Count Down...

One day till Germany, four days till Christmas, five days till the fam's all here! :)

I am super excited about the next two weeks! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for the Black Forest, to spend a few days, including Christmas with Aunt Ang and Edda! I'm excited to see them, and spend some time relaxing and enjoying the holiday time. Then mom, dad, Maria and Nick arrive on Saturday. We'll stay for a few more days in Germany and then all of us are taking a train/bus back to Prague! We'll all stay here in my flat (I've spent the whole day cleaning and washing sheets!), ring in the New Year, and then they'll leave to go back home on the second. It will be so fun to see them after a little more than THREE MONTHS of being gone... I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to write in the midst of everything, but I'll have lots of pictures and reports as soon as possible. :)

Speaking of pictures, I added some new ones to my albums today... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011788&id=142700074&l=d2fa739e46. There are a few from a walk along the river that I took with Talitha, and then the last are from a midnight excursion we went on Thursday night. :) On her way home Talitha called and convinced me to join her with her camera to take pictures of Old Town Square with all of the pretty the snow and lights. It was especially enchanting with there being so few people around! It's moments like those when I have to remind myself that, yes, I really do live here... it's such a beautiful city!

At the end of the second album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011486&id=142700074&l=29a27b83a0 there are some pictures from my day this past Saturday. I went with my friend Jessica to finish our Christmas shopping at one of the markets in town. On our way we ran into a number of interesting things, to say the least! You have to see the pictures to fully appreciate it, but they included Sea World, a circus, a polar Bear and carp.

The carp is something that I do need to explain more of... It's the national Christmas dish (fish) and apparently it's a very big deal each year. Starting the Saturday before Christmas, they set up stands around the city with three or four huge fish-filled tubs (I passed two different stands in my neighborhood today) and sell these live fish to the people waiting in line. Now one thing we had heard was that you go buy the fish fresh, off of the street, and then you keep in in your bathtub until Christmas when you cook it for your dinner. Carp are bottom dwelling fish and this helps to clean them out a bit before you eat it (?). So, this was a tradition Jessica and I were both aware of, but it was very surprising to all of a sudden run into it in real life. :) Even more surprising, however, was seeing the man fish it out, slap it onto the board and WHACK, chop it's head right off, tail flapping and all... never a dull moment here in the Czech. :)

The past week or so has also been extremely cold. Just walking outside, even with no wind chilled straight through to the bones. It's supposed to warm up this next week though, so hopefully sight seeing wont be too miserable. :) I also am still holding onto my cough :( I feel totally fine, but just keep coughing, especially in the evenings. I mostly feel bad for anyone trying to sleep close by! :/ Hopefully that will go away soon too.

Anyways, have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful NEW YEAR!! Love to you all!!