This is also a DONT--editor
Trébiè
3 Feb 2007
hi everybody, i know it's been a while, but i promise, that is a wonderfully good sign!!! i've been so so happy lately, doing lots with friends here and my new family and studing, that i've hardely had time to write! just got back from one of the more memorable and beautiful trips of my life, a weekend in the absoultely beautiful sumava mountains! i went there with a grooup of students and teachers from a university where my czech teacher from my first weeks here works. it was beautiful to spend time with him and only speak czech-- he knew me well as a czech infant that knew nothing, so it's a great measurement of how far i've come in 5 months here. everything with my famliy is great... they're so interesting and nice and happy, and i;ve trained them well not to load the butter on my food, etc. hahaha. i don't know, what still.... starting to do real work in school a bit depressing really.... before i had fairytails to read with nice pictures on everypage-- now history text with pictures of hitler and hriosima-- haha but i;m happy to be doing more in school.
totally have a good system down for learning czech, but it takes a lot of work. i understand why people say that each language gets easier.. i spend 5 months just learning HOW to learn. but i really engoj it , and i'm sure i what to continue doing something similar for a long time. i feel really good and relaxed now after my beautiful trip in the mountains, if not a little bruised still from my first trips on both downhill and cross country skiis!!! downhill-- don't know, it was rough! haha but i loved cross country and i'm looking forward to a skii course with school the week after next.
i feel really good right now, had swimming practice this morning and then lunch with my family, i feel like i have a good routine. and for those of you that know me well, you know how important that is for me... i love hearing from all of you , and really do smile when i read your mails, even if my reply is terribly short( don't have my own computer right now, sister's or library) .
i'll try to get some pictures off soon of the mountains, etc. i;ll write again sometime, but it's really hard for me to find the time, i;m delightfully busy now with school, friends, and general bliss in the czech republic. learing everyday and forming opinions on an amayingly interesting culture.... blah blah blah, lots of corny stuff.... politics is really interesting here now, but american papers don';t cover it well. a good link in english is http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/ untill next time.
live for peace ~ sarah
27 December 2006: New email address...
i had a lovely time with my family over christmas. there are a lot of great traitions here, like baking great christmas sweets and cookies-- but they're really intense about it here and there's a lot of old traditional repipies, lighting advent candels from a special flame that was origionally lit in Bethlehem, everyone in the whole country eating the same dinner- fish soup, potato salad, and fried carp-- which, way the way, is guaranteed frech since the day before you eat it you buy it alive out front of the grocery store and it swims around in your bathtub(!), and the baby jesus bringing gifts instead of santa! and also a great tradition in filmmaking here is a plethora of fairytale films that are just gorgeous and were played almost nonstop this week. today i packed in the morning, ate a braided christmas bread that my host mom and i made last night, i'll have my czech lesson with a local college student after lunch and i go to my new family tomorrow!! hope everyone had a lovely christmas. great new year! live for peace~ sarah
13 December 2006: Happy parcel.
i'll write while the glow is still going. this week i've recieved a lot of love for the us. got xmas letters from my gradparents that made me smile for sure, and today recieved the best package. it was filled with letters from everybody at home. teachers from highschool, friends, amusing aquaintences. i can't tell you how good i feel right now.
far from being homesick, i've been enjoying my time here, but adjusting to a new lifestyle in a lot of different way has been a real challenge, an interesting challenge. living without extream american highschool athletics, literally not being able to perform at my highest intellectual ability at school, and depending more on people to reach my goals are some of the broad catagories of challenges that i gladly face every day. in case noone noticed in the past 18 years, i'm kind of intense most of the time, and get hard on myself sometimes, -- think i don't study enough, begrudgingly run 20 kilmeters and think about what else i could be doing, all the while needing the activity to clear my mind, worry that i'm not sparkeling enough daily for all the world to see, etc.-- general anal sarah beckham stuff. honestly, it was hard for me not be be the extream overachiever that i'm used to being-- i missed that hard work most of all! of all horrible things, i wanted to study for math tests and worry about my points and GPA, wanted to be really, really sore in the morning. it was part of my routine of life that i missed. now, i've started to settle into a real routine here. i have a "math dictionary" that i'm allowed to use for tests, write short papers in czech for history and czech literature class, and really enjoy the challenges of school (plus really love my class and have good friends too!). when i don't understand, i dictate words, than look them up later or get my family to explain what they mean (in czech!). i found a way to appreciate what i can do and understand and make effecient use of what i don't. also, i also apsoloutely have a enhanced appreciation for the general accquirement of knowledge for the sake of it and a language in emersion has been a rewarding challenge-- i can see the fruits of my labor daily.
but back to the letters. comming from the afore said perspective, happy, oriented and well adjusted, your letters were a wonder afirmation of what i already knew-- but maybe needed a little extra boost as a reminder. well, it was a huge boost! knowing and remembering individually all the wonderful, intellegent, funny, and genuine people in my life that care about me is just downright cool. thinking about stupid inside jokes, about hard work in the pool and at school and the respect that it earned me, and about the connections with people that i have been able to make with people in my short life is inspiring and i'm motivated to do it all again here. i'm feeling afirmed that ive done it all right so far-- worked hard, broken down personal introvet-tindged barriers, and had an experience entirely without regrets. and it's a good feeling. all wrapped up in a christmas stocking with my name embroidered on it-- nice touch. i hope this letter was gushy enough for everyone to understand how happy i am to here that all is well in the homeland. have a great new year. live for peace~ sarah 14 Nov 2006: Dancing Sarah Says:
everything here is wonderful here. last week i really felt a breakthrough with the language. i'm still thinking in english, but i think it was a small preview of future sucess. now i'm able to talk to anybody who is nice enough to have time, patience, and a little imagination. i have great friends here who are being really cool and helping me out. last night was a big dance to mark the midpoint of the big ballroom dancing course that all high school kids take here. it was a ton of fun. we played a game with the polka where the guy has a baloon tied around his leg and you have to try to pop everyone elses while protecting your own baloon. it was crazy fun, and dangerous! the high heels were flying! i'm at the point where i can talk to teachers, ask for help, and try to catch up on course work, something that i' extreamly happy about because i miss studying and working hard and learning a variety of info. the math teacher here is amazing and spent a lot of time with me yesterday making a math dictionary so i can understand the test directions, etc, and the history teacher and i will have a lesson together each week where we read history texts and talk about them in czech, (plus he corrects history essays i write in czech for me. ), and the french teacher is loaning me a lower level french workbook and text so i can catch up. it's a pleasent supprise; before i can , past exchange students said teachers were no help, but i think they're only people and if i ask for help, i'm bound to get it. and i was right. i'm really happy. here are some picture from yesterday. some girls from class, me and my host sister, dancing, etc.
19 Oct 2006:Sarah reports: hey all, it's bee a while since i'e mailed, so i thought an update would be good. i'm going great, love it here and love my family as well. i'm now speaking only czech at home and school. it's really difficult sometimes, but incredibly rewarding. i watch czech tv (kids shows are still best), take notes in school in czech, and study czech grammer like crazy everyday (it's a tough language!). it's still really hard to understand some times when people speak at a normal tempo, but i understand more and more all the time and it is a great experience to communicate in a different language. i'm also swimming everyday, which is a nice taste of the familiar, (i counted and this will be my 11th year) and i have my first real meet this week end in Olomouce saturday and Kromeriz on sunday.
it's fun living in a bigger city, especially in central europe, because a lot of interesting international entertainment comes through. tonight i'm going to see a siberian tuvan throat singer and digerydo player and next week a flaminco dancer from spain is comming! i'll talk to you later. i'm going great! live for peace~ sarah
18 Sept:Sarah:
today was my first day of school and it was wonderful. the kids in my class
are really nice and i'm already helping them with their math homework. here
are some pictures from language camp. some of south moravian forest,
jindrihuv hradec( the town where camp was) , telc (a town i visited) and me
walking on the 15th parallel of longitude.
live for peace~ sarah
12 Sept: Sarah says:
hey all, everything at camp is good. i found a small group of motivated friends among the throng of obnoctious americans
who are here, so i've been learning a lot. this camp is like anything else, i have to work hard to overcome obnocious
people who don't take learning and making there lives temorarily unpleasurable for the sake of higher knowledge. whatever.
the people are really nice, and i'm having fun, trying to study the massive mound of information that i'm given by my two
amazing czech teachers everyday. i've been playing bluegrass guitar for a lot of kids and my teachers. oddly enough
everybody is really interested and thinks it's cool.
i don't know when i'll be able to check my mail again. the camp just walked over to a local highschool to use the lab...
i got to go visit a language class and experience the akward thrill of being the english dummy for a small group of czech
students who really don't believe that real people, not pictures in workbooks, speak english.
welcome to the realization; they're living a small controlled simulation of my everyday life. fun times. by the way,
this town is really beautiful, and i've been walking around the town a lot in the morninga nd evening, but mostely haveing
only a lot of czech lessons.
live for peace~ sarah
28 August: Sarah reports..
I'm having a get time here, and i'm working hard to learn as much Czech as i can everyday.
i'm sending some pictures of my first day in prage, and some photos of my town, Trébiè, including
some of where i'll go to school. the areal photos of Trébiè were taken from the top of the
clock tower with the second largest clock face in europe. it's only my second day here, but
i'm getting along with my family splendidly! they are really amazing. there is a picture of
my host sisters. live for peace~ sarah
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