Gosh how awful I am at keeping up with this. I'm not a fantastic writer and I think I would rather just talk in person or on the phone with someone rather than writing down all my thoughts. Anyway. This last weekend I went with my roommate to Prague, Czech Republic. It was absolutely beautiful there. There's a lot of history. This picture here is from the old town square. It is the gothic style Church of Our Lady Before Týn. Construction began in the 14th century when Charles IV(King of Prague) was in power but wasn't finished until mid 15th century. So it took a little more a century to complete. When they were constructing it they had built one tower and somehow lost the plans to it after construction. So they had to eye-ball the second tower. If you look at it closely the tower on the left is slightly narrower and shorter representing the feminie side of the family and the other is more broad and taller representing the masculine side of the family. I think they just said this to make it into an excuse for the two towers being different sizes ;-) In the town sqaure there was also an astronomical clock. I think this was one of my favorite buildings. Sorry there is no picture I will just have to show you when I get home :-). But legend says that the clock maker, Hanus, constructed this clock that was so spectacular that foreigners from all over the world would come to see it. There was word that he had plans to construct another clock somewhere else so to "thank" him for the clock he made for Prague, he was invited to the castle for a feast as a reward for his beautiful work. However, when he arrived they drove two hot iron spears through his eyes so he could not build a clock anywhere else. The Councillors were very proud of this clock and wanted it to be special only to Prague. So in revenge Hanus burned the clock so it was beyond repair. I kind of liked that story even though it was just a legend. There is definitely more that we saw but its easier to explain when the pictures are there as well.

I have had about two weeks off because we have had holiday and mostly my classes are just on Monday anyway. So its been a good break. I find it really hard to do homework here though because I don't have to turn anything in. All my classes we have just one test at the end of the semester. I'm really nervous about that actually because I've never been a great test taker so I'm not sure how I will do. I hope I can understand everything since my courses are in German. I'm having a great time seeing all the different areas of the city and Europe. I'm definitely missing home a lot and have those days where I just want to come home and give up but I don't want to say that I couldn't make it so I'm going to stay till the end. It will be a good thing to say I made it through the entire semester and learned a lot from it. I am realizing how great it is to have a family and friends around me because here I know I can talk with them but its not the same at all. I have met a lot of new people that I can get along with but I wouldn't call them life long friends. I'm not sure if they will be or not. It's only been two months and a lot could happen in the next 3 and a half months. I can't wait to see what else happens here.

This is for Grandma Kay:

Sorry I have not written. I wrote you a letter within the first month and still have it but haven't sent it. I have really enjoyed your letters though and appreciate all the support. Classes are going alright I hate that they're always in the early morning. I wish I could sleep in a little but it could be worse I guess. I just got your Halloween card. I got a laugh out of the money :-). Thank you for that!!! Halloween is not as big here as it is in the US. I was on my way home from Prague yesterday (Halloween night) and we were in Vienna and saw some people dressed up but mostly people my age going to Halloween parties. I'm not sure if children dress up and go trick-or-treating more outside of the city or what. I haven't noticed too many decorations like we would have at home or heard of any haunted houses. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a pumpkin here that is big enough to carve. I had talked with my flat mates about doing a fall/halloween night where we carve pumpkins and build a fire on our balcony(which is maybe 1/6 the size of your pourch, not really a balcony) where we roast marshmallows and make s'mores. No one here has heard of a s'more. I was shocked!!! I wanted to do that last week but some of my flat mates were gone and I ran out of time. I'm hoping I can go around today looking for some things to make a typical fall/halloween fest here. If you have any ideas let me know. We are also going to make a Thanksgiving feast at the end of November so if you have any recipes you would like to share that would be fabulous!! I miss you a lot and I hope all is well. I will try to write a letter next time. I have an awful habit of writing and being too lazy to go to the post office to send it. I love you so much though!! I will talk with you soon!! Mom said you have been printing these out and giving them to Aunt Jeanne as well.

Aunt Jeanne this is for you:

Thank you so much for the cards!! I have enjoyed them quite a bit. I do have your address but it comes down to sitting and writing and going to the post office and I don't want you to think I don't appreciate them. I'm having a great time here. It really beautiful!! I hope I can show you some pictures when I get home. There's really nothing different other than what I put in Grandma's portion. I have been trying to fill my time with some craft projects and some exploring so I don't go crazy just sitting in my room. It's been really cloudy for the past week and a half I think. Today is the first day its been sunny in a while. I'm definitely going to go into the city today to see if anything is open. We're on holiday today so I'm not sure if any of the other shops are going to be open. I'm going to go around to some of the parks and pick up some stick to try to make a fire. I'm sure people will be looking at me really weird but I can just use the excuse that I'm from America ;-) I'm sure that would give them another reason to generalize all Americans haha. I miss you and I hope you are doing well!! I will write more later and hopefully Grandma can continue to show these to you or hopefully I can get around to writing a letter or at least sending a post card that has some pictures of the city on it.

Aunt Tracy:

Thank you so much for the birthday card!! I'm glad it got here!! It's really nice to get cards/letters in the mail. Its been a really weird thing to come all the way around the world and realize how amazing your family is. I would not change it for the world though. I can't wait to skype with you all at Thanksgiving and Christmas time!!! I hope we can get it to work...fingers crossed!!! How is everything going with Sam being away? How are you and Uncle Dave doing with that?? what about Sean? I bet he misses her too!! I'm hoping to skype with her again soon!! Maybe if we have some time that matches up we can also skye :-)

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!! TALK WITH YOU SOON!!!

Bis zum nächsten Mal, Auf Wiedersehen!!