day 1.

you'll never believe what i committed to.

30 days of not eating dairy, carbs, and sugar.

OH MY GOSH. (here's the official list of what i can and can't eat)

so, i'm drinking my coffee black. and because i don't know what else to eat, i've just been drinking coffee. now my hands are shaking because it was too much (i'm making more though)

breakfast: egg and spinach.
snack: apples and pears
lunch: salad
snack: raisins and almonds
dinner: chili

i also made brownies today. they smell absolutely wonderful. i can't eat them. i don't even know if they taste good.

today's the first day of English club. i'm an ickle bit nervous. lots of new faces expecting to have a good time. woops.

all in all i just pray for the gospel to be shared with them. and for me to stop with the coffee (but it tastes so good!)

afternoon stroll

i've been having a grumpy day. i told my friend this morning at church that I didn't feel like talking to anyone, and she asked me why. "I woke up," was my response.

days like these make me second-guess being here, especially because i've been thinking and praying through so many decisions lately and not feeling led in any direction.

but with no further reason to complain, here are some pretty pictures that i took yesterday.

let me introduce the reason for these pictures...

Jenny moved in about 2 weeks ago and has been adjusting to traveling to work every day and teaching students who don't speak the same language as her. all in all, she's adjusting to this new crazy culture pretty quickly!

she's crafty, athletic, and sweet, and best of all - she thinks i'm funny. so yesterday we decided to enjoy the presence of the sun by going through a stroll around the neighborhood. i guess we walked farther than we realized because today our dogs are barkin' - and last night we were both falling asleep by 8:30.

thank God for this awesome sunshiney week before the clouds return for winter. i love this time of year.

a man-made lake a few blocks from my home

oh these colors!

an old man had been following a safe distance behind us, but he gained on us as we stopped to take pictures. it was about here that a fish jumped out of the water, causing us both to scream right as the old man was passing by.

duckies

we passed said old man until we saw this wall where we stopped again. he told us that we shouldn't take pictures there because of the graffiti on the wall. we just giggled and kept taking pictures

i want to steal this plant.

in the middle of this picture, in the far distance, you can see a castle on a hill

there it is - kuneticka hora.

and again after we walked farther on

moravia

i took a trip to moravia last week. unfortunately i didn't take pictures at every stop, but here a few fun ones that i did get...

my friend Barca, who studies in Olomouc

this turtle statue was so creepy

Petrunda, one of my girls from Pardubice who also studies in Olomouc

with Barca and Petrunda at the top of a tower

enjoying sushi with Johca the ghost and Petrunda

Frydlant

with Barus! 

i love fall.

Svatia had these awesome pajamas

hledali jsme houby

don't know what that means? take a look at these pictures and take a guess!

my play partner in the backseat, Vanesa

what's that Vanesa's trying to reach?

HOUBY! (mushrooms :) )

Monika and I, so proud that we found more than ONE decent mushroom

10am and freezing

apparently crazy Czech people wake up at 6am on Saturdays to go mushroom hunting. by the time we got there at 9, they had all been picked through

Marek in the trees trying to get signal on his phone

there he is :)

Vaneska enjoying the sun. she doesn't yet understand the joys of mushroom hunting.

and she made a game of hopping over the mushroom.

then we came to this man-made lake, where there were people scuba diving!

we came to find that it was the National Czech competition of Harpooning fish! weird Czechs.

a view of the craze-os from higher up

in all likelihood, i didn't find these particular mushrooms. they're too perfect.

attempting to set up a group picture

Vanesa wanted nothing to do with it

got it!

we stopped at a restaurant on the way back and literally warmed our feet at the fire. i thought it was a bit trashy, but Monika just shrugged and said "we're in a village."

hledali jsme houby?
we looked for mushrooms :)

poland

at the beginning of the month i got to go to poland on a trip with the church. it wasn't my first trip there, but my trips prior had either been because i hiked over the border, or to go to a water park :)

the majority of the party from the church were much older. Anca (one girl from Bible study) and i clung together and enjoyed sightseeing around poland. for Anca, it was her first time to experience a different culture - different shops, different churches, different people, different languages; although polish and czech languages are similar, Poles and Czechs can't always understand each other.

so, here are a few shots from the trip :)

too much time sitting on the bus makes one do crazy things!

my favorite place on earth - Malenovice. arrived just in time to see the sunset! this is still in Czech and close to the Polish border. We spend one night here as a half-way point.

with my little friend, Abi. she spent the night in Malenovice

leaving Malenovice. yes, i was that person who took pictures from the bus window. 

we stopped at this church on the way

Taby, our new pastor, and Anca enjoying the nice sun

this was part of the church, and they have a school that meets here. there's a tree growing up in the middle of the staircase!

church roof

from the inside - the chandelier

double chin beauty

a view from the balcony

Taby where the preacher should be :)

the church had about 3 floors that we didn't expect. Anca took this of the ceiling on the top floor which doubled as a museum

Anci :)

we stayed at a missions "campground" in Poland. it was along a river... they even have a  man-made beach! this place is called Proem

Anca re-creating Narnia :)

a fishtank in Proem

a day trip to Warsaw and a stop at the Holocaust museum

cutest cafe ever. unfortunately situated in the Holocaust museum

an old bike with sidecar. i want this

also at the museum

next stop...another museum.

from the bathroom

crazy interior!

each piece of glass around the exterior had letters...

whirlwind tour or Warsaw's old town

teaching Anci how to be a tourist

from the top

we got a bird's eye view of Warsaw

and we got to enjoy ice cream

Proem has miniature ponies walking around the place. this one was literally outside our door in the morning.

scaring Anci by jumping on the bridge

and of course a barbecue

from the main building of Proem

lots of singing that night.

Maui & Eva, who started Proem ministries, with Petr & Dana. they're long, long-time friends!

a very cold morning goodbye!