The Finer Things in Life

Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to take pictures of Prague during our quick driving tour on our first day, and even more unfortunate is the fact that I do not have the ability to adequately describe Prague's beauty. Hopefully both will come to me soon since we will go to this Wednesday for an art opening and again next week for the Fulbright orientation. It is a shame since I can complain in vivid detail about the mundane of an airport experience. I did note however, we drove around the best views of the city unencumbered by traffic, and were told that is how weekends are here. Wow, couldn't say that about Seattle. I have to admit after a week here, the bumps are smoothing out and I appreciate not driving. We travel by bus to Novy Bor, a short but curvy 6 KM down the mountain, for groceries. There are several clothing, toy, and miscellanous shops there too, which is nice and Thomas is getting accustomed to the walking. He is so excited about riding the bus, that he gets impatient while waiting at the stops. The villiage we live in has a little center square, a bakery, a school, cinema, some pubs, a couple of convenience stores, post office, and of course the Stredni umeleckoprumyslova skola sklarska Kamenicky Senov, school Chad is attending, but alas no playgrounds. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, Chad and I found an info kiosk touchscreen that is in several different languages including English in the square, way cool for a small town. There are wonderful views down the mountain, a basalt outcropping we want to climb, and some exquisite stone cottages in the neighborhood. I've met a couple of really enthusiastic and kind ceramic artists who teach art history here. They have both been very generous to Thomas and I, he has been given an indoor swing. We have made plans to get together for several different occasions in the near future, shoe shopping, clay making, and travelling! Our friends who have cars are taking good care of us. On the other hand, oh I see a bad pun in the future...I miss having laundry facilities. I'm doing a lot of hand laundry. We are potty training Thomas, and well tonight it took a lot to control my frustration when he wet the 3rd pair of pants. I am also still working out the finer details of our stovetop, and how to cook between rip roarin' hot, and ice cold. It is very cheap to eat out here, but unfortunately as vegetarians, Thomas and I can only live on fried cheese, fried cauliflower, and fried potato so long. Salad here is pickled cabbage, but the strawberry juice is excellent, as is the beer. So some more cuisine research is in order. We've eaten a lot of hard boiled eggs lately.