Monday, March 26, 2007

Slovakia Ski Week!!!

This has been a great week, and a perfect way to end the winter. Last Friday, I spent the night with my host grandma in Hradec Kralove, then my host mom drove me to the train station in the next town to the south on Saturday afternoon. I had a direct train to Olomouc (really, my favorite city in the country). In my compartment, there was me (an American), Nicole (another Rotary student from Canada), a Czech man, and a Polish man. We all had a long conversation in Czech. Its great how we all came from different places and communicated in my new language instead of English, the 'international language'. I stayed in Olomouc on Saturday night with two other students, and visited another one who wasn't going to camp. On Sunday morning, we all caught the train to Slovakia and arrived at our stop mid-afternoon. The rest of the day was spent getting to the hotel, settling in, eating, organizational meetings, and catching up with everyone. It was fun to see all the Slovak exchange students again. Monday morning we all went to another hotel to rent supplies (though I borrowed some from my family), then hit the slopes. I was in the 'its my second time on skiies' group. After a late lunch, I was at out hotel and the bigger hotel during the afternoon and evening. Tuesday I skiied the entire morning, then once again made the trek to the big hotel to check my email. Wedensday was more of the same, but in the afternoon I went to the little store down the mountain in the afternoon and ended up waiting an hour for it to open. Fun, I know. At least it was a time for me to get to know some of the Slovak students. Thursday was our main day of beautiful weather. I skiied in the morning, then in the afternoon, we had a group trip to the local cave, a thermal-spring water park, and the larger town near-by. the cave was really pretty, and the hot water felt wonderful after days of skiing. Friday was even more skiing in the morning, then our 'carnival time' in the afternoon. We had a snowman competition first, and I made a skiier running into a tree, because people always tell me not to do that. I ended up winning third place!! Then, we split into teams for a mattress race on the ski slope. The Mexican students (who love the snow) kept throwing snowballs, so we had a bit of a battle halfwat through the race. Great fun! My team ended up getting second place. Then, we had a bungee cord tied to a tree. Two representatives from each team had to try and collect little snacks that were put almost out of reach of the cord. After dinner, we had an award 'ceremony', then headed to a disco at another hotel. We danced until Midnight, then trugged back to bed. Saturday was horrible for skiing in the morning, because the slopes were pure ice. I napped most of the morning, after one run on the skiies, but went back out to the slopes after lunch. In the evening, some people went back to the disco, but most of us stayed in and played cards and packed. On Sunday, all of the students were surprized to hear that there had been a time change, and we all of a sudden had one less hour to finish getting our stuff together. But, we had plenty of time to catch the train and ride it all the way to out final stops. My host dad and brother met me at the station, and after a quick stop at family member homes in Hradec Kralove, we went back to Trutnov.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Spring Time

I'm sorry for the lack of entries for the past month. I wont say I've been busy, because its been a quiet time, but I've just not gotten around to this aspect of communication. After Spring break, it was back to school and the normal routine. I'm continuing with my trombone lessons and going to the movies often with people from school. On the weekends, I continue to meet all sort of friends and family of my host family, and they all seem to be kind and welcoming people. I went to a folk concert with my host mom in February, and we have plans to see another group in April. Last weekend and early week I was in Prague with free time. I hit more of the tourist places, including the national museum, which is amazing. The weekend included meeting more family members....I also met one of the new Australian students who just arrived. The crazy guy tried to explain to me what a meat pie was, not realizing that it is my favorite food. This past weekend I went bowling with another new group of people. One woman invited me to go to school in Prague with her daughter for 2 days, which should be fun and interesting. This Saturday is the beginning of a more activity-filled time. I have a ski camp for a week, then my birthday, the another concert, and my last family. Time will really fly now, and before I know it, I'll be back in Arkansas. I'm trying not to think too much about that right now.