Hey dudes and girlies and whoever may be reading this,
Im just gonna give you guys a rundown on what ive been doing lately. no pictures this time though because ive gotten lazy and havent taken many. Its also been pretty crappy weather so i havent been able to get out much. This will be more a description of sorts...
Anyway, over the past couple of weeks, i have noticed some significant differences between the culture here in the Czech Republic and back in the US of A. First, im going to start with school.
So school here is WAY different than in the states. I think i mentioned something about it in my last blog but i'll go into better detail here. Anyway, back in the states, i would have about an hour of homework every night, give or take a couple odd days, but for the most part, to keep my A's and B's i would have to spend about an hour working after school everyday. Here, ive been in school 11 days already and i think ive had like 20 minutes of work at home so far. The classes dont require that you have any materials either. We have textbooks but never use them because the teachers really only lecture and you have to take notes. Its geared like a college class where you dont really have to do anything and nothing is expected of you except for you to know the material. Whether you take notes in class or not, is completely up to you, but its YOUR job to know it when you take a test. That being said, the local kids here have it sooo easy compared to back home. Ive already written three tests, which are pretty comparable to back home or maybe easier, and its been fine. For me to get credit for classes here, i am required to not fail any classes, which is pretty sick on my part. Here they have a grading scale of 1 to 5. 1 being equivalent to an A and 5 being and F. The things is, it doesnt go by percentage incriments like in the US. So if you have a 75 percent you could easily have a 1 or a 2, and as long as you get better than something like a 35 or 40 percent, you dont fail.
School lunches here are something far superior to the attempts at food we have in the lunch lines as school in America. Everyday we walk like 100 meters to the cafeteria where, everyday, they have three choices of hot food for you. These foods include spaghetti, fresh fish, different types of meat like steak or pork and a ton of stuff that i havent even tried yet. They have a new soup for you to have with it everyday as well. Now you might think, awe blah blah blah cafeteria food. But this is seriously restaurant quality food for these Czech kids who dont even really appreciate a good meal. Simply, the school food here is like 10029 times better than at home.
Now one of the biggest differences ive noticed and appreciate is that here, there is no beef with anybody. And by that, i mean that nobody here has a problem with anybody else. Its a super comfortable atmosphere. You dont have to worry about how people will think of you if you dress or look a certain way. Theres no prejudice, and everyone sees you for your personality rather than how you dress. Now im not ranting about this because im some emo, girl pant/make up wearing outcast, but im writing these because it is one great quality that everyone here possesses that people in America do not. Normally at home, i'll be skating down the street or walking around school and sometimes i notice people maddogging me. Not once have i had someone dog me here. At my school, everyone has some beef with other person and there is constant tension between groups/cliques or people. Here there is absolutely none of that. Its way better to be able to associate with anybody that you please without being judged somehow. Everybody knows everybody's name and everybody is friendly to everybody. Its like a hippyfest.
Transportation is also very different. Here, to be able to drive, you are required to be 18 and pass a rigorous driving course. Its far more difficult to drive here than at home. For that reason, hardly anybody travels by car. At every little poor excuse for a town and in every big city runs a train. Thats how everybody gets everywhere, which i thought was quite interesting. Its nice to be able to sit in a train and not even have to think about how to get to your destination. You just get off where it tells you to. Walking is also much more prevalent here. In town, when you dont need to take the train, everybody walks. The pedestrian traffic is actually pretty crazy. When im on my skateboard, dodging pedestrians is kind of like dodging gapers on Christmas break. Its pretty fun but it can be really hectic. I guess thats why everybody here is fit. The ratio of a fat person to not is like 1:20 as opposed to our statistic from the US 1:4.
Well anyway, thats my attempt at an update. I have yet to go skiing here :( in fact today was the first day that i have even seen snow fall in like 3 weeks. It only fell for like 10 minutes anyway. Sorry for not having any pictures, i'll make sure to get off my butt to take some when i go out this coming week. Im going to end it here because its like midnight right now and im pretty sleep deprived so, i hope you guys enjoy it or learned something about the differences. Be patient, a more exciting update filled with color and pictures will be coming shortly.
peaceout