its been forever..

i never really realized before how hard it was to keep up on a blog. seriously.
so im officially on my third week of school. wow, three weeks. ive almost been here a month. thats crazy to me. on one hand i feel like i just got here and time is going way to fast. yet at the same time i feel as though ive always lived here. i already consider this to be my home. my life here is all i know. its like a dream when i think of living back in pennslvyania, its not a real life to me. and oddly enough, i dont really miss it either. not yet at least.

so where to begin? i dont even know.
im going to try to keep this kind of short so.
first week of school: was great. i feel like i made a lot of friends and that everything is going to be okay this year. emma and i have, what i consider to be, our best friends in our class. dora and tina. we went out with them after school most of the days that week. theyre great. actually, i think everyone in my class is great. theres not one person i dont like. id say i got pretty lucky :]
wow, that was corny. i really mean all of it though.
so back to my first week of school. i think i need to say a little something about gym class. uhhhh. lets just say, i didnt know i was going to boot camp. okay, maybe its not thaaat bad, but i feel like im seriously about to die after. we dont play games like back at home. no. we run. a lot. and do sittups, and pull ups, and jump over hurdles and do the high jump (which, god, i cannot do) oh and more running. yeah lots of running. that about sums it up. its just awful. the only thing i truely dont like about croatia.
so about my other classes. physics. hahahhaaha oh my, physics. if i even knew what we were doing in that class i could tell you how its going. i do not understand a thing. same with my math class. okay math isnt as bad, i get some of it. but well, lets face it, my teacher is not good at explaining thing. at all. and it doesnt help that well, for example, instead of saying ˝pi over 2˝ for the fraction π/2 she says ˝P halves˝ and  get all confuse like ˝uuhhh wtf is p halves?˝ and therefor miss the rest of what shes trying to say. she is super nice though. i feel bad.
english class. my english class is intense. its not like ˝ ´see spot run` said jane. ´come home, spot.` said dick. ´come, spot, come` ˝ as most people expect for an english class taught in a non english speaking country. (and yes, i am old enough that i did learn to read from those books.) no, right now in english we are doing hardcore shakespear. memorizing lines every night. learning all the plays and what happens in each. i think it honestly might be a harder class than my english class at home.
i have other classes like, phycology, religion, history, geography, and logic.but theyre nothing special. except maybe religion. but thats for another post.

second week of school: afternoon classes. this week was pretty boring. class from 2-8 every day, so we didnt go out after school since it was so late. the whole sleeping in part was just awesome though. but i feel like i waste my entire day when i have afternoon classes. my days go: sleep in, get up and get ready for school. go to school. come home and do homework, go to bed.
the only exciting part of last week was we had a few free periods one day so emma, and i went to the main square to meet up with another exchange student, also named emma, to buy lady gaga tickets for when she come to zagreb in november! :D
yeahh!
last thursday emma spent the night at my house because we had a rotary orientation friday.
orientation was really dumb. pretty much we just sat there and were told alll the rules that eventually will most likey be broken anyways.. juuuust kidding! ;]
saturday we went on our first rotary trip to the zagorje area in croatia, which is literally like on the border of slovenia. im not going to lie, i didnt have the best time. the bus trip and just being with the other exchangers was great and we had a lot of fun. but it was cold and raining alll day. the day consisted of a guided tour of this new caveman museum all about the creation of the earth and life. it was early in the morning and honestly, kind of boring. then we went to a beautiful castle, and again, had a guided tour. except this was worse because the tour was in croatian. awesome castle, not so awesome time because of the tour.
after that we drove to a town, varaždin, where three of the other exchangers live. we went to a nice hotel and had the most delicious lunch ever sponsored by the rotary club there. it was awesome. then once again, we had a guided tour through a cemetery which i think is considered one of the most beautiful in europe. and it was. it was so pretty with all the bush tree things and the big graves. but it was raining and we were wet and kept getting yelled at for stopping to admire the graves and not keeping up with the tour. ugh. so after that, guess what we did? OH YEAH another guided tour walking around the city. in the cold. and the rain. it was great. again, beautiful town, horrible conditions to see the town. now i dont know about any of you, but if i was going to take 11 teenagers on a day trip i would not fill the day with boring guided tours. oh welllll.

okay your almost caught up on my life now.
sorry this was so long haha. ill try to write less and more ofter now.
:]

first day of school!

so lets see. recap.

thursday night my host sister come home from her senior trip. [: she speaks pretty much perfect english, which makes communicating so much easier. friday we went out to see what bus and tram im taking to school then we went to the main square for a drink. saturday i went out clubbing my host sister, her best friend and some other friends. that was so much fun and well, what an experience. hahah

anyways, today i had my first day of school. 

last night i was so nervous that i couldnt fall asleep until about 2 am. now, i had set my alarm for 6:00 being as i was to leave at 7:10. but of course, if never went off and it wasnt until 6:45 when my host mother woke me that i got up. figures.

so i got ready as best as i could in that time and off we were, to my new school. i seriously wish you could have seen my face as we drove around the corner and i see this mass of kids on the stairs outside the school. im sure it was just hilarious and i think my mouth dropped, just like in the movies. but, this was it, there was no turning back. my host mother and i walked into the school to the headmasters office so we could be introduced to our homeroom teacher. he seems nice, but he talks bout WWll an awful lot. emma was there too, which calmed me down a little, at least were in this together. so when the bell rang we followed him up to the third story of the building, to the end of the hall. all the other kids were in the room already but he made us wait in the hall before going in. then he had us stand in the front of the classroom and introduce ourselves. so i go 'hi im dorothy schaadt and im from pennsylvania.' smoooth, right? right. so emma introduces herself and we take a seat in the back of the class. there arent desks like in the us, but tables with two chairs at each. and the classrooms are really like, i dont even have a good word to describe them. they are very plain and old looking. it definitely feels like a city high school to me. not that is bad, its just, very old. 

so after emma and i sat down everyone started coming over and introducing themselves. not that i remember like any names, or that i could even pronounce half of them, but still, i think everyone wanted to talk to us. 

so since it was the first day of school we were supposed to have just four classes. we were supposed to have physics, math, free period, then psychology. physics was awful. i didnt understand a thing. luckily though after class everyone else said they didnt understand it either, which made me feel better. then we had break. now normally we have seven classes a day, and since there is no lunch we have a 20 minute break inbetween 2nd and 3rd period where we can leave the school and go to a bakery or cafe near the school, which i must say, is pretty freaking awesome. so we went with some girls in our class to a bakery and i got a delicious chocolate croissant. then math class. math this year is trigonometry. so far its not to hard, but i have a feeling its going to get much harder because my teacher doesnt seem like shes good at explaining things. after math we had free period where a lot of people came up to us and were talking to us and asking us questions about the us and high school and if the things they see in movies are real. like “do the cheerleaders really rule the school?” i thought that was funny. so anyways after free period we were supposed to have psychology. but the teacher didnt show up and so after five minutes everyone got up and told us that if the teacher doesnt show up in the first five minutes that we dont have to stay for class. okay, cool. :] so we all left, and school was over. it lasted a whole three hours. 

after school emma and i got invited to go with some girls from school around the city to get something to eat and go buy school notebooks. we ended up hanging out for like 6 hours and having an awesome time. 

all in all, my first day of school was great. i have a feeling the next 174 days of school wont be so bad. [:

so some facts about my school:

• it has four stories, and all my classes so far seem to be either on the first, or fourth floor. of course.
• there are 17 subjects a year, about 5 are taught in english and the others in croatian. there are seven periods a day, with different classes everyday.
• since emma and i only take english classes we have two, or three free periods a day. but unlike in the us, we are allowed to just leave school and go to a cafe or walk around then come back for our next class. or if we dont take the class thats 1st oeriod that day we can sleep in and come into school later for out other classes. 
• your allowed to skip up to two classes a day without a written excuse. 
• my school building actually has two schools in it, one school has morning classes, then the other has afternoon. so my first week of school goes from 8am to 2pm and my second week goes from 2pm to 8pm and switches like that every week after.
• most of the time we stay n one classroom and the teachers switch, except for special classes like foreign language and art.
• my school used to be a mental hospital so there are bars on the windows

differences

i know that when i read blogs of other exchange students my favorite part is when they post a list of differences between where they are and where they are from. 
so. heres mine!

• the stop light go from green to yellow to red, then from red, to yellow, to green. 
• cars park on the sidewalks.
• there are no yellow lines on the roads. they are all white and i sometimes get confused what lane is supposed to go what direction. 
• people here drive fast, so there are random speed bumps on the roads that dont have tram tracks.
• there are no fat people. sure, they are a few people who are not sick thin, but no one is fat. not like america.
• they have one fast food place, mcdonalds.
• there is no tax when you buy things and you do not leave a tip.
• all the girls wear high heels. they would rather be pretty than comfortable. this ive been told.
• you kiss on the cheeks when you see your friends and when you say goodbye.
• everybody smokes. 
• man purses and fanny packs are very common.
• everyone dresses nice, no one wears sweatpants, hoodies, sporty clothes and, for the girls, tshirts.
• almost everyone is at least bilingual.

im sure there are more but thats all i can come up with in my one week here.

[:

first few days

ive been here for, what, four days now? this is bad, im already losing track of time.
anyways. i feel so welcome here. this country is just beautiful. im in love with it already.

at the airport my host mom had brought one of my host sisters friends, ana, and her little sister, paula, with her to pick me up. my host sister is in africa right now on her senior trip so, clearly, she couldnt come with. i get in the car to go back to my new house and guess whats playing? yeah, blink-182, only like my favorite band. i took it as  sign that everything is okay.
we drove though the city and they pointed out different things to me, not that i remember where anything was. back at my house i put my suitcases in my room and started to unpack while vesna finished preparing lunch. here lunch is the biggest meal of the day, not dinner. its weird to eat a big meal at 2 pm then not eat again until like 9 at night but im getting used to it. there is so much food here. i eat until im full, but ive been told i barely eat at all. my host mom told me i "eat like a little bird." i thought that was so cute, but really, im eating as much as i usually do!
so after lunch ana, paula and i went to my room. i told them about silly bands and gave them some. i also made them try reese cups because they dont have them here! i think i got them addicted. [:
then we went to their house to pick up their mom and we went to the top of the mountian overlooking zagreb to this beautiful old castle. we just walked around for a little and then went back to have a drink at anas house.
when i got back to my house i went straight to sleep as i was super tired.
on monday my host mother and i went into the city to go to the police department because i had to like register that i was staying in zagreb for the next year. then we went and got delicious ice cream. it didnt quite taste like ice cream back home, it was more rich. i really like it.
after that i went to anas house and her, her friend whos name i dont remember and i went to avenue mall. her friend speaks really good english so i loved talking to him. its weird not hearing english anymore.
after that we rented 'the proposal' and went back to her house to watch it. then i spent the night at her house.
tuesday ana, paula, one of paulas friends and i went into the city. they showed me upper town and the cathedral and some other things.
it was a lot of fun. then we went to mcdonalds for ice cream!
we went back to anas house, had lunch and hung out.

today i went to my new school to sign up for classes. i forget what im taking though. this is all a lot to take in in just a few days. tonight im going to the movies with ana and emma, the one i flew here with.

i feel like im writing every detail of my life so im gonna stop now. i promise things will be more summerized from now on, as this is to much to write.

travel travel travel

so here i am, sitting in an airplane somewhere over europe, listening to nevershoutnever and taking webcam pictures. i have a row to myself, im all spread out just enjoying the anticipation of being in croatia. im content right here.

but maybe i should start at the beginning. 

here we go:

i woke up saturday morning with no feelings, no nothing. i slept great the night before, and well, nothing seemed real. it was ‘the day’. the day ive been counting down to, the day i try to imagine every spare minute that i have. here it was, and but yet it didnt feel like it. i got out of bed, i finished my last minute packing, i got ready, and before i knew it, i was in the car headed to dubois. 

wait, dubois?

yes dubois. my luggage broke, remember? so my mom, my dad and i went to ross to pick up a new suitcase. i switched all my stuff into the new suitcase and off we went! when we arrived in state college i decided that i was going to have sheetz as my last meal in the us. i needed to have those wonderful delicious french fries one last time, and if you live somewhere with a sheetz you would understand.

so after we ate and i checked in at the airport my parents and i just kinda sat there for an hour saying goodbyes and whatnot. 

then it was time for me to go. i cried, yeah, i did. but i dont think it was a “im so sad to leave” kind of crying, more just of a “im so stressed and overwhelmed and have no control of my emotions” kind of crying. although i was sad, i was way more excited.

the flight to DC was fast and boring. it took 40 minutes but it seriously felt like it took ten.  when i got to DC i found out what gate my next flight was in and walked like seven miles to the other end of the airport to get there. after about an hour of waiting, the other exchange student who i was meeting there, emma, came! we sat there and waited for our flight to frankfurt. there was a “smoking room” at our gate, like a glass room where you can smoke. emma and i sat there and made fun of the people we saw go in. we went and bought some snacks then it was time to get in out flight. on my flight the seats went like window seat seat isle seat seat seat seat seat isle seat seat window. with my luck i figured id be sitting in the exact middle of the middle 5 seats. but! i got lucky and sat in an isle seat next to a window seat. however, unless im in a window seat i cannot sleep on planes. so there i was, miserable, tired, and oh yeah, my ipod was in the bag i put in the overhead bin so i didnt even have my music. it was going to be an awesome 8 hours flight, yeah?

so anyways i sat next to this man who didnt talk to me, didnt even acknowledge i was there unless he was asking to get out since he was in the window seat next to me. when he came back for the third time he finally said “i’m sorry. i asked my travel agent to get me a window seat.” to which i quickly said “OH! well do you wanna switch me, i like the window seat!” he hesitated and replied “yeah, i mean if you really dont mind”

trust me, i did not mind.

so we switched and i ended up sleeping for a few hours. it was wonderful. except my neck, yeah my neck was not to happy when i woke up.

hold on, were about to land in zagreb! ill finish this later!

oh hey.. IM HERE!

but back to where i left off..

so finally, finallllly we land in frankfurt. its 7:10 am there, but to me its only 1:10 am. emma and i walk into the airport from the plane and whats the first thing we see? gorgeous boys all with argentina soccer jerseys on. hellllo and welcome to europe. [: yes. 

now its early in the morning, we have jet lag, were in a foreign country alone, were hungry and we have five and a half hours of nothing but anticipation until we get on the flight to zagreb. so what do we do? we do what any american would do of course, go to mcdonalds. we both got bagels with cream cheese and sat down to see if we could get free internet. we couldnt. i barely remember the rest of the five hours, other than we took funny webcam pictures, laughed at dumb things because we were so tired and delirious and i spilled the gummiworms everywhere, but we ate them anyways. when we were sitting at our gate we saw this man get in a huge fight with someone who worked at the airport. they were arguing because the mans carry on was to big, so he was going to have to leave it behind or not get on his flight. it ended with the man telling the worker to f off and they worker try to ban him from the flight or something. they were grabbing at eachother and swearing and making a big old scene. it was pretty funny.  

then our flight was called! well, we thought so, but thankfully we asked a man standing in line to get on the plane and it was not going to zagreb. so we sat back down.

then our flight was called for real. and we were in the air on out way to croatia! :D (this is where i started this post, now i sitting on my bed.)

the view the whole way there was so beautiful. 

i was a little nervous when we landed because i dont have my visa yet. so as im standing in line for what i thought was immigration or whatever i had no idea what i was going to have to do. turns out i handed the lady my passport she looked at it for like a minute, stamped it and handed it back and that was all. no forms to fill out, no nothing. i was good to go.

so i walk out to baggage claim and i see a mass of people standing on the other side of a glass wall waiting for people to arrive. then i see this beautiful woman with a huge smile and she waves at me and blows me a kiss, my host mother! 

here we are.

todays the day!
and when i say that, i mean it very literally. as in, its currently 12:12 am on saturday.
i guess you could say im not ready. haaaaa, what am i talking about? no. i am absolutely not ready. my bags weigh 46 and 49 pounds. my room is a completeee disaster. i have more things to put in my carry on than can possibly fit. i feel sick to my stomach. OH yeah, and one of my suitcases broke. guess whos running out in the morning to by a new one? yes. me.

"rough start today, dorothy?" one might ask.
my reply would be "yes."

but hey, time keeps moving, the past is growing. and even with all these stressful things, i could not be more excited. sure, i may have burst into tears randomly at times for the past week. sure i have no idea what to expect. sure im going to miss my family, my friends. sure these goodbyes are the hardest. but these are normal.
i want adventure. i want culture. i want challenge. i want croatia.

lucky for me, in a few short hours, all those wants, they will be mine.

wish me luck? [:

woaaaaaah!

big news..

I HAVE A DATE!
yes, today i found out exactly when i'll be leaving.
drum roll, please!
the day: saturday, august 28th, 2010.
thats right, this saturday!
i'll fly out of state college on saturday at 2:00 pm. from there i'll fly to DC where i'll arrive at 3:11 p.m. in DC i'm going to meet up with another exchanger going to croatia, and together at 5:16 pm we depart for frankfurt, germany! at the early hour of 7:10 am we will finally be in europe! from there, at 12:30 pm we have one last flight. at 1:50 pm, on sunday, I WILL BE IN ZAGREB, CROATIA!
the real deal, its actually happening!

im excited like i can't believe. its still all so unreal. one year ago being an exchange student was just a nice thought in the back of my head, never really on my mind, never thought about seriously. but hey, here i am, about to leave in three days. weiiiird. but extremely exhilarating!

rotary is amazing. i really cant say that enough.
seriously.