I open with this picture of Piper, because let’s face it people, it’s day 6 and I am running out of material. We love this dog. Never mind that Czechs think we named her “Paper” when they ask. She’s a sweet companion and has brought us more than one hedgehog in her mouth.
Brno has busted out this week in stellar glory. No really, it’s been out of this world. The Aurora Borealis can be viewed from our city right now and today we enjoyed an almost 90% solar eclipse. Both events occurred over a small fraction of the globe, so we felt very privileged, if not re-chilled by the reminder that we live close to the north pole.
photo by Antonín Svoboda
Zoe, Abigail, and Hannah all saw the eclipse at school. Hannah was totally confused by it. When she came home we had an impromptu science lesson using a space book, an orange pepper as the sun, a green apple as the earth, and a lemon for the moon. I think she’s still confused, but I gave it my best effort.
Mark and I had Czech class, as we do every Friday morning. I wanted to use this opportunity to describe what's so tough about Czech--namely, declinations--but Mark made me erase it because it was wordy and boring. Ach jo.
Czech is painful, people! Pray for us. Rather than including a photo of Mark studying--and can I just say that he is some sort of super student? His drive dwarfs mine. But, as I said, rather than including a photo of Mark studying, I’m including something else he can do, which is way more interesting.
Today Zoe went on a field trip. My kids going on field trips used to totally freak me out. That’s because here in CZE all 25 kids and 1 teacher take public transit to get where they’re going. For the first whole semester and much of the second, I went on all my kids’ field-trips with them. This is quite counter-cultural, but their teachers kindly put up with it. Pictured below is Zoe on one of her first field trips. Her classmates were quizzing her on the English names for wild animals.
I’m so happy for Rebekah today. She finished the third quarter of her junior year. It’s been an exhausting week full of tests for her and she made it through! When I reflect on what she has accomplished I am full of wonder and joy. She’s maintaining great grades at a very difficult school, in her second language, which she only began to learn 5 years ago. I’m telling you guys, God has a significant path charted for her. She humored me by texting me a photo from her evening. She'll be home ONE WEEK from today for spring break!
All three littles had gymnastics again this afternoon. What I think is most important for you to know from today’s practice is that I discovered that the coffee vending machine serves whiskey cappuccino. No, I didn’t try it. I was driving.
We ended our day with our weekly Pátek Party. Pátek is Friday in Czech and every week we celebrate the girls making it through another week of foreign school. These celebrations always include a movie and dessert--tonight it was snickerdoodles.
Happy Friday, friends! And Happy Spring! We are so looking forward to seeing more of the sun.