Macocha Caves, Cerna Hora Brewery and Death Metal.

Today I woke up bright and early to take a day trip to the Macocha (pronounced Mah-tso-ch(as in How come with the throaty C)-uh Caves and the Cerna (Chair-nuh) Hora brewery. It was a lot of fun. One thing I love about being here is the fact that even though we had to wake up before 8am on a Saturday to take an hour bus ride to the "mountains" and hike up a long, icy, cold hill to look at old caves, i never heard one complaint. It's great. And honestly, the trip was a lot of fun. The caves were absolutely beautiful and awesome and incredible, and the brewery was.. well, interesting. I learned all about the process of making beer, and even taste tested three different kinds of beer (unfiltered, dark, and honey) all of which were unpleasing to my taste buds and kindly passed down to the boys at my table. Sorry beer, our relationship is still nonexistent. You tried, though... :) Below are a few pictures from the trip...



















After having walked through several dark tunnels and looking at darkened caverns, we were lead through a corridor which opened into this:








Then we got into a tiny little "boat" and cruised through the smallest opening of the cave along a little river. The czech speaking guide had to continually remind us to "WATCH HEAD" :)















After the tour of the caves, we hiked even farther up the icy slope and reached a lookout point overlooking THIS:













This is the first process of fermentation of beer. Pretty disgusting, if you ask me. If we had wanted to, we could've easily stuck our hands in that. Sick.








Second process of fermentation. It smelled terrible.





Where the bottling takes place. Unfortunately, it only happens M-W at this little brewery.





Tonight, a friend stopped by asking if I would go out with her for another guy's birthday. Trying to be a supportive friend, I went. We ended up at this intense death metal bar complete with beasts and demons and all things creepy and evil. Not to mention screaming music. Luckily, we only stayed about 20 minutes. I drank tea and it was served to me in a purple flower mug. The Slovenian boy across the table from me encouraged me to remember that "death metal lovers have soft spot, too" haha. Afterwards, Rachael (my friend that invited me) and I decided we were ready to head back so we got on the bus and ended up in a great conversation that made us miss our stop and end up at the end of the route. The bus driver tried to tell us how to walk to the dorms from there in Czech, but since we only understood a few words, it took quite a while. Eventually, we made it back (after a nice, pleasant 20 minute or so walk through the peaceful part of town and more great conversation) and I spent the rest of the evening laughing with Magda. She's great. All in all, quite a memorable day :)




Jeongmin, Magda, and I at one of the pubs down the street. Magda and I drank some yummy flavored hot chocolate (coconut and dark chocolate hazelnut) and Jeongmin took the more "conventional" route.



The yummy tiramisu I had with my hot chocolate :)




Prayer Request:
Pray for my friend Rachael. She is a pretty devoted Catholic and came to the CR through a devotion to following Christ. She has been struggling here with her attitude and desire to be here, simply not enjoying the time she's spent here. Pray that God would grant her peace as well as joy. That he would use our friendship to strengthen and encourage each other, but most importantly, draw nearer to him.

I love you all.
And am really tired.
So, dobry vecer :)

Until next time...

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

The City of Brno.

Since I didn't update this thing last night (sorry, i was way too tired!) I figured I would do two tonight. Well, sort of. I'm going to devote a whole post just to the tour I took yesterday of Brno. It was quite interesting and I think some of you history geeks out there may appreciate a few things I learned along the way. Everyone else, you'll appreciate the stories and folk lore of good ol' Brnoians. (At least, I did!)
So here it goes...






This is Blaza. She is standing in front of a very significant wall in Brno. The story goes something like this: Back in the day (I honestly can't remember the dates..) there was an army (Syrian maybe? I can't remember sorry!) that was devising a plan to sneak attack the city of Brno. One of the citizens of Brno wanted to help the other army out, so he was going to betray his city and tell the other army how best to attack. Well, unfortunately for him, a few of the governing bodies of Brno found out and as a message to all others considering the betrayal of Brno, they took the man's body and mixed it in with the cement of the wall and built his body into the wall you see in the picture above. Brno has never been betrayed by one of its citizens to this day. (According to tradition...)






This is the dragon of Brno. They call him a dragon because, well, crocodiles simply don't exist in the center of continental Europe, so a dragon was the closest thing they could liken him to. There are many ideas about where this dragon came from, but my favorite was this: History tells of a time when a dragon used to live outside the city walls of Brno, eating and harassing its citizens. The government of Brno finally got fed up with it and petitioned the citizens to fight back, offering a very large reward for the man who could defeat the dragon. Many people failed and died in their attempt. But one man was cunning enough to outsmart the dragon. He slaughtered a goat and with the remains, mixed in some sort of poisonous powder (i can't remember exactly what) and left it out near the city walls. When the dragon ate the goat, he immediately died and now hangs in the city as a reminder of that man's quick wit. (or something..) ::Sidenote - I am a terrible story teller and an even more terrible Reteller, so I'm sorry these stories aren't as good as when I first heard them! But I hope you get the jist.







This is the outside of the old town hall. When it was reconstructed (I think at the turn of the 19th century), rumor has it the city refused to pay one of the architects, thus the crooked spire in the middle. The moral? If you want something done right, don't scam your workers! haha.






This is just a shot looking up the whole tower. It was pretty massive.






Just a really cool sculpture in the middle of one of the town's squares. On top is the goddess of something (again, I can't remember...) and there are three columns descending down from her that apparently represent each of the three ancient civilizations (Babylon, Persia, and...?)






Hercules defeating the three headed dog of the underworld.






This is a church of some sorts. Apparently something like 27 monks still live inside and care for the church. If you look really closely, there is a sign on the left that says "KRYPTA" with an arrow. We were told that to the left of the building is literally a crypt with "fresh" mummies inside. They are currently renovating it (i would NOT want that job!) but it will be open to the public in a few weeks. I plan to go visit it (i know gross but SO cool...) and I'll try to take pictures (if they let me!).






The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. They used to each have their own cathedral, but somewhere along the way, they upgraded this building and combined the two cathedrals. It was absolutely massive and insanely beautiful. I wish I could've taken pictures of the inside. It was breathtaking. They have a whole Easter concert series there in March that I plan to go to, and I'm pretty excited about it!






Approx 175 stairs to the top of the Cathedral and this is what you get. It was a drizzly day, so not so clear, but really awesome nonetheless. The balcony where I was standing had a small ledge that came up to about my hips and nothing more. Sam, you would not have liked it one bit.






Don't worry, I didn't lean over to take this picture. I held my camera out over the edge and this is what it saw. Straight down. YIKES.






If you walk through the belfry of the cathedral to the other side, there was another (smaller!) ledge to stand out and take a picture. This was even more beautiful than the last, in my opinion. My new home for the next 3.5 months :)











Another view of the city.







The stairs leading up/down to the top!

Just keep going, eventually we'll get there.

Sorry to those of you who just love to read my novels, but this post will probably be pretty short. Simply because today was not as eventful as the past days.

This morning I had made plans with a friend to go to the bank and run a few other errands around town, but she called me this morning saying she felt terrible and couldn't go. Naturally, I took this as my cue to keep sleeping. :) When I finally aroused (at what time is irrelevant) I took my time getting ready and took care of a few wedding details (because you know, I'm getting married in 4 months and 9 days!). I decided that today would be the day I was going to figure out how to get places on my own, rather than rely on other people to lead me. I got out my map and scrutinized every street and every tram stop, trying to figure out the quickest, yet most direct paths to each of my destinations. When I felt confident enough in my plans, I started to head out the door, stopping only to tell Magda I was leaving. She asked me which tram I would be taking to get to the Faculty of Arts (where all my classes will be) and when I told her, she grabbed a pen and paper and insisted my way was certainly not the best. (haha, i love her) She gave me a much better route and pointed out that the maps we'd been given at orientation were actually inaccurate and only useful for finding certain things. SO, with Magda's directions, I headed to my czech language course via Bus 25/26. I was feeling pretty good about getting there, when all the sudden the bus stopped in the middle of the road, turned off, and the driver began bundling up and adorning himself with a brightly colored safety vest. At this point, I started worrying that the bus had broken down and that I was going to be dreadfully late for class. My only sense of consolation was in the nonchalant way the other passengers on the bus continued their conversations. A few minutes later, when the bus was back in motion, I had to laugh at my newly learned bit of information - Apparently there is a certain point along the route during which the bus driver must hook the wires that suspend suspiciously around the city like a spider's web onto the bus. Who knew? Not me, that's for sure.

In class I learned some more czech (Honestly, I learned more about how complicated the czech language is. I guess that's what you get from a language that's had thousands of years to evolve.) After class me and a couple other girls headed to Freedom Square to buy some groceries and a few other things. I felt pretty good because I was able to direct us back to Vinarska and then to Tesco correctly. The city is slowly becoming more and more manageable. In Tesco we tried out a few of the new words we've been learning (much to the amusement of our czech audience) and chanced upon a whole shopping mall! In the mall, we found some dinner (Czech Chinese food... interesting, to say the least) and even some gelato! It was so yummy. We are actually going back tomorrow and I'm going to bring Magda because she's never had gelato! On our way back to Vinarska, we met two American Mormon boys on the tram. They were very friendly and we chatted a bit about our time in the CR and such. Just a random bit of information for you. Apparently the Mormons even have missionaries in Brno, Czech Republic! They even have a church where they give free english lessons and a whole gymnasium (where they invited us to come play ping pong. haha) I think we (those of us who care about the Cross and what it stands for) need to kick it up a few notches!

Anyways, that's all for today. Tomorrow I have my official tour of Brno, so hopefully I'll have a few more pictures!

Today you can be praying for my friend Stephanie. She's from Virginia and when asked by the mormons about her level of religiosity, she claimed "antireligious." She's very sweet and desperate for love. Pray that she comes to see that Love is desperate for her.

I love you all so much and think of you often.
Sam, today I thought I saw you and my heart stopped a little. Thankfully I realized it wasn't you before it was too late for my heart. I miss you like crazy.

(sorry everyone else who is reading this. i guess i could've told him that privately..)

I don't really have any specific prayer requests for myself. Just continue to pray that God would receive the glory in everything I do. I have been so blessed and am even a little overwhelmed at how gracious God is. But I'm certainly not going to complain about it! ;)

Dobry Vecer, My Beloved. :)

Mluvime Cesky! ...Jenom trochu :)

I love the czech language. As complicated and confusing as it can be ("The sounds are not always the same. Sometimes we just say them in a different way. You just have to know.") it is, in my opinion, so beautiful. I love to listen to women chat with each other on the tram and a group of friends all talking in czech at once. I just think it is so neat. The English language is not a very pretty language. Maybe that's because it's my native tongue. But compared with Czech, it sounds so lame. I had my first "intensive language course" today. We learned a lot. More than my brain could comprehend long-term. But at the end of the 3 and a half hours, I didn't want to stop speaking czech. I kept repeating the four or five different phrases I had just learned. Luckily, my friend Jeongmin was very encouraging and listen to me repeat myself. And also try to read every single sign we passed. One of the great things about doing this ISEP-Direct instead of ISEP-Exchange (I know that doesn't mean much to most of you, but it's not all that important) is that I receive a LOT of benefits - one of them being the opportunity to continue the czech language course throughout the semester without having to pay the normal fee (the intensive course is just 4 days long). I am so excited to learn more of the language and to use it in the city. As we were walking back to our rooms this evening, I overheard a mother and her son having a conversation and I actually understood the majority of it. It is so much fun. My roommate (you remember Magda?) was telling me that when she was home in Poland last week, she would get confused with which language she should be speaking. She would start to speak to her mom in Czech, then switch to English, then realize she needed to be speaking Polish. I want to be like that someday. She thinks she's crazy. I would definitely agree, but crazy in a really awesome way.


Apart from learning Czech, today included a trip to the bank where we are supposed to open a czech account (unfortunately I am a fool and forgot my paperwork, so lucky me I get to go back again tomorrow!) and a welcoming reception hosted by the International Student Club. At the reception I met a lot of new people. I have been in much better spirits today (partly thanks to my happy digestive tract, mostly due to the grace of God) and feeling much more like myself, so it was really fun to interact with other students. One of the strange things about being a native English speaker in a place where English is the common language is I have this feeling of responsibility. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I feel that it is my job to make others feel at ease in speaking English and to encourage them to speak about more than their names and home countries (a typical conversation starter these days). So tonight at the welcoming reception I prompted my new friends to share things like their favorite foods and their most embarassing moments (hilarious with people from so many different cultures). I also had a fun conversation with a few of the girls about dating and engagements. There's this couple from Finland that are here together and they are engaged and apparently in Finland, it is typical for the boy and the girl to exchange simple bands when they become engaged, and then at the wedding is when the boy will give the girl the bigger ring, usually with a diamond. Quite the opposite of in America. And to be honest, I kind of like that. Because in America, you never know when a boy is engaged! Just something I found interesting...


Apart from having silly conversations with Finnish people and Dutch people and Polish people and South Korean people (oh yeah, and one other American boy from LSU), the welcoming reception was stock piled with all sorts of fun and interesting food. I was so excited to finally be able to digest food properly and to be able to try traditional czech food, that I ate SO much. Some good, some bad. But all exciting! I'd tell you what all I ate, but to be sincere I don't even know! I know there was some escargot (not sure I'll ever eat that again...), lots of different kind of cheeses served in many, many ways, these yummy little pastry puff things filled with "a tasty surprise"(as the Finnish boy called it), lots of fruit (pears filled with cheese and some other strange chunks..) and some other stuff that was good, not great. :) Oh yeah, and wine. Everywhere you turned, there was a server with a full tray of wine. I tried some white wine. It was the worst tasting wine I'd ever had. Not that I'm a conoisseur of wine, but the few I've tried tasted better than the wine we had tonight. I stuck with orange juice the rest of the night. Overall, though, it was a ton of fun and very memorable!


After we finally figured out how to get back to Vinarska (our dorm) I came back to my room to FINALLY unpack all of my stuff. I'm sure Magda was excited to find that she could actually walk to her desk without stumbling. A bunch of people are going to a party tonight at the international student club Mandarin. I seriously debated whether I should go or not and finally decided against it, simply because I don't know my way well enough around the city yet to be able to leave by myself if necessary. Even though I don't plan on drinking while I'm here (except for my one taste of the most famous czech beer I promised my friends here I would try), I do plan to go to some of the parties at Mandarin (every single wednesday night and all weekend!) because I think that's what Jesus would do. You might disagree with me and think it best for me to just stay clear of that whole scene so as not to damage my witness or something, but as I've been reading through the Gospels, I am reminded that Jesus spent the majority of his time with sinners and there are even times when people accuse him of being a drunkard and a sinner himself. I know that I will have to be careful with how I handle myself and to go with an attitude of humility, but I do believe that God can and will work through me in strange and mysterious ways at Mandarin and I'm excited about that. So just be praying for me, that I would have the right words and the right attitude.

Somehow my sporatic thoughts and scattered memory turned into a big long jumble of words! So on that note...

OH. I decided today that everytime I blog, I will highlight one new friend I have made and ways you can be praying for them. So today, it will be Jeongmin since she and I spent the majority of the day together. Jeongmin is from South Korea and she is dating a New Jersey boy who is currently studying in Cambridge. She is so sweet, but has quite the vocabulary (I am still surprised at how many times I've heard certain four letter English words being dropped since I've been here!). Jeongmin doesn't know Jesus and seems to feel that life is best this way. Today I let her listen to one of Sam's songs (and let me tell you, it was so hard to do... ;) and she loved him. (well, his voice) I hope to share more of his music with her as a sort of way to share the meanings with her (thank you sam for having such awesome, conversation starting music). You can be praying for my relationship with Jeongmin, that the language barrier between us (not huge, but still existent) would not hinder us from talking about deeper, more meaningful things. Pray that she would acknowledge the hunger within her for the Lord. That the Lord is the true source of life and not wordly things. Pray for me, that I would be bold and take advantage of every opportunity God gives me to speak truth into her life. But most of all, pray that God would be glorified in everything I say and do, not just in regards to Jeongmin, but in general. I am so thankful for this opportunity. I know it is not a technical mission trip, but I feel that in a way, that is what God intended when he brought me here. To build relationships and share his love.


Thank you all for your love and support. Your emails and comments mean so much to me and have come at just the perfect time. It is hard being here, away from all things familiar and comfortable, but everytime I am feeling discouraged or homesick, God uses one of you to encourage me and remind me that He is sovereign and ever-present here with me. Yesterday I was inspired to read Ephesians 6 (thanks Mama B :) and I love Paul's request at the end of his discussion of the armor of God:

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

Please pray this for me, as well. But even more, I pray this for each of you. I pray that you would desire this kind of faith for your lives.

"Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love."

-Heather

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Not to mention every other kind of transportation...

Let me preface this whole blog thing by saying - I am really terrible at these things. I would much rather tell you in person about my experiences, but given that I am 3,000 miles across the ocean, I suppose this is most sensible. If you want to know the guts of my time in Brno, let's get coffee (tea for me, please!) when I get back to the states and chat it up. Until then, these meager words are all I can offer....

So now, where to start? Though I've only been here 25 hours (well, on this adventure for almost 48 hours) the United States feel like a lifetime away. But I'll start there anyways...

Saturday 31 January 2009 4:30 pm EST Philadelphia Airport
All checked in and through security without a hitch. Definitely not what I was expecting. The next hour and a half is devoted to numerous phone calls with the ones I love. Mostly Sam, but others as well.
6:10 pm Same day
On the plane, seated in the middle section, middle seat between two non-English speaking gentlemen. And I say gentlemen because they were. They were kind enough to assist me with my luggage and put up with my blanket. (yes, the wolf blanket HAD to come!) Once I finally got myself situated and all tucked in, the next 8 hours were a blur. I literally slept from the moment the plane pushed off (before we were actually airborne, even) to the moment we landed. I missed the meal, all snacks, any drinks, and I have no clue what sorts of entertainment were provided. It was wonderful. (Though I was quite hungry by the end of it all). From Philadelphia I flew to Frankfurt, where I had to walk miles and miles to my gate and go through all sorts of security and customs and hoops and what-have-yous. At one point, the security guy found my half-full (yes, half-full!) nalgene (which i had completely forgotten about) and kindly asked me to dispose of it. Down my gullet. Feeling rather nervous and a little jumpy, I downed the rest of the water in one big gulp. Fast enough that the security guards eyes doubled in size and I'm pretty sure he actually chuckled. I was glad to bring a little lightness to the mood. :) Once I finally arrived at the gate, I soon fell asleep and embarassed myself with a large pool of drool and I'm pretty sure I probably talked in my sleep (I was dreaming about being in that same place playing with a little kid - imagine my surprise when i realized it was a dream and people were staring at the strange American girl and her wolf blanket!)
The flight from Frankfurt to Prague was uneventful (Big surprise - I slept the whole time). Once in Prague, the adventure heightened. From the Prague airport, I needed to get on bus 119 to the metro station where I was to ride Line C to the Muzeum stop and transfer to Line A to the train station, buy a train ticket and board the train destined for Brno. It seemed easy enough... Until I picked up my luggage. Two big bags and two small bags and a wolf blanket was not a good idea. I don't know what I was thinking. Basically, I built up every single muscle in my body. The journey was fairly straightforward (except for the part where, in my eagerness to be on the train I forgot to buy a bus ticket and the czech police fined me...) and I made it to the train station in pretty good time. It took me a few tries to find the ticket booth and purchase my ticket, and about 20 minutes to finally realize the train I was looking for wouldn't be arriving for another hour. So I sat and watched the pigeons swarm every inch of the place, regardless of whether or not it was already occupied.

Once I finally boarded the train (luckily it was the right one!) I became enthralled with all the passing villages and snow-covered hills. Believe it or not, snow can be quite beautiful from the window of a train :) By the time I arrived in Brno, I was more than ready to drop my bags and find my bed. Unfortunately, that was not possible. I endured a frigid 60 minutes in the snow and the open curiousity of a local bum while waiting for my tutor to meet me after which we rode tram after tram after tram to the bottom of what one might lovingly call the "Vinarska Hill of .." well, you get the picture. Fast forward past another hour of paperwork and you get to meet my new roommate for the next 3.5 months - Magda from Poland. Magda is so wonderful(ly hilarious!). She studied here last semester and loved it so much she is in the process (90% there!) of extending her stay through this semester. She is a lover of Christ, abstainer of alcohol, and basically the biggest blessing God has given me in this journey thus far. We get along great and though she talks more than I can keep up with (she is so excited about getting to practice her english with me!) I love her enthusiasm and desire to enjoy life. I'm excited to learn more about her and become better friends over the next while.

Since this is already turning out to be a novel, I will cliffnote todays events:
Woke up with a terrible stomachache ("The water certainly won't make you sick, drink up!")
Decided to get over it and attend day 1 orientation
Embarassed myself in the middle by having to run from the room to the nearest restroom
Embarassed myself even more by not knowing how to flush the toilet full of my regurgitated Polish yogurt (gross, I know..)
Decided to return to orientation smelling simply wonderful ;)
Took care of a LOT of business
-Joined the international student club (free sim card with 200czk worth of talk/text time, not to mention free entrance to all the hoppin parties (woohoo.)
-Czeched in with the Check police (strike that, reverse it) and luckily wasn't deported due to my lack of a visa (which, thank you Jesus, is currently ready and waiting for my passport to adhere itself to!)
-Ate my first authentic czech meal (cafeteria surprise - literally. we had no clue what we were ordering) Ended up with a plate of fried fries (french fries, i suppose?) and fried pork. Gotta love fried food when your stomach is in the habit of rejecting anything and everything... We won't talk about the result of that one.
-Had my first experience with Tesco (basically the greatest invention ever created) where I purchased an ethernet cable (whoops, forgot to bring that one!), a towel (that, too..), some dishes, and a few basic grocery items (pb&j anyone?)
-Bought a transportation pass (helloooo free metro/bus/tram for the next 3 months. probably the second greatest invention)
-Registered for classes
-Began the process of opening a Czech Bank Account (to be continued tomorrow...)
-Bought a phone for my sim card! Now I can call all the hundreds of friends I made today... :/

Goals for the rest of this week:
-Make some friends
-Try not to be sick anymore so I can make friends
-Learn how to get to the Faculty of Arts building, where all my classes will be ("You just get on bus 25, get off at that place where we passed earlier, get on the tram...")
-Find some better Czech food and successfully eat it
-Make some friends so I can have people to call

Okay this is sufficiently long enough. If you've made it this far, thank you for trying to care about me and my life. I really do appreciate it. Almost as much as I appreciate your prayers! God is so faithful and has already blessed me more than I can fathom here in Brno. I am so excited to find ways to share Jesus with my (future) new friends as well as be a light in the darkness of downtown Brno. I don't really remember where I read this, but I read the other day that mission work is not about bringing Jesus to people. It's about showing them that Jesus is already there and has been there the whole time. I get to be a tour guide to the people of Brno - pointing out to them where God has been lovingly waiting for them to notice him. I am the luckiest person. (Not to mention I get to marry the most amazing and encouraging and loving and caring and handsome man God has created! ...sorry for the cheese. I am just really excited about that :)

And with that,
grace
and
peace
to you my brothers and sisters
i love you all, even 3,000 miles away.