Dresden

As promised, here are our pictures from our trip to Dresden.

Our first public transportation ride in Germany. We were sleepy from staying up late the night before but I had the good sense to wear sunglasses.



Frauenkirche. Completely destroyed in WWII but rebuilt just for us! Okay. Rebuilt for everyone...



They used the old stones to help rebuild!







Outside Dresden Cathedral









Semper Opera House



Zwinger, where they keep the art.











Großer Garten Park







Pretty fall colors...



A very yummy and apparently traditional German dessert but I can't remember the name.



Giant Sprite pitcher with our yummy German pizza! (yes, we went to Germany and ate pizza)

Busy, Busy

The past couple of weeks have been really busy for us. We celebrated our 4th anniversary and Matt's 29th birthday, finished up with our 6 week Czech course, said goodbye to some of our friends (for now), and took a short trip to Dresden with our friends, the Brummits (pictures of Dresden coming soon).



We celebrated our anniversary at T.G.I. Friday's. I know, not the swankiest place ever but we really needed some good ol' American food.



Matt asked me to make thin crust pizza for his birthday. Yummy!



He also asked for yellow cake with chocolate icing...



Believe it or not, we actually had friends come over to celebrate with us. I just forgot to take any pictures of them. Oops. (I know, he needed a hair cut, bad. He finally let me, though so I'll post a pic soon.)



Our Czech class (counter-clockwise): James from Ireland, Will from America (married to Russian/Czech), Chinatsu from Japan, Katya from Belarus, Nanina from Switzerland, Valeriy from Uzbekistan, Jana from Germany, Matt, our teacher, Lenka, from Czech Republic, and Ardalon from Iran.



This is our other German friend, Viola. Her 23rd birthday was the day after Matt's.



Remember Nanina from Czech class? Of course you do. Remember Kofola (blech!!)? Well, Nanina actually likes Kofola!



A bunch of us out for dinner at a 'Mexican' restaurant, Los Amigos.



My buddy and me... (Jana)



Jana's going away bash... She went back to Germany but will be working near the German/Czech border soon so we'll get to see lots more of her.



And finally, a teaser from Germany. Matt got to go to Toys r Us for his birthday!

Christmas Came Early!!!!

Many thanks to our wonderful sister-in-law, Robyn (and Matt's brother, Jason), who sent us a box full of incredible yummies...over 30 pounds to be exact! And it came just after Matt's birthday (blog about that coming) so Happy Birthday to Matt!



I went to the post office by myself because I had no idea how heavy the package would be. I made it from the post office to the tram stop but Matt had to meet me at our tram stop to carry it up to our apartment.



He always loves it when he gets to use his pocket knife.



Wow!

More Fall!

I just can't get over all of the colors of fall! We spent a lot of time this weekend trekking across Prague so we got to see a lot more of the beautiful colors. One of the other families we work with here in the city welcomed their third child, Cate Blythe, last wednesday and we had the joy of watching their two older kids during their stay in the hospital.



5 days, folks! That's how long Czech hospitals will keep you after having a baby. Let's just say they're very thorough around here. You don't leave until they're sure you know what you're doing. Even if it happens to be your third child.



Anyway, our friends live on the west side of Prague where there's a few more wide open spaces so we spent some time walking around taking pictures.

Sparta!!!!

We were finally able to attend our first fotbal match in Prague! For me, this was the first time to ever watch live professional soccer. Sparta (Prague) played Zagreb (Croatia) and it was really exciting; we had such a good time with our German and Austrian friends. We were really surprised at the security we had to go through just to get into the game, though. They made us throw away our water bottles (not because they wanted us to buy their drinks but because they didn't want us to throw them on the field) and each one of us got patted down as we went through the gate. The security guard was pretty concerned when he felt my camera in my bag and had to examine it pretty closely before he would let me through. I'm pretty sure they didn't search the Croatian fans that well, because after their first gol, this what their section of the stands looked like:



That's right, the entire Croatian corner of the stands burst into flames with some sort of traffic flares or something. Crazy!! Sparta answered quickly with a gol but they could only muster one measly flare.



Oh, and they also had this little display of pyrotechnics but it wasn't too impressive (it's the tiny firework hanging from the corner of the sign):



Here's our friends (enjoying their beer) and Matt (enjoying his tea). We've been really blessed to have made several friends recently through our language course. They're from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.



Here's the Zagreb fans during one of their very well organized cheers. If anyone can help me identify that chant/tune, I'll be your best friend for life.



Here's the Sparta penalty kick that tied the game. Sadly, even though the game was tied, Zagreb won because you apparently get more points per gol if you're the away team. Sad for Sparta.



*We would like to dedicate this post to our dear little Aaron who wanted so badly to see a soccer game this summer but never got the chance. We did it all for you little buddy!