Tuesday is market day in the town square. The column on the left side of the picture is the Maria post, which were erected in towns after the Black Plague.

Day 5 – Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dobry den!

We had class all day – it was long, but really good. Every Tuesday there is an open air market in the town square. We stopped there walking back from lunch. I bought some clothes pins and blueberries.

There was a zumba class at 6, but the weather outside was calling me and some of the other compatriots. We went to the city pool. For $1, we were admitted to what felt like heaven! The water was chilly at first, but after the first few seconds, it was wonderful.

Day 3

Class started in earnest today. I am in the red group, which is the first one above the students that don’t know any Czech. Four of the six Americans are in the class. The fifth person is in the beginners class and the sixth has been coming here for the past 12 years and is fairly advanced.

Homework! Yuk!

There is a webcam for the town of Dobruska. The website is: http://www.dobruska.cz/kamera/kamera.phtml

Evening activity – Every Sunday in the town square, there is a band playing music and sausages, pork, and beer for sale – my brat was so good and the rye bread so fresh. And yes, I had my 3rd glass of beer. The band was a Czech country group, which was weird hearing country in Czech, but they did play a song that you could do a rumba to and I taught one of my new friends how to rumba.

We’ve all been remarking how much it feels like living in a dorm all over again – my room is like a dorm room, complete with dorm furniture and a roommate.

Day 4

We have vouchers to use towards dinner – they can be used at the restaurants or the grocery stores in town. Today, 3 of “cooked” and got fixings for a chef salad. It was so good to eat vegetables and not a lot of salt.

Evening Cultural Activity – Singing and Dancing!!!!

Oh tonight was fun! We learned the mazurka, some other dance and the polka with songs to go with them.

On Thursday, we have our own Olympic games. We are divided into teams and have to come up with a team chant and name.

Ahoj! There may be the official Olympics in London, but there is definitely a festival of nations here in Dobruska, Czech Republic. I am with 60 plus other students of the Czech language, and only 5 of us are from the United States. Tonight we had to get up in front of the group and speak a little Czech, so that they could assess which class to put us in. My classmates are from(and I won’t remember all of the countries): Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Israel, Kurdistan, Ukraine, Belgium, Canada, Brazil, Hungary, England, Croatia, China, Phillipines, Bosnia-Herzegovnia, Mexico, Australia. Today, I think I spoke as much spanish as I did Czech. Class starts at 8:20 tomorrow, with testing to see which class we belong in. Then, there’s a field trip in the afternoon and evening, and class on Sunday. It’s hot here and there’s no air conditioning, but life is good.

Dnes je pondeli, 9.dubna.  Today is Monday, April 9th.

Hello!  Tonight is the world premier of the video which documents Aaron and Katie’s first 300 miles down the Mississippi.  Woohoo!