My travel to Czech

     It was great to read all of your nice letters, notes, and pages in my "bon voyage book".  Kind of weird that you find out things....like things people would want to tell you if they knew you were dying...that you might otherwise have never heard.  Note to self; (and to others, if you so choose) continue, (I think I do a good job of this...when it's something good, I'm improving on it when it's something confrontational.)...to let people know how you feel about them!  Maybe I'm just one that personally needs that reassurance, when it comes to hearing how my friends feel about me.

Anyhoo- the trip...

     The Hawkins were sweet enough to drop me off near noon at BNA on Friday.  I sat by a nice 

lady on the way to Atlanta.  Short trip.  Found my way easily to where I was supposed to be in Atlanta's airport and took off for a ~9 hr. flight to Prague, Czech Republic!  (empty seat next to me-yea! for comfort when trying to sleep and get up for the bathroom =)

I slept....3 hrs...not so good.

     I also experienced some tummy problems (subconscious stress?) although I felt fine and excited the morning before I left) and .....shoo!... right as I arrived and located a restroom in Prague (t.m.i.?=)  Jill was right-they basically use paper towels for toilet tissue.  No, not "Bounty" or "Brawny" and definitely not "Angel Soft", but the kind of brown paper towels they have in school bathrooms for you to dry your hands on.  =)

     I also made it successfully to where I needed to be in the Prague airport.  )All signs have English underneath the Czech)....p.s. My huge check-in bags were never even weighed (so much for our hard work, Mom).  The lady in Nashville just "guesstimated it" and let me pass.  Also the guy in Prague let one of my too-heavy carry-ons pass.  When I "boarded" through the gate in Prague I actually boarded a bus and thought? is this right?...but everyone else seemed to be going along with it (great reasoning =) and it did take us on a little ride out to our tiny plane to head to Ostrava (Mom and Dad; emphasis on the "O', I forgot "all" Czech words are emphasized on the first syllable).  Again, I had an empty seat next to me on that plane ride, which was also nice, for them, because my tummy was feeling queasy!

     In Ostrava I collected all of my luggage, which fortunately was passed on by the airlines all the way to my final destination and I met up with Radek's mother, one of her sisters, and her daughter (who is also expecting in Oct/Nov).

     The car ride home was fun.  I wish I would have felt better.  I couldn't wait for the car to stop moving at our destination in Krnov.  I elated the ladies with my five-ish words I've learned so far and gave them a rousing rendition of the Czech alphabet =)  I think they appreciate the effort.  Here are my observations as we drove; the land looks like it could be the U.S. ~Midwest farm land.  They farm corn and...sour kraut here =)  We drove through several small towns and I assumed the buildings so near to the street were businesses, but they were homes.  They're all a certain color-coded look.  I'll try to get a picture of an example.  Not the colors we would typically see, it does make the area look "different".  Everything's older too.  Of course, this is talking about the "countryside" not a big city like Prague (which I hope to visit possibly after coming back from Russia in late fall).  There are cool, old church buildings everywhere.  They are the neatest architecture you notice.  In fact, (again, picture coming) outside my "guesthouse" bedroom window an old church building rises up over the hedges.  It's awesome.  Now it's used for a home for disabled elderly, I believe.

     Thankfully, Ollie and Kennedy were both (overly-)excited to see me.  We ate and took a couple of walks and played ball and hide-and-go-seek together.  I've unpacked about 1/2 of my stuff in my guesthouse tonight.  I thought it might be a little frivolous and unnecessary to stay here instead of in the main house, but i think I'll just take advantage of it while I have a little more privacy because in Russia it will be all-hands-on-deck together 24/7.

     It was fun to reconnect with Jill and see her baby bump progress.

     Tonight as I unpacked I heard a recorder duet playing "Amazing Grace".  Jill thinks it was coming from the post-church/elderly home.  It was so cool.  You could also hear men laughing at each other at  a party held at a near-by restaurant. (which is nice because it includes an outdoor play area for the kids).  I was impressed that the "partying", at least from what I could hear, stopped at about 10:30pm.

     Jill says Czech is known for the most beer-drinkers per capita (I thought maybe my German heritage held that record).  We went to a park (for kids!) which conveniently has a beer-garden for the parents to hang-out in while the kids roam freely and play.  Different.  But, I respect this; Czech also has a zero-tolerance for bikers or drivers with any level of alcohol.  You immediately lose your license, in fact.

     That's the news for now.  I wonder when it will sink in that I'm not just visiting, but that this is "long term"??  I'll let you know =)

Ciao!

p.s. Ollie totally can speak Czech to anyone on the street now, it's sooo cute!  I"m having him help me with words and phrases.  There's also a neighbor that's interested in trading English and Czech lessons.  We'll see.