blue

So I haven’t written on here in over one month. So where to begin, I guess I will start at the end of October. In the Czech Republic at the end of October there is a week of holidays known as Fall Holidays. During this break my host family and I loaded up there camping car and headed to Sumova National Park for three days. It about a three hour drive from our house but we travelled later so it was dark for most of the trip. On the first day there we went hiking all day, in total we walked 20km, 7 of those straight up a mountain. By the end of the day my legs were very sore and I was extremely tired. On day two we went for a “short” bike ride according to my host family. The bike ride was 40km and you had to pedal about 35km of the trip. Being sore from the day before made this trip even harder for me then it would have been if I wasn’t. In my host family they are very use to doing this long of bike trips and couldn’t understand why it was so hard for me. Although it was one of the hardest sport activities I have ever done in my life, and though I did it super slowly I am very proud of myself for finishing the ride.  On the last day of our trip we went to the city of Cesky Krumlov. Cesky Krumlov is an old city in Moravia; the city is marked as a UNESCO site and is very well persevered. We spent most of the day just walking around the old town taking pictures.

November was an extremely hard month for me. I am not too sure why but the entire month I was homesick and was super blue. I barely did anything all month. I do have a couple highlights of the month but I don’t even think that they were even that exciting or big. Well anyways I will still write about them From November 11-13^th I spent the weekend with the other exchange students in Trebic. This was the first time that we just had a weekend with only the students from the Czech. There were tons of new faces due to delayed arrivals because of visa issues. It was great to meet the other students and most of the weekend we spent just bonding with one another and touring around Trebic. From the 17^th-23^rd I had no school. This was because my school moved buildings to another one across the city because the other building needed repair. Over these holidays I was alone at home but I didn’t mind. On the 19^th in the morning I went to a film with my host family called “The Art of Flight” a documentary about snowboarding. It was a really cool film that took you into the life of professional extreme snowboarders. It was kind of funny because the movie was completely in English without Czech subtitles so I was the only one who could understand what was going on. That night I went to my second prom. This time it was “Black and white” so everyone was either dressed in Black or white clothing. It was a fun night. The last event that took place was my friend and I went to Breaking Dawn Part 1 in English with Czech subtitles. I was actually surprised with the movie. All the Twilight movies in my opinion are terrible. The acting sucks and they are all around bad movies. Entertaining but horrible. I was surprised because though this one was bad it was horrible like I was expecting it to be. I almost forgot I also have kind of taking up rock climbing. Every Thursday after my Czech lessons my host dad, Alejandro and I go rock climbing. I actually really enjoy it though it is challenge.

December is defiantly looking up, the first part of the month has been really fun and I hope it just keeps getting better. The first Friday of December my host family and I went to Prague for Christmas shopping. We never actually went into the city just an outlet mall on the outside but it was still a good day of shopping.  That night I came home from Prague and went to my host aunt’s birthday party till 7pm and after I went out with my friends and celebrated one of my friends birthday. That Saturday I relaxed in morning but in the afternoon I went with my host family and their friends to a rock-climbing wall 20mins outside of Hradec.  On Sunday I went to one of my host Babicka’s house and there we celebrated my host dad’s brother’s 40^th birthday and my Babicka name day. It was a good beginning weekend to December. The following weekend (9-11^th) I travelled to Prague for a Christmas inbound weekend. I can’t even sum up in words how awesome the weekend was. We arrived in Prague Friday afternoon at 3pm. after we made a quick stop at our hotel we headed to a shopping mall for dinner and a little bit of shopping. At around 6 we walked over to the O2 arena for a hockey game. It was tons of fun. The fans of the teams were great. Both sides had a section of the arena strictly for hardcore fans. They had jerseys, scarfs, drums, nose makers and tons of different cheers for their teams. They were truly devoted fans, it was crazy. After the game they had riot police everywhere just in case there were any problems. We headed back to the hotel after the game and then had a language test and after went to bed. The next day we got up bright and early for breakfast. At 9 am we head out in to Prague for some sight-seeing. We went all around Prague the two main highlights being Prague castle and St Charles Bridge. Later that day we did some shopping and then at 5pm we headed to the Prague Christmas markets. The markets were in one of the many old squares in Prague. There were tons of vendors of souvenirs, classic Czech Christmas ordiaments and also a lot of traditional food. The square had tons of Christmas lights, decorations and Europe’s largest Christmas tree.  Once we finished at the markets we all went to a restaurant and had the traditional Czech Christmas meal (Carp and Potato Salad). After dinner we went back to our hotel and had a Christmas night. There was a gift exchange, Christmas treats and we sang Christmas carols in 3 different Languages. On Sunday we all said goodbye and then me and the other exchange students from Hradec jumped on a train and headed back to the city. It was a super awesome weekend.

Being on an exchange is an emotional roller coaster, you have your good days but you also have really bad days. You are challenged everyday emotionally and mentally. You are constantly studying a language that you may never use again. You pretty much have to force yourself into the peoples around you lives. Though before you leave for an exchange they tell you it’s not always going to be easy you are never fully prepared for how hard it actually can be. You literally are disconnected from everything back home. Sure you have facebook, skype , email etc but it is not the same.  You are unable to participate in your friend’s everyday life anymore the most you can do is like the status most days. You are still a part of your family no matter the distant but it is not the same. It’s hard to explain because though you know they love you and they probably think about you all the time you feel as though you are being left behind. Not only are you changing while being in your country, your family and friends in your home country are changing to. I am not saying I regret coming on an exchange. I truly love this experience I have already learned so much not only about this country and culture but also a ton about myself. I just am saying that you cannot come into this experience thinking that it is going to be a huge party or a vacation. I think youth exchange is one of the most eye opening experience out there. I think anyone would be crazy to pass up this experience, I just want them also to know its not always tons of fun.
Since I won't be writing again till after Christmas. To all those who read my blog Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
To all the fam jam that reads this i love and miss you guys so much.
xoxoxox