Sunday, September 30, 2001

Cesky Krumlov 1.0

We just returned from a long weekend in Ceský Krumlov which is a nice touristy town near the border of Germany and CR. We had Friday off due to a Czech national holiday, so we were able to take a train down to the town and spend the weekend in the house of an old woman who lives there and rents the upper story of her house to travellers. Seven of us went: Amy, Jerry, Tonya, Me, Sissel, Marsha, and Karen (Heather and Prissy went to Austria for the weekend, so they missed out on our fun, but I'm sure they had fun in Salzburg). I have never looked forward to a vacation, albeit a short one, as much as this one. That's not saying that I don't enjoy doing what I'm doing here, but it was nice to have a couple of days where I could sit down for a few moments and not have any lesson planning to do. Also, this was the first chance we've really had to appreciate the fact that we are actually in Europe. We've had too much else going on to pay any attention to anything else.

Originally on Friday we had planned on taking a bus to get down to C.K., but there were only two running that day (one at 8:00, and one around 3:00) and we attempted to buy tickets as we were boarding the bus at 8:00. Only two of us were able to buy tickets before the bus was full, so those two had to sell their tickets to other people waiting in line, and we all decided to jump on a train that turned out to be leaving at 9:01. The bus is about an hour faster, but I'm thankful we took the train instead because we had a cabin to ourselves and were able to stretch out a lot more than we would have been able to on the bus. It was also about half as expensive since we got a group rate. We arrived in Cesky Krumlov around 1:00 in the afternoon. When we arrived, we left our stuff in Bozena's (the old woman's) house, and I took off with Sissel and Marsha ,while Jerry, Tanya, Karen, and Amy roamed around together. The town is very small, but it has a nice oldish church, and a castle you can walk through. The streets are your typical touristy European cobblestone streets. I was able to do a lot of photography because, through some miracle, we had two days of sunny blue skies, which never happens here. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of my endeavors. There's not much else to write about the weekend because we didn't really do much other than walk around the town, lounge around in various gardens, and eat in some excellent restaurants. The trip was incredibly cheap; transportation and housing cost about $15 a person. Food was more expensive, but had we been frugal we could have gotten by with probably $25/person total.

On the trainride back to Prague, Marsha and I played a marathon game of Boggle. Prior to this weekend I had never played Boggle before, but it's an enjoyable game. It gets old when you play it for 4 hours straight, which is the excuse I'm using to explain away Marsha's miraculous comeback in the final round to beat me 514 to 498. I had led the entire game by 50-75 points, and then blew it in the final rounds. If you don't know what Boggle is then ask somebody because I'm not explaining it here.

Vacation aside, I've finally got my full load of classes to teach and other responsibilities. A class equals one and one-half hours. I have two morning classes on Monday, as well as a night class. On Tuesday I have a morning class, an afternoon tutoring session, and an afternoon class. On Wednesday I have two morning classes. On Thursday I have two morning classes, an afternoon class, and then my tutoring session with the Gaudl's (this is my hardest day). Then Friday I have a morning games class with my beginners and then preparation for the Friday night meetings in the afternoon. In addition to my teaching duties I am also the self-titled Prime Minister of Librarial Affairs, which needless-to-say is a very prestigious position and involves a great deal of planning and organization. Naturally I was the only individual with the proper qualifications for the task. Anyway, everyone have a good week. Continue in your prayers, and live your lives as an example for others.

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