Hello and once again, I apologize for the delay in writing. I think I'm just going to have to accept the fact that it takes a while to get life back together again after going on a trip, and therefore the posts will be a little more delayed when that happens. :)

Anyway, I hope you are doing well as you read this!

I did get back from Rome at the beginning of the week, and it was all a really great time. It was fun traveling with my friend Sarah from CCU and yes, the city itself was amazing. We spent most of the time just wandering around, going too all of the "big pictures" on our map. :) You know, like the Colosseum, The Ruins, St. Peter's Basilica... all very beautiful and pretty crazy to actually see in person. The overall atmosphere, and all of the little Italian restaurants and shops were really fun (and yummy! :)

We didn't go into many museums or anything - that in and of itself could be a separate trip, but for the few days that we had there, we felt like we got to experience a lot. There was a protest that we ran into on our first day walking around - a huge group of what turned out to be Italian futbol boys, protesting the new policy of requiring registration cards to buy tickets to the games. Pretty exciting stuff right there. :) It was interesting to say the least.

It was also our first experience staying in a hostel, which turned out to be not bad at all. It was the three of us girls in a four bed room. The first night we had a young kid from Japan with us and the other two nights a young guy from south of Chicago. Both were very nice and we even convinced the second to join us in an exciting game of Phase 10 one of the evenings. :)

Here is the link to my pictures from the trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012019&id=142700074&l=3d78f166e0

We got back Monday night and then I still had Tuesday off as a holiday because it was the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution - the year the Czech Republic broke free from communism. There was a big march in the city, with speakers and music and lots of Czech beer. It was pretty exciting to be there in the midst of all the celebration.

Since then it's been a quiet week of getting back into the routine of normal life again, which is good. I'm still having days and moments where it's harder to be excited about being here though. I know everything I'm experiencing is great and amazing, but it still isn't home... I just need to make more of an effort to get out and live life here, I think. It's easy to just go to school, come home, do lesson plans, and go to school again. I want to be excited about living here though, and not just look forward to the next big thing I have planned. I went to the park the other day, and signed up for the church email list that has different things going on in our community...it's the little things like that that are important, I think, so it's just being able to make time for them. Please pray that I'll be able to do that and enjoy it.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. I love you all!!
Steph