Coming soon

I'm really busy now but I want to post some kind of summary after the first semester then maybe something about Space center or soccer season. So I'll see what it will be because how I said I don't have time at all.

Christmas and New Year's Eve

Christmas brake is around to end so I’ll share with you how I felt these days of year as an exchange student.

It is weird to spend this time so far from your home. There are two reasons. You’re not with your family and you don’t celebrate holidays same as usually (in Czech you have a lot of traditions). On the other hand it is a huge fun. In my opinion the way how to recognize any culture better is to live there throughout holidays and see their celebrations. And then when you have awesome host-family (as I totally do have) the homesick is minimal and you are really enjoying time here.

This Christmas was way different then in Czech. I’ll talk only about the things which were new experiences for me. I’m in America so I have to start with food! We made a lot of Christmas candy. I think at least 10 kinds. It was amazing because I tried new candy. I like most one kind which was pastry, coconut, chocolate, pecans, and hazelnuts. I ate it a lot of that. :D

On 24^th December we went to grandparent’s house. In US is not state holiday on 24^th but people celebrate by way that go somewhere for fancy dinner or have dinner at family circle. I also visited church for the first time here in the US.  It was really cool and I’m not surprise why in the US are more younger people attending ceremonies at churches than it happens in Europe. I was at ceremony at 5pm so technically at the midnight ceremony in Czech. J Then we had dinner. It’s clear that I didn’t have carp and potato salad as usually but in the meal were also kind of fish. The name of dish was ……. It was rice and fish soup. It could be described like a paella more like a soup. It was very tasty.  Then we had pecan-pie with ice-cream. After all of that we start repacked gifts. It was awesome I got plenty of them! We sat and talked it was nice spent time.

On 25^th December the real American Christmas started. It was like at movies. With one little exception I was woken up. But then we met at living room in pyjamas and saw the presents. I got toovmany presents. I really didn’t expect that. I do have simply the best host-family ever!

During the Christmas I was killing time by chilling, playing video games, I also did some work to Czech school. Basically I finished everything what I want to. On 30^th December the soccer practices started again so since then I’m busy again.

It kind of influenced my New Year’s Eve. I had practice at 8:30am on 31^st and also 1^st. That was weird for me because that cannot happen in Czech. I think there are only few live people at that time in my country. Thus according to this situation I spent time with Mark, visited one party and then went back home. Around 1:30 I was already ready to fell asleep.

To sum up everything I have to say that I really enjoy this time. It was way different than in Czech but exactly this is the reason why it was so interesting and magical. Moreover, when I spent this time in the best host-family. :)

For the first time at Church. At 5pm in US which was midnight service in Czech. :)

The church 

I love this "small" dog - Dave :)

Dinner table

Socks

Fish soup

Lights on the neighbour's house

Fireworks 

Fireworks. :)

Thanksgiving

Today I’m going to write about Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, this holiday was couple weeks ago so I’ll be happy if I will mention everything what I want to. The article should include several events – CCI Thanksgiving dinner, family trip, family Thanksgiving dinner, and also Black Friday.

At the very beginning I want to let you know what Thanksgiving is and why Americans celebrate it. The tradition says that Native Americans (Indians) shared a good harvest with Americans (colonists). It is celebrated every year on the 4^th Thursday in November. Nowadays, this event means that you meet with family around the table where turkey is (You can also call it “Turkey day”). You spend time together and you have the opportunity to give thanks (for what they are doing for you).  We had a week off from school and had I had many opportunities to celebrate.

Because Melanie is an active local coordinator, Thanksgiving for us (exchange students and their families) started a little bit earlier with a common dinner. She had only one request; for each of us to make a dish from our home country. I chose apple strudel. You bake apples with cinnamon, sugar and raisins in puff pastry. It sounds very simple but the search to buy puff pastry here in the US was quite difficult. Fortunately, I was successful. I think it was quite delicious for my first. (At least everyone said that) :D So we went for dinner a little bit further from Cypress. It was when we found the place we almost wrecked the car. Finally, when we got inside the banquet hall, we met with all of the other exchange students and their families. There were more than 60 people. I really enjoyed the food the other students made. It was awesome. We spent a great night with great people and great food.

School seemed to dragon, but finally we were off for a whole week. You can also spend this time for traveling. One day we went with family to one vacation place in the woods north of Cypress. It was really nice place as you can see in photos.

The preparations for family dinner had begun on Wednesday. We prepared a lot of food for only 8 people. We cooked two turkeys, ham, tons of potatoes and stuffing. Really, I think I’ve never seen more food. (We ate the other turkey the whole next week in sandwiches at school.) I really enjoyed this delicious dinner and after that I as everyone fell asleep. When I woke up the house was decorated for Christmas. It was a really nice and restful time of my exchange year. J

On the other hand, the day after Thanksgiving was freaking crazy. It was “Black Friday”. Black Friday is a day of shopping mania in the US. Everything is on sale so almost everyone is in the stores shopping for something. The news covered several reports of people fighting over discount merchandise. (In their defense, the bargains were really crazy). Everyone told me that I needed to experience it, so I did. We got out amongst the crazy sea of shoppers.  I needed a new phone so we went to Best Buy. Everyone found a good deal on something. At the end of the day, I went alone to the mall looking for some clothes. The sales were pretty cool but you can’t trust what is written on the tags. You expect one price but at the cashier they include a sales discount and then add sales tax. So the final price is totally different, but much smaller than what I expected. This part was awesome.  I bought some clothes for winter. What I didn’t like was the culture of shopping on Black Friday at clothes shops. There were people everywhere and clothes and merchandise scattered all over the stores. Just take a look at the photos to see how gross it was.

My personal finding is that right after Thanksgiving is over we start the Christmas craziness. Same as happens in Czech after Saint Nicholas Day.

For the summary of Thanksgiving break I have only good words. It was awesome. A lot of time to rest and refuel , and a lot of food. It was a very nice time spend with the family. 

Working process  

Apple strudel 

We made an awesome plate for our local coordinator 

part of squad 

Guys 

I'm leaving -> back to Czech

Will he fall down? 

Nature 

Playing with colors 

deers 

Half of food for 8 people