First Week of School!

Today is Saturday, and I have completed my first week of school here! I can't believe how fast time is going and how much my language is improving.

My first day of school on Monday was only 45 minutes long, so I guess it was more of an orientation day and a day of going over the school rules. The school is 5 stories tall and only has stairs, so I can see I will be getting a workout at school everyday since classes are all over the place. I am not totally sure what all we talked about on the first day since it was of course in Czech, but I got to know some of my classmates and look around the school. After school was out, our class teacher introduced me to a couple of the girls in the class so that I could ask them questions. After we talked for awhile outside of the school I wandered around the city and hung out in the main square until my host dad could get off work and take me back to Lukovany. When he picked me up he told me that he had called Jana who lives in Lukovany and has two daughters. He had asked if I could come over. She gladly welcomed me to come over and learn how to make another classic Czech dish and work on my french braiding skills with the girls. Robert and I stopped at the store and bought some meat for us to make our lunch on our way to Lukovany. Jana speaks English and so do her daughters, but the girls were too shy to speak in English which was probably a good learning experience for me in the end. For lunch we made řizek which is a meat (usually pork or chicken) covered in breadcrumbs and then fried. The girls helped Jana and I make the řizek and they made the potatoes. Then we all sat down and ate the meal that we had prepared together, and it was delicious! The girls also enjoyed teaching me new words by pointing at something and then saying it in Czech. When we were done eating I decided to practice my french braiding skills on the girls. I can definitely say I will have to practice a lot more before they look presentable, but its fun to get to play with the girls' hair in the meantime. After playing with hair, it was time for me to go home. I took our left over řizek with me, and the girls walked me home. On our walk home they were speaking in Czech and every once in awhile they would say something to me, but of course I didn't understand so they either tried to say it in English, show what it was, or just give up. For the rest of my day I just hung out at home and got ready for another day of school.

Tuesday was the first actual day of school where we went to most of our classes and had lunch there. The first hour or so of school was spent in "our class"(2D) where the teacher talked about some things that I'm not quite sure of, and I got to meet some more of my class mates. Then came chemistry class. I was feeling pretty good about chemistry since I had just taken it in the US last school year and many things are the same worldwide. I quickly found out that it was going to be a lot harder than expected. Next was math, another subject that I thought I would understand, but not yet. I think they might be at a higher level that I was in the US, but I guess I will figure that out eventually. While we waited for our math teacher to arrive, I met some more of my classmates. One of them was nice enough to give me the password to the wifi at school since hardly anyone knows it. Then he invited me to eat lunch with him and some of the girls from our class. I was relieved to have someone to eat with in such a new environment, and show me how to get lunch from the cafeteria. Of course, everyone complains about how bad school lunch is, but I was 100% sure that it couldn't be any worse than school lunch in the US which I stopped eating around the age of 6. For my first lunch I got a chicken salad. It was pretty good, not anything special, but as I had predicted, WAY better than the US. After lunch we only had one more class before the day was over. Our last class was English which I was sure was going to be easy. Before class started I met more girls from my class, and they practiced their English by asking me all sorts of questions about myself and my home. Once class started, the teacher asked me to tell everyone about myself in English, so I just repeated all of the answers to the questions that they had just asked. School was over by 12:45 so we had quite a bit of our day left. After school the two girls that I met the day before from my class invited me out to hang out with them around the city for a few hours. They gave me a tour of the part of the city that our school is in, along with some shopping. We hung out for a few hours before it started to rain. When it was raining we ran to one of their houses that was close by and waited until my host dad could come get me. When we got home I work on finishing up my speech and presentation that I was going to give on Thursday at my first Rotary meeting. I practiced saying my speech over and over until I had about half of it memorized. After that, my host dad offered to teach me what everything meant in the song that we were going to sing for Miloš's birthday. Then we practiced it a couple of times before we had dinner. At dinner we discussed how our next morning and day would go. Ruda (my host brother) also helped me pick what to order for lunch since it's in Czech and I don't know which meals are okay and which ones are not good. After dinner the club was open, so we headed down to hang out. I presented as much of my speech as I could remember, and everyone agreed that my family might as well be the size of Lukovany. At the club I can always see how my language is progressing. For example, I was able to order myself drinks, and answer some of the questions I was asked in Czech.

On Wednesdays my school starts at 7 in the morning so that means I have to wake up a 5:30 or 5:45, which is definitely hard to get used to since back home I used to wake up at 7:30. My first class was English, which was a nice way to ease into the early morning. But after English came physics. I have never taken physics, so I just sat there and tried to see if I understood any of the words the teacher was saying. After that, we had social science. I have no clue what the class is about, so I just did the same thing as I did in physics. While I was sitting in class looking at what we had for the rest of the day, I quickly realized that there were 6 options of classes for the next lesson, and I hadn't been assigned one or given a choice. I asked my friend Filip(who gave me wifi and ate lunch with me the first two days) what I should do since he has basically been my guide all day. He told me to just pick one and go, and if they tell me to go somewhere else then I can deal with that later. My choices were, Russian, Latin, chemistry and math extras, molecular biology, or IT. I asked him what he was taking and he said IT, so I just decided to stay with him for the day since I was definitely not taking another foreign language. In IT I was reminded that the computers are all in Czech so that was going to make it difficult, but it will be interesting to see how it goes. After IT was lunch, and by that time I was quite hungry since school had started earlier than normal. I got a fruit salad with a giant poppyseed roll for lunch. It was hard having been so immersed in the language for 3 days straight that I was starting to get so confused in class and overwhelmed that I was finding myself bored all the time. I think this will get better with time once I start to understand more of the language. After school I went and hung out on my own in the sun until my host dad could come get me. When we got home we worked on planning some more of the week and trying to get everything in line for my first Rotary meeting. We also signed me up for dancing lessons this fall. It is very common for a whole class to sign up for a proper dance class and take it together around the age of 16.

Thursday when I woke up at 6:30 it felt like I had gotten to sleep in. My classes were a bit harder today than they had been the last 3 days. My first class was geography which reminded me that I have only ever take geography in French and that was 5 years ago so that will be interesting for sure. My next class was Czech history, or as I call it, my doodling class. I don't know Czech history even in English and especially not to their level, so I will just work on my language in that class most likely. After history Filip took me to go meet my geography teacher and figure out how we were going to go about the year, and what would be best for me. Then came another chemistry class where I managed to recognize a few element names that were either similar to English, or my host dad had taught me some of the weird ones that are very common. Then we had another English class before lunch. For lunch I had some more řizek and potatoes. I think the one I made on Monday tasted better, but again I will definitely not complain about school lunches here. After lunch we ended our day with another math lesson. After school I took the different public transportations to my host dad's work so that we could go home. I am proud to say that I did it completely on my own, only using google maps to confirm that I had the correct route planned. Once we were home, I got myself ready for the Rotary meeting. We headed off to a hotel in Brno to the meeting. The club is a lot smaller that what I am used to, but it was nice that I was able to meet everyone there. I gave my little speech and presentation before we at dinner at the meeting. They all immediately saw that my slides were in English so I think they were assuming I would speak in English too. But to their surprise my whole speech was in Czech that had been practiced and proof read by my host dad. After the meeting we had to get home soon so that we could have a practice for Miloš's birthday song because Friday had come so soon!

Finally it was Friday morning and I was about to finish my first week of Czech school! There had been some more miscommunications or lack of communication about classes. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to arrive at school at 7 or 8, but we decided to just go at 8 and figure it out later. Thankfully, I think we ended up being correct about going later but there was a class for some kids at 7, so our first class didn't actually start until 8:50. Since I had about an hour before class started I decided it would probably be a good idea to see where my first class was. I was glad I checked early because our first class was German, but there were two different levels of it and I hadn't been told which one to take. I quickly messaged Filip and asked which one he was in, and he told me he was in the easier one on the 5th floor. As I waited for him to get to school, and for class to start, I remembered that I was supposed to make a grocery list in Czech for my host mom since I was going to make my first American meal on Saturday. When German started, my classmates did the usual, raise their hand and tell the teacher who I am so that they know I don't really understand anything but I will be here for a year. When Filip told my teacher this, the teacher told me to switch to the other German class because the other teacher knew English. I was a bit annoyed since it doesn't really matter because I don't speak either language and the teachers aren't supposed to speak in English to me much, but I switched anyways. Filip was kind enough to take me to the other class just in case I got lost. I was betting that German would be the class I learn the least in, but at this point it seems that I was wrong about this prediction too. After German came Czech language arts where I sat and doodled some more. Then we went back to our IT class where we started to do some sort of project, but I'm not totally sure what we were doing. The teacher let my friend Sabina and I do it together since I don't really understand anything yet. After IT was lunch. I had breaded fried cheese which I was hesitant about when Ruda told me that was what he was getting, but I was pleasantly surprised. Then we finished off the week with another English class. In English all week, I have just enjoyed hearing how they speak English, and how the English they are taught (proper) is different from US English. On Friday I learned that in proper English they say "medicaments" instead of "medications" which I thought was funny. After school I went to my host dad's office again so that we could go home and get ready for Miloš's birthday celebration.

That was definitely the longest post I have done, but thank you for reading about my first week of school here.

Miloš's birthday celebration was so fun and long deserves a separate post for sure, so stay tuned!