Sally!

I have been a bit more silent than usual--a rotten cold, COLD weather, and the GRE subject test...yuck...have occupied me more than I would like. But my cold is better, it has been snowing for three days so I am sort of getting used to it (but actually not at all), and I took the GRE last Saturday so that is over.

The test wasn't so bad; it was getting to the test center. I took a 6:00 bus from the village, got to Prague at 7:00, walked to the metro, rode on that for a few minutes, then attempted to find the center. It was a building in Prague's Technical University, and fortunately the complex was just by the metro station. I found the correct building, but the man at the door did not speak English and did not know that they were giving the GRE there. I showed him my ticket and we mimed for a little while and then he finally let me in. But I was about an hour early for the 8:30 test and I was the only person there. I didn't know which floor never mind which room the test was in, so I wandered for a while looking for signs. I tried to get a cup of coffee from the Nescafe machine--the coffee came out fine but the plastic cup that usually drops from the dispenser did not fall. So the coffee poured straight from the machine into the drain. Awesome.

I was getting a little desperate and trying to figure out who I could contact to give me the room number, when I heard another desperate sounding American voice downstairs. It was another test-taker, but this time the man at the door was being a real jerk and wouldn't let her in even though she had the same ticket as I did. Luckily, the GRE test givers arrived at that moment with their signs and were able to talk to the door man and figure it out.

There were six other people taking subject tests. Three from America besides myself--two studying abroad and one working in Germany--one person from Bratislava, and then some Czech people. Certainly a unique test taking environment!

After the lovely three hour exam I scooted out of there and met Julie for lunch in the city center. Then it was back to the bus and back to the village for an afternoon of child care.

So that was last weekend. But on Sunday night!!!!

Sally came to visit!

We went to Mala Strana and the Castle on Monday. Here we are by the castle:

By Malostranska Namesti (Lesser Town Square) we saw this awesome man and stag statue, which includes a crucifix in the deer's antlers. What does that mean? It looks like the man is worshipping the deer or expressing his undying love for it.

We walked across the Charles Bridge under a funny grey sky.

We asked a woman to take a picture of us with the river as our backdrop. She did, indeed, take a picture of us. And nothing else. This is the actual photo. I don't know how she found the zoom on my camera.

We walked through Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square before having lunch at my favorite Indian restaurant by my yoga studio. Then it was trdelniks for dessert:

and some shopping (though neither of us bought anything...) We did see an awesome Disney Princess playhouse. Too big for Sally's carry-on, unfortunately.

We took a late afternoon bus to the village. It was a bit too chilly for comfortable strolling in Prague. Sally met the grandmother, which was nice. The boys loved my sister. Even the baby was totally enamored. He gave her lots of hugs.

The boys enjoyed playing Go Fish with her and just hanging out. I think they were confused and excited to see two of us all the sudden. When I came downstairs on Tuesday morning the reply to my "Good Morning!" was "Where is Sally?"

Sally and I went to Karlovy Vary on Tuesday. Another really cold, rainy day. Naturally, Sally wore all my clothes, several layers worth. She does hate the cold. Sally tried the magical spring water and spit it out. It tastes a little like coppery blood. So yuck.

I got a picture with a giant Vodka bottle. Excellent.

We walked to the indoor spring to get warm.

Then it was a stroll to the Hotel Pupp for some excellent and expensive cappuccinos. After we had our fill of Karlovy Vary, which included two hot, fresh spa wafers (delicious!), we headed to Loket, the small castle town I went to a few weeks ago. We took the castle tour, which means we wandered around by ourselves, went into the church, walked around the teeny, tiny town, and then it was off again. I had wanted to go to Karlstejn but we didn't have time to make it there and catch the tour, so it was back to Prague for lunch at Cantina, a good Mexican restaurant. After some rather frenzied calculations (on my part) we hopped on a tram going one direction, got off, got on another one going in the opposite direction, hopped off that, got on the Metro, and made it back to the bus stop just in time for a bus back to the village.

So cold! It started to hail as soon as we were back in the house. That night we played UNO with the kiddies.

Sally took some pics of me and the boys, which is nice because I don't have a lot of those. Usually I am the one taking the pictures.

I went with Sally to the airport on Wednesday morning, cried when she left, kept crying, and then kept crying...the people on the bus looked at me funny. It was so wonderful to see her and to have her here so she could see where I live and meet the family and everything, but gosh it was hard when she left.