Sitting in a pub with frank drinking Mythos beer. We got rained on on top of the Acropolis today, but it was awesome. We watch the storm roll in over Athens and there was some awesome Lightning. Just thought I would post a couple of pictures so you all could see. Tomorrow, we head off to Sifnos.
So today I finished my last class of the year. I had a fun little party with my 2.G students (6th grade). They were sad that I wasnt coming back next year, and to be honest, I'm a little sad. I know home is where I need to be, but knowing this may be the last time I see many of them.. It's not easy. It's been a pretty emotional week. Goodbye's are never fun. But with the sadness, I am excited of the next stage in life. I have no idea where God will take me. For now its Dallas, but very quickly that could change.
So this afternoon me and joseph are meeting up with the whole Czech team to have our end of year retreat. It will be really good to see everyone one last time all together. I volunteered to do the end of year slide show. So I thought I would post it so any of you who want to watch it, feel free!
So as my final days in Czech Republic are upon me. I was getting a little nostalgic. Thinking about leaving this place after being here a year. Then very quickly after, I started thinking of things about here that I am very happy to leave behind. So I thought it would be good to make a list. Things I will miss and things I'm ready for in America.
Things I will miss: half liter beers for a dollar... all the time, everywhere Subways, Trains, and trams Bo Bagel breakfasts Walking through Old town square early in the morning the morning after it snowed, before anyone is there. Svíčková ( an amazing czech dish) People walking so much more to get around Talking at Pubs Dancing at Lucerna Great conversations with students
Things I am ready for in America A bathroom that is INSIDE of my flat No more Czech winters Not having to walk a 4 miles twice a week in Czech winters at 7:00 am People wearing deodorant Somewhere to go eat breakfast! (besides bo bagel) Having a normal schedule An abundance of Cheddar Cheese and Sushi Watching sports! holy crap. This long without watching only ONE basketball game.
I'm sure there are more I will add on later. But this is enough for now.
Even with this list. I will be sad when I leave here. With all of its ups and downs. Czech Republic will hold a very special place in my heart for a very special time in my life.
these are my blog updates over the past 5 months... these are from emails or personal journals.. because i am bad about updating... more to come.After talking to a friend, I realized I really need to keep up with this. So.. they are late, but here they are.
The Great Train Robbery If you havent read the post leading up to this, we were in Poland for Easter... and so the story continues.
I think I am a pretty cautious person. I am alert, attentive, and I definitely am protective. So when we got on the train Saturday night to head back to Prague I took it to heart when the nice old ticket taker on the train told us to be careful of thieves.
So back up a second. By Saturday we felt that we had seen much of Poland, spending 3 full days there, and Britt, Frank, Ashley, and I really wanted to make it to church service on Easter at our own church. So we decided to cut the trip short by a day and leave late Saturday night on the overnight train. Gina, however decided to stay one more night with our friend Maggie.
So we are in a sleeper car for the overnight train back. Next to us there is a group of American girls studying in Europe. We say hi and retire to our room. For the trip, Frank and I did what we always do.. buy beer, because.. really it makes the trip so much better. So the ticket guy comes by pretty soon after we take off and tells us to make sure to lock our door at night because "the gypsies" could come and rob us. (I put gypsies in quotes because obviously it could be anyone but they blame all thieving on the gypsies).So we look on the door and realize there are like 4 locks on it. one at the top. Two in the middle and one on the ground. One of them in the middle was a hardcore deadbolt that no one could have picked. So we took this picture because we were shocked at how crazy the locks were.
So now that we were safe and locked inside we felt safe. So we started drinking. The girls werent drinking and frank and I started. However Frank was drinking very slow. We were all talking and having a good time, and when I finished my beer, I just picked up another one. Not to mention before we got on the train, we were at a restaurant eating dinner, and I definitely had at least 2 beers there. So we are traveling and I am just drinking and drinking.. pretty soon I open the last beer and Frank's like.. "man, I've only had one. Did you drink all of them?"
I was drunk. I didnt mean to. I wasnt planning on it mom and dad, but I was. I tell this part because it matters in the story.
So after some arguing between me and Ashley (you would be arguing if she told you "you cant prove to me that vegetables exist, scientifically.") We all went to bed with the door securely locked. **BANG BANG BANG** I look down at my watch and it is 5:30 a.m. Me and ashley (who slept on the bottom two beds) open the door and see the ticket man standing out in the hall. "The gypsies. The gypsies." And then he takes off down the hall... Weird. Well I decide to take this opportunity to walk down the hall to the restroom. As I am walking back I see in the empty room next to ours a purse sitting on the seat. Weird. So I go back in the room and lay down. a few minutes later the ticket man walks by with the purse in his hands. He gestures with the purse. "Gypsies steal." and offers it to us seeing if it was one of the girls purses. We shake our heads "no" ... just catching on that the purse had been stolen apparently.
So we start to talk. "Nothing of ours got stolen did it?" we start looking around. My ipod is still by me. My $700 nikon camera is sitting on the floor right beside me. "looks like everything is here." Then ashley says. "Well, guys, this morning I woke up and our door was wide open. did anyone go out? in the middle of the night?" None of us had. So then we get a little nervous, when the American girls next door poke their head in. "Did you guys get anything stolen?" "we dont think so" "Well one of the girls had their purse taken off of them while they were holding it asleep and they took $300 out of it and her camera and her ipod and some other stuff in our room."
So we all start looking around and we check everything, and sure enough, Ashley had $5000 crowns ($250) and some other Polish money taken out of her wallet. We look around and dont see anythign else that was taken. "so how did they get in?" The ticket guy comes into our room and comes and looks at our window. The lock on it had been broken.
So this is what happened: We all fall asleep. I am a very light sleeper, but because I had too much to drink, I was out and not getting up. At about 3:00 am we were stopped in Ostrava for about 45 minutes. While we were there, someone broke in through our window. came through and took money out of Ashley's purse. Went out of our door, leaving it wide open and went into the American girls room next to ours. ( who hadnt locked theirs well.) They took the purse from one of the girls and took it into the other empty room. Emptied it out and left what they didnt want there.
Crazy... and the worst part of it all was after we got home, we went and ate at our favorite American Breakfast place. As we were leaving, the sun was coming up. so I reached in my bag and I realized they stole my sunglasses! :) ok.. so it wasnt so bad.. but they were armani.. and really cool.
So anyways... But it was Easter... and Jesus has risen!
A Polski for your thoughts. Spring is finally here.. warm weather means being able to go outside and not freeze instantly. So this past weekend was our Easter break, and it was a memorable one to say the least. Britt, Frank, Gina, Ashley, and I decided we wanted to take advantage of our long weekend. (we actually get thursday, friday, AND monday off!) So we decided we would make a trip to Poland, Krakow to be exact.
The train ride is about 9 hours, so the best way to get there is to get an overnight train. So on Wednesday night we all met up at the train station in Prague ready to go, but when we got to the ticket counter there were no more sleeping cars available on the train. (now in our defense, we were going to reserve them before, but we heard from some very experienced traveler's and friends that we wouldnt need to.) So we had to settle for one compartment with no beds for the 5 of us for 9 hours. We knew this wouldnt be fun... so frank and I did the only reasonable thing. Bought beer. However, even the beer did not help after a few hours when everyone wanted to sleep.. without going into many details.. either make sure to get a sleeping car.. or agree that no one will sleep, because except for britt, who can sleep through and on anything.. it was a miserable miserable night.
However, we arrived the next morning in Krakow and made our way to our hostel. Granted it was 6 in the morning, and no one except britt had got any sleep to speak of. and we wanted to crash for a few hours, but sadly we couldnt check in until noon... so we had 6 hours of walking around.
So we decided to go find breakfast. So we went and got money out of the ATM and thus began the 20 ours of complete and uter confusion. See.. to convert from US dollars to Czech Crowns to Polish zloty (which we continued to forget the name of, so we started just calling them Polskis .. which is actually what you call just polish people.. like Americans or Czechs. The girl at the hostel front desk didnt think it was too funny) got very very VERY confusing... I still blame it on the lack of sleep.
So we went to breakfast and when we got our bill we started converting the money and what the general consinsus was that the food in Poland was extremely expensive. our average meal was 300 crowns (or about 15 dollars).. we couldnt believe it.
So we realized we werent going to be able to eat out much while we were there. So for the rest of the day we walked around beautiful Krakow. Saw the biggest Market Square Center in all of Europe, covered in booths and decorations getting ready for Easter. It was awesome, but extremely expensive for everything. We were starting to freak out a little and thinking we might have to cut our trip short because we didnt want to spend that much money for 3 days.
However, that night Gina... level headed Gina... realizes that we were converting everything totally wrong, and that meal that was 300 crowns... was actually about 100. We are idiots.
So with renewed spirits and an abundance of cash! we spent the next 2 days walking around the city and even going out to visit Auchwitz which I reccomend to anyone. It is a very sobering place that no one can understand until they go. Ashley's friend maggie (who also teaches in Czech) even met up with us. So Saturday night we get on the train to go back.. and what follows is a crazy story.
Ashley, Frank, Britt, Me, Gina
This amazing looking kid playing the accordian on the street.
I'm back after an awesome break in the states. I had a blast. Sunday came flew down from New York just for the week. The week was filled with Family, Friends, pregnant sister, a Rocketboys show, watching the Mavs beat the Wizards, hookah, real tex-mex, and driving a car!
Ahh.. so many things that I have missed over the past 7 months. It definitely was a great break to give me the push I need to finish out the year. Sorry to any of you I didnt get to see while I was in town!
I'm Aaron .. if you are on this blog you probably know me. I am spending the next year of my life in the Czech Republic teaching English to Teenagers and adults trying to be a light in their lives and have as much fun while doing it.
