Malaga

Thanks to my sweet friend Paige, I now know all about Malaga. It's a very popular tourist destination in Spain. no wonder lots of English people travel there - Sounds very warm and in the midst of a rainy, gray, typical English day - that would be fabulous.

I passed, I passed, YEAH!

It's official! I passed my UK driving test today. Woopee!!! I am a legal, insured, drivers license carrying, mirror/signal/manuvering driver in the UK. It is quite a process and I am so happy to be done with it. I havent studied that much in many, many years. Nor have I EVER taken 5.5 hours of driving lessons until now. Today was the final step which was the practical driving test. It's about a 40 minute driving test with an examiner in the seat next to you. You are allowed 15 minor faults and they critique everything from checking all your mirrors BEFORE you put on your brake - every time - to how you signal driving through roundabouts to looking over your shoulder before you pull away from a stopped position and get this - you have to pull your handbrake on whenever you're stopped for 15 seconds or longer - even in a automatic car - at stop lights. It's the craziest thing, but manual car drivers are required to do it, so automatic drivers are too. I really had to concentrate on the hand brake part at stop lights. Now all you visitors can feel safe and sound riding with me when you come see us. The next step - getting DA to START the process. That's gonna be painful! I can just see him now arguing about the "stupid" rules. Oh to be a fly on the dash during that test.

Geography lessons

You know when you are driving around Dallas and you see the Southwest Airlines billboards for Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc, well here is a photo of those same types of advertisements here in London, except I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THESE PLACES. I cant even tell you what country they are in. I'm guessing since they are advertising these prices, they must be places people frequently travel to, but where are they? I'm going to have to give myself some geography lessons and educate myself. Maybe next month I'll have a post about traveling to Malaga!

Prague, Czech Republic

The kids spy Starbucks behind them!

This past weekend the kids had a 3 day weekend off from school, so we took off for a quick trip to Prague. I had been told how beautiful it was, and all the stories were true. The city has a wonderful, colorful, quaint, old European feel to it. The Charles Bridge, Old Town, Lesser town, Jewish quarter are all wonderful places to roam around. All the towers and gorgeous architecture are so charming. Even though everyone speaks Czech language, about 85% of the folks we encountered could understand or speak some English. The money was really confusing to me though - I went the whole weekend not really having a feel for how much anything costs. They dont use the Euro in Czech Republic. Also note that I thought I was going to Czechoslovakia, but no, it is Czech Republic. The taxi driver started clapping for us that we had brought our children to the CR. I got the impression that not many kids travel there and we hardly saw any on our whole trip. One main reason why - not many kid friendly things to do other than souvenir shopping (of which B has perfected! and she has a very sparkly Austrian crystal necklace to prove it) There are many Russian type of souvenirs which I guess are hold overs from the period they were occupied by the Russians.

The food was decent. B found her standard spaghetti bolongese at each restaurant. I had several Greek salads - which for some reason were on each menu. Unfortunately they continued the English custom of serving salad without any salad dressing. I really dont understand that but I do realize it's healthier. Even though the city is large, we ended up mainly roaming around the historical part of town. Saw the astrological clock do it's thing about 6 different times - should be seen, but a little underwhelming - especially after the 6th time. The weather was great, but man was that wind cold. We were bundled up most of the time, but still managed to eat ice cream a couple of times.

The kids MAIN highlight was finding the only Starbucks in town. We even took a taxi to get there. Shockingly sad I must admit. I've discovered that when our kids are away from the English language and visiting foreign lands, they REALLY seek out anything familiar. With almost a hawk eyed vision. Starbucks was very good though and packed full of people! Nice way to warm up from the cold wind.

We braved the public transport even after my disaster in Paris last year, ha! As we were trying to buy tickets from the machine which was all written in Czech, DA and I were really trying to figure it all out, figure out the money - which only accepted coins - and get children discount tickets - after about 5 minutes L spoke up and said, "wouldnt it be easier if you pushed this English Button?" duh, we could have done the whole thing in English! Their local subway is very simple and easy to make your way around. We never did get on the trams though because we couldnt find a route map to know which trams took you where.

The one main drawback to Prague is the amount of graffiti. It is EV ER Y WHERE! It is so sad to see such a beautiful city be vandalized in such a destructive way. After 3 days, we were ready to come home and what was L's account of the trip? On Monday morning he said, "well, it wasnt the best trip, but it wasnt the worst trip either." Hello! we are taking you all over Europe to broaden your horizons and that is all you can say! His defense was that there wasnt anything "exciting" to do in Prague. I agree. maybe that's why there werent any kids around. Only couples walking hand in hand along the Charles Bridge. Maybe DA and I need to go there without the kids next time. Any babysitters???

B's classroom activity

One really cute thing they did in B's classroom last week was have an "assembly" for the classroom parents on all the things they had learned about Native Americans in their study of native American folklore. After reading all that folklore, the students had to tell a story from their own family to pass along some personal folklore. B had a story from her Meme in Tennessee that she had fun telling. The teacher recorded all the students on her Ipod and played them for the parents during the assembly. It was so interesting to hear family folklore stories from literally all over the world just in her one little classroom. The kids did a precious job and it is really cool to hear things from Greece, Poland, South Korea, Latvia, Chile, etc.
One of the groups had to make a display of clothing worn by Native Americans. I complemented one of the girls on her paper turquoise necklace and said she must have had a good necklace to look at. She commented that she had never seen turquoise in real life. Neither had her partner. funny, something i would have never considered that these kids wouldnt have ever laid their eyes on turquoise. I took in several samples of jewelry today and they were very happy. Just to be cool, B had to wear one of the bracelets so that they could ooh and ahh over it. I'm sure she enjoyed being the center of attention. photo is B and her samples of N.A. arts and crafts

Dallas friends in London

Last week was a really nice week. Some of DA's former co workers from Dallas were in town and we were able to meet them for dinner. For those who have visited us, we made the obligatory trip to the Cricketers Pub. It was very nice to hear current news from home and see some familiar faces as well as enjoy some delicious sticky toffee pudding. yum.
We also have some other acquaintances from Dallas who have moved here since Christmas. They attended the same church we did in Dallas, but I had only met one of the ladies before. Funny how we all had to move to England to get together when we were in the same building every Sunday for years!! I had corresponded with them several times through email helping them prepare for their move. Anyway, as many of you know, one of my frustrations here is that there are very few people who know my name, my husbands name and my kids names. Just very limited on that front of "family friends". Well, when our new friends came over to our house for dinner on Saturday night, within 5 seconds of walking in the door one of the ladies said, "are you Briana's sister?" plunk. that is me falling down. Someone in England actually knows and recognizes I have a sister named Briana. crazy. They had gone to ACU together and she saw a family photo on the front table. Very, very small world and a very nice connection to make.
Anyway, it was so nice to visit with those families too. they have precious children and I am very jealous that they are having a wonderful, fabulous transition to England. Wish ours could have gone so well. Although it was probably my worst hosting experience. As for those who know me and know how I like things "just so", it was pitiful!!! I was totally unprepared due to some unforeseen circumstances earlier in the day - like NOT HAVING A CAR TO GO TO THE GROCERY STORE!!! regardless, we had a great dinner and I look forward to seeing them soon. Unfortunately they dont live close, but I will be meeting up with them.
Fun times.

DA's scooter raingear

We all know from previous post that DA's scooter is pretty funny. We'll after many requests, here is a photo of him in his rain/winter gear. hee, hee, hee. Notice the very attractive skirt effect from the overcoat. The only thing missing is that he doesnt have on his rain pants in this photo, but normal rain gear includes:

Business suit attire/tie/dress shoes

rain pants

overcoat

cycling rain coat

required reflector vest (lovely!)

gloves

darth vadar helmet

He has to allow for several extra minutes at the train station to get all the gear off and stored away before he heads into the city on the train. I do laugh at him, but at the same time I am grateful that he will endure it only because it saves us tons of money not to have to buy a 2nd car.

He has drawn the line at freezing temps. I must drive him to the station on those really cold days because his hands cant stay warm enough to make the trip home at night.

too, too funny! enjoy at his expense.