Čelákovice- A much different experience

We went from a 5 star hotel to a cement box with doors and a bed. These dorms out here in Čelákovice are a piece. The building used to be a communist training facility, so it's literally just plain white cement walls, plain rock hard beds, plain everything. It's all good though. We're only here for a week and when we get to our apartment, we'll just appreciate it that much more!

There's a cafeteria here, but it only serves breakfast and lunch, so we've had to eat out for dinner every day, which is fine because it's much cheaper here. Including 2 entrees, 2 drinks and the tip, Brod and I can eat for $15. The food in the cafeteria is very interesting. Especially breakfast. They served carrots for breakfast one day along with meat and cheese for your bread, and green beans the next. It was odd. And inside that pastry-looking thing, there was a weird brown thing that looked like sausage but tasted sweet. That was an interesting surprise!

The elevator is definitely the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It looks like a door to a closet and it's tiny, only 4 people can fit (barely) and you can watch the doors to each level pass by.

The reason for even being here, is there is a week long condensed class that requires Brody to be here for longer hours and do more group work, so it's just more convenient if all the students are close. The town itself though, is out in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing to do here. Nothing. Meghann and I have had a difficult time coming up with things with to occupy our time while the boys are in class all day. We've done all the exploring that we can, and other than that, we just read books, play games and surf the web. We can't even watch TV shows or movies online because those websites only stream in the US. Ahh. I just want to be in Prague and see everything there! Oh well. Only 3 more days

There won't be many posts this week, since there's not much going on, but I'll try and give all the details I can in each.

The Hotel- Our first few days in Prague

Friday-Sunday:

We got to our hotel at about noon on Friday. Brody found us an awesome deal on a really nice 5 star hotel, so we very much enjoyed our stay. We were so pooped when we got there that we slept till dinner! The hotel had the most comfy king size bed and fancy decor.

including a cool vintage mirror that I loved

a flat screen TV (95% of the channels were in some sort of foreign European language, so we watched the UK channel)

a great view of the courtyard (which is probably gorgeous in the summer!)

and a restaurant with some of the yummiest food I have ever had.

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On Saturday we met up with our friends Dan and Meghann and hit the sights! It was mighty cold, so we had to bundle up but with all the walking we did, it wasn't bad. Prague is so beautiful, even at the tail end of winter when there isn't much color.

There was a lot to see and we didn't make it to everything, but we have plenty of time! Here are some pictures of "old town Prague."

Old Town Square:

This clock tower was built in the 1400's.

The architecture on the buildings is so intricate, it's gorgeous!

And I love the cobblestone streets.

We ate breakfast at a bakery and lunch in the square (very expensive) but very fun.

After another big nap (still trying to get back on track) we went and checked out the mall. It was huge. 3 floors. It had a bowling alley, a pool table hall, and a grocery store (in the shopping mall!). I guess this is all pretty common outside the U.S.

Here are a few things I very much miss: free re-fills, free water, ice and free bathrooms. Yep you have to PAY to use a public bathroom. And the water at restaurants is sometimes more expensive than soda. It's so weird! But I guess I'll get used to it.

The new money system is hard to get used to as well. It's about 20 czech crowns to the US dollar. So when we get our bill for dinner and is says 325 I almost freak out but then realize that's only $15.

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On Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and got ready for church. It took us forEVER to figure out how to use public transportation (and we ended up taking a taxi because we couldn't figure it out) but we made it there just in time. There is only one branch for all of Prague. Crazy! It was so cool to see the church thriving in another country. (that sign is instantly recognizable, even in a different language).

After church we headed straight out to Čelákovice for the rest of the week. More of that to come....

The beginning of our Adventures in Prague!

We made it! We're here in Prague and it is AWESOME. We've had quite the adventure so far. Let's start from the beginning....

Thursday March 11:

Our flight was scheduled for 5:50 am, so we woke up at 2:00 am. When I woke up, I was shaky and felt sick to my stomach every time I thought about our trip. I thought I just was so nervous and anxious about the whole thing that I was making myself sick. I tried not to think about it but it caught up with me anyway and my mom had to pull over a few times on the way to the airport for me to "get rid of my nerves" if you know what I mean (thus the look on my face in the first picture). Not the most ideal way to start a 20 hour day of traveling. I had Brody give me a blessing when we got to the airport and instantly felt better and didn't throw up the rest of the day. He, however was not so lucky and ended up getting sick a few times on the plane as well. That's when we figured the sickness was probably caused from some sort of food and not so much nerves. Lucky for me, I'll be able to continue to travel in peace in the future!

So our flight plan was supposed to be as follows: {SLC to Minnesota; Minnesota to NY; NY to Prague.} We got to Minnesota fine, but our flight to NY was delayed, which made us miss our flight to Prague. So we had to be re-routed from Minnesota to Amsterdam, and then on to Prague. It only put us back an extra 2 hours and we didn't have to pay anything extra so it would have been fine had they not lost our bags. They told us to plan on a few days to get our bags back, but they ended up coming that night. It turned out to be the most ideal situation though because they were delivered straight to our hotel room, so we didn't have to deal with hauling them from the airport to our hotel!!

Backtrack to our experience of a 9 hour overseas flight. We were both feeling much better by the time we boarded a plane for the second time, so it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating. But since they had to re-route our flight, we didn't have seats together at first, so we asked if there was anything they could do. The only seats left that were together were the VERY LAST POSSIBLE row. I could touch the bathroom with my hand. We could hear the stewardess's talking in the back the whole time. There was even less leg room than normal. But whatever, I'd take that over sitting alone for 9 hours, any day. I slept (or tried to) about half the time and watched 2 movies. They fed us dinner and breakfast, which was weird, but good. Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, Brody had set it up so that when we got to Prague, a taxi guy was waiting for us in the airport with a sign. It was awesome! I felt famous or something. Special at least.

Here's our agenda for the first little bit in Prague just so all the rest of the pictures and everything makes sense:

Days 1-2: Stay in a hotel in downtown Prague and sightsee!

Days 3-9: Stay at the dorms out in Čelákovice where the school is. It's a small town about 30 minutes outside of Prague.

Day 10-the end: Stay in an apartment in downtown Prague.

Stay tuned for much more to come!

The Agenda

Here's a quick update of our agenda for this week:

Monday: Last day of work for me (Yay!) They surprised me and Meghann with a cake and chips and salsa for everyone to enjoy throughout the day. It was fun.

Tuesday: Last day of finals for Brody/moving day (putting all our stuff in storage)/driving to Utah (we're driving through the night again, it seemed to work well last time)

Wednesday: Visit and hang out with loved ones in Logan (we're so grateful to Brody's mom for watching Sal while we're gone)

Thursday: Sit on a plane or in an airport ALL day long (hello bottle of sleeping pills)

Friday: Arrive at our final destination- Prague!!

It will be a busy week, but also one of the most exciting.

The next time I do a post it will be in Prague!!

Here's some random pictures, since I have no others. I know they're not the most exciting, but I thought they were cute.

Cousins, cousins, cousins

I love my cousins. I have a lot of them. And great news for me, turns out a majority of them like to come to Arizona during this time of year!! Within a 2 week period, I was able to see and hang out with 5 different cousins!

LINDSEY:

Lindsey came first with her 2 girls and stayed in Mesa with her mom (my aunt Annie). I went down by myself (since Brody had some school work to do) and the 4 of us had a fun girls day.

We had a yummy dinner and a birthday party for Emma on Friday night,

Lindsey and I stayed up late that night chatting and catching up.

The next morning, I spent some time with the little ones while Lin got some things done. We played ponies and balloons.

Emma is quite the little shadow but it's so darling. At one point, she wrapped herself around my leg and wouldn't let go, so I just walked around like that for a little while. It was so cute.

Later, we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch and had the most heavenly salad I've ever tasted.

Then we tossed pennies into the fountain (well Emma did and me and Lindsey took pictures)

To end the day, we went shopping for a bit and let Emma ride the carousel.

CLAIRE:

The next cousin to visit was Claire. She came down from New Mexico with her new 3 month old darling girl Lizzy. She stayed with her sister (my cousin Jordan) in Scottsdale. Brody and I went over one night for dinner and dessert. We had a yummy imitation of cafe rio sweet pork salad. It was delicious! It was so fun to see Claire and her new baby and for her and Brody to meet for real (weddings and farewells don't count). We had a great time hanging out and catching up with each other's lives! (I'm so sad I didn't get a picture!! I completely spaced it. Sorry Claire! But I did manage to steal one from Jordan)

STACEY AND SARA

Stacey and Sara came together and also stayed with Annie. Although they didn't stay at Annie's house, since they had to be moved out of their AZ house last week, and can't move to Utah till next week. She and Trace are staying at a friends 2 million dollar house. It was gorgeous! We met up first at Costa Vida for dinner and then went back to this huge house to relax, chat, veg and watch the Olympics. I was so happy about this because since we don't have TV we haven't been able to watch much of the winter games and that has made me so sad! Paul and DeNae also came over for a bit, and we just had a great time!

It was so much fun to see all these cousins and I'm glad I was able to spend some time with all these wonderful girls. (Oh and Brody had fun tagging along as well. I think.)

Love Day

We don't usually make a big deal of this holiday, but we do have a few small traditions that are kinda fun. For Valentine's Day, we buy humorous/joke cards for each other (the only time I ever buy pre-written cards in a store. They are selling some of those for $5!!!!) so that's something fun and entertaining to look forward to. I also make some sort of pink food, which isn't original or anything but we enjoy it. This year it was pink banana pancakes for breakfast and pink white chili for dinner.

We don't do a lot as far as presents go, but instead go out for dinner or some other fun activity.

Saturday night we went to Cheesecake Factory with our friends and went all out! All 3 couples bought an appetizer to split with everyone, the entree portions are huge, and of course you have to get cheesecake. I was so excited for ours-- White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle....

It was gone 60 seconds later. Literally. I'm not even joking.

We were all stuffed by the end and could barely walk out, but we had a blast.

Brody broke our promise to not spend more than $5 on presents and bought me DDR (a game for the xbox. It WAS on sale though for a really good price, so that makes it ok) AND surprised me with a flower.

(but we didn't have a vase, so he improvised)

He gave me the present early, so I figured I better come up with something good for him without spending much, so I decided to "heart attack" his side of the room. It's not a super great present, but I thought it turned out pretty good and he was very surprised when he woke up to this this morning.

After church, we just spent the day together preparing dinner, going on a walk, playing cards and baking cookies. (I finally made a successful batch of cookies! I think my mom would approve)

Then later on that night our friends came over for dessert and we played the game "like minds." I thought the game was pretty fitting and we had a good time!

I think it's kind of fun to have a holiday to celebrate and spend time with the ones you love.

Greatest. Invention. Ever.

I like to take a lot of pictures of random life activities. When it comes to things that Brody and I do by ourselves, I usually just have to take a picture of one of us alone (that's no fun) or stretch my arm out with the camera in it and try to fit both of us and whatever is in the background (which never happens. i'm not very good at centering and one of our faces usually gets cut in half), or find a flat surface to put the camera on and use the timer (it's pretty difficult to find a surface that is just right).

Well, while my mom was here, she brought a little surprise for me. It also happens to be the greatest invention I have ever seen--

A mini camera tripod that can be used almost anywhere. For example:

- In a tree

- On the back of a chair, or on a bar or railing of any sort

- Or on a very uneven surface

- And best of all, it fits right in my purse so I can have it at all times!

It's perfect. I love this new accessory of mine and I'm sure it will get used a LOT.