Birthday goodness!

Delicious cake courtesy of the amazing Amber!

Yep, basically my birthday was simply fantastic! It was so fun to have a visitor here to help us celebrate also. I loved being a tour guide and I can't wait til more people come visit (hint hint!)


So the morning of my birthday we had an awesome pancake breakfast! Ambee even made me a sign and a crown! How cute!


At the restaurant they sang to me, put a hang on my head and made me drink a shot...of juice! (for real it was only juice!)



Enjoying the yummy Mexican food with a friendly waiter in the background!



The girls!

It was pretty awesome and I feel so blessed. Thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes! I'm 24 now! Crazy!

3 months!

Well today is my 3 month-aversary of living here! I'm sure that I have said this before, but it feels like the time has really flown by. A year ago, I had no idea where I was going to end up, or if I was even going to be able to go anywhere at all.  Now, I am here and living a fantastic, blessed life only by His grace! 

So I've really gotten into baking/cooking from scratch. Before, I really loved to bake, but sometimes I would just use frozen dough or even (gasp!) break and bake cookies. Well, now that those things are not available I have to do it the old fashioned way. It's been really fun. I've discovered a lot of neat recipes for cookies and breads that I never would have tried before.  I also made chicken and dumplings last week and they perfectly satisfied my craving. 

Also, 1 more week til my birthday! Let the pre-birthday festivities begin!

lovin' it!

Well classes have started this week at the university. At first I was a little overwhelmed. There were a lot of people, and it was very different than my other language school! Things were pretty good today though. All of my professors seem very nice and that they like their job.

Today I was in the coffee shop before class, and guess what was on t.v.: The Backstreet Boys! They were showing some of their videos! I was so excited. BSB were my favorite back in the day. It was pretty cool.

So things are going good all in all. I'm looking forward to going to Germany later this month. Deutschland! Yah!

p.s. The Bakery downstairs is amazing! I got a donut from there today and it rocked my face off! 

We Three Kings...

Today is a holiday! We are celebrating when the Magi came to bring gifts to Jesus. We got to go 'up north' a little bit to see how they celebrate there.

The town had a great parade. The passed out a ton of candy, had people dressed up in all sorts of different costumes, and of course, a marching band!

Here's the first King in the parade...



and number 2...



and here's number 3!




In other news, Language classes begin again on Tuesday! I'm excited to be back in class and practicing the language a lot every day. Plus, it's on a college campus so that will be fun too!

Have a great Three Kings Day!

what what

It's the weekend! Tomorrow I am going to another city with some friends to spend the night. There's a castle where we're going! I'm excited to see it and to get to see more of the country. Maybe it will feel more like winter, because here the weather has been pretty mild. It's been in the 50s the past few days. Very spring-like! It's pretty great.

This week has been a good time to relax a bit before starting class next week. Right now I am watching "Teen Wolf" with Michael J Fox on t.v. It's very 80's and very awesome!

Oh yeah, and a very delicious bakery has opened on the ground floor of our apartment building. A very cute family runs it, and the pastries are delicious! yumm

New Year, New Beginnings!

Well it is 2008 and I'm feelin' great!

I was up kind of late last night/this morning...like 7:30 a.m.! There was a party at church that I thought was only going to be a few hours long, but it was more like an all-niter. It was super fun though! I chugged 3 glasses of coke in 30 seconds and bobbed for an apple...random yes, but fun nonetheless!

It's crazy to me that it is 2008. I remember in school thinking how it was so weird that I was going to graduate in 2002. I also remember when I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer and go to the Olympics in 2008. I guess there is still time for that though right? A few months at least!

I hope your New Year's celebrations were wonderful and that you have a wonderful 2008.

p.s. Only 22 days til my Birthday!

i'm back baby!

Well I am back from my awesome Christmas vacation! Here are some highlights:

-While flying there on Sunday, the pilot decided that we should turn around halfway through the trip and pick up some more passengers! I was 3 hours late and Aunt Vicki said she had an ulcer by the time I finally arrived!

Here we are in front of the astronomical clock in Old Town.  Doesn't she look relieved that I made it?!

-I discovered that it is perfectly acceptable for a grown man to say "Bye, bye Lady!" to you when you are exiting his restaurant. Below are some garlic snails that we sampled on Christmas Eve. They were pretty good!

-"Roasted pork neck" is about as good as it sounds!

-Substitution works for most things...even classics like Cheesy Potatoes!

-Just because the picture of the classic Czech Christmas cake looks not so good doesn't mean it is. Actually, the cake was delicious! If you ever get to try it, you definitely should!

-Having the Chinese DVD copy of The Bourne Ultimatum skip 15 minutes really isn't that big of a deal! The movie is still amazing!

-Buildings and places from the 10th century are really interesting, even if you don't know what they are!

-Culture shock can happen to you in a country where you don't even live!

-Peanut Butter makes an amazing Christmas gift.

All in all, it was a great trip. It was so good to be able to spend Christmas with some of my family. I am so thankful that I was able to see them. 

Enjoying the stockings my mom sent. Thanks mom!

Me with Amy and Joel in Wensceslas Square.