Monday, September 17, 2007

Revelations

AKA procrastinations; my first Czech language quiz is tomorrow.

Well, my mom is now informed, so it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. In fact, while I’m at it I’m going to air another piece of dirty laundry, though I implore you to remember that different does not mean bad.

First. I recieved details about my homestay family in the middle of the second week. I was pretty excited about the whole idea, and thrilled that they sounded relatively similar to my family at home. The night before we met them I was at dinner with everyone in the program, and Sarah, our director, came over to me and inquired, „How do you feel about rats?“ Well, my answer was that I’m not terribly excited about rats, though I’d never met one. Yes, that’s right, reader, my family has a pet rat. As I said, I wasn’t thrilled about the news, but I decided that I’m here to learn about the Czech Republic and if people in the Czech Republic have pet rats, then I signed up for that, too.

So, my pet rat’s name is Vigo and he’s grey and fairly fat. He’s actually sort of cute if you look at him head-on, but his tail is pretty disgusting. Everyone in my host family absolutely adores him; they put him up to their faces to kiss him and the whole bit. I bought him a treat for a gift when I came, and I think that’s why my family likes me so much. Most of the time he stays in his cage, though they do let him run around sometimes. When that happens, I usually squirm if he gets near me, and the family’s good about removing him from my vacinity. He and I are just going to také some time to get used to each other. I’m alone in the house in the mornings, and I usually go talk to him if I see he’s awake, and I think we’re reaching an understanding that if he doesn’t bother me, I will tolerate him. Though the other night he was out and I was the only one in the living room and he kept poking around by my feet and that was NOT okay, and I told him so but he didn’t listen, so I ended up going upstairs. He may have won that battle, but I’ll get the upper hand eventually.

Here’s the other thing, which is mostly really interesting. Before we moved in with our host families, Sarah and the other director warned us that the Czech Republic has a totally different reaction to nudity, and that it’s fairly common for people in a family to walk around the house in their underwear. They told us to say something if we’re uncomfortable, but to understand that it’s normal and not considered threatening or an invasion of privacy or anything like that. Anyway, I thought I was pretty safe considering that my host parents are pretty old and it’s not really warm enough to go around without clothes on, and I was right, I haven’t seen any of that. However, the other day I was talking to my host mom and she was getting ready to go garden, and she changed right in front of me, which just caught me off guard. After that I noticed the most hilarious thing: In the kitchen is a picture of Jan and Elena facing a lake with their backs towards the camera, completely naked, with their hands on each other’s bottoms. It’s sort of strange to me, but also pretty funny that it’s so normal.

Don’t worry, my photos do not contain any nude pictures, and I don’t think they will no matter how long I stay here.

Oh, and another thing: My house is pink. I didn't mean to not tell this, but it actually took me awhile to notice it because I was so busy noticing everything else. It's intensely pink.

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