President Bush (and Laura) arrived in Prague last night to great publicity, mostly negative. They landed around 8:45 last night, and we heard helicopters for about an hour flying overhead as their motorcade rolled to the Hilton in town. There have been demonstrations, more demonstrations, and even demonstrations in preparation for the demonstrations.
Bush is not a very popular guy right now here in Prague. The US wants to set up a military base here outside of the city, which would be a missile defense system (you may have heard Russian President Putin’s aggressive reaction to this earlier this week). Moreover, it is extremely hard for most Czechs to get visas to visit America, while it is never a problem for Americans to come here. Most people are probably more upset about that than the military base.
Regardless, Bush has very few supporters here – fortunately no one holds it against us that we’re Americans.
Isn’t it amazing? George Bush and Angelina Jolie in our fantastic city at the same time? What influence they carry! One, a master of international diplomacy and foreign relations, a gifted speaker, and respected by millions of people around the world; the other…well, is George Bush.
Shanna wins our family contest of "Who can be most famous?" Although my arm did make its internet debut with the paparazzi, Shanna got this picture snapped today - the last day of Clark's school. Sadly, this is probably the last we'll see of Brangelina on their Prague adventure - they leave in a week. Maybe Clark and their kids will become pen pals.
Even though Lucy's school STILL hasn't finished for the year (next week is the last week), there was an end-of-year party at a swanky office on the top floor of a cool building. There were great views of the city, not to mention lots of good food and dancing. Well, the dancing was... interesting. Who knew that Tom Jones and Spandau Ballad were so hard to dance to? I've never heard so much obscure 80s British pop in my life.
The party was great - lots of their friends came over, they opened presents, and performed fairly well for a "Newlywed-style" game, answering questions about each other. We're excited for them and their wedding this summer, AND that they're coming back to Prague in the fall!
We went out to eat with Miss Angela tonight to a local Italian place. In addition to enjoying the awesome food, we were treated to something unique. An older man walking by with his dog stopped, picked up his dog, reached in his pocket, and pulled out a harmonica. Then this happened... (it may take a while to load - I think it's worth it)
We've had some great times of worship at church, led by our very talented worship band. Ondra is amazing at guitar (and fiddle), Dot and Elizabeth can belt out the tunes, and newly-arrived Luke added some nice percussion with the egg-shaker on Sunday. (Yes, this picture was slightly posed) 
We had a fun team dinner 2 nights ago, jointly celebrating 2 years of being in Prague and our last night of just the 5 of us adults. Our 5 summer interns arrived the next day, and Mark and Joanna Stewart are set to arrive sometime this month! The team is growing - yay!
