We're Here! ...well, We're There!

Written by Brittany

As most of you have probably seen from our multiple Facebook updates, we have made it to our apartment in Prague!

On Thursday afternoon, our plane ended up leaving Chicago about 90 minutes late due to (direct quote from the pilot): "a major cock-up with the fueling." His updates were hilarious, but you could tell he was frustrated, as we all were. When we were finally able to leave, he said, "Now we'll let the people here deal with all the paperwork, I'm about to fly this plane like I stole it."

Since we only had a 2 hour layover in London, we ended up missing our flight, but with very little hassle we were able to get booked on one that had us arriving in Prague just two hours later.

Once we landed (Friday afternoon), we were met by Milan, from our school, and Kelly, from Teach Beyond. They then took us around showing us our apartment (which we now must call a flat), our school, a shopping area, the bus stops, etc. They also helped us get new phones and get some Czech cash. If you would like our Czech phone numbers, just email us. We can receive texts for free, and I don't think it's too expensive for us to send them; however, our main communication back to the States will still be Email/Facebook/Skype/FaceTime.

Today (Saturday) has been very successful. Though the day started slow and overwhelming, we began sorting through the stuff that is already at our flat, reorganizing, and unpacking. Here is, by far, the best thing we found in our flat:

You know we'll be hanging this up!

Around lunch time we headed to the grocery store, which was bigger than what we were expecting to have so close to the flat (only a five minute walk!). People have been warning us about the overwhelming experience of grocery shopping, but it really wasn't that bad. We learned we have to bring our own bags, which we did, and weigh and sticker our own produce, which we didn't do this time, but will try it out next time. Our only misstep was purchasing paper towels that we thought were toilet paper. And the store has much more "from home" things than we were expecting. Including vanilla Coke, Oreos, & Dove body wash! The rest of the afternoon was spent eating lunch, organizing, relaxing. We felt much less overwhelmed as the day went on.

For dinner, we went back to the shopping area (picking up toilet paper & more vanilla Coke) and stopped by a fast food place that sells fish & chips. They didn't speak much English, but we were able to get our order across correctly, and though they spoke little to us, they seemed very friendly. This is definitely a place we intend to go back, as the fish & chips were delicious, and their main foods are pizza & kebabs. Yum!

Tomorrow we will go to church, possibly up to the city, and continue organizing our new home. While it is definitely different, we don't feel as lost as we thought we would.

Praises:
 - One of our suitcases (the one with most of my clothes) didn't make it on our plane, but it is being delivered to our flat as I type!
- People taking us under their wings these first few days
- Easy shopping & restaurant experiences
- Having such quick access to Internet and communication

Prayer Requests:
- Continued rest as we adjust to the time change (we're 7 hours ahead of US Central time)
- Ease as we figure out more detail-things: transportation cards, putting the Internet in our name, etc.
- Our stove & oven do not work, we're supposed to have someone in on Tuesday to look at it, so prayers that it's an easy fix.

Thanks for so much love as we begin this new adventure!