Safe & Sound

We arrived in Ceske Budejovice a little before six o'clock yesterday (Wednesday). After four flights, collecting our bags three times, and riding a train or tram for nearly six hours, we were finally here. Finally. We were tired and a little weary, but glad to have reached our final destination.

All our flights went smoothly, although I was unable to sleep on the flight over. That certainly didn't help the jet lag situation. I slept for about an hour in the Frankfurt airport, then a couple more hours on our first stretch of train trip between Dresden and Prague. I made myself stay up until nearly ten o'clock, then slept until eight this morning. I am doing much better today, and feel that if I can get another good night of sleep, I should be pretty much "back to normal" tomorrow.

Today we visited a hardware store (basically a Lowes or Menards) and two grocery stores. We were actually surprised by the amount of things available here since we had no real idea what to expect. We found soy and rice milk, as well as a soy pudding mixture of some sort. I checked the cereals for ingredient listings and found that the Kellogg brands have an allergy statement and some packages have English or French listings on them that we can use to help. Others there's nothing to go by, so obviously it would just take time to look at each item - which I already do in the States anyway, so that's nothing new.

The buildings are very colorful here - painted yellow, green, etc. It does make it a little more cheery looking. There are large apartment buildings, mass housing in a way, that is much different than in other European countries. I suppose that was one way the Communists had to house all the people cheaply.

We ate at a restaurant and sampled some of the local fare. I read in a culture shock book that they have a tendency to make rather unhealthy foods. They are right. Everything we had was either fried and/or breaded or had a gravy or sauce. Not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good for you either.

We got to see the church building and to meet one of the ladies that works with the youth. The missionary went through a presentation on what his goals are for the ministry here.

After that we drove around a little bit, got some ice cream, looked at prices in a furniture store, then went to visit a couple from the church. They live in one of the large apartment housing complexes with their two young children. She made a delicious cake, a recipe from Romania, where she is from. I suggested she write it down for us and have her husband translate it to English so we can have it too! She said she would have to translate it to Czech first b/c her husband does not speak Romanian! I don't know if she will do it or not, but I would love to share it others. They are a dear couple, and it is clear they truly desire for the church to progress and to grow. Their main desire is for the church to develop close fellowship with each other, something that has been lacking. Much of this is due to the post-communistic thinking and culture. I was glad we got to meet them and see how the people here live. Their little girl wanted to know what our names are. I discovered before that my name translates into Czech, which is quite a miracle since the Communists actually had approved name lists that everyone had to name their children off of. In Czech my name is Adela, with an accent over the "e". Well, the mom and girl got a smile from that and the little girl ran off to her room. She came back with a cloth doll she had named Adela. I thought that was neat. Although Americans may slaughter my name, I have found Spanish, French, and now Czech speakers have no problem with it.

Well, that's our update for now, though I do have some other blogs I want to write. We'll see if I get the computer time!