Krasna Helena

Today, we went to the theatre instead of PE. This was to me, of course, a very happy experience, since it's no big secret that I loathe and despise excercising in front of other people... It's a pet peeve thing...

Anyways, we went and saw this production called "Krasna Helena" and it was about Helen and Paris. I wasn't really able to follow the storyline, being as it was A) in Czech and B) rather stilted to begin with, but there was opera style singing, and a cute actor to look at (not the main ones, Paris was played by a girl... I am not certain why...) so I was happy. Or at least, happier than I would have been in PE.

And I went on another adventurous run today, here's how it went in my mind.

running running along... reaching the end of the trail... oh! can go that way and make a loop instead of turning around! yay!... running through cornfield... struggling through bushes... ha! finally a road! okay, running back home, back home. HOLY SHIT! GIANT STICKY BRAMBLE THING THAT LOOKS LIKE A BUG! jumping and screaming... jumping and screaming... okay... running home now...

And that, was my day!

One of those days...

Today was one of those days that just sort of started out bad and never really got better...

It started when my super cute tennis shoes that I bought in a fit of mad desire (that have strawberries on them and they were on SALE!) tore my heels into ribbons, leaving bloodstains the size of half dollars on my nice white Hello-Kitty socks. I know I can fix them with a little sewing, but it still hurt like no other.

Then, after school (and limping home) I decided to clean out my bathroom. Let's just say, unattended drains... not fun. I made some new mold pet friends and used about a half a bottle of some sort of Clorox-y substance. Thank goodness, my bathroom is now presentable to society (and me in the early hours when I just want to take a freaking shower).

Then, I had to do a ton of laundry. Laundry is never fun, there is no fun aspect of laundry. The only potential fun in laundry is knowing that you will have plenty sparkly clean socks and underwear dry and ready the next day.

Then, I decided to take a quick run to get some (much needed) excercise. I wanted to try to do a loop and headed off in the opposite direction than I usually go to see if I could find a path... I couldn't find a path and ended up running on a dirty dusty road for about 1.3 Km before giving up and turning around. I was sort of aiming for more than 2.6 Km overall, so I think I will try running to the river tomorrow... Oh, and on the way back I got attacked by rogue gnats. So all the cars driving past got to see me screaming and jumping around in circles trying to get them out of my eyelashes... Plus my new running pants like to ride low and I was yanking them up the whole time. Free show for all the drivers!

And that was my crummy day, I think tomorrow will be better though. These things never last long.

AND on the bright side, my parents are visiting in two weeks!!! YAY!!!

AND AND my czech is getting a lot lot lot better. Like, muchos better (or I should say mnoho better!)

And then it rained...

Remember how I was all "SPRING! UNDERWEAR! AWESOME!"


It rained today... and I left my umbrella at school, so if it rains tomorrow I am totally screwed...


Come back spring! I liked you!


Also, people in Truckee who are all "OMG! Rain! I love it!" Live somewhere where it rains a lot... I garuntee you will feel differently in six months...

Finally Spring!

So, recently, Spring has sprung! I am so happy, all the sunlight makes me want to rip off my clothes and run through the streets in my underwear!

*ahem*

Anyways, it's amazing how a change in weather can so clearly affect everyone's (and everything's) mood. It's like all the gray from winter just got wiped away and everything is in color again. It makes me quite happy.

Otherwise, nothing interesting has happened this month. I had a ball, but no Prince Charming showed up... (see Picasa for pictures of my in my cinderella dress!). I believe March is set to be the most boring month of my exchange. I am not doing anything remotely exciting.

I think it's technically the first time I will just be LIVING in the Czech Republic. You know, going to school, having a routine, habits, things like that...

However, once April hits, it will get busy again. First, my parents are visiting (yay!) then I am going on a long Rotary trip to Poland and Auschewitz (interesting!) and then I am going on the two week Eurotrip (GAH! SO EXCITED!) and then there's a few weeks, then the farewell trip for exchange students (*tear*) and then about a week later... I go home...

Wow, so it's kind of almost over, even though I have about four months left...

Austria

So, last week, I went on a very cool weeklong vacation to a ski area in Austria known as Nassfeld. It's a HUGE ski area with sooooo many runs and lifts and random stuff and it was amazing and awesome and... everything was intermediate. I know I shouldn't complain since it was Austria and all, but this is just something I have to say, the runs were extremely crowded with fairly inexperienced skiers and a lot of idiots. It was a little terrifying at times simply because it would get so incredibly crowded on a run and if you fell, you were taking people down with you, or vice versa. So I guess my main list of things I disliked about Nassfeld were the crowds, the lack of variety in the runs, and the snow.

Unfortunately, the snow wasn't that good. I think it may have more to do with European weather patterns here than anything else. Someone told me that because of where Europe is globally, they have heavier snow, which I can believe. The snow was incredibly heavy and it was ALL moguls and ice patches at the end of the day, which was a little sketchy in borrowed ski gear...

Anyways, now the good things. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the first and last day of our skiing (we skied five days in a row) The first day after our arrival, we woke up and it was so foggy we just didn't go skiing.We went to a thremal pool-bath-thingy that was really, really nice. The second day we were there, the weather was beautiful and we ended up skiing for about six hours, which was AMAZING. Then it was foggy for the next three days, so we skiied maybe four or so hours on those days. The snow got a little weird...

Then, the last day, the weather cleared up (although a nasty looking cloud front was on the horizon right as we left in the afternoon) and that's when most of my photos were taken.

The views were absolutely amazing. I think it's almost impossible to capture the true beauty of Nassfeld, the Alps, or any great sight in general unless you are Ansel Adams, or some similarly talented photographer. My digital camera certainly did not do the mountainous beauty justice.

As far as everything else goes, I haven't been up to much. I am going to another ball on March 5th and I will take a ton of pictures (I will actually wear the dress I bought for another ball that I couldn't go to due to Rotary Obligations).

Oh! And, I am scrambling to figure out my visa constraints.

Here's the issue, my visa expires on the 30th of June and that's the same day school ends. I am set to leave right now on the 28th... This is not good, I really don't want to miss the end of school, it's kind of like going to the Fourth of July and leaving jsut before the fireworks.

Anyways, so I am going to see if leaving two days later is going to get me sent to some high security prison in the middle of the CZ...

And that's all folks!

My Two Brains

So, as a language learner (and hopefully a language learner on the road to being completely fluent...) I have discovered a very interesting thing. When I speak Czech, I generally start thinking in Czech too. It's weird, because it generally limits my thoughts to that of, maybe, a three or four year old... no, less, three and four year olds have a much larger vocabulary than mine. So, I have the vocabulary of a... two year old!

But this post is not to complain about my vocabulary. (which now that I have thought about how abysmal it is, will be doing something to remedy that...)

This post is about my two brains, my czech brain and my english brain. They are almost seperate people, and please don't go calling the therapist on me, I don't hear voices and I haven't had any urges to assassinate John Lennon, so we should be okay...

My english brain is the me that everyone in California knows quite well, opinionated, absent-minded, ditzy, etc. However, my czech brain is a little bit different, in czech I am generally quiet and reserved around large groups of people (something my english brain resents deeply) and is slow and solemn and a little meloncholy, think Eeyore with limited language skills. I am not super depressing and I don't walk around complaining all the time (good gracious, that would be ridiculously annoying if I did)

I think that when the Rotarians were talking about culture adjustment, this is what they meant. My czech brain and my english brain are very civilly having it out, and czech is winning slowly (thank god, I would be a little bit screwed if english won while I was living in the CZ)

Another thing, is when I think in Czech, I generally adapt the czech habits and manners (so I say things like "Jooooooo..." and "Aha!" and "Jezis Maria!") which my friends find incredibly funny. Today in french class I was translating from french to czech (don't try this, it will melt your soul...) and when the teacher explained something I went, "jo, aha!" which my classmates found quite amusing.

So here's to my czech brain, may it win the negotiations in my mind and soul!

Adrian Mole is a whiny creeper!

Okay, don't worry, Adrian Mole is a fictional character (I would never rag on real people on the internet, or in general, it's distasteful!)

Today, my english teacher lent me a book titled "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction".I hated it, it was well written, but the characters drove me insane. Adrian Mole is an complete asshole/idiot/whiny bitch (sorry for the language, but his personality REALLY annoys me)

Throughout the book, he manages not only to sink himself into unmanagable debt through extreme spending on Credit, but he also leads a woman on (although she was insane and slightly stalker-ish...) and he has TWO SONS! From different mothers!

Also, throughout the book, he complains dreadfully about how is life is incomplete, blah blah blah. What he doesn't seem to realize is that he is at fault for his own lack of emotional fulfillment. UGH! I wanted to throw the book at something (or throw something at the book... like a knife... but I can't throw kinves...)

Maybe it's because I never really liked satire, but this was just ridiculous.

The worst part is, there were all these book reviews that said, "OMG! SO FUNNY!" and the 'serious news review column' equivalent of 'OMG! SO FUNNY!' I guess that this book might be for older people, but I was personally HIGHLY unimpressed. Maybe I will try again in 20 years. Maybe I will sympathize with this spineless goober then...

Also, today is my five month anniversary! Yay!!!