Tuesday, December 16, 2008

tagged: 8 things

fun times, Courtney...

8 Books I like to reread: (edited from TV shows, because even when living in the states, I couldn't answer)
1. Jane Eyre
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Walk Two Moons
5. The Little Prince
6. The Hiding Place
7. The Adventures of Huck Finn
8. Make Way for Ducklings

8 Favorite Foods: (since I can maybe think of 8 restaurants I've been to in Prague)
1. chocolate
2. bread (especially that braided kind)
3. pasta
4. black olives
5. pesto
6. box brownies
7. pancakes
8. hot dogs

8 Things that Happened Today:
1. had to sub for a Bible class
2. sent a student to the principal
3. organized the NF 500s books
4. looked for train tickets to Trnava, SK for this weekend
5. read Courtney's blog
6. delivered Christmas cookies to coworkers
7. babysat my nephews
8. watched a 50kc ($2.2) movie in the theatre
(ok,I haven't done #7-8 yet, but I plan to...)


8 Things I Look Forward To:
1. getting married
2. presents on Christmas day
3. seeing Courtney in Prague for Spring Break
4. visiting with family coming to town for Christmas
5. the end of the week (& Christmas break!)
6. no more tears and frustration in heaven
7. visiting Banff NP
8. tea time

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. a wedding dress
2. tall black boots
3. burts bees chapstick
4. a USB stick
5. music
6. Nabob tea
7. perfect eyesight
8. the gift of playing the piano

8 People I'm tagging: no pressure
1. Carol
2. Jim & Jul
3. Katie
4. Hannah
5. Ruth
6. Jonathan
7. Laura
8. you

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

engaged

On November 30, Garrett asked me to marry him!

It was his birthday, and we went up to Vyšehrad to spend the day. It's a beautiful old fortress from a millenium ago, up on a hill overlooking the Vltava River. It's a lovely park: my favorite spot in Prague.

My roommates, Leah and Sheila, were hiding out with cameras, and they caught these wonderful photos. The fact is, I had seen Leah. The timing did not work out just how Garrett was hoping, and we were hanging out on that wall for a while, and I suggested I was cold and we could go walk around. Garrett obliged, but insisted we return to the spot to catch the sunset. And on our way back I suddenly recognized my roommate. I was a bit startled, but Garrett acted like it was nothing and kept walking, so I just followed him. As soon as we reach the overlook, he proposed.

And I accepted. Afterwards, Garrett signaled for Leah and Sheila to come take photos, and this is me turning around, seeing them there. The surprised look on my face cracks me up: I was dazed, taking everything in; startled and excited to see Leah and Sheila, and only then realizing that they were there to take pictures for us.

So they took some happy photos, and then left us with my camera.




Later we went up to Charles Bridge. Here we are, smiling a lot, with the bridge in the background.


Here we are on the bridge, still getting used to the sound of the word engaged.


Then we went to Cafe Slavia, a famous cafe where artists and intellectuals were known to hang out over the years. A pianist plays on the grand piano, and sometimes you can manage to get a seat by the window to see the river.

We stopped in at my sister's apartment for to share the news with her family. Then we headed back to my flat, where I had a little birthday dessert planned for Garrett. And we celebrated our engagement too.

what I like best

"What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying 'What about a little something?' and Me saying, 'Well, I shouldn't mind a little something, should you, Piglet,' and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and birds singing."

-Winnie the Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner

Sunday, December 07, 2008

busing to church

This morning Garrett and I had a funny experience riding the bus to church. It was the sort of experience that could have been so frustrating if I was running late, or irritable. But this morning, being in a good mood, and having had enough rest the night before, I was able to see the comic side of it.

We were standing in the back of a full bus, with a man with a German Shepherd and several other people going to church with us.

At the first stop, the bus driver opened the swinging doors to relieve the bus of a few passengers. When a bus driver is about to close the doors, a buzzing noise goes off. But this time the noise didn't stop. The door closed, and then reopened. Again, and again. The man with the German Shepherd was trying to stand out of the way, probably thinking his coat was blocking the doorway. But it didn't stop, and then Garrett realized that the other bus doors were opening as ours was closing. The bus driver kept opening and closing the doors, trying to get them in sync. Meanwhile, the buzzing of the doors never stopped, because one set of doors was always trying to close.

The hilarity of it all hit me as I watched one set of doors open as the other swung closed. We sat at that bus stop as the bus driver opened and closed the doors probably thirty times.

Finally we pulled off from the stop with the back door open, about 8 minutes behind schedule. The man with the dog held on tight, and no one fell off.

At each of the following stops, the man and dog popped off to make room for exiting passengers. But as soon as they got to the door, the driver opened the other doors to let out passengers, and the passengers trying to exit from the back got locked in!

As we pulled up to our stop, Garrett and I jumped off just as it was pulling to a stop so we wouldn't have to wait for the doors to be re-opened. I was still chuckling over it as we walked up the steps into church.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

those little things

So, let's just say, hypothetically, you were wondering what random little gifts I'd like in a package?

Here are some ideas for you:

  • no. 2 coffee filters (the small ones)
  • act mouthwash
  • those little clear sticky notes for marking books
  • emergenC packets of Vitamin C
  • Sudafed-type med.
  • Precise V5 extra fine pens, dark blue
  • Burts Bees chapstick
  • Olay Complete face lotion (oops...)

...i'm just saying...

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

thanksgiving

This year Garrett and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner! We didn't do all of it, but we did more than I have ever attempted myself. Garrett made the meat: ham and chicken. Turkey is hard to find here, and neither of us care much about it. I made sweet potatoes and peas and gravy, plus pies. And we got drinks, scrounged up plates and utensils and cups for all.

We hosted the Polaks over at my apartment. My roommate Sheila joined us, and so did Karina, my language partner. Here are Daniel and Anna with Sheila and Karina. Sheila pitched in too, getting last minute groceries, cooking and getting our apartment ready. Here's a photo of Sheila reading to Anna.
Here's Daniel with Karina.
Elizabeth made the mashed potatoes, a corn dish, and a pumpkin pie. She also brought serving utensils and dessert plates. After cooking at Euclid where between three roommates we had hosting supplies coming out of our ears, I was totally unprepared to realize we barely have enough plates for a party of 10.But we had a fabulous meal. Mark ate a lot.

december 2: chambers

"When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do."

how true is that?