School and more adjusting left to do

Life here is good. Really good. School is going well for me. I understand some of my classes, especially the ones, like History, where the teacher speaks to me in French because I do not know Czech :) That is always fun. But I feel like a part of the class, and lunch yesterday was okay. I was going to give you guyw the breakdown of my schedule, but it changes a lot (a lot!) and I§m not sure what my schedule is going to be like yet. I think I am going to drop a few of my tree class´classes, like biology and ZSV, which is some kind of politcal studies thing. And, I want to move ahead in French, and take spanish with the grade above me, because my class only has german, english and french. We will see how this works out. But Imiss the simplicity of the harley schedule! Parents never understood it, but it is so easy! Now, I have to check online everyday to see which classes have been moved or switched. Confusing!

My favorite classes so far are math and some of French. We have two French teachers, and one does a lot of speaking and only teaches in French, which I adore, and the other speaks mostly Czech or French with a Czech accent and teaches out of a book. It is quite boring, and I do not enjoy it much. I miss you guys, Frenchies! But I talked to the teaching teacher, and she said i can probably be with the third grade, 2 years ahead. I was surprised when French was so easy because the Europeans I met through AFS all had such good English. I thought I would be struggling to keep up with their fluent French. But no worries there. and math is great. We are doing easy algebra, like finding x in equations and such. I am not trying to brag, but I have been the first one doen out of the whole class on every set of problems she has given us. Today, I felt so silly, because I was workinghrough the problems on the board, and one of them was pretty funky, with imaginary numbers involved. I solved it, then asked the teacher if I was on the right track. she pointed to the capital R on the board, which I guess meant only real answers. She wrote my answer on the board in red, next to the x equals empty set. I got somelooks for that one. I feel like Iwill be embarrassed when my knowledge runs out and I actually have to start learning, and Iam no longer lightening fast. Oh well!

The day seems really long even though I end school at 1:30 most days. I think it is because I do not have lunch until then, or until I get home even later. Today, I was taking the bus home alone, since Jana still had classes, and thinking that my bus was early, I caught the wrong bus. I rode it, then got off thinking that "wow! starý Jičín looks really different from this angle!" Then, I looked at the bus stop and saw, oh. This is not stary jicin. No wonder it looks different. So, I scrambled to get back on the bus, and the driver asked me where I was trying to go. Long story short, I rode the bus all the way back to the bus station, which I had walked to from school and wasted an hour. But, eventually, I did make it home, and now I have a story to tell, right?

Czech food is a funny thing. I still find it remarkably meat and starch heavey, as well as just heavy in general, but people here wonder how I am adjusting to the healthier food. They seem to think that because the foods that come out of America and into the world are things like McDonalds and Double Downs, that that is all we eat. I miss fruits and vegetables! Though, we have had some really good stuff, like blackberries and apples, from the garden in the backyard. Oh, and Guláš with knedlíky(dumplings) is the bomb! I ordered it the other day at a restaurant near our house, and now whenever I pass the restaurant, I am like, yummm. Guláš. I think that was my favorite Czech meal so far. Oh, and I miss milk. They have milk here, but it is no good and comes in unrefrigerated boxes. suspicious.

A note: I think I am going to go back to the US with horrible lungs. Even though no one in my family smokes, people smoke everywhere. I cannot stand it. We went to the concert the other day to celebrate novy jicin, and when I came home, I had a headache and I smelled like I had rolled in an ashtray. Restaurants have a smoking and non-smoking section, but everything still smells like smoke. And people always seem to choose the worst places. Like in the front of the line for the bus. or upwind of you when you are outside at a restaurant. Oh well. I guess it is not bad, just different. But I am definitely not a fan.

Exciting news:

So, the other day my host dad told me that if there is something I want to see, Vienna is about as far away as some of my track meets last year :O
WOWZA!

And, at the end of october, we are bopping over to Barcelona for a quick trip, because the fares were low! I am unbelievably excited. It looks like a gorgeous city.

Slovakia for some crazy hiking at the end of this month.

And Prague is always just a bus ride away.

I LOVE EUROPE!!!
p.s. and my awesome wave-jumping cousin, Vani!