My Host Family

So today I came to live with my host family. They are absolutely amazing! My parents are Tomas and Zuzana; Tomas works as a freelance management consultant, and Zuzana is a piano teacher. They have 3 children—Rebeka, who is 15; Rutka, who is 13; and Jakub, who is 11. I met Tomas, Zuzana, and Rebeka last night at dinner. We also went to see a play last night—it was called Lost in Circus and many of the performers were disabled (physically and mentally) actors. It was definitely interesting…especially since it was in Czech. We were supposed to read the script beforehand, but somehow we didn’t get the second half of it…so the end was very confusing.

But back to the family. After everyone was finally home tonight (Jakub and Rebeka had both been gone for the week because it is “Spring” break over here), we celebrated Jakub’s 11th birthday. It definitely is not as big of a deal as we make it in the U.S. Tomas’ parents came over (Lydia and Vladya) to celebrate with us. We had pizza…bleu cheese on one, and pear and walnuts on the other. It’s funny because we also had pasta for lunch…so I feel like I’m living in Italy. Everyone speaks English really well. The 2 youngest children have the most trouble with it. However, Tomas and Zuzana lived in Princeton for 4 years when Tomas was finishing his Masters degree in Theology. He then taught at Charles University (in Prague) for 3 years before switching professions. Tomas’ parents also lived in the U.S. for 2 years when Vladya was getting his Ph.D. in chemical engineering. He said that he really wanted to be a doctor (like his mother), but under Communism, he was not allowed. Pretty much the only things you could do as a student was either chemistry or engineering.
They are all very friendly. They joke around a lot…both in English and in Czech. Since they all speak a lot of English, it is not as big of a culture shock as I thought it would be. I’m hoping I’ll be able to have conversations in Czech with them by the time I leave. It’s really fun because the middle child (Rutka) loves animals (she has a snake). So after dinner their Grandma was saying names of animals in Czech, and they had to find the English pronunciation and meaning in the dictionary.