The End Times, The Last Days, and all those dramatic titles

Ahoj!

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! It seems like yesterday we were getting home from an awesome trip home with our roommate Eva, now we are working on packing up to come home in just two days!  In that time we've been all over the place tying up loose ends, finishing school, and fitting in a few last trips...

For my belated birthday trip, Gracia and I went to the "Motherland", Sweden, for the weekend. Although it was a short trip, we were able to see a lot in Stockholm and it truly was a beautiful city! We started out as soon as we arrived by taking a ferry out to a nearby island in the archipelago. After exploring the small island, we found a seat on a rock by the water and watched the sunset over Stockholm then enjoyed some coffee in a little restaurant in the company of a boat captain. The next day we explored the Old Town and surrounding areas then made our way over to the island Djurården where we visited one of the coolest museums we'd ever been to, the Vasa Museum, which housed a huge well-preserved ship. Also on the island we walked around Skansen, a large park filled with examples of older buildings from all over Sweden and even a small town with reenacted shops and inhabitants. It reminded me of a much larger version of the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg! Of course, we had to have some Swedish meatballs before leaving, so we stopped to have the traditional meal that evening in a nearby restaurant. After hearing a few familiar phrases that were obviously NOT Swedish, we realized that the owners of the restaurant were actually Slavic and several of them were from the Czech Republic! It created some lively attempts at conversation mixing Swedish, Czech, and English to get our points across. What a small world! The next day we left the beautiful country of Sweden after a quick, but successful trip. It's one of those countries that will simply require another visit!

As soon as we got back, we had to hit the ground running to get ready for finals the next week. Through the course of the next few days, we slowly checked classes off the list as we studied for, then took our last exams. My last final was Thursday night and Gracia's was the next Monday night. It was good to have some closure there, but also so strange to say goodbye to fellow students that we would, most likely, never see again. Although school was definitely not the favorite part of this trip :) it was also a good experience and created so many opportunities for meeting other people and getting to know the new culture. We're pretty sure we passed the classes... 

Also during the week, all of us at A1 Flats (plus a few other friends!) gathered here in the backyard to have the last get together with all of us there before we one-by-one leave the Czech Republic. It's a weird feeling to say goodbye to people you've spent concentrated time with over the course of several months. We had so much fun getting to know and hang out with these students, hopefully we will be able to meet up again sometime in the near future. 

During all this time, I was making last minute plans for the next weekend's trip to England with Hannah. It would be our final excursion before heading back home to the States. Hannah and I took off Friday morning and arrived in London, where we camped out for three days. London was really an awesome city, probably the most modern of any we had been to yet. We watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, took a ride on the London Eye, saw the Tower of London, Tate Modern, the British Museum (with the Rosetta Stone!), Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, and the Globe Theater. It was a busy few days! On Monday we parted ways, Hannah to meet some friends in Birmingham, and I to take a detour through the countryside before flying out of Birmingham as well. Taking the train from London, I stopped off to see Stonehenge and the surrounding area then stayed the night in Bath where I toured the ancient Roman baths still existing there. Another long train ride took me to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see Shakespeare's hometown and I finished it off by staying the night in Birmingham and flying back to Prague the next day (yesterday). The English countryside was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun to see more history come to life! 

Meanwhile, Gracia took the weekend to study up for her last finals on Monday, which were frustrating but they're over now! She had a good time going with the Prudeks to church for the last time and got to hang out with a friend who we had met at Benatky. Most of the other students here at A1 were also in Prague for the weekend so she was able to hang out with them some more before splitting directions. One major adventure was going to a non English speaking hairdresser to get a haircut- it turned out great though! I greatly missed her and was so glad to see her when I got back! If this is what happens after just a few days apart, it may be an interesting summer :) 

Now all of a sudden it's the day before we fly back home and Gracia and I have been attempting to prepare for the journey. Our room is currently a collection of half-packed suitcases and piles of a semester's worth of living, hopefully everything will fit in our bags! Last night the Prudeks demonstrated their hospitality as we went over for dinner to catch up and at the same time say goodbye. It was great to see them again before we take off and we hope to stay in contact with them. They were such an amazing part of our semester here and we're so grateful! Today is our last day in the Prague and that certainly brings about mixed feelings. We're going to miss Europe a lot and have had such a great experience here, but at the same time we are SUPER pumped to get back and see you all! We'll be walking around Prague this afternoon to see the sights one more time and perhaps reminisce a little before finishing up packing, saying goodbyes, and taking off early tomorrow morning. Our flight will take us to Dallas where we will get to see Gracia's family and from there we'll make our way back to Kansas and a summer full of catching up with everyone we've missed so much. 

So now I'm going to sign off and get ready for the big day ahead. Can't wait to see you all, thanks for all your prayers and thoughts this semester, what an adventure it's been!

Love,

Laura

Eek....Only 2 weeks left!

Why hello there friends!

I thought I would send a quick update to let you know about the recent events in our lives. The past couple of weeks have been spent out of Prague and have been amazing. The first weekend in May, we took a little weekend trip to Budapest, not a city I had on my list but I definitely should have put it on there. It was Hannah's birthday trip and definitely one of my favorite cities we have visited so far. The beautiful of it was a mixture of all the cities we had seen so far with a little Eastern influence mixed in. I think staying with friends also helped the whole weekend be that much more enjoyable. We saw an amazing castle, a delicous tea house, a masive parliment, a cute little restaurant, and the Turkish baths. Note: If you ever go to Budapest, GO TO THE TURKISH BATHS for the whole day! It was amazing! Everything we did there was simply wonderful. Happy birthday Hannah!!!

This last weekend we went home with our roommate, Eva, to her little village in Austria. My first impression of Austria wasn't the greatest (this coming from the trip to Vienna at the beginning) so I am really glad we had the chance to go back and give it a second go at it. The country side was simply heavenly and her family made us feel so welcome and loved. We even got wild honey from her grandmother who is a bee keeper! It was the most relaxing weekend away I have had here. I actually didn't want to come back to Prague. :) While we were there we were able to see where she lives and works. There was even an exhibition in her town and two other towns that told the history of the Czech Republic and Austria. That was really intersting. I have been learning so much history here even about the United States that I didn't know before! :) On Saturday while we were there, we got to witness some wedding traditions in the village. Eva's brother was the "wrong" bride and the groom had to ask a series of questions to find out where the real bride was. It was really funny and hard to explain. :) There are some pictures on facebook of it. Sometimes I wish we had traditions like that in the U.S. That would be so much fun.

This week has been a little more relaxed with my projects turned in and starting finals. I know that usually starting finals means that life gets more stressful but so far that is not the case with me at least. I think next week is a little hectic for Laura. All her finals except one are next week. I had one this week. I have two next week and then two the following Monday. I like having them so spread out because it give me the opportunity to focus on one at a time and really study for it.

Anyways, this weekend we are going to.....SWEDEN! It is Laura's b-day trip (I know, a little late, but better late than never. eh?) We'll post as soon as we can about it!!!

We love you all and excited to see everyone in just a couple of weeks!!!
Gracia

One month = lots of adventures!

Ahoj friends!

It's been so long since we last updated, this is going to require several "chapters" to update!...

Chapter 1- The Wanderings

For our spring break, we had an about a week and a half off school to go on our adventure of choice. You've already heard some about Gracia's- Bradley came to visit and they got engaged! In the meantime, Beth and Darrin came to Europe for some vacationing and I met them in Rome on Friday the 27th. We got to hang out in Rome for Friday evening (exploring the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, and nearby area) and then all day Saturday (the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, The Spanish Steps). After renting a car on Sunday morning, we drove through the countryside to the hilltop towns Cevita and Orvieto then ended at Assisi where we spent the night in a farmhouse hotel. The next day we toured Assisi in the sunshine then drove on to the beautiful town of Siena for an evening enjoying the fun atmosphere of the active central Piazza. We took our leave from Siena early the next morning and drove to Florence, home of the David statue and the Uffizi gallery. Although we encountered some rain, we still had fun walking through the market in town and the galleries were so amazing! From Florence we went on to Pisa, where we left our rented car (which we had fondly nicknamed Max). Guess what stop we made in Pisa? If you guessed a tower that seems to be leaning, you're correct! We climbed to the top and, of course, took a few pictures of us doing our part to hold up the building! After Pisa we took a train to the seaside towns of Cinque Terre, where we enjoyed a complete change of pace and scenery. One hike, boat ride, and ocean wade later we were on our way to Venice to meet Bradley and Gracia. Venice is exactly like you see in the pictures with the narrow canals and gondola's everywhere! It was so great to relax, walk around, and take our own little gondola ride. Plus, we were in the company of the newly engaged couple, which was so much fun! I have to take a special moment to note the exceptional gelato of Italy, which we taste tested frequently. We may never look at ice cream the same way again! Our next adventure was to take a train through the Alps to Salzburg, Austria. We only had a day in Salzburg, but we thoroughly enjoyed the castle tour, random parade (complete with costumes), Easter decor around the city, and a few scenes from Mozart's life and the Sound of Music! A comfortable night tram whisked us right back to Prague where we camped out for the next few days.

Chapter 2- The Adventures Continue

It was so much fun to have Darrin and Beth in my home-away-from-home city! Our friends Fred and Kelly let them stay at their house while they were out of town, so Darrin and Beth were only a 10 minutes walk away from my apartment. Although I had to go to a few classes while they were here, I also got to show them around the main parts of Prague. It was a LOT of walking, but still fun, especially since the weather has magically changed to spring! Sunshine has replaced snow and we can actually see the sky these days, which is really encouraging. So hanging with me here in Prague, Beth and Darrin went to Paris and we followed shortly, arriving on Saturday afternoon. Paris is such a beautiful city! Climbing the Arc de Triumph, exploring the Louvre, admiring and scaling the Eiffel Tower, enjoying an outdoor cafe, and many other beautiful adventures quickly filled up Saturday and Sunday. Darrin and Beth unfortunately had to part ways with us on Monday morning, I had such a fantastic time traveling with them! We girls slept in a little bit, then enjoyed a last meal on the lawn by the Tower, soaking up the Paris sunshine!

Chapter 3- The Aftermath

With fond memories of Italy, Austria, and France dancing in my head, I started in to another week of school. It's been sinking in that we actually only have a few weeks left here, which has compelled me to think about what I'd like to do with the time we have left. The past two weekends have been so relaxing as we've stayed here in Prague and the weather has been for the most part, amazing! Last weekend we took a fun excursion to the zoo and got to go to the small church plant, Milovice, with Fred and Kelly. This Friday myself and my flatmates (Hannah, Eva, and Gracia) spent the morning at Karlstejn castle about 30 minutes outside of Prague. It was such a beautiful area and fun to hang out with the girls! Saturday I grabbed a cheap set of paints and a canvas that I had bought earlier and spent some time painting a view of Prague from Letna Hill. Today we went to the International Church of Prague and went out to eat with a few friends we had met the first time we attended there. This evening we participated in a round of Risk, Prague version, handmade by one of the guys in our program (a colored map of Prague as the board and coded pistachio shells for pieces!). Although at this point you may not believe we even go to school over here anymore :) we have, in fact, been working on projects, presentations, and homework as well! 

It's a little sobering to think that this may be my last official weekend in Prague- the next few will be filled with a last round of traveling. I can't believe how fast the semester has gone, I'm sure that the rest of our time here is going to fly by! It has certainly been a whirlwind adventure the past few weeks and I apologize for not updating more frequently... hopefully this "novel" wasn't too long! 

We're missing you all SO much and love you lots,

Laura

The End

footnote: there are lots of pictures of all these adventures on facebook, be sure to check them out!

Exciting News!

Hello again from Gracia!
I know I just posted but I have exciting news to share. J So as you all know as of the last post I was waiting for Bradley to show up after his plane was delayed in coming to Prague. Well, he made it all in one piece bearing gifts. We had reservations at an amazing and oober (word taken from Lizy. J) romantic restaurant on the Vltava River with a view of the Charles Bridge, so as soon as we got back to my apartment we quickly changed to go and eat. Well Bradley took a lot longer to get dressed than I did so I was patiently waiting and wondering what was taking him so long. It turns out he was setting up a birthday present for me that had been jostled during his flight. The gift was a beautiful antique jewelry box with a lock on it (a lock that just happens to match the skeleton key he sent me a week earlier for my birthday). I opened it and there was a plaque with my favorite Bible verse on it (Jeremiah 29:11), some Dove chocolates (my favorite), and my class ring (which I thought was a little strange but later made sense). I pulled out the shelf in the box to find a bunch of treasures including a poem he wrote on a picture of us, more dove chocolates, huge plastic diamonds, and a REAL DIAMOND RING! As soon as I saw that part he took the ring box from the jewelry box and got down on one knee and PROPOSED! I said yes of course, so this means Bradley and I are now engaged!!!!!! Just thought I would let you all know. We didn’t have much time to celebrate before we flew off to our reservations at Kampa Park Restaurant. The dinner was picturesque and beautiful! I got to wear one of my new dresses and Bradley looked very handsome in his blue button down shirt and kaki pants. Just so you know I was surprised. I had thought that he would propose sometime when he was here but I didn’t know where or when and the way he did it never crossed my mind. It was a pleasant surprise that is for sure. :D
Thank you for all your love and support!!! We are very excited to start planning FOR REAL and not just daydreaming.
We are now off to Venice to meet up with Laura and her family, so until next time!
Love,
Gracia

The End of March and the Beginning of Spring

Hello Friends!

March is nearly over and I thought I should update before I have more to say after Spring Break. :) (You will thank me later, I promise.)

This month has gone by super fast and yet super slow at times (That happens when you are waiting for your boyfriend to come and visit you.). After Ireland we spent some time doing some homework (kind of) as well as a little opera culture and a Thai Massage (Did Laura mention that? hmm...Not sure if she did or not.) The opera was eh, okay, but the Opera House, now that was AMAZING! The massage was wonderful as well (compliments of Bradley for my birthday. :))

Last weekend I turned 20 (I have officially entered the world of non-teenism)! It was an exciting day (It was a little dampered by the fact that I had Sociology and International Relations Midterm so study for.) filled with letter opening, present opening, and a wonderful Nacho Bar put on my lovely flatmate, Hannah. :) On Monday, I was pleasantly surprised by a chocolate cake delivered to my flat (Thanks to Skyler, James, and Caleb.). It was a nice distraction from studying and good motivator to take the test and come right home. :) I am happy to say that I think I passed (with flying colors) all my midterms.

In the meantime last weekend, my beautiful friend, Laura, took a little trip back to the good ol' state of Kansas for her brother's wedding (I missed her.). From the little I have heard about it, i believe it went very well and she had a good time. She made it back to Prague 10 minutes before we were planning on leaving to see the Cinderella Ballet. It was a crazy story but she was suppose to be back before lunch but because of missed flights and mechanical difficulties it was past dinner by the time she made it. Poor things almost fell asleep during the ballet (It was good but a little different version than we knew. Again the Opera House was beautiful!). After rushing through her midterms and booking a last minute flight to Rome, she finally repacked her suitcase and flew to Italy to meet her sister and brother-in-law for a long awaited vacation in her dream location on Friday.

This weekend I have been passing the time with facebook, shopping, sleeping (I haven't felt the best but vitamins and cold meds are taking care of that. :)), and waiting anxiously for Bradley to get here. He is on his way now and will arrive only nine hours later than expected (Praying all the flights continue to be on time and Paris isn't too complicated.) Oh I also did some homework. That was fun. :) I should sketch some too........

Well, I hope all of you had a fabulous Spring Break (Since most of you are back at school by now. Unless you are too cool/too old for school and didn't have Spring Break, in which case I hope you have been having a great life.). I heard Summit went amazing! I know I speak for Laura when I say we wish we could have gone and experienced it too. Maybe next year....

We miss you all sooo much! Thank you for your prayers and we are praying for you!

Love,
Gracia

Ireland wanderings

This past weekend, Gracia, Hannah, and I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland! I was worried that because it was such a short trip we be abl

e to get a good feel for the country, but it turned out to be the opposite; all the random adventures we had certainly turned into an awesome experience! Here's a basic idea of our 

whirlwind trip (with a few random details thrown in there...).

Friday:

*Got to the airport via taxi after missing the bus by 5 minutes (got there 5 minutes before the gate closed)

*Flew in to Dublin and found our way to the bus station to catch the 2 hour bus ride to Kilkenny (were the last ones on the bus right before they shut the doors, with one seat left after us)

*Arrived in Kilkenny, found our hostel, and did a little shopping on High Street

*Enjoyed the evening scenery of the castle, river (complete with swans...), side streets, and churches

*Had coffee and dessert at a fun restaurant then found a small pub advertising live music

*Listened to "the Kilkennys" (Irish accents, acoustic guitar, mandolin, celtic hand-drum, bass, and an occasional flute/pipe) play folk songs, often joined by the locals in the pub

*Slept comfortably in our hostel (which was much warmer than our hostel in Vienna!)

Saturday:

*Made breakfast in the kitchen at our hostel then went in a few shops

*Took a tour of the Kilkenny Castle (we were able to take off our coats outside because the sun was shining, it was amazing)

*Sat outside at a cafe and had coffee and scones

*Toured a historical restored house with a rooftop garden

*Enjoyed the rolling green hills out the windows on our bus trip back to Dublin

*Made it to the hotel (almost lost Hannah's wallet, but thankfully we got back to the previous bus just in time for search and rescue!)

*Went to eat in Swords, right outside of Dublin by our hotel, (had to run through the rain to get there) and enjoyed sitting and talking for the rest of the evening

Sunday:

*Took a taxi back to the airport to catch our 6:50 a.m. plane!

It was a truly enjoyable trip, even though we could've wandered around Ireland for much, much longer! This past week has meant another set of classes and such, it all goes so quickly. Although the plan was to go skiing this weekend, the details got mixed and we ended up not being able to go. However, instead we decided to make Friday Gracia's "un-birthday" since I'll be at home for my brother's wedding on her real birthday. We throughly enjoyed coffee, Thai massages, and an evening at the Statni Opera where we watched La Traviata!

I promise, we really do go to school here too :)

Love you all and miss you,

Laura

Kutna Hora and the bones

Hello my dear friends!

It is now my turn to blog and as usual I have procrastinated and I am sorry for that. Sometimes it just slips my very forgetful mind. :)

Moving on....This past week we (Hannha, Laura, Liz, Emily, Caroline, Logan, Clay, Nick, Patrick, and me :)) went to this town called Kutna Hora which is known for its bone church and St. Barbara's Cathedral. It only took about an hour to get there by train and it was under $10 round trip. The first thing we did there when we arrived was visit the Ossuary, or the bone church. It was rather creepy at first but once you got past the fact they were once living humans with lives that were extinguished by the Black Plague, it wasn't that bad. :) Actually it really wasn't but that could just be me and my scientific mind in awe of the anatomy creativity.

This is the outside of the church. It was not very big but it made up for it on the inside. :) The outside was surround by a cemetary that apparantly is highly sought.

This is part of a pile of bones that is strategically placed so they will not fall down. This was a bit on the creepy side.

The most distrubing part about this is I could have just reached out and touched them.

The chandelier made completely out of bones. So beautiful...I think I want to decorate my house like this. (Just kidding!)

After visiting the church of bones we went out for lunch at a small restaurant we found nearby. It was good but I have had better. :) We made it to the really touristy part of town and from there our group split up into two groups which made it a lot easier to move around. I went with three of the girls and went in some little shops and then headed to the cathedral.

It was very beautiful and the walk reminded me of something out of a movie. The cathedral is the big building in the distance. We spent the rest of the day wondering around to an Italian Palace with a cute little courtyard and then made it home by around 9:00 pm. It was a good day.

As for the rest of the week, it has been spent doing school and site seeing some of the city for our Art and Architecture class. On Sunday we went with Fred and Kelly again to church in Benetky. It was fun and we were able to talk to a girl our age who spoke English. This next weekend we are headed to Ireland, my birthday trip. :) We are really excited about and will update you on how it goes. Love you all! God Bless!!

Na Sheldanou! (Goodbye!)
Gracia