it snowed today!

That, my friends, is snow on one of our many windows. Said snow started to fall while I was outside running! Augh! Most of it didn't stick, but it was definitely chilly today...I'm SO glad that I'm the poster child for North Face, because their gear rocks. I even found a store here, in case they've made anything else since I bought out the current line.

first days in Prague

Let me tell you, Prague is NOT a third-world country by any means...our apartment being a prime example. For about $900US for 6 weeks of bliss, we live in this graceland:

kitchen & entryway (from dining area)

great room

great room - different view (Chris & Katarina's bedroom/bath to the right, our bedroom/bath upstairs)

great room - different view

up the stairs to our catwalk, which looks down on the living room (duh) and kitchen

our bedroom

our bath (thats the tub in the back of the room)

our bath - different view (please note that the towels match the tiles...not my doing)

Unlike Mexico, we have a fully stocked kitchen, a washer/dryer, a rad TV and sound system, a full fridge/freezer, a stove, the works. This place is sick. We may never leave... Naturally, there are disadvantages to all situations. Drawback 1 - there are 113 steps from the ground floor to our apartment. One hundred and thirteen. Perhaps they'll counteract the liters and liters of beer I'll be drinking here. Beer literaly is cheaper than water. It's like a dollar. Here's our built-in StairMaster:


Drawback 2 - since we're on the top floor, there are lots of sloped roofs...like bump-your-head sloped. Rob has fallen victim to the ceiling several times already...

Drawback 3 - our bathroom doesn't have a standing shower. We have a tub with a hand-held showerhead. This hasn't been much of a problem for me, since I can wad myself up in the tub, but Rob isn't exactly a fan. I think its kinda cool though.

Our first night was an adventure...while plugging in a blow-dryer, our roomie Katarina (who is in a pic above!) used the wrong voltage switch on her converter and blew power to the entire apartment. Whoops. Fuseboxes in Europe are a smidge different than the States, and we couldn't figure out how to get power back. We called our realtor, and she called the landlord, but we had no luck and had to wait until morning...hah! Today we found a street market to buy all sorts of produce and bread and nuts and crafty things. For the equivalent of $9USD, we got ALLLLL this:


I've been really impressed with the produce we found, especially the citrus, since it's not exactly a native fruit. Hvalaska (sp?) Market, where we got this stuff, is this awesome outdoor market that runs every day, and I will be visiting frequently...

let's wrap up Mexico, shall we?

I promised two lists while we were still in Mexico, and while it feels like it's been a hundred years since then, here they are:

The Odd versus The Awesome

The Odd

• monkeys & hedgehogs at pet stores
• clothes - they look poorly made…why?
• all grocery stores are like a Super Walmart...they sell random crap (like clothes, bikes, chemicals) AND food
• road lights & signs are more like guidelines
• Valentine's Day is a HUGE deal
• no rice, no beans
• TV channels swap between having sound/not having sound…sometimes mid-program!
• everyone smokes. everywhere. its gross
• guacamole = a sidedish on its own, to be eaten with a fork rather than as dip
• we don't hear our neighbors at night, until like 3am…when they BLARE their music and scream the lyrics at the top of their lungs
• everyone honks, all the time. cabbies, soccer moms, everyone
• no one wears flipflops, and almost all women are in heels, no matter what the activity
• cotton candy guys (like those at sporting events) walk around on side streets
• nearly all toilet paper has a fragrance (aloe, flowers, baby powder) and the scent-free is actually more expensive
• all cab drivers are male

The Awesome

• tacos, tacos everywhere
• you can buy meat at a grocery store, take it outside, and have it grilled in the parking lot
• everything is beyond dirt cheap
• all taxes are included in the prices you see!
• the panederia section in supermarkets
• beer = cheaper than water
• warm weather, all the time

stupid t-shirt slogans

I saw a real, live person wearing this across his/her chest:

• looking for a reward
• bat-itude (with a cartoon of a bat...) - Sum's fave, we're all sure
• seafood ball
• little red rock
• luck is for losers
• going comando
• walking - primary form of locomotion
• got tickets (without a question mark...so it was a statement...?)
• take it to the streets - rock style
• livin' in the present (with a cartoon of a cat sitting in a gift box)
• works better than mistletoe (with a cartoon of a pitcher of beer) - okay, so this one's actually sort of funny...
• born
  

we're here!

Although we have to pilfer wireless connection from one of our various new neighbors, and it goes out a LOT, I just wanted to quickly broadcast to all 4 of you that read this that we are officially in Prague!

I hope to post about the shenanigans so far (teaser 1: something in our apartment might have already been broken...teaser 2: something about customs), and the fun we had in Paris and Ireland. I can't wait to post pics of our gorgeous apartment and the amazing architecture in Czech!

Yay!

I want to live here...seriously

Please let it be known that I do not want to leave Ireland. I've never gotten off of an airplane and felt so immediately at home (and, no, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the horrific experience we had with RyanAir). More on this later.

Since I've spent approximately 12 minutes on the computer in the last week, and I'm sure you're craving pics, here's one from the Guinness Storehouse tour on St. Patrick's Day (please note: no breweries/distilleries were harmed in the making of this photo):

taken with one of those "send a pic of yourself to your friends" machines, hence the cheeseball smiles and wide, bright eyes

Just found out that it is SNOWING in Prague. Snowing! I knew it would be cold, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for snow...although it'll make for some beautiful pics, I hope! I took 1139 pics with my Nikon alone in the last six days, and I hope to continue that trend in Prague...

Blogging set to continue early next week. Kellie was an angel and brought my laptop to me, so I won't be at the mercy of Rob's schoolwork in order to use the web.