(10/2 -11/10) I forgot to post so this is October update

    Hi again. I forgot to post for a whole month so I'm just going to post whenever I remember from now on. I think I haven't posted recently because of school intensifying and the weekends becoming more consistent (they are still very fun, but I would just be describing the same stuff in every post). 

    One thing that is still crazy to me is how unexciting people find castles to be. A while back we went some ruins after an orienteering meet and I was blown away, but my host father said, "This one's okay... there's a better one close to  Jihlava". I thought he was joking at the time but he was serious. There was one less than 20 minutes away and it was AMAZING. We flew a camera drone to get some shots of it in the sunset, and it was very cool to explore.   

    I am starting to understand more words in Czech, though I know I am far from fluent. In some sentences I can pick up enough words to at least partially understand it, but I do not understand the grammar. Fortunately, I can still understand English class.

    We have been orienteering every weekend, and one of the biggest changes since the last post is the decreasing sunlight. Although it is nowhere near as dark as Anchorage, it is very dark by 6 in the evening. This has led to some races being in the dark with headlamps. It is much more difficult to navigate in the dark, as you cannot see landmarks that would usually see if it was day. This sounds super obvious, and it is, but it much harder than it sounds. I am still paranoid about bears and moose even though neither live here, so I am always startled when I hear something move in the shadows. There are some small deer, but they are completely harmless, apart from scaring the crap out of me when they jump out of the grass 20 feet away from me.

    We usually spend the rest of the weekend visiting something or someone nearby or just driving home, as the events can be a few hours away from Jihlava. We are currently trying to build our own permanent orienteering track in town, which will use an app to create different courses from posts planted around the area. I think this is a great idea, and I hope I will see the project's completion before I leave.

    One of the weekends was a little different because of fall break. It was like Thanksgiving weekend, only earlier, and without the Thanksgiving. We visited the western part of the country near the German border. One of the coolest parts was the Uranium mine where the government sent its political opponents. Don't worry, I am not dying of radiation poisoning.

    It has been getting colder outside, and we have started visiting saunas. It is really nice to just relax in the heat for a while. We have also been swimming in a nearby fishpond. It is pretty cold, so we only go for a few minutes once a week. It is 45ish degrees outside as of today, so I am not sure how much longer we can go, though.

    I will try to remember to post at least one more time this month. Until then, thanks for reading. Bye.

The really close castle ruins. It was dope.

We spent a night in Prague during Fall break.

We went to Karlovy Vary, which had a lot of natural springs, some of which were made accessible for people to drink from. The water was really hot, and tasted like sulfur and rust, but was otherwise okay. Perhaps it's an acquired taste.

In Františkovy Lázně, another town in the western part of the country. It also has a lot of springs. 

In the uranium mine, where we learned of the work and living conditions of the miners/prisoners. This shaft did not have uranium so it was not dangerous.

One of many castles I have visited in the 3 months I have been here. They do not get old.

I tried using a scythe. It was actually really relaxing.

Swimming in the really cold pond. The first 30 seconds are the worst.