October Update

Well we used to do a good job at updating more frequently, but here's what's been happening this month for the Huddlestons in Prague!

SCHOOL-RELATED:
- English Drama Club has started! We have been enjoying time once a week with these weirdos playing improv games & getting to know the new members. We've also chosen the play we will be performing in April so it's exciting to have that underway.

12 of our crazy EDC students :D

- English Movie Nights! We've met three times so far with students after school to watch some favorite English-language films & have small discussions after. So far we've watched Oceans 11, Psycho, & Hocus Pocus. Our next film will be Monty Python & the Holy Grail!

- Brittany has been meeting once a week with a manager at our local Starbucks to do English lessons. She has really enjoyed making this new friend and being paid in coffee!

CHURCH-RELATED:
- We have been attending a community group Bible study each week at one of our pastor's homes. It has been a wonderful place to meet people & get to know them better. This has been a huge blessing to us this fall especially as we've missed a lot of Sundays at church.

- We were able to attend our church's first church-wide retreat last weekend! About 80 people from Faith Community Church went to a small campground about an hour outside of Prague. We left Friday evening & came back Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend of fellowship and spiritual rejuvenation as we talked about the power & trustworthiness of scripture.

Most of our Faith Community Church group at the retreat

- Jadon has been attending a men's group every other week. They are reading through and discussing Timothy Keller's book "Every Good Endeavor" and getting to know each other over delicious Czech pub food.

EXTRA STUFF:
- We were able to go back to the USA the weekend of the 10th for our friend Rebecca's wedding. The trip was a bit of a whirlwind as we left Prague on Friday, and then left Virginia on Sunday. But it was such a joy to spend time with our friends Laura & Kayla as well as celebrate with Rebecca & Eric.

Enjoying some time at a pumpkin patch!

With the beautiful couple!

- This weekend we had our Thanksgiving meal with our Teach Beyond team. It was early for the Americans & late for the Canadians, but it was great afternoon of good food & time together.

Our Team Beyond team (minus 3 people who couldn't be there) at our Thanksgiving meal

- Yesterday we got to go to the Rudolfinum concert hall to see a fantastic orchestra concert featuring the movie music composed by James Horner. We've been to quite a few concerts in the past year, and this was our favorite so far!

Outside the Rudolfinum after the concert

 Prayer Requests:
- Health. Brittany has been sick this past week, and many people from our church have had the flu.
- Traveling. This week we're off from school for fall break & are hitting the road again, so prayers for safe travels are appreciated.
- Rest. This fall we have been SO busy doing so many fun things, so we need to make the most of time we have to rest.

Praises:
- We get to go back to Paris this week as well as travel to Belgium for the first time! We get so much joy from these travels & are so blessed with the travel opportunities we have.
- Getting connected with church family. We've loved the community group & fall retreat and hope to continue making connections with these great people.
- Prague friends. We really feel like we are making so many great friends in Prague, and are so grateful for the people who are investing in us & those that we are able to invest in.

Visiting Krakow, Poland

September 28 is a holiday in the Czech Republic, which means we got a three day weekend! When thinking of places to travel for this short holiday, we realized we had not yet visited eastern Europe and wanted to change that. Krakow is close to the Czech border and easy to get to via train or bus. So on Friday after school we got on a train to Ostrava, Czech Republic and from there took a mini-bus (which really turned out to be a mini-van. it was weird) to Krakow.

Our route from Prague to Krakow

We arrived late (and in the rain) on Friday, but found our hotel fairly easily. Saturday we planned to be our sightseeing day. We were armed with our umbrellas and Rick Steve's book on Eastern Europe which included a great walking tour of Krakow. It rained ALL day on Saturday, but that ended up working to our advantage. Even though it makes the pictures of such a beautiful city look a bit dreary, it allowed us to explore Krakow free from the press of crowds, which we really enjoyed!

The Barbican - fortifying Krakow's ancient city walls!

We began our day in St. Mary's Basilica which is famous for it's beautiful High Altar. Each day the altar is opened by a nun from the church, and many tourists come in to see this moment. The whole altar is made entirely of wood and is HUGE. The statues inside the altar piece stand over 8 feet tall! It was masterfully made and the opening was a beautiful moment.

St. Mary's Basilica

Gorgeous High Altar

Krakow is a city filled with churches. There are 142 churches & monasteries within the city limits, and 32 of those are within the Old Town. Churches are one of our favorite places to visit when we travel, so this was great! On Saturday we visited at least 5 churches within about 3 hours. We also were able to see both the church and home of Pope John Paul II who was from Krakow.

St. Andrews Church - and directly to the left is the Church of Saints Peter & Paul

Another thing we really enjoy about traveling is trying new foods, and perogies, we have discovered, are DELICIOUS. And we wish they were popular in Prague, though it's probably good that they aren't, because we had perogies for both lunch and dinner on our Saturday in Krakow!

YUM!!!!

Our day ended with a trip to Krakow's Wawel Castle, which was a gorgeous castle and one that really reminded us of castles we read about in books. When we pictures mythic or fantasy castles,

Wawel Castle is what we see. Outside the castle's walls there is a dragon which breathes fire! This was the end of our day and such a great little must-see of Krakow!

Entering the Castle grounds

With the dragon!

On Sunday we had the privilege to visit Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau. This was a difficult and sobering trip, but it was one that we believe is important. It is impossible to put into words what we experienced there, so we won't even try. We took only a very few pictures, but we encourage anyone who has the opportunity to visit and learn and remember.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau: train tracks & main gate

Auschwitz II - Birkenau: end of the train line

Arriving back in Krakow the sun was shining, so we did a bit more sightseeing in the sunshine! We spent more time in the main Market Square trying new foods and shopping for gorgeous Polish ceramics.

The Cloth Hall in the main Market Square

We were so pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Krakow, and highly recommend it as one of Europe's best kept secrets! We hope to be able to return there again some day!

I mean, how cool is this?!

To see the rest of the pictures from our trip, click here!

Our Weekend in England

Written by Brittany

As most people reading this blog know, I am half-British and half-American. My dad was born & raised in England, and I have a very large British family that still lives in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

This past weekend, one of my cousins, Kate, got married in England, and Jadon and I were lucky enough to attend the beautiful wedding! It had been three years since I had been over to see my family, and while I did not get to see everyone, it was such a joy to see the people I did!

We flew to London's Stansted airport very late on Friday after school, landing there just after 1am Saturday morning. That night, after a rather eventful journey from the airport, we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express near the airport before catching a train north the next day.

Saturday's train trips were enjoyable & uneventful. It was such a relaxing experience taking public transportation that was in English! While we love exploring countries and experiencing other languages, you always have to be paying extra attention when you're listening for words you don't really understand. Here, we could just relax until we heard the announcement for our stop.

Saturday afternoon & evening were spent exploring the small town of Newark, England. It was a beautiful place with a gorgeous church and even castle ruins! We hadn't done any research before arriving, so it was a pleasant surprise to find some much to explore!

We had a beautiful day to go exploring!

Sunday afternoon was the wedding, and when we arrived at the venue, we were amazed at how beautiful it was! We were also staying at the venue that night, so we checked into our room and got ready for the big event!

This was the first British wedding either of us had attended, and we didn't know if there would be much difference culturally between British & American weddings. For the most part, things were very similar, though there was one large difference. When Kate & Paul went to sign the marriage certificate, a beautifully decorated desk was brought out which they sat at and then signed the certificate as part of the actual ceremony. The legal aspect of marriage was featured more than I have seen in any American ceremonies. It was very interesting, and the ceremony itself was absolutely beautiful!

Kate & Paul signing the marriage certificate

The rest of the evening was SO enjoyable. Being with family, meeting new people, celebrating in such a beautiful place. It was clear that Kate had planned everything to a T, and it was all carried out perfectly. I'm not sure I've been to a more beautiful wedding.

View of the grounds from our hotel room

The Bride's family

Gorgeous table setting

The next day, we were able to have breakfast with the family before we had to take our train back down to London & caught our flight home.

At breakfast with my cousin Emily, the bride's sister, and her youngest son Joseph

The trip was much too short, but it was so fantastic! We are really hoping to get back to England again soon.
To see all the pictures from our weekend, click here!

Updates!

Well it has been over a full month since our last blog post, so this will be a quick update post to get everyone caught up.

- In August we traveled to Greece for a week! It was a great (though hot) vacation where we got to see some of the most beautiful scenery and some wonderful ancient monuments. To see the rest of the pictures, click here!

Santorini, Greece

Santorini, Greece

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece

Ancient Olympic Stadium, Olympia, Greece

- WE HAVE OUR VISAS! We are now done with all things visa related for the WHOLE year! If you remember our experiences last year, this is a huge Hallelujah moment!

- We got to visit the Strahov Monastery in Prague, and see two of the most beautiful libraries in the world! For us English majors, this was a beautiful big deal.

The Philosophical Hall Library

The Theological Hall Library

- We have been back to school for 2 weeks, and it has been great seeing our students from last year as well as meeting our new students. We're really looking forward to beginning the English Drama Club next week as well as starting English Movie Nights at our school this year!

Prayer Requests:
- We will be doing a lot of traveling coming up, so prayers for safety as we travel as well as rest as we balance travel & work schedules.
- Health.
- There is a group of six CRU members who have just moved to Prague for the year. Prayers for their ministry here as well as their interactions with students.
- There are two of our Teach Beyond team members who, due to visa issues, are still not in the Czech Republic. One arrives this week, and the other is still waiting for her visa to clear. Prayers for them as they hit the ground running once they're here and peace/patience as they wait.

Praises:
- We have started attending a weekly Bible study with a group from our church which has already been a wonderful blessing & we're looking forward to how God can use our time together.
- Being back at school has been great! Though it's still work & tiring, we're just so glad to be back with the students.
- Fall weather is here!
- Grace, Providence, Mercy, & Joy!

Snail Mail & E-Mail

Two quick updates this morning:

1. You can now send "snail mail" to our school address here again. We love getting mail, so if you think of us, we'd love to hear from you that way!

Our mailing address is:
Jadon & Brittany Huddleston
Gymnazium
Arabska 14
Praha 6 160 00
Czech Republic

2. We are going on a small cruise around Greece's islands this upcoming week (yay!), but we will not have access to Internet while we are on the boat. So we will have it until 9am our time tomorrow (Saturday the 16th) which is 2am Central Time in the States. After that, we won't see emails, messages, or anything until we're home on the evening of Sunday, August 23.

We return to school on the 26th, & then classes begin Sept. 1. Getting close! 

Home for the Summer!

We were lucky enough to spend a full month in the States this summer visiting friends & family in Kansas & Illinois. We are so grateful to everyone who made time to see us, some of them driving many hours to do so! There are not enough words to say how wonderful this past month was, so this blog will be mostly pictures (and it will be a LOT of pictures, so prepare yourselves).

We now give you, Our Summer Home:

We were welcomed at O'Hare by SO MANY American flags. It was 4th of July weekend, but we were on flag overdose right from the get go.

Our first stop was Olathe, Kansas where we stayed with Jadon's parents and got to see his brother, Jonathan, and his family.

Three members & the leader of Jadon's Accountability Group from high school youth group.

At the Kansas City Zoo! Jadon's parents with our niece & nephew, and then all the "kids."

Josiah really loved the map at the zoo, so he was our official guide.

Out for a girl's day getting our nails done & then some Starbucks & cake pops!

Funny picture & then a group shot with the family all together.

Then we traveled for a 2-day mini-vacation in Galena, Illinois. It was very small town America, and a great place to relax and sight see for a couple days.

Beautiful Illinois landscapes on the way to Galena

The largest wooden nickel! 

The home of President Ulysses S. Grant

Inside Grant's home - the two vases on the fireplace are Bohemian glass made in the Czech Republic!

When people ask me (Brittany) what kind of food I miss from America, this is my answer. Biscuits and gravy! Yum! The best cafe in Galena - Otto's Place. We went twice for breakfast & highly recommend it!

After Galena, we traveled to Manteno, Illinois to stay with my family for a couple weeks. There we got to see a lot of friends (not all who we have pictures with) and family.

First, we went to the wedding of one of my previous students, Dani (Martin) Wildermuth. It was so exciting to be there for her & Austin and celebrate with them. It was a very beautiful wedding.

My friend Kristi is getting married in TWO days!! And I was lucky enough to be there to celebrate her bachelorette party with her. So many congratulations to her & Bill!

Also at the bachelorette celebration, my friends Brandon & Katie.

Jadon & I got to see one of our favorite bands Rend Collective! It was a great night of worship & fun & jumping up and down.

Brandon & Greg hosted a Friends Birthday Party for us to celebrate all of the birthdays we've missed this year!

It was such a nice night being all together & the first time we got to meet Diana's son Dylan!

At the Cubs game at Wrigley Field!

Brandon had a role in a local production of CATS, and we were SO glad we could see him perform! It was a fantastic show!!

Out to lunch one last time as a big group - so glad we got to see so many people who we love so much!

My friend Katie & I got to see Kelly Clarkson & Pentatonix, and it was, obviously, amazing.

Group shot of my family on our last day before we headed back to Prague.

We had such an amazing month home, these pictures and my words hardly do it justice. We are so blessed by so many friends & family members, and your love will carry us far into this year!