it's already november?

12.11.2006 5 °C

Hello all! This is going to be a long blog. I also wrote most of this as an email, and one friend of mine said it took her an hour to read. So sit back and relax while I tell you of my life here in Prague.
First, here’s the story of my fall break. I decided to travel around the Czech Republic for October break. Two other girls and I began our trip by taking a 3 hour bus ride to Brno, the second largest city in the CZ. We almost didn’t make it onto the bus. It was supposed to leave at 7:15, and we got there at about, oh, 7:14. But we made it, and then got to Brno, where we had to find the train station in the dark and somehow get ourselves a ticket at a place where no one spoke English. The pension that we were going to stay at, we had looked up online, and had found the address. It looked to me like the town was “Okres Blansko,” so we got ourselves 3 tickets to Blansko. We then waited an hour for our train, and hopped on it, tired but hoping that we would get to the pension soon. The guy from the pension told us, through Eva, to wait at the second stop and he would pick us up at about midnight. So we got to Blansko, got off at the second stop, and waited. And waited. In the cold, in the dark, at a very small, dead town in the middle of the Czech Republic. No guy came to pick us up, but it was only 11:30, so we were early. We sat down on some steps to wait, huddled under a little blanket and freezing. I have videos of this. So we weren't too happy. Fortunately, we had the cell phone and I called our director at about 12:15, upset and wanting to know what had gone wrong. She called the owner of the pension, and discovered that we had gotten off too early. Half an hour too early. We were supposed to go to Letovice, still about 30 km away. Come to find out, the Okres in Okres Blansko just means like, in Blansko County or something. Great.
So the guy was nice enough to come the extra miles and pick us up. He hardly spoke English, but he was so nice and jolly. We stayed at the pension that he owned, and we stayed there for about 3 nights or something. Every morning, he made us breakfast. We each had our own bed, and a bathroom in the room, and a kitchen just down the hall.
Each day we made the 10 minute hike down the hill through pretty autumn woods (because we stayed in a small neighborhood in the hills above Letovice) to the train stop. The first day there we went back to Blansko and went to the Macocha Caves. They are so beautiful! You can take this underground boat ride through the cave. It’s really pretty there, and we have video of that, too. The Czech countryside is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the fall. Just rolling hills, pretty colorful trees, and quaint little European villages with small streets and tiny shops and red roofs. I love it. We also paid another visit to Brno and checked out their castle and cathedral. Let me just say, I like Prague much better. Prague is prettier, and just has a lot more energy and life to it.
After Brno, we took another bus to Cesky Krumlov. First, we stopped in Telc, this cute little town that is so picturesque it looks fake or something, like a movie set. But the castle gardens were nice, and it has a nice town square. We got some postcards there, that’s about it.
Then we hopped on the bus to Ceske Budejovice, where we had to catch another bus to Cesky Krumlov, where we were staying that night. When we got to Cesky Krumlov, we had no idea where we were. We had an address, but that was all. So we got a map at a gas station, and a really nice lady who didn’t speak English told us how to get there. That was a fun conversation to try and understand! We set off on our journey to find our place to stay. We hadn’t eaten supper, we were cold, and we were dragging our suitcases. Just so you know, wheeling around a suitcase on cobblestone streets in the middle of the night is really noisy. It was about 10:30 at night, and I was sure that I was waking the whole neighborhood.
When we finally got to the place where the street was supposed to be, we couldn’t find it. We wandered around for a good half hour until we asked some guy for help. He spoke a little English, and agreed to look at the map. So after looking at it a while, he came to the conclusion that he didn’t know where the street was, since he wasn’t even from Cesky Krumlov to begin with. Thanks for the help, man.
We kept wandering around and finally found the street. They put their street signs up on the walls here, instead of on posts, so we discovered that the street sign was on the other side of the street, and we couldn’t see it from where we came in. Not only that, but I guess I always assumed streets were where cars could drive. I was wrong. This street was full of stairs and was only about two people wide. We found the place, and it was just a door in the wall. We were like, are we staying in a wall? We knocked, and rang the buzzer. No answer. That was disheartening. 10:30 at night, and we were afraid to wake up this little old lady we were told lived here. But soon the lady opened the door, and a little dog bounded out! He was so cute. Anyway, behind this door in the wall is a bridge to a little island in the middle of the river, and on that island, in the middle of a yard filled with rose plants, is her house. It was so awesome! She was so sweet to wake up and come get us. She just laughed, and her little dog Filip ran circles around us and barked.
We slept for a long time that night.
The next morning I woke up to sunshine and the sound of the river running below. I could look out the window to the town bridge and the people going by. I made myself a cup of tea and sat for a while, looking out at the pretty town. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town. It’s so beautiful there! The castle is so pretty, and there’s even a bear pit with bears by the castle. The town is just so incredibly beautiful, with the river wandering around it. I bought some postcards while I was there too.
Most of the rest of our days in Cesky Krumlov were pretty uneventful. We wandered around the town, bought some souvenirs, took pictures. We hiked up to this old church on top of a hill outside the city, and it was so pretty. There were tons of leaves all over the ground, so we had a leaf fight, and we pushed them into a pile and jumped in it while the sun set.
The little old lady we stayed with was so sweet. She didn’t speak any English, but she let us give the Czech equivalent of Nilla Wafers to her dog, and every morning she asked if everything was alright. “vsechno dobry?” she would ask, which means “was everything good?” basically. We were always like “jo!!” which means yes. You pronounce that like “yo.” They have a couple of words for yes here. One is “ano,” which can be shortened to “no,” making it a little confusing for us English speakers. The other is “jo,” which I prefer to use because it’s less confusing to me.
But we did get to use our limited Czech on that trip. I walked into a museum, and had an entire conversation with a lady, without knowing what she was saying, mostly. Here’s how it worked. I walked in, said “dobry den.” I assume she asked if she could help me, so I asked “kolik stoji?” which means, how much is it? She asked if I was a student, and I said, “jo, studentka.” She told me the price, whatever it was. I don’t remember it, but I know the numbers in Czech, so I understood it. Then I said thank you and good bye. She said a bunch of other things in Czech, but mostly I just didn’t acknowledge them. Oh well!
We got this picture by a “Mexican Steak-Restaurant.” Not really sure what that is, but the sign out front was even more hilarious. I don’t think there was anything Mexican on there. There were “fachitas,” which I’m assuming are fajitas? But there was also thai rice and coconut balls, and lasagna on the menu. We were like “what?!” so we got a picture with it. We've also seen a “do not entry” sign. And a "together entrance money in area" sign. Not really sure what that was. Or how about this one: “Papa’s Living Restaurant.” We didn’t get pictures by that. We should have. What on earth is a living restaurant? Is everything in there still alive? Is this opposed to a dead restaurant?
Speaking of English, every good thing has to end, and that means break, too. We came back to Prague, and it was actually really nice. It felt like coming home, almost, because it feels familiar. My own bed, my own apartment. And we have a great new sofa now in our living room. Things are finally starting to look like a place where people actually live.
So of course, school started up again. It was hard to get going after break. Work is mostly my life here. I spend all day every day working and planning and doing all the other odd jobs I have to do. Then Sabbaths we help out with church and potluck and the afternoon program and the Sabbath school. Then Sundays we plan lessons and clean and go to the school for meetings. It feels like we never have time to relax at all here. Things are so absolutely crazy busy that I can only barely stay on top of my work, and then something else gets piled on (usually like 3 more things) and I feel like I’m going under again. We moan about how we’re never ever going to get ahead and how, next year, when I get back to school, it’s going to seem so easy! Lol. I just told one of the other girls that the one thing getting me through this is that I know it’s not forever, and that every day brings me just a little closer to when I come home and I can breathe again. But the one and ONLY good thing about is that it makes the weeks just fly by for me.
It's been starting to get very cold here. We even got snow the other day!!! It was just a little dusting on the cars and the trees, but it was snow and it was beautiful!
We just had our second evening progarm of the year last week. About 50 people showed up, which was amazing. One of the students is already taking bible studies (of course, nobody but us knows about it) and hopefully others will be interested too. This time of year, just before Christmas, is our biggest opportunity, too, because people are more receptive to Christianity and stuff right now. I had a good talk with one of my students. Not about anything like God or anything, but just getting to know each other. That’s what it takes, just building up relationships with the students.
The mission is going well here. Right before Thanksgiving, we have a thanksgiving party, and that’s going to be really exciting too. It’s another chance for the students to spend time with us and get to know us. Any time that happens, it’s a chance for them to ask questions.
Anyway, everything is working out, and gradually, the days pass. While the days go slow, the weeks go fast, and I'm sure that before I know it, I'll be back home. As always, keep me in your prayers.
Missy