It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It is December 14^th…this means I will be HOME in FIVE days! Needless to say, I cannot wait to indulge in Christmas cookies and Christmas movies.  Since the chaos of classes died down last Thursday, I have been spending even more time with my host family.  My host sister and I have even been working out together. We went for an hour walk together today.  I can’t fully express how much I will miss them, but they said they will make sure I am back someday so that is reassuring.

I finished my last final on Thursday morning.  I brought all of my belongings with to the final since I needed to leave directly after to catch the plane to Prague.  It was the most incredible feeling to finish my last final and head to Prague as a completely free woman!

My time in Prague, Czech Republic was one of the most unique experiences while in Europe and definitely a highlight of my time abroad. I visited a dear friend that I met last summer who lives in Prague. I was so blessed to meet his family.  I cannot even begin to describe their hospitality and kindness.  They had the coziest house that will ever be and it was decorated with traditional Czech Christmas decorations.  My friend Vaclav has an older brother and a younger brother.  His older brother also spent a summer at St.  Norbert two years ago learning English. He even became friends with some of my friends while staying at school this summer.  Again, crazy how small this world can be!

Vaclav, his mother, and his little brother met me at the airport.  They even made a sign that said “Miss Wolan.” They told me that I had arrived to Prague at the same time as the Russian president!  It was nighttime when I arrived.  They took me to their super cozy house which is located only about 15 minutes away from the downtown part of Prague.  They introduced me to their parrot Sofie.  Vaclav and I had fun making paper cranes for Sophie to play with.  Actually, she was rather jealous of the paper cranes as we were making them.

Delicious food! I know that I have praised the food in each place that I have traveled to in Europe, but Vaclav’s mother has the rest of Europe beat! She was a phenomenal cook.  I’m not sure of the names of the food, but I do know that she put lots and lots of melted cheese on our food so you know I couldn’t complain.

After dinner the first night, Vaclav and his parents took me out to see Prague at nighttime when tourists are not crowding the streets.  They have so much passion for the city and impressed me with their knowledge of history and fun facts about the city.  As we made our way closer to the town square where the famous Christmas markets are, the crowds grew larger.  I loved this part! I loved the Christmas markets, the smell of the baked goods at the markets, and the huge Christmas tree.  I wasn’t quite dressed for the weather though and my feet soon went numb.  After the first day though the weather warmed up a bit.  Vaclav’s dad even bought me hot wine to try which seems to be very popular in Prague.

A Christmas market

Day 2: Vaclav took me out for a grand tour of the city.  He planned quite the itinerary for me and made sure we saw the major sites.  Needless to say, I am a lucky girl to have the most intelligent and hilarious Prague tour guide take me to all the major sites.  Vaclav showed me how much history I still have to learn.  I used to loathe history, but after my whirlwind through Europe I have a new appreciation for the subject. We saw the Prague Castle, a cute street called “Golden Lane,” St. George Church, and the St. Norbert statue on the Charles Bridge.  We met up with Vaclav’s brother Andrew for pizza in the park.  They also showed me a popular little herb store.  Vaclav surprised me and later gave me spices to take home that he had bought from there. This will come in handy this week when I cook for my host family.

The changing of the guards

one of those heads is Vaclav's great, great, great...? grandfather who assisted in the building of the cathedral

view from the tower

one of the cute little houses on "Golden Lane" 

Vaclav and I in front of the St. Norbert Statue (middle)

The next day, we all went to the Hot springs in a nearby town.  There are 12 different fountains that you can actually drink the water from.  The water from these fountains is special because of the minerals it contains. There have even been many celebrities and some presidents who have come to these springs for its health benefits.  The water had varying temperatures at each fountain.  The colder the water…the more disgusting it tasted.  I believe the hottest water we drank was somewhere around 72 degrees Celsius. His sweet parents bought me the traditional cup that people use to drink out of the hot springs.

Vaclav and family in front of one of the fountains at the hot springs

so delicious!!!

After the hot springs, we drove to the nearby town of Loket which means elbow.  We visited another castle with spectacular views.  Being in Loket felt like I really took a step back in history.  In the inside corridors of the castle was a very lively Christmas market complete with a fire, traditional musical entertainment, and ladies and gentlemen dressed in traditional costumes. I LOVED the feeling of this place!

gingerbread village! yum!

 At night, we had tickets to see Vaclav’s little brother perform in the opera Carmen in the state theater.  It was in French! His brother did a great job :)

Sunday was my last full day in Prague. We all went to the holy mass together. It was in Czech, but Vaclav translated here and there for me.  St. Norbert’s casket is actually in this church, and they take his body out every 50 years.  I told Vaclav that if all else fails, maybe this can be the reason I come back to Prague.  Also, Vaclav’s mom got us a private tour of the monastery and the old library.  Usually this space is prohibited for tourists.  We received a private tour from the prior of these spaces.  The tour was in Czech, but Vaclav worked very hard to translate dates and history facts for me. How exhausting…that kid is amazing!  After the tour, Vaclav and I took a last stroll together in the city and had a good discussion about U.S. movies.  Also, I found out that Vaclav is a pretty popular guy in Czech Republic.  He even has his own statue, holidy, and town square ;) We ended the night watching a very moving movie about the Holocaust called “the Pianist” with the family (including Sophie) all curled up in the cozy room and eating popcorn and fancy cheese.  It was very difficult to watch, but I highly recommend it. 

After such a great week, I had to endure yet another set of goodbyes.  I tell ya, this whole goodbye process is not too fun! On the plane ride to Spain, I kept thinking about how awesome it is that I was able to become friends with someone from another country and then actually have the opportunity to visit this friend in his home country and stay with his amazingggg family. They told me that I can come back any time and that I can also bring family and friends with me next time. 

And now here I am back in Toledo with 5 more days with my host family before I must say goodbye to it all for a while. I am loving doing little things with my host family and not having any other commitments to think about.  My host sister and I put up and decorated the Christmas tree while listening to Spanish Christmas music.  I’m not sure if it was their first tree because one would think this since my sister was so excited to decorate it!

It is going to be hard to say goodbye to my favorite hiking rock in Toledo.  My friend Anny (who is already home in Alabama )and I had a little goodbye ceremony before she left on this very rock.  It has the absolute best view of the city.  We made the hike to our rock at dusk and made it there by night as the city started to light up.  At the top, we each wrote our “bucket lists.”  A bucket list is a list of things that you want to do before you die.  Anny made the rule that we must let each other know when we crossed something off our bucket list.  This way, we will hopefully always be in contact. We put our buckets lists together in a bottle and buried it near our rock. The plan is to return to Toledo some day after we have “completed” our bucket lists. I have 3 more dates with this rock before leaving, so I'm hoping this will do until we meet again.

Good news and bad news of the day. I SUPER shrunk my favorite sweater in the world! When I say super shrunk, I mean I don’t even know if this sweater will fit my baby sister. Very sad day.  Mar and I worked out my frustrations with a work out video.  I'm still in the recovery process. The good news is that my host mom told me that they bought me a huge Cola-Cao going away present.  She told me that now I can remember them forever, but I reminded her that it will be gone in a matter of days but I will always remember them.

Tomorrow is the end of the semester celebration dinner at school.  I am allowed to invite two guests and my host parents are very excited to dress up (and embarrass me according to my host dad). 

Christmas blessings!

Alyssa