Arrived at Townshend last Thursday night after an interesting trip. My first two
planes from Sydney to Shanghai and then to Zurich were both an hour
later than my itinerary said and my sydney plane was like another 30
min late as well, so i had a lot of waiting around. In Shanghai the
airport closed at about 11pm so when i got in at about 9pm I went and
got some accomodation at a nice little hotel about 10 min drive from the
airport. I didnt get to look around much because i got there and left
all during the dark. The people were all very nice though and a chinese
girl who had been studying in the UK for 3 yrs helped me to check into
the accomodation.
Checking in to the airport at Shanghai I got a nice surprise of an
upgrade to business class for my 13 hr flight to Zurich which made life
much easier as i could actually relax and didnt get a sore back. Swiss
airlines are quite good. Once i got to Prague my taxi driver (employed
by the school) didnt get there on time so i was a bit lost for like 20
minutes. He then took just less than 2 hrs to drive a 2 1/2 hr drive -
lots of speeding!
Anyway, got to the school and met the few people staying here (all the
students and everyone else arrive here after holidays tomorrow) but was
really tired and went to bed pretty quikly.
The
other Aussie girl here on YOS (just arrived last Saturday) and I went
into the main city close by here on Friday (Ceske Budejovice, translates into Czech Budweiser, the home of the beer) and looked around and i got some
decent snow boots which are nice and warm and like $50 so a bargain!
everything is on sale here at present so it is quite good shopping for
stuff.
I also got a mobile number here now which is (420) 774122404.
On Saturday I moved into my permanent room in the other dorm where i will be dorm assistant to about 40 or so students ranging from 12 to 19 yrs old. I have a 2 rooms and a bathroom all to myself (i really lucked out with that one!), one of which i will be running a business selling flavoured water and fizzy drinks out of for the students, the money raised is used to buy stuff for the dorms. My room has one of the best views in the dorm, I look directly out over a lake (frozen) and a big castle. Since the school is located at the top of a hill, the views look awesome. I will post pics when i get the chance.
The students are really a great bunch of ppl so far and i have connected with a number of them which is fantastic. One of the grades has gone on a 5 day snow trip this week (they left today) which sounds like it is going to be amazing. They are going to the alps on the german/czech border - so jealous!
The weather here ranges from about -15 to -3 (approximately) so it is chilly outside. Anywhere inside is heated well ( a bit much for my liking) so just need to rug up when you go walking down into the village or into town. I havent used my thermals yet and havent been too cold.
The Bohemian landscape is beautiful. Very white at present. I am amazed how much aerosol is in the air here - long distance visibility isnt great but you get some amazingly red sunsets because of it.
Will update with things soon.
Hope everyone is well!
