Freistadt, Austria

That would be where I spent my evening, and it was quite the evening.

I'll start out with a little preface however
I've been awake since 3:30 a.m., my host sister who is two woke up crying with a horrible stomach ache, and the crying went on and on- and I never ended up going back to sleep.

School was good however, during Art History I worked on my Czech, and then conversed more today in Czech, and had others speak to me in it as well. Slowly but surely I'm getting rid of English- so far so good.
No more english music
no english television
no english reading ( well except e-mails of course, but it's not my fault people I know don't speak Czech)

So Austria. The foreign exchange student there was from South Africa, and we had really good conversation.

But there was one person in particular that stuck out to me from the start of the evening, it was something about the way he was able to sit back and observe and listen- without having to be directly involved in the conversation.

However, because it was me, I was curious to know his story, so I brought him into the conversation, and this is what I found out.

He is from England, born and raised. His wife came to England, they fell in love
(she is Austrian) they went to Austria one summer and have been there ever since. That was 33 years ago. He is an artist, a painter. Of course after 33 years his German is flawless, and he can carry on quite the conversation.

It was very nice, after not having an indepth conversation with someone over the age of 18 for over a month- to finally have one.
We talked about several things, yet typically the questions came up, "Why the Czech Republic?" or "What do you plan on doing with Czech?"
and so I told him about my goal,
about Charles University- and it was in voicing that goal, that I realized it really is something I'm working towards,
and it was the smile that spread across his face as I shared my plan with him,
and the words he had for me after that let me see how possible it all is.
How this goal I'm working towards is in my reach, all I have to do is grab for it.

And perhaps I'm crazy, although I don't think so, but ever since I've set this goal my Czech seems to be coming easier, my speaking more freqent, my understanding more clear. It's rather inspiring, and it keeps me going along the the hard but worthy road to fluency.

The South African leaves in January to go back home, so we talked tonight about how we're changing. Change this, and change that. And maybe the rest of you can see the changes in me, but I don't see them. To me, I'm still the same person, I'm growing, learning, experiencing- but I'm still me, and I don't think I'm going to notice the change in myself until I return home- and then I think I will see it.
This is who I am in the "now" so I believe it will take going back to old stomping ground to see who I was and who I've become.
It's not something to look forward to or anticipate, yet it's not something to dread either. It's just simply one of those things that's going to happen.

And Simon and Garfunkel( Garfunkle? I dont know) well they are new friends of mine, and to think that a Czech introduced me to them, but they will forever remind me of the trip to Austria, and the internal breakthrough that occured due to conversation with a British German speaking Austrian married artist.

LIVE.
and do it for you.