Cesky Krumlov vs. Karlovy Vary

With only a few days left here in the Czech Republic I thought it would be nice to share a few pictures of a few places I have been to this past month. July has been pretty busy traveling from one place to another.

Cesky Krumlov

The following pictures are of Cesky Krumlov one of my favorite places outside of Prague. Cesky Krumlov is a small town south of Prague that has been around since the mid 1200's. The city's historical buildings and atmosphere is protected by UNESCO.

A view of the city and river from the castle tower.

Hostel Merlin treated us well. We only stayed one night, and other than having to step over the drunken man past out in the middle of the hall on the way to the bathroom, it was really quite a pleasant place to stay.

Yipes! There's a bear!

The temperature was in the low fifties while we were there, which explains why we were dressed in sweatshirts and jackets.

The castle tower.

Beautiful! I could live in this cute little town.

Karlovy Vary

If you have seen the movie Last Holiday with Queen Latifah then you may remember that Karlovy Vary is where Queen Latifah's character goes on vacation. A friend and I took the bus out to the city one afternoon, but unfortunately for us it was not as magical an experience when we visited. The city was nice, but I honestly expected to see more while I was there. Plus, we missed our bus going back to Prague. We had to buy new tickets and left an hour later than we had planned. The city is a spa town; people come here to drink mineral water and get spa treatments and that is about it.

There are stands all over the city selling these fancy spa cups. The handle is a straw so you can sip the hot mineral water while you stroll down the city streets.

As you walk down the street there are various fountains to choose from, with various temperatures of mineral water to fill your cup up with. People believe that the water is good for your health. Many people bring along 2 liter bottles to fill up and take home with them. The only problem is the water is nasty!

The Grandhotel Pupp is the famous hotel in the movie Last Holiday.

We took a wrong turn when trying to find our way to the city center and found this church. I forget what kind of church it is.

A view of Karlovy Vary from the top of Diana Tower, a lookout point at the top the mountain.

If you find yourself traveling through the Czech Republic and only have time to visit one of these popular places, I would suggest Cesky Krumlov all the way. It is the best!

I saw the Acropolis and got a tan too!

I was in Greece last week for our missions yearly meeting.  When I left Prague, temperatures were in the low 60's high 50's and it had been raining most of the week. Greece, however, was sunny with temperature in the high 80's low 90's.  It wasn't as hot as it was last year, which many people were happy about.  I had to work some, helping with registration as M's came in from all of Europe for the conference and helping with some set up, but I did get some pool time too.  Living in Prague for the past two years, Greece has become my once a year tan spot.  Other than my one week in Greece I really do not see much sun.  Even in the summer.  You know you have lived away from the sun too long when you get a few freckles on your face and you think your face is dirty.  It happen to me.

I have been to Greece 3 times and to Athens twice, but I had never had an opportunity to tour the sights.  On our last day in Greece some of our travel companions very graciously agreed to watch our luggage at the airport so that we could go to the Acropolis before our 6:30pm flight.

The Parthenon!!

Standing on Mars Hill the Acropolis behind me.  I look a little wind blown!

The 5 Central and Eastern Europe Journey-girls I went trough training with for two months back in 2007.  This was probably the last time that all five of us would be together. :( Until heaven that is!

A foot in the mouth moment:  As I was sitting on the plane in Athens, Greece getting ready for take-off, two Journey-Girls and myself were talking about a fictional book that one of the girls was reading.  The book is about a college student at Texas Tech who had a bad experience pledging a Greek frat.  I have never cared for the Texas Tech Greek circle crowd and proceeded to share this with my fellow J-friends by saying, "I don't like Greeks."  My friend sitting next to me immediately puts her hand over my mouth and starts laughing.  It takes me all of a second and a half to realize where I am and what I just said. Oops!! 

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day of school at CISP.  I was both a good day and a sad day.  I feel like I have slowly been saying good-bye to my students and staff for about two weeks now, so it was nice to finally have reached the official end day.

This was my third year of teaching and definitely my favorite.  I had the best students in the world and I love them dearly.  It has been hard saying good-bye, but I hope to come back to visit CISP someday to see these awesome kids.  They have blessed me in so many ways.  I had a total of 22 ESL students with different gifts and challenges that kept me busy learning how to be a better teacher.

These two students were my first grade beginning English speaking students at the beginning of the year.  I had to use very basic English when I talked to them and still they didn't understand much of what I was saying.  Now they are speaking English all the time.  The one in the middle is one of the highest academically in her class.  She won't need ESL support next year.  She brags that she speaks English better than her dad.   It is amazing to see how much they have learned over one school year.

The 5th and 6th grade group. The three students to my left were my advance ESL group and my most hyper active group.  They all three exited this year which is very exciting.  I love the diverse personalities in this group of students.  They were a fun group to teach.

Here is a small group of girls that attend my Tuesday and Thursday ESL classes (I have a total of 10 students that attend on Tuesday and Thursday the others were either absent or in another class).  They love learning English grammar; I don't understand why.  Grammar was never my favorite thing to learn in school, but they will often ask me when they are going to learn other parts of speech or verb forms.

These two third grade boys were definitely my silliest group of students.  They loved to laugh and tell jokes.  Bathroom humor is of course their favorite.  

I have loved living in Prague not because it is a beautiful city with so much to do, but because I had the best job teaching and working with the students at CISP.  They have made the cold, long, and dark winter months worth it.

"I think Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service." 

1 Timothy 1:12