Blogs from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe - page 201

Doreen, a very friendly young Arab Christian woman from Israel, asked Nancy to edit her with her paper on Christians and divorce. Doreen came to our room about seven and working together they finished about two hours later. Doreen had written a very good paper. Our long time working together wasn’t a long time in correcting errors. It was a good long time of my learning more from her about marriage and divorce as it is seen in the eyes of people from the Middle East. It was also a painful time of seeing how our casual attitude toward divorce in the Western nations looks to an outsider. I talked to her about how divorce impacts families, churches and society in general in the USA. The impact is very different from what happens in a Middle ... read more

Kasha said “Yes, you can ride with me to Krakow.” We will ride with her from Prague to Krakow on Thursday March 24th and return on Tuesday March 29th. She said she will have a friend look into reserving us a room in a hotel. I believe this will be a very interesting trip. I have sworn off brussel sprouts. There is an untrue belief that brussel sprouts are a member of the cabbage family, a vegetable. They are not!!! Brussel sprouts are small green leafy spheres of highly compressed gas disguised as a vegetable. I am not going to eat them again! That suits me fine. At least I will be able to sleep through the night without hearing loud explosions and smelling sulfur bombs! I don’t like to eat Brussels Sprouts at home where ... read more

The morning dawned bright and sunny. For the first time in a about six weeks or so the temperature actually rose above freezing today and there was some melting of the snow. Today was a good day for taking a long walk and in the afternoon that is exactly what we did. The ice no longer covers the small stream that runs through the Sarka Valley. We noticed that, with the melting snow, much more water is flowing in the creek. We sincerely hope there is not a quick melt of snow across the Czech Republic this spring. Several years ago a quick melt resulted in the worst flooding in several centuries. Many of Prague’s older sections received damage from the flooding. Also those portions of the subway nearest and under the Vltana River were filled ... read more

I guess Nancy and I are toast ... in theory anyway. We were working on the second floor moving books in the stacks and noticed a fire alarm was going off. Of course we ignored it. After all yesterday workmen were testing the alarms, so why should today be different. The alarm sounded for ten minutes or so when we heard footsteps on the stairs. Honza came in saying, “Go outside. This is a serious fire drill.” I was not sure how to interpret “serious fire drill.” Did this mean there was a fire? That would be serious. Or did he mean this was a real fire drill? The latter was the case. We followed Honza outside to the parking lot. Well, as you probably can guess, we were the last out of the buildings. All ... read more

“I think I’m getting sick,” Chris said when we saw him this morning. When we returned to our room after working in the library this evening Chris was in bed with a terrible headache and a temperature of almost 104. Unfortunately he was right this morning when he said, “I think I am getting sick.” Nurse Nancy is trying to take care of sick people on our hallway. I believe everyone on our hallway, except Nancy, either has been or is sick with flu. The real campus nurse says she knows exactly how Chris is feeling as that is exactly the state she was in last week. The flu bug is laying this campus low. Classes, reviews for exams and examinations are all having to be rescheduled. No one has any idea where this bug came ... read more