a day in the life of...

i'm starting to settle into the rhythm of life here in the czech republic. i know it sounds crazy, since i've been here for almost three months. in 3 days, it will be that time span exactly. and less than two months until i return home for christmas break.

a typical day in my life here can look a few different ways:

workday - on these days, i get up at 6:45AM and get ready to catch the metro/bus to get to work. i need to hit the metro by 7:20, since I have to catch a bus out to Uhonice, the town my school is in, by 8:10. by 8:30, I'm at work, though i don't need to be there until 9. that bus is the only one out to uhonice until 10, so it's a necessary evil. all in all, my travel out there takes about an hour and a half. when we've drive, it takes 20-25mins! killer, that's for sure. then my workday spans from 9am-3pm, when i catch the bus back to the metro at a stop called zlichin. around 4:15, i'm back at home. usually lying on my bed in exhaustion after a day with the uber energetic kids of whom i don't understand.

day off - these are days with no work, so jackie and i attend czech language classes, tuesday/thursday for an hour and a half each day. the classes are growing increasingly fun as everyone begins to relax, get to know each other, and laugh at our horrible pronunciation of czech phonetics. afterwards, we often head to an internet cafe to write home, check email and try and get somewhat caught up on what is going on in the western world. on thursdays now, i've started going to the sport university to the english conversation class that aia puts on. it was a great time this past week and much interesting conversation was had with students from the university.

game day - we often play afternoons, so it's wake up and eat breakfast, often watch an episode or two of "lost" over bfast and then get ready to go to the game. we have to be at the rink two hours before the game, and need to leave to get there 45 minutes before that. so about 3 hours before game time, we hop in the car and drive out to kralupy. after games, we often go for dinner, to see a movie with friends, or just make some food and hit the hay. after especially long games, we're often ready to just crash.

evening activities usually include hanging out with aia friends, going to our bible study on thursday evenings, family night with aia, going to movies with teammates or just having a quiet evening at home. we've pulled out the dice and had a few games of that. we've also had friends over for dinner and both sara and jackie have made some killer dishes. i have yet to show my talents in the kitchen... if they haven't disappeared on me, that is.

we had a great game yesterday with Agordo out of Italy. they came out absolutely flying and caught us a little flat footed. it was the fastest game we've played here and it was fabulous. it felt great to play the game at that kind of speed again. after the second we were tied 2-2. jackie and i were commenting before the opening face-off of period 3 that we've got to put some pucks in the net, as we weren't sure we had enough in us for overtime. the game ended with a score of 8-2. i guess we know how to turn it on when we want to! we play again this afternoon against a czech league team. then tomorrow, the week cycle starts all over again!