Here Is What I've Been Up To...

Hi Everyone, Hope things are going well for you. Sorry I haven't posted anything in the last week. Last Friday was my first month anniversary! It was hard for me to believe that I had actually been here 1 month. Time really does go by very quickly. It was nice to stop and reflect on how well my first four weeks had gone. I continue to thank God for all His leading and provisions that He has given to me along the way. Some highlights of my past week adventures...

• Tues. I spent most of the day with my Czech friend Bohumila and her 5 month old son. We had a great time speaking about what we did during the holidays and some of my observations regarding Czech culture. To get to where Bohumila lives I had to ride tram #8 for about 20 minutes. Czechs truly do not strike up a conversation with someone while riding public transportation. (There is no such thing as trying to create small talk about the weather or anything.) If they see someone they know then they speak with that person, otherwise people just quietly sit or stand and ride the public transportation to their destination. Bohumila asked me if I missed my car and I said no because now the trams/buses have become my car and I just happen to share them with alot of people who don't speak to me :)

• Wed. I was scheduled to have lunch with Zuzana who I met at last year's English Camp. I text message Zuzana that I wanted to try to find her apartment building and not to walk out to the tram stop to meet me. She had explained to me over a week ago that she lives not too far from where I am living. So I knew I didn't have to ride any public transportation to get there. Armed with the address and an idea of where she lived I ventured out. I guessed correctly and walked all the way to her building without any problems. As I approached her building I realized something, I wasn't positive what her last name was. You see here in this culture the apartment buildings are locked and you buzz the apartment you want and they let you in. I wasn't even sure what floor she lived on. There were quite a few names to choose from so I started to text message her to let her know I made it to her building. As I was doing this a couple of Czech ladies opened the main door to step outside. I thought it is a little chilly and why not just step into the lobby and finish doing my text message to Zuzana. What I didn't expect was that the elderly ladies quickly walked their dogs and then came back into the lobby area to find out what I was doing. Small problem I couldn't speak enough Czech to explain myself but I did manage to ask in Czech if they spoke English and understood that they didn't. I then tried the oldest language in the book sign/hand gestures. I had my cell phone in my hand and tried to explain I was sending a message to my friend. They didn't understand. One lady gave up and walked away. The second one wanted to help me desperately and she kept trying. She started to go outside to look at the names on the buzzers because she understood I had friend name Zuzana and finally I was able to say enough Czech and gestures/motions such as "walking in place" that she understood my friend was coming to get me! It was quite funny as I explained to Zuzana the small ruckus I had created by just stepping into the lobby. There really is never a dull moment living in another culture and only knowing a little bit of the language.

The biggest surprise is the weather--the past few days we've been in the 50s for highs and low 30s at night. I've only experienced one day of snow at the end of December that melted away rather quickly. Czechs love to ski and are really missing the white stuff. I haven't really experienced any strong cold gust of wind. Last night we had a pretty strong howling wind that I could hear throughout the night. (I'm just glad the cold has stayed away because it could of made that howling wind even more dangerous.) I am thankful for the mild winter because I still layer up quite a bit because my blood still needs to thicken up after living in sunny Florida for close to 20 years. I'll try to post some pictures again real soon.

Take care until next time!

Blessings,
Colleen