While traveling it's fun and important to try the local food. Here are some photos of a great food find!
May have to look this one up on line! It was delicious!
While traveling it's fun and important to try the local food. Here are some photos of a great food find! May have to look this one up on line! It was delicious!
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We went someplace new this past weekend, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. It is fun to revisit places we've already been and to discover "new" things, but a new place is a whole new adventure! Actually, construction of the Cesky Krumlov (CK) castle started in the 13th century, so not new at all-- just new to us! This town has an interesting history that includes emperors, nazis, gypsies (Roma) and communists. It is tucked into two horseshoe bends in the Vltava River, which also runs through it's larger sister city, Prague. We originally wanted to go to Prague over the weekend but it was a short weekend and we would like to spend more time in Prague. We did some homework, chose CK and were able to book a Bed & Breakfast without too much trouble. Since CK is a small town the trains are not direct or fast. We took three trains and the last conductor told us (with no Emglish) to get off the train and get on a bus. On the bus we wound our way to CK in the dark and finally made it to the train station in CK. (Later found out that the tracks are under construction.) We walked through the sleepy town on cobbled streets around 10 pm. Even in the dark we could tell this was going to be a great weekend in a quaint town! I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.... "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." I guess that's a true enough analogy, but most of us like chocolates! And the best part about a box of chocolate is that you DO get to pick. What a diverse group of people I now live with! Just watching them come into the building with their various gear in tow was amazing. Some of the littlest people had the biggest bags! I think I saw a student with a backpack on the front, one on the back and a big suitcase as well. We all packed differnt things in different ways for differnt purposes. One of the students is taking Greek online, for fun! Another brought a guitar. I packed taco seasoning 😀. As we unpack our bags to get settled in, it occurs to me that we are all unpacking some of the same things. Our own "baggage" as it were. Our own tendencies, our own preferences, our own ideas of normal. It occurred to me that maybe life is more like a box of cables (just so you know, I'm not talking about David's box of cables, his are twist-tied and labeled). We have the cable in our hand, we can't exactly tell where it started and all of the cables are intertwined and cross over one another. Sometimes our own "stuff" unpacks like this. I can see this as the students interact with each other. I can see it as we are given a new cultural situation to deal with - struggling to unwrap the cables, figure out our preconceived perceptions and translate each new experience. The good news is that this is a great opportunity to grow, to figure out the beginning and maybe even the ending of some of those cables.
"The view from here" is a section that I thought I would create to just post photos. Photos, after all are worth a thousand words. But, David is in class and although he did show me, I cannot seem to get the photos from the camera.
We had a great weekend retreat in a town called Dorfgastein, south of Salzburg. The weather was nice as we were leaving and got rainy as we drove south. On Sunday we worshipped in the little church there and then took the gondola (ski lift) up to the top of the mountain with our guide, Fritz. By the time we got to the top it was snowing! We had coffee or hot cocoa and an Austrian dish called Kaiserschmarrn. Although it looked different - we call it a German pancake! It was warm and delicious! We walked down the mountain on a gravel trail. At times the wind and snow were pretty strong. Along the way we saws beautiful views, alpine cows ringing the bells around their necks and a mirror lake. Overall, the retreat was a time to get acquainted with each other better before the start of our "routine" in Vienna. My mom is probably singing the Rogers and Hammerstein song right now. |
We have a retreat planned for this weekend in the Austrian Alps, where we hope to get to know each other better. We are merging two groups of people and today they seem to be sticking with who they already know. The hope is that after the retreat we change from being "us" and "them" to being "we." I have met the students but I'm finding it difficult to remember names. They all sort of look the same at this point! Once I get to know their individual personalities I should do better with names. They are all excited about being here and I am too- that's the best part! |
November 2015
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