Full Speed Ahead

Okay! The play is over, so Fulbright preparations now get to take over my life. A few things I've learned since my last post:

1. Two other women--one from St. Louis and one from Montana--will also be on exchange in the Czech Republic next year. We've just started emailing, and are hoping to meet up once in a while in Prague or something. We'll all be in different corners of the country, but it's still nice to know that there will be other people having similar experiences. I'm the only one who is going alone, however--apparently this is more rare than I thought.

2. Learning Czech is pretty important, as it turns out. However, I also got an email from a woman in Detroit who spent the '05-'06 school year in the CR and she gave us some really good tips. I ordered a bunch of language materials from Amazon today, so one of my tasks of the next three months will be to learn as much as I can! It's actually good that I'm finally taking this step--Honza's parents don't speak English and it will be really important to be able to communicate with them, at least a little bit. Fulbright will pay for summer language institutes but they are all four weeks long and offered at universities in the CR, and I would lose the entire month of July. I feel like I don't have enough to get ready for this as it is!

3. Honza is receiving a stipend from Fulbright to help offset the costs of living in the U.S. I also had a conversation with a very nice man yesterday who informed me of some options Honza will have to quickly and easily (and cheaply) acquire a car to use for the year. This is a huge relief--maybe I really won't have to move!

I know this post is a little less exciting, but it feels good to report the little things that are starting to make this seem more real. I'm getting excited again, which is also a good thing. And of course, I'll keep you posted!