Czech Republic

We got to Prague at night, and got all set in the hostel.

The next day, we took a tour in the morning, and then had to stay in the hostel for a few hours in the afternoon. Rotary was making us write this "story" about our trip. But they made us take two hours to write it, instead of actually living it. Which we all thought was a load of crap. Ah well. That night, we went to a black light theater, which was pretty cool. Parts of it, I'm surprised Rotary took us, because it was a little risqué, but very funny.

The morning after that, we went with our tour guide again, but I liked this tour better. We toured the castle, and the cathedral there. In the afternoon we went on a boat tour, which would have been amazing, but it was raining, so we couldn't see as much. It was still cool, though. After that we went to a mall there. That night we went to the biggest disco in Prague, it had 5 floors! It was crazy fun. I talked to guys from Sweden, Holland, Germany, and Turkey (: So, a very good night, haha.

The day after that, we went to Ceske Krumlov for the morning. We saw a castle, and a theater there. Then we had time to go souvenir shopping, which was very good. After that we went to Ceske Budejovice.

In Ceske Budejovice, was the Rotary District 2240 Conference. We got all settled that night, with the Czech kids too. The next day, we had practice for the talent show in the morning, then the actual talent show during lunch. I didn't perform this time. After that, we toured a brewery there. Rotary actually let us taste the beer! (I know, right??) But I still think beer is nasty, so I gave mine to someone else after trying a sip. Then we headed back to
change into our nice clothes, and went back to the conference. I really don't know why. We sat for a while, ate dinner, and then took crazy pics with everyone. (I got grief because I changed out of my heels for the pics. I hate being taller than guys in pics, so...what can I say? haha)

Got up the last morning, and came home(:

Poland

We arrived in Krakow, Poland, in the evening. Went to dinner, and then chilled in the hostel.
Picture: Random buildings in Krakow that I thought looked cool.

The next day, we took a tour in the morning, and then had free time in the afternoon. The tour covered a bunch of churches, some history, and the castle there. Our tour guide told us all these cool little stories about the city. For example: Every hour, on the hour, a trumpeter plays from the top of a building in the main square. He plays a little fanfare from each side of the tower. But in the middle of the tune, every time, he cuts out. This is because in the old days, there was a lookout in the tower. The lookout was shot down suddenly with an arrow, so the trumpet stops to pay homage to that. And after he played, we all clapped and he waved at us(:
Picture: The trumpeter played from the top of the left tower.

During free time we went shopping and had lunch. We spent another early night at the hostel, but everyone was so tired, it didn't matter.
Picture: A candy shop that we went in, and ended up getting about 3 steps out the door, trying our candy, and going back in to buy more.

The next day, we went to Auschwitz. I'm not going to describe it here. I will just say, until you actually go there for yourself, you cannot imagine what it was like. And even after going, I can't fathom what it would have been like to be there as a victim.
Picture: A sign on the tour, in Polish and English.

After that, we continued on to the Czech republic.

Slovensky Raj

Friday morning I left for Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise). Almost all of the Rotary kids were on the same train, so the train ride started the fun of the weekend. We arrived, and got to the hotel without problems. Although (like always) we got some weird looks from people at the train station because of how loud we were.

At the hotel, we met up with everyone else, and had dinner. Then we watched the hockey game, and stayed up super late talking.

The next morning, we went hiking. We walked through the forest, and by the end, we were exhausted. We spent so much time taking pictures. I have tons of random ones. After hiking, we had lunch, then practice for the talent show. I did my tap dance. We had the talent show right before dinner, and it went really good. After dinner, there was a "disco" but I was feeling sick, so I went to bed early (ish).

Sunday morning we packed up and left after breakfast, all of us on a bus to Krakow, Poland.

Easter

Easter vacation started last week. No school Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday. Thursday and Friday I mostly just hung out, nothing special. My host aunt and uncle came Friday and stayed until Saturday.

Saturday my other host aunt and uncle, and my host cousins came. For lunch we had goulash (Hungarian version, cooked by Czech and Slovaks) that was really good. Saturday night I went out with my host cousin and Ernesto, fun times.

Sunday we had a family lunch. I dyed eggs with my host mom and aunt. It was really cool. We put onion peels in a pot, then uncooked eggs. The eggs we put weeds on, to make designs, and wrapped them in pantyhose so they would stay. Then put them in the pan, and boiled them for about 10 minutes. They looked sweet when they were done.

Monday morning...ah, Easter Monday. I was woken up at 7:30 by my host dad coming in my room, saying good morning, and proceeding to dump a glass of cold water on my neck, and hit me with a willow switch a few times. After he left,  I went back to sleep. Until my host cousins and their dad came in. They sneaked in and woke me up by pulling off my blanket, and hitting me with their switches. They had a spray bottle filled with water, which was used on my face. Yea, thanks. After them, my host grandfather came in, hit me a few times, sprayed me with his bottle...yay. So yes, Slovak Easter Monday is not my favorite thing. Supposedly the water is for beauty, and the hitting is for...something. I don't remember what, exactly. It wasn't as bad as it sounds here. The glass of water sucked, but the spray bottles weren't that bad. And the switches didn't hurt. My host cousin said they were being nice, apparently last year he had a bucket of water...yeesh.

So, that was my Easter in Slovakia. Tomorrow the girls are allowed to get revenge, or so I've been told...we shall see.

Giselle

Yesterday afternoon, I met my dance teacher and Olivia (my friend who's also in my dance class) and we went with a bunch of other classes from our dance school to Bratislava. We took a bus, so it wasn't a great ride (I'm still a little freaked/excited when we drive through the circles on the bus haha), but it wasn't horrible. Once in Bratislava, we had a little free time, during which Olivia and I got ice cream. (The ice cream is better in Piestany.) Then we all went into the theater, to see Giselle. We had really good seats, first row, right center of the balcony. 

Giselle is a ballet, for those of you that are confused right now. It is one of the ballets I have always wanted to see (the other being Coppelia). (And for those of you that have only heard of a few ballets, yes, I have seen Swan Lake once, and I go to The Nutcracker every year. [Except this year, but that's beside the point.]) The traditional story of Giselle, Reader's Digest version: A young peasant girl and a prince fall in love, but he is in disguise so she doesn't know that he is a prince. There is also a peasant boy in love with her. (Insert random dances with the other townspeople to take up most of the first act.) A bunch of royalty shows up, yada yada. The peasant boy finds out who the prince is, and proves it to the girl. She dies. (Either by stabbing herself with the prince's sword, or from a weak heart, or dances herself to death. It changes. Either way, she's dead.) Then in the second act, the peasant boy visits her grave at night, and is danced to death by the other young girls that died before they were married. Then the prince comes, (same night) and she saves his life by not letting the other dead girls dance with him. And, that's pretty much it. Aw, how romantic. (It's like "zombie bride saves life of beloved, and also doesn't eat his brains". See why I love this ballet?)

But the version we saw, changed a bit. The basic story was the same. Except it was traditional Slovak dances in the first act. Which was really odd, set to classical music. If you have ever seen Slovak daces, you will understand. It involves a lot of stomping and a little bit of yelling. Meaning no one was wearing pointe shoes in the first act, so Giselle couldn't do her traditional solo. Well, she had a few solos, but not with the choreography I had been looking forward to. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL5dKMWkIe0&feature=related attn. 0:26) 

It was still really good. I loved the scenery, it was truly spectacular. And in the second act they all had their pointe shoes, so it was a little closer to the traditional version. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time, it just wasn't what I had been expecting. It was still a great ballet, done very well. Now I want to actually see the traditional version in person, to see how different they really are. 

I'm sorry that I don't have pictures, but we couldn't have cameras in the theater. And they announced that in English too, so I couldn't pull the "poor little american exchange student" act if I got caught. So, no pictures.

American Weekend

This past weekend my friends Teague and Sami came over. They are exchanges staying in Kosice. Teague is from Wisconsin, and Sami is from Mexico. What fun!

Lunch Saturday

They arrived Friday afternoon. I showed them around a bit, and we went food shopping with my host mom. Then we went out with Ernesto. Saturday morning I made pancakes. "We" cooked lunch...meaning I supervised, and had some issues when we realized Teague couldn't even manage to stir two things at the same time. She was put in charge of washing the lettuce, and tearing it for salad. The extent of her cooking skills were revealed even more when she asked "wash the lettuce with soap and water, right?" No, Teague...no. So, I supervised Teague not killing us, and we cooked baked beans, "Barb's Salad", and Hawaii Burgers. (Hamburgers with pineapple, onion slices, and guacamole on them instead of ketchup and mustard.) 

In the afternoon we went for another walk, taking lots of pictures. We came home for dinner, and then went out with Ernesto again. Sunday the girls walked to the train station to get their tickets for later in the day. This should have taken about a half hour, maybe 40 minutes. An hour and a half later, they got back. (They missed the turn walking there, but managed fine on the way home.) While they were gone, I made cheesy potatoes and Death by Chocolate, with my host mom's help. As she told me with a laugh, "I like American cooking. You just have to mix everything in one bowl and that's it!" She then baked chicken for lunch, too. After lunch the girls headed back, managing to get on the right train and get home without problems. 

All in all, it was a very good weekend. And the Death by Chocolate was the favorite dish, I'm thinking...my host dad was sad as he finished the last of it today, asking if there was more as he scraped the bowl clean. My host mom asked me to make it again next week for Easter, which should be fun. (Expect a full report about Easter sometime next week...I've been warned it will involve water, and lovely little sticks to beat the girls. Oh, joy.)

Ski Week

 Ok, once again, I didn't post for a while. But this time I have a good excuse! I was at Ski Week.
Picture: Me halfway down one of the hills, enjoying the scenery.

There were 29 exchanges from District 2240, which was amazing. We were in Jasna, Slovakia. We arrived Sunday night, and stayed until the next Saturday morning.
Picture: Ernesto (Mexico), Me, Kristina (California), Zoe (Oregon), and Rafa (Brasil) standing in front of the lift, getting ready to go down the hill.

We skied every morning, and all day on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. I fell at least once every day, but nothing major. On Wednesday afternoon, we toured a cave in Liptossky Mikulas, and then went to a waterpark there.
Picture: The "Pussy-willow Waterfall" formation of stalactites in the cave.

On Thursday afternoon, we had a "carnival", basically we wore masks and had races down the hill on inner tubes and the like. Monday night we had our own little "disco" in the basement of our hotel, and Friday night we got to go to the real disco there. It was really fun, dancing with everyone all crazy, and avoiding the drunks trying to hit on us. But nothing bad happened, don't worry(:
Picture: Our team, Os Fodas, for the carnival. Me, Rachel (Illinois), Rhihannon (Washington), Gustavo (Brasil), and Jenn (New York).

Also Wednesday, we went out to dinner. I was with 4 other friends, and we all went to an American restaurant (yum) then met everyone at a bar that the Rotex had reserved for us. Twas fun.
Picture: A group of us taking random pictures with our flags in the hotel. Top row, from left: Lydia (Pennsylvania), Ana (Brasil), Kenton (Ohio), Lewis (Australia), Me, Marina (Brasil), Samara (Mexico) Bottom row: Piera (Brasil) and Victor (Brasil)

Yes, I know I skipped around a bit, and this was a super short post to describe my week, but the week went super fast. Just enjoy the pics!
Picture: Going up the lift, this was one of my roommates, Kristina (California).