See you (soon), Michael!

We went to a going-away/come-back-soon party for Michael this week. You might recognize him in some of our previous blog posts or the Prague video that we have (see the link on the right?). He has been a great friend this past year to all of us. Michael has been serving with Project Antioch, a Church of God ministry that we've partnered with several times here. He is also a great musician and has led our Bible study worship, as well as played at Sir Toby's and the Czech Inn.

We had to say good-bye this week, but he is going back for a good reason - to raise enough money to come back to Prague! Prague has captured his heart, and he loved this past year so much he decided to stay longer. We can't wait to see him again - pray for his quick return!

Yard? Grill? House?

Contrary to what you may think about housing options in Prague, based on our blog, we do know several people who actually live in houses, not flats. Yesterday we went to two such homes - first was an open house for one of Lucy's classmates from last year. Her parents (the mom is a fellow Duke grad!) just bought a turn of the century (as in 1900) home with a very cool wine cellar. It was very unique in a beautiful part of the city we'd never been to. They also informed me that the new US Ambassador to the Czech Republic is also a Dookie! Our world takeover is gaining strength!

After the open-house was a cookout at some other friends' home - this was one of Shanna's IWAP (Int'l Women's Assoc of Prague) friends, whose husband works for Black & Decker here. They have three girls and live in a neighborhood we call "Little America." It feels like a real suburb - they said it feels more like the movie "The Truman Show," in its immaculate streets and brightly colored homes. Lucy and Clark had a fantastic time running around the backyard, swinging, and blowing bubbles with the "big girls." Even though we love our city flat, it was nice to get a taste of the "house life."

From Picnic to Party

After the school picnic we also went to a birthday party for another of Lucy's friends, Abigail. She turned 4 and had a fun party outside their flat in their yard. Each of the flats in this building has a terraced yard with steps connecting them all. The kids had a great time running around from one level to the next, eating pizza and Cinderella cake, and watching Abigail open her presents.

School Picnic

Lucy's school had a big picnic yesterday. It was great fun to meet other parents and teachers. Lucy and Clark had fun climbing on the playground stuff and running around. Here they are with one of Lucy's new friends, Zara.

New Wine in Old... Water Bottles?

This weekend is the "New Wine Festival" in Prague, celebrating the new wine harvest season. New wine, or burčak in Czech, is young Moravian wine that has a distinctly sweet flavor. A good warning, however, from a Czech site says "Of course, Burčak can be something of a wolf in sheep's clothing: its high-sugar and cloudy juice-like content fooling some first-timers into underestimating its punch." I was walking down the street yesterday with a friend and suddenly we met up with a parade coming the other way towards our local square. The parade was complete with medieval knights and maidens, horses pulling carriages of wine-drinking locals, and a camel. Yep, a camel.

That afternoon we made a visit to the square to see what all the fuss was about. They had music, local crafts for sale, and lots of new wine to drink. You could buy a cup or a big water bottle's worth of it. It tasted a bit like sparkling cider. Another reason for the Czechs to celebrate and drink!

Lucky Pot

We kicked off the fall semester of Bible study with a pot-luck dinner at our place last night. One Czech friend couldn't make it but sent me a text message on my phone, which said, "Good luck with the pot."

There were about 20 people there, and it was a great group. Half of them were brand new to Prague and to our Bible study. It was a nice start to the fall.

Last Night, No Kids

We got to go out one more time with Demian and Neely for some good pasta in Old Town. We had such a great time with them while they were here. They left yesterday for the second half of their adventure - a wedding weekend in Spain with Demian's family. We miss them already!

Someday Our Princes Will Come

We had a very special evening last night, highlighted by a carriage ride through the city with Snow White and Cinderella!It was so much fun for all 8 of us - we pretended we were off to the ball, and all the tourists we rode by gave us big smiles and waves.

Afterwards, we had a brief photo op at the "ball entrance" and then it was off to pizza and ice cream. A perfect, magical evening!

Rub a Dub Dub

After a hard day at the park, a bathtub assembly line was needed.

A Friend for Everyone

Our friends from the States, the Gutierrez family, arrived to Prague on Saturday night and have been staying with us this week. We've had lots of fun together, especially because Anna Riley is the same age as Lucy, and Porter is the same as Clark (not to mention that we like Demian and Neely).

The day they arrived was Anna Riley's 4th birthday, so we had a pink cake in her honor. We've explored the city together and visited our neighborhood park. It's been great fun!

Birthday and Anniversary

We celebrated Jessamyn's birthday last night with her boyfriend Dave, their dog Honza (or "Johnny" in Czech), the Syvertsens, and some other friends of theirs. We went to one of their favorite restaurants - Brasserie M, with everyone's favorite French chef Jean-Paul. It was also a milestone for Jessamyn and Shanna, who have now known each other for exactly one year! Last year we were all new to Prague and Shanna spent the day with Jessamyn on her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Jess! We love you!

Let Your Fingers (or Legs) do the Walking

In our last month's phone bill, we received a voucher that allowed us to pick up our very own yellow pages. To pick it up, however, we had to go to our metro station and wait in line. The line wasn't bad when we were there, but at other times during the week we saw long lines. It was a touching reminder of perhaps some residual communist effects, like waiting in bread lines - something that was still going on in Russia in the early 90s. But now we have our very own Czech Yellow Pages (not that we can read it).

Thank you for flying with us

Lucy is almost finished her first week of school and loves her uniform.

New Friends

Our first two weeks back here in Prague have been busy and fun - we've met some really great people who have just moved here, and we're looking forward to getting to know them. We had dinner a few nights ago with the Springers (right, a picture from their website) - they are here with Christian Associates International and are hoping to plant a new church too. We had a lot of fun getting to know them - thinking back to last year when we were in their shoes, fresh off the plane.

We've also spent some time with Brooke and Dustin (not yet pictured), who are friends of one of Shanna's former co-workers in Charlotte. They are getting certified to teach English here and are graduates of Davidson. Even though they're not huge football fans, they came over to watch the game on Sunday.

We're glad to be back and see familiar faces too.

Mmmm...cappuccino candy

Our recent trip to America re-inspired us to add some much-needed color to our flat. So far we had only painted Lucy and Clark's room, so the stark white walls really are getting to us. We had some friends over to help us paint the spare bedroom (formerly known as Clark's room) a nice shade of brown, called Cappuccino Candy. The room is almost officially ready for our next guests, the Gutierrez family this weekend - we can't wait for them to get here!

Cat Scratch Fever

We got the (American) football season off to a good start this year with a good showing for the first Panthers game of the year. We get 2 games every Sunday on our British channels, and they happened to show the Panthers' weak performance versus Atlanta this first week.

Despite the bad game, it was great to have people over to our home again - some old friends, and quite a few new friends too. It was more fun to make fun of the British commentators than it was to watch the game.

So long, Alex!

Alex, one of Lucy's good friends from this past year, is moving back to America this week. His parents got a job transfer back to California, and we will miss all of them this year. Lucy went over to his house in the midst of all their packing to say bye one last time. We will miss you guys!

Uniformity

Lucy is going to a new school this year, called Riverside. We're excited for her - it's a British school that's much bigger than her pre-school last year and goes from pre-K to 12th grade. She was too young to go last year, but we decided to move her over this year. This is the first week of school, but she won't start until Monday since we just got back to Prague. But we went by her class yesterday and picked out some of her uniforms - yes, that's right, she'll be wearing lots of red and blue this year. Her teachers will come by our home on Friday for a "home visit," so that she can spend some time with them before her first day. They do this for all the little pre-schoolers.

Video problems

Sorry, if you're having problems viewing the blog, it's because I've changed the format and it seems that the videos are not transfering well. Hopefully I'll fix this soon.

The Kids are All Right

Life is slowly returning to normal here in Prague. While Shanna went with Laura to do some major grocery shopping (at Macro, the "Sam's Club" of Prague), Phil looked after the 3 kids. Lucy, Clark, and Owen are all very glad to be together again. They all took killer naps and then hung out on the couch together for what I like to call "Cranky Time."
Then we ventured out to the park down the street. While we were gone they FINALLY opened up the playground, which has been under reconstruction for over a year now. But the wait was worth it - this thing is awesome. Owen had already scoped it out for us, and his favorite thing is the Bouncy Jeep.
We've already met up with friends at this park, and even met some new expat residents who live in the building next to us.

Some last Charlotte pics

Some final highlights from our trip...

We had breakfast our last day with the Fleming family (or Fremings, as I like to call them). Lucy had chocolate-chip pancakes.
Lucy, Clark and the Macurda kids, who we stayed with in Charlotte - William, Caroline, and Grace. We miss them already! Lucy and Caleb - future synchronized swimming mixed doubles champs.

We are again welcome in home!

We made it back to Prague safely - thank you for praying! Everyone did great on the planes and slept a bit. It is really nice to be home again.
As we waited in the airport for our 7 bags, we noticed the big welcome sign with appropriate "Czenglish," as we call it. It reads Welcome in our Country. Yes, it's good to be back.