And so we begin again...

Well, I’m back in Czech, safe and sound and naturally that means it’s time for things to start going wrong! Last year when I went in to get my Visa they sort of warned me that I was nearly out of pages for Visas. It doesn’t really make any sense to me, because I still have three blank pages, but rather than saying “Visa” they say “Ammendments and Endorsements.” Whatever that means anyway. So all year as I was traveling I was hoping no one would stamp that last Visa page. And they didn’t. It was perfect. I did my traveling, I decided to stay another year, and I still had a Visa page open. That is, until I arrived in Prague and the lady in the airport, having no concern for the state of my Visa, stamped the very LAST Visa page...
Despite much praying that it would somehow all figure it’s own way out, when I arrived at the Foreign Police yesterday the officer flipped through my passport several times, desperately looking for an empty Visa page, only to tell me in no uncertain terms that she could not give me my Visa. My heart sank. I saw my Visa. It was sitting right there in front of me, but it was not to be mine! The only solution, spending 4 days in Prague this weekend so that I can be there Friday morning to apply for extra pages in person, and then it sounds like I won’t be able to get my passport back until Monday. Can’t say that exactly makes me happy. And by not exactly, I mean not at all. I was already frustrated that I had to spend my first weekend back in Prague for a business meeting, but I definitely didn’t want to have to be there two extra days as well! I mean, it all works out fairly smoothly since I had to go there anyway, and since school doesn’t start until Tuesday, but it would be rather nice to have a bit more time to settle in and prepare for classes. I mean, I only finally finished unpacking this morning, and now I’m already repacked for this trip! Ugh!
So rather than slowly breaking in to life in Czech, I’m off to Prague already this afternoon.
Other than that, things have been going pretty well. It looks like I will have most of my same classes from last year, so that’s nice. It will be people I know. Of course that sort of changes the “get to know each other” activites I usually do at the beginning of the year, but I can hopefully come up with some sort of nice review, and “tell me how your summer was” questions. I’ve been pretty busy between spending time with Mark and my new teammates...only so many hours in the day, and jet lag doesn’t like to make things any easier. But such is life, and eventually all these extra things will make sense I’m hoping.
All this to say, I’m back in Cheb, the weather is beautiful, and there is never a dull moment.
I’m still hoping to update a little more on the summer I forgot to write about...it will come slowly, but I did take a lot of pictures, so they really should be shared. From family time to the process of being turned into a more domesticated bird it was a pretty crazy and insanely fast two months. And now we begin again...

Flying out in the morning

Well, my summer trip is definitely reaching it's finish line. Hard to believe how quickly it has flown by. I really should be packing at this moment, but there was part of me that just couldn't leave home without putting up my 200th post! Kind of exciting somehow. Of course 200 posts over about 3 years isn't really so enormous a number, but it impressed me a bit.
Today I had to say goodbye to Janet and the boys as well as Jessie and Citlali. Now there are only Mom and Dad to go. It's always hard to end this time and be on my way again, but I really do feel this is what God wants me to do. Plus, I am looking forward to seeing what the future in Czech will hold :) So for now I'm throwing my life together and preparing to make that horrendously long flight once again. Can't say I'm REALLY looking forward to that, but it's inevitable. I mean, it's soooo much fun to go on really long flights so EVERYONE should want to try it and come on out to visit me! I mean, there are people who cook for you, clean up after you, and let you watch movies for hours and hours on end. Your only responsibilities are to be there on time, to make all your connections. and to try not to pass out on your landings...or maybe that's just a problem I've developed.
Anyhow, I'm off in the morning, so next message will be from Czech. Time for me to start up another round of newsletters as well, so I hope you're all out there awaiting them with bated breath because, as usual, they're going to be A-MAZE-ING! ha!
Thanks for a lovely summer to those of you I was able to see, and to those I missed out on, hopefully we'll bump into each other soon on one side of the ocean or another!

Almost there...

Wow, can we say negligence? Looks like I really did lose all ability to connect with reality this summer. And now it's almost over and I'll be back on the other side of the world before I even know it's all happened.
There are more photos and all that I really should put up here, but I just wanted to send a shout out to those who actually read, and let you know that once life returns to normalcy I do intend to blog as intended. Hey, if my internet is more reliable this year as Yara once promised I might even try a month of posts, just to make up for my horrifying lack over the summer.
I've packed most everything up today, and tomorrow we're heading back to Oregon for the last few days before I fly out on Sunday morning. It's been quite a summer and now I'm almost back to that other world that holds my other life. So strange to be so divided.
Well, we're about to have Thanksgiving dinner so I should move along...until I'm on the other side and life returns to whatever it has become ;)