How I Long for Thee....

No, of course not all you special people in my life. I miss Australia. So for the first three hours of school today, we went to a movie theater in town and saw a documentary about Australia. And it really made me miss it. Hearing didjeridoos, and seeing kangaroos, and Sydney, and Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef and all that. It just made me really want to go back.

I really wish I could have brought my didj with me. I miss [trying] playing, and all that stuff. I love what you can do with it, but I still have so far to go with circular breathing and everything (Hannah, want to set up a trumpet/didjeridoo/learn to circular breath session?? =D ).

But other than that, it was a pretty good day. After the movie we had an hour before we had to go back to school, so I sort of tagged along with a group of my classmates. It was like 12 people to start with, but then a bunch of girls decided they would rather go shop than to get coffee, so getting coffee (at KFC's, of course) was 4 guys, another girl and me. It was good, despite my initial not wanting to go. I got to talk to the girl for awhile, and one-on-one, which I am a lot better at.

After that, I had 2 more hours of school, but my first class (4th hour) ended up being gone for some other excursion, so I read kronikla ohlasene smrti (Chronicle of A Death Foretold) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and it was great. It only took me 30 minutes to read 10 pages!!! But in all seriousness, it is a really good book, and though I am only like 1/5 through it, I would recommend it in any language!!

And my last class of the day was Math, a class I usually enjoy. We are doing functions (I love them!), and so it's pretty easy seeing as they are just learning about functions, something I did in like 8th grade. But figuring out what the teacher wants you to do without them telling you is another story.

So that was my day at school.

Tomorrow I am off to Prague for the weekend with AFS. Not really sure what we are doing yet, but I'll let y'all know when I get back.

Note: I do miss all you special people in my life, but the title does not refer to that specific missing-ness.

Nemocna. Ještě.

So I am sick. Again. This sucks. I have no idea why I keep getting sick, but I do. So far since I got to my new school 2 weeks before Christmas I have missed 13 days just because I have been sick. Colds, an ear infection. It's annoying.

Last school year, I was never sick. Everyone else in school and at home got sick. But I didn't. I guess this is it getting back at me.

Anyway, sorry for the intermittent blogging. It's hard to figure out what from normal life would be exciting for people to read. (Hint: ideas accepted).

So I guess the next big thing besides school, is me going to Prague next weekend with AFS.

I was supposed to go to Bratislava for two days right after to see Amanda and help with the program she's going with and celebrate Passover, but AFS here said I can't. They are really bugging me right now. So now the thing is to figure out how to do Passover in a foreign country where staples of the diet are pork and bread. Because now I don't know how to get my matzoh from Amanda in time.

Ted' reknu jak pravdy vymena

So as an enterance into this post, I have to warn that it involves the stark reality of exchange. I am not sure what you or the general public thinks of exchange, or what type of time I am having, but I guess you will find out now.

Let's just start with the fact that I think youth exchange is a great idea. It is a way for people on both ends (not just the student) to learn about the world, and to expand their horizons. Immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language, and this provides all that. It is an insight into a culture that is hard to get any other way.

I don't regret coming here this year; it hasn't been quite what I expected, but it is definitely not an experience I regret.

Coming here, I had a few expectations, pretty much being to learn the language, get on well with my family and make friends. The language thing is going pretty well. Let's just say my grammar sucks, but czech is hard, and I think I am doing well. Definitely in the top three langauge wise in Moravia.

Family stuff has been hard. As I think you all know, I changed families in December due to various things, and while my new family is mostly good, we still have a lot of ups and downs and I think we have some different ideas on what the relationship is supposed to be.

Friends has been one of the hardest things for me. I have made some really good friends in the other exchangers, but making czech friends has been really hard for me. I still just have acquaintances that I can usually talk to in school, but a lot hasn't progressed past there. I credit this partly to the czech national attitude of groups being good, but probably mostly to the trouble I have in communicating in groups, even in english and multiplying that times ten in czech. I am not so much disappointed because I know I have made friends from all over the world, and I have really good friends back home, but sometimes this gets really hard.

This experience for me has been full of ups and downs. It is definitely not the best time of my life, though so far I may say that it has been the most difficult. Saying that however, I have learned so much about myself, something I couldn't have done if I had stayed at home. Sometimes it takes the most difficult times to really look inward and examine who you are.

I have tried so many new things here that I wouldn't have done otherwise. I have had great experiences learning not only about czech culture, but through my friends, about Brasil, Thailand, japan, Hong Kong, Iceland, Turkey and lots of other places around the world.

I know I have people all over the world who care about me, and this is something great.

This year has been a chance to learn a new culture, language, people. Meet people from the rest of the world. Learn tremendous amounts about myself. Learn how to be independent in new ways. Learn that life is hard, but there are always good bits thrown in, and when you make it through everything, that is what you will remember. I will remember the great times I had with various people. I will keep in contact with various people around the world. And I will come home with the realization of how much I love the people in my life, how much I appreciate certain things about the US, how I want to continue to learn about the other peoples of the world, and many, many other things that I cannot list right now.

A play on gypsies

So this weekend was a makeshift AFS weekend. Friday night was divadlo (theater) in Brno. It was called "gypsies going to heaven" and was a strange play. It was a musical, and the music was good (it was the closest thing i have heard to jewish folk music in 6 months), and made me realize that yes, gypsies and jews come from the same part of the world....no wonder the music is similar.

Then we stayed in a hostel in Brno friday night and saturday night. Saturday night I went with summer (hong kong), por (thailand), makki (japan) and poom (thailand) to 'Babel', an amazing film. I am the only one in that group who really understands czech, so we thought that it was in english, but the film ended up being in 4 languages, with czech subtitles. About half of it was in english though, and maybe a quarter or so in japanese, so everyone understood and liked it.

I thought it was amazing. It's been awhile since I have seen a film where you had to think about things so much, and how everything is interconnected. I would definitely recommend it.

It also made me realize how beautiful a city Tokyo is, and how much I really want to go there.

It was nice to go with them. I talked to Por more than I have ever before, and she is really nice. It is nice to know that I have people in a lot of countries in the world where I could probably go and have a place to stay, and people to see. It's a good feeling.

So this weekend Maria (brasil) is staying with me for the week....Wait, that sentence doesn't make a lot of sense, but I think you get the jist. I will update probably next weekend.

Papa! (like cau)...

An 18th Birthday

So this last weekend I went back to Opava for Maria (brasil)'s 18th birthday. It was me, her, Hector (Paraguay), Henrique (brasil) and Honza (czech; hector's host brother). Basically we just hung out, went out and so forth.

I have discovered an interesting thing though, that whenever I go out late I usually end up with a cold or something after. It's strange, and something I should probably work on, and probably also related more so to the lack of sleep that usually entails.

Cau to all!

60/40 folding seat

Well, not exactly, but as of today, I have been in the Czech Republic for 6 months. It seems so long when it is written down, but to me, it doesn't seem so long. I have 4 months left to go. I am over half way. It is a strange feeling.

I remember when I had been here for one month. The first month was a toughy (it is still tough though), and I remember thinking about it like a swimming set; the hardest one of my life. I had done one, and had 9 more to go. Now I have gotten through the halfway party, and things will start going faster.

When I look at my calendar, it looks like no time at all. Because it is after January, we are allowed to travel a bit, and I hope to. I think I may be going to Budapest for a couple days; we'll see.

I am at the library, so I have to go, but just thought I would record this momentous point in my exchange.

New Pictures!

Just letting y'all know that I have some new pictures up at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/beccacesko1b

They don't have captions yet, but I'll work on getting those on soon.

There are also websties
http://picasaweb.google.com/beccacesko1
and
http://picasaweb.google.com/beccacesko1a

Tak, ted' nemam nic řict, ale nevadí

So, the title of this post isn't very exciting, or important, but anyway, I supposed it was time for a new post.

Not much has happened recently. I finished Atlas Shrugged today, and it is SUCH A GOOD BOOK. Recommended reading. I am rather captivated by Ayn Rand's philosophy, and the writing is just good. There was a part that included a 60 page monologue (I suppose only a small part of the 1083 pages), which got a little boring, just because it is a long time for one character to talk; the ideas were interesting, but anyway. Great book. Amazing author. I'm just sad I've read all her major books.

Hmm, what else. Yes, I got a library card to the public library in Brno. I haven't actually checked out any books yet, but I think I will in the near future. Right now my card is just more used for using the free internet you can get for time exceeding an hour at the library with a card. Good thing to do when I have a couple hours to wait between school and rowing or something. But they do have a pretty good (couple bookshelves) selection of English books, and of course lots of czech ones, something I am working up to. Right now I am reading the wizard of oz in czech and english (the pages of each are right next to each other, making it easier to get through things i don't understand).

I bought a new czech textbook, 'Chcete jeste lepe mluvit cesky?', or 'do you want to speak even better czech?'. There aren't many learn czech textbooks on the market, especially for anything intermediate or advanced, but this one came recommended by a girl who was here a couple years ago. I have found that info on the internet can't really be found, and the best way to research these textbooks is to go to a couple bookstores, and just look at all the books they have to learn czech.

I think I will be on Ceska Televize (czech tv) for the second time because today they came to tape something about Mensa, the program my host mom is involved in, and it was sort of a family affair. The first time was for rosh hashanah, but I'm not sure if that actually ever made it on air because I had school when it was on. So who knows?

Back and a little bruised

So I'm back from the mountains of Slovakia....if you want REAL mountains, of any kind, around here, you have to venture into Slovakia. There you will find yourself going from the rolling hills of the Czech Republic, slowly into the snow capped mountains of Slovakia. And while there was some snow, there was not much. Apparently the snow there is maybe a third of what it normally is. The hill the house we stayed in was on was covered the first day, and by the last, it was mostly brown. And snow doesn't melt quickly here.

Anyway, this little ski trip to Slovakia was during the spring break for my school. Basically it was my family, and two others. 6 other kids, ages 5,6,8,8,10,13. My time not spent outside in snow was divided between playing cards with kids, playing cards with adults, and making considerable progress into Atlas Shrugged, a book that continues to captivate me 800 pages in.

I decided during this week that I really don't like skiing, but snowboarding is awesome, even if you do end up spending a fair amount of time on your knees, butt, wrists, *insert body part here*, etc. I am quite bruised, with a pair of red and brown knees, among other bruises, but I rather enjoyed my self taught snowboarding. After venturing down places I thought I wouldn't, and watching people who know better than me what they are doing, I think I got down the basics after my first couple days with my two feet strapped to one board.

I may or may not be going on another skiing trip not this week, but the next, depending on whether there is enough snow in the czech "mountains". We'll see.

Life...

So I just thought I would post a short post before I leave for Slovakia on Saturday. I don't know if I will have internet there, it doesn't look like I will, so don't get worried! I plan on improving my snowboarding while there, so I'll let y'all know how that went when I get back. Mom and Dad--I am still expecting an 8 o'clock phone call that next sunday.

Hmm, what's been going on? I wrote my first test in my new school. It was for physics, and I got a 4 (= D) and I'm pretty happy about it. I think it might be my first D. But there were 12 questions, with translating and stuff I only had time to answer 7 of them, and out of the 7 I got 5 right. It was the same score my desk partner got. I was happy.

Skiing

So I got back yesterday from another AFS weekend, this time in the "mountains" (aka slightly bigger hills). It was fun. I skiied for the first time in about 6 years, and I also tried snowboarding again for the first time in 8 years. and I LOVE IT! (snowboarding).

I don't really have time to write a lot right now, but I'll just write a bit.

We have a new student in Moravia, Hector (Paraguay), who is here for a semester, so we are back up to 18 students after the other American went home.

There is a really interesting split in our group of exchange students between Asians and those of European descent. I think it has to do with how cultures look at things, and ideas of fun, and "maturity", but it's rather interesting to see.

Vienna

So, I thought it was about time to write a blog about my trip to Vienna (and I promised Grandpa I would...). So here it is.

So I went to Vienna (Wien in German, Viděn in Czech) with Marta (Iceland). We left Brno Friday morning, and got to Vienna at about 10:30. It was funny going through passport control (a person comes on the bus and checks stuff). The checker-guy was very slavic looking, and looked rather suprised to see both an icelandic passport (very cool) and an american passport in the same day, at the same time. A brief note about icelandic passports: they are very advanced. They have like this page in them that has a chip in it with all the info, and they just look cool too. Ours aren't nearly so cool. Czechs just have an ID card that they have to show to travel throught the EU.

The first thing we did in Wien was, well, obviously, get off the bus, but the first hurdle was buying a metro ticket. We bought 72-hour tickets, but this handy little machine was one that took credit cards, and for some reason it kept spitting out Marta's card. But eventually we figured it out, and were on our way. The Wien metro is very clean. The whole city is very clean. There is hardly ever trash or anything on the ground, and there are very few homeless people. Vienna didn't strike me so much as other cities that I have been to, but it's a nice city. It definitely has an older median age, and is a "high-class" city. Friday we just spent wandering around Vienna. We got off at a subway stop and just wandered from there. We spent a couple hours at the Museum Quartier, not going into any museums, but just looking at the shops. Marta and I both like modernish art, and spending a lot of time in museum shops. We found a lomography shop (best kind of photography...), and spent a long time in there. We both decided at some point during the weekend we would buy a camera. From there we kept wandering, just turning when we felt like it. We came across a couple cool shops (one was almost exactly like the crystal dragon on pearl street) and ended up on the main shopping street. We went in a few department stores, walked into Starbucks, and then decided against buying anything, and then kept wandering. Somewhere on the way we found the british council, basically an english language library/resource center. Pretty cool. They also had free internet, so we spent some time on there finding things to do. I of course, compared the prices of the cameras at the store, in prague and on ebay. After that, we both decided that we really wanted one of the cameras. I ended up getting the supersampler, and marta got ...something. I can't remember the name. you can look up lomography on google.

Friday night we went to a relatively cheap italian restaurant, and then to an english language movie theater and saw "The Queen" in english, without subtitles (that was suprising). It was pretty good. By the time we got back to our hostel it was like 10, and time for becca to go to bed in order to get enough sleep to function during the SAT!

Saturday morning was the SAT. I knew what bus to take to get there, but I hadn't looked at the times or anything. So I left for the metro station at 7, because I wanted to get there by 8. It all worked out fine until I had to walk from the bus stop to the school. I got a little lost, but thankfully with the help of a dog walker, I made it there. I was worried because I got there at like 8:10, but we didn't actually start the test until 9:15! I think it went pretty well. There was 1 math question I had a lot of trouble with, and ended up guessing on, but other than that, I think it went well. It was tiring though. The scores come out on February 15th, so I'll let you all know the results then. After the SAT I went back to the hostel to take a nap. I was so tired, and ended up sleeping for like 1.5 hours. While I was at the SAT, Marta just went around the city, and looked for second hand shops. After sending a few SMS's back and forth about when to meet, and then promptly realizing each one cost 12.5 crowns (like 60 cents) rather than the normal 2 crowns (10 cents), we met up again. After a long time. And a snow storm. Because marta ran out of credit, and then it started snowing. It snowed like 4 inches in 20 minutes. Strangest thing ever. I walked into a store, wandered around, saw a guy come in covered in snow, went huh?, walked out, and saw the snow. Marta and I finally found each other after agreeing to meet in front of the church because she couldn't send messages.... Anyway. Then we went to Starbucks, because we both decided that though we had decided the previous day not to, it was snowing, and coffee sounded good. So I got a frappuccino of course. Starbucks is expensive in Wien (3.80 euros for a tall coffee frap), but still very good nonetheless. Then we went to wait on line for standing room tickets at the Opera. The line was incredibly long, but we ended up getting tickets. THe one thing we didn't know however was how the standing room only thing worked, and so we ended up going up stairs, and realizing there were really no places left. so once it started (Don Giovanni), we like wiggled our way in between people, in a place where we could see the right side of the stage only, and all the action seemed to be happening on the left side! We ended up basically just reading the story on the screen thing that translated it. At intermission, Marta really wasn't feeling well, and so just decided to sit on the wall. I have to say I don't so much enjoy opera, but it was a "culturing" experience, and fine for only 2 euros (amazing price), but I don't plan on going again anytime soon.

Sunday we decided to take it easy because Marta was feeling better, but not up to much walking. We tried to call Sanja, a serbian girl we met in Prague during New Year's and who is studying in Vienna (and was an exchange student in Texas two years ago), but we couldn't figure out how to use the pay phones, so we didn't get to see her. We ate a lunch of appetizers from a japanese restaurant, and then went to an Andy Warhol exhibition at the Albertina. It was a pretty good exhibit, all of popstars, but pretty small. After that we went to another starbucks, and experimented with our cameras, and then at 5:30 we headed home.

Fajitas

So tonight I made fajitas for my host family (well, quesadillas also for the kids). They turned out pretty well, and went over pretty well too. For me, it was just REALLY nice to eat food that has not had tremendous amounts of animal fat poured on it while cooking. Like, real food again.

Czech food is heavy. Oil/animal fat is nearly always added to the pan while cooking. It is lots of sauces, and dumplings and pork. I'm not a huge fan. I really like the sweets, but am now trying not to eat TOO many. =)

What a way to make my day!

So I was wandering around Brno this afternoon after buying bus tickets for Marta and I to Vienna, and I came across the Design Center Czech Republic. And they were having a [free] exhibition. It was amazing. Modern consumer product design. What else can a girl ask for?

Turns out it was the results of a student design contest. It was quite amazing. I have to say thought that my favorite things were these two like "life-in-a-box" posters. The concept is having everything one needs to live (bed, bathroom, table etc.) enclosed within a box, that you can open, and pull things out and down and stuff. That was one of them. The other was like a combination desk/bed thing, that you can convert for the uses of sleeping, working and hanging out. The motto was "work hard, rest well".

The Design Center Czech Republic is a really cool concept. It's a government agency concerned with promoting design in everyday life, basically. They run annual competitions for the best product, interior design and design packaging, among other things. And it is centered in Brno.

The mission of the DC CR is: "using effective tools, to promote the introduction of graphic design in the manufacturing, trade and services as one of important factors for enhancing the overall quality of products, their competitiveness and exportability, and, at the same time, to participate in the creat of harmonious level of the material culture of society that determines the national identity of products and thus helps to build their positive image abroad".

An idea of czech classes

So I decided I would give you all a short insight into a czech geography class. By copying my notes. I don't expect any of you to understand. I don't really either. But if anyone wants a translation, or a version w/o all the hooks and stuff, let me know.

Čína
sinolog= odborník na všechno čínské
konfuciasmus= náboženství na přelomu eilozofie

buddhismus= východo-asijské náboženství
velká zed´= 6400 km

Oppiova (1830-1842) válka => britská kolonie
Honkong
=> před radě bezpečnosti = stálý člen

pokračování v probíraní Číny

nerostý: rtut´, stříbro, cín, železné rudy, wolframu, fosfátů

2. posílila lehký průmysl, zmoderní- vala závody byly vytvořeny zvláštní ekonomické zony

S, 2-naprosto pusté oblasti
nejznámější řeky- Chang Jiang
Huang He
východ- hospodářsky vybavena
od jíh na sever- monzunové časti, subtropické časti

So I think that is enough for today. If anyone wants a translation, let me know. Or y'all can try it on your own!

Snow!

So I nearly forgot the reason I got on the computer in the first place. To write a post. Figure.

So the big news today is that it is snowing! The first measurable snow of the season. January 23rd. I think this is like the latest it has ever been. Yesterday was a beautiful day, when I was dying to get out on the water. And then today, the snow has come down like there is no tomorrow. I guess winter finally decided to show up, and show up with a show (there's a saying that I can't remember...)

And someone commented about the big wind storm that hit Europe. We had like 2 days with a lot of wind, but nothing extreme. I did read that like 4 people died in the country or something. I think it was worse in Germany, and on the coastal regions of Europe. We did go up into the hills though, and there were a fair amount of trees down. I'm just assuming it's from that.

Rowing

Coaches all over the world should learn something from my new rowing coaches. They are absolutely brutal. After not having done much of anything since swimming ended, this is even worse. But hopefully it will kick my butt back into shape. After two hours today, we ran for about 25 minutes, most of it with hand weights, doing various things. And then did stations (sit-ups, pole climbs, pull ups, jumping thingys, and other various things) for about 50 minutes before playing football (soccer). It was dead tiring, but it's good. I just wonder what it will be like on the water...

Rowing and a little dancing

So two big things have happened since I last posted. The first being that I joined a rowing (veslovani) team. So far though, I have only been to one practice, and we ran for 45 minutes, inside a tiny gym, doing an obstacle course. Let's just say I am sore. After 6 months of not too much exercise, that was brutal. I may be able to get out on the water on Saturday though, if there are enough girls, and if the weather's good. On the team, apparently, there are 10-15 "young kids" (less than about 14 I think), 10-15 "high schoolers" (I think I am one of only 3 girls though), and I think 10 "older people" (19-20 years old). It should be good though. I'm not too sure about the set up of everything, but a girl who was here from Brazil last year was on the team, and had a good time. And the two other girls apparently go to my school, and seem really nice, so I am hoping for the best.

The other thing I have done recently is go to Marta's (Iceland) end of dance class ball (I had mine December 10th...). She lives in Uherské Hradiště, which is about 75km away, or about 1 hour and 20 minutes by bus. After some confusion with me waiting at the bus station for her host father to pick me up, I got to her house, and then we just hung out and got ready and waited for Diego (Brasil) to come. The ball started at 7, and the beginning is basically just the class dancing the dances that they have learned (polka, jive, cha cha, slow fox, waltz etc.). And then it is just sort of like anyone can dance. I ended up dancing a lot with Diego, basically just because, well, neither of us knew anyone else there, and for the first time, I actually enjoyed it. I don't hate it so much anymore, and realized I am not too horrible. Diego and I ended up joining Marta's dance class in the ribbon/heart giving (girls give ribbons to boys, boys give hearts to girls; the ones with the most are like, well, something), which all started with an attempt to take pictures for Marta, and then also a strange muscial chair contest that we did because Marta's dance teacher is also Diego's dance teacher, and so he wanted to have the foreign kids do something, and it was fun. It was normal musical chairs, but you dance the polka... Diego and I ended up winning. It was fun. The dance lasted until like midnight, and then Marta, Diego and I ended up staying up until like 3, only to have to wake up at 5:30 (Diego and I) to go catch our respective trains/buses. It was fun. I ended up not going to school today, but rather going home, organizing my school stuff, starting to translate some physics and sleeping. Tomorrow I start my new schedule (which I was given like 1.5 weeks ago, but have missed a lot of school due to various illnesses). I'm a little nervous because it's hard to meet a bunch of new people at once, but I am just going to do it. The worst that can happen isn't that bad. So wish me luck for school, and that I don't get too much work! (that i am worried about; it takes like 3 times as long to do anything).

Quote

I came across a quote that really hit me:

"I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world."
-Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey

Skis!

So I got skis today. Well, borrowed them. If nothing better comes along apparently. So the slight hitch in this is that there is absolutely no snow. I have three ski trips planned for February, ranging from 4 days to 8 days, and there may not be snow for any of them. Today was 12 degrees Celcius (like 54 Farenheit) and it's crazy. Last year was the coldest winter they had in a long time (it got down to like -30 Celcius, or -22 Farenheit), and this year, it is incredibly warm. Everyone had ski trips planned for Christmas, and then they got cancelled due to the lack of snow. I hope it snows sometime, because I would like to try skiing again, but there is no guarantee.