First Couple of Days

First family photo, and people already say I look like them :)

I have safely arrived to my new home in Lukovany, Czech Republic. I have had a busy first couple of days so I haven't gotten around to posting until now (day 3).

It was definitely hard to say goodbye to everything that I was used to, and get on 3 airplanes just to be picked up by a family I had never met, in a different country.

I woke up around 3am in Eugene on Tuesday, and landed in Vienna around 8 in the morning on Wednesday. We got a quick breakfast and began our drive to Brno to see if I could check in at the foreign policy place, which ended up being closed until the next morning. On our way to Brno we got a flat tire; quite the start to my year! Once that was fixed we got lunch at a restaurant in Brno before heading home. They warned me about how the dog would get excited and try to jump, but instead he was afraid of me and wouldn't let me pet him :'( . I tried to stay awake once we got home so that I could fight off the jet lag, but I ended up taking a quick nap anyways before dinner. After dinner my host parents invited to come with them to a private club down the street to meet their friends and to be around the language.

Thursday, we had to leave by 7:30am to get to the foreign policy place to get a number in line. It was going to be awhile until we got called, so my host dad, Robert, took me to his work. Later, he took me into the middle of Brno to meet my host brother, Ruda, so that he could show me the public transportation systems. Ruda took me back to the foreign policy building and I finished getting my passport stamped. Then I was able to take the bus back to my host mom's work by myself! I bought myself some lunch using my newly learned Czech, before meeting my host mom, Zora, at her work. She took me to my first rowing practice, where my older host brother (who is in America) rowed. It was so nice to be back out on the water again. After practice Robert picked me up and drove me home to take a shower and have dinner. We went back to the club after dinner again to celebrate the club owner's birthday. I was complimented on my pronunciation, which was some much needed encouragement for the learning process. There was also a thunderstorm in the evening which seems to be somewhat common around here in the summer. The rain was a nice change from the heat of the day

Today was "lazy Friday"! My brother and I got up at 9, and we did a few chores around the house before we began our lazy day. Once we were done I took a (much needed) 3 hour nap before my parents got home.