Hello everyone!!

Let me start by saying how amazing it was to talk to family and matty last night! I cried just from being so overwhelmed to hear all your voices! I finally read the message board after 5 days in the wilderness so I will post back replies there too so check it out!

For all the stuff that got left out in the excitement of being on the phone last night here is a run down of what I have been doing lately:

The retreat was simply amazing! I am exhausted and sore but it was well worth it. The castle is beyond words! It was so beautiful and had this huge garden with the prettiest roses you have ever seen. It had a giant checkerboard in the garden which was so cool. Up the back was a old greenhouse which is now a pool. I didnt have my swimmers so me and dani went in our undies, we didnt want to miss out on swimming in a castle pool because we had no swimmers after all! We were also roomies with another girl amy. We had a room up by the garden in like a big attic style room. It was so spacious and beautiful with wooden floors lovely beds and old paintings and mirrors. We loved it! I didnt take any electricla appliances or makeup so i wasnt looking much of a princess but gosh I felt like one, it was incredible! We did lots of teambuilding activities that were hilarious, interesting and just a whole lot of fun. We played games like communist scrabble, where our tutors were the commanders and we were the people and we had a giant scrabble board in the middle of the wall. we broke into teams and had to go to different stations around to find letters and make words on the wall. But it wasnt that simple. This was communist scrabble after all! We were frequently thrown in jail for no apparent reason and subject to torture (3 push ups) sleep deprivation (a tamborine being rung in your ear) and censored letters from our team mates. We won tho!!! The best activity tho was probably the music videos we made, they are going to try and get a copy for each of us so hopefully I will be able to show everyone when I get home. The casino night was also great, as was winning an arm wrestle! There is just so much we have done! The only thing I couldnt stand were the czech bugs everwhere which scare me just a little! The toilet paper was pink and purple which is random, but I ws fascinated! Everything here is just fascinating!

The monastery was incredible! The bus ride there was terrible tho. The bus driver had no idea where he was going, couldnt speak english, and couldnt read at all. What was supposed to be a 3 hr bus ride turned into 6, so that was no fun at all. We were all ready to kill him at the end of it! We had a tour before we started work, so I have plenty of beautiful photos. I just dont think they could ever really capture the essence of he palce at all though. I have very little time to write about the work we did there, but let me say it was very rewarding. The local paper has written an article about the work we did. It's in czech but one of the girls translated and the headline says students from around the world transform monastery. There is pictures of us working and one of the walls we cleared, so I will get the link to to online site so you can all have a look at that. There is one of me and my friend andrea looking rather grubby but pleased with ourselves after pulling out a huge tree root! I even got to see a squirrel which was amazing as I have never seen one. Dont know if I mentioned the deer the other day but that was a magical moment!

I wish I could write and write forever but I have to go back to class in 20 minutes! Classes started today and I'm loving them. First was my human rights in international relations which I think I will enjoy the most, next was philosophies of leadership, which is really interesting and this afternoon is global business so we'll see how that goes! It's going to be a huge workload, lots of reading and assignments for such a short time! It will keepmy on my toes tho so I wont have time to be homesick!

I am going to do my laundry tonight so I will maybe try and write some more again later. For now just know I am safe and happy! I wish I could tell you all everything about this place. Everything is different! Even the vending machines!! Its impossible for me to explain what a wonderful experience this is. I well and truly have the travel bug. At times I think I could stay abroad forever!! I love you all so much. I will be in touch again soon!!

With love from prague!

xoxoxo Jessie