New Adventure

Wow, I realized that it has been a long time since i sat down and wrote anything on this blog. Maybe since this is a new year and a new beginning,I might start writing on this again.
I am at a new school with new students, new Czech names, new faces, and new everything. The first day went well, I only had 2 classes and the other 2 were cancelled. I was a little worried at first because when I woke up in the morning my body just wanted to stay in bed. But I prayed and asked God to give me the strength that I needed to get through the day. God is good!!
The next day I got to see my school in full color....schedule changes , students in the wrong room, teacher in the wrong classroom, and teacher searching for the students,that was my day. Everything worked out but it was a mystery at first.
I am excited to continue to meet all of my students. I think I will have some that will challenge me but I think it will be a great experience. Learning all of the names is another ball game....I think I am going to have to take pictures to remember who each person is.
Well, the school bell rang..it is time for one more class for the day....I hope it goes well...

Andelska Hora

I decided to take advantage of this four day weekend and travel to somewhere new. There are so many more places that I would like to see here in the Czech Republic. I am always so amazed by all of the castles that are here. Every single castle is so different and has different history. When I go to all of the castles I try to imagine what life used to be like in the time of princess,kings, queens, and etc. I think it is so hard for me to grasp because I am from such a modern and young country. We don't have anything like that in America. After searching on the Internet I found some information about some ruins that is near Cheb and close to Karlovy Vary. This last Friday I planned to go with a friend to adventure to find these ruins on andelska hora, that early morning my friend called and said that she wasn't able to go because she was sick. I decided to still go on this adventure by myself. I figured that it would be a perfect time to just spend some alone time with God out in his creation. In the hopes to spend a lot of time in prayer and reading my bible, well it didn't turned out to what I hoped for. My adventure started out so interesting, I got off on the wrong train station which I thought was the correct one, but I should have gone one more stop to a different train station. I wondered aimless looking for the bus station where I was suppose to get on to a bus for andelska hora. I had to stop and ask several people in Czech where the bus station was. Well, I didn't make it to the bus station in time for my bus to andelska hora. I had to go inside the train station and ask for a new bus time. The lady told me when the next bus was going to andelska hora. At this point the weather was very nice and holding up, I thought for sure it would be very nice when I got to the mountain. Finally, the bus came and I got on to go to andelska hora. When I got there i realized that this place was out in the middle of a village. I could see the black clouds approaching over where I was walking, the clouds didn't look too promising. I made it to the top to see the ruins. You really had to imagine what it was like and what it really looked like with all of the walls of the castle. It was so interesting because I asked a lot of my students about the history behind this castle but no one knew it. As i reached to the top of the mountain it started to rain pretty hard. I still took some time to pray in the rain and I felt like I had a good time talking with God. As the rain continued to come down harder, I decided i better head back down because the rocks were getting really wet and they will be slippery.
When I got back down from the mountain, I waited for a bus to go back to karlovy vary. The interesting thing was that I looked on both bus schedules and they had different times posted. I had no idea which one was correct, and of course I was out in a village and there was no one to ask. I waited and waited and no bus came. Finally, I walked down the street to another bus stop to see if the schedule said something different. I kept seeing buses come into town but never going out of town. I was trying to enjoy the fact that I was really stuck in a village in the rain by myself. I really wasn't by myself, I had God with me. After 2 hours waiting for a bus, there was one that finally came. I really started to think that I was going to have to walk to K.V. I finally got back to K.V. and I waited again for a train to go back to Cheb. Since I had a little bit before my next train, I decided to go and enjoy a sundae at McDonald's. We don't have McDonald's in Cheb so sometimes it is nice to have when I am in K.V. or in Prague. I really just like the ice cream there, not really the actual hamburgers.

May 1st in the Czech Republic

It's hard to believe that it is the first of May already. Where has the time gone? In just a few months it will be the end of the school year. Crazy!! This last week I had a four day weekend because of the first of May. The Czech Republic has a big celebration for the end of April. Every year on April 30th all around the Czech Republic there are 'witch burning celebration' parties to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring. In some places they have a huge bon- fire and they burn a witch,its very similar to our scarecrows. The witch is suppose to represent winter and its over and spring has come. It really depends on where you are, but people usually do some type of party. I had the opportunity this year to go to F.L. with one of my students to take part in their exciting event. We first roasted sausages over a big fire and then went down town FL to take part in the celebration in the center of town. There was a band and children dancing. After the band was finished playing there were fireworks to end this celebration. The firework show reminded me of Fourth of July in America.
Then on the first of May, its a big thing for women to be kissed. I must say I didn't get my kiss this year, I got whipped on Easter but no kiss on the first of May. -(
I just recently found out the history behind this event. It is very similar to Labor day in America. In America we celebrate Labor day in September and they celebrate it on the first of May. I thought that was interesting that the first of May is similar to the American holiday.

Finally a new post......Another day in Cheb

I had a very interesting Sunday morning. As I was walking to church today I was stopped by an older woman speaking a mile a minute in czech to me. At first I didn't think she was talking to me and I really had no idea what she was saying to me. I decided to stop to see if I could try to understand her more as I was closer to her and she just kept speaking to me in Czech like I could understand her. All I really could understand was 'nice girl, aren't you cold in a skirt,etc.' I understood a little bit of what she was telling me with non-verbal communication(God bless non-verbal communication) and a few words that I knew in Czech. The problem was that her key wouldn't turn in her door. I even had trouble turning it and it was her key. I kept on trying to turn the key and take the key out,after a few minutes, it finally budge. I felt bad for the lady because she kept asking everyone that passed by her ,to help her, but everyone told her that they had no time. The lady was very grateful that I finally was able to turn her key and open her door. I was thankful that I was able to help the lady even without understanding Czech fully.