Weeks Fourteen and Fifteen: Cookies and Puzzles

I must apologize for not posting a blog last week. As last week wasn’t too eventful, I figured that it would be more interesting if I combined these two weeks. There still isn’t any snow in Rakovnik, which is an odd feeling! I’m not sure if there will be much snow as we continue through the winter, but it doesn’t really feel like winter without the snow! I’ve seen multiple videos and pictures of exchange students in other cities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia who are seeing snow for the first time. I think I will be just as excited! It also hasn’t gotten too cold here. It is a bit chilly outside, in the mornings the lowest temperature might be -1.

Last week was American thanksgiving. As I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, Maeve is an American Fulbright teaching at the Gymnazium. She’s also one of my bestfriends! Last weekend, there were some other Fulbright’s that went to Maeve’s place to celebrate thanksgiving. Afterwards, there were two that stayed at her house. She invited me to go over and do some baking with them. It was such an amazing night. The other two women were very nice and so fun to be around. Maeve’s younger host brother (I believe he is ten or eleven) also joined us and helped. We listened to Christmas music, danced around, and baked pie and snickerdoodles. Maeve also made some baked mac and cheese for dinner and it was amazing. I haven’t eaten mac and cheese since before I came here! It was a very wholesome night and was a nice taste of home. I will do a whole separate blog on the holiday season in the Czech Republic later, but it was nice to have a little bit of time doing something I would do at home.

Also last weekend, I woke up in the morning and solved a thirty-piece puzzle of a kitten with Kuba. It was a lot of fun! Then, we had the marvellous idea to try and solve a 1000 piece puzzle of the Eiffel tower. Kuba told me “Ugh this is going to take so long! Like two hours!” Let’s just say… we spent seven hours on Sunday trying to separate the pieces and creating the border. It still isn’t done, but we’re actually almost there! Doing puzzles is becoming an addiction in our house now. After school, my host dad, Kuba and I will sit for hours trying to solve the puzzle. I came home very late last night to find my host dad still working on it! I even went to the store to buy another one… We just have the sky to do, which will be challenging because it’s all blue! After I write this blog, I will most likely continue on the puzzle!!

Throughout the past two weeks, I’ve been doing a presentation on Canada (in English). Here in the Czech Republic, the graduating class must be able to speak about Canada in English for about three minutes. It is one of their topics that they must speak about. I went to the Technology/Engineering school (which was pretty much all boys… maybe only 10 girls attend this school) and did maybe six presentations. I did the presentation for some of the younger classes who were interested as well. In the presentation I just talk about History, Politics, Geography, Cultural Values, and something about hockey and winter sports. I’ve received a lot of good questions after my presentation as well! It was also a good opportunity to meet more people. After my presentation, I had some people from the other school reach out to me and ask more questions.

I’ve also passed some important milestones! As of November 21, I have been here for three months. Also, I passed my 100 days on the 29^th. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for that long… the time has certainly gone by quickly, just like I knew it would! Therefore, I’m continuing to make the most of every day and take it all in!