Weekend number 3

I swear those are two different trailers of pears

On Saturday we decided to sleep in a bit since we had had such a late night at Miloš's party. Once we finally got up, my host mom made breakfast and then helped me get ready to cook my first American meal here. We got everything out and I started to make my dad's meatloaf. As we did this, I remembered that I hadn't really cooked much on my own, and that I almost always cook with my dad. There are certain parts of every recipe that I always let my dad do because I am too unsure of myself. But today, I was on my own and following my dad's "recipe" which is more of an explanation with different combinations to choose from and kind of make it up as you go. I was moving kind of slow, and we wanted to eat at 12:30, so Zora jumped in and helped me by making the potatoes which were a last minute add on the the meal anyways. Then came the time that the meatloaf was almost done, and I realized THIS was the part of the cooking process my dad does; he is the one to decide if it is done. But again, I was on my own so I called it good and turned off the oven. We took pictures of course and then cut up the meatloaf and served it for the family. To my surprise, I had actually done it! I made my dad's meatloaf all on my own and I didn't burn a single thing. After lunch I went to work on my blog a bit and make my post for Miloš's party. Then my host parents came to me and informed me that we were leaving soon to take Ruda (my host brother) to his baseball game. They also mentioned that at the baseball game Zora and I would be

in-line skating. I was quite nervous for this to say the least, but as I have said earlier, I must try everything at least once. So we got there and I started to put on the skates. As I stood up (holding onto my host dad of course) I was super shaky. Robert basically just pulled me around the loop that goes around the baseball field while I stood and just let the wheels roll. The first thing out of my mouth was "wow I really don't like having wheels on my feet.", but there we went, around the loop. When we got done with one loop I sat down on the bench and immediately took off the skates. I was not a fan of this new sport, but I am proud of myself for trying it at least once. I think if we go back there, I will stick to just watching the baseball game, like I did for the rest of that game. In the evening when we got back I called my mom for the first time since I left and we chatted for 45 minutes about how life was going.

On Sunday we got up a little later and then had breakfast. After breakfast we went up to our back yard and loaded up a trailer with a ladder and a couple really long sticks. I was a bit confused exactly how this was going to "help us pick pears", but I helped anyways. Then we got in the car and followed Michal (another Michal from the club) to a yard where there was a giant pear tree surrounded by a bunch of pears on the ground. We started to sort the rotten ones from the ones that were still decent. The decent ones went into buckets until they were full, and then we dumped them into the trailer. Once all of the pears on the ground were sorted, Michal climbed into the tree and began to shake it until it started to rain pears. Meanwhile Ruda and Robert took the long sticks and hit branches to make more pears fall. Once a bunch of the pears were on the ground we started the sorting process all over again. We repeated this a few times until it was "good enough". That took a few hours and it was getting close to lunch time so Ruda and Robert headed home to set up the crusher, and Michal and I went to get the barrels. When Michal and I got back, he and Ruda began putting the pears through the crusher and making "mashed pears" to put in the barrels with yeast, sugar and water. These barrels will sit for awhile and then they will take them to a distillery to be made into liquor. Once we had unloaded the entire trailer of pears into the crusher, and filled 4 or 5 barrels, it was finally time for lunch that Zora had been preparing all morning. We ate the delicious lunch and then.... went to get more pears of course! This time we drove to the edge of the village and met Michal who had already began the sorting process. We used our same process of shaking and hitting the branches, but this time Ruda climbed the tree as well. Once it was "good enough" again, and the trailer was full, we headed back to the house for more crushing. As Michal continued to put the pears into the crusher, Ruda and I made a small batch of fresh pressed pear apple juice to drink for the next few days. After we finished making all of the mashed pears and juice, we went inside and hung out until dinner. In the evening, I made some muffins from a box that had the recipe only in Czech of course. The family likes to add fresh pears from our trees to the chocolate chip muffins. I was successful in my little baking adventure! Then we got ready to go to school again, and went to bed.