Love the traveling:)
Happy birthday to sister Phyllis! On a whim last night I face timed to Mom/Dad and they answered (a miracle) and then I saw Phyllis as well; she had been in John Day for a couple days. So that was great to see her face, hear her voice and be able to wish her happy birthday! Late last week I think it was, I was able to Skype with my sister Susan so now I've seen and talked to my immediate family all within the same week - woo hoo:). My Dad has knee replacement surgery on Tuesday (April 1st) so that was good to chat with him about all that going on etc. He is ready for much less pain in the near future! Mom is doing very well - she got a great report on her follow up appointment a couple weeks ago so now she plans on helping Dad with his re-hab on his knee. My parents are awesome.
I'm sitting here at the river today; beautiful spring day here in Poznan! People are out boating, running, walking, biking, bar-b-queing...all good.
So since my last blog - I have been gone mostly...Berlin, Prague and Warsaw. Berlin was amazing - we made reservations (apparently required so they can check your background) to the Reichstag - German goverment building. That was awesome - really old building of course but they have built a glass dome and you wind your way up the 360 degree dome with headsets explaining the city of Berlin that you can see out of the dome. Very interesting. Then we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate - which was part of the Berlin Wall so we walked to and from what was East/West Berlin...amazing. The next day we went to Check Point Charlie and that was quite surreal. Unbelievable really to me...what it must have been like. The last time Colleen had been in Berlin was while the Berlin Wall was still up so it was very interesting to her - she had been through CheckPoint Charlie and now just to walk on the street where it had all been was overwhelming.
Prague was amazingly beautiful (see side picture). The last time I had been there was in January 15 years ago and the St. Charlies Bridge was so packed with snow - there was nobody on it. I think Bob, Michael and I had the bridge and streets to ourselves! This time; great weather and pretty packed with people...good stuff. We found a free walking tour the first day and the guide was awesome. So full of stories and history and information - it was great. In fact, we signed up for another tour the next day with the same guide as she took us through the castle at Prague...great! 70% atheism in Czech Republic. They have had so many wars due to religion; people are just fed up. That was quite the fact to learn...sad to me. Josh's concerts were amazing - the high school choir and string orchestra sang in a church that was fairly new (built in 1910) with amazing acoustics so no microphones, no electronic anything. They did a great job - Josh got to do a reading before one of the songs and he did excellent (says the oh-so-proud-Aunt)!
Then this past week several from Sweet Surrender Krakow and Poznan headed up to Warsaw for the Polish 'Coffee Olympics'. Again, folks take their coffee pretty seriously. A bit much for me but it was all interesting to see and experience. There is an actual competition - all timed at 6 minutes long; best latte art, making Irish Creme, number of 'good' espresso shots, and identifying the strongest coffee in six different groups brewed. Sweet Surrender Poznan had a guy competing for the first time; he did alright! Not stellar but it was good and fun to support him. We all took the train and stayed at a hostel so it was good to have some 'team' time. The coffee roasting company that supplies coffee to Sweet Surrender are based in Warsaw so we did get to go to their location and see the roastery and their training room etc - that was quite interesting. Serious about coffee!
So now comes April which means Easter...I'm very excited to experience Easter here. Everybody tells me the city really shuts down...so we shall see. The Monday after Easter is called 'Dyngus Day' here in Poland. The youth throw water on each other out in the streets! It's funny to hear Polish people tell stories of when they were in high school etc...it's basically a time for romance - ha! The history apparently dates back to 966 AD when a Polish princess was baptised...indicating cleansing, fertility and purification. How things change :).
I must admit I have missed being on FaceBook for Lent...but I have been doing much more reading so that is a good thing. I kind of 'keep up' with people on FaceBook though so I feel very out of the loop. Ahhh well - so goes the short term sacrifice. Hopefully it will make me appreciate the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus and once I return to FB to enjoy catching up with friends and family:). And...I have a LOT less hits on my blog without FaceBook...odd?...
Have a great week - I certainly intend to since life is good and God is waaaaaay better!
I'm sitting here at the river today; beautiful spring day here in Poznan! People are out boating, running, walking, biking, bar-b-queing...all good.
So since my last blog - I have been gone mostly...Berlin, Prague and Warsaw. Berlin was amazing - we made reservations (apparently required so they can check your background) to the Reichstag - German goverment building. That was awesome - really old building of course but they have built a glass dome and you wind your way up the 360 degree dome with headsets explaining the city of Berlin that you can see out of the dome. Very interesting. Then we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate - which was part of the Berlin Wall so we walked to and from what was East/West Berlin...amazing. The next day we went to Check Point Charlie and that was quite surreal. Unbelievable really to me...what it must have been like. The last time Colleen had been in Berlin was while the Berlin Wall was still up so it was very interesting to her - she had been through CheckPoint Charlie and now just to walk on the street where it had all been was overwhelming.
Prague was amazingly beautiful (see side picture). The last time I had been there was in January 15 years ago and the St. Charlies Bridge was so packed with snow - there was nobody on it. I think Bob, Michael and I had the bridge and streets to ourselves! This time; great weather and pretty packed with people...good stuff. We found a free walking tour the first day and the guide was awesome. So full of stories and history and information - it was great. In fact, we signed up for another tour the next day with the same guide as she took us through the castle at Prague...great! 70% atheism in Czech Republic. They have had so many wars due to religion; people are just fed up. That was quite the fact to learn...sad to me. Josh's concerts were amazing - the high school choir and string orchestra sang in a church that was fairly new (built in 1910) with amazing acoustics so no microphones, no electronic anything. They did a great job - Josh got to do a reading before one of the songs and he did excellent (says the oh-so-proud-Aunt)!
Then this past week several from Sweet Surrender Krakow and Poznan headed up to Warsaw for the Polish 'Coffee Olympics'. Again, folks take their coffee pretty seriously. A bit much for me but it was all interesting to see and experience. There is an actual competition - all timed at 6 minutes long; best latte art, making Irish Creme, number of 'good' espresso shots, and identifying the strongest coffee in six different groups brewed. Sweet Surrender Poznan had a guy competing for the first time; he did alright! Not stellar but it was good and fun to support him. We all took the train and stayed at a hostel so it was good to have some 'team' time. The coffee roasting company that supplies coffee to Sweet Surrender are based in Warsaw so we did get to go to their location and see the roastery and their training room etc - that was quite interesting. Serious about coffee!
So now comes April which means Easter...I'm very excited to experience Easter here. Everybody tells me the city really shuts down...so we shall see. The Monday after Easter is called 'Dyngus Day' here in Poland. The youth throw water on each other out in the streets! It's funny to hear Polish people tell stories of when they were in high school etc...it's basically a time for romance - ha! The history apparently dates back to 966 AD when a Polish princess was baptised...indicating cleansing, fertility and purification. How things change :).
I must admit I have missed being on FaceBook for Lent...but I have been doing much more reading so that is a good thing. I kind of 'keep up' with people on FaceBook though so I feel very out of the loop. Ahhh well - so goes the short term sacrifice. Hopefully it will make me appreciate the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus and once I return to FB to enjoy catching up with friends and family:). And...I have a LOT less hits on my blog without FaceBook...odd?...
Have a great week - I certainly intend to since life is good and God is waaaaaay better!
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