Filip Cigánek

2008-09 Inbound from the Czech Republic

Hometown: Pisek, Bohemia, Czech Republic

Sponsor: Pisek Rotary Club, District 2240, Czech Republic

Host: Mandarin Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Mandarin High School, Jacksonville, FL

Bio

Filip's Bio

Let me introduce myself…

My name is Filip Ciganek. I’m almost eighteen years old and I come from Czech Republic. This is my first time in U.S. I’m going to spend it such as an exchange student and of course I’m really looking forward to this adventure full of experiences.

I have got one brother and one sister. My brother is called Michal and he is ten years old. He attends elementary school and he loves to play sports. Some of his favorites are tennis, soccer and floorball. My sister is called Dominika and she is nineteen years old. She was an exchange student couple of years ago in Brazil so she was able to give me many advices and experiences. These days she is preparing to go to college. She loves music and also to be with her friends. My father is called Petr and he spends most of his free time in our weekend home. He always likes to play squash with his friends. My mother is called Zuzana. She is interested in traveling and history. Currently she is also arranging our new house.

Family and friends are the most important to me but I also love to do snowboarding (unfortunately) and to stay in the mountains, play tennis, squash, and soccer, and, last but not least, riding my bike. I’m also interested in most kinds of music.

And what I want to people describe me with three words?...Reliable, enterprising, and open…That is me!!!

September 21 Journal

I would like to commence with the first time in the airport hall. At once, it was truly exciting and stressful. I was really exhausted after 10 hours flight. I also wanted to meet my new host-family and all people around. After a nice welcome I went to new home and my exchange year began.

I had one week before school started and I spent it mostly with my host-brother Scott because my host-parents Lisa and Shane had to go work and my host-sister Rebbekah has already started school. It was nice week…of course out of school. I visited a couple of baseball and football games. It is really strange for me to see people taken with these sports. I also met some other exchange students of my district. We have had a nice weekend together with tubing on Ichetucknee river.

The school started on Monday August 18th. I suggest it was one of the most confusing days I have ever experienced. All the new stuff like longer classes, shorter breaks, lockers, and period lunches made me feel strange. Unfortunately I haven’t had a time to go through of all it because school get closed in consequence of hurricane warning for three days. More three days of holidays but also no chance to do anything because of unfavorable weather.

After this all I met the rest of exchange students at the 1st orientation meeting at Lake Yale and I really enjoyed the whole weekend and met people all around the world…pretty cool and interesting. After this nice time, the school started fully so the free days were reduced just to the weekends. I have been camping on the beach with my host-family and their friends in Hannah Park. Camping here is really different than I am used to but connecting with the beach is really cool. I’m looking forward to be able to try some water sports either surfing in the ocean or wakeboarding on the river. I have spent really nice time here and looking for time coming up. I’m also glad to feel to be part of family I live with…not just an “extraneous” exchange student. I do have actually nice time with them and hope to stay this way. Of course I feel sometime hard but if I didn’t I wouldn’t be an exchange student.

December 13 Journal

I kind of fell behind with my journals not just because I didn’t want to write them down simply just because I didn’t have even time to be proper exchange student and do that. Seriously, there is still something to do…still something to be part of. These times I’m just getting through all the stuff which seemed being pretty different and even weird in the beginning without any bigger problems. Yesterday I wrote my first essay for twelve pages and I didn’t even have any problems with thinking about it and it was almost the same like writing in my home language. Now back to my life in Florida.

The first weekend after my first journal sent I visited concert of my favorite band called New Found Glory. In the same day I also played my last soccer game. I have forgotten to mention it but I have started to play for recreation soccer team since I arrived. With my team we lost like all the games we played but anyway it was pretty fun to go to practices and just hang out with the other teammates. October came with several big events and one of them was Sea World trip with bunch of exchange students and Bill Learn. I really enjoyed all the stuff we did. All the animal shows were really amazing and the ride Kraken was one of the big adventure for all of us I guess. I have to thank to Bill to arrange this trip but I also guess he enjoyed it as well as we did. The next weekend we were to visit grandparents of my dad. It took like two hours to get there. The area they live in is really beautiful. Nice quite place surrounded by lakes and woods. Actually we went there for some reason to celebrate the birthday of my host dad’s granddad.

The weekend after that we visited St. Augustine with all the exchange students from my district. We had a lots of fun spiced up with some history of the oldest city in the US. The following weekend we were to Halloween Horror Night in Orlando. Basically it is the same looking park (Universal studios) like in any other time except that they put some scary stuff and doing some shows so you would be little scared. Actually we had a great time and I have to say it works…I get scared…a little of course :D …Later that night around 12pm we were heading to my mum parent’s house to stay there over night. Following day we were playing golf over there in the local country club and I was really surprised how easy it is to get to golf course. I mean back home you have to be member of the club or at least to have green card…in the other way you are allowed to go to play to green. Anyway it was so much fun because in the past I have just tried to do some golfing at driving range and to get to green was really big deal for me. Well after that I experienced part of American culture. Holidays I have just heard about called Halloween. Although I was trick or treating with my 12 years old sister I had fun and filled my bag with all kinds of treats.

The time passed really fast and it was almost time to move to my next family. The last weekend with my first one we went to Georgia for some haunting. They do have a farm not far away from small town called Alma about two hours driving from Jacksonville. After arrived there we played some American football with bunch friends of my brother Scott. Later in the afternoon we split into two groups and went hunting. Well hunting at least sitting in the deer-stand waiting for deer. None showed up so after a while we gave up. Another group had more luck and shot one. All the weekend I was having fun and enjoying the last time with my first family. On Sunday I was moving to my second family. I have already known them and I also knew they are really nice. Now after 4 weeks I can say I was right.

Well first days here I was kind of missing my old one because they really made the start of my exchange year easy going and helped me a lot. Well how I said I moved to my new host family about 4 weeks ago right before Thanksgiving. Actually I was pretty glad to move in this time because this way I have got a chance to meet some family and friends of Lindells. In the morning on Thanksgiving we ran a traditional 3 miles race. About two thousand people came over just to do something unique on that special day. I didn’t know if I should take this race seriously or just relaxing and running for fun. At very first time I was chasing the others than I tried skip some of them and it took me 30 minutes to finish the race. In the afternoon lots of friends and family came over and brought food. Lots of food. We were eating, hanging out and watching football. I guess we did the same like most Americans that day.

After this weekend I had school just for three days and Thursday morning we left the town for Disneyland trip sponsored by our Rotary clubs. We visited 4 parks every single day different. About 90 people got together for this amazing adventure. We were staying at All Star Movies hotel and you can notice from the first moment this place is not like the others. All the stuff reminding you of movies appeared. The parks were just awesome. Mostly we had all time long to do all the rides and shows. Once after getting back to our hotel we had pizza and pool party and I guess no one was bored. I guess two things bothered me there. Time passed by so fast and we had just 4 days to see each other after four months. On the way back home although we had fun everyone knew that it is over. But these four days were just amazing. Common stuff switched to one of the most magic time while here.

Now I’m back at school and I guess everything there is the same way it used to be, except I’m not confused and I don’t need a hallway map. With my new host family we go to church every Sunday and even Wednesday. I totally love Wednesday time at church. There is pizza for a dinner, band playing concert and classes where you just talk to the people from the same grade.

The Christmas holidays are coming up and I may be little confused because it is totally different. There is no snow in the yards and I’m wearing short sleeve T’s and I can’t even believe my friends telling me there is snow back home. There is just one thing reminds me Christmas time. Houses are lighting in lots of different ways. Actually yesterday I visited one of the Rotary parties and I couldn’t believe what I saw. Everything in that house was lighting. I was just regretting I have forgotten my camera.

I’m so glad to be part of this different culture and experiencing exactly the same stuff I’m doing back home in different ways. It is just amazing and I’m really thankful for the chance to be here.

We also had some interviews for the future exchange students and by now I guess they made the best decision they could. They became exchange students the same way I did.

These days I’m looking forward to spend Christmas time with my new family, having fun on our New Year’s party, enjoying my trip to Alabama and just have some rest after four months of school. After all of that on January we do have our next Rotary trip to Key West and tennis season at MHS will finally start. But by now let me wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you soon.

February 9 Journal

Hello again from ever Sun Shine State. Well hopefully I won’t slide on the sidewalk covered with ice again so I can prove the motto ever Sun Shine. I had a really nice time past months and experiences I would like to share with you full of amazing memories that are going to stay with me forever.

Christmas was really nice. We had two family parties simply because we wouldn’t fit all these people to the house at a time. In the morning on 25th we were sharing and opening presents in the right Christmas mood. Right after Christmas we went down to Saint Augustine for family trip. I had wonderful time there. I asked my host dad to take surfboard because I’m really excited about this sport since I came. I guess he wasn’t really serious about me going to the ocean in the middle of the winter but I did it…twice. Right after we arrived to Saint Augustine I took the surfboard and went to trying make some progress in this unimaginable hard sport. I was paddling in the ocean looking toward the sun coming out and I had a feeling like I’m taking the most of it. It was amazing. Thanks to Paris Hilton and her dad to consider hot tub being part of their hotel chain. I was totally freezing.

The same night we went out for dinner. We had a pizza in the small restaurant out of downtown and I wouldn’t really assume it could be so crowded. My host dad is a runner and running in the morning on the beach at the same time the sun is coming up is definitely the chance you shouldn’t miss. And so I wouldn’t miss my chance. I grabbed my board and went out with him that morning to go to the ocean again while he was running. Believe me or not the water was way colder than the other night so I stayed in there just like about 10 minutes. I was trying to make it back to the hotel as fast as I could to hop in to the hot tub but the pool area where the hot tub is was closed. I forget my manners for that time and jumped over the edge to get in the hot water. It was surely improper but necessary.

After I warmed up I went to beach second time to take some nice picture of the sun coming up. After that we went for really good breakfast. The trip was almost over but we had still one more place to go. Skate park in Saint Augustine. Since I was trying to skate and my host sister Sarah used to do that, my host dad considered like a good idea to go there. It was really nice and I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it at the place like was the one we went to. After that we were heading back to Jacksonville.

On 31st of December we had Parade to go in with bunch of exchange student representing Rotary Youth Exchange Program. We were waving our flags yelling Merry Christmas in our home language. After the Parade was over we went to the house where the inbound, outbound and Rotex students got together for the party. It was a really nice house with a hot tub and pool but after my lesson from Saint Augustine I stayed out of it hanging out with the others exchangers either playing pool or being outside sitting around the fireplace. At midnight we went to see fireworks from the local dock.

That night/morning I had to go back home because we were going to Alabama with my family to visit my host dad’s brother and to do some hunting, So unlike the others who stayed there overnight I had to go back after watching the movie Wall-e. I came home at 4 am and went to bed with the feeling of getting up like after three hours to hit the road directly to sweet home Alabama. Obviously I felt horrible after I woke up following morning. Despite sleepiness I was really excited about the trip.

The ride took us over 8 hours with several stops on the way. It was rainy that day so we just stayed at home and I got the chance to meet the family. Next morning was the first day of hunting. We spread out into two groups each one with an experienced group leader and hunting dog. The first day it lasted me a while to figure out the movement of the birds to shoot them with success. The second day was the better and I did actually really good job with a shooting. We killed about 100 birds that weekend. We had such a good time in Alabama but like everything you are excited about the time passed so quickly and the trip was over and we were heading back to Jacksonville again.

Waking up to school following morning was bitter and I was longing to stay things this holiday way. Anyway our next Rotary trip to Keys was coming up so there still was event to be looked for. The Keys trip was just amazing. The whole group of exchange students got together for a very last time. It was a long drive down there but when you finally reach the Keys it seems like being in different world. It is amazing. We pulled over for a dinner and dolphin clinic before we made it to the camp where we were supposed to stay over the weekend. The night I was kind of exhausted but really excited about seeing all the exchange students again. We had bon fire and just hanged out before the program of Seacamp really started fully. Next morning we introduced each other and separated into several groups. In those groups we were suppose to snorkeling and studying about some serious topic connected with the problems of the planet Earth. In the end of the weekend we had presentations about the topics of each groups. It was actually really instructive and interesting.

On Sunday we visited Key West, the most southern point of the US. It was nice place but we had just two hours to catch up with everything in there. Lunch and shopping was pretty much everything we did. After tearful goodbyes we hit the road again up to Jacksonville.

These days I am having try outs in tennis and actually tomorrow I will figure out whether I made it or not. Well, four months left - sounds like I have to make the most of it before I leave this amazing place. You will surely hear from me again.