The First Week of School

Well...Things are definitely looking up. I have a new friend who is in a lot of my classes, and is fun to talk to. As soon as I have a cell phone I will start giving out my number so I can get involved with social activities. Every morning I wake up at 6:40 to get ready for school. I fix myself breakfast, which is normally cereal. It is a 20 minute walk to school, at my pace, so I leave the house at 7:30. On the way to school I walk past the historical square and Trutnov's version of the farmer's market. The first class begins at 8:00, but I like to give myself a little more time to find where I need to be. I got turned around many times this week, but people that I have never even talked to before are happy to help me, even if they don't speak English. My schedule is different every day of the week, so I cant tell about school by period. Instead I will go class by class.
Math is geometry, and mostly over my head. I sit and copy down what the teacher draws on the board, which is a lot of circles, lines, and triangles. The teacher is the Czech version of my former history teacher at Woodland, Mr. Betz. The people who know Mr. Betz should find that funny. He is the same teacher who I tried to tell that I don't speak much Czech. I realized later that I told him that HE didn't speak much Czech, whoops. This language doesn't always use pronouns, so ending are really important.
The teacher also teaches physics. I don't even know what the topic is right now. Every word is over my head, so I have started to use the class as a study time.
I think that I am in two French classes right now, beginner and intermediate. I like the beginner better because it helps me learn Czech and my French skills seemed to disappear over the summer. The teacher has a different accent from what I am used to, but that makes the class even more beneficial.
For English I go to the most advanced class available for my grade. The teacher loves having me there, and asks me to talk about different subjects. Today I was asked to tell everything I know about Elvis. Random, I know.
The P.E. teacher seems really nice, and it feels good be outside during the day, even if it is only once a week. This week we played soccer and tested how far we could throw what looked like a weighted grenade. I cant remember what my best distance was, but it wasn't too bad.
Czech language class is fun because the teacher speaks almost perfect English. He is my private tutor as well as my 'guide' when I need help. He sometimes takes a little time out of the main lesson to have the kids help me with my Czech, which means a lot to me. I keep hearing the name Jean Valjean, so I think they are talking about Les Mis right now. It is ironic that I am continuing to read the book.
Geography is interesting just to see what my classmates know. I don't understand the lecture, and all of the place names are different. When people to up to the front of the room to point to things on the map, they are quizzed about places that I have never heard of before. Often it is a small island in the Baltic Sea, or a small body of water. Somewhere might not be a place in the news everyday, but I think that it is important to know about the world. My experiences so far have established that even more. I feel so ignorant most of the time.
Twice a week I am going to have Czech lessons with the English speaking teacher. He will teach me and another American in the school, and a girl from Thailand. It was just me and the Thai girl this week, and she seems like a great person. She is living near me, and has asked if we could do things together sometime. Our one lesson this week was about Czech phonetics and simple questions. One fun thing about the language is the letter ř . Every person who tries to teach me seems to say it a little differently. It is like rolling your 'r' while saying 'sh' or 'zh' at the same time. I should have it down by the time I return home.
One class I had today was a Czech civic class. It seemed like it would be interesting, but I don't understand what is going on. The teacher found out I don't speak the language, and just ignorned me for the rest of the class. I used the time to study Czech instead.
My new favorite class is history. The teacher speaks English, and is one of the most kind and helpful people I have come across at the school. She found a HUGE European history textbook, in English, that I can follow along in. I learned about some of the early empires today, including Charlemagne. History has always been a favorite subject, and I'm glad that I'm not missing a year of it.
I have lunch in the school canteen everyday after my last class. The food isn't very good, but it is hot. The Czechs LOVE soup, so it comes with the meal everyday.

The Castle of Language Camp

This is the castle that dominated my life for two weeks.  My favorite memory of camp was pausing in front of this castle at night.  There was a full moon, and the castle was completely lit.  The man in the picture ( I don't know who it is) is walking on the old section of the bridge.  There are old fashioned metal railings and streetlights at the ends.  Boy, good memories last forever.

First Day of School

Wow, school is going to be hard. Today was one of the longest days in a long time. I started off in an English class with another American exchange student from South Dakota. The teacher was very kind and helpful, and he explained my schedule to me. My second class was physics. The teacher didnt speak English, and I couldn't understand what was going on in the lecture. He asked me something partway through class, and I responded that I didn't speak much Czech. The students almost died laughing, which didn't help my bewildered mood. After that class some guys came up and offered to help me find my next class, music. I immediatly said yes. It was a longer break between classes, so they also showed me the lunch room, the lockers, the gym, and the snack bar. Music class didn't really happen because the piano was being tuned. We sat in the classroom for the first period of the double hour class, and went to the town square for ice cream during the second hour of the class. Lunch was a little complicated because of a chip scanning system, but my classmated helped me again. The food isn't very good. Today was powdered mashed potatoes with gritty soup and dry pork. After lunch was my Czech class. It was mainly discussion, so I read my Czech textbook. The teacher was the same English teacher from the morning, so he asked me a few questions in English to include me in the discussion. Math was geometry with the teacher from physics class. I didn't understand the point of the lesson, but I was not prepared with the right supplies. French was my final class. It seems like my language skills disappeared during the summer, i couldnt think of a lot of the verbs that the class was taking a test over. I could understand most of the dialogs in the workbooks, but when the teacher spoke she was hard to understand. I walked back to the house with my host sister after school, and I was glad that it was over.

The Entire Camp Experience

I love my fellow exchange students!!! It was great to speak unbroken English for two weeks. Our days started at 9:00 for breakfast, then lessons normally started around 9:30. We would learn different things until around 11:30 or so, then have free time until our 12:30 lunch time. The meals were fairly good, but nothing special. I really miss green veggies, but we all fell in love with a kind of bread called Rohlik. It is like a small French baghet, but much better. In the afternoon we had trips or free time. Almost all of our free time was spent in the town, shopping at the little clothing stores, eating in the cafes, or buying fruit and candy at the food stores. Sometimes we had another lesson before dinner, but we ate at 6:00. After dinner was singing or a movie or a talk of some kind. The teachers, Thomas and Mila, loved to teach us songs. By the end of camp we had 4 favorites. Singing wouldn't last long, and we spent the evenings in town enjoying the life of a European teenager. On both Tuesdays we went to a local school to use their computers and talk to the English classes. A few other times we met some students from another town, Tabor, and had sports and free time with them. In Jindrichuv Hradec we saw an old weaving factory, a museum, a tower at the castle, and other things. The museum has the world's largest nativity scene. The tower is older than the U.S.A., and has a great few of the town. The first weekend was laid back, we went on a train ride to the middle of nowhere and saw an old watch tower to warn people if the Austrians invaded. There was a lot of walking through the pine forests, it felt great. That Sunday was a lazy day, we went to the tower in the afternoon and had a pig roast for dinner with the local Rotary club. On the 2nd Wednesday we went to Telc, another town nearby. We toured the old castle and looked around the historic old town. On the last Friday we had a final test over lots of different topics. I got the highest score!!! It was very exciting. The final Saturday was one of my favorite days. We went to Tabor, to the Renaissance festival, and had hours to just wander around and see the sights of the town. At night we were back in our town, and we went to the disco tech. Its not the disco of the 70s, there were colored and strobe lights, with hours of new dance and techno music. I danced for about 2 hours, then had to go back to the hostel where we were staying. To get back to Trutnov yesterday I rod to Tabor with the teachers and my host dad picked me up for the long drive back. PLEASE LOOK AT MY PICTURES ON PHOTOBUCKET!! The link is in a previous post.

Language Camp

Well, i'm a couple days into language camp now. I am learning a lot faster than just studying on my own. We have lessons in the morning and afternoon, but we also have a good amount of free time to wander around the town and get to know each other. There are currently 22 students from the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Taiwan. We get along well, but we are a diverse group. In our lessons we have vocabulary with nouns and verbs. Colors, numbers, and dates (days of the week, time, months, seasons) are three of the most reocurring topics. We are staying in a hostel on a small river in Jindřichův Hradec. A castle is towering over the 400 year old building that used to be a weaving factory. I can't post any of my own pictures because I forgot my connecting cord, but the town is very bright and colorful. The hostel is in the lower right hand corner of the picture, below the castle and next to the building with the red roof. It has a black roof. So far we have not seen any tourest places outside of town, but I think that side trips are planned in the next week and a half.