Down Time

Sorry for those that have been avidly watching this blog looking for updates and not finding any. I've been having some down time for the past three weeks and as a consequence, there's not much to report. This will probably be the last post for a bit seeing as I head back to Jordan in three days time and from then on I have no idea when I'll see a computer again. I might get luckily and have the chance to use one every week or I might need to wait until the mid-dig break, which well be a month in. So check back, but don't necessarily expect anything.

To get you caught up on things:

Em left as originally planned by heading to the Krakow airport via a train from downtown. From there things didn't go quite as planned. Somewhere along the way, both Em and myself, caught some wired virus and it either was fast acting or incubated for a bit and then hit all at once, because about the same time we both got really ill. The only difference, was by this time I'd made it comfortably back to my second family and Em, being not so fortunate, was five hours from hoping a plane out of Dublin for the lovely States. Apparently she worried the good old airline folks so much that they sent her to the doc's, which in turn caused her to miss her flight. This led to her being trapped in the airport for two days. Apparently, there aren't that many flights that leave from Dublin to LA during the course of a week. Em said that it was like the Tom Hanks film, The Terminal, where she wasn't allowed to leave and therefore set up shop in a corner of the terminal and proceeded to live there for her tenure. I wish I could have seen the looks on everyone's faces as they tried to figure out why she was there day after day. For anyone that didn't get past the whole illness thing, don't worry...it went away eventually and we are both back to our normal selves. By the way, Em did eventually make it home and is not still living at the Dublin airport.

I am currently in residence at my second family's home in Prague, CZ, and have reclaimed my old bedroom and role as adopted daughter. It's nice to have some down time after traveling for a bit. I think it helps to re-charge the batteries so that you can go from place to place again for another bit of time. And the free food, lodging, laundry, etc. aren't bad perks either :~)

For the most part, I have been prowling the downtown streets of Prague and creating a well worn path down most of the tourist routes. I love Old Prague and therefore I tend to migrate there. My routine has come down to waking late, chilling at the house for a bit and then making my way to the center of the city. Usually I don't have any real plans, although I have managed to hit up quite a few art shows and I have seen pretty much every English language film that has come out here in the past month. I've also been on the search for the best tea house. Prague is home to a multitude of tea houses and since I can't remember where the one's that I loved eight years ago are, I've been on a quest to find new ones that are equally as good as those from my memories. This quest has led to many enjoyable hours reading and sampling tea.

There are a few days when I have actually gone out with various members of "my family" and that's helped to break up the monotony of routine. The first weekend that I was here, I accompanied my host parents to a training weekend for them and their three Czechloslavakian Wolfdogs. Basically this was 15 people or so and twice as many dogs all gathered at an old children's camp in the middle of the country somewhere; drinking, eating, and training. As much as I love animals and think having a trained dog that is very protective of you and listens and all that good stuff, dog training is one of the most boring things I have ever been to. I think this is even more boring than when I went to the dog competitions eight years ago, but that could just because those only lasted a few hours, where as this was a whole weekend. I think that I'll stick with my original love, and get a cat when I get a real place. Much easier to deal with.

I finally meet back up with my host sister, Petra, and we seem to be hitting it off much better this time around. There isn't the animosity that there was eight years ago when I was the new big sister that she was weary of. It's nice cause now we actually get along some and every once in a while I have someone to tool around the city with. The other night we went on a hunt for an allusive play that one of her friends was putting on. The problem is that Petra never got really good directions to where this play was to be held and therefore, we spent an hour running around the woods looking for something that everyone we asked about it assured us didn't exist. By a fluke, I found the place just as everyone was leaving. So we missed the play, but the good thing is that now she knows where to go there next time someone mentions this place. Besides trying to find practically fictious places is almost more fun than going to a play that you can't understand anyways due to a language barrier.

So those are soon of the highlights of the last three weeks and a little recap of what I've been up to. I know it's not as exciting as some of the other 30 entry, but what can I tell you, my life is not always going to be one exciting thing after the next. I hope this will tied you over for a bit and that all is well in the individual worlds that you all inhabit. That's all for now.