Wednesday, December 17, 2008

City Life

So, I went by the American Center today - it's this great little place that lets print and copy as much as you want for free! You can also access jstor and a few other e-journals all for free. It's put on by the U.S. Embassy to help teach about American culture or something. Anyhow, I was doing my work when this women came in with some other man - both of whom looked somewhat official. Then some news reporters came in and interviewed the woman right behind me. I talked to her afterwards - it was Kristin Silverberg - the U.S. Ambassador to the EU (well, at least for a few more weeks - she works for G.W.) She came in the back after the reporters had left to re-do her makeup and apologized to me - I'm still not sure why. Anyhow, for a poli-sci kid like myself I must say it was pretty rad.

I hope, hope, hope Obama comes to Prague when I'm not in labor! The Czech Republic will be holding the EU Presidency from January - June so there is a high chance that he will come! There's an even higher chance that Hilary Clinton will come because of the radar base they are putting in the CZ. I'm so glad I'm living here right now! 

In other news - two and half days left until we fly to California! I have such a long "To Do List" I'm not sure how we'll get everything done and I'm so extremely sad about leaving Mia here. I'm really surprised by how depressed I am that I have to leave her for 2 1/2 weeks. But, she's just a puppy! What if she doesn't remember us? What if she's maltreated or ignored and has psychological damage for the rest of her doggy life? 

Some friends and  a friend's family will be taking turns staying at our flat and taking care of Mia - it's a pretty sweet deal and we are really thankful for it, but I'm still nervous and sad. Does this mean I'm going to be one of those over-protective mothers when I have a human child? I hope not!! 

Here are some pictures from Nick's classmates and teachers' Christmas party. Nick played guitar in a jazz band with two of his classmates - they were great! As you can see we brought Mia - of course everyone loved her and she loved being there! However, she peed right in front of Nick's Professor from America! It was so embarassing! You may also notice my bright green dress - it's actually a swimsuit cover! My belly is too small for maternity clothes, but too big for my clothes so I've been very creative with my wardrobe lately - maybe a little too creative...



Wednesday, December 10, 2008

corruption

This article was in Radio Prague. It's so sad! Though, it's not that shocking...

_________________________________________________________________________
Transparency International: Czech politics perceived to be amongst
world's most corrupt
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Czech political parties are perceived to be amongst the most corrupt in
the world, suggests a new survey released by Transparency International
on Tuesday. The study focused on 26 countries from four continents and
ranked the Czechs third worst, behind Nigeria and Mexico, when it came
to entrepreneurs' perception of corruption in politics. Some 48 percent
of the businessmen polled said they thought the government's drive to
crack down on corruption had been 'very inefficient' while a further 39
percent said it had been 'inefficient'. In its damning report,
Transparency International said that little to no progress had been
made in the fight against corruption in the Czech Republic.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

amputations and thanksgiving x3

If this Surgeon had had a different outcome, then this would be an Onion article and not one found on BBC:

"Surgeon Saves Boys Life by Text"

Wow! Performing an amputation through text messages. I feel like I can do anything with my phone by myside now. If anything, this gives cheaters a good argument - look you can cheat in real life and be successful!

Sorry for not writing much lately. I have a ton of papers to write and tests to take before coming home for christmas.

In short, Thanksgiving was fantastic - all three of them. The first was with our church the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They had a huge dinner at the castle in one of the gallery's. They had a raffle and I won a relaxing bath prize! Nick won the world's ugliest center piece, which he's keen on keeping it. The second Thanksgiving was at the Turnau's - our favorite missionary family. Ted, the Dad, is a professor at my school and also has movie nights every other week where we eat, watch a movie and discuss it after. They are one of the coolest families ever. Anyhow, every year Ted invites all of his students over for a mega-Thanksgiving dinner. We quite enjoyed it, as always. I made a spinach dip which I put in a bread bowl - it's fun doing this because the czechs have never seen anything like it! They always think I'm either a genious or I'm crazy (or both). It was yummy, but looked like something Yoda would bring to family gatherings. I think it's impossible to make green dip pretty.

Then Friday was the Ples (or Ball in english). It was excellent! All the students looked incredibly beautiful! The students put on various dances and shows each year in between the traditional ballroom dancing. This year we really enjoyed the shows, even the scandolous ones (ask and I'll tell you later, let's just way we called it the 'BJ dance'). I was really nervous about the student-teacher dance. I wasn't 100% sure about which student was going to ask me and we didn't get a chance to practice the waltz, like I normally do with the student I have to dance with in front of everyone (the students sign up for which teacher they want to dance with in advance and then they come "pick you up" from your box or seat before the dance begins). Well, to my happy surprise the student never came to get me for the student-teacher dance! I was so happy! I got to watch Nick dance with his student, which he actually rather enjoyed. So, all in all this part, that could have been quite traumatic, turned out to be great.



I especially had fun dancing with my husband. We felt like we were young and dating again. My belly showed for the first time in my dress, which was fun. A lot of former students were there who didn't know I was pregnant, so it was fun to torture them a bit as they kept glancing at my belly trying to figure out if I'd let myself go or if I had something inside there.

Later, I ended up going to the after party with Katie. First, we stopped for after-midnight food ie a big slice of greasy pizza and french fries at McD's (this helped me realize that you don't have to be drunk to eat this kind of food, it just helps to be). The after party was fantastic! It was so much better than last year (although last years after-after party was smashing). I was pretty tired though so I only stayed for about an hour and then came home.

Then on Saturday we went to the last and most "real" Thanksgiving with our friends at Nad Aleji. I baked a delicious apple pie. We brought Mia who turned out to be the star of the party. Uncle Frank gave her a big turkey bone and she was in thanksgiving heaven for the rest of the evening. We ate and ate some more, went to the park at night to play games and came back to eat more and play some music. All in all, it was a beautiful Thanksgiving x3.