More Sightseeing

We had our first two full language lessons this week. My head was swimming after each lesson. I was definitely glad I had found a bottle of Advil this week at the 'lekarna'. We've learned what seems like a hundred phrases and at the moment I can remember exactly one: "Co je to?" which means "What is it/this?" The good news is the grammar makes sense (sort of) and sentence structure is not super important. So I can say, "Where is it?" or "It is where?" and people will understand me. I think we'll get the hang of it eventually. At least we'll get enough to go grocery shopping. We also spent a morning with a Czech church planter looking at some of the campuses of Charles University. We went to about 22 different buildings in 4 or 5 different sections of the city and it took us about 4 hours to cover it all. Pretty overwhelming. I think homesickness is starting to settle in a little bit so it was good for us to be reminded of why we're here. All those students... We are slowly but surely developing a plan for outreach, though. We even get to use one of the volunteer teams this summer to help us with some research, planning and outreach. We took a volunteer team from Kentucky sight-seeing this weekend. They had spent 4 days prayer walking a section of the city with us and definitely deserved some relaxation and tourism.



Normally, this cathedral has absolutely no line (at least it hasn't the last three times Matt and I have been there) but this time the line was around the corner and down the length of the building. Needless to say, we did not go in. I guess it's close to summer and everyone is on holiday (plus it was Saturday).



Like my photography? I was trying out some settings on our camera.



In the Castle Quarter overlooking the city. I'm assuming this is part of the castle wall because there were places in the wall to shoot an arrow through.



The peacocks have trapped themselves in the bushes! Not really, they just hop on top of a bush and then hop down. Pretty funny to watch. When I walked up, they all looked at me like, "Umm, we're not quite sure how this happened."

Sightseeing

We went sightseeing today for the first time since we got here. We had a photo scavenger hunt we had to complete as part of our orientation. We ended up covering pretty much the whole city by the time we were done so I guess that's the point of the scavenger hunt. Anyway, we saw some cool things, some for the first time and some for the second time since our trip last March. We also went to three stores looking for a cordless phone (4 if you include the store I went to yesterday by myself). You would think no one in Prague had a home phone. The store I went to yesterday was called Datart and had 2 phones. That's right, 2 phones. And they both cost about 2500 Czech crowns (that's about $160!). We went to Tesco and a different Datart today and found the same thing, except Tesco didn't have any phones at all. You can buy everything from perfume to hardwood floors there, but no cordless phone. Anyway, it was an adventure. The third store we tried, we hit the jackpot; they had about 15 phones to choose from and they weren't all outrageously expensive. I have learned two important lessons since we've been here. Lesson #1: Pedestrians always have the right-of-way. Lesson #2: Just because pedestrians have the right-of-way doesn't mean they won't get hit. It's amazing. Some cars will slam on their brakes to let you cross the road, even if you're not at a crosswalk and some cars will just blaze on past you, even if you have a green light at the crosswalk and you're stepping out into the street. Here are some of the pictures we took today on our scavenger hunt...




No, this is not a rocket launch pad. It is a tv/radio transmitter. It was built back in the 80's/90s and was rumored to be used to jam "western" radio and tv during the communist era. Of course, this has not been confirmed... And what are those lumpy things on the side, might you ask...Well let's get a closer look...



Yep, they're babies crawling on the side of the tower. What?!? I guess that's art...



This is a garden outside of Wallenstein Palace, just down the road from the castle. It's called Wallenstein Garden. Imagine that.



This was the beginning of Matt impersonating famous people. This would be Matt's rendition of Jan Hus. (Can you see the resemblance?)



And this would be the end of Matt impersonating famous people. Churchill would not appreciate this one I bet.



Believe it or not, a live peacock or carp was on our scavenger hunt. We managed to find both at Wallenstein Garden. I'm trying to catch this one 'cause he's purty...



Really purty....



And I'm pointing and laughing at this one cause he's not at all pretty. He did follow me the rest of the way through the garden. Maybe to make me feel guilty.



Matt was really hungry...he tried to eat the carp.



These are the stairs that lead down from the castle. You can't tell, but they go on forever.



I met this cute guy by the castle. He let me take his picture.



This is the tower we climbed to get a view of the city (where the green roof is). It's called Great South Tower.



Can you see that? 287 steps!!! No elevator.



But this was our reward. This is Charles Bridge.






Another view of the city.



We're thinking about a new haircut for Matt. He wants to look more European.

We Made It!!!

Well, we have finally arrived and started settling in here in Prague. When we flew in, the whole team met us at the airport and helped us get our bags loaded into a taxi-van. Then we went to our new apartment and hung out and ate dinner. The team stayed with us until it was late enough for us to go to sleep. Neither of us remember much from that evening considering we had been awake for almost 24 hours when we landed in Prague and much longer than that by the time we actually went to bed. It's all kind of a blur. The next morning, we met up with Steve and Cathy (Strategy Coordinator) and hit the town. We bought our cell phones and public transport passes and all of that took almost all day. The next day, we had our orientation to Tesco- the UK's version of Walmart- and the local mall, whose food court consists of 2 Chinese places, an Indian place and a pizza restaurant. There are other malls that have more, but this one is just getting started on the whole food court idea. The mall is right next to a stadium complex. I'm not quite sure yet whether it's for rugby or soccer, but I'm sure we'll find out as soon as the next game comes up. Last Saturday we had to ourselves so we ventured out just the two of us to one of the two Ikea's that are in the city. And we did it! All by ourselves we made it to Ikea on the metro. We even bought something (with a lot of pointing and grunting between us and the cashier)! Then we made it from Ikea to Steve and Cathy's for burgers. We even got carded on the metro for our passes! We were pretty proud of ourselves that we made it through the whole day without getting lost. Today we got together with the rest of the team for worship, went to lunch, and then did some cleaning/rearranging here at the apartment. So we feel we've had a pretty successful past couple of days. We met our language tutor on Tuesday and learned a few basic phrases. So now we can ask where the bathroom is...but we can't understand when they answer. Oh well, at least we can say thank you now. We will be meeting with our tutor twice a week until the fall and then we'll take a 6 week course at Charles University. I made a short video of our apartment so you all could see how we're living now. This is by no means an excuse for any of you not to come see us now because I promise the rest of Prague is exponentially cooler than our apartment. Happy watching...

Toilet Paper and Saying Goodbye...

Okay, I know we're way out of high school but we needed something to let some steam off. We wanted to TP people's houses but we couldn't really do that without getting in trouble, considering they weren't really our houses. So we decided to TP each other.



This is the prep stages; we're completing our "disguises" so we could be incognito.



Our battle pose.



The boys wanted in on the action.



Our first victim...okay, technically she was our only victim, but who's counting?
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Well, we had a few short days to say goodbye to friends and family, both at FPO and in Houston. We are sad to leave but excited about what lies ahead. We ate more Mexican food in the last few days than most people eat in a month. I'm sure all the walking we're about to do in Prague will do us some good. We've really had a good time with our nephews, Siler and Tyler the last couple of days. Those kids are too cute. Tyler still calls me "Aunt Bally" and Siler has started calling me "Va". Uncle Matt isn't too hard to say for either of them. We had a really tough time packing for Europe, fitting everything into our few bags while staying under weight. I didn't realize we had so much stuff. I really thought I had left a lot of my clothes in storage, but I guess not. I don't know if I've ever seen the back of my mom's Expedition so full of luggage. Every bag was maxed out in weight. Here's some pictures of our last time hanging out for a while...




The girls...We were enjoying a beautiful sunset and some cute boys playing soccer...



We just couldn't stay cute forever!



Second to last group pose. Sigh.



Cuties...



More cuties...



The last group pose. We all bawled after that but I didn't put those up. I'm bad enough without makeup, we don't want to add a red nose and snot to the mix.



Back in Houston with my Dad and brothers (one of them has become a giant, he's almost as tall as Matt!).



Matt's buddies/roomies. And they color coordinated! How cute!



Tyler with an ice cream mustache. Too cute! He managed to get it all over his hand, the front of his shirt, and his cowboy boots. Cowboy boots! I just want to eat him up!



The Beasley family (Matt's brother, our sister-in-law, and Tater).



Tyler's "sweet face". His mama taught him that.



Enter Siler; he decided to join the club. Could he be any sweeter? He even managed to get ice cream not only all over his shirt but also his Daddy's.



My brother, sister-in-law (8 months pregnant!), mom, and Siler.



Matt riding the scooter my mom bought for the grandkids. He truly has become a 5-year-old.



And Seth...what more can I say?



Tyler "driving" a race car. This was outside Texas Roadhouse, our last supper in the U.S.



Matt wanted a picture of me surrounded by all of the clothes I had to fit into our bags. It doesn't really look like that many clothes, does it?