(9/9 - 9/26) More orienteering and more school

     I am back.  Sorry for not posting as frequently, I have been busy and forgot. I will just get started.

    Over the weekends I have been going to more orienteering competitions with my host family. One was near Nachod, which is near the Polish border. We visited a nearby castle that was under restoration. It had been mostly buried underground for about 500 years but was excavated in the 80s. We also went to Poland for about 45 minutes, making it the shortest international trip inside the longest international trip I have experienced.

    The next weekend we went near Brno for the national championships. Obviously I didn't compete with them, but some of the members of our club are at the national level so we cheered them on. We also tried running a longer course. I think I am better at running the shorter ones because there is less room to get lost. We also picked apples and foraged for mushrooms that weekend. I think it is easier to find the edible mushrooms here than in Alaska but I could be wrong. I still can't identify the local ones yet, I just pick all the mushrooms I see and Ms. Debefova sorts them out. 

School has been mostly the same. I have been joining several English teachers' classes throughout the week, and most classes seem to be preparing for a standardized examination. It is very interesting to see the different ways each teacher tackles this issue. Some are more focused on talking, while others are strictly using textbooks.

    One last thing I will talk about is the Rotary orientation meeting we had over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th. I met all of the other exchange students in the district and we learned about expectations and future plans for our exchange. I shared a room with a kid from Germany and also a kid from Taiwan, and they were both very cool.

I will post again in about 30 minutes.






                                                (This photo was taken in the excursion to Poland)




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