Jak Se Mas?

[Week 2 of 17]

Dobre!

So my host family, is amazing. Miroslav, my musican host father is always bringing back brilliant/ quirky/hilarious Czech movies for me to watch and makes this dynamite pizza with BACON FLAVORED CHEESE. (I know, I couldn't believe it either.) Daka, my host mom, is one of the sweetest women I've ever met and is determined to fatten me up before I leave. They have a fifteen year old daughter Nela who's perhaps even more obsessed with Gossip Girl than Molly and a thirty year old son, from Daka's first marriage, who I have yet to meet.

We live in Praha 5, which is just across the river from where I go to school, which is in Praha 2. My commute isn't too bad, but it's a lot father than I am used to... which I suppose means I'll have to learn the fine, and long overdue art of punctuality... slash waking up before noon. My commute to the CIEE Program center in Vyshrad is as follows: walk from house down through small park to tram at Klamovka (15 minutes), take tram across river to Charles Square (15 minutes), switch tram for two stops (3 minutes) , get off, walk UPHILL to class (15 mintes.) So in total it takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to get from door to door.

The house is perfect, my family shares a two story house with Daka's brother and sister-in-law, who live on the floor above us. However, it's a bit more complicated than that as Daka and her brother don't really speak so the house is literally split in two, with each family having their own entrance to avoid confrontation. I don't know the full extent of the schism but from what I've been told Daka's brother's Russian wife isn't a very nice person.

I have my own room off of the living room with a perfectly tiny little bed and an equally adorable desk in the corner. The room used to be Nela's nursery and is aptly fitted with bright red teddy bear curtains and a lion king hanging lamp. I have a huge standing closet for all 8000 t-shirts I HAD to bring and plenty of room for all the dresses I brought just in case the sun comes out before I have to leave. I haven't gotten much of a chance to make the room my own just yet aside from the few pictures I've tacked up to the walls and random trinkets strewn about the shelves above my bed but I plan on getting more creative as time goes on.

As far as my studies goes I'm done with opening orientation and am now into my fourth day of intensive Czech. All in all it's going really well, the language is just as complicated and intense as I feared but I'm enjoying every minute of it. Class is every weekday from 9:3o to 2:30 until the 6th, except for today (we went out to lunch by the river) and tomorrow (we're going for some hands on practice: shopping.)

Yawn, more later, once I wake up.