Prague Castle

Yesterday we went to Prague Castle. It was the first time we actually went in the castle. It is amazing how big it is inside. It really felt likes its own little town. We went into St Vitus cathedral which was beautiful with all the stained glass windows. Sofia really wanted to go down to the Royal Crypt. I'm sure she had no idea what it was but she just wanted to go down the narrow stairs. It took us two trips around the cathedral to find the stairs down. They are tucked into one side of the church. We knew they had to be somewhere since the exit stairs from the crypt were in the center of the cathedral. From there we went to The Royal Palace. Sofia and I danced our way across Vladislav Hall. The room is quite large (203 feet long by 52 feet wide and 42 feet high). It was built between 1492 and 1502 and was the largest room in Europe at the time. Sofia just thought of it as a ball room like in the movie Beauty & the Beast so I sang (softly) and we waltzed around the room. We continued on to St George's Basilica which was amazing in that it was so different from the cathedral. The cathedral with all it's gold and stained glass and gothic appearance was such a striking contrast to the arcing light interior of St George's. We then stopped into a little cafe to warm up since it was cold and rainy out. The girls enjoyed some profiteroles and Diane had apple strudel. I helped the girls with their profiterols since I am a loving mother and didn't want them to have too much chocolate :) . They were quite yummy. After our snack we headed to Golden Lane. I wasn't sure which direction to go so I asked one of the maintenance workers for directions. At first he wasn't going to help me since he didn't speak English so I just said, "ok, thank you" in czech and that apparently won him over and he stopped me from walking away. He asked his coworker something in Czech and then pointed me in the right direction. It was rewarding to see my use of Czech appreciated. After Golden Lane we headed back home. We were all tired and wet after viewing the castle for 3 hours. I'm glad we live here though so I can go back when the weather is nicer to have another chance to see it.

Jason's mom is arriving!

Jason just left to meet his mom at the airport. It is exciting to have visitors. We are looking forward to sharing our city with her. We love it here and so can't wait to show off how beautiful it is here. Before we moved here people would ask me if I was worried about moving to a city. I always responded by saying "a city is a city so I'm not concerned". I was wrong. A city it not just a city. Prague truly is beautiful and has a feel about it that is more than just a city. Hopefully others will come over for a visit so we can share it with more people.

New Playgroup

I posted on www.expats.cz to see if other moms wanted to get together to form a playgroup. I received a good response and we had our first meet-up on Thursday. It was a good playgroup. The kids had a really good time playing in the snow at the playground. I chose a playground in Prague 1 for our first meet-up so that it would be central for everyone. Three other women showed up with their kids. One woman from Germany with her son, one woman who is from Germany but has been living in the U.S. for the last four years with her daughter and son, and one woman from France with her son. There are some others who are going to join us as well but didn't make the first meet-up. They are from Lithuania and Prague. It is a very multi-cultural group which I think is such a great experience for the kids as well as for me. Berangere's (the woman from France) husband is actually working for Monster as well. It is such a small world. I look forward to meeting with this group every week.

Bye Bye O2, Hello Vodafone!!

After multiple trips to the O2 store and multiple phone calls to the O2 customer service I found out that I cannot have a contract with O2 because I do not have a czech residency permit (my residency visa isn't complete yet). Since I was about to blow a gasket I ask Jason to go into the O2 store and return the phone for me. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to be nice in the store and I knew that wouldn't help. After about an hour in the store Jason was finally able to return the phone and walk away from O2 with all of our money back. Once I knew that was all set I walked down to the vodafone store at the end of our road and got a phone. They set it up for me...changed the language on the phone to English, put the SIM card in, told me my phone number and sent me on my way. I walked out of the store and called Jason. YIPPEE!!! I was excited because the phone actually worked unlike my expereince with O2. I have to go back to vodafone in the morning to buy more credit for my phone since I am usong a prepaid SIM card rather than having a contract. By going back tomorrow to buy more credit for my prepaid card I will get an additional 300Kc for free. They were so nice and helpful it was such a relief.

Lessoned learned: Don't try to do anything over the internet in the Czech Republic. It just isn't worth the hassle!!

The kids check-up for VZP

Today was the kids check-up appointments with the doctor to give them the medical "ok" for VZP. What a nightmare!! Ok, it wasn't that bad but it was frustrating. To start with we are getting the first real snowstorm of the year today so trecking to the hospital was more of an issue. It took 2 hours to get the check-ups done and we weren't really waiting in a waiting room for any amount of time. The biggest thing that was frustrating is that they wanted Fi to pee in a cup! Are you kidding me...a 2 year old pee in a cup!! Needless to say she didn't pee even after drinking her entire sippy cup of milk. She pooped but no pee! We kept trying and trying until finally they gave me a vile to take home with me. I have to bring in the sample on Monday when I go to pick up my test results and pick up the paperwork for the girls. The nurse was nice and said she would just run the urine test on Monday when I bring it to her. We headed home through the snow. Jason was with us until Andel metro stop and then he took the metro to work and I took the tram home with the girls. Both girls fell asleep on the way home. Sofia was snoring so loudly everyone on the tram kept looking and laughing. It was pretty funny. It was a funny end to a stressful morning.

Our house has sold!!

Yay!!! Our house has sold and we don't have to worry about it anymore. Thank goodness we had a great realtor. He took care of our house during the recent ice storm so that our pipes wouldn't freeze 3 days before closing! He definitely earned his commission .

It is nice to know that all of our bills in the U.S. will be taken care of and we will be 100% debt free.

My medical check-up for VZP

I had to go to the hospital today so that I can get the medical "ok" to enroll in VZP, the Czech National Healthcare. There are two hospitals that we could choose from, one close but expensive and one further away but cheaper. For the basic enrollment health check we opted for the cheaper further away hospital. I hopped on the tram for a 15 min ride where I transferred to a bus for another 20 min ride. I got off at "a" hospital. I say "a" because it was the wrong hospital. After going to the information desk and asking if they speak English the woman at the desk called someone and handed me the phone. The english speaker on the phone told me that I had to get back on the bus and go to the end of the line and that was the hospital I was looking for. I thanked her sheepishly and walked out and hopped back on the bus. I arrived at the right hospital and went to the "commercial desk". I thought it was funny to think of myself as commercial but I guess it is because I am actually paying cash vs not paying anything when you are covered under VZP. I checked in at the desk and paid the 1300Kc. I was handed a folder with a few sheets of paper and told to go to the white elevator to the 7th floor to the general care reception. I followed the directions and spoke with the receptionist in general care. She handed me 2 papers back for myself and 2 papers to bring to the "labratory". On one of the papers for me it had the date I had to come back to meet with the doctor to get the results of the tests I had done in the labratory. The receptionist told me to go to the yellow elevator and go to the 4th floor to find the labratory. I arrived in the labratory and found a full house of patients. I went to the check in desk. They handed me a number, a urine cup, and a cup with a paper in it along with 3 empty viles. I was told to wait until my number came up on the screen and then I should enter the door below where the number is posted. I waited and it surprisingly didn't take as long as I thought it would. I went in through the mysterious door and found 2 nurses there who were taking blood samples from people. I went up to one of the nurses and she had me sit down. She spoke a little english so we were able to get the blood drawn. I was happy to have the process done. It always makes me a little nervous to go to an unknown Czech place when I know I HAVE to get something done. I always wonder what if I can't figure it out? Every one of these experiences that I have though makes me that much more comfortable here.

I get to bring the girls tomorrow so they can have their health check done. I'm not worried about it though b/c I've already been to the hospital where they need to go and I checked out where the pediatrics section was before I left the hospital today.

Watson goes to the Vet

I had to bring Watson to the vet b/c his eyes were all goopy (if that is a word) and he was scratching them. I found an English speaking vet in Prague 6 (where we live) but I still had to take the tram. I bought Watson a muzzle since it is required to have it on dogs at all times while riding the public transit here. He tried to get it off a couple times but then just accepted it. With Ali on my back and Sofia & Watson walking I headed to the tram. I had to go into the metro station to buy Watson a ticket. I think it is very funny that Watson has his own ticket yet both of my children ride for free. We then go back above ground to hop on the tram. It is a 30 minute tram ride to get out to where the Vet is located. The kids and Watson did fine. We got off the tram and walked to the Vet clinic. It was extremely windy which Watson loves so he was a little excited but we managed to all get to the clinic. The looked at Watson and under his 3rd eyelid. (I only thought there were two but I guess I was wrong.) The Vet told me that he has very irritated eyes and a secondary infection. The vet was speaking in English but he might as well have been speaking Czech because he started speaking doctor talk about Watson's follicular...whatever that is! The irritation was brought on by Watson's change to city living. Apparently a lot of dogs have this problem when they move from the country to the city. Country dogs are not use to the pollution and dust of the city and it irritates there eyes. In any event the Vet gave me drops for Watson and told me I had to come back with Watson in a few days when the inflammation is down. I went back on Monday so they could do the procedure. It was very different than it would have been in the U.S. The Vet gave Watson a shot of anethesia and then had him wait in the waiting room with me while he fell asleep. It was very strange to sit on the floor with my dog while he went to sleep. It made me feel like he was dieing even though I knew he wasn't. The girls and I just sat there and petted him until he was asleep. Then the vet came out and scooped him up and carried him away and told me that I could come back after 3pm. I went back (with the girls) and picked up Watson and he was fine and happy. They also cleaned his teeth so now he doesn't have bad breathe which is nice. We are still putting the drops in Watson's eyes but he seems better. I guess it is like any medication you have to keep giving it for the full course.

Squash

I have found an exciting new source of exercise and entertainment: squash. I had never played in the U.S. but there are quite a few people in the office here who play so a couple weeks ago I decided to give it a go. Conceptually it's a very easy game so I was able to go right on the court and start playing. Of course, becoming good at it is quite another story. I have only played twice but really enjoyed it and hope to get out and play once a week. It's always fun to have a competitive sport to play and squash is a very fast moving game so an hour of play is a fantastic workout.

Mobile phone saga....

The saga of my mobile phone continues. I went down to the O2 store at the beginning of last week and was told that my sim card had not been activated yet and that they have 4-5 days to activate it so I needed to wait and just keep trying my phone. I kept trying to no avail. I went down to the O2 store on Sunday and waited in line forever to speak with the only person there who could speak English. After waiting for him he told me that he couldn't help me that I needed to contact O2 customer service. I went back home and called O2 and was told that it should be activated today (Monday) and if not then to call back. Well here we are on Monday at 2pm and my phone still does not work. I called O2 to see if they could fix it and was told that she (the customer service rep) would e-mail the activation department to have the problem fixed. Can you guess how long this will take?? That's right...5 days!!!! I was very annoyed but of course the rep on the other end of the line couldn't understand half of what I was saying (or she chose not to I'm not sure which). I guess at this point there isn't much I can do but wait and see how long this really takes.

Dinner without the kids

Jason and I finally went out together without the kids. We have a babysitter who will be coming every Friday night to watch the girls so that we can go out. Our babysitter's name is Iva. She is a very nice woman (Probably late 50's) who is a friend of our landlord. She is a nanny to other families during the week but she had Friday nights free so we jumped at the opportunity to be able to go out on a regular basis. The girls LOVE her. Fi couldn't wait for Iva to show up last night and then once she did she wanted Iva to do everything..."No, Iva brush my hair. No, Iva helps with pajamas." So we left the kids in Iva's capable hands and went out to dinner. It was nice to sit down at a table and not have a child crawling on me or over me to get my drink. We went to Old Town square on the way to the restaurant and it was weird to see it without all the Christmas festivities going on. It is amazing how big the square looks now. Dinner was very good. I had a chicken dish with peaches and cheese. I know it sounds weird but it was very good...cheesy yet sweet. Jason also had a chicken dish. I believe his has blue cheese on it. After dinner we took a walk up to Wenceslas Square and stopped in a cafe for coffee (for Jason) and hot white chocolate (for me). We also had cheesecake but it was very odd since the cheesecake was warm as though they had warmed it to serve it to us. We wonder if that is how it is served all over Prague or just at this one cafe. I guess I will just HAVE to order it in different restaurants to find out.

Wind

It was very windy here the last few days. From what we have heard it was the most damage ever done to the forests outside Prague. Apparently it was part of a bad storm that went through Europe with hurricane force winds. Here is a link to some info on the storms impact in the Czech Republic. http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/01/19/afx3343907.html

Things that are different

Since being here I have noticed a few things that are just different than the United States.

1. Cars actually stop for crosswalks. It is not a gaurantee and I wouldn't just walk out in front of a car as I see a lot of Czechs do but it is nice to have people stop so that I can cross the road with the kids.

2. People smoke everywhere.

3. Beer is not sold in cases or six packs but as individual bottles. It is not frowned upon to buy one beer in the grocery store.

4. Depending on the grocery store you go to you have to weigh and price your own produce.

5. For those of you not famliar with the plugs here, the outlets/plugs are different.

6. Stores outside the city center (except for hypermarkets/malls/larger grocery) are closed by 1pm on Saturday and are closed on Sunday.

7. Streets and sidewalks are often cobblestone

8. Hot Chocolate is made with real milk. Hot White Chocolate is soooo much better than Hot Chocolate!

9. Milk is sold warm or cold here. The warm milk can last for months unopened.

10. The only diet soda available is Coca Cola Light

11. People drink a lot of juice - the multivitamin juice is really good.

12. Prague has not been taken over by the large box stores so you can still go to the butcher, chicken store, and bakery. It is fun to walk down the street and stop in all the little shops to pick up stuff for dinner.

Girls Night Out

Wednesday was my first night out without the kids or Jason. I met up with some other women for dinner and drinks. We went to a very american restaurant called Ambiente (http://www.ambi.cz/ambi_living_menu_eng.php) so I didn't get to try any new Czech dishes but it was still fun. There were about 16 women at dinner but we were separated at two tables. It was a very diverse group of women. There were some from England, Poland, Philipines, Russia, Czech Republic as well as others I can't remember. I met them on a website for expats in the Czech Republic. After dinner 6 of us went to a bar near the restaurant. It was fun and they are a really great group of women.

Stromovka Park

The girls and I took a walk to Stromovka Park today with my friend Kirsty and her daughter, Kiera, as well as Kirsty's mother-in-law, Marie. Her mother-in-law does not speak English but Kirsty would translate things for us. I learned that during the flooding in 2002 Stromovka Park was under about 5 meters (about 16 feet) of water. The park used to have a lot of scrub brush and was a much more wild growth kind of park. Now there are still trees but there is a lot of grass as well. Apparently they are still working on fixing up the park from the floods. There are a lot of new trees planted as well as putting in new fountains and bridges. It was weird to be there today and think that it was so different just a few years ago.

I finally got my mobile phone

I finally got my mobile phone today. I was so excited to finally be able to have contact with other people via the phone. Alas, it was not meant to be.....hmmm where to start... Well I installed the sim card and the battery no problem. There were two instruction manuals, one in czech and one in English. I started looking at the english manual and then started looking at my phone. My phone, unfortunately, is all in czech. While the english instructions are nice to have they are essentially useless since my phone is in Czech. So, I continue trying to figure out the phone with my dictionary in hand but it seems the phone is having a problem registering the sim card. I'm not sure what this means since it accepts the PIN for the sim card. Tomorrow I will pack up the kids and head to the O2 (the mobile phone provider) store downtown and hope someone there can help me.

Stahov Monastery

On Saturday we took a walk to Strahov Monastery and spent the better part of the afternoon looking at the sights there. It's so great that we can walk from our apartment to such an amazing site. The area was not at all busy, which I suppose is the nice thing of doing sight-seeing in mid-January. We got lunch at a restaurant right next to the monastery which was, as we expected, quite overpriced but the kids had to eat so it was the best option. A British couple sitting near us began taking some pictures of Ali because Ali kept looking hamming it up and smiling at them. Oddly, as members of a tour group walked past they noticed this and began taking pictures of us as well. I assume they were only doing so because someone else was taking pictures of us. I'd be very curious to hear what their explanation is for those pictures when they return home to Japan.

Members of the Premonstratensian order first came to Strahov in the 12th century although much of what we saw there now reflects updates done to the monastery in the 18th century. The complex is primarily comprised of a library, a church and a convent. The most amazing part are the two main halls in the library. Both have absolutely stunning ceiling frescoes and are completely filled with thousands of old texts, paintings, and amazing wood work. It's amazing to think that hundreds of years ago these rooms were simply the library for the orders' monks. The church is almost as impressive with its amazing frescoes and detail work throughout. The convent has some rooms in nearly their oldest form which helps one feel just how long a monastery has been in this location. Then you step in to the summer refectory, the monastery dining hall since 1687, and see the amazing artistic influences that came later. The dining hall ceiling is covered in a beautiful fresco and there are paintings of many important figures in the history of the monastery covering the walls. You can read more history here.

After walking through the monastery grounds we walked down the long hill to Mala Strana, stopping for hot chocolate, coffee, and juice for the girls, before taking the tram back home. It's so relaxing knowing that we have so much time to see the sights in Prague that we can spend a whole day on just one of them.

View our pictures of Stahov Monastery

You get what you pay for...

When we first arrived in Prague we did not have our stroller since we had it shipped with the rest of our stuff. I quickly realized that if I wanted to go anywhere I NEEDED a stroller. We went to Tesco and bought a cheap stroller. (A cheap stroller here is not that cheap though since baby supply stuff is ridiculously expensive.) We didn't want to spend a lot of money since we knew our stroller would arrive from the US. Our stroller arrived but I realized it was just too big and bulky to get around with so I kept using the one we bought at Tesco. I noticed it was getting rickety which probably has a lot to do with using it on cobblestone streets. I figured I would just keep using it until I figured out what kind of stroller would really work for getting the kids around. I kept putting off trying to figure it out since there doesn't really seem to be any great solution. I can put it off no longer. On the way back from the grocery store the metal tube/pipe thing that runs from the front wheel up to the handle bars snapped down near the wheel! Oh well...I guess I will have to get a newer nicer stroller now.

Was that Chicken?

I stopped at Albert on my way home from work (there's one below ground at the metro station I go to when leaving work) to get some food for dinner. I decided I would buy some chicken, a couple varieties of mushrooms and some white wine. Because I can understand at most one or two words on a label I tend to just find the right section and figure out the rest visually. Well, I know where the poultry section is and saw a bunch of packages of what appeared to be bone-in thighs so I thought that would be perfect for braising in white wine with mushrooms. When I got home and started cooking I took the chicken out and noticed that the pieces were in fact each a small bird with very little besides skin and bones - there was no meat to speak of. We had to improvise dinner a bit and I'm still left wondering what that was I bought.

Love it here!

Did you ever have the feeling of happiness that just wants to burst out of you? I know it sounds corny but it is how I felt this morning. I went for my morning run and ran by the castle and down to Letna Park. As I was running through Letna I was starting to get a little cramp but then I came up to the overlook and looked out over the river with all the awesome bridges and across to the city. My cramp dissappeared (even though I never stopped running) and I just felt like I wanted to yell with how happy I felt.

Finally meeting other women

Today was a busy day for us (me and the girls). We met up with some other women for lunch. There is a group called the Housewives Club on the expats.cz website that gets together about once a month. (They are changing the name to Girls Night Out (GNO) starting this month so there are two outings this month. ) There was a group of 4 women (not including me) who met at a pizza place in Namesti Republicky (downtown). The restaurant was nice and had a kids area so the girls ran around and played with all the toys. It was nice to have adult conversation. It was a very multicultural lunch since noone was originally from Prague. (Phillipines, Poland, Russia, and US...I think I got that right). Everyone was really nice and welcoming. We stayed there for about an hour and the kids had a blast. We ran a couple errands and then came home. I will meet up with these same women for GNO on January 17th which should be fun.

After coming home and relaxing for a little bit I packed up the girls again and went to the park (with Watson too) to meet up with another woman. She had e-mailed from the expats.cz website to see if I wanted to get together. She has a daughter who is 2. We met at the park and had a good time. She is very friendly. She had lived in Prague for 8 years. She is Australian and her husband is Czech. I ended up meeting her husband as well since we left the park and headed by her apartment so I could see where she lived. Her husband just happened to be pulling into a park space as we were walking by. It is a small world too because her friend who is Australian and married to an American are in Prague for 2 years working for Monster (Jason's company).

Tesco - Home Delivery

I went to Tesco with Stepanka on Saturday morning. We met at Tesco - Narodni (which is downtown) at 8:30am. This was a good time since the store was not very busy yet. It seems no matter what time I go to the grocery store during the week it is always busy so this was a nice change. Stepanka got me started on my shopping and I quickly filled up one trolley (that is what they call a shopping cart). She showed me where to put it and we went and got a second trolley (Stepanka was actually on her 3rd trolley at this point). We went our separate ways to finish our shopping and then met up at the front of the store where we had parked our other trolleys. We got in line in #11. Stepanka told me that it is usually #11 that handles big shopping orders but if I come by myself to make sure I ask first and let them know that I will be leaving trollies so that they know what I'm doing. Stepanka checked out first and I helped to bag the groceries since they do not have baggers here in any store. Stepanka spoke to the cashier in Czech to let the woman know it was for delivery. The cashier produced little stickers and writes the #1 on them. As I bag the groceries and tie the bag in knots I have to stick these stickers on all the bags. At the end of the order the cashier goes to some other room to make a copy of the receipt and finds out that there has already been one delivery order for the day so we need to go through and take off all the stickers and put new stickers on that have the #2 on them. Then it is my turn to check out. Stepanka bags the groceries for me and starts putting the #3 stickers on all my bags. I pay and fill out a form with my name, address, phone number, the date, and the number of trollies that I have. You need to note the number of trollies b/c it costs 10 Kc per trolley which you get back when you return the trolley. With delivery you can't return the trolley until after they have taken all of your things so they just bring the appropriate number of crowns with them when they deliver the groceries. I went home and waited for my groceries to be delivered in the afternoon. They arrived without any problems and were brought all the way up to our apartment. Since I spent more than 3000Kc there was no charge for the delivery. It is definitely worth waiting around for an afternoon to have all that stuff delivered. I stocked up on milk. It is such a nice feeling to not have to worry about getting milk every other day. I stocked up on other things too but the milk was the most important one to me. I think I could do it on my own now but Stepanka and I may just go together again since it is nice to have someone bagging for you.

Short Days

Since we arrived in Prague the city has been filled with Chrismas decorations. All the major squares in the city were filled with big Christmas trees, rows of vendors selling a variety of gifts, trinkets and food and the city streets were covered in lights. Between Christmas and New Years' Eve those decorations were removed and parts of the city look almost empty in comparison. The holiday tourists seem to have mostly returned home. Today was the first day since we arrived that I felt like I'm seeing Prague the way it is during those short periods were the city is dominated by its inhabitants. The days are shorter here in the winter than in Boston, with the sun not rising till 8:00 and setting at 4:15. While that makes for some dark days the holidays always serve as a great distraction through the worst days and its nice to know that we're now gaining a few minutes of sunlight every day. Now that we're pretty well settled in we'll take advanatage of the tourists being away by starting to see the sights of Prague for ourselves.

Travel Freedom

I got my metro pass today so I can finally travel on the metro, trams and buses without having to buy any more tickets! Until now I've had to buy a metro ticket from the ticket machines every day going to and from work which is a hassle; especially with trams and buses where there aren't ticket machines handy. The pass requires getting a photo ID card done so you can replace a lost pass and then buying the pass itself, which in this case I bought a pass good for year. The form to fill out was only in Czech but I was able to see a copy online and translate enough words to figure out what I had to fill in and the process of getting it actually went more smoothly than I had anticipated.

Financial Freedom

Or rather, the freedom to receive and spend money without it all having to go through the U.S. We finally have a bank account with ATM/Debit cards and online banking capabilities!

Setting up the account, at Živnostenská banka, was actually rather easy and that was done in the first week of December. We had to wait for our cards to be mailed and while we had online banking we had no money in the account. Wiring money from a US account abroad, while abroad, was a nightmare process. From both our normal bank account and brokerage account I was told (after many phone calls) that I needed some paperwork or signature guarantee completed before I move abroad - a bit late for that. I'm getting paid out of our Czech office so we just had to wait for that money to be deposited. There were a few glitches along the way: online banking wasn't showing my account even after the money was there so I didn't realize we had the money for a few days; we weren't notified the cards had arrived, I happened to contact the bank to check; when I first tried to set up our rental payment the amount exceeded our daily limit so I had to go the bank to have that changed. But now we can stop taking money out from our US account or stop using US credit cards which both charge extra fees. It's just another little thing that seems very ordinary yet now helps us feel that much more integrated into Czech life.

Watson's exercise

For those of you who were concerned about Watson's transition to city life I thought I would give you an update. Watson is doing great! The training we did with him before coming to Prague has really helped. Watson is able to walk off leash most of the time. We still put him on leash near busy roads just in case but otherwise he just walks next to us. He gets more exercise now then he did when we lived in NH. He gets at least a 3 1/2 mile run every day. Jason and I alternate days that we run and Watson gets to come with us. He gets 3 1/2 miles with me and then about the same with Jason but some days Jason does more. I usually take the girls and Watson to the park in the afternoon which is either about 2/3 mile round trip or 2 miles round trip depending on the park so he gets another good walk. We play a good game of fetch once we get to the park. He LOVES fetch now. He won't even go play with other dogs if he knows that I will play fetch with him. Watson then gets his last trip out around 9-10pm. We sometimes just bring him to the little park around the corner but more often bring him to the park that he likes which is about 2/3 mile round trip. Other than those times Watson is often sleeping! I guess he is tired from all the running, walking and fetching.

Home Delivery

I have been told that Tesco does home delivery. I think, what a great idea! That way I won't have to carry home heavy things like milk and juice or bulky items like paper towels and toilet paper. I went onto the Tesco website and saw that I can sign up for it online. Great! I sent the e-mail off and they sent me my password. I logged in but they don't have that many products in the online shop. I thought, ok, I'll go to the store and see if I can do it from there. The website states that the store at Letnany has been providing this service since 1995 so I pack up the kids and take the Tram to the Metro to the Bus to treck out to the Letnany store which is just outside Prague. I get there and almost noone speaks English. I finally found a manager and she told me that they do not do this! Oh well, treck the kids back home. That night, after Jason comes home, I headed out to the Tesco in Novy Smichov. This isn't a bad trip since it is just a 15 minute Tram ride. I figured if I couldn't get the shipping taken care of I could at least pick up the few things that I needed at the grocery store. Needless to say I couldn't find anyone that spoke English and I couldn't make it clear what I was looking for (I couldn't figure out how to do charades for "delivery"). At this point I have given up on doing it myself. I'm going on Saturday with Jason's boss's wife, Stepanka. She said that she is going to stock up on Saturday and would be happy to go with me. She is very nice. This will make it much easier since she is Czech.