Today was the last day of ninth grade! Wow! And what a weird feeling it is to not be called a student at that school anymore. I have "graduated" from Zakladni skola (Basic school) with two 2's (B's) and the rest 1's (A's). I am really happy about that!
As I was walking around the school one last time before I left, memories came flooding into my mind of all the things that have happened there. That place is so familiar to me right now, I know every single hall way and stair case as if it were in my own home! And now I have to leave it and I will probably soon forget all of those places... sad.
I have been going to that school since second grade. I have memories from when I moved to that school on my birthday in second grade, how my friends changed through the years, when all three of us Americans (Lucy, Nicholas and me) got put into the same class in sixth grade. I remember learning about Greek history, how to count percentages, the differences between longitudes and latitudes, what the periodical table of elements is and so much more!
But through the years, I have not only learned facts and information. I have also learned how to be a better friend, how to respect my authorities, how to work as a team, my tricks to studying, how to not worry - or at least mostly (that was a big one). 
But the most important way I have grown in the past nine years of my schooling life is in my faith in God. I have learned so many things about Him, about the Bible and how I should live to glorify His name. For that, I am thankful! The challenges that I have faced through the years of school have made me question the kind of life I want to lead and the kind of friends I choose. It's these kinds of challenges that have made me the person I am. Without those trials and tests, I might not be prepared for the next leg of life in high school! School has been one of the many places of learning in my life, not the only one. I have learned so many things and am grateful for the time I have gotten to spend in that school!
But, alas, that time doesn't last forever. So I am a little sad to say that that time is over... and the next chapter begins. Goodbye Zakladni Skola Komenskeho (My school)! And thank you for all you have taught me!! 
Yay, my dad's home! And he came home right on Father's Day, so it was fun to celebrate two things: dad coming home after two weeks, and what a great dad he is!
For Father's Day we had a nice evening with the family. My present to dad was a drawing of a picture I took a couple of months ago. Here's how it turned out!
On another note, I have been sick for the past two and a half weeks! I went to the doctor and she said that I am sick with some kind bronchial infection (English translation= a bad cough). It's my last weeks of ninth grade, so really I'm not missing much... except for time with my class, which I have sadly missed now with only one week of school left.
Not that I am extremely attached to my class, but I've been with some of them since second grade and others sine sixth. And next year we all go our separate ways!
It is sad in one way that after all these years, we split up, but it's also a good thing. As much as I love my class, there are some kids who I know only because we go to class together, and some that I never even talk to! So, in that sense, I am glad that I get to start afresh next year and go to a new school, have new classmates, new teachers, a whole new school life!
The conclusion: I am sad I am missing time with my old classmates, but am eagerly awaiting time I will have with new ones next year at BMA!Even through my sickness, I know that God has had this time all planned out, so maybe this is just what my spirit (and body!) needed before Summer! Who knows? (Well, besides God) :D
That is the reason why I am not depressed or in a bad mood about being sick..'cause what good would being that way be?! I am accepting this as part of God's Will, and while at it, am enjoying calm, quiet days at home.
As long as I have lived in Czech, I have never learned how to make the traditional ginger bread ("perniky") that every Czech can make! It is the Czech tradition to bake gingerbread cookies for Christmas. Czechs can spend hours, even days baking and decorating these cookies! I have always wanted to learn how to make perniky, but I didn't know anyone who could teach me.One day I was at my tutor's house not long after Easter, and he offered us some of his Easter perniky that his mom had baked him. I took a bite, and right then, I knew that these were the best gingerbread cookies I had ever had! I had to have the recipe!I then asked my tutor, if I could have the recipe of his mom's cookies. A few weeks later, he gave me the recipe. The only problem was that all the measurements were in grams, kilograms and milliliters. And also, I had no idea in what order to put the ingredients in! So just the recipe alone wasn't enough to teach me how to make these amazing perniky.That's when I got the idea that I could learn from the master, my tutor's mom! I
then organized a baking day along with Lucy (who also wanted to learn... we both came up with the idea), where my tutor's mom would teach us how to make her famous gingerbread!On the day we had planned, we went over to my tutor's house and spent the day measuring ingredients, kneading dough, rolling, cutting shapes, baking and decorating gingerbread cookies!
We also got to spend the day talking to Mrs. Bartkova (tutor's mom), listening to stories about her growing up during communism, how she remembered when communism fell and so on! It was so cool hearing real life stories of the time after WW2!We came home that day with trays full of perniky, great stories from Mrs. Bartkova, and the knowledge of how to make perniky!
Today was the last day of ninth grade! Wow! And what a weird feeling it is to not be called a student at that school anymore. I have "graduated" from Zakladni skola (Basic school) with two 2's (B's) and the rest 1's (A's). I am really happy about that!
But the most important way I have grown in the past nine years of my schooling life is in my faith in God. I have learned so many things about Him, about the Bible and how I should live to glorify His name. For that, I am thankful! The challenges that I have faced through the years of school have made me question the kind of life I want to lead and the kind of friends I choose. It's these kinds of challenges that have made me the person I am. Without those trials and tests, I might not be prepared for the next leg of life in high school! 
Posts
