A Weekend Spent with Exchange Friends

Polaroids on the Rooftops

Saturday morning the family got up at a decent time since Ruda and Robert were going to be running in a race around the dam. We had our usual weekend breakfast, ham with eggs before leaving just before 10. I had told Ana that I would meet her at 10, but I texted her and told her I would be a little later. We drove a little ways into Brno and dropped the guys off for their run. Then Zora and I went to park the car in a nearby parking lot. Zora walked me over to the tram stop that I had to get on at to get into the city center.

I took a 45 minute tram ride basically 3/4 of the way across Brno. I also took a cool time lapse while I was on the tram. When I finally met up with Ana, we went and got some breakfast mojito ice cream (no alcohol involved of course). Then we went up to the church to take some morning pictures and hang out, outside for awhile. Then we were going to go meet up with Nick and Valeria (some other exchange students staying in Slovakia who where visiting), but they weren't ready to meet up yet. So, while we waited, we decided to live life to the fullest and go get some more ice cream. While we were eating our ice cream we met up with Gigi who is from Canada and is living in Brno with us. After we introduced ourselves, it was finally time to meet up with Nick and Valeria! We hadn't seen them since our orientation meeting, and we were so excited to see them again. We all went out to a Chinese restaurant for some lunch. After lunch I had to leave them and go get on a tram to go meet some of my friends from school.

I went to go hang out with Michaela, Betka, and Betka's older brother Igor. We went to Holedná Forest Enclosure, where we got to walk around a beautiful little forest in the fall leaves. While we walked around we fed some pigs, and took pictures of the pigs, deer, and turtles. We walked around for awhile and I can't even describe how peaceful and beautiful it was. After we had walked around most of the paths, we went to the store to grab a quick snack. Then they all walked me to the tram stop and waited until I got on and said goodbye. I took another tram ride for about 30 minutes going across about half of Brno.

I found the group again in the city center, and got to meet Valeria's host sister. We decided to go up to the roof of a building in the city center where there is a patio and you can take pictures of the city from up above. We took some polaroid photos with Ana's camera too. After taking some pictures and getting my host family to let me stay in the city with Ana for the night, we said goodbye to Gigi, who had to go home. Then we went for a little bit of shopping to get Valeria a jacket since the weather is starting to get colder. After some shopping we spent some time walking around the city and going to see one of our favorite fountains that lights up and drops designs (look at the photos section of the blog to see). Then we went and got some dinner at Kebab. After dinner we went to Tesco and bought some ice cream and a few other random snacks to eat while we wandered around. We ended our evening by going up to the church again and taking pictures of the city at night. Ana and I left the church around 9:30pm, not realizing how long it would take to get down from the church. We ended up having to run most of the way home to make our 10 o'clock curfew.

Sunday morning Ana and I woke up at around 9 in the morning, but we were super slow moving. While we were eating breakfast, we realized the time and had to start rushing so that I could try and make it to the bus home. My family and I had agreed that I could spend the night in the city as long as I was home in time for lunch on Sunday.

So I went to the tram stop , but ended up missing one of them. Then next one that was coming was going to the main train station instead of the square where the bus is. But I looked at the time and realized that I probably wasn't going to make the bus anyways, so I might as well try taking the train. I looked at google maps and the reader boards in the train station and made my way to the right platform. As I got on the train, I was worried that I had got on the wrong one, but deep down I knew I was right. As I watched the city pass by, I started to worry a little less. Then I heard the name of my stop, and I knew I had done it. Now the question was, did I make it in time to make the connection to the bus that goes to my village? The answer was yes, I made it just in time!

When I finally made it home after my adventure of a morning, I took a few minutes to myself in my room. Then I made my way up to the garden to meet up with the rest of the family and help pick more of our apples. Ruda and I worked on making some more juice for ourselves, while Zora kept picking more for us to juice. By the end we were all picking, and we had a system for sorting the apples into different crates. When we were done for the day, we made our way back inside. I thought that maybe I had missed lunch, but at 5 they called for "lunch/dinner", so I had really done it. I had really made it home in time for lunch, and even with missing the bus and having to figure out the train on my own, last minute!

After dinner I took a shower and braided my hair. Then I hung out for awhile preparing myself for another week of school. Then Zora asked me if I wanted to try on a couple of dresses that she had borrowed from her friend. The dresses were for the winter ball that is one of the big dances that goes with the dancing classes. Unfortunately the dresses didn't fit, but it was still fun to play dress up with Zora.