First 2 Months

 7/20/22

That is the date of my arrival here.

It has been over two months now and I have accumulated many wonderful memories, met an incredible amount of awesome people and noticed many interesting/different things.

When I arrived in Memphis, I walked across the airport because the reclaim passage was on the other end. During these 5 minutes I was proud that I had successfully made this journey. When I walked down the moving stairs into the room where my baggage would be, my host family was already waiting on me there. The Jacksons are a family of 5 - Neal & Becca, the parents, and Solomon, Rose and Dean. With Solomon being the oldest and Dean the youngest. After waiting there for a good 10 minutes and getting to know each other my baggage finally arrived. We grabbed it and walked out of the airport. I remember the shock, I was in an AC-controlled environment for the past 20 hours so when the 37 °C/100 °F weather punched me in the face it was really a big shock. 

When we were in the car on the way to Wynne we talked about the plans for today and we agreed that it's a good idea to go visit the school since there was an informational day there. After we spent some time in the school walking around the campus, visiting the newly designed gym and meeting many teachers including my basketball coach. We left.

Maybe after a 5 minute drive we arrived home. They showed me my room and oh my, I have a double bed, TV,  private bathroom right in my room and my own toilet and shower - really more than I could wish for...

 During the first 5 days I noticed that cars only have license plates on the back and you can pretty much put whatever you want on the front, or nothing. We also went to a Mexican restaurant where I ordered Chicken & Rice + Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper is basically the most popular Coke here, just like Kofola is back in Czechia. Speaking of beverages, when you're in a restaurant and order something to drink, once you finish it they will refill it for free. I played golf with the eldest son Sol and his friends and had a blast, I played basketball with Neal and learned some new tricks and most importantly how to shoot correctly. After a few days I realized that it's not gonna be as hard as I was told with this awesome family. They arranged a gathering of 20 people or so, so I got to meet Nana (Grandma) Sissy (Becca's sister) and so many other people during the first few days here. Everyone was so friendly and interested that I felt really nice among them. I even received a gift from the Shepherd Family! It is called "The Southerner's Handbook", they even wrote a small letter.

I also got to see a part of Memphis, they own a condo down there right by the Mississippi river - the longest river in the USA. The view there is amazing, at night there are 2 bridges that light up and create beautiful patterns. Also a thing I have to mention are, mosquitos, I heard that there is a lot of them here and unfortunately it is true - nothing a person can't survive though. 

7/25/22 

The school started. It feels different, the whole school has only ground level and everyone is looking at me all the time. The first week in school we weren't learning, they explained the rules, dress code and the new system. The rules are very strict, especially about phones and clothes. Each day starts at 8 am. and ends at 3.15 pm. My schedule is - Spanish I, English 11, Algebra II, E.A.S.T, American History, Foundations of Healthcare and two periods of basketball. The way the schedule works is that on Monday we have every period for 45 minutes with 5-minute breaks in between and on every other day we only have four 75-minute periods with a thing called WYN time and advisory - that is basically just study hall. I also noticed that they don't use our time. Speaking of a 24-hour cycle. Rather than that they use a 12-hour one and call the 24-hour one "Military time". Also every day at the very start they pledge allegiance to the flag and once a week their national anthem plays. 

The doors lock automatically so if you are even a minute late you have to get a pass that lets you in.

So now I'm going to school in a different country. I must say that it isn't really hard so that's nice. What is hard though are the basketball practices. Our coach Jordan Weaver is super cool dude and during practices he makes sure we work properly. In the beginning it looked as if I joined the track team rather than basketball team because we were running so much. 

During the time here I got to experience an American beach, specifically Gulf Shores Alabama. We were there in aunt Tara's beach house with two other families. They all had kids and I was the oldest there so I finally experienced how it is to be the big brother :). We had so much fun, we got darker, played beach volleyball and imitated the classic American movie - Top gun. Eventually, we hunted jellyfish and crabs.

During one of the nights we had there me and the other kids got into a taxi and drove to a place called Pirate's Island. There we played minigolf and enjoyed the beautiful design of the place. After we finished playing, on the other side of the road is a mototrack. So we decided to go there too. After I absolutely devastated Caroline when I overtook her and some other people I felt like an F1 racer.

I also got to experience a College football game. After a 5 hour ride to Fayetteville we went to a night exhibition called Listening forest. There were amazing light attractions such as moving ground, transformers where you control their limbs or a forest full of light bulbs that react to your heartbeat. All of this was accompanied with relaxing music and was a really wonderful experience.

The next morning we had a breakfast and went to Top Golf. A place where you hit golf balls and play games where you're trying to get as many points as possible. I must say, my past experience with hockey is really not helping when trying to hit a golf club properly, from time to time I still manage to hit it really far though! After top golf we went on a lunch with other family members and celebrated Sol's 15th birthday. And in the evening the main attraction arrived. 

We pulled to the Razorback arena Arena and started walking towars the big parade. You see, here a division 1 college game is basically a professional sport event. There were the Razorback cheerleaders and a big bus that had a REAL wild pig inside. Consider it the main mascot haha. So one of the things on my bucket list got crossed of, to see the chearleaders. After the players went through the parades in suits our next thing was to go to our tailgate. At these games you arrive hours early so you can spend time with your friends and family at a tailgate. You can imagine this as a tent where are TVs, coolers with beverages and BBQ. There were so many pretty girls so naturally after a while me and the oldest now 15 year old Sol decided to walk around. We enjoyed the women and managed to get into a freternity house. It is basically the place where the college students live, there are two types - Sorority (girls) and Freternity (boys). These are the places where the parties are all year round. After our 5 minutes of glory we had to go back to the arena, the game was starting.

During the game there was around 70 000 people. It was huge. The first half helped me fully understand the rules of American football. Even though we were losing during the first two quarters we managed to pull through and after an incredible touchdown, we were winning. This lead lasted until the very end. So we won! The whole arena was overflowing with noise and I couldn't be happier. 

The next day me and the parents went to a world known museum. You see, Fayetteville is the area where the Walton family comes from. The founders of WALMART. So the whole area is filled with beautiful museums, parks and buildings. We enjoyed the free art museum - Crystal Bridges and went on a trail to the Bentonville square where the first Walmart is. After a brief look around the others picked us up and we were on the way home.

 I can't wait to tell you more about the things here.

Ondrej :)