A nice, shiny, new Apartment....

So, as of Sunday, I am no longer living with the Novak family. I'm now a resident in the Lapinov apartment, which is proving to be interesting. The Lapinovs (known in my home district as the parents of Jakob, the Slovak exchange student) speak minimal English, but shockingly enough, I'm actually understanding them. That doesn't mean to say that I don't still have moments when I'm relying heavily on context, or using the incredibly useful smile and nod technique, but I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would be. I do feel sorry for Beth, though. Due to crazy scheduling, she and I were at the Lapinovs together overnight, so she never got the last afternoon with your host family that I did. (Mine, if you're curious, was spent in Pasendorf, Austria {I think that's righ}, going shopping at an outlet mall with Beatrix. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to spend time with her before I had to leave. I really need to stop thinking about her before I start spiraling into the strange form of homesickness that tends to sneak up on you the first few days in your new host family, where you just want to go back to your last family.) For my part, on Sunday (Beth's last day) I tried to stay in the room and out of the way of Beth and Majka's last time getting to talk together as much as possible. I think it was the right thing to do.

One of the really nice things about the Lapinovs, other than the fact that I'm being forced to work on my Slovak more than usual, is that I have a computer! It isn't my laptop, it's a full-fledged desktop that resides in my room. I get the impression that it's Jakob's, a they don't use it very much; just once a week or so when they use Skype to call Jakob in America. The rest of the week, though, it's mine, all mine! *cue maniacal laughter* I am quite happy with it, and although I do mourn the inability to use my laptop from home (the Lapinovs don't have wifi, just a really good hook-up) it's still a better situation for internet than at the Novaks. And the best part? This means that I can actually be on Skype at times that are normal for people in the Western Hemisphere! This will be fun!

So, it's much more likely that I'll be talking to some of you in the near future! I look forward to it!

And... that's all there is. There isn't anymore.