4/16/2024- 55 days left (Happy Late Easter!)

It's been a while since my last blog; I've been pretty busy these last few months. Being with a new host family has opened up a lot of new opportunities. I think I understand why it's a requirement for us Rotary Exchange Students to switch. Even though it's hard, it helps a lot to have a new environment and new people interested in the stories we have to tell. My new family is so fun and the novelty of the whole situation helps me not to be homesick or bored.

Speaking of host families, at the beginning of March my host mom took me shopping! I had been talking to her about needing a new dress, and because she also wanted to get one for herself, she said we could go together. It was really fun to go with her; she helped me pick out the options and asked me for my advice on her dress as well. To my surprise, the dress that I liked the most was pink! If you know me well, you probably know that for the last few years, I've been adamant that pink is not my color, but I tried on this long pink dress and I loved it so much! I felt like Barbie, in the best way. My host mom got a blue-green dress. (You can see a picture of us together by clicking/tapping the link at the bottom of this post)

A few days later I had my chance to wear the dress! If you have been reading my blogs since the beginning of my exchange, you might remember when I was taking dance lessons and I had my final performance. After that, there was the option to take advanced lessons. I didn't take them, but lots of my friends did, so I went to watch their final performance and take pictures for them. It was really fun, but I was definitely tired after that weekend. The day before the final dance performance, I went to a different party with my classmates called Tančirna. It was so fun. (Check out the photo of me in a black one-armed dress with my friend). Even though I was tired, the weekend was totally worth it. I love spending time with my classmates and discovering the culture here related to what people do for fun!

The next weekend I went with my current host family to a party hosted by my old host family. It was a party for the local Basketball team and the families related to it. I was invited by my old host mom to help take pictures and do some other jobs to help out. It was really fun to hang out with my old host sister. We took some silly photos at the photo booth, danced, and more.

The rest of the month was pretty chill until Easter arrived. Ever since I got here I've been pretty nervous about Easter. I haven't really experienced much culture shock, but the traditions that are normal here for Easter Monday definitely were surprising. It isn't super popular in the cities, but in many Czech villages, the tradition is for boys to visit girls' houses with a Pomlázka, or an "Easter whip". They hit the girls with the whip and sometimes throw cold water or perfume on them. In return, the girls give the boys chocolate and sweets! It's supposed to give health and fertility, but I thought it was crazy! I told my host family beforehand that I wasn't comfortable with those traditions, and luckily they were very understanding. I was still nervous that my classmates might come to visit or something like that, so I was looking for a way to leave my house for the day, but I couldn't find anything. But then, when I was at my church choir that I go to every Thursday, my friend invited me to go with her and the church to Prague for a day trip on Easter Monday! I accepted almost immediately, and I am so glad I did because I got to participate in one of the coolest things I think I've ever been a part of.

We left early Monday morning (I got out of the house without any Czech Easter-related problems) and got on a train. Three or four hours later we arrived in Prague. The weather was beautiful and we walked to a nearby park. There were at least 30 or 40 other people already gathered there. We all got together and prayed, and then we practiced for the main event. Once we were done practicing we had a few hours of free time so we walked around Prague for a bit and got some awesome Chinese food, and then we went to the square in front of the famous Prague Castle. Once everyone was there, we all found our places (there were X's on the ground where everyone had to stand) and a recording started playing from two big speakers that were set up. I don't remember everything that it said, but it was something like "Have you ever wondered what the true meaning is behind Easter? Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to die for our sins, and on the third day, he rose again. Jesus is alive!". It said something along those lines in both Czech and English, and then music started and all 30 to 40 of us started dancing!

The moves weren't too hard but it was so fun to dance with everyone. My worst fear was that I would be embarrassed to dance in front of so many tourists and people, because it's often awkward for me to mention Jesus to people I know, let alone a whole bunch of strangers! But being together with everyone filled me with excitement and as I was dancing I got to truly enjoy myself.

After we danced, we all moved to the sides and a man with a microphone walked up and gave a super short mini-sermon. It was maybe 10 sentences and just called people to think about what they saw and what it was that gave us so much joy. Then, a different person came up and said the same thing in Czech. After the Czech speaker came 10 other different people all speaking a different language. It was so cool to look at the tourist's faces when they realized that their heart language was being spoken! (One thing I have noticed here is the power of being ministered to or worshiping in your home language. The church I go to sings in Czech and Slovak, but whenever there is an English song I always feel so much more connected. It reminds me of church in Pennsylvania and how sometimes people didn't want to sing in Spanish or in a different language, but by experiencing it myself I realized how important it must have been in Pennsylvania to the people whose first language was Spanish to hear music that connected to their soul.)

After the mini-messages, we all went to the middle and danced again, so that the people who might have walked to the crowd during the message could see. Then we waited for an hour and did it all again! In all, we danced four times. There was a videographer there and they made an amazing video! If you want to watch it, here's the link: https://youtu.be/6gwQsVPXsIQ?si=PEWmGHF7eck93T0s . You can see me a few times. I'm on the left side on the edge of the whole group, and in most of the shots, I'm wearing a pink hoodie. However, there are about two shots where you can see me wearing a purple long-sleeved shirt because they were from another take where I wasn't wearing the hoodie.

With that, the month of March was over, but the new experiences were not! On April 6th my host parents took me to Krakow in Poland. It's one of my host mom's favorite places, and it was really cool to have her show me around! There are lots of historical buildings and beautiful cathedrals. My host mom speaks Polish too, so it was cool to hear the language. it's similar to Czech a little, but I didn't really understand much. It was a beautiful weekend though, and I'm so grateful to my host family for taking me with them!

The weeks after that have been pretty normal. Last Friday I finally finished an art project that I've been working on for a while. It represents how I see myself and my brain. Last weekend I went to my friend's house and made some flower crowns that we put on her dog, and last night I had a few friends over for a sleepover at my house! My friends here have made my exchange so amazing. It's going to be really challenging to say goodbye.

Get ready for the next blog post...because next week I'm going on Eurotour!!! I'm super excited to see everything. I can't wait! I'll try to make a blog post by next month, but we'll see how busy I am! If you've made it this far, thank you for reading these posts. I love having a digital journal of my travels, and it's so nice to know that people are interested in what I'm doing here. I miss you all!

Here is a link to my photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KMgj6vVm7QEc37oUA