FREE ENGLISH LESSON

This was a conversation between William (a 6 year old boy who is fluent in both Czech & English) and his grandma's boyfriend (who only speaks Czech):

*It was all spoken in the Czech language except a few words in English which are represented by "..."

BF: William, teach me some English.
William: OK. Say "Hello"
BF: "Hello"
William: Now say "deanna"
BF: "deanna"
William: "Hello deanna" now you speak English!

Love that kid.

RIP chi

My chi hair straightener passed on to that flat iron heaven in the sky this past week.
You were good to me. You didn't get too hot. You traveled from the states to Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe by my side. You were there for me through blonde, brown, short, long, clean, dirty, good, and bad hair days. Thank you for your valiant service. Job well done. You will be missed.

Guess that means I'm stuck with "beach hair" for the next 2 months.

**Side note: It is August...that means if anyone wants to get me a birthday present (ahem) a new one of these would suffice or a pair of those shoes with the pockets.

WEEKEND IN FOREST

Not a bad weekend in the Šumava forest at all, if I do say so myself.

It was full of:

Rainy but pleasant hikes

Picking blueberries

and a giant inflatable slide in the backyard

Loving my Czech Republic.

CARNIVAL RIDES

I've got a great idea: Let's build some carnival rides for small children and then paint hot chicks wearing as little or no clothing as possible. That'll get the kindergartners out to ride!

Maybe I'm not European enough to understand, but I think this one with Winnie the Pooh is a little more age appropriate:

GET TO THE CHOPPER!

My Czech family: Deanna, is it ok if we arrange a helicopter ride to get a nice view of the Šumava forest this weekend?
Deanna: Umm...I guess so.


Are you kidding me?! This first timer in a helicopter was SO excited.

TREE TOP WALK

We spent the weekend in Borová Lada (which I was told is the coldest place in the Czech Republic) and decided to take an afternoon trip to Germany. No big deal. So we loaded the Mercedes and went to baumwipelpfad.

This is home of the world´s longest tree top walk located in the Bavarian Forest National Park. It is an egg shaped structure made of pure genius and wood. The path inside is 1300 meters long and winds up to a tower with and impressive view at a height of 44 meters.

Along the path to the structure are fun, safe obstacles you can choose to take or avoid. Just makes the walk a little more fun.

The view of Germany at the top is breathtaking.

ANALOG WATCH

I need to admit something: I'm afraid of getting older and losing my mind...literally. I mean, I want to stay on top of my game for as long as possible. SO I decided to buy a watch. The analog kind (which means I have to exercise my brain a little bit more to count by fives instead of just looking at the digital clock on my mobile device).
Here she is:

Not bad for 79Kč huh?!
I'm also thinking this new addition to my daily wardrobe might make me seem more responsible.

But then again maybe not when I get caught wearing it while drinking from the carton...baby steps.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM ITALY

We spent a week in Sardinia. Here is a list of things I learned during that stay:

It's ok to eat salami for breakfast.

A unibrow is NOT hot.

The beach is fabulous--day or night.

There's no wrong way to say spaghetti.

And I am pretty sure falling asleep in the sand has and will always be in my top five favorite things to do EVER...even though you might find sand in places it has no business being for the next two days.

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW

So what if this is the view from my window in Prague...

Meet Orloj. He was made back in the 1400's and sits in the Old Town Square. He has a clock, a calender, figures that move around 2 small windows and a guy who blows a trumpet at the very top of the tower every hour from 9am to 9pm. Orloj makes me smile.

DUH! SWIMMING!

My first real full day in Czech and what did William and I do (twice)?

Duh! Swimming...of course!

WELL TRAVELED

I was checking my bag at the airport when the lady at the counter commented with, "You can tell a well-traveled person by their luggage."
To which I quickly replied, "Or you can spot an airline that doesn't give a darn about customer service."
Thank you, Delta Airlines.
I want my $50 back!

PS I left to the Czech Republic for a bit.