A summary flowing into Spring...

I've belabored the point. I've allowed business to get in the way of my straightforward reporting, and I've gotten so far behind that it hardly seems any point to write about those past days I've passed up. But I feel that I really ought to finish up Mom and Dad's trip here. In my vast catalog of photos (I don't really want to think of exactly HOOOOW many photos I have!) I have far too many stories to tell. So best to pick a few that sum things up, and move along into the new season that has taken Cheb by storm - only not exactly "storm," because the weather has been perfect and sunny and beautiful and I want it to continue regardless of what meteorologists seem to be saying at the moment...
So we'll begin with an ending. The end of the freedom to drive. Anyone who has ever been absent from this freedom, having first been accustomed to having it, will understand how hard it was to say goodbye to our little Skoda friend. While she wasn't exactly the top of the line sort of auto what with the front passenger door that would only open from the inside, the electric front windows that wouldn't roll all the way, and would never roll down, and the little engine that only barely could, our Felicia Fabia got us there and back, and we really couldn't have asked for more, especially for the price we paid ;)
The visit with my parents ended with a final weekend in Prague. As mentioned before there were lots of other moments I could go on and on about, like the fun and endlessly complicated dinner we had with Mark's parents, but there really isn't time, so I'll just post a few of my favorite pictures of our time together in Prague before they headed back to the US.


Then I'll briefly say that I had a positively glorious time with Malin when she came to visit. It was sooooo great to have her here. We reminisced about old times and dreamed of Hong Kong, as well as looking to the future and making the plans. In the midst of all the talking, we managed to take in a few great sights as well. She came just as castle season opened, so on April first we were able to enter Cheb castle on the first day that it was open.
On Good Friday we headed out to Regensburg in Germany. We were disappointed that all the shops were closed for the holiday, but the churches were all open, and we saw a lot of really beautiful old buildings and we thought about the significance of the day. We also found a nice cafe where we were able to sit and chat and look through magazines. Great time for sure :)

Malin's trip also ended in Prague. Our hostel was excessively dodgy, but fortunately we only slept there one night, and the rest of our time we spent seeing the sights. Mark also made sure we experienced some Czech culture, and he borrowed the little Easter whipping wand from a guy working at the Mucha museum and very gently beat us. What a great guy he is :) He didn't want us to be "dry" or unhealthy, but he was also nice and didn't hit us hard as I've heard some people are fond of doing.


Now I just wanted to end this post with some of the signs of spring that are popping up all over the place. I've been on some lovely walks with Mark in Marianske Lazne, and some peaceful walks alone here and Cheb and have enjoyed making memories of the things I've seen in the amazing Czech nature.





So now I say, a very happy spring to one and all, and here's to hope I see some ducklings soon :D

Maminka a Tata je tady!

Well, I should probably be heading off to bed, but I've decided to do a quick post. I'll be sure to put up better updates later on, but for now I just thought I'd share a few pictures of the trip thus far. Mark and I picked Mom and Dad up from the airport in Prague on Thursday and made sure they had a good traditional Czech meal their first night. Mom had KnedliVeproZeli (Dumplings, Pork and Sauerkraut) and Dad tried some Cesky Gulas with bread dumplings. Good way to start them off.


Friday morning we hauled all the luggage to the train station and headed off for Dresden. Unfortunately no one told the weather that it was supposed to be nice and sunny. I mean, we even stayed at the Sunshine Hostel (once we managed to find it) but we were still followed by ugly gray skies and dripping cold weather. We've been followed by a mixture of rain and snow since they arrived. Not the ideal weather for traipsing about Europe, but such is life.
We had a great time in Dresden all the same, and enjoyed taking in the sights. I'll just toss on a few photos here to give a sampling of the amazing things we saw.
These first two photos show us posed by Martin Luther with the amazing backdrop of the Frauen Kirche. Almost completely destroyed on Valentine's Day 1945, it has only recently been rebuilt to reflect it's former glory. We were all most impressed.

We saw pictures where Martin Luther was on the ground, completely separated from his feet. Pretty crazy.
Here's one of me and Mom on the S bahn, and a really lovely one of some dried hydrangeas. Mom really liked the flower one, so I made sure to post it here for her :)


And now I'll just close with a few shots of the town. It's a pretty impressive city with a very interesting history. Amazing how the people have finally been able to rebuild.



We headed back to Cheb on Sunday, with a very lengthy complicated train ride, and today I took Mom and Dad out to Sokolov where we picked up a rental car so hopefully our travels will be a bit easier and more predictable. The only problem now is figuring out where to park. It can be a bit complicated. I've left Mom and Dad sleeping at Tammy's place, and now I'm off to get a few zzzzs before tomorrow!

Double Duty

Yep, that's right, two posts in one day. In fact, I'm writing this immediately after finishing the one previous. But I didn't really feel like that one needed anything else added to it. Rather a stand alone sort of piece, rather than something to tag photos onto the end. So I'll throw the photos on here. (Nearly said I'd throw the photos up here, but thought maybe the vomiting visual might be a bit much. Naturally, as I've now said it anyway I'm not sure if it was much use not to just put it. Ah well.)
This past weekend was a busy one. While the lovely clear blue skies of Thursday didn't last out the entire weekend, the feeling of Spring is still here to stay. Or so I keep telling myself. But just check out this view from Thursday. Fabulous, simply fabulous!

I also feel the need to add this picture as well. I was just so amused by how the shadow of the branch totally looked like a squirrel!

I think I can safely say that Pub Night on Friday was the smallest one ever. There were possibly 15 students that showed up over the course of the night. Two of them were actually students from my first year. It was really great to see Martin, who has been in Australia for the past year and a half. Some of his other classmates were supposedly going to come, but the only ones who showed up were Kristyna, who wasn't actually in my class that year, and Henry who seldom misses a pub night due to his insatiable thirst for inebriation.

I spent most of my time talking to Marketa and Tyna, two of my daily students from this year. They're great fun, and it's really nice to see how their English is improving from the beginning of the year. Marketa confessed that when she first started she felt like she really didn't know any English at all, but now she's really getting more and more into it. I adore them both and thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them, as well as cheering with them as we watched a Czech girl win the bronze medal in the slaloms. They laughed a lot at me cheering "Vyborne Sarka! Vyborne!" Good times.


I was good and didn't stay out very late because I had to be at the train station before 8 the next morning. Saturday I had another CA meeting in Prague, so off I went, bright and early, heading for the big city. It was a long day, but nice as well. I do enjoy CA meetings, and the chance it gives to pray for the people on our team, and to think of ways to better encourage them in what they're doing here. And here's a random sight from outside Kelly's house. Just had to throw this one in ;)

Can't say I'd ever seen a caviar truck before, and can't say that I particularly ever want to see one again. So...yeah.
Sunday morning, I opted for a little private and personal time. I curled up in Starbucks with a steamy cup or gooey caramel covered coffee, a 180 podcast on my ipod and a view of fantastically beautiful Art Nouveau hotels across the street. Pretty great way to start a day if you ask me!





Love it!

Thoughts from a train, excerpts for a novel

There are novels out there waiting to be written. Written by me. I know it with certainty, the way few things in life can be known. They're only waiting. Waiting for gaps to be filled in. I've seen things that live in my memory long after they've passed from my direct view. Pictures worth far more than a thousand words. Images that desire to fill in the nooks and crannies of plot. It's only the plot I lack. A way to cohesively tie together all those snapshots of time and space. My life is far from over, and far from an enthralling story. There are far too many endings and new beginnings that seem positively impossible to reconcile together in any sort of natural way. My life is not a book, despite the volumes I've filled attempting to recreate. So here are a few images that are haunting my mind right now...
...the train pulled up to the station blowing snow in massive billows that looked more like smoke boiling up from the wheels, a strange marriage of fire and ice on the tracks...
...there is something seemingly romantic in the idea of a European train. This flies in the face of reason when faced with the practicalities one faces on such a train: toilets reeking of humanity's leavings; graffitied seats with deep indentations from far too many behinds; narrow alleys oft crammed with people and their dream stuffed luggage; the shaking, rocking passage of time cut up by ear splitting screams from metal on metal as towns come and go along with the ceaseless flow of worn out travelers...
...a bushy fox stood silhouetted in the snow, poised between the trees, tail tucked between his legs to preserve heat rather than illicit thoughts of shame...
...the deer bounded across the barren snow covered hills with an exuberance seen only in very young children. Their innocence flew by as the terrain passed on the other side of the window, pulling my eyes back to their glee...
...crossing the trellis into Prague is always a reason to pause in wonder. Even on these blustery days, when foggy fingers conceal the beauty of the castle and dim the view of the Charles Bride and all it's ancient dignity, there are still sights to behold. The swans on the river seem unconcerned with the temperature. Despite the ice that grows around the banks, attempting to still the flowing Vltava River, the swans float gracefully on the black expanse. Their white feathers a sharp contrast to the depths below. And there, floating near them, was a large white easy chair. It was of the overstuffed variety, far more appropriate in an American living room than rocking gently on a European river...
...huddled on the banks of the Ohre the Great Blue Heron attempted to become invisible, one with the barren branches poking up out of the slow drifting water. They've always recalled an older era to me, almost prehistoric in the lines of their gray feathers, long necks, and pterodactyl like beaks...
It's all there just waiting. Waiting for that thrill of inspiration to carry it on to completion. The Tales of a Transient Drifter in hardback copy...what a dream...

Snow

Okay, I know, talk about a lack of originality. But it seems the best title for this particular entry. You see, snow has descended on this land in which I live. In a rather serious way really. There is snow pretty much everywhere.
It's a different kind of snow than I'm generally used to. Growing up in Northern California we would get these massive heavy flakes that would fall fast and build up in big puffy waves. It was a dense sort of snow, great for building snowmen and sledding down the hill behind our house. Dad and I made a snowman that was more than 6 feet tall once. He stood in the parking lot by the church for weeks, propped up on an old wooden shovel handle as his heavy body slowly began to slump and shrivel. It was also excessively cold there, so we had years when the snowfall was short, but the frost would grow inches in the background, causing a white Christmas regardless of actual precipitation.
In Oregon the snow was always wet. We didn't get a lot of it, and it usually just froze over making the roads impassable. We'd have school cancellations on account of an inch of snow covered in sheets of icy treachery.
Can't say there was any snow to speak of in Hong Kong. Apologies to my friend Derek who commented on his facebook page the other day that it was bitterly cold in Hong Kong. Even when the temperature got as low as 4 degrees Celsius (about 40 Fahrenheit) it wasn't exactly bone chilling. Main problem there was that it never got warm in our house, so we were as cold indoors as out.
Alaska...there's another story all together. The snow was also generally pretty heavy in my way of looking at it. The flakes were often quite large, and fell quick fast and in a hurry like. Contrary to Oregonian precedents, two feet of snow weren't enough to get schools to even have a delay.
Here in Czech, the snow is really dry. I know that sounds strange, but it's of a totally different quality than snow I've experienced in other places. Now I'm not like an Eskimo with 40+ words for snow, but this is definitely snow of a different caliber. The flakes tend to be smaller, and swirl about in the slightest of breezes. It can really pile up, but it isn't really the sort of snow that's ideal for making snowmen. In fact, you can kick this snow. I know, I know, that sounds really bizarre, but it's true. Just kick and scatter it. Walking in it is more like walking in sand. It sticks to you and pulls your feet down. It's the strangest stuff.
After a few days of constant foot traffic it turns into the muckiest slush you can imagine. It does begin to get wet then, and turns brown and muddy, almost like a snowy paste. So while it makes the trees and rooftops all peaceful and romantic looking, the paths which I must tread are just plain nasty.
This past weekend I had to go into Prague for a CA meeting and to do some mid-year reflections. The Mid-years are really one of my absolutely favorite parts about being a CA. They're a time when I can really sit down and get to know the people in my team, and try to encourage them as they process what they've experienced thus far and what their future plans are going to be. Anyhow, it was snowing when I arrived in Prague on Friday night, and it proceeded to snow the whole time I was there. I'd seen a skiff of snow over the city a couple of times in winters past, but nothing in comparison to this. I'm always amazed by how the entire landscape changes in it's wintry coat of white fluff. I took great delight in my chances to run around taking photos of the grand structures of this magnificent city in their winter finery.






I'll end now with a little something to warm you all up on these bleak January days...