Arrival

The plane rides felt a little odd because I was not with anyone I knew for the first time, but it was not uncomfortable. I pretty much slept through the whole thing. I was a little scared when they delayed my flight from Paris to Prague because they did not tell us until what felt like the last minute, and there was no formal terminal. We were just loaded onto a bus that drove to the plane on the runway.

I met my first host family. They are a family of four, but Julie, the daughter, will go on exchange to Taiwan tomorrow. Alan, the son, was gone because he was in Manchester as a camp counselor. They are very nice and will help me with my Czech as long as I help them with their English. They like to travel a lot, and also do a lot of biking and competitive orienteering.

We drove to Jihlava and I was toured around town. It has been hot out (85ish degrees) but it is supposed to cool down. The town is smaller but still pretty cool. There are old fort walls in the city. There is a park built on the ruins of a synagogue that was destroyed in WW2. We are in an apartment in the center of town. School is only a 5 minute walk away, but I bet I could get there in like 2 or 3 minutes if I ran. I went to bed soon after.

The next morning we drove to Brno in the East. Both Mr. Debef and Mrs. Debefova had a meeting, which gave Julie and I time to check out Brno. It has about the same population as Anchorage but seems way bigger. I saw the cathedral and castle there. I also tried a drink called Kofola. It is like Coke or Pepsi but less sweet.

Both parents have family in the area so went have spent the last few meals at different houses. I like the food so far. It has mostly been pork with soup with something similar to potato salad. We spent the last couple nights in a village called Kobyli for the local wine festival. There were a bunch of musical performances, and there was an instrument called a cimbalom, which is like a piano but instead of having keys you hit each string by hand with a stick.

I also went on a hike to an observation tower one morning. We walked through a bunch of vineyards to the top of the hill. The area is very hilly, and you can see other villages from the top. We were almost close enough to see Austria.

Today we went to a carnival in one of the nearby villages. It was cool seeing something familiar in a Czech setting.

One of the greatest things about the Czech yards is that they often have pergolas with grapes growing on them. It’s genius. You can stand up and grab some grapes without going inside.

That’s all I have to say. Goodbye.

Also, I don’t have many photos because my phone was dead for the past 2 days. I’ll have more photos in the next post (maybe next week or the week after).