Right now I'm in the Czech Republic, sitting in the hotel restaurant, drinking hot chocolate (not as good as Dutch hot chocolate) after 2 hours of snowboarding. Today was my second lesson, and I'm not.... terrrrible, but it was sort of depressing to be sitting on the slope after a fall and to see my six-year-old host sister pass me perfectly on skis. But hey, you just gotta get back up and keep going. It was my first time on a slope, and I made it down the second half without falling. Granted, I was holding my instructor's hand... which is fine, because Carla predicted everything perfectly (except the falling in love part.... not that I was expecting that). Nahh, he's just really cool. We're so funny together (when I'm not on my face in the snow).
Me: "I think I have a lot more learning to do."
Him: "Yes... like how to stand and how to walk."
Me: "....I guess I picked the wrong day to stop crawling."
Czech is a really awesome language. I only know how to say "I like snowboarding" in Czech, because I asked, but it looks and sounds really cool.
I'm reading a book called Everything is Illuminated. I'm not very far, but it's pretty good. It's written a bit strangely, but that makes it sort of funny.
I think I will practice more snowboarding either tonight or tomorrow morning, before my lesson. I will only be here for a few more days, and I would like to be able to go down the slope by myself.
Before we got here, my host family and I went to Matthias' parents to see the rest of his family in North Holland. I had been there before, but this time there were presents and a lot of people. I believe I was given the coolest bed in the house. I was shoved into a small corner next to a small, foggy/mossy window, on the second floor. (No, I'm serious, I loved that spot.) The house itself is cool... it used to be a sort of barn where they would hang cheese on the walls. It's not huge, but sort of spooky. Think of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house without the chickens hanging from the ceiling and no deranged butchers in the closet. Basically just really cool, made of wood, different and old. Dinner was vegetable soup and plum (Christmas) pudding.
After that, we went to Carla's parents house in Belgium to see her side of the family. The house was huuuuuge and when I told that to Carla's mom, she said, "Oh, no, this is a pretty typical house for Belgian people." ............. Anyways, there were tonsssss of little kids running around, and also presents to be opened (there are 2 days of Christmas here, and there too I suppose.) There were snacks on the table, and I didn't really want any, but someone offered me one so I took it anyways and it was seriously the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. It was just prepackaged, store-bought salad cheese balls, but it was amazing. Dinner that night was foie gras, soup, lobster, octopus, deviled eggs with caviar, shrimp, and raw salmon.
My host dad had to explain this to me. I didn't understand why it was so different. He said that Dutch people are just content with what they have. They don't ask for a lot, because many Dutch people are religious and they feel that a modest way of life is more accepted by God. This way of living has permeated throughout most of the country, even to people who aren't religious. Belgian people really like to live and be happy. They party and eat delicious food because they want to, and it's fun. So, in case you thought that all of Europe was the same... it's not. Not even two countries that speak almost the same language. BUT.... Dutch bread is about 12,000 times better than Belgian bread. So there.
Well anyways, after a 15 hour car ride, I'm in a different part of Europe. Most of the drive went through Germany. I've been to Germany twice now, (once in the car), and for some reason whenever I'm in Germany I have the desire to listen to German heavy metal. We didn't have any in the car. My internet knows where I am at any given moment, and keeps translating pages into Czech for me. Thank you, because I totally speak Czech. It's kind of funny, actually, because the six-year-old really loves to read, and she is unhappy because she can't read any of the Czech signs. But I love to speak Dutch here, because I think nobody will understand what I'm saying. Not that I say bad things, but I've never been able to do that before. It's always happened to me, when people are speaking another language in an airport or somewhere and I don't know what they're saying. That's what Dutch is - my airport language.
Speaking of which, I was told that Christmas was the turning point for AFS students - that their language skills increased a lot by the end of December (four months into the exchange). I've noticed that.... I can really talk to the kids now, and understand other people. It's more difficult in a big group of people, when everyone is trying to talk at once, and quickly, but one-on-one conversations are way better now.
My host mom just bought me another hot chocolate. I've been in here for an hour now.
Czech guys are really good looking.
That was random.... just happened to cross my mind. Good-bye, Spanish lessons. Hello, Czech lessons!! Just kidding. But not really. I really want to learn a lot of languages now. Nearly everyone I've met can speak more than two languages. That's really cool. I find it unfortunate that the American culture does not really emphasize learning another language. But it makes sense if you think about it. What are we supposed to learn? English is the language of the world.
I'm watching this Czech movie right now. It's on the TV in the restaurant. I don't really know what's going on... but I think it's a romantic comedy. (This is important information for you to know.)
Since my hot chocolate isn't gone yet, I'll take a moment to talk about Czech food. It's different than Dutch food. (OMG no way!!) Their soup isn't thick, but a bit greasy sometimes. They like stew, too. Well, I've only been here two days. But, this morning, I wanted a cookie to go along with my breakfast. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. (Maybe I'll assign one of these to each country.) It had this hazelnut paste inside.
Hey wait a minute... I've already seen this scene of the movie!! I think it's on a loop. But I didn't see an ending! What's going on?? Well, now I'm really confused, my hot chocolate is up, and I must return to our room/house thing before dinner. So,
Tot ziens,
Emily
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