Funfairs Are Laughably Ludicrous

At least around here they are. Perhaps a better term would be ghetto. Honestly, I'm not sure how these places survive. Often in Cheb the funfair would come to town and park itself in the parking lot at Tesco. Occasionally I would see a kid or two in the inflatable jumping castle, but beyond that the place was more of a ghost town than the creepy haunted house that at least had mannequins inside.
While I complained that they must have some sort of sinister underside that sponsors them, Mark insisted that they've owned them for so long that it doesn't cost that much money to move them from place to place. Okay, maybe not, but still, the people all gotta eat! They have to make money somehow, and even if they charge 40 KC (a little more than $2) for a ride, they can't exactly be making bank if no one is riding.
Well, this past week the funfair made it's way here to Marianske Lazne. While they might not have many guests, they make plenty of noise in the form of some sort of music being pumped out of the speakers set up everywhere around the attraction. Mark and I were wandering past last Monday and felt bizarrely attracted to the place. Maybe curious is a better word. Whatever way you want to look at it, we decided to go in.
I'm not sure the precise term for Carnies in Czech, but that is definitely what we found there, along with equipment that had clearly been around for several decades. I still hold that they must have some sort of darker business sponsoring their livelihood, they did have several fully functioning rides and we decided to give it a go after all.
First up, the swans! We were told we couldn't sit in swans right next to each other since we were the only people in the entire area, so we had to sit on opposite sides. Much to his disappointment, Mark's swan didn't want to soar quite as high as mine did. Ah well. I had a great time and was fully amused.




We wandered a bit more and decided to give the bumper cars a whirl. Mark was a perfect gentleman and I was perfectly merciless. Quite entertaining. Not good for photos, but a great time all the same.
Then we had the thought that cotton candy would be a fitting end to our little escapade at the funfair. When we went to the little food shack the guy told us at first that they were all out, but then he found someone who could help us. Unfortunately (?) they didn't use this lovely and definitely ghetto cotton candy machine:

Instead they actually had a newer one that they pulled out and whipped us up a batch. I watched as loose strands of the sweet sugary fluff broke free and floated up in the air looking all shimmery like a spiderweb in the sun. They didn't use any food coloring in it, so it was just white, but still tasted classic.
It's a terrible picture, but it'll have to do, and you can at least see the cotton candy. Sadly, as I was turning to take this picture of myself I tripped over some big metal something. I'm not even sure what the purpose of the big thing was, but it did a glorious job bruising my ankle and breaking the skin. Not a great thing to have happen right before I was planning a big trip, but I didn't do it on purpose. Just like I didn't catch a bad cold on purpose either. (sigh)
Anyhow, we walked around with our cotton candy and headed out of the funfair and into a large parking lot where they were still storing some monster trucks from the exhibition they'd had the night before. We didn't go to the show, but we enjoyed being able to get up close to these beasts :)


When we got home Mark's Mom was a bit curious about what drew us into the funfair, but we had such a great time. It was the sort of thing that helped us forget about all the things that can stress out so much at this period on life, and let us just laugh and be kids for a bit. It really was great fun, even if not the most sanitary experience (I didn't share how dirty the fingers were on the man who made the cotton candy for us...)
And for those wondering where the pictures of Sweden are, no worries, they're coming. I just wanted to have a chance to get this bit in first. The night before we flew out I had a horrible time sleeping. I had a bad cold, and I always get nervous before a flight, so I spent a long time thinking of all the acrostics I could use for titles. At least I'm entertaining myself :)

Feelings After Long Labor

There's nothing quite like the good ache your body experiences from a day of seriously hard labor. Right now mine is working off two days of intense digging, combined with a minor head cold that I'm really hoping will clear off before Wednesday when I head to Stockholm.
As I was pushing the wheelbarrow up the hill I found myself contemplating other times my body has really ached. I suppose the most dramatic would naturally be when I broke my back. Fortunately, young bodies mend pretty quickly, and by this point that horror is all just like a passing whimsy, almost something that didn't really happen to me.
I remember, too, the brief period when I tried out for basketball in high school. We ran stair laps around the gym and by the end of the first week of practices I was pretty sure my legs were just going to fall off. Unfortunately, with that experience, I never had the chance to discover what it would feel like to actually become acclimated to that sort of training. I soon learned that, despite the fact that we were told there would be a freshman team and no one would be cut, it was clearly more important to have lived in the community for a long time, because I was cut and a girl who never came to the pre-practices ended up on the team. Curious, and rather doubly painful. But this post is not about failures, but about a slow and tedious triumph.
Perhaps "triumph" is a bit premature at this stage. We still have quite a lot of work to do before this little episode is complete, but right now my body is telling me I've definitely achieved something.
So here is what our project looked like in the beginning. We're trying to clear the dirt out of what will eventually be the greenhouse at the garden spot.

We started this work last Thursday, and at the end of that day had managed to dig out about the amount of a small grave. Keep in mind that beside the digging we then have a decently long haul up a hill to the place we have to dump all this conglomeration of dirt and rocks, so it's definitely a lot of work.

On Saturday, a week and a half after the project was begun, we came back and attacked it again. This time we started in the morning and managed to do about this much more.


I added the picture of me in the hole to give you some idea of just how much dirt we're really talking here. I'm beginning to feel like we're digging out a swimming pool.
Saturday we worked doubly hard. After a short lunch break we came back and tackled the hole once again. It's seriously body numbing sort of work. Mark takes a couple of massive wheelbarrows full, and then I take a couple of baby loads just so he can have a bit of a break.

Sunday we were back at it in the afternoon. This time we rotated his dad in for hauling the wheelbarrows as well, and that helped so that we weren't over pushing our already aching bodies. It might be a bit hard to tell just how much more we managed to get done in these last pictures here, but we totally undercut the ground under our ramp, so it is now a much smaller island. I'm not quite sure how we'll manage when we don't have the dirt for the ramp and have to just shovel to the outside, but we'll see what we can manage.


It's actually Monday morning here now, but I really wanted to publish a blog on 10-10-10 before I ran out of time. Rather a magical date after all, isn't it?
After our long day of work Mark and I went out for dinner. We've found a place close by that is fairly cheap and they make a pretty tasty "Mexican Tortilla." It doesn't exactly taste like Mexican food, but it's not bad. So we went out and filled up after all the hard work, topping it off with yummy fried apple rings. Then we went for a walk under the stars. It was super clear and no moon so it felt like we could see forever. A perfect end to a long hard day. Glorious. Cold, but glorious :)

Fleetingly A Leaf Lowers

I must confess, shocking as this may come to some people, that I positively adore warm climates. Being sticky damp with humidity the instant you exit a building, having to carry an extra shirt to compensate for ridiculously cold air conditioning and endless piles of laundry aside, the tropics are an amazing place to spend time. But there is something satisfying about living in a place where there are real seasons. Personally I'd be happy if the warmer seasons were the ones that spanned the greater part of the year, but no one has ever said that life even has the faintest possibility of being fair.
The other day, whilst walking about the glorious parks of Marianske Lazne, I was impressed, as always, with the way God has organized His creation. In summer, the vibrant greens lend a cooling effect to the landscape. They appear an oasis in the midst of intense heat. (No I've never lived in a desert, nor do I plan to! Granted I never expected to live in Alaska, but that's another topic all together, and rumor has it that they do have a pleasant summer, I just missed that bit.) Anyhow, what really blows me away is how God then opted to have the move into colder months accompanied by a glowing fire of color in those same trees. "I've never been to Boston in the Fall," or any of those New England states that I hear are famous for their leafery, but here in ML the trees are ablaze in splendor that would put the most illustrious designers to shame.

The bust seen here is of Skalnik, the visionary gardener who drained the swamp land that was originally Marianske Lazne, and created the fantastical parks that now grace the town.



These next few pictures are views of a couple of my favorite houses in town. I've really been thinking of how better to advertise this place. It really is just so fabulous that I don't know why more people aren't rushing here to check out this spa town. Honestly, Karlovy Vary doesn't light a candle to Marianske Lazne. This place is out of control beautiful and just brimming with old world style. Unfortunately, most of the guests here are equally old world...


These next couple pictures don't have so much to do with the leaves, but I did take them over the past week when walking through the parks. I've always enjoyed the statue, and though I've walked past this very interesting tree many times, I'd never noticed it before. Really not sure how I missed it, but it goes to show that there is always something new to be seen in this world.

Yesterday Mark and I enjoyed an amazing walk through town. We had no real agenda and were able to just bask in the beauty surrounding us. We both really enjoy being out in nature, so it was a great time to just be together and have a little fun as well. The leaves were just too big a temptation to pass up, and so an impromptu photo shoot broke out. I won't plague you with all the details, or photos, but here's a little glimpse.


While hot chocolate and scarves have been cropping up in my life with increasing intensity, I'm thankful for the warming glow that God has blessed us with on the very branches of the trees...

Closing the season

So I have some new pictures to put of the garden and also of Marianske Lazne in the fall, but I took some at the end of summer, before my trip to Germany, and I wanted to put these up as well.
I'm far from what anyone would ever call a gardener. Unlike my mother, playing in the dirt has never been something I found real joy in. Sure, I like pretty flowers as much as the next girl, and fresh fruits and veggies are pretty spectacular, but I don't know much about the process of creating them.
When I was growing up I had one plant that was mine. It was a funny long vined sort of things with short pokey green leaves that sprung out on all sides. I'm sure that Mom, again, would know what it was called, but I don't remember any more. I thought it was pretty special to have a plant that was mine, but I'm not sure I was ever the one who watered it. When I was older I moved on to Cacti. Definitely easier to keep up with. And I had several plants that stuck with me through my years in Czech. I did a lot better keeping them living than the bonsai tree I bought in HK that died within the week because I didn't realize the required daily watering. Although the pretty peace lily that Crystal gave me for my birthday my first year here acquired bugs that caused the flowers to stop producing until about the time that I passed the flower off to Karina. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted, and at least I didn't kill it.
I do remember Mom sometimes commissioning me to water the flowers in her beautiful flower boxes in Horse Creek. I'd sometimes help her weed for about five minutes, and I could only handle the watering because I knew there would be trouble if I didn't get it done. But, like I said before, it was far from being a passion of mine.
I've discovered, however, that what I do like is seeing the beauty in the garden and photographing it. Doesn't have to be done quite so often as weeding and watering, and has a more lasting result. So, without further ado, I give you some pictures of the garden in late August.




As you can no doubt tell, I had trouble deciding which of the photos was the best. So I just put them all in pretty much. I was fascinated by the grape vines and also the apple trees. Everything so fresh and green and growing. Love it!




The cottage continues to progress as well. Mark and I went to help out with it on Thursday last week and I was impressed by how much it is changing. I'll be sure to put up some more photos when I move on to the fall photo shoot next time :) Until then, I'm dreaming of warmer weather and trying to survive the chill. See, I sent all my sweaters to the states already, and don't really have the room to go and buy any new ones...such is life.

Tarvis Eillington was tired of conforming...

I think this set of pictures pretty much says it all. Anyone who catches the significance of the title of this particular posts gets a heaping lot of points in the "how well do you know Sarah" contest of life. I'd love to get your guesses. The pictures actually serve as a very large hint. Although if there were 9 photos it might help to pin things down a bit more.
These lovely trees inspire a rather fairytailishness in me. Okay, so I doubt that anyone is going to accept that as a proper word, but the drift is pretty easy to catch. They're both growing in a park not far from where I'm currently living. They're the sort of tree I need to develop the words to describe. They would definitely fit in well with the book I'm currently trying to knit together in my mind. It's too bad we never crochet things together in our minds. It would be a lot easier for me personally.
Some days I rather enjoy being obscure. It suits me as I am one not generally easy to categorize. I was talking to my mother today and we both agreed that my life stage continues to defy the gravity of the silly age my birth certificate demands that I claim. Perhaps that is why I have yet to decide the mastering cooking is something I should already have attained. (sigh)
Well, since pictures are worth a thousand words I'm already pretty set with this post so I'll leave it at this for now...

Wake Me Up...

When September Ends...hahaha. It seems it's come to that. Quoting Greenday of all things. But also stating a fact. September is rapidly coming to a close, and most of it has been like a dream. A strange dream full of children and noise and a mix of languages that still has my head spinning a bit, though I've been back in Czech for several days now.
I won't bore you with all the details. As it is, I got a wee bit behind in the quest to journal every single hour of every single day of my life (far too big a task to really take on) and it's more of a mish mash of events by this point. Games of Skip Bo and a game like Sorry. Being the captured "princess" tied up with a rope. Hide and Seek, a game that definitely transcends language. And collecting treasures from the ground. It was three weeks in another world for sure. While I can't say that I ever gained the status that Uncle Mark has (nor would I ever attempt to since he's so amazing with the kids) we did get to the point where they accepted me as a part of the crew.
Kids are kids in any language. It was really great to have the chance to get to know them a bit better. To play their wild games and learn how to decipher something of what they were saying in German. Really tested my skills that are rather rusty after a number of years I don't really want to mention since my high school classes ended.
Besides all the time spent with the kids, once they were in school Mark and I also had some chances to explore the town of Weiden. It was about a 4 KM walk into town, but the weather our third week was so fabulous that it was well worth walking there and back. We enjoyed wandering around the old parts of town, as well as the great McDonalds coupons that we got. They made me think of Hong Kong but they didn't have any seaweed flavored Shake Shake fries here. Although there is something called the Nurnburger that has little bratwursts in it. We weren't too keen on the idea of trying that, so we stuck mostly with Big Macs :)
So here are some views of the lovely town of Weiden. Mark even got into the idea of me being a poser and took some fun shots :)






On one day Mark and I also went down to the little airfield in Latsch which is really close to the little village we were staying in. We had a great time watching the gliders flying and enjoyed a helicopter flight lesson in progress as well. It was a fun day and I even got a few fun photos in as well.




And the last set of pictures are from the little village of Neunkirchen where we were staying. It's a pretty little quiet place and we really had a good time there.




The tree in the middle picture was the source of the nuts in the picture below it. The girls were very excited about these nuts. They had Mark throw a stick up at the tree to get them down. They rained down around us, the thick green casings falling off and the nuts spilling out everywhere. Apparently in Czech you can sell these to farmers who feed them to their animals, but in Germany we only collected them and made our own little animals out of them using toothpicks. Unfortunately I forgot to ever take a picture of our creations, so you'll just have to use your imaginations. It's good for you after all :)
And now, the truly last pictures are for Rowan. A little tribute to his love of big machines. Let me just tell you, this was a serious beast.


The time spent with the family was definitely well worth it. Now it's time to see if we can really get the ball rolling so we can head to the US. Hopefully even by the end of October. That's my dream at least :) We'll have to wait and see...