Checking out Czech

We headed to Prague early Saturday morning...what a beautiful place. We are about a 3 hour and 15 minute drive, so not bad at all. It would be much faster but most of it is 2 lanes and through a lot of small towns. I wouldn't call the drive pretty, especially this time of year...but the City of Prague (Praha) is fantastic.

Pictures: Jewish Cemetary (see below), open air market with tons of food booths - this one was the biggest pan ever cooking a potato,onion, bacon concoction, Toy and Barbie Museum (see below), soldiers outside of the big palace/castle, our family on the famous Charles Bridge.

We arrived in town by 11:30 and spent the rest of the day and through Sunday at 3:00 exploring. There is much to see and even more to eat! The city has some amazing history - as do many European towns, but it is fun to learn as we go. One fact that stunned me as there was a thriving Jewish culture in Prague, about 120,000 successful and hardworking Jewish people and after WWII there were only about 10,000 surviving. Astonishing and sad to learn more and more. We were able to see the Jewish Cemetary and a few synagogues, but we look forward to seeing and learning more when we go back. The cemetary was somber and interesting, they only had so much room (not much) for their dead so they had to keep stacking graves and dirt up so the ground is all uneven and the tombstones are leaning all over.

The food and lodging was inexpensive, which was a nice change from Vienna. We found some really great local food. Lots of potatoes, cabbage, dumblings, ham, these dough sugar things (Trulniks or something like that) YUMMY!! Eric had to roll me back into the car.

The people were SUPER friendly there. This was also a nice change from Vienna. There are MANY things I enjoy about this city - but the general friendliness is NOT one of them. I think I have been here long enough that I can make a generalization: The Viennese are crabby. Not ALL, but most. They do NOT smile often - especially to strangers. I asked a local about this and he said that it is considered flirty -- so I guess I have been flirting with many people these last few months! I understand it all a bit more after talking and learning - but I still miss the friendliness of the USA.

The Czech's were very friendly and welcoming of the English language. I know this sounds crazy - but I had such a wonderful feeling speaking English and not feeling badly about it... and actually enjoying it!! I didn't have to try to think so hard for a weekend and it was lovely that they didn't look down upon you for being a foreigner.

We went to the Toy and Barbie Museum - random but fun. Julia and I LOVED the barbie section -- ones from the beginning all the way to now and even prototypes that weren't ever made. They had so many I didn't know existed - including Gestational Barbie (not really the name I don't think!) -- I laughed ALL weekend on this one.

That is definitely a city we will have to return to at some point prior to our departure from Europe!

Eric leaves tomorrow for Kazikstan (I think I spelled this wrong!) He is excited...

Shamrock Shake Hunt

So the Smith Family is jonesin' for a McDonald's Shamrock shake. Julia 'heard' that one of the Vienna McDonald's has them....but we need better data from her! I am going to attempt to make some on Thursday if they can't be located. Funny the weird stuff you miss!!

Busy and fun weekened. Friday night we watched Big! (Tom Hanks) I have been trying to think of 'older' movies that are kid friendly as Evan is out of the animation all the time movies and Julia is still little. Any ideas? We did Jurassic Park I last weekend - Julia didn't finish it yet as she had to head to bed. Not sure if we'll finish that one with her.

Saturday brought a beautiful day of weather and fun. Evan had a soccer game and it is official that he made the U11 team that he didn't make this fall. We are very proud of him. It is a good team and he will have to earn some more playtime, but his German and soccer have improved and the coach seems happy with him now. This is great news. He then had basketball practice. He has practice 2 times per week but games are few and far between. He has been asking to stop for a few weeks now as soccer picked up again. It is hard because, once again, he is smallest and youngest by almost 2 years... but he has hung in there really well. The season's kind of go all year here, which I think is dumb. Anyway - he played in a tournament today (2 games) and then he is calling it for this season. Eric would really like for him to keep his foot in the door a bit so when he gets back to the States he can still play if he wants.

After soccer, Julia and I went shopping for a friend's birthday gift. We had such a great time in the jewelery and walgreen type store and she did a great gift of nailpolish, lip gloss, headbands, jewelery, etc... We had so much fun shopping and we haven't spent enough time together lately, just her and I. We often talk about all the extra time we had together last year with her in 1/2 day kindergarten and we both miss it dearly. It seems evenings go by too quickly and there isn't enough time for dancing around, playing games, hanging out stuff.... quite an adjustment this year for us both :(!!

After we watched a little of the basketball, Julia had her party. It was a great party at her friend Olivia's house. A posh dressy luncheon...so cute. I left for a bit and sat at Starbucks to do my German homework. Eric and Evan hung out at the park (it was really warm and nice today) and tried his slackline for the first time. It is like a bouncy tight rope type sport... I'll have to take a picture. They said it was fun - can't wait to try it.

I have been working on our Spring break trip -- end of April. We are headed to Turkey for a week. We are all very excited. I am interested in going East a lot from here as it is SO much cheaper and more accessible than from the States. We would also love to see Greece - I am banking on that next summer :) I would also like to go camping on the Coatian coast before we leave for the States, after the kids get out of school - but not sure Eric could swing that work wise! Those are my lofty plans so far!

We watched some CNN English tonight of the devastation in Japan. So very sad. I have a good friend here who moved from Tokyo in April and is married to a japanese man. All of their family and friends are okay, but a cousin was missing for awhile. Such devastation there - so sad.

Eric heads to Kazakhstan on Monday for a week... a really cool trip for him.

Have a great week!

Fat Tuesday

It is called "Fasching" (I think I am spelling that right) here in Austria today -- day before lent/Fat Tuesday. It would be neat to see Carnival in Venice today/tomorrow. People dress us here and there have been halloween costumes in the stores the last month. At the grocery store today employees were dressed up and I think a lot of Austrian children dress. I'm thinking tomorrow is the day to find next year's halloween costumes on sale! :) Austrian tradition is also to eat Krapfen today - which we did. These are marmalade filled donut type things.

I can't believe we are into March already. Wow! The sun has been shining a lot (Thank God) but it is still pretty cold. My friend Ida and I are still running to train for the 1/2 marathon on April 17th. We were proud of ourselves today as we did an 8 mile run. Yeah! She is such a great running partner so that is awesome!

Julia had a playdate at a friend's house today. This was a good step for her as she has been shy to go to anyone's house. I had to bring them from school to Lily's house so she was comfortable. All went well so I was thankful for that. They are a very nice Hungarian/British family. Julia thought it was so fun she had the British flag huge on her wall (painted) in pink and purple. Really cute.

Evan got some good news on Saturday and his coach of the U11 team he has wanted on so bad, told us to get his player card. I think this means he is on the team. Yeah!!! Huge news! He continues to love to play the violin. Thank you Grandma Jane for the music genes!!

It sounds funny to say, but we are going to Turkey for Spring Break next month. Yeah! I don't have everything figured out yet - but at least have our plane tickets bought from here to Istanbul and back. It is so hard to decide where to travel to - SOOOO many places, so little time. We picked one that is MUCH MUCH cheaper to get to from here vs. the States. (verus say London or Paris - although I REALLY hope to see all these places too!)

Planning a trip in early April (one month) to Germany to see Aunt Christy, Uncle David, Alexandra and Christian. Their time in Honolulu is wrapping up and we are SO excited to have them close (about 6 hours is close enough!) to us. YEAH!!

Some have heard this already, but not my Mom so here goes :)....

in Ikea a few days ago and a lady asked me (in English) about something I was buying at the Kassa (cash registers) I explained it to her nicely and then said a small statement in German -- to practice. (She seemed nice:)) She then asked me if I was learning German and I said that yes, I was trying. She asked for how long - I said proudly - 5 months and she said "You should try harder" I honestly still can't believe how rude she was!!!!! I asked my German teacher for a german sentence to say back so now I know to say "Das ist unverschamt." Which means that is rude. Nuff said!