Floating along

I love:

Cheese

Beautiful language. Oscar Wilde was the paragon of an artist.

Sunshine

Good music.

Atmosphere

Hugs

Talking

I hate:

Kids

Authority figures who expect everything they offer to be taken as unquestionable truth

Not paying attention to other parts of the world.

Smokers

People who drink just to get drunk

Books with too many characters

Czech's lack of rhythm in speech. Because the first syllable is always stressed, the cadence doesn't fall well to my ears.

Cold. In personalities and weather

So, as of tomorrow, I have 4 short months here. I have to admit, there is a lot I will miss here. but I am looking forward so much to getting back into my cozy easy life. I feel lost a lot here. sometimes, I physically am, like when I ended up 50 kilometers away from where I was supposed to be at night in the snow. But Czech people aren't anal like people in the US. They don't plan every second. They don't disinfect every square inch. Something can be said for it, but I think I prefer the tight-ass approach.

But while I'm floating, life here is pleasant. I was dozing off on the šalina- look it up. The English word is too much like what the non-Brno term is :D- when I heard " next stop: Kamenalom"

Coming along?

I usually find myself making up what people say when I don't understand it. I have "heard" people say some pretty strange stuff, but it should help ward off dementia, right? Using the old grey matter. sort of.

Well, I am off to Poland this weekend, and hopefully that will give me some more thoughts, or at least more interesting ones. We are going to Auschwitz on Friday, and I am pretty anxious about how strong my emotions will be there. So many horrors committed against good people. I have no words for how the idea makes me feel, and that it truly occurred is infinitely worse.

In the words of David Bowie....

č-č-č-č-changes

I love Brno!!!! At the end of January, I left my small town life in Nový Jičín to start again in Brno. Brno is the second biggest city in the Czech Republic and they have the attitude to match. Note: Moravia is always better than Bohemia. It is just one of those facts of life. But back to me, life here is great and getting better everyday. I still always find myself on the wrong bus or standing in the wrong spot in the hallway, but I think I will figure it all out soon.

I couldn't have asked for a better family here. I was nervous, because I have 5 siblings here, but everyone has their own space, and mine is a loft! It is so cool! And my bed is one of those memory foam ones, and it feels sooooo good. I have 2 younger siblings, a little brother who loves to dance, and a little Meghan! Well, pretty close, anyways! And of course, 3 older, which has been great for making me feel like I have a social life :D

One of my favorite things in Brno is that they speak their own "dialect" of Czech. Like instead of a tram being a tramvaj, it's a šalina. Don't say tramvaj in brno, and don't say šalina in Praha, unless you want to get some funny looks!

Czech status update: Czech is still kicking my butt. Words are getting harder to learn because the ones I use in basic interactions, I know. It's ones that you don't always use but that are still important, like abstract ideas, that don't stick. Oh well! I am understanding most of what people say in conversations, but sometimes I just smile and nod. And laugh when everyone else does :D

I haven't been traveling too much lately, though we did have the AFS ski course last weekend. It was a lot of fun, but not such great skiing. Only two of us, me and Mos, from Thailand, had skiied before, so I ended up helping to teach my friend, Asher, from Mexico to ski. We had an awesome day.

My family here cooks so well, I had to buy bigger jeans. again. But I love having cooked food, as long as it isn't from the school cafeteria. I have never seen/tasted anything so repulsive as the food at our cafeteria here. Oh, and the day after a bad meal, steer clear of the soup, because rumor has it, they use leftovers :O

It's funny. This house is not nearly as full of every gadget for every purpose like in the US, and I don't really miss it. Dryers are nice and leave your towels soft, but on a rack, I don't have to worry about messing up my wool socks and sweaters. My family here doesn't have a TV, and I don't really miss that at all. If I want to vegetate, I can watch shows online. But without a TV, family time is really family time, with no hurrying to eat to watch your favorite show.

So, everything is sailing along just peachily here. Lots of love to all of you,

Meghan :D

I like to surround myself with gorgeous people

Sven, an AFSer from Germany, and me in Vienna

Joyce from Hong Kong, with whom I shared Halloween this year

MPM. I love you guys :D So I wake up in the morning feeling like Beethoven

They are not just gorgeous, they are sexy beasts. I miss y'all.

Violists for the win!

Aren't they lovely? MPM strikes again!

Yeah, I had a leaf fight with gorgeous people. Be oh so jealous.

My lovely ladies, all dressed up for mini-christmas

Hirone, rocking her first skirt ever, believe it or not. She put us all to shame...

My chilean mamasita. We were on a ferris wheel!

My host mum. We were beach bums in Barcelona.

The fam, and my wonderful cousin, Michal

I miss this girl like no other.

Canadian, eh? See you next summer, Berta!

We rocked that Beethoven.

Kanackies!!!!!

MY PAPA. He should be less busy and skype more.

And we will all fry together when we fry!

Cingular. Raising the bar!

That was one big chair!

EMILY!!!!!

FLEEBAJEEBABINGBAMBOOMOGOGGLEGOGGLEEEGOGGLEEE

Yeah. I miss you, thunderthighs!

My ray of sunshine

Mumsies. Christmas won't be the same without your expert leg-crossed present opening expertise.

Lovingly referred to as "the thai girls," Silk, Chompu, Mo and Bow. And Mizuha, from Japan, in the corner!

Philo! CHICKENCHICKENCHICKEN!

Leonie, who I haven't seen in way too long.

That was one helluva good day in Ostrava :D

So, this obsession with beautiful friends has been going on for a while. I know I missed a whole bunch, and I love you all the more dearly and think of you as radiantly attractive. I guess really, I should get some help for this issue, but for now, I will keep picking the pretty ones :D

Lots of love, and Merry Christmas!

Meghan :P

humbadumbadum

Verbs I miss being able to use:

To sketch on

to creep on

to pull a Clare

"Imma"

to ninja

to be pissed

to freak out

to be like "RAWR!"

Unfortunately, I have picked up some new favorite expressions. Ones my mum would not approve of so much. But bad words stick really easily in your head. I can swear in like 8 languages, and it is so fun to see people's reactions. Just like I find it absolutely hysterical when Czech people swear in English, most of my friends react the same way. Not the most tasteful icebreaker, but definitely not the worst! Especially since I do not mean them, and speak like a 3 year old the rest of the time. Oh well. I just hope I do not fall into any patterns!

So, I realized that in like my first post, I had a Czech status update. then never did it again. So here it it:

Currently reading Animal Farm, with an average of 10 words per page being dictionaried. Yeah. it's a verb. I still speak like about a 4 or maybe 5 year old with not all my wires connected, but I am understanding physics at school, a bit! My writing is horrendous, and plurals still make me dizzy.

Christmas is coming quickly! I made my sister's present today and wrapped soem for the rest of my family. And, I gave myself a present last friday, when I bought an accordion! It is huge, and heavy, but I love it. Yeah, so I am going to go play before it gets to late! čau! Merry Christmas, Happy late Chanukah, and enjoy your Kwanzaa!

Love y'all!

My first turkey!

I said they were coming...

Halloween. It was intense.

I love Barcelona. This is one of my over 600 pictures :p.

Vienna

I love them. We were dressed up for our mini Christmas at our orientation.

Instead...

In the Czech Republic, instead...

of salt on the road and sidewalks, they use rocks. Like piles of gravel on the side walks. I guess it must be more ecofriendly, but it must be a mess in the spring.

of spices in their food, they use fat and salt.

of Coca Cola, we drink Kofola. Which is much better by the way.

of going by car, we wait for the bus.

of rebelling by dying their hair a funny color and talking back to their teachers, kids drink and smoke. yuck.

of 4 tones for 130 people to tune to, each violin, viola and cello gets individually tuned (quite sharp, too!) with each string matched to the first violin. twice. oj!

of real meals, I eat bread, chocolate and mandarin oranges.

of spending pretty much no time alone, from Tuesday night to Thursday night, I only bump into my family as we are leaving, and one late night ride home.
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It has been a tough last few weeks for me here. I have been pretty busy, hosting thanksgiving dinner and playing a few concerts, but it has been pretty dull over all. I am having some huge adjustment problems, and hopefully everything will get sorted out soon, and christmas will be fun!

We had our mid-stay orientation this last weekend. We were staying at the coolest building near Oloumoc. Some people, nudgenudge Papa, may have called it too "crunchy granola," but everything was so nice. There were these great chairs shaped like bananas, and there are just so many ways to sit on them! We enjoyed exploring the possibilities. We had a mini christmas, and ate way to many cookies. I love everyone who was there though. They are strong, beautiful, talented and just plain amazing people, and I am so happy to have met all of them.

Stealing from a fellow AFSer, Cordelia, the girl with the coolest glasses ever in Argentina, I would LOVE to get some letters and emails. They always brighten my day!

Lots of love,
Meghan