“I live in those apartments right there. My phone is in my apartment. I will get it. Please wait here.” The woman used hand gestures to show us not to move from the spot where we stood on the corner. We had gotten off the Student Agency bus in Vienna and walked around for about thirty minutes trying to find our hotel. We knew we were at the right station because we bought tickets for the subway, went into the subway, and realized we were already at the correct subway station. But where was the hotel? We had asked a woman walking past. She stopped and examined mom’s hieroglyphics. “Do you have a number?” She had asked. Mom explained that we do have the number, but that she was hesitant to use our American phone while ... read more

Today I gave 4 back-to-back lessons at a school near the magistrate building. The lesson was on American Holidays, and I like to show a few videos from my facebook page to help the students identify with certain holidays. One of the videos I like to show is of Ava’s first Easter egg hunt. I remember that Easter really well. John was living with Ava and me in Ann Arbor and mom and dad had come down to stay for the holiday. Dad and I hid the eggs together and we all watched Ava find the eggs. There’s a part in the video where she asks, “Are the eggs near the tree, Papa?” and it really melts my heart. We all miss my dad so much. Today is his birthday. I’ve never met another man with ... read more

4 a.m. is early no matter where you are in the world. That’s what time I woke up this morning. Since we did laundry last night and had clothing hung all over the room, I had to wait until this morning to pack. We were able to pack, tidy up our room, pack a lunch (thank you mom for doing that), and still make it to the main bus stop on time. We took the bus from Hradec Králové to Prague without a problem. Then we realized that the bus to Germany didn’t come to the same station. We had to take the subway to Florenc in order to catch the next bus. We’re acquired a steep learning curve and actually purchased our subway tickets before getting on the subway this time. Of course, we didn’t ... read more

Ugh! I’m tired. Tired from doing and taking the big world into a relatively small mind. We had another excellent breakfast at Hotel Aron (Muesli, Yogurt, coffee, sweet cakes, boiled eggs, and bread with jam). Mom still hasn’t given into the liverwurst. Then, we packed everything back into our bags and headed to Florenc Station. There main bus station building has a baggage room where you can pay $2.50/bag until midnight. The guy who works there seems to really hate his job, but he guarantees safety and that is really all we need. We gladly gave him our luggage and headed to the Prague’s Jewish Quarter. The Jewish Cemetery was easy to find. Buried there were people who lived in the ghetto all the way back to the 1800s. There was a special group of people ... read more

"Wow! It looks like a magazine!" Ava's eyes were wide as we walked into St. Vitus Church. I have to agree, it was grandiose. The ceilings were high covered in ornate decorations. The front of the church had an amazing altar. There were ornate and brightly-colored stained glass windows covering half of the wall space. Mom and I spoke about royal weddings throughout history taking place in this church, and what amazing affairs they must have been. After all, St. Vitus is inside Prague Castle. We walked all around the castle, taking in the grandeur. Unfortunately, it was very cold outside. It was windy and had snowed on and off throughout the afternoon. When we first arrived to the castle, I was feeling famished. We decided to go into the first English-speaking restaurant that I found. ... read more