October

October so far has been pretty exciting and eventful.

On October 5th I head to Bratislava Slovakia with my counselor and a fellow exchange student to apply for our visas. When we got to the embassy I was told that my criminal record check translation into Czech was no good, and that it was a bit out dated. Then I was told I had to translate my other documents into Czech which I was unaware of. Being seventeen and applying for a visa pretty much alone is a very stressful process. I am very thankful though for my wonderful counselor you talked to the lady for me and worked out a deal with her. So the embassy stamped my passport saying I had applied  though my application wasn't complete. After we left Bratislava both me and my fellow exchange student were upset. on the way home  we stop in a small Czech town where my counselor had a meeting. Here me and my other exchange student went shopping and felt a lot better afterwards.
My visa application is now complete. My counselor got everything organized for me and and now I am just waiting for them to approve my visa. Again I am very grateful for my counselor and all the work he put into my visa.

Thanksgiving weekend was the next big event that took place. I decided that I would share Thanksgiving with my host family. So starting on Friday I began preparing for the dinner. Friday night I successfully made my grandmothers pie dough. On Saturday I prepared pumpkin pies (I even made my own pumpkin puree.), onion soup, boiled eggs , and started cooking the turkey and stuffing. I had to start cooking the turkey on Saturday because it was 25lbs and I was making thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner. On Sunday I woke up early. I made devilled eggs, a giant pot of mashed potatoes, a large bowel of salad and finished cooking the turkey. I set the table with decorations sent from home and with a Canadian table cloth my aunt had made for my host mom. My dinner turned out great. In total there were eleven people there for lunch and they all said they enjoyed it.

On the 15th I attended my first prom. Classic dancing courses are something a lot of people here in the Czech take part in. So they have a bunch of balls or proms to show off there dance moves. So I went with some friends to this prom. It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to the next one.

The next day me and my family took a day trip to a little town 50km away called Kuks. It is a small town that has many sculptures made by the artist M. B. Braun. This is the website for the building we visited. http://www.hospital-kuks.cz/history/

 

This is the front of the hospital.

On Thursday of this week I was lucky enough to get to go to Vienna for the day. One of the exchanges students living in Hradec Kralove as well was having her birthday this weekend. As a present her host mom bought her a trip to Vienna and they asked me to join them. It was a lovely day. When we first got to Vienna we went to Palace and Garden Of Schonbrunn. It was crazy beautiful. http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/ . After we headed to Vienna's old square and looked around. We saw a giant Gothic church, the winter residence of the Schonburnn's, the Parliament building, city hall and the opera house. It was a great day, a little cold but still a lot of fun.

I am still struggling with the language. I know a lot more , but for some odd reason I am embarrassed to speak in Czech. I think it is because I do not want to be laughed at. I guess it is just a thing that I need to get over or else i will make no process. The honeymoon stage of my exchange is definitely over. I have my good days but I do also have some bad ones. Some days I wonder why I wanted to do this and others I think I never want to go home. I guess it is all apart of this experience.

Untill next time

xoxo

Morganne

September

So I am sorry that I really fail at this whole blogging thing. Every week I am like " I should go write a blog" but I never end up writing one.

Anyways it feels strange to already be here a little over one month, time is already going by so quickly. Everyone always told me that a year is a long time to be away, but if it keeps going this fast it will be over before I know it. Czech is a very difficult language and most days I feel as though I am making absolutely no progress. It is very frustrating because I feel like such a burden to my friends, host family and classmates by making them have to speak English for me to understand. I know that learning a language doesn't just happen over night it takes time and practice but it would be alot easier if it  did just happen over night. I have been setting goals for myself most of them personal and I would rather not say on the Internet but the biggest goal that I have set for my self is by the end of November to not speak in English at all anymore. This goal is definitely going to be a challenge but I am sure if I work hard enough I will be able to accomplish it.

On to the month of September. September was rather uneventful in a way but was still a good month. On the first I started school. In school I am in the second year, the kids are all my age. I am very happy that I was put into this year and not in to the younger one. My school is called Gymnazium J.K. Tyl , it is a historical landmark in Hradec Kralove and is very old. That being said in November we will have to move the school to another location so that the building can be repaired.  My school days start everyday at 8 am goes till 1:30pm on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. On Thursday and Tuesday I go to school till 4:15pm. Being an exchange student school is pointless. I go to classes and pretty mush just sit there and study Czech Language, because I have absolutely no idea what is going on. School is mandatory so I attend ever day every lesson.

During September I attend a historical festival in my city. It was rather interesting I guess. It was to celebrate the birthday I think of the queen who fonded Hradec Kralove. The old square was set up like a medieval market place and there were people dressed up everywhere are jesters, peasants, knights and so on. The first night there was a parade displaying people in these costumes and the second night there was a beautiful firework display over top of White tower and the Church in the old square.

I attended my first inbound orientation weekend in Strecno Slovakia. Me and two other exchange students travelled together by train. This was very cool because we got to see the country side of both Czech Republic and Slovakia . Orientation is not all that fun because you mostly just get alot of lectures. The only fun parts about this one were: meeting all the exchange students in the district, visiting Strenco castle and the dance we had one night.  I meet some great people during this weekend, but was very surprised with the lack of countries that are in my district. There are mostly people only from north and south America and I think only four girls from Asia.  I am very much looking forward to our next meeting which is in November.

The last big highlight of September was for one week my host family and I went on a holiday to the Croatian Islands. It was a twelve hour drive to Croatia so we left Hradec at 4 am on Saturday the 24Th and arrived in Croatia a little after 3pm. We spent our week on a yacht cruising around the islands in total we travelled 300km on the sea. It was a very beautiful trip and I am very happy my host family took me on this holiday. I find it unreal though that I travelled for only 12 hours and during this time I was in four different countries.

This trip concluded the month of September, this month I will try my best to update my blog every two weeks, if all goes well.

 Lots of love