Blogs from Czech Republic, Europe - page 241

Almost every morning we eat with three young women. Katarzyna (Kasha) is from Poland, Denitza is from Bulgaria and Johanna who is from Hungary. Why? Are we unfriendly with everyone else? Are we the outcasts eating at the table for the untouchables? No, we eat with them as the five of us are the only ones in the cafeteria at seven-thirty.-we also eat with them because I like them a lot. We don’t have much time to talk but we always catch up on the weather report, what we think about something or the other and just enjoy a friendly feeling with three very nice young women. Occasionally we are joined by Erjona, who is from Albania, but usually it is just the five of us in the large dining room. Most mornings the only other ... read more

As soon as she finished breakfast Nancy headed to the nearest grocery store to buy a bunch of Actimel. We will keep one package for ourselves and give the rest for use by the sick CAT students. Actimel has the beneficial bacteria needed to recolonize the lower gut after flu like diseases or food poisoning, heavy antibiotic use, etc. I made the world’s record time in going and getting back. I left the room at 8:05 got to the bus stop by 8:14 (even with stopping to buy a bus ticket at Reception) and rode to the stop at the grocery store. I zipped up the hill, went straight to the bananas, weighted them correctly so the clerk would not have to look disgusted at me this time, then got 9 packs of Actimel. The lady ... read more

Dave Thompson what kind of tree is this? It looks just like an evergreen (conifer) tree. It has the right shape and it bears cones. But it is naked in the winter and not green at all. Sunday while we were walking through the snow we ran across a cluster of trees. They looked like dead evergreens, but there was something about them that gave them the look of being alive. The limbs were totally bare, but they had a green hue to them. Also there were small cones that looked like this years cones. I broke a twig from one tree and it was green inside. “These trees are alive,” I said, “what are they.” “I don’t know,” Nancy replied, “I don’t know of any evergreen that drops it needles each year.” Is there a ... read more

We see TV advertisements here attempting to attract tourists to areas and places we never see advertised in the States. There have been beautiful ads for Greece, Egypt and the Maldives since we arrived in January. Today, for the first time, I saw an ad for Crotia. The ad was built around theme “Come to Crotia where the Mediterranean is the way it used to be.” I expect we will see ads beginning for other areas of Europe as spring arrives. The Canary Islands are a popular place to visit in the winter. Several families here at the seminary vacationed there in February. No special visas are required and it is warm and sunny there. Warm and sunny are two words that sound very good just now as Europe is gripped in the coldest weather in ... read more