some pictures from Prague

The cathedral in the castle.

A view of the castle from across the river

The Charles bridge
The famous clock...we saw the performance on the hour.
(I was so much more impressed 10 years ago when I saw this for the first time.)
And one of the best parts of Prague! It was a blast...but I thinking getting there and home was more of an adventure than driving the cars themselves.

january

Where oh where does the time go? I never seem to have enough time to sit down and write something good on here, so I see I haven't written anything at all in awhile. Two weeks ago I was in Prague for a couple days busy in meetings during the day and storming the castle by night. Although a lot of work got done, it was a really fun time, and I enjoyed the short little get-away. Following that trip we had two volunteers in country with us here, planning for the 30-60 students they will bring for one week this summer. I will not be involved with that week this summer as I will be up in the mountains training leaders, but enjoyed bringing the volunteers to my classes last week to hang out with my students. This past weekend I was busy planning for our two leadership camps we will have this summer. Its crazy how early you have to plan all this stuff out....but I have learned that everything goes so much smoother the earlier it is all planned out....not to say there is not a possibility of everything changing between now and then.

I can hardly believe that January is almost already over and the winter also seems to be passing. Warm weather and sunny days are a welcomed joy. I realized this weekend that I have become spoiled by my newly installed central heating and am cold in some wood stove heated houses. My skin just isn't as tough as it used to be.

I have completed the semester for one of my University classes and the other one ends this week. For the month of February I will try to get caught up on some work, plan for the spring and summer, and maybe even relax a bit.

a slippery slope

I am sad that the generator that runs outside my window is louder than the speakers on my computer. Its just not fair. But I am glad that I downloaded some new NPR podcasts so I have some good entertainment while the power is off. If I angle my computer upwards a little I can hear it well and type this up at the same time.

Okay a couple phone calls just distracted me from why I originally started writing this. I guess that all helps pass away the time without electricity.

Tonight at 5:30 when I went to class I was shocked at how warm it felt outside. It was probably about 32 F, but comparable to what it has been, that is warm. It was a nice change, and I enjoyed the lack of layers. So I enjoyed the warm room in the University and taught my class in comfort. After class I went for my usual trip across the street to have coffee with some of the students. For some reason no one was very talkative tonight and coffee ended after only an hour. We all said our goodbye greetings and I started walking up the hill to my flat with three students. When alone, I do not walk directly up the steepest part of the hill unless I am looking for some exercise, as if I do that I just have to walk down part of the hill in a different direction. (The short cut is not only shorter, but not as steep, a win-win situation for me.) But when I walk home with some of the students, I walk directly up the steep hill, as that’s how they have to walk. Tonight this proved difficult. At the bottom of the hill the sidewalk was not icy, so I don’t know if its because we were walking to a place of higher elevation or if just the temperature was dropping that fast, but as we got to the top, it was harder to walk up. We just kept slipping back down. By the time we got to the top, it was just humorous to watch us all (thankfully not just me, the only girl!) constantly slipping. Amazingly I made it to the top of the hill, and then down and to my flat….without ever hitting the ground. I was tired and relieved to walk into the building and leave the ice behind.

And on a final note…its interesting that just now as I am listening to NPR for the first time in awhile I am realizing about the writer’s strike. I heard my friend who was just here mention it when talking about one show, but I had no clue it was such a big deal, and not just for one show. Thank God for NPR to keep me up to date on good ole American pop culture. Now I just need to remember to listen to it.

Yea! The power is back on. I can now upload this, clean up a bit, and hit the sack.

Happy New Year!

(For stories about some recent adventures here, please read my friend's blog. She is here visiting me and has been posting daily (I think) with pictures and stories since she got here. Due to having company I have not really had time to post any fun stories or pictures - which we have in abundance! Hopefully once my schedule gets back to normal I can add my own little updates from the fun adventures we are having together.)