Living, instead of writing about it

It's been a little while since I've updated - I'm sorry. 

Things have been extremely busy here in the CZ so I haven't been able to spend time updating. 

I've had a ton going on at work, and it has cumulated all in this past week.

1) I am the director of our school play (Jace's school is also doing a play, Snow White and the 7 dwarfs), which premiers on June 16th, more on that later, but for now I have been prepping, prepping, and rehearsing. We have had to focus on the play this week because 

2) Good ol, school in nature is happening again next week. Remember in February when I spent a week with my kids? It should be fun, but we will lose a lot of valuable time to focus on the play. And

3) I have done arts and crafts with some of the kids every Friday afternoon, and my art club and the ceramics clubs had an art show/auction this Wednesday. We raised 100,000 Koruna (about $5,000) for charity! The charity is called Ark Chantal and decorates hospital rooms for very ill children. 

Last week my dear friend Libby came into town for a visit, she was here from Thursday - Tuesday. I met her while studying abroad here 3 years ago, and it had been that long since I had seen her. We had a great time. We did some pretty great, touristy things. 

Aside from the typical, Old Town and Charles Bridge trips that we do with all our visitors, we went to a Ballet at the National Theater, (we saw a modern version of Carmen, it was pretty great) and we rode paddle boats on the Vltava River. Friday evening she hung out with some friends I've made at work, and we played Bocci Ball, and we went to church on Sunday and played ultimate frisbee afterward. We all had a great time!!

From Friday night:

We were blessed with beautiful weather on Saturday:

Going to the Ballet:

Paddling the River:

Youth Praha

Jace and I are incredibly lucky and blessed in that we get to work with an amazing group of kiddos every week. 

Youth Praha is an international youth group here in Prague. I would say that the majority of the kids are American (though definitely not all) and a lot are missionary kids. 

A fellow leader made this video, and now you can see what we have been up to!

Enjoy:

April Showers...

...bring May flowers!

Note the construction still in the background.

Such a beautiful walk home from work!

Saturday Night in Prague

Jace and I went out to dinner and a movie on Saturday night (we saw Star Trek, it was pretty good.)

As we were walking to get our tickets, we saw none other than a zombie parade. Not sure what was going on, but I managed to snap some pictures from across the street. 

I really like this guy who got up close with his camera

Some people got really into character

Not Zombies. We ate at a pizza place for dinner.

Krakow

This past weekend, we enjoyed a 3-day weekend because May 8th was a holiday. Liberation Day to be exact. It celebrated the day the Czechs were liberated from WW2. This used to be celebrated on the 9th, when the Russians arrived, but they didn't really liberate did they, so now it has been moved to the 8th. 

In honor of the long weekend, we went to Krakow, Poland with a friend from my work. And of course, we had a really good time. Krakow was beautiful. I didn't really know what to expect from this city as I had never really seen pictures or even heard a bunch about it, and I was surprised at how beautiful it was. I reminded me a bit of Prague, Jace felt like it reminded him more of Vienna. 

So, our weekend in a nutshell, plus loads of pictures. 

We took the overnight train to get there, it was an 9 hour journey, we arrived at 6:30 AM. We had a tiny train compartment that could potentially sleep 6 people, luckily it was just us 3. Very little sleep was to be had, but it was nice to be able to lay flat if nothing else, and we all felt rested enough for the day. 

Friday: Got off the train, dropped our bags at the hostel, went for breakfast and coffee. We had gotten information of a free walking tour, so we went to the meeting place, but no one was there to take us touring. Turns out Friday was also a special day for Poland. There was a university holiday, and all the college students gathered on the square at noon. Many in costumes. We still don't really know why. And we also were at the square at noon, in the middle of it all. 

We left the craziness after a little while and did our own walking through Krakow. We walked to the castle and along the river, had a massive lunch which also doubled as dinner. It was nice. 

Saturday was a difficult day. We went to Auschwitz -  the biggest of the concentration camps. It's difficult to really describe this. It was intense, and moving, and incredibly sad. We went to 2 different camps. The first one was still fully intact and turned into a museum. We saw some really profound evidence of the evil and vastness of it all. The second camp was the main one, and too massive for belief. A lot of the buildings had been removed, but all the land was still there and you could still see the size of it. While this part was difficult, I am glad we went. I felt like it was important to do so. 

Sunday was a short day as we had a train to catch. Oliver did a tour of the Jewish Quarter on his own and Jace and I walked to some hills that we had seen advertised. We didn't even get to climb it though because it took us an hour and a half to walk there, and pretty much as soon as we got there we had to leave to meet Oliver and catch our train. We didn't take a night train again, and I am glad we didn't. For one, it was nice to see the countryside, and two, it was great to have a good night's sleep in my own bed before going to work the next day. 

Picture time!

On the train

sitting on the middle bed. There were 3 on each side

part of the student gathering

the costumes were everywhere, and throughout the day as well

Dragon outside of the castle, there were dragons all over Krakow

We found this great antique market. They had old photo albums, and war pins.

We saw some fire-dancers walking down the street

being artsy

and again

the entrance, it says "work makes you free"

This was about a third of the size of the camp, it was enormous, and there were actually plans in the works to expand it.

Czech Cartoons

So here in the good 'ol CZ, people apparently need to be reminded of the etiquette when using the public transportation system. 

So they have come up with videos to serve as helpful reminders to the people of Prague. 

We recorded them on our camera, so the quality is a bit low, but enjoy!!

Backpacks go on the ground, so people can trip on them.

When the elderly fly, be sure to give them an applause.

Hold onto your groceries better

First offer a drink to the woman, then her child

do not panic when you can't get off, just enjoy the ride!

Skype Number

So we've got a Skype number, which means that you can "call" our computer from your phone just like you would call any of your other friends with "normal" phones. So now we have a standard phone number, and if we are at the computer when you call, we can talk, and if not, you will be able to leave us a voicemail!

It won't cost you any extra (other than the minutes on your plan) because it is a local Texas, 817 number. 

If you want it, just ask!

love you guys!