Last Week in Prague

I am sad to say that this is my last week on Prague. I will be returning home on Sunday to start life again! God has blessed me so much by giving me this chance to visit the Mudriks before I go home, and my stay has definitely been great! It has been a huge encouragement being around this family.

So on Sunday, Elaine and I, and a few of her friends went to an opera entitled L'Elisir D'Amour. It was my first opera ever and I absolutely loved it! I pretty much sat there the whole time with my eyelids wide open and my mouth gaping :) The opera was a classic love story where the male lead is in love with a woman who doesn't love him back, or at least she doesn't realize it ;) The opera was also a comedy so it was a wonderful girl-time.

Later that evening the whole family met at a friend's house for dinner. This time the family was Ukrainian, so we had traditional Ukrainian soup and Russian chicken with rice. I commented to Elaine that since being in Prague I had gotten the chance to experience three completely different cultures: Czech, Korean (dinner at another friend's house), and now Ukrainian. It's been a blast!

On Monday, Elaine and Marek surprised me by taking me along on their night out downtown. We walked around for a long time just looking at the pretty lights and listening to the sounds of the city. We decided to stop into a restaurant on one of the side streets so that I could try a traditional Czech meal. It consisted of roasted duck, bread/potato dumplings, and red cabbage. Sounds a little bizarre, but was actually quite tasty! After that we walked around some more and gazed at the beautiful architecture before grabbing us some ice cream, or rather gelato.

Before I left Prague, I wanted to travel outside of the city to see either more of Czech or another country. With the train system, it is so simple to just hop on a train and go out of the country, and it can be pretty cheap too. Marek and Elaine recommended I go to this small, popular village about 2.5 hours outside Prague. The name of it is Cesky Kumlov and it is breath-taking! The story behind it's beauty is found in the gypsy community. When communism came to Czech the government tore down the majority of the original buildings, but gypsys were living in Cesky Kumlov and the government didn't want anything to do with them. So all of the original buildings have been preserved and restored! It is fascinating that it turned out that way :) I took a bus here and arrived about 4 hours ago and just got back to the hostel that the Mudriks suggested. I'm just spending the night, but I know I will be pretty busy still even though its a small village!

I have loved my stay here, but I have to say I am ready to be home. It's been too long since I've seen my family and my friends, and I am looking forward to catching up on life! I believe I have changed in many ways, and I couldn't be more grateful. God shows himself to me daily and I feel it's even more so because of the experiences I have encountered over the past three months. Thank you so much for all your many prayers and your encouraging words! I would not be here without you all and I pray that God has blessed you on this journey as well!