Thursday's Gratitude Journal: Helpful people from home

I am so grateful for all the helpful people from back home! Kathy (my best friend's momma, and my adopted second mother) works at my credit union and has helped me so much with my finances over here. Mark (fiance) sent me tuna and protein bars that I have been craving so much! He has also helped with finances and filed my FAFSA yesterday! What a great guy! :) Then of course, my parents have been so great! I know that they will do anything to help me while I'm here. And I have friends who email and send cards and I love them! The other day I got a card from my friend, Tiffany. It included pictures from my going away party! It was such a nice gift! Thanks to everyone for all your help! I love you and miss you all! And I am very grateful for all of you!

Experience of the day

I met Nick the first day I was in Brno. He was here last semester and taught us 'newbies' a lot. He is very helpful. One of the greatest things he has told me so far is this: "Each day I wake up and leave the dorm. I make a complete idiot of myself in public, call it a day, and come home." We thought he was being funny (he is hilarious) until we starting this SAME PROCESS! Try this experiment sometime this week and let me know how it goes: Go to a completely different grocery store than you usually go to. (One that you aren't comfortable with and don't know how to navigate through it very well...) Then try not to talk at all because you "can't speak the language." Imagine that everyone around you is speaking gibberish and you can't even say excuse me correctly. Then try not to read ANY LABELS on ANYTHING! No signs to tell you where things are, no labels to tell you WHAT things are, no nutrition facts to tell you how big your tush is going to get if you eat the entire package....NOTHING. Only look at pictures, because that is all you have... Then try to find syrup for the pancake mix that you bought last week. Look up and down each aisle at least three times. Then give up and get in line with the diet coke and oranges you were able to discover. Then try to pay. Here they bag their own groceries. The cashiers get very frustrated if you aren't ready to pay as soon as they are down scanning. Then try to be nice while you are bagging with one hand and paying with the other. Then ride the tram home wishing your diet coke was booze... Ahh...Another day... Nick was right after all.....

Life Experiences: Menza

The Menza is the student cafeteria at Masaryk University. That is great! I had heard that the food wasn't outstanding, but it was cheap... So Rachel, Matt, Brandon, and I all decided to try it out. As soon as we walked in we realized that EVERYTHING was in Czech. Okay, we thought, we can handle this.... So we decided what we wanted (based on price because we obviously had no idea what the menu said) and went up to the cashier. I pointed to what I wanted. "Ne" said the cashier as he crossed it out. Apparently they were out of that... So I pointed to something else.... "Ne" said the cashier as he crossed that one out too..... At that point, I gave up and Rachel said she would try and order something and we could split it if she was able to get anything... She ended up ordering a pizza, we thought. Then Brandon ordered something different (We wanted to try eachother's meals) and so did Matt. They were all successful on the first attempt. So we went and sat down at a nearby table while the cooks prepared our food. The whole meal cost about five bucks (For all four of us...) The cook put a plate of chicken and rice out and pointed to me. I shook my head no....She shook hers yes.... Alright, I thought... I took it... Then a pizza came out with ham on it....She pointed to Rachel... How did we possibly order two different things? I thought they were out of my two guesses?? Then Brandon's came out: Fried Cheese and French Fries.... Then Matt's pizza came out! The food was decent and the price was right, but the experience was priceless.. It was such a gamble to order something. We then realized that we were the four foreign kids who were sitting at a table all by themselves speaking a crazy language and not knowing what was going on... Bizarre feeling.... I'm such a freak here.... ((which makes me feel right at home.... haha*))

Speaking of Sick...

What is the grossest thing I have blogged about yet? This may be a toss-up...maybe the 400 year old corpses from Death Tour '08? Maybe the girl wearing the teeny tiny skirt that I had to walk up the freaking stairs behind at the tram station earlier today? ((I didn't blog about that one for a reason....)) I would like to think it was the kids who publicly urinated at the tram station by my dorm.... THEY'RE BAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!! Rachel and I were shopping yesterday in the middle of town and stopped in our tracks... This is how it went...."Is that....Are they...Is it the same....It couldn't be.....I think it is....I can't look away....Where is my camera..." Here's the pic... Enjoy

Why am I getting so boring?

You may be wondering why all you have seen for a while is Gratitude Journal entries. I'M FREAKING SICK! I have come down with what has been termed the Vinarska Plague... ((My dorm))... Everyone here has a terrible smokers cough and it won't go away! That is why I haven't gone out the last three nights! It has been great to just work out and chill at the dorm. I do miss going out already, but I do not miss the smoky atmosphere that was my last three weeks in a nutshell. I am going to have a very exciting next couple of days. Tonight we have the country presentations again. They are always a great time! Then tomorrow there is a club that is inviting all international students to come. There should be over 600 people there! Friday through Sunday I will be in Budapest, Hungary. Whew....

Wednesday's Gratitude Journal: Great Weather

I totally feel like I bypassed winter this year! While I love the beauty and magesty that is a White Christmas, I still do not regret moving from a place where there is snow EVERYWHERE to the other side of the world where spring is in full effect! I haven't worn a coat AT ALL the last two days. It is in the mid 50's here. My Grandma Crowley told me when she was in Wisconsin two weeks ago there was one 24 hour period that brought 19.5 inches of snow! Wow! I'll stick to Brno for a while! :) It will be great to come home in May when things are a little bit warmer.. :)

Tuesday's Gratitude Journal: Peer Pressure

So this weekend we are going to Budapest, Hungary. I have seen pictures of this city and they are absolutely amazing! I cannot wait. While there, we are going to visit the Spas. This is going to require a bathing suit... ((and no camera, I am warned by my new friends! haha*)) In order to feel a little more confident in my bathing suit around all these gorgeous European girls, Brandon, Rachel, and I are working out... a lot... We are running every morning and also doing abs and butt exercises at night. We are going to try to do this every day until Greece (next week). Hopefully by that time it will be very easy for us and we will want to keep doing it. :) Last night we all met in Rachel's room to work out....again...We were all very sore but didn't want to let the group down... So we all did it... Afterwards we were talking and realized how important it is for us to work out as a group! haha* The group keeps me going and I hope to look just like Giesele (Victoria's Secret Model) very soon! haha*

Stereotypes

Americans are:

Fat ((McDonalds))

Never Satisfied ((Always want something more, new....never content))

Busy

Thoughts?!!?!?!?

Monday's Gratitude Journal: Open-Mindedness

Today I am so thankful for Open-Mindedness. I don't even know if that is a word. If not, it should be. Anyway, I talked with some friends last night about the stereotypes other students have about Americans (see next blog), abortion, religion, Iraq, and other politics. I had such a great time listening and discussing our viewpoints. We all think differently and that is okay. It was amazing that we were able to talk about very 'touchy' subjects without getting angry. The people here are very open-minded and willing to talk about difficult issues. I really enjoy my talks with my new friends and appreciate the viewpoints they have.

Sunday's Gratitude Journal: Non-Smoking Anything

EEEWWWW! We go out to the pubs and restaurants a lot here. They are all smoking! EEWWW! Even if we just go out to eat, I come home smelling like an ashtray that rolled around in garbage for a few hours. And a dirty mullet. Yeah, it's that bad. Everyone smokes here! EEEWWW! Icky! Anyways, it makes me very thankful for non-smoking anything back home. I always wake up feeling like I licked an ashtray and elephant poop. Yeah, I've had a while to think about this entry...