Spring has sprung

It always seems to take a little longer for Spring to make it's way to Cheb. We're a bit closer to the hills than other parts of the country or something. When we were in Prague last weekend the trees were filling out nicely with leaves, flowers were in full bloom, some to the point of littering the ground with petals. But in Cheb, signs were only just beginning to show through. Now,however, it seems that Spring has long last decided to take control of this place as well.
After several days of loveliness, a chill swept in over the past couple days, but it seems to be clearing off, and today I was able to wander down by the river and take in the wonder of Spring. I wish I could really capture the sound of the birds in the trees, the smell of the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif I put a picture of them up at the end of my last post if you want to see my images of them as well, but that does nothing to really capture the heady scent that floats on the icy wind. My Czech teacher was saying to me on Tuesday that she has noticed that the blooming of this flower is always in conjunction with a cold wind. She seems to be right.
Today we had a woman come and speak to the students about her job as a diplomat in the Middle East, as well as her current job as a member of the European Union. She told us some really fascinating stories about her life and the countries that she's had a chance to work in. She was the first female diplomat in one country, and they were so confused about her that they didn't even know how to address her. For about four years she was known as Mr. Jana. When she and her family were going on a road trip she was not allowed to drive. At the Saudi border, when they handed over their passports, it took 6 hours for the Saudi's to make sense of the fact that she was the diplomat and her husband was the driver. What a life. She showed a lot of concern about Obama's lack of experience with Middle Eastern politics, especially in regards to Iran. But she seemed pleased that he wants to work with the Czechs as he said in his speech a couple weeks ago in Prague. The students seemed to at least be relatively interested, except Henry who fell asleep. Not unusual for Henry.
I have a fairly low key weekend stretching out before me. I'm hoping the weather will continue to get better, as promised, so I can enjoy some time in the sun once again. Trying to get a little color and life back into my skin. It's been a long cold white winter. Then Sunday I'm going on another walk with Yara. Wonder what stories he'll tell me this time...