Strc Prst Skrz Krk

Each day here is like a new adventure. Even though things are becoming more comfortable and the city is starting to feel more like "home," every day is unpredictable and spontaneous. And I love that. I've never wanted to live in a big city. Skyscrapers and rush hour are not really my thing. But being here in Brno has opened up a whole new compartment of my heart I never knew existed. I love going to namesti sovobody (freedom square) and walking among the rush of people each hurrying towards their own destinations. I love riding the bus with so many different people, all trying to get somewhere different, yet all thrown into a cramped compartment and forced to share the same air. I love it. It keeps me on my toes. I never know what to expect next, yet I know where I'm headed. If that makes any sense. I also loving just standing to the side of the hustle and bustle and watching the world whiz past. People are so fascinating to me. Today as I was eating my lunch, I watched an old man and his boxer traipse through the street, bopping from place to place as the boxer excitedly accepted each pat, each rub, and each morsel of food from others passing by. They were enthralling. I found myself wondering where they came from, where they would be heading next, what sorts of passions the man had, what his favorite ice cream was... weird things like that. I don't know. Maybe I'm weird. But this has been one of the greatest joys for me here in Brno. I can't wait to learn more of the language so my conversations with people can extend beyond "excuse me" and "thank you." I've been reading through the first two chapters of Acts these past few days and I have to admit, I would've loved to have been there that first day of Pentecost. Can you imagine?! Everyone speaking different languages, and everyone else able to understand. The Gospel proclaimed in every tongue. It makes me really excited for heaven.

But anyways, that's beside the point. The point is, the people here are fascinating and I will never tire of learning about them, their language, their customs, their passions... It's so great. It just makes me even more excited about spending my life immersed in all sorts of cultures. I want to know people all over the world. And not just their names. I want to know the hearts of people from Brno, CR to Harare, Zimbabwe to the Sherpa people of Nepal.

These past couple of days have been pretty laid back as far as business goes. I've got my Czech bank account open and activated, meaning I can pay my rent and receive my stipend for food, which is exciting. We had our last day of the intensive czech course today and at the end we reviewed everything we had learned and OH MY GOSH it's a lot. I can't believe how much Czech I know today as compared to just FOUR days ago. It's insane. Our teacher, sort of as a fun way of ending the class I guess, gave us a couple Czech tongue twisters to try out. Now, if you know anything about Czech, simply speaking the language in a general sense is a tongue twister enough! But it was fun and definitely funny to hear ourselves try to repeat what she was saying. Actually, the subject of this post is one of the tongue twisters and as you can see, it contains NO vowels. The Czech don't really value vowels as much as we Americans do. Maybe someday I'll be able to say it for you. It's funny. It means "Put your finger through your neck" so I won't have to actually say it much, but it's fun.

Yesterday on the tour I met a girl name Rachael from Nebraska. She's a Christian and we have a lot of the same interests. We're going to try to find a church to go to together on Sunday. I'm excited about that. Also, a bunch of the Czech students came around the dorm last night handing out small toiletries with little flyers attached advertising the English Christian Fellowship which meets at the Salvation Army. So I'll check that out next Thursday. Pretty sweet. God is so awesome. And huge. And wonderful. And everything I want to be. And more.

Tomorrow I have to wake up bright and early because we are going to the Macocha caves and Cerna Hora brewery so I will have more pictures then! :) Right now I have to get ready because we're gonna go out for coffee and tea. I love Europe :)

OH - be praying for my friend Min (not Jeongmin haha). Min is also from South Korea and he doesn't believe in God, but he tries to ask me a lot of questions about it (his english is not very good at all.) I told him I would help him practice his English anytime and we could talk more, and he was really excited about that. So that's exciting. Pray for our conversations, that they would be filled with salt and light. Also, he's a big smoker and so he always smells like cigarette smoke, which is really hard for me (I know, lame, but I'm just being honest..) so pray that I would not let that hinder me in pursuing a friendship with him.

OH AND ALSO - My friend Jeongmin told me about this site surfthechannel.com and we were able to FINALLY watch the Office! I was so excited. She watched it with me which was fun because she was laughing pretty hard. :) So that was definitely a highlight, especially since I'd been feeling pretty melancholy all evening, it was a great mood booster! :)

THAT, and I'm getting married in 4 months and 1 week. That's exciting in and of itself! :)

Alright, until next time...
<3