciest. It's funny though because the other Thai girl can't stand spicy food. Just goes to show that you don't need to like spicy food to live in Thailand.
Anyway, today. Today was the first time I have been invited anywhere with any of my classmates. Yesterday, a girl in my Russian class (not my actual class, but w/e) asked me if I wanted to go to a čajovna (tea room) with her and some of her friends. So today I went. It was fun. We went and drank tea and they got a hookah. I tried it, and I have to say it was interesting. I don't think I'll be taking it up more than occassionally, but it was in interesting experience. Her friends were really nice, and I realized my czech isn't half bad. One of them spoke pretty good english, so towards the end we had a little conversation in english. It was good.
The bus ride home was funny. The bus cam 35 minutes late (not completely unusual), and it was PACKED. And I mean, there were people in the entire bus, including the door wells and things. Anyway, it was funny.
I have to go to basketball now. čau.
Anyway, today. Today was the first time I have been invited anywhere with any of my classmates. Yesterday, a girl in my Russian class (not my actual class, but w/e) asked me if I wanted to go to a čajovna (tea room) with her and some of her friends. So today I went. It was fun. We went and drank tea and they got a hookah. I tried it, and I have to say it was interesting. I don't think I'll be taking it up more than occassionally, but it was in interesting experience. Her friends were really nice, and I realized my czech isn't half bad. One of them spoke pretty good english, so towards the end we had a little conversation in english. It was good.
The bus ride home was funny. The bus cam 35 minutes late (not completely unusual), and it was PACKED. And I mean, there were people in the entire bus, including the door wells and things. Anyway, it was funny.
I have to go to basketball now. čau.
pondělí, listopadu 13, 2006
And...ostrey it is!!
So sorry again for the long wait. I've been relatively busy. I will now proceed to update you on the goings of this last weekend, which I have to say was pretty fun.
So it started Friday night. I thought we were going on our first "family trip" but of course, we don't do that, so it was just an outing. It was my host aunts 30th birthday, and she was celebrating in a town about an hour away. It turns out that Dasi and Luci weren't coming, and instead staying home, and so it was just Dana, Pavel and me. It was an interesting party, but I can't say it was much fun for me. I did try whiskey for the first time, which in very small increments isn't half bad. Most of the time I spent finishing Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (very good book which, despite the fact I had to read it for school, I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a uh, interesting account of the US in the 1960s). We ended up leaving at like 1:30. And yeah, it wasn't all that exciting, especially due to the fact I thought originally it was going to be like a little trip where we could, I don't know, bond more or something. Anyway, that was the low point of the weekend, but it only got better.
Saturday morning was spent reading, doing homework and raking leaves (not fun in 0 degrees). At like 4 some "family friends" came over who have a three year old daughter, tripling the noise level in the house. Everyone that my family socializes with has little kids. It's definitely not something I'm used to, and not something I particularly care for, but I am learning to tolerate them. Anywho. Saturday night I went to a movie with Mint and Oey (students from Thailand). We went to go see "She's the Man", which was in English with Czech subtitles. It was really funny. We spent the whole movie laughing. We had all already seen it, but agreed that Channing Tatum is quite a looker. After that we went for pizza. We had like 2 and a half hours before my train left, which we originally thought was such a long time. We ended up having pizza, and ice cream and trying these strange, but good, hot juice things. Before we realized it, I had five minutes to get my train, and the station is at least a 25 minute walk away. We tried to find a bus, but buses don't like runing on weekends. So I ended up missing my train. The 2.5 hours was spent talking, laughing and eating, and went by like nothing. We decided that maybe I should just sleep at mint's house because my next train wasn't for another 2 hours. Anyway, we were going to take the trolley bus to her house, but we had just missed it, so we ran to the next stop, but we had just missed that one too. So we walked the 30 minutes to her house, just laughing and talking. It was great.
Once there, we watched yet another movie: Kill Bill 2. I have never seen it, and this was in czech. It was funny because every so often mint would tell me what was going on. It was great. Then was bed.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast etc. Then we decided that we would go to Globus (like wal mart) to buy food to make Thai food for dinner. We also then decided to see if Maria wanted to go. Despite the fact that she lives in Opava, she has only riden the trolley buses like twice in two months. So it was a tangled web of sms conversations trying to get her to understand which bus to take, and then we left. It was a rather uneventful ride to Globus, where we perused the aisles, getting some things to cook with (Globus has a rather large selection of thai food) waiting for maria to say that she was there. After like an hour, we called her, and apparently she hadn't left her house yet. So we went on with the next part of our journey: Tesco. It had started raining, so we ran to the bus stop, and then once the bus started, we weren't sure if it was actually going where we wanted. It was, so all was okay. Tesco is like, Target, I guess in comparison to Globus (wal-mart). This time was spent going to the bank, finding mint a jacket and buying some eye drops. There we met maria, haggled (in czech) with a shop assistant about the price of a jacket, and then headed back to mint's house.
Once there we waited for oey, and then proceeded to cook multitudes of thai food (well, three things; one spicy and very good, 2 not and also very good). Between the shrimp, onions and various sauces, it started smelling really good.
That is a short synopsis of my weekend. It was really fun. Yeah, that's it for now.
So it started Friday night. I thought we were going on our first "family trip" but of course, we don't do that, so it was just an outing. It was my host aunts 30th birthday, and she was celebrating in a town about an hour away. It turns out that Dasi and Luci weren't coming, and instead staying home, and so it was just Dana, Pavel and me. It was an interesting party, but I can't say it was much fun for me. I did try whiskey for the first time, which in very small increments isn't half bad. Most of the time I spent finishing Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (very good book which, despite the fact I had to read it for school, I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a uh, interesting account of the US in the 1960s). We ended up leaving at like 1:30. And yeah, it wasn't all that exciting, especially due to the fact I thought originally it was going to be like a little trip where we could, I don't know, bond more or something. Anyway, that was the low point of the weekend, but it only got better.
Saturday morning was spent reading, doing homework and raking leaves (not fun in 0 degrees). At like 4 some "family friends" came over who have a three year old daughter, tripling the noise level in the house. Everyone that my family socializes with has little kids. It's definitely not something I'm used to, and not something I particularly care for, but I am learning to tolerate them. Anywho. Saturday night I went to a movie with Mint and Oey (students from Thailand). We went to go see "She's the Man", which was in English with Czech subtitles. It was really funny. We spent the whole movie laughing. We had all already seen it, but agreed that Channing Tatum is quite a looker. After that we went for pizza. We had like 2 and a half hours before my train left, which we originally thought was such a long time. We ended up having pizza, and ice cream and trying these strange, but good, hot juice things. Before we realized it, I had five minutes to get my train, and the station is at least a 25 minute walk away. We tried to find a bus, but buses don't like runing on weekends. So I ended up missing my train. The 2.5 hours was spent talking, laughing and eating, and went by like nothing. We decided that maybe I should just sleep at mint's house because my next train wasn't for another 2 hours. Anyway, we were going to take the trolley bus to her house, but we had just missed it, so we ran to the next stop, but we had just missed that one too. So we walked the 30 minutes to her house, just laughing and talking. It was great.
Once there, we watched yet another movie: Kill Bill 2. I have never seen it, and this was in czech. It was funny because every so often mint would tell me what was going on. It was great. Then was bed.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast etc. Then we decided that we would go to Globus (like wal mart) to buy food to make Thai food for dinner. We also then decided to see if Maria wanted to go. Despite the fact that she lives in Opava, she has only riden the trolley buses like twice in two months. So it was a tangled web of sms conversations trying to get her to understand which bus to take, and then we left. It was a rather uneventful ride to Globus, where we perused the aisles, getting some things to cook with (Globus has a rather large selection of thai food) waiting for maria to say that she was there. After like an hour, we called her, and apparently she hadn't left her house yet. So we went on with the next part of our journey: Tesco. It had started raining, so we ran to the bus stop, and then once the bus started, we weren't sure if it was actually going where we wanted. It was, so all was okay. Tesco is like, Target, I guess in comparison to Globus (wal-mart). This time was spent going to the bank, finding mint a jacket and buying some eye drops. There we met maria, haggled (in czech) with a shop assistant about the price of a jacket, and then headed back to mint's house.
Once there we waited for oey, and then proceeded to cook multitudes of thai food (well, three things; one spicy and very good, 2 not and also very good). Between the shrimp, onions and various sauces, it started smelling really good.
That is a short synopsis of my weekend. It was really fun. Yeah, that's it for now.
pondělí, listopadu 06, 2006
AFS Camp
So I got back last night from my third AFS camp, and I have to say it was probably one of my favorite. Okay, so seeing as I have only had three, one is kind of a lot, but anyway.
This one was in Brno (2nd biggest city in the czech republic; south moravia). We actually got to see some of the city, which was nice. On Friday I left Opava at around 8 with the 3 other exchange students from Opava, and one host sister of one of them. We got to Brno at like 1 (yay for 5 hour train rides to a place that is only 2 hours by car!). In the train station we met another Brazilian living in southern moravia, and then attempted to find this "shopping gallery" that is near the train station (after stashing our stuff in lockers for the next 4 hours). Those next four hours consisted of eating, shopping and trying to figure out where the thai girls were.
At 5:15 we went to get our stuff, and try and find everyone. It was cool to see everyone again. We found a map in the train station and figured out where everyone lived. EVERYONE lives in the south. There are 4 of us in Opava, one person like 40km away, and then everyone else lives south of Olomouc (about 2 hours by train).
Friday consisted of getting to the camp, which was on the "edge" of Brno in a scout camp, which is just basically where the trams stopped, eating a typical czech dinner (small), and then heading back into the city to go to a disco. The disco was really fun. It was my second (third technically, I guess), but definitely the best so far. I decided that it's fun when you have people to dance with, and then go talk to. I discovered dancing CAN be fun, even if you look really stupid. This was also another czech drinking experience. I stuck to my limits and had a beer, and then tried some other things that other people had. It was intersting and I have to say I am not really a fan of whiskey or tacquila, though fusion and some milky thing were pretty good. This brings my czech drinking experiences to I think a grand total of about 5. We were at the disco from like 9 to 2 or 3, but when we left, we discovered that the trams didn't run that early, and had to walk to the bus stop, which was about a 45 minute walk through Brno, at 3 in the morning, in a group of like 20 people, speaking like 5 different languages, in the -5 degree weather. It was fun =)
The rest of the weekend consisted of hanging out, taking pictures, making shirts, and cooking "traditional" foods (chocolate chip cookies!). The cooking was fun. There was food from Thailand, US, Brazil, Turkey, Spain and the Czech Republic, I think, because some of people (Iceland, Germany, Japan and China) didn't know about it or couldn't get the ingredients. It was fun. I made chocolate chip cookies, which was interesting because I didn't have measuring cups, so I just kind of did like, okay, I guess half a package, or mixers or anything other than the ingredients and a bowl. The oven was a gas oven meaning regulating the temperature is hard, and it was extremely old. But in the end they tasted good (they looked a little strange), and were a huge hit. I'll have to make them again some time. My favorite food was the turkish. Pelin (girl from turkey living in Olomouc) made these things I don't know the name of (but have to find out!), which is like meat in a really thin wrap with vegetables. It was amazing. She also made this drink with white yogurt, water and salt, which sounds really disgusting but is actually really good with the food. There was brazilian stew stuff (starts with an f...). Wait, just got the name. Feijoada. There was Thai food (finally, spicy food). I think I'm starting to get less tolerant of spice but thank god there are thai students in Opava who have spicy thai food sometimes that I can eat. And what I think is spicy is also what they think is spicy so it's not too bad. And tortilla espana. Potatoes and eggs in like an omelette. Overall, it was very good. I want to do it again.
Saturday also consisted of going into the city and shopping. That is good, because I despretely need winter clothes. It's getting cold, and for some reason I don't wear winter clothes at home. So I went with Pelin (from Turkey) and Noe (male; from Spain; lives in Brno), and we went to shops I have never heard of but are apparently very popular in europe. These were zara, mango and H&M (which I have heard of and love, but don't have many things from). I ended up getting myself a winter coat, 2 sweaters, a bag and some gloves. I call it a successful trip. I have found here I am more willing to buy things; maybe because I don't want to be cold, but I don't know. Like today I just went with Maria (from brasil) in Opava and got some more sweaters and a scarf (all czech people wear scarves). It's crazy. I'm not used to shopping so much, but hopefully it'll stop once winter starts and i actually have enough clothes to survive -30 degree C (-22 F)weather.
Sunday families could come, but only like 3 did because for us in Opava it's far, and for other various reasons. We did a little talent show with each country singing a song. The other american girl wasn't there because she is in the middle of switching families, so I sang "I'm a Little Teapot" beause I could not for the life of me remember the words to any song (including this one).
I'm a little teapot,
short and stout
here is my handle,
here is my spout.
When you tip me over
hear me shout
tip me over and
pour me out!
Can someone let me know the actual words to this and "Home, Home on the Range"? Mucho appreciado.
So that was the third AFS camp in short.
This one was in Brno (2nd biggest city in the czech republic; south moravia). We actually got to see some of the city, which was nice. On Friday I left Opava at around 8 with the 3 other exchange students from Opava, and one host sister of one of them. We got to Brno at like 1 (yay for 5 hour train rides to a place that is only 2 hours by car!). In the train station we met another Brazilian living in southern moravia, and then attempted to find this "shopping gallery" that is near the train station (after stashing our stuff in lockers for the next 4 hours). Those next four hours consisted of eating, shopping and trying to figure out where the thai girls were.
At 5:15 we went to get our stuff, and try and find everyone. It was cool to see everyone again. We found a map in the train station and figured out where everyone lived. EVERYONE lives in the south. There are 4 of us in Opava, one person like 40km away, and then everyone else lives south of Olomouc (about 2 hours by train).
Friday consisted of getting to the camp, which was on the "edge" of Brno in a scout camp, which is just basically where the trams stopped, eating a typical czech dinner (small), and then heading back into the city to go to a disco. The disco was really fun. It was my second (third technically, I guess), but definitely the best so far. I decided that it's fun when you have people to dance with, and then go talk to. I discovered dancing CAN be fun, even if you look really stupid. This was also another czech drinking experience. I stuck to my limits and had a beer, and then tried some other things that other people had. It was intersting and I have to say I am not really a fan of whiskey or tacquila, though fusion and some milky thing were pretty good. This brings my czech drinking experiences to I think a grand total of about 5. We were at the disco from like 9 to 2 or 3, but when we left, we discovered that the trams didn't run that early, and had to walk to the bus stop, which was about a 45 minute walk through Brno, at 3 in the morning, in a group of like 20 people, speaking like 5 different languages, in the -5 degree weather. It was fun =)
The rest of the weekend consisted of hanging out, taking pictures, making shirts, and cooking "traditional" foods (chocolate chip cookies!). The cooking was fun. There was food from Thailand, US, Brazil, Turkey, Spain and the Czech Republic, I think, because some of people (Iceland, Germany, Japan and China) didn't know about it or couldn't get the ingredients. It was fun. I made chocolate chip cookies, which was interesting because I didn't have measuring cups, so I just kind of did like, okay, I guess half a package, or mixers or anything other than the ingredients and a bowl. The oven was a gas oven meaning regulating the temperature is hard, and it was extremely old. But in the end they tasted good (they looked a little strange), and were a huge hit. I'll have to make them again some time. My favorite food was the turkish. Pelin (girl from turkey living in Olomouc) made these things I don't know the name of (but have to find out!), which is like meat in a really thin wrap with vegetables. It was amazing. She also made this drink with white yogurt, water and salt, which sounds really disgusting but is actually really good with the food. There was brazilian stew stuff (starts with an f...). Wait, just got the name. Feijoada. There was Thai food (finally, spicy food). I think I'm starting to get less tolerant of spice but thank god there are thai students in Opava who have spicy thai food sometimes that I can eat. And what I think is spicy is also what they think is spicy so it's not too bad. And tortilla espana. Potatoes and eggs in like an omelette. Overall, it was very good. I want to do it again.
Saturday also consisted of going into the city and shopping. That is good, because I despretely need winter clothes. It's getting cold, and for some reason I don't wear winter clothes at home. So I went with Pelin (from Turkey) and Noe (male; from Spain; lives in Brno), and we went to shops I have never heard of but are apparently very popular in europe. These were zara, mango and H&M (which I have heard of and love, but don't have many things from). I ended up getting myself a winter coat, 2 sweaters, a bag and some gloves. I call it a successful trip. I have found here I am more willing to buy things; maybe because I don't want to be cold, but I don't know. Like today I just went with Maria (from brasil) in Opava and got some more sweaters and a scarf (all czech people wear scarves). It's crazy. I'm not used to shopping so much, but hopefully it'll stop once winter starts and i actually have enough clothes to survive -30 degree C (-22 F)weather.
Sunday families could come, but only like 3 did because for us in Opava it's far, and for other various reasons. We did a little talent show with each country singing a song. The other american girl wasn't there because she is in the middle of switching families, so I sang "I'm a Little Teapot" beause I could not for the life of me remember the words to any song (including this one).
I'm a little teapot,
short and stout
here is my handle,
here is my spout.
When you tip me over
hear me shout
tip me over and
pour me out!
Can someone let me know the actual words to this and "Home, Home on the Range"? Mucho appreciado.
So that was the third AFS camp in short.
čtvrtek, listopadu 02, 2006
Snow!
So today was the first time it has snowed since I've been here. Granted, I don't know if it would be counted as an "official snow" because it didn't stick, and was on and off all day, but none-the-less it snowed, and was the first time the other exchanges students in Opava had seen snow in person. So this is a historic day in the history of, well, something.
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