Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I'm back!
I'm back in the good ol' USA where we have comfy beds and normal toilets! I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Slovakia Day 3
Whew! What a whirlwind day! Last night, we got back from the opera Boris Godonov (a russion, bloody, depressing opera) at midnight. We crashed, but we were up bright and early this morning to leave the house at 8 for a day of site seeing and visiting the US embassy.
We started the day seeing some of the sights around Bratislava with a tour guide named Martin Sloboda. At first I just thought, "Wow, this guy knows alot about Bratislava." Soon, i picked up our guide book and had an epiphany: Martin Slaboda WROTE our guide book. That guidebook stand over there? All Martin Slaboda books. That's right! THe resident expert on all things Slavic wss our tour guide. Wow. I started listening more carefully! My favorite slovak story that he told was about the tradition of eating trout/carp for Christmas. Several days before Christmas, the families go to the market and get a LIVE fish. They bring the live fish home and let it live in their bathtub for a few days (so that the kids can play with it or something). Then on christmas day, they catch the fish (which is supposed to be hysterical) and then the father of the family is responsible for killing the fish (hopefully away from the children as they have now become emotionally attached, i'm sure). and they cut it up and eat it for Christmas dinner. Bizarre, no?
After our tour, we got to visit the American Embassy (Holy security, Batman!) and speak with the American/Slovak Ambassador for about an hour. Honestly, i know it was a big honor, but I was struggling to stay awake.
After that, we did a few more tour spots and then stopped to get lunch. I got broccoli cream soup that was DELICIOUS! Turkey, and rice with raisons in them. Strange, but very tasty.
After that, we had a few adventures at the local post office looking for collectable stamps for a few members of our GSE team.
Then we wandered back through some souvenir stands, and eventually made our way back home.
Tonight we will be eating as a group with all of our host families at a local pub. Tommorow morning we leave for Prague bright and early!
No clue aobut interenet access in Prague, so you may hear from me only when I'm back in the states! It's only 4 days now!
We started the day seeing some of the sights around Bratislava with a tour guide named Martin Sloboda. At first I just thought, "Wow, this guy knows alot about Bratislava." Soon, i picked up our guide book and had an epiphany: Martin Slaboda WROTE our guide book. That guidebook stand over there? All Martin Slaboda books. That's right! THe resident expert on all things Slavic wss our tour guide. Wow. I started listening more carefully! My favorite slovak story that he told was about the tradition of eating trout/carp for Christmas. Several days before Christmas, the families go to the market and get a LIVE fish. They bring the live fish home and let it live in their bathtub for a few days (so that the kids can play with it or something). Then on christmas day, they catch the fish (which is supposed to be hysterical) and then the father of the family is responsible for killing the fish (hopefully away from the children as they have now become emotionally attached, i'm sure). and they cut it up and eat it for Christmas dinner. Bizarre, no?
After our tour, we got to visit the American Embassy (Holy security, Batman!) and speak with the American/Slovak Ambassador for about an hour. Honestly, i know it was a big honor, but I was struggling to stay awake.
After that, we did a few more tour spots and then stopped to get lunch. I got broccoli cream soup that was DELICIOUS! Turkey, and rice with raisons in them. Strange, but very tasty.
After that, we had a few adventures at the local post office looking for collectable stamps for a few members of our GSE team.
Then we wandered back through some souvenir stands, and eventually made our way back home.
Tonight we will be eating as a group with all of our host families at a local pub. Tommorow morning we leave for Prague bright and early!
No clue aobut interenet access in Prague, so you may hear from me only when I'm back in the states! It's only 4 days now!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Slovakia Day 2 (lost count of what day along time ago)
Hello blog readers!
It has been awhile. I was in Valtice-Breclav, the wine region of the Czech Republic (or the "whine" region, as the third week hit us pretty hard. We were all exhausted). Since I was too tired (and a little sick with a cold, but i got over it) I didn't get a chance to write a daily entry. I know, i know. I'm sorry. But here are some highlights from the last week:
* walking through Valtice and listing to the local community news blared communist style over loud speakers
* trying duck liver for the first and last time
* visiting three countries (Austira, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) all in one day.
* planting a tree, which I named "Lexie the Magnificant" at the Tri Gracie forest, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Yes, that's right- the nations of the world will be caring for my tree.
* biking 32 kilometers all over the Valtice country side. Not the smartest move I ever made, and I'm still smarting from that bicycle seat but the country side is beautiful. Think of northern italy. It's very very similar.
* seeing a million wine cellars. Trust me when I tell you, you've seen one, you've seen them all.
* staying in a castle where our Host, his girlfriend, and their 11 year old son whom everyone calls "The Baron" because he is a baron.
Ok so now we have moved on to Slovakia. Since crossing the border into Slovakia, we have learned a few things:
#1, Czech is no where near as close to Slovak as everyone tells you. You can try the very few Czech words you know, and you have a 50/50 change of it actually working. Most of the time they just make a confused face at my attempts. At least they are not laughing!
#2 the Slovak people are much more religious than the Czech people. Here many more people attend church (as opposed to the large amount of atheism/agnositicsm prevalent in the CR)
#3 The United States of America is a baby compared to the rest of the world. We were at a recently unearthed archeological dig in Nitra, and the official at the site said "15th, 16th century? Not interested. But this, this is 9th century. That's good stuff!" Uh...so our country wasn't even around in the 15th and 16th century. Hmmmm. Today I got to see a rare book from the 18th century, and I realized, this book is as old as my country! But I digress...
So far we are really enjoying Bratislava. Today was a vocational day for all of us. I got to tour some library sites with a local library director. He first took me to a local library. I started looking at their classification system, which he explained was International Classification Numbers, and it was eerily similar to Dewey. Hmmm....a possibly copycat? After the local library which was ho-hum, they took me to a special Children's library. I was in Library Heaven!!! I got to meet the head children's librarian, Ludmila, and she showed me some of their programs and projects. For instance, they just had a program about monkeys, and the children had made monkey faces to place on the wall. Next to this, there was a posterboard where visitors could draw a picture of a monkey. I most definitely added a monkey!
After a while I started commenting on books, such as "Oh! Look at that one, it's about a funny yarn ball." She ripped it off the shelf and gave it to me. Like, to have permanently. I'm all "Ummmm, this is really nice and all, but don't you need to discard this???" Apparently not. So she kept handing me books from their collection. I felt really bad taking them because their collection was very small and not in that good of shape. But the host said I would be rude not to. We kept on, and we came to a fairy tale poster featuring a witch and a princess. I commented that it was "Yegi Baba" and she got excited and ripped it off the wall to give to me. Soon I just shut my mouth and wouldn't comment anymore. She tried to get me to take 3 hardback beautiful editions of Slovak fairytales, but I told her they wouldn't fit in my luggage. Other than that, It was a very wonderful experience.
After that, he took me to a special library for teachers and education students. At first, once again i thought "Ho-hum". But we started walking down these corridors, until we got to a door with bars across it. I'm thinking "Oh gosh, this is where they lock the book stealers". They open in and don't worry, it's only the WORLD's LARGEST COLLECTION of RARE BOOKS. Yup, hundreds and hundreds of books from the 15th, 16th, 17th and on centuries. Mostly in Czech, German, Latin, and Russian. They're picking these rare books up and throwing them around and I'm all like "ACK! Put some gloves on or something! Where is the climate control??? Where are the special boxes???? DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE?!?!?!" It totally blew my mind. I know at BYU, the special collections archive keeps rare books and they have not even a tenth of what was in this collection. And they treat their books very seriuosly. Not here! One of the slovak librarians opened a book and put it down spine up. I almost passed out.
My personal favorite editions where the Orbis Pictus books, (Picture Dictionaries) from the 16th century in Latin, Czech, German, and Slovak. Very cool. There were also some cool older books bound in music paper. Just the randomest coolest little collection.
Another favorite library highlight from today was to see an automatic card catalog. It was a giant wall sized box of card trays. The librarian punched in a number and correct tray would pop out. A front runner of the OPAC i guess? ;)
All in all, a very good day. Tonight we are going to see an opera at the Slovak National Theater. So I need to go get gussied up.
Love to all,
Lexie
It has been awhile. I was in Valtice-Breclav, the wine region of the Czech Republic (or the "whine" region, as the third week hit us pretty hard. We were all exhausted). Since I was too tired (and a little sick with a cold, but i got over it) I didn't get a chance to write a daily entry. I know, i know. I'm sorry. But here are some highlights from the last week:
* walking through Valtice and listing to the local community news blared communist style over loud speakers
* trying duck liver for the first and last time
* visiting three countries (Austira, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) all in one day.
* planting a tree, which I named "Lexie the Magnificant" at the Tri Gracie forest, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Yes, that's right- the nations of the world will be caring for my tree.
* biking 32 kilometers all over the Valtice country side. Not the smartest move I ever made, and I'm still smarting from that bicycle seat but the country side is beautiful. Think of northern italy. It's very very similar.
* seeing a million wine cellars. Trust me when I tell you, you've seen one, you've seen them all.
* staying in a castle where our Host, his girlfriend, and their 11 year old son whom everyone calls "The Baron" because he is a baron.
Ok so now we have moved on to Slovakia. Since crossing the border into Slovakia, we have learned a few things:
#1, Czech is no where near as close to Slovak as everyone tells you. You can try the very few Czech words you know, and you have a 50/50 change of it actually working. Most of the time they just make a confused face at my attempts. At least they are not laughing!
#2 the Slovak people are much more religious than the Czech people. Here many more people attend church (as opposed to the large amount of atheism/agnositicsm prevalent in the CR)
#3 The United States of America is a baby compared to the rest of the world. We were at a recently unearthed archeological dig in Nitra, and the official at the site said "15th, 16th century? Not interested. But this, this is 9th century. That's good stuff!" Uh...so our country wasn't even around in the 15th and 16th century. Hmmmm. Today I got to see a rare book from the 18th century, and I realized, this book is as old as my country! But I digress...
So far we are really enjoying Bratislava. Today was a vocational day for all of us. I got to tour some library sites with a local library director. He first took me to a local library. I started looking at their classification system, which he explained was International Classification Numbers, and it was eerily similar to Dewey. Hmmm....a possibly copycat? After the local library which was ho-hum, they took me to a special Children's library. I was in Library Heaven!!! I got to meet the head children's librarian, Ludmila, and she showed me some of their programs and projects. For instance, they just had a program about monkeys, and the children had made monkey faces to place on the wall. Next to this, there was a posterboard where visitors could draw a picture of a monkey. I most definitely added a monkey!
After a while I started commenting on books, such as "Oh! Look at that one, it's about a funny yarn ball." She ripped it off the shelf and gave it to me. Like, to have permanently. I'm all "Ummmm, this is really nice and all, but don't you need to discard this???" Apparently not. So she kept handing me books from their collection. I felt really bad taking them because their collection was very small and not in that good of shape. But the host said I would be rude not to. We kept on, and we came to a fairy tale poster featuring a witch and a princess. I commented that it was "Yegi Baba" and she got excited and ripped it off the wall to give to me. Soon I just shut my mouth and wouldn't comment anymore. She tried to get me to take 3 hardback beautiful editions of Slovak fairytales, but I told her they wouldn't fit in my luggage. Other than that, It was a very wonderful experience.
After that, he took me to a special library for teachers and education students. At first, once again i thought "Ho-hum". But we started walking down these corridors, until we got to a door with bars across it. I'm thinking "Oh gosh, this is where they lock the book stealers". They open in and don't worry, it's only the WORLD's LARGEST COLLECTION of RARE BOOKS. Yup, hundreds and hundreds of books from the 15th, 16th, 17th and on centuries. Mostly in Czech, German, Latin, and Russian. They're picking these rare books up and throwing them around and I'm all like "ACK! Put some gloves on or something! Where is the climate control??? Where are the special boxes???? DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE?!?!?!" It totally blew my mind. I know at BYU, the special collections archive keeps rare books and they have not even a tenth of what was in this collection. And they treat their books very seriuosly. Not here! One of the slovak librarians opened a book and put it down spine up. I almost passed out.
My personal favorite editions where the Orbis Pictus books, (Picture Dictionaries) from the 16th century in Latin, Czech, German, and Slovak. Very cool. There were also some cool older books bound in music paper. Just the randomest coolest little collection.
Another favorite library highlight from today was to see an automatic card catalog. It was a giant wall sized box of card trays. The librarian punched in a number and correct tray would pop out. A front runner of the OPAC i guess? ;)
All in all, a very good day. Tonight we are going to see an opera at the Slovak National Theater. So I need to go get gussied up.
Love to all,
Lexie
Monday, May 19, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Day 15
Day 15- That's right! we are now on the downward slope. More than halfway through, and we're all still alive. At this point we have visited 4 different places (Prague, Pilzen, Cesky Raj, and Ostrava), we have learned alot of words, and we are all still (pretty much) getting along.
Today was our vocational days. I started out by visiting the Municpal Library in Ostrava (that is the equivalent to the Public Library). They have a HUGE system. Keep in mind that Ostrava metro is around 310,000 people. They have one Main branch and TWENTY SIX branch libraries. That's right, i said it: TWENTY SIX branches. Holy cow. That's like HMCPLx2 plus more. To help handle all of this, they have it split up into five districts. Each of these districts answers to one district leader, who is directly under the Library Director. Unfortunately, the library director was not there today, but I did get to meet with one of the District Directors who spoke very good English.
It was very fortunate that I was able to meet with this director, because she is responsible for a project that is very much like what i do in Outreach. One of the biggest social problems Ostrava faces is that of the gypsies. They estimate that there are around 30,000 gypsies living in the Ostrava area (that's 10% of the total population!) The gypsies are mostly migrant workers who were put out of a job when the coal and steel mines in the area shut down. So there is a lot of unemployment and low literacy among gypsies. To make the situation even worse, they band together and form ghettos, where they elect a gypsy king and refuse to cooperate with city services. So. What can a library do about this? Well two years ago, this library director i spoke to, opened a small branch library in the biggest of the inner ostrava gypsy ghettos. This library focuses primarily on the gypsy children. It hosts programs such as storytimes, lock ins, field trips, and classes for the children. And this is librarianship on a personal level: one field trip they had planned was scheduled for a saturday morning. They told the parents, and promoted the trip. Then the saturday morning rolls around and no children were at the library. So they go to the houses of the children. The parents are smoking and drinking on the front porch, and they ask them where the children are. The gypsy parents told them that the kids are inside asleep, and if they want them to come on the trip the librarians can wake them up themselves. So house by house, these librarians woke these children up, washed them, got them dressed and put them on a bus for a field trip. She said that they are also teaching them basic lessons like "how to wash your hands" or "How to blow your nose" or "How to use a public bathroom" because the parents are not teaching the children these things. They are not sure of the success of this program, because the outputs they are looking for (like personal hygiene and cultural awareness) really can't be measured by statistics. But they think it's working because the children keep coming back to the library, day after day
Another thing I thought was cool was the way they order books. Every Tuesday morning, their vendor shows up at the library with a pile of new books. Then the five librarians spend all morning pouring through the books deciding if they want it for the collection. Then they give the vendor the list of books they want to keep (and possibly order more) and give the other ones back. While it may not be the most time sensible thing to do, i thought it was neat that they got to look at the books before they ordered them.
After my visit at the Municpal library, I visited the state scientific library. It was pretty cool: it was like an academic library, except that anyone could use it. They are hoping to move into a new building very soon.
After all the library visits, I got to visit with the vice-mayor of Ostrava, and he presented our team with many Ostrava gifts. Then we went to the coal mining museum (which is housed in a real historic mine. It was trippy!) and after that we had a rotary club meeting with all the rotarians in Ostrava. It really was a wonderful, but full day.
I was so busy, I didn't have time for a word of the day. BUT! I started listening to Czech, and I started understanding some of it for the first time today. Most of it was contextual clues, but still. Im proud of myself.
Tommorow we leave for Valtice. I'm not sure what our internet situation will be like as we will be staying in a castle (that's right, the library princess is staying in a castle, BOO-yah!) so I don't know if i will have interent or not. I guess it depends on how recently they've renovated the castle. However, don't worry. I'll keep writing posts and put them up as soon as I get a chance.
Today was our vocational days. I started out by visiting the Municpal Library in Ostrava (that is the equivalent to the Public Library). They have a HUGE system. Keep in mind that Ostrava metro is around 310,000 people. They have one Main branch and TWENTY SIX branch libraries. That's right, i said it: TWENTY SIX branches. Holy cow. That's like HMCPLx2 plus more. To help handle all of this, they have it split up into five districts. Each of these districts answers to one district leader, who is directly under the Library Director. Unfortunately, the library director was not there today, but I did get to meet with one of the District Directors who spoke very good English.
It was very fortunate that I was able to meet with this director, because she is responsible for a project that is very much like what i do in Outreach. One of the biggest social problems Ostrava faces is that of the gypsies. They estimate that there are around 30,000 gypsies living in the Ostrava area (that's 10% of the total population!) The gypsies are mostly migrant workers who were put out of a job when the coal and steel mines in the area shut down. So there is a lot of unemployment and low literacy among gypsies. To make the situation even worse, they band together and form ghettos, where they elect a gypsy king and refuse to cooperate with city services. So. What can a library do about this? Well two years ago, this library director i spoke to, opened a small branch library in the biggest of the inner ostrava gypsy ghettos. This library focuses primarily on the gypsy children. It hosts programs such as storytimes, lock ins, field trips, and classes for the children. And this is librarianship on a personal level: one field trip they had planned was scheduled for a saturday morning. They told the parents, and promoted the trip. Then the saturday morning rolls around and no children were at the library. So they go to the houses of the children. The parents are smoking and drinking on the front porch, and they ask them where the children are. The gypsy parents told them that the kids are inside asleep, and if they want them to come on the trip the librarians can wake them up themselves. So house by house, these librarians woke these children up, washed them, got them dressed and put them on a bus for a field trip. She said that they are also teaching them basic lessons like "how to wash your hands" or "How to blow your nose" or "How to use a public bathroom" because the parents are not teaching the children these things. They are not sure of the success of this program, because the outputs they are looking for (like personal hygiene and cultural awareness) really can't be measured by statistics. But they think it's working because the children keep coming back to the library, day after day
Another thing I thought was cool was the way they order books. Every Tuesday morning, their vendor shows up at the library with a pile of new books. Then the five librarians spend all morning pouring through the books deciding if they want it for the collection. Then they give the vendor the list of books they want to keep (and possibly order more) and give the other ones back. While it may not be the most time sensible thing to do, i thought it was neat that they got to look at the books before they ordered them.
After my visit at the Municpal library, I visited the state scientific library. It was pretty cool: it was like an academic library, except that anyone could use it. They are hoping to move into a new building very soon.
After all the library visits, I got to visit with the vice-mayor of Ostrava, and he presented our team with many Ostrava gifts. Then we went to the coal mining museum (which is housed in a real historic mine. It was trippy!) and after that we had a rotary club meeting with all the rotarians in Ostrava. It really was a wonderful, but full day.
I was so busy, I didn't have time for a word of the day. BUT! I started listening to Czech, and I started understanding some of it for the first time today. Most of it was contextual clues, but still. Im proud of myself.
Tommorow we leave for Valtice. I'm not sure what our internet situation will be like as we will be staying in a castle (that's right, the library princess is staying in a castle, BOO-yah!) so I don't know if i will have interent or not. I guess it depends on how recently they've renovated the castle. However, don't worry. I'll keep writing posts and put them up as soon as I get a chance.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Day 14
It.s official! We.ve hit the halfway mark! We are on day 14 of our adventure, and still loving every minute of it. However, I think I can safely speak for the team when I say that we all missed our mothers very much today. So mom, this is a Mother.s Day shout out for you!
Today we started the day by going to Frenstat, a small local town. I got to örder my first Czech zimzlena, or ice cream cone. (I had pistachio and chocolate, in case you were wondering.) Then we visited a museum on Czech folk life and immigration. Now, a word about Czech museums. I have visited many, many, museums in our tours here. In Prague, and a little in Pilsen I found the museums a little confusing and not very well curated. I had wondered if it was just a holdover from the communist era, or maybe a cultural/language thing. Not so! Because here in Moravia (the general area where I am staying is known as Moravia) the museums are tiny, but FABULOUS. The museum we visited yesterdaz in Pribor about Sigmund Freud, was superbly done and the exhibitions where very well put together. It was even (dare I say this about a museum?) very entertaining! Today we visited the Czech folklife and immigration museum in Frenstat. I had a similar experience with this museum as well. The museum exhibits were interesting, and very creatively put together. For instance, one of the largest Czech immigrated communities is in Texas. So they have a room that is divided by a large ship bridge. On one side is everyday historic life in the Czech area. Then you cross the bridge, and on the bridge are all sorts of primary historical documents about the immigrants from the CR. On the other side, is Texas! You read all kinds of interesting information about their lives in Texas. For instance, did you know that even today, Czech is the third most popular language spoken in Texas? (It.s right behind English and Spanish). The other exhibits were all done in a similarly superb fashion.
After that, we went on a short trip into the Beskzÿdy mountains (prounounced "Bes kiddy"). We took a ski lift up into the small moravian town at the top. It was gorgeous! We could see all around. Our host said that if the clouds had cleared out, we should be able to see all the way into the Slovakian Tatra Mountains. From there, we hiked up the mountain trail to a small statue of Radgegast, one of the folklife gods of beer. After that we went back to the trail and WALKED DOWN THE SIDE OF THE MOUTAIN. This sounds like not a big deal, but this mountain was bigger than any of the mountains in Huntsville. I was ready to fall over and die by the time I got down.
While we were up in the mountains, we stopped and had lunch at local restaurace. I got to try a local dish called Halusky (prounounced "hal loush key") that was very good. It was potato gnochi, with goatcheese and bacon. It tasted just like the best Velvetta shells and cheese you have ever had in your life! I loved it.
Words of the daÿ: zemzlina (pronounced "zem ez lina" and meaning Ice Cream) and ohchijee (totally not sure of the spelling, so i just spelled in phonetically. It means "certainly!")
We are all still having a wonderful time and we love our host families. We would stay here forever if they.d let us!
Tommorow we having vocational daÿs. I.m scheduled to visit the local public library and scientific library. Im VERY excited!!!
Today we started the day by going to Frenstat, a small local town. I got to örder my first Czech zimzlena, or ice cream cone. (I had pistachio and chocolate, in case you were wondering.) Then we visited a museum on Czech folk life and immigration. Now, a word about Czech museums. I have visited many, many, museums in our tours here. In Prague, and a little in Pilsen I found the museums a little confusing and not very well curated. I had wondered if it was just a holdover from the communist era, or maybe a cultural/language thing. Not so! Because here in Moravia (the general area where I am staying is known as Moravia) the museums are tiny, but FABULOUS. The museum we visited yesterdaz in Pribor about Sigmund Freud, was superbly done and the exhibitions where very well put together. It was even (dare I say this about a museum?) very entertaining! Today we visited the Czech folklife and immigration museum in Frenstat. I had a similar experience with this museum as well. The museum exhibits were interesting, and very creatively put together. For instance, one of the largest Czech immigrated communities is in Texas. So they have a room that is divided by a large ship bridge. On one side is everyday historic life in the Czech area. Then you cross the bridge, and on the bridge are all sorts of primary historical documents about the immigrants from the CR. On the other side, is Texas! You read all kinds of interesting information about their lives in Texas. For instance, did you know that even today, Czech is the third most popular language spoken in Texas? (It.s right behind English and Spanish). The other exhibits were all done in a similarly superb fashion.
After that, we went on a short trip into the Beskzÿdy mountains (prounounced "Bes kiddy"). We took a ski lift up into the small moravian town at the top. It was gorgeous! We could see all around. Our host said that if the clouds had cleared out, we should be able to see all the way into the Slovakian Tatra Mountains. From there, we hiked up the mountain trail to a small statue of Radgegast, one of the folklife gods of beer. After that we went back to the trail and WALKED DOWN THE SIDE OF THE MOUTAIN. This sounds like not a big deal, but this mountain was bigger than any of the mountains in Huntsville. I was ready to fall over and die by the time I got down.
While we were up in the mountains, we stopped and had lunch at local restaurace. I got to try a local dish called Halusky (prounounced "hal loush key") that was very good. It was potato gnochi, with goatcheese and bacon. It tasted just like the best Velvetta shells and cheese you have ever had in your life! I loved it.
Words of the daÿ: zemzlina (pronounced "zem ez lina" and meaning Ice Cream) and ohchijee (totally not sure of the spelling, so i just spelled in phonetically. It means "certainly!")
We are all still having a wonderful time and we love our host families. We would stay here forever if they.d let us!
Tommorow we having vocational daÿs. I.m scheduled to visit the local public library and scientific library. Im VERY excited!!!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Day 12 and 13
First of all let me apologize for any spelling mistakes that there may be in this blog. I am using a Czech keyboard for the first time, and Im still learning the ropes. The biggest problem is that the y and z keys are switched around, which means that if I don§t pay attention I might type like this..."verz nice to see zou todaz". Anyways, the team and i are safe here in Ostrava. I have a wonderful host family, and I am enjoying staying in a family home. It means clean laundry! Today we went to a little village called Stromberk, which has been called the Czech Bethlehem. It was a very quaint little village with a strange tradition. Many centuries ago, Turkish invaders came into the village and cut all the ears off of the inhabitants. So today, they sell cookies there shaped like ears. I ate ear cookies! And don§t worry, they were delicious! We also got to visit the Tatra car museum, and see all of the cool old cars. Then, possibly my favorite part of the day, was when we got to visit Sigmund Freud§s birthplace. The museum thez have there is really cool, and the curatorship was above anzthing else I have seen on this trip. I§ll write more about it when I have a chance. Till then, know that everzthing is going well and I§m having a blast! Tommorow we are taking a trip to the Bendresky Mountains, and to a large shopping center...whoo hoo!
Word of the day is "Spisza!" prounounced "sh_pizza" it means SUPER!
Ta ta for now!
Word of the day is "Spisza!" prounounced "sh_pizza" it means SUPER!
Ta ta for now!
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